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Daring Escape

© 2013 Benjamin J Johnson, Twisted Trisk

Contents: Sex (m/f, human/feline,) watersports, light bondage

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"Caleb, I recognize this chest! It's Lars' chest! I see it every time I go into his quarters! And this treasure... I recognize most of it, it's from the Umber Crow! Cajack got them! The last ship he sunk... was all my friends and... and now there is nobody coming to rescue us; we are trapped here!"

I stared at Anne, hardly able to comprehend what she was saying. All our work, our frantic firefight with Cajack, and here at the end, it seemed like he'd beaten us from beyond the grave. We'd had our revenge, but now we were trapped on this island, doomed to spend the rest of our lives here.

"Lars is dead and it's all my fault!" Anne sobbed. "Oh Lars, my old friend! I'm so sorry! It is all my fault that he got you! Oh Caleb, if we hadn't had him bring us here, he wouldn't have been anywhere near Cajack's hunting ground. They are all dead... and it is my fault."

I broke out of my revere and knelt down to comfort my gorgeous feline lover. "Anne, that isn't fair. Cajack could have gotten them anywhere, whether they'd visited this island or not. He plied these waters like a ghost ship, slaughtering everyone who got in his way. We've saved countless lives by stopping him here today. "

"My revenge wasn't worth the lives of my whole crew." she whispered, shaking with grief.

"My dove, we stopped a great and terrible evil here today. The fact that this very same evil claimed the lives of your friends and crew only proves again how much we needed to do this. Look around us; this beautiful, peaceful beach is simply a sandy coating over the grizzly remains of countless men Cajack has slaughtered. Here lie fathers who shall never be seen by their children again, husbands who leave widows impoverished and heartbroken, sons who shall not care for their parents as they grow old. Because of us this graveyard shall never expand again."

She didn't reply, merely shook and sobbed. I held her close and tenderly spoke to her in a soothing voice. "I shall mourn for them as well, Anne. I shall morn for Lars, and Mickey, and Merph, and Alley, and everyone else. But I shall NOT dishonor their sacrifice by regretting what we did, for I do not believe they would be happy if I did."

Looking slowly up at me through tear-stained eyes, Anne let out a sniffle. "You're... right. Thank you, Caleb, thank you so much. Now please, just hold me close and tell me it's alright."

I did as she asked, running my fingers through her mane of fiery red waves and gently comforting her with words of love. Slowly the flow of her tears stopped, and she became silent in my arms. We looked out over the bay and watched a beautiful orange sunset light the sky into a blaze. A comforting, cool breeze came up, seemingly heaven sent to aid my hurting lover.

As the sun came to rest on the surface of the ocean, she at last heaved a giant sigh and spoke softly. "Dearest, I need to pay my respects to them alone for a while, is that alright?"

I nodded and stepped back, releasing her from my embrace. I started for our little rough-hewn hut, then got an ugly premonition and turned back to her. "Anne, you won't do anything rash if I leave you alone... right?"

She stared at me with hollow eyes. "You mean cause myself harm? No, of course not. You are right about everything you said, and I will not dishonor their sacrifice by conducting self-slaughter. Besides, I would never leave you, Caleb, I love you. You go back to our little shelter, and I will join you there soon enough."

Nodding, I gave her a sad smile before turning and walking along the beach, listening to the rumble and crash of the waves. When I arrived at the hut, I sat down outside the front door and looked back along the beach. I could see Anne, a tiny speck in the distance, ambling up and down the shore aimlessly as the evening light failed.

Anne did not return until the wee hours of the morning. I waited for her for quite some time, then at last went to bed. I awoke when she softly climbed in with me and nuzzled into my neck. I hugged her tightly and fell back to sleep, contented.

* * *

When I awoke the next morning, she was already gone out of the bed. I got up and stepped outside, blinking in the bright sunlight, but not seeing her anywhere. I hadn't just dreamed her coming to bed, had I? Worried yet again, I yelled "Anne?" at the top of my lungs.

Immediately, I heard her reply "I'm here!" I looked up the beach in the direction of her voice, and saw her sticking half out of a hole she'd dug in the sand, waving to me.

I jogged out to where she was and saw she was digging up one of Cajack's buried treasure chests with one of the shovels we'd brought with us. "What's this, love?" I asked, confused. "Oh! Are you digging holes to bury the dead?"

She wrinkled her nose and waved a paw in the direction of the fallen pirate's bodies, still well up the beach from where we were. "No. Their bones can bleach in the sun for all I care. It's no more than they deserve. I'm digging up treasure chests, and if you feel up to it, I'd appreciate some help!"

She was strong, and was quickly removing sand from around the old trunk, freeing it from the confines of its resting place. To one side, she'd assembled the bones of the poor soul who'd died so his "ghost" could protect the superstitious pirate's treasure. Seeing me looking at the bones, she said softly "Yes, this will be his grave when I'm finished, but I want these chests. Come spell me for a bit, dear!"

Could she seriously be that greedy? "Anne, what good does this treasure do us now? We're stuck here, and gold, jewels and trinkets will do us very little good. I don't see why we should dig it up... just to stare at it and feel miserable that our plan of escaping this place with all his buried treasure came to naught?"

She gave me a pitying look out of the corner of her eye as she dug. "Yes, I want to stare at it. Dammit, I'm tired! Spell me, please??"

Annoyed, I decided she must feel there was nothing else to do. I climbed down into the pit and took the shovel from her. She hopped out and called over her shoulder "I'm going to go get a drink, I'm parched. I should probably bring a jug of water out for us to drink as we work anyway. When I get back, I'll tell you what we're doing."

I stared at her back as she retreated. "You... have a plan?" I called to her, frankly shocked.

She didn't stop, but turned a bit and grinned at me over her shoulder. "Your little Anne was never one to give up, Caleb. Yes, I have a plan."

A warm glow filled my stomach. I admired her so much! After one night of hopelessness, she was already working on a solution to our problem! She was an amazing girl, and I marveled again at my incredible fortune in winning her heart. I began to continue digging the chest out, humming to myself happily.

* * *

She returned about fifteen minutes later, with a jug brimming with cold, fresh water from the spring. In the heat, I was already eager for a long drink. She handed it to me, then lay down on her side about a foot from the edge of the pit, stroking her fingers over her shapely hip as we talked.

I pulled back from drinking and handed her the jug. "Thanks, honey. So tell me what your plan is, and why are we digging up these chests?"

She rested her hand on her hip and sighed. I couldn't help but notice how gloriously sexy she looked laying like that, and began to get an erection, which I made no attempt to hide or control. "Well, we are digging up these chests because many of them don't simply contain gold and baubles. Think about it, for a moment; Cajack is trolling the waters and attacking and looting any ship he comes across. Some contain gold, yes. Some contain money, yes. But many do not."

"He would have little use for spice, other than to sell it for money, which he does not make the effort to do. Clothing? He'll take some if he or his crew fancies it, but they leave most of it. On a ship that is carrying something he has no interest in, he must look for something else of value."

"Some of the things all ships carry can fetch a very high price. A beautifully crafted compass, or a sextant made with gold are valuable. The tools made for measuring and plotting a course will sometimes be made of precious metals and beautiful craftsmanship. Well drawn maps are of great value, so he might take those. Do you follow? Here, that's good enough, I'll help you pull it up."

She jumped down into the hole and we hoisted the heavy chest from its sandy prison. She opened the lid, and we looked into a chest brimming with crafted crystal pieces. It looked like the makings of several chandeliers. Shaking her head, she muttered "Ahh... These will be invaluable." She held up a clear half-dome that was at least two feet across and clucked her tongue in satisfaction.

"So... you want to find things to aid in sailing?" I said, trying to bring her back on topic. "You mean..."

She smiled and nodded. "Yes. We are going to build a ship and sail our way out of here." Leaving the chest full of what I was sure was useless crystal, she marched straight for another spot we'd watched Cajack bury a chest and began to dig.

I followed along, at a loss. "Kitten, there are impossible problems with that..." I weakly managed.

She snorted. "No there aren't, but I'll humor you. Name them."

"We don't have a boat!" I cried, my good mood at the thought of her having a plan evaporating.

I had to dodge a shovel full of sand that she playfully chucked in my direction. "I know. We're going to build one!" she laughed.

I was silent for a moment. "Anne, there are even more impossible problems with that!"

She paused her shoveling, digging the blade into the sand and leaning against the handle, resting for a moment and smiling at me with her eyes twinkling. "No there aren't, but I'll humor you. Name them."

"Well for starters, we have absolutely no tools whatsoever to build with. We have shovels, a couple cutlasses, our guns, and nothing else." I said, trying to be patient with her obviously ridiculous optimism.

"On the contrary, pumpkin, we have all the tools we need. Every tool necessary to build a ship is all right here." she said, smiling mysteriously.

I looked back at the chest we'd dug up, then to the hole she was starting here. "In these chests? My sweet, finely crafted navigation tools are one thing, but I'm talking about axes, chisels, saws... hammers, rope... the needs are endless, and those things have very little value. He would not have carefully placed them in chests and buried them!"

I could tell she was enjoying my incomprehension greatly. She gave a cute little giggle and winked at me. "No, they are not in the chests, you are right. No value, so he would not bury them here."

"Then what!?" I squawked. She smiled again, and slowly brought her paw up, pointing at the bay behind me. I stared at it, then slowly it dawned on me. "Cajack's old ship?"

"Yes!" she laughed, sounding gleeful. "Look, you can even see it in the water, it is so close to the surface. Inside, we will find all the tools needed to build a ship. Every vessel on the water has them, in case emergency repairs are needed. All of the things you just listed and more are waiting for us in the remains of Cajack's pirate ship. Your old Anne is'nae licked yet, me love!"

I looked and indeed could see the jagged outline of at least half of Cajack's doomed frigate. It had been blown completely in half by our powder keg bomb, but if she was right and all those tools had been on board, it was likely they would all have survived. I became lost in thought as I mulled this all over. "I've never tried diving, I'm not sure I could do it." I muttered after a while.

She'd begun digging again as I was silent. "I have, and can hold my breath for quite some time. It will take a while, and we will have to search to find it, but in one of those rooms, blown open by our little bomb, will be stored a complete set of tools. All we need then is to find them and bring them up."

I scratched at my stubble. "OK, fair enough, but we still lack the things we must have to build a ship."

Not sounding the least bit concerned, she laughed. "You certainly are gloomy. What do we lack, oh master ship builder?"

I blushed, disliking her laughing at me. "I never said I knew anything about building a ship." I mumbled.

She picked up on my displeasure and sighed. "I was only teasing you, my sweet. I'm sorry. In fact, as Merph once told you, I helped design and build the Ochre Crow, so in fact I know quite a bit about ship building, though I don't claim mastery."

I felt much better. Anne was very empathetic and sweet. Though sometimes she could be abrasive, she never meant it to be cutting or cruel, and I loved her for her willingness to apologize, a trait sorely needed by most people alive. "We need rivets to fasten the timbers together..." I began. "Do you intend to try to rip what we need out of Cajack's hull?"

She shook her head. "We'd never drag it up onto the beach, and could never get them out while diving. No, we cannot reuse those. Again, a ship contains all the items necessary to commit emergency field repairs. Somewhere down there will be a barrel or casket filled with new rivets and nails and such. We will not have many, and will have to use what we have sparingly and carefully, but it should suffice for a small boat."

I at last began to warm up to her idea. She really did have a plan, and she really had thought of all the angles. "How about tar to seal the wood against the water? Will they have that, too?"

She nodded. "You're catching on. Yes, again, for emergency repairs, a ship carries a large quantity of pitching tar. We will also need rope, which we can pull off the hulk down there. The rudder is a problem, but I think with some work we can get that one loose and use key parts of it."

She paused digging and rested again. "Oh, it will be difficult, and it will take us perhaps even a year or more, but I am confident I can build a small ship, which the two of us can crew, and sail back to civilization." She chuckled. "And finally, after all this I'm damn well not leaving empty handed, so I'm digging up these chests so we can find the choicest pieces of wealth to take back with us, and live like kings."

I laughed, feeling delighted. "Excellent plan! But perhaps we should see about getting the things we need up out of the bay first, lest they be damaged by salt?"

She nodded and sighed, climbing out of the hole. "Aye. I was just passing time doing this until you woke up, as it would be dangerous to dive alone. Let's get to work building a diving platform, OK?"

* * *

We tore one of the hastily reassembled walls of our little hut off to use as a raft while we did our diving. It was large enough to be stable, and made of wooden logs and rope so it would float. She stripped naked at the hut, and after a pause I did too. "No sense in ruining my clothes in the water." she said, smirking to see me staring at her luscious body and getting an erection. She attached her knife to her thigh with a leather strap she wore, and tied her red hair back into a ponytail. That was the only clothing she kept on.

We rowed out using the shovel, and she explained a bit what she would do. "I can go several minutes without air, so don't be afraid if I'm under for that long. First thing I'm going to do is get some rope free. Then I can tie myself to it and you have a way to help me surface if I get into trouble, or just if things I'm pulling up are too heavy for me. Use this crystal dome so you can see what I'm doing, alright? Sink it into the water and you'll have a clear view of what's happening."

"I understand. Please be careful, Bonny Anne." I said, suddenly afraid for her health.

She smiled. "I will be. Don't worry, I'll be safe. Just relax and enjoy this, for it is our greatest adventure, my love!" With an encouraging nod, she plopped over backwards into the water and was gone, swimming down through the crystal-clear water to the wreckage below.

I watched her nervously through the crystal, eager for her to come back up. I could see her golden-brown fur in the water, see her moving about, but could not exactly see what she was doing. Indeed, she could hold her breath for a very long time, and I was getting pretty nervous when I saw her springboard off the wreckage and zoom back to the surface.

She gasped, taking huge gulps of air. I waited patiently for her to catch her breath to speak. "Any luck?" I asked as she settled down.

Nodding, she replied "I got one side loose, now on this trip I'll loose or cut the other side and we'll have some rope for a safety line." She gasped in more air to saturate her blood with oxygen, then again dove below.

I saw her swim down, work for a bit and triumphantly bring up the end of a very long, very sturdy rope. "Ha! If we have luck this good, we'll find all we need and more down there!" she said. I could tell she was trying to cheer me up.

I grabbed the end of the rope and began to pull it up, coiling it on the edge of the raft. It ended up being huge, and I wondered how she'd found it on her first trip down. Then I realized she was a sailor, so she'd known where to look.

When I pulled the other end out of the water at last, she reached for it and took it back. She looped it around her wrist, tying a knot expertly with one paw. "OK! Now we can even communicate down there. Hold the rope and feed it out to me as I descend. If I give one long tug, it means I need help bringing up something heavy that I've secured to our rope. If I give three sharp, strong tugs, that means something's wrong and pull me up as if the hounds of hell are after me. Sound good?"

I nodded wordlessly, looking down at her as she lazily treaded water. She could tell I was worried about her, so she didn't stick around much longer, but charged for the bottom right away. I watched her swim, swallowing thickly and willing her to be careful as I fed the rope out to her.

Trip after trip she took, over and over again. At first, there was little success as she carefully searched over the wreckage. "Just corpses and debris." she sighed with a grimace.

Finally though, she found a room in the hold of the ship that contained a treasure trove of the things we needed. She began to come up with armloads of tools, kegs of nails, and barrels of pitch and rivets. We filled the raft with several loads and kept going back out for more. I was exhausted just from tensely watching her from the raft, but all day she dove again and again, looking tirelessly through the mess of garbage at the bottom of the bay.

The sun was setting before she finally found a hammer. "Must've been using them, so they weren't with the rest of the tools." She smiled with satisfaction to have found her treasure. "Can't see much down there anymore in this light, so I'd say we shall call it a night. I'd like to find another hammer if I can, but we're in business with this one. We've got all the tools needed to cut trees, shape timbers, fuse them with rivets, and seal them with pitch."

I paddled us back to shore, and she sighed and relaxed back on our little raft. "You're so quiet, my sweet." she gently cooed.

"I don't like our chances. This seems like such an impossible task, to build an entire ship."

She leaned over against me and nuzzled my neck, which tickled me with her whiskers. "Caleb, have faith in your little Anne. We aren't going to build a huge ship, just one large enough that we can control it and cross the sea with it. We can do it, my love!"

It didn't cheer me up very much. "You helped design the Ochre Crow, but do you know the first thing about actually building a ship? Because I don't..."

Not even remotely letting my sour mood get to her, she giggled. "As a matter of fact, I did help with building ships for a bit. I told you, I learned everything there was to know about sailing the sea. I'm not an expert, and our boat won't be a work of art, but it will keep out water, float, and catch the wind to carry us where we want to go. Caleb?"

"Yes?"

"Please trust me?"

"... ...OK, Anne, I trust you."

"Cheer up? Trust me that we'll get off the island and back home to civilization? Trust me that I'll take care of you?"

The so-called wisdom of the day was that you didn't trust your life to a mere woman, and I confess that some of that bigotry was in me, and rankled me. I also realized that she was the most capable, strong, intelligent creature I'd ever met, either male or female. She was right, she would get us off this cursed island, and she would take care of me and protect me. I'd never get away from this place alone, but with her here, she'd get us away and back home in one piece. At least, I hoped she would...

"I'm sorry, kitten. I do trust you, and you are right, I'm being a crab. I feel better now. I know you'll take care of me, and get us both home. I love you..." I quietly said.

She beamed at me happily and leaned over for a deep kiss that lasted until the bottom of the raft scraped into the sand, bringing us to a halt. "Now, let's go eat! I'm starving!" she chirped and jumped up, boundless with energy, heading for our cooking fire to begin preparing a meal.

* * *

As I cooked our food, Anne went to the spring to clean up. Just about the time I was pulling the sizzling fish steaks off the fire, she returned, still naked and looking clean and cool and comfortable, toweling off her long hair. "Smells wonderful! I'm so hungry I could eat it raw!" she enthused.

We ate fresh fish and fruit together, chatting about what we would do when we made it back to civilization. After we were full and contented, I began to inescapably be drawn to her, desiring sex. I'd been subjected to her luscious, naked body for the entire day. I reached for her, and she grinned. "What is it, little cub?" she cooed, stepping back from me.

I dove on her and began to smother her in kisses. "You know full well what it is, ravishing goddess!"

My beautiful feline lover gave a squeal of delight and wiggled in my arms, pretending to struggle. When my kisses rose up to find her glossy black feline lips, she stopped with a groan and began to kiss me. She was so full of life and voracious beauty, I loved her more than I could speak. I knew I would die for her, I would do absolutely anything she asked of me.

She was in many ways just like a human woman, but in sex she very much showed her feline side exquisitely. She could grow feral while loving, eager to fuck herself wildly on my cock, squirting and cumming quickly, easily and often, and using her teeth and claws on me when she did so. By default she would drop on all fours to be bred by her mate doggie-style, so I usually had to ask her in order to experience a lover's embrace as we coupled.

She'd been a wild pirate girl, breeding with whomever she chose for many years. I still could hardly believe exactly what it was about me that had tamed her wild heart. My own tenderness in giving to her, treating her as a lady, being concerned that she feel pleasure as we had sex, giving her the choicest foods as we ate... She'd been so shocked and floored by my sweet purity and giving heart that she'd fallen in love with me despite herself.

I realized I'd basically insulted her capabilities with my pessimism. I'd not trusted and believed her when she said she'd get us off the island until she'd confronted me about it. Now I felt guilty for not having had faith in her, and I wanted to make it up to her.

Of the many, many ways we'd had sex together for our first whirlwind six month stay on this island, I'd observed that the kind that made her cry with love for me had been when I gave her oral pleasure. I think it was the simple fact that she knew I did it only to pleasure her that made it mean so much. Wanting to make it up to her for doubting her, I immediately crawled between her legs.

Her eyes lit up with eagerness as she realized what I was about to do. She licked her glossy black lips in anticipation, drawing her fingers through my hair. I gently puffed short bursts of air onto her pussy, which made her giggle and squirm she was so eager for me to begin.

"Caleb, stop teasing!" she squeaked. I watched her juices dribble down from her soft flesh and felt pride that she was so eager for this.

Gently, tenderly, I licked her puffy slit. It was so soft, I nibbled on her with my lips, which made her groan. "Caleb, give it to me, my sweet." she mewled, pleading.

"Darling Anne, you taste and smell so delicious. I love you, precious..." I cooed, then used the flat of my tongue to lick all along her slit and little clitoris. I felt her tense and immediately orgasm from my touch, giving a cry of passion and delight.

I paused to kiss her firm belly as she panted and relaxed back from my ministrations. This was amazing, as usual. When she was ready for me again, she whispered "More...?"

I grinned up at her and immediately moved back to her wet love. I began to lick her all over, gently increasing the pressure and speed of my work. She writhed beneath me, her muscled body shivering at my intimate touch. Again she squeezed her thighs, and howled as she orgasmed. "I love you, my precious beauty." I murmured as I paused to rest my tongue for a second.

She was insatiable when I did this for her. I began to flick my tongue along her flesh, marveling at how delicate it was. Softer than silk, more in-transitory than gauze, her pussy left me breathless and horny. I kept digging deeper, licking longer, harder and faster as she screamed and writhed in ecstasy. "Caleb! God, ohhh it's so good! I feel so loved!! Unnnnn..."

Finally, after all this, I could stand it no longer. I was so horny I was ready to explode, and I reared up over her, ready to fuck. She readjusted her body, wrapping her legs around me, holding her hands up by her lovely head, surrounded by beautiful red hair.

I collapsed over her, lacing my fingers through hers and sank deep into her warm, slippery body. I could hardly believe how wonderful her tight body felt, and I was vaguely aware of her howling in pleasure as I hit her womb, orgasming furiously from my touch. She struggled beneath me, trying to loose her paws from my grip, forcing me to hold her down as I began to wildly fuck her.

She was acting bestial, hissing and snarling at me, squirming and trying to bite me, forcing me to keep her pinned with all my strength. I knew what she wanted, and what she needed; when she was like this, she was out of her mind with pleasure and simply wanted to be fucked as hard and as fast as I possibly could, like a mating animal.

I used every ounce of strength I had left to fuck her, adding my own shouts of pleasure to her roars. "God dammit! Take it, cat! Take it hard and fast, you beast! Uhhh, I'm going to cum!" I slammed down into her with each word for emphasis. The slurping sounds her pussy made had me breathless with lust.

Her roars of rage became mewls of fright and submission, her ears plastering back against her skull and her eyes wide and submissive. A few more massive thrusts and I buried it deep, spitting thick cum straight into her womb, flooding her with interspecies seed. She let out a sob and released, pissing all over me as she ejaculated, her final, massive orgasm overpowering her completely.

I saw stars I was feeling such pleasure, filling my love with cum. She pulled her hands from where I had them pinned and hugged me fiercely as we came, sobbing "It feels so good... I can feel it fill my womb and squirt out of it!"

I embraced her as well, shuddering with pleasure, slowly sliding down against her as we relaxed into the afterglow. "Oh my sweet human lover..." She sighed, smiling happily. We knew each other so well, I knew what she had wanted and had satisfied her utterly, I could tell.

I kissed the top of her head. "Mmm. That was wonderful, my sweet kitten..."

We went out to take a quick moonlit bath in the spring, and then went to bed, relaxed, reaffirmed, and embraced arm in arm.

* * *

For several days she combed the wreckage looking for anything useful. We found several kegs of food staples, including some jerky and flour whose kegs had not been penetrated with the water. She found a second hammer and many more lengths of rope. She also carefully loosed the sails and we brought them up, cleaning them and hanging them out to dry, intent on using them for our own sail.

Interspersed with her underwater dives, we would return to shore and dig for chests. With little else to do but hide when the pirates came to bury loot, I'd mapped out the location of each chest they buried for the duration of my stay on the island. We used that map now to unearth chest after chest after chest. Gold coins, silver utensils, copper goblets and decorations, bolts of silk and velvet, they were filled with anything and everything valuable.

Meanwhile, she spent over a day wrestling the rudder and navigator's wheel loose from Cajack's doomed ship, as well as all the linkages in between. I felt helpless as I watched her through the crystal dome, viewing her work from a distance. "I think we've got all we'll get of value from down there," she panted as we finished bringing it all ashore. "Let's get back to digging chests."

At last in the ninth chest we found a very good map sealed in a map case, a golden sextant, a jeweled compass, and other navigation tools that I didn't recognize, also made of gold or silver. Bonny Anne was triumphant and ecstatic. "The final piece of our puzzle, love! Now we have all that we need to save ourselves from this fate! Let's take the rest of the day off and celebrate!"

We ate a relatively fancy feast of some smoked jerky, some fowl that we'd shot, lots of tasty berries picked from the island, and to my surprise, a big jug of rum. "Where did that come from?" I asked when she triumphantly produced it, drinking a long draught from it.

She lowered it from her lips and shook her head, her eyes wide. "Oh, that's strong stuff! I found it amidst the wreckage and smuggled it in so I could surprise you with a special treat." she beamed proudly. I wasn't much of a drinker and thought rum was vile, but she was trying to be good to me and give us a treat, so I acted happy at the find and forced myself to drink enough of it that she was led to believe I enjoyed it.

Unfortunately, that meant drinking more than I ever had in my life, and getting pretty drunk, something which I abhorred. "Ih've hadda b... bit too much already. I'm not a huge drinkerr..." I slurred when she offered me more.

I passed out, so we didn't get to make love that night.

* * *

As I continued to methodically dig up each treasure chest that we had mapped out, Anne began the task of finding suitable trees to begin construction. "Each log will take us days to trim to size, so this will be a long process, but we shall work as quickly as we can, dear." My feline lover was trying to console me, still able to sense I was despondent over our present desperate state.

She spent days examining each tree on the beach and even back into the island, finding ones with just the right curve in them. Being a scientist, I'd brought paper with me as I always did, and she used this to scratch out notes and develop a design. I tried to make sense of her sketches, but gave up quickly; they meant something to her, but looked like nonsense to me.

Days passed before she ever chopped a single tree, but at last, she began. I'd dug up all the chests we knew about, and had started to dig at every likely tree or clearing up and down the beach. I had yet to come up empty handed anywhere I dug. Cajack had used this island for so many years, the high side of the beach was practically resting on a solid bed of treasure chests.

I watched what Anne was doing, understanding only some of it. She started off by cutting down over a dozen of the straightest, rounded trunks she could find. She stripped them of all branches and leaves and laid them out over a bed of other trunks on the beach just above the waterline at high tide. "This is our foundation, so we can roll the finished ship into the water when we're done." she explained as she chocked each one down with branches.

That finished, she cut more straight trees and began to chop them into planks. When I asked her if these were for the start of the hull, she again shook her head. "We need to build supports to rest the hull upon so the boat doesn't tip over while we build it." she grunted. She fastened three of the planks together into triangles, repeating until she had a two-dozen of them, then fastened them all together. When she finished, I could indeed see that a boat could now be wedged down between them and be held firmly in place and upright without tipping. All this preparation took her weeks, and she had yet to cut a single timber that would actually be part of our boat.

After building some ramps by attaching some planks together with rope and branches, she at last declared that she was ready and began cutting down the trees she'd marked out to use as our boat. I was now officially her helper in this endeavor, having dug up far more chests of treasure than we could ever hope to bring with us. She put me to work on many small jobs, from stripping bark to shaving and smoothing edges.

I was a scientist, poorly suited for such hard physical work, and I gained a true appreciation not only for my feline lover's strength, but her tireless work ethic and indomitable spirit. She'd not worn a stitch of clothing since we'd started, save for her boots to protect her feet from walking on the rugged terrain of the island.

She cut, chopped, edged, measured, tested and shaved down boards all day every day. I did my best to keep up with her, but it was impossible. She was in much better shape than I, and would continue working long after I was completely drained. I always worked until I was utterly exhausted, and she seemed to appreciate me simply doing my best.

After two months' time stuck on the island, she had the skeleton of our ship laid out. It would be twenty feet long and eight feet wide, I could see. It was also large enough to have a below deck area which we could use. It would have a single mast, and even a small crow's nest, accessible by climbing the rope webbing on the side of the boat, she told me.

Since she spent all day every day working far beyond what I could physically do, another hobby I took up was journaling our daily experiences with the island and boat building. Anne seemed to find this amusing, but always wanted me to read to her the previous day's journal in the morning as we broke fast. "It gets me prepared for another day of work, plus I love to hear your writing." was all she'd say, smiling mysteriously.

I simply could not believe the amount of timbers she needed for this. Again and again she cut down a tree, we pared it down to a plank right there where we felled it, then together dragged them up to the beach in a pile. Throughout all of this, I could tell she was having the time of her life.

When I asked her about her happy mood, she shrugged. "I'm doing something I enjoy; building a ship. I'm here with the man I love; you. When we get back to civilization, we'll be rich enough to live like royalty. Why be depressed? I'm enjoying what we have here in this place, for it truly could be much worse."

I thought about those words and began to again cheer up more. I was becoming used to the idea of my wife rescuing me and getting me home whereas I was largely helpless. All I could do was work hard to try and be an aide to her in her building plans.

Unfortunately, her single-mindedness in building the ship became taxing on our relationship. She worked from the time she woke up, until the sun set and forced her to stop. Exhausted, she would fall into bed and at best, passively lay there and let me fuck her. At worst, she would fall asleep and leave me wanting.

I was afraid to say anything, because she was doing it for our benefit, but I began to become afraid that we were growing apart or something, and that she was losing interest in me. Her perfect body tempted me as much as ever, but I was afraid to ask her to love me, she was working with such single minded devotion. Days turned into weeks, and I felt isolated.

At last, I could hold back no longer. I needed her, I needed to beg her to slow down. "Anne?" I meekly called to her. She was balanced on top of the skeleton of the ship she was building, using her feline grace to hop from beam to beam, measuring something.

She paused and looked up, then plopped over to sit on the beam she was standing on. "Yes, what is it?" She began to idly kick her long legs through the air, hypnotizing me with them.

I was suddenly terribly unsure of myself, and felt like she was going to laugh in my face when I said this. I felt inadequate around her. "Uh... My sweet, is there... is there any way that you could... maybe slow down a little? I really miss spending time with you, and I feel like we're growing apart."

She was silent for a moment, staring at me. "Caleb, I thought you were panicked and desperate to get off this island. I thought you were afraid we'd be stuck here. What is it you want from me?"

I swallowed thickly, having trouble meeting her eyes. "I want you, my pet. I love spending time with you more than anything else in the world. I want to leave, but not so badly that I don't want to spend lots and lots of time with my beautiful Bonny lass. I spent the best months of my life here on this island with you, my sweet, doing anything and everything we pleased all day long... Can we please share those days again?" My sorrow and loneliness was evident in my voice.

She threw down her hammer and hopped the few feet to the ground, giving a little empathetic coo. "Awwwww, cub, I thought you were desperate to get away, so I've been working as hard and as fast as I can. Of course I can take it easy, of course we can spend lots of time together. We don't need to complete this thing for any reason; we can spend years together here in this place."

We hurriedly stepped together and embraced. I was filled with intense relief. I realized how terrified I'd been that she was losing interest in me... but no, she was simply trying to do what she thought I wanted. After a deep kiss, we walked away arm in arm, heading for the spring to clean up and make love in the lush grass, leaving the skeleton of the ship alone on the beach.

* * *

It was a lovely morning. I'd treated Anne to breakfast in bed, gathering the last of the berries and serving smoked quail for her to dine on. After she'd eaten, I'd gotten her to roll onto her stomach and was now giving her a massage. She was making lots of sexy moans and gasps, enjoying my fingers working her muscles.

"Ahhhhnnnmm. Yeah. Oh, that feels wonderful, Caleb! What do you want to do today, my prince? Should we work on the boat, or should we spend the day together?" she groaned as I moved down to massage her thighs and calves.

We'd been here for quite a long while. I'd rather lost track of the days in a way. I had a vague notion that months had passed, but every day seemed to blur into the next since there was no reason to keep abreast of the passage of time. It seemed like we actually worked on the boat less and less the longer we were here. Now it was common to only work on it one day in a week.

We were both looking more and more wild, unrefined and uncivilized as we lived off the land. I couldn't shut off my scientist's mind, though, and I'd realized we were going through our stocks of food and ammunition rather faster than I would have thought. Though Anne was a crack shot, each bullet she fired brought us closer and closer to running out. We'd brought enough with us to fight Cajack, not live for months on an island.

I'd calculated we would be running out of ammunition in two months, and our barrel of flour sometime before that. Then it would be fish and coconuts, as the berries weren't blossoming right now. By far the worst problem with that, however, was that when we could no longer hunt, we could no longer get vitamin C. There was no citrus on this island, meaning liver was our only source of it. Without bullets, there would be no liver, and we could quite quickly become sick with scurvy.

"I think we'd better work on the boat today, my precious." I distractedly answered, thinking gravely upon all my worries.

She rolled over on her back and looked up at me with a penetrating gaze. "Dear, we've worked on it every day for the last four days. Is there any reason for your renewed desire for expedience and subtle tension?"

Anne never talked with a pirate drawl anymore, and she now used big words like 'expedience,' which further showed her sophisticated upbringing. More importantly, though, she had noticed that something was bothering me. "I just... think it wise to get it completed sooner rather than later." I grunted.

She didn't reply, merely stared at me, letting me know she wasn't buying that as the sole reason for a moment. I hesitated then added "Alright. I took stock of our bullets and powder, and we're running low."

She nodded. "Yes. Then it's fish, fish, and more fish. But that's not all of it. Come on, tell your wife."

"Wellll... when we run out, we can't hunt anymore, and we can't eat liver anymore. Do you know what scurvy is?" I finally revealed.

She nodded. "Of course. Every sailor knows about it, and fears it. What does that have to do with liver? We've had no citrus for all these months, and we've been fine."

"That's because liver has vitamin C in it, just like citrus fruit. Scurvy is a lack of vitamin C. If we can't hunt, that becomes a serious problem for us... not to mention a one-dimensional diet will be dangerous for us."

She stared at me, her brow furrowed. "It will be? Is this your sciencey stuff talking? You know this?"

Nodding, I whispered "I know this."

She sighed. "Alright. Well then, let us begin working on the boat hastily again, I suppose."

"I don't want to, Anne... I'm having the time of my life here with you. I think we need to do it whether we like it or not." I replied, glumly.

* * *

For the next several weeks we spent most of the day every day working on the boat. I helped shave and shape an endless parade of planks with our crude tools. "These were made for repairs, not building a ship from scratch." my lover commiserated as I looked at my painful blisters.

At times when I could be no help to her, when she was planning and wanted to focus and think, she would send me to the beach to dig up more treasure chests. We had several times more of them, now, than we could ever take, and it seemed worthless to me. I concluded she just wanted to give me something to do while she was busy.

Over breakfast made of our last cakes from our now empty flour barrel, she suddenly said "I think today we'll start building in earnest."

I stared at her. "What have we been doing up 'til now?"

She laughed. "Sitting on our hands, of course! What did you think we were doing?"

I smirked but was silent, letting her continue. "We've been doing preparation. Cutting and shaping boards, cutting and shaping boards, cutting and shaping boards... We aren't done yet, but I think we're close, and seeing the ship take shape would give both our spirits a lift, don't you think?"

I followed her out to the pile. She was right. Other than the skeleton of the ship's frame, all we had to show for months of work was a pile of planks.

I was shocked at how fast assembly went. She knew where she wanted every single board, and had me hold them in place while she drilled and riveted them in place with the absolute minimum of rivets to keep it from falling apart. "I'll put more in once we've got it built, but we don't have too many of these, so I need to be stingy as I can. Unfortunately, that's going to make our ship a little fragile, but there's simply nothing we can do to help that."

In four days, we had something that greatly resembled a seafaring ship. We finished assembly of the hull, and she put me to work sealing it with our barrel of pitch. It was black, smelly, and horribly sticky tar of some kind that I had to apply with a mop she'd found in the wreckage. She had me coat it over and over again, explaining that this alone would keep out water and make our boat sea-worthy.

Meanwhile, as I wrestled with sealing the wood, she was working on the main deck. There would be a single small, low-ceiling room below decks, a place to prepare food, store our treasure, sleep, and seek shelter from the sun. Above would be the mast and sails, the wheel, and our navigation equipment. "Barely adequate to cross the ocean." She sighed as she looked it over.

I thought it was incredible what she was accomplishing. "Don't sell yourself short. It's amazing, my sweet." I said to her softly.

Work had been getting easier for me at last. It seemed my delicate body and soft hands finally had quit resisting becoming rugged, and I was noticeably more muscled, as well as deeply tan. I'd given up keeping my beard short with my increasingly dull razor, and was letting my sun-bleached hair grow longer for lack of much to cut it with.

Anne's hair was even more beautifully long than before, and seemed to be getting curlier in the sun and heat. I always found myself pausing in my work to stare at her perfect, sexy body, desiring her and getting erect. She would smile at me seductively but say nothing, continuing to work, unless I asked her to come unto me. Then she would smile and drop her tools, hopping down and walking arm-in-arm with me up the beach to the pool to cool off and make love.

On one such work break at the end of the evening, we were making love by lantern light. As she stood before me, her back to me, bending over and hugging a tree while I pummeled her, I was suddenly curious what she would want to do when we made it back home. "God, Anne! How do you stay so tight?" I cried aloud.

She gripped the tree, whimpering and moaning happily. "Oh, shove that big tan cock into me, husband! Yes! Fuck me! I'm tight because I'm small inside for a human penis! Don't you agree that it makes sex just that much more perfect? You fill me up to my absolute limit!" she replied with equal intensity.

Gripping her hips tightly, I used my newfound strength to slam her body back onto me, panting with delight. It was insane how good she felt, her tight little pussy dripping juicily and flexing on my invading shaft. Her body looked so good, bowing low in front of me to accept my hard fucking. "Such a sexy little ass you have, Anne. I love it so very much I can't express it. Yeah, look at that little round bubble-butt shimmer as I fuck you."

Looking over her shoulder at me, she smiled. "You just can't get enough of your little wife's body, can you?"

I was filled with affection for her, and reached forward, cupping her breasts in my hands, but also pulling her up into a standing position. I gently stepped her forward until she was pressed up against the tree, then began to carefully, slowly fuck her wet pussy. I licked her fuzzy cheek, which prompted her to turn her head and sloppily, wetly slurp and kiss me.

I sighed, happier than I'd ever been in my life. I kept a slow, gentle rhythm up, and even though it wasn't very wild sex this time, I could feel my orgasm quickly approaching. "I'm going to cum, princess..." I whispered through our kiss. She nodded almost imperceptibly and pushed me off of her for a second so she could turn around and lean her back on the tree.

As soon as she was around and facing me, I stabbed it back in deep and tenderly fucked her, kissing her fingers and swollen nipples. Contrary to the wild, noisy sex we often had, this time I came only with a soft groan, gently thrusting into her. Her arms held me tightly too her, our lips smacking as we sloppily kissed each other.

I moaned and nestled my face into her red hair, and exploded, finishing her up with a deep, healthy cumshot into her womb. "I love you more and more every day. I didn't know love could ever possibly be this deep and wonderful." I moaned as I orgasmed, shivering with the pleasure of loving my wife. A few final spurts as my flood slowed to a few thick globs oozing into her, and I relaxed into the afterglow, still thrusting into her as I could tell she was on the brink herself.

She gave a tiny sob, then spasmed and came hard herself, ejaculating and peeing all over my legs and pelvis. I closed my eyes and reveled in the sensation of pumping her full of my seed while she marked me with her fragrant piss. I held her tight, feeling warm rivulets of her body fluids running down my legs, feeling it splash on my skin as she let go of everything she was holding in. She collapsed onto me, letting me hold her weight, and let out a tiny whimper, her eyes squeezed shut.

At first she'd been embarrassed to leak when cumming, even when I'd let her know I loved it and found it hugely erotic when she soaked me down. Only after I begged and pleaded for it every time did she finally one time nervously let herself go and really let loose when she orgasmed. Now, she loved to ejaculate when cumming, loved to just let loose and relax into the pleasure, and said she enjoyed marking me as well, that her strongest orgasms came from letting go.

She shuddered a little, her stream slowing down until she relaxed and stopped. She at last opened her beautiful eyes and stared into mine, letting out a huge breath she'd been holding. "I love you, Caleb." She whispered.

I smiled and mouthed, "I love you too." before drawing her close and kissing her deeply. She sighed and hugged me tight.

She pulled back, smiling. "Let's go for a swim and clean up."

We walked arm in arm towards the cold spring. Her flood was cooling on my legs, and a breeze made it feel even more wet upon me as we stepped up to the shore and walked into the cold water. We hugged and gently scrubbed at each other between kisses and soft laughter.

Into the silence she spoke. "Do you... ever think about... just saying 'the hell with it' and staying here for the rest of our lives? I'm... I'm really happy out here, all alone with you. I don't think treasure or houses or fancy clothes or servants or anything else will make me as happy as just being here with you. It's like we're castaways from time, forgotten by the world. I know it's a curse... but it's also a blessing too. We do whatever we want, whenever we want, and never anything else. We are rulers of our kingdom here. What more could we want?"

I sighed and thought about it for a while, petting her body as we embraced. "My romantic mind agrees with you. I've never in my life been happier than the times we've spent on this island. I don't know... but my scientific mind tells me we won't live long if we stay here. It's been an adventure out here with you, but it will also be an adventure anywhere we go together. Life is what we make of it, and if we treat every day as an adventure to live and love together, then I think we'll be totally happy wherever we go."

She rested against me for a moment, then laughed softly, whispering "Well said. You're right."

We were getting cold and beginning to shiver, so we stepped out of the water and laid down in the grass to dry off, staring up at the stars. Neither of us said anything for a while. At last, I spoke up and asked what I'd been curious about. "Hey, what do you want to do when we get back home?"

I expected her to think for a while, but she did not, immediately speaking. "As fast as we can, I want to go and find my parents so I can beg their forgiveness and patch up our relationship. I want to spend a good amount of time there, trying to reconnect with them again and relearn how to be their daughter. Plus I want them to meet my husband and get to know him."

She hesitated, then spoke, her voice trembling. "The last time I spoke to my father, I told him he never loved me and that I hated him. It was so awful to say, but the horrible thing is at the time I really believed it. I now look back and realize how much he loved me, and how he was trying to protect me and spare me the cruelties of this world... cruelties which I rashly charged head-long into as if they were treasures to be had. I... I want to apologize to him and tell him he was right... that I was a fool."

She was silent for a time, and I just lay there, my arm around her. When she spoke up again, she sounded like a little girl, lost and homesick. "Do you think he'll forgive me? Do you think he'll have me back? Do you think he'll ever even speak to me again?"

I rolled over and lifted up on my elbows so I could look down into her tear-stained face. "Oh Anne! Of course he is going to want you back! A father's love isn't going to be dimmed, no matter what you said to him. I absolutely know he's going to be beside himself with joy when he sees you."

She sniffled and smiled up at me. "You're right. Oh, thank you, Caleb. You are my light and my whole world." As she spoke, she grabbed me in a huge hug. "You're the best thing in my whole life."

I closed my eyes and nuzzled her soft fur and beautiful hair. "I feel the same way about you, Anne."

* * *

I hung back as Anne crept forward, rifle at the ready. She was zeroing on a feral hog, rooting around in a clearing in the foliage. I could hear it grunting, fearlessly browsing without a care in the world. We had few bullets and almost no powder left, so this could be one of our last opportunities to eat pork. My mouth was already watering in anticipation of the flavorful meat, a welcome change from fish.

My love stopped moving, lining up the shot with the revolving rifle. She carefully pulled the hammer back, then squeezed the trigger. There was a deafening crack as the rifle fired, making me jump a bit. The hog jumped, taking two steps before falling over dead, its legs flailing, showing a perfect head shot.

Then I realized something was wrong with Anne. She'd thrown the rifle away and given a surprised shriek. Her back was to me, so I couldn't see what was wrong, but fear gripped me as I saw the rifle on the ground, smoking and bent into a bizarre angle. I jumped up and ran forward.

As I rounded her, I saw she was gripping her left arm, staring at it in shock. The fur was burnt away from a large, bloody gash in her arm. I glanced down at the rifle and saw the frame had burst, blowing the barrel open into several long strips of metal. "God, Caleb! It blew up in my face!" she squeaked, sounding in shock.

I quickly yanked off my shirt, drawing my knife and cutting a strip of cloth. "Give me your arm." I said, grimly.

She held her bleeding arm out to me, and I quickly tied a pressure bandage above the wound to cut off blood flow. I was glad I'd worn clothes to trek into the jungle. She was swaying dizzily, so I didn't even ask her if she could walk, but reached down and hauled her up into my arms and ran for our hut. Though I tried to be careful, I could see her wincing in pain at the jostling movement.

After a tense run through the jungle, I kicked open our door and laid her gently out on the bed. "Does it hurt?" I asked, knowing full-well the answer before she even nodded, grimacing.

"Damn that rifle. Just lie still." I grunted, all business. I heaved open the lid of my trunk and tore through it until I found the small satchel of medical supplies I'd packed. Inside were needles, thread, some whiskey, bandages, and anything else I'd thought we might need if we were injured trying to get our revenge.

I handed her the whiskey as I laid out my instruments on the table. "Drink a hit, this is going to be painful." I said, my voice clipped. As she gulped down half the bottle, I lit both our lanterns and hung them close to provide as much light as possible.

She held her arm out to me, whimpering a little. There was a deep gash in her flesh, and it looked like her skin was burned from the powder. I grimaced at my next odious task, but didn't hesitate to take the whiskey and pour some onto the wound, washing it clean and sanitizing it. Anne screamed in pain, a sound which very nearly made me lose my nerve. Hearing my lover in pain had me terrified in a way nothing ever had before in my life.

With some of the blood and soot washed away, I could see a fairly clean gash in her arm, as well as a burn covering the area. I was grateful the burn didn't look too bad, much less dangerous than the cut itself. Hating myself I soaked down a bandage and wiped the wound clean, hearing her squeal in pain under her breath.

When I had it looking as clean as I could manage, I took my needle and thread, cleaning them in whiskey soaked bandages before gently poking the needle down in. She sobbed, and it became hard for me to see through tears of panic filling my eyes. I carefully stitched the gash closed, shuddering in empathy every time she cried out in pain. At last, I had it sewn up as best I could, and I wrapped it all tightly in a bandage.

She looked up at me with a tear-stained face, grey with pain. "Thank you love. Will I be alright?"

I tried to speak but found my throat unwilling to comply. I swallowed and managed to speak. "It... it's going to leave a scar, and you aren't going to be able to use that arm for a while. If... if we can keep infection away, you'll be alright, I hope."

She nodded. "Thank God you know how to do such things."

I dashed the tears from my eyes with the back of my bloody hand. "I don't understand what happened..."

She closed her eyes and seemed to pass out. With my whole body shaking, I walked to the spring to scrub the blood off my hands and arms. After that, I checked in on her and found her sleeping. I was about to leave, when she mumbled "Ye migh' as well go get th' meat we shot... fair lit'le sense lettin' it go bad."

* * *

With nothing else to do, I retrieved the boar and the ruined rifle. I stoked up a fire in the little smokehouse Anne had fashioned, then cut up the meat and began it curing. I frequently checked up on Anne, but she seemed to sleep through the worst of the pain.

I changed her bloody bandages out for clean ones, but couldn't see much change in the ugly wound. As she slept, I sat down and examined the rifle, trying to figure out what was wrong with it. It had split at the top of the frame, right where the cylinder connected with the barrel. The pressure had then peeled the barrel open like a banana, nearly down to the muzzle. I didn't know much about guns, so I couldn't understand what had gone wrong, and finally threw it down in disgust.

After a few more hours I washed the wound again and re-dressed it, getting worried that the blood had not stopped flowing. I checked her temperature, and found her nose was hot and dry. Despite the tropical heat, I felt an icy crawl down my back. Infection.

* * *

I had no idea what I should do, other than open it up and try to clean it more thoroughly. When I told her this, she nodded, her eyes looking haunted as she thought of the pain to come. "Can I have 'nother hit o' whiskey?" she whispered when I finished explaining it to her.

I shook my head. "I... I'm sorry Anne... I don't have much left... I need it to clean things..." My voice broke and I tried desperately to fight back tears. I was terrified.

She nodded, drawing herself up resolutely. "Alrigh' then. Ge' this o'er wit'."

"Anne..." I sobbed. "I love you. I'm going to have to hurt you to try and fix this."

She nodded, reaching up to my cheeks with her good hand. "Don't cry, little kitten. It'll be OK."

I forced myself to smile at her. She drew her hand back, and I began to cut my carefully sewn stitches apart, pulling them loose one by one. The gash opened up, angry red and bleeding. Fighting down panic and hysteria, I soaked one of my last bandages with alcohol, then rinsed the wound out with copious amounts of cold water. She whimpered, but managed to squeak, "The cold helps..."

That done, I steeled myself and began to gently dig around in the wound, searching for pockets that might contain debris and infection. She shrieked in pain as I pulled on the flesh. "I'm sorry! I have to find where the infection is coming from!" I cried, nearly hysterical. She didn't respond, but nodded almost imperceptibly, her eyes squeezed shut.

I found a large pocket I'd missed before, a place where the metal must have sliced through her flesh. It was bloody, and I thought I might have seen some soot or dirt in the blood as I tried to rinse it out. She shrieked again, biting her lip until it bled. Realizing I hadn't given her something to bite, I grabbed the leather satchel I'd held my tools in, twisting it up. "Open your mouth." I whispered.

She did as I asked, and I stuck it in. "Bite down on that when it hurts." I sobbed. Again, she nodded.

I returned to trying to clean the wound. She cried out and chewed on the leather as I worked, and I had to keep wiping tears out of my eyes to see what I was doing. I was determined to make sure it was all clean this time because I didn't have enough alcohol or thread to try again. At last I was fairly certain I'd found it all, and rinsed it out with alcohol, making her scream loudly. I wiped it all with the alcohol impregnated bandage, and at last began to sew her back up. That had used all but the last few drops of whiskey, perhaps enough to clean the surface one last time.

When it was over, I sat back, exhausted beyond anything I'd ever felt. I looked down at Anne and saw she was silently crying from the agony, tears running down her beautiful cheeks. I lost it and began to sob. "I'm s...sorry Anne... I... I'm sor...ry I hurt you... I... d...did my best... I'm sorry..."

She opened her glassy eyes and stared up at me, then weakly reached up with her good arm and stroked my face. "I know. It's OK, Caleb." She tried to smile and speak with her usual bravado. "I been thru' worse'n that, b'lieve me."

I nodded and gave her a small smile. I cleaned up the bloody bandages and clothes I'd been using for rags, then moved a chair over next to the bed and sat, watching her closely for signs of improvement or setback.

* * *

I awoke with a start, realizing I'd fallen asleep after watching her for hours. The lanterns had both burned out, and it was still night out, casting us in near pitch blackness. I felt around for the lamp, grabbed it, then quietly refilled it from our dwindling supply of oil. I struck my flint against my knife blade, sparking the wick a few times before it lit and began to burn.

I looked down at Anne and froze. Her eyes were open wide, staring blankly at the ceiling. She was motionless. My horror grew, and I looked down at her arm. The stitches had burst and bloody pus had poured out of it, still oozing out even after she was dead.

She was dead. The blood rushed in my ears, roaring like a tornado as my heart slammed into my ribcage wildly. I could hear screaming in the distance, and though I opened my mouth to try and shriek myself, no sound would come out. All that I could see were her eyes, staring blindly at the ceiling, never to move again. I bit my knuckles so hard I drew blood. She was gone.

* * *

I awoke with a start, confused and disoriented, the sound of screaming nearly deafening my ears. I flailed around, unable to tell where I was in the darkness, skinning my knuckles on something hard. I suddenly realized the screaming was my own and stopped, my breath catching in my throat.

"Caleb!!! What in God's name is wrong!???" Anne screamed into the silence.

I couldn't even breathe. It took me over ten seconds to finally realize it had been a nightmare. "Caleb? Caleb??? Are you alright? What's wrong? Oh God!!!!" I heard her cry, panicked.

It had been a dream... she was alive... it was only a dream. Something clouted me across the cheek, and after a second I realized at last where I was. I was laying on the floor, and she'd just swung her legs out of bed, accidentally kicking me in the process. Sitting up also turned her good eye so that she could see me with her feline night vision, because I felt her hand grab my head, feeling her kneel over me, so close her hot breath washed across my face.

"Tell me what is wrong, Caleb!!!" she shrieked.

I now found I was crying so hard I couldn't speak. I could hardly even breathe, making little gasps for air between the convulsions of sobs. I reached up and hugged her furiously to me.

Sounding a little less panicked, She again repeated "What is wrong, Caleb??"

At last I was able to gasp a lungful of air and shrieked "I dreamed you died!" before lapsing into wild sobs.

Taking in my words with little pause, she replied "I'm not dead. I'm right here, Caleb! I'm right here! Relax, settle down, I'm right here, kitten! Be calm, just breathe, OK? It's alright... It's alright" she repeated over and over to calm me down.

I shuddered and was silent at last. She held me in her arm, rocking me comfortingly and humming a lullaby. Somehow, it was greatly calming to have her do it, and I rested my face against her soft breasts.

"I dreamed I woke up and lit the lantern, and there you were, lying dead... The stitches had burst open and puss... Oh God... Anne, we have got to get off this island, or it will be the death of us..." I broke off, my voice too shaky to continue that sentence.

She squeezed me tight and paused her humming. "Then you'll be very glad to know it feels much better now. You got the infection, dear-heart, and it is already beginning to heal."

I swallowed. "Really?" I managed to weakly ask.

"Yes, really. My fever is gone. Light the lantern and see." she gently cooed to me, then released me and clambered back onto the bed. I repeated the process of grabbing the lantern and lighting it, an act which eerily echoed my actions in the dream. When the flame caught and cast the room into an orange glow, I found her sitting on the edge of the bed, smiling up at me comfortingly.

She turned to the side and I examined the gash after removing the bandages. The angry red was gone and the flesh was already scabbing up and beginning to heal. "Felines heal very quickly." she replied to my startled, overjoyed look.

I cried again in her arms, this time in relief and joy. "I won't be able to work on the boat for a while, but I'm going to be fine." she said to me, patting my back and comforting me.

* * *

I came out of that nightmarish experience fully realizing how tenuous our lives were out on this island. We simply had to get off of it and return to civilization and safety, or risk an even worse fate befalling one or both of us. I now no longer loved the island, but hated it and wanted to get away as quickly as possible.

I spent my time nearby as Anne healed. Within a few days the wound was already closing, and the burned skin was flaking off to reveal new skin beneath. Even her fur had begun to grow out, forming a soft layer of peach fuzz over the new skin. I'd brought a couple of novels, and I read them to her, then related several others to her from memory. She sat, completely enthralled by the stories as I related them to her.

When she napped one time, I grabbed one of the other, undamaged rifles and looked it over, still trying to determine what had gone wrong. Was it just a metal failure from stress? I compared the whole rifle to the mangled one, checking it over. When I found the problem, I gave a grimly triumphant cry that awoke my sleeping wife.

Blinking, she looked over at me. "What? What is it?"

I shook my head. "Not that it helps us at all, but I see the problem. I see why the rifle exploded."

She yawned and sat up. "Why did it happen?"

I moved my chair over to the bedside and held the gun out to her. "The others aren't like this, but this one is. See the top strap, just where the cylinder meets the barrel? Look at how the metal is worn away, making a thin spot."

She took the heavy gun in her good hand and held it close to her good eye, looking it over. "By Atlantis, ye be righ'. It looks like pressure from the explosion when the gun is fired is cutting through the metal. This gun isn't safe, and could do the same thing as the other one!"

I nodded. "The others don't show that at all on their frames. It looks like the design of the gun is flawed? The pressure is cutting through the metal every time it fires, weakening it."

Anne cursed softly under her breath. "Well, throw that one in the ocean so we don't risk using it and get one of the others, then!" she said, her fingers subconsciously going to her wound.

I nodded. "Absolutely. Dangerous thing."

* * *

We began to build again, or rather, I began to build under Anne's careful tutelage. We fitted railings onto the edge all around the deck, then began to rig up the ropes. Anne helped where she could, which usually was teaching me about tying knots, because I knew nothing about them. At last we began to cut and shape the sails, and I began to realize the boat was almost done.

With everything complete, we took the remaining rivets and tried to install them at any point we thought could use reinforcement. There were scant few, and I could tell it worried Anne that the boat would be fragile. I reminded her that while it did not have as many rivets as a full sized vessel, it was smaller and would have less torsional forces stressing it. She didn't have a clue what I meant, so I tried to explain it to her.

Two weeks from her accident, I finished affixing the final rivet to the hull. "We did it! We're done!" I exclaimed, standing back to look at it with pride.

"No, not yet. Recoat the entire hull with pitching tar again. We'll let that dry for a few days, then coat it a third time." Anne said, calmly.

I glanced at her in surprise. "Really? Does it seriously need that?"

She sighed. "We don't get a second chance at this, you know. If we get out on the ocean and the ship springs a leak, we're going to die. We have to get it right the first time, and I'd rather be overly cautious than risk our lives."

Of course she was right. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't question you." I said and grabbed the smelly barrel of tar.

* * *

It took another week before we were ready. Anne was healing nicely and I took the stitches out, telling her to be careful with her arm for another few weeks at least. When she complained, I reminded her we only had one shot at healing this wound, and were out of medical supplies. She nodded, subdued.

She fussed over the boat for quite some time, testing it every way she could think of for strength and rigidity. Then she had me fill the hold with as much of the best treasure as could fit. Again she tested it for strength, then had me remove all the treasure. "It's far too heavy to get it into the water with all that in there." she declared when I asked her why we should take it back out.

Then she took the navigation tools we'd found and tested them all out. While she did this, she set me to the task of filling barrels full of our food rations. I loaded a rifle up with the last of our bullets and powder, then went into the island interior to hunt. I was not nearly as good a shot as Anne was, but with her hurt arm she couldn't fire well. Plus, I had no intention of giving her one of the rifles again.

I got lucky and shot another hog as well as some fowl, and triumphantly returned to camp and cut it up to begin smoking it all. I picked some coconuts, for though I knew they would not last long, it would be better than nothing. Throughout all this I continued to check up on Anne, making sure she was alright and didn't need any assistance.

I filled the two water barrels we'd managed to scavenge from the wrecked ship with fresh, pure water from the spring. Taking stock of all I'd set aside, I figured we would have enough food and water for over three weeks of sailing, plenty of time to make it back to the mainland...I hoped.

At last all was in order. We stood on the beach and looked over our handiwork with a mixture of pride and trepidation. We were going to trust our lives to this small ship as we made a desperate break for freedom. I put my arm around my wife and squeezed her to me. "You did an amazing job." I softly told her.

She sighed and smiled at me. "Thank you, dear-heart. One more thing. Pull that cloth off of the bow for me, will you?"

I'd wondered why that was there, but thought there was some sailor's trick involved so I hadn't commented on it. I stepped forward now and pulled on it, ripping it loose from the rivets Anne had stuck through it to fasten it in place. Underneath, I found she'd lovingly chiseled the name of her little vessel into the wood: The Bonny Crow. "Nice." I said to her, smiling

She looked sadly at it as she replied. "I named it the Crow in honor of Lars and all my friends who died because o' that bastard Cajack. I hope it'd do 'em proud."

I stepped behind her and massaged her shoulders, working the tension in her muscles to relax her. "I'm sure they would all be proud of you, and of what you've accomplished. You're courageous and tireless and wise and resourceful. Not to mention tougher than a dozen men. I love you, Bonny Anne."

We stood in silence, staring at the ship for a long time. At last, she clapped her paws together. "Well! We're ready to float her for a few days as a final test to make sure she can hold out water. Let us take that time to enjoy our last few days on this island, in honor of all we've accomplished, suffered and endured on this bittersweet paradise."

I nodded. "Aye. That sounds like a good idea. Tell me how to get the boat to the water and I'll do it."

She had me carefully remove the chocks from the logs underneath the ship while she held onto the back with her good arm. When I pulled out the final one, the boat creaked and moved a little. "To me!" she called, her voice tense as she strained to hold the ship back.

I jumped up and ran to the back of the ship. Without a moment's hesitation, she shouted "Push!" and threw her weight against the back of the ship. I threw my weight in as well, and it began to roll, frame and all right towards the water. We stood back as the logs rolled and clattered together, watching as the ship slipped into the water. Anne had chosen her spot on the beach well, for the sand dropped away and the water became deep almost immediately.

"Quickly now, before it tips! Help me push it in deeper!" Anne called over her shoulder as she splashed into the water. I was right behind her and we threw our shoulders against the hull, scraping in the sand. Deeper and deeper it went. Suddenly, the ship came loose from the sand and began to float easily. We gave a cheer as it settled into the water.

"Alright, enough of that!" Anne called to me. "Help me float our diving platform. We'll use it as a dock to get up onto the ship. Quickly now, before it floats out to sea!"

We hurried and dragged the platform into the water. I grabbed an oar and paddled madly until we bumped against the hull of our ship. With effortless grace, Anne grabbed the side and leapt up onto the deck. "Mind your arm!" I called to her, but she ignored me, hurrying over to the anchor and throwing it overboard with a loud splash.

She grinned at me happily. "That did it! Look at her! She's working!"

I smiled back. "Congratulations, master ship builder! You made a complete ship with nothing but a few repair tools."

She walked back and forth on the deck, apparently testing its reaction to the weight shift. She looked satisfied with the results as she declared "Perfect! She's stable in th' water. You row back and get a chest o' loot, I'm going below to check for leaks. We'll weigh her down and see how she fairs."

When I returned with treasure, she popped up from below, smiling. "Dry as a sun-bleached bone, she is! You tarred her up well, husband."

She helped me hoist the chest on board, and I tied the raft off on the railing and clambered up onto the deck. "Permission to come aboard, cap'm!" I said, saluting.

She laughed and gently punched my arm. "Permission granted, you! Look at how stable she is! I feared it might shudder at our slightest movement!"

"You did well, my sweet. She'll get us home, no worries." I said, hugging her.

* * *

The ship floated perfectly, so we loaded it up with all our gold and provisions and gave it one more day of weight and leak testing. Anne had me load it up, watching the waterline come up the prow of the ship. When it got to a certain point, she said "Stop. That's all she can carry. The rest of the treasure... we'll leave for another day, or for someone else."

I took her hand and steadied her as she jumped down to the raft, then rowed us both back to shore to spend our final evening and night on the island. We'd worked up a sweat loading the ship and rowing back and forth to it, so the first thing we did was go for a swim in the spring, bringing a blanket along with us. The cold water felt wonderful, relaxing us and sapping the heat and sweat out of us. I'd saved a tiny bit of soap, and we used it now for a final bath as the sun set.

I explored her beautiful body as the shadows grew longer and longer. My hands trailed over her soft fur, her beautiful curves and lithe muscles. We embraced and kissed deeply for a while.

When we pulled back, she sighed. "It feels so wonderful to be cool and clean. I say we live in a place that is cool and dry, Caleb. It is a wonderful thing, and I'm tired of sweating."

I laid her out in the water, floating and relaxing on her back, then began to caress and massage her body. "I'll be happy no matter where we choose to live, as long as we're together." I whispered.

She looked up at me with depth of love in her eyes. My touch became much more sensual and intimate, and she began to breathe quickly as I touched her in sensitive places. She let out a moan, happily purring. As the world darkened to twilight, I caught her up and led her onto the thick, soft grass, laying her out to make love for the last time in our special spot.

I fingered her gently, finding her already wet and slick to my touch. I could see in her eyes what she wanted from me, and knelt down to give it to her, settling in to rest between her lovely legs. I licked all along her moist lips, up and down, back and forth gently, making her groan happily, squirming her hips and pressing my face into her mound with her good paw.

I delved into her pussy, seeking to cover every inch of her sex with my tongue, seeking out every fold and bump, making her gasp and pant passionately with my bold ministrations. I loved the unique flavor of my feline wife, and was proud to be so in tune with her that her pheromones aroused me even across our species separation.

"Ahh! Caleb! It's so intense, my love! You know me so well... my body so well..." She drew a deep breath and keened in pleasure as she orgasmed wetly, soaking me down again with her juices. I loved to pleasure her like this, to make her feel so good made me as proud as I'd ever been about anything.

As she relaxed and settled down, I washed my face off, then returned to rest between her legs, my head on her belly. I listened to her breathing, to the low-level rumble of the ocean, to the night sounds of bugs and some kind of bird, gently cooing the night away. I'd never experience this with her again, I knew... making love on this island, our own little slice of paradise. Her paws began to tenderly stroke my hair, which gave me goose bumps.

Time and space seemed to stand still before us, two star-crossed lovers whose lives seemed to be charmed and cursed all at the same time. The moon-glow sparkled in her lovely eyes, and I sighed, beginning to stroke her silky fur. It was almost startling when she suddenly spoke, her voice gentle and warm. "What is it you want of the future, my prince?"

I thought about it for a moment, then softly replied "You. That's all... just... you. You can't understand how much I love you... even I can't understand it. When I'm with you, I'm really, truly happy. So, no matter what's in store for us down the road, as long as I'm with you, I'm happy and at peace."

Softly, I heard her whisper "That is so romantic. You are the most romantic man I've ever met, and I love you for it. You even bring the romance out in me."

She laced her fingers through mine, squeezing my hand and pricking me with her sharp claws. Softly, I added "I would be honored to stand at your side when you reunite with your parents. I would be so happy and content to live with you in a house by the sea. I would love to go on little sailing adventures with you. It all sounds amazing, and like an adventure I would love to be a part of."

She heaved a huge, contented sigh. "Tomorrow, our lives will change drastically again, but I feel more and more confident in the future, our future, all the time. Make love to me, my sweet, sweet Caleb."

I reared up over her where she lay on her back in the thick, soft grass. Her legs were already spread wide apart because I'd been lying between them, and I could see the contours of her luscious pussy in the cool light of the moon. She arched her back a little, squirming around to get comfortable as she watched me to see what I would do.

I eased up to her and gently pressed into her flesh, sinking in deep with a groan. She'd never be anything less than exquisite to me. I began to gently fuck her, listening to the night sounds all around us, looking into her sparkling eyes.

I thrust into her faster and faster, letting our pleasure rise for several minutes. "Caleb... Oh God, it's so good..." she moaned.

Wordlessly, I rolled over, pulling her on top of me. Without skipping a beat, she began to ride me, leaning over and pinning my hands above my head, looking down at me with predatory eyes. We reached our crescendo with a mighty crash of waves, my semen flowing into her as the ocean lapping on the beach.

We relaxed in silence, and Anne reached over and grabbed the blanket, throwing it over us as the night grew cool. "'tis fall, I think." she whispered as the wind rustled the leaves.

I nodded. "It's quite cool tonight, especially for this place."

We slept under the stars our last night on our island paradise.

* * *

"Are ye ready, Caleb?" Anne called for what felt like the hundredth time. I kept remembering little things to do. Collect a bit more fresh fruit, check the water supply, make sure the remaining treasure was pulled up enough from the beach that the ocean would not reclaim it. Cut a few extra pieces of wood for potential patching needs. Extra sail cloth for our sail. Load up the rifles and revolving pistols. Grab my books from the hut.

I was a blur back and forth, secretly dreading when we would take off and be at the mercy of the ocean. By this time I'd run out of meaningful tasks to do to delay the inevitable, and my wife seemed to have had enough of it. She grabbed my shoulder and pulled me onto the raft. "Alright, kitten. That's enough. We're off."

I looked back at the hut. "Did you check for any clothes we forgot? I didn't check for clothes!"

"All that is left is in the hold already. We packed it yesterday."

"My books! Did I forget them!?"

Rowing the raft towards our small ship, she smiled at me maternally. "They're right at your left hand."

"Maybe we should both have a good long drink before we depart!" I yapped, tensely.

"We have plenty of fresh water to slake our thirst for a journey twice the size of the one we're attempting."

"M...maybe we should go to the bathroom once more before we depart." I whispered.

As the raft bumped against the side of the Bonny Crow, she replied gently "We both just went not five minutes ago. Caleb, kitten, relax. We're going to be just fine."

She gracefully launched herself over the side of the ship and up to the deck, reaching a paw over to grab the last of our things as I handed them to her. She then gave me a paw to help her less acrobatically inclined husband scrabble his way onboard. Once I was safely there, she took the oar and pushed the raft away from the side. "Goodbye, little raft, ye help'd us build this here vessel. I wish I could take ya back teh land, but I fear you must be lost in the endless waves of the ocean." she said with a sigh.

I looked back at the island and felt a pulling sensation at my heart. Before I could say anything, Captain Anne took over. "Alrigh', 'nuff lollygaggin' around! Hoist the anchor deck hand!"

I jumped at her sharp tone. We hadn't discussed this, but I supposed it was now up to her knowledge and experience to keep us alive. Apparently I was now a deck hand. "Ma'am." I mumbled and stepped over to the crude crank handle she'd built for hauling in the anchor. With wood on wood construction, it would not last long, but it wasn't meant to. I began to turn the crank, and quickly found myself straining at the weight of the anchor, as well as the crudeness of the crank.

"Come on, ya lazy land-lubber! Put your weight into it! You lift like a toddler! Pull now!" she shouted.

At long last the anchor rose above the waterline, a rusty cannon from Cajack's sunken ship. She was forced to come and help me then, for it was simply too hard for me to lift the last few feet into the boat. I pulled and strained with all my strength though, until she finally came and helped me haul it in, berating me all the while for my failure.

"Set sails! Come on now, stop dawdling around!" she shouted, returning to the ship's wheel.

I scampered over to the rigging and struggled my way up the ropes, having difficulty because they kept swinging about, something I was not used to. "Hurry it up!" Anne roared from below.

I unfastened the side of the sail, letting it drop, then hurried down to fasten its line so that it would not tangle itself in the wind. "Other side, double time!" she bellowed.

I shakily made my way up the ropes and loosed the other side of the sail, letting it fall into her waiting hands. By the time I was down she had it securely tied off and was back to the rudder controls. "Wind's got 'er already! 'ere we go! Good work, crewman!"

I was panting and out of breath, but an icy chill made me shiver. Would we ever set foot on land again?

* * *

Anne had more of those accursed rope sandals for us, taken from Cajack's wreck, and I had to bite my tongue a little and just quietly start using them despite how uncomfortable they were. The wind indeed caught our little ship and we were soon cutting through the water at an impressive speed. When I commented on it, she nodded and said our small size meant a faster speed than a full sized vessel. "It will counteract how dangerous it will be in a storm. Perhaps our speed will help us avoid one altogether." she said, sounding more like normal now that we were underway.

For several days everything seemed to work quite well. We had to realign the sail several times until we had optimal positioning of it, but once it was locked in we shot through the water like a shark. Anne took readings and locked our course in, and suddenly there was precious little to do as the boat was blown along towards home and safety.

"Well, Caleb, care to pass the time like a real sailor?" she asked, stretching as she put away her compass.

I turned and looked at her, smiling. "Sex and drinking?"

She laughed lightly. "That's fun too, but we don't have any drink left, remember? No, I mean knucklebones!" she crowed triumphantly, pulling a pouch off her belt and revealing about a dozen of them.

"Where did you get those?" I asked, surprised.

She snorted at my cluelessness. "Didn't you see me taking them off the hogs we killed? I knew we'd have many an hour to spend idly as we sailed. You know how to play?"

I shook my head. She smiled sweetly. "It's a fun little game of chance. I'll show ye how ta play, an' we can compete against each other."

* * *

If the game was about chance, it certainly didn't seem so. Anne destroyed me game after game, and when she convinced me to play for clothes, I was soon naked and tied down on our makeshift bed, while my wife had her way with my body, teasing me mercilessly before bringing us both to a satisfying orgasm. After that, she apparently wasn't done teasing me, because she left me tied up as she went to check our course and heading.

"Anne! C'mon! Lemme go!" I yelped from below decks. I was half playing along with her and half displeased about it, but my displeasure was growing rapidly the longer I was helpless. It wasn't the greatest feeling in the world to be tied up and have her ignoring my pleas for release.

She'd left the hatch open, so I could clearly hear her reply from above decks, "I love the sweet sound of your whining, my pet! It is so delicious it really turns me on! Yer my prisoner!"

I stopped yelling and relaxed back into the bed. It was very uncomfortable by now, as I'd been tied in this position for several hours. Worse, I was starting to have to piss extremely badly. "God dammit, Anne. This is absolutely the last time I let you tie me up. I don't like it." I muttered, darkly. It was perhaps the first time ever I'd been really displeased with her, and I couldn't understand what was so sexy about this anyway. She wasn't even here interacting with me. If she were, it might be more tolerable, but she'd just left me and was doing other things.

My anger spiked. "Dammit, Anne! What the hell? I hate this! I have to piss! I'm never letting you tie me up again!"

At that, she finally appeared at the stairs and hopped down. "Calm, me luv. I only be playing wi' ya." she said, smiling and sitting primly on the side of the bed.

"Yeah well, I don't mind playing, but this is too much. I don't like it and I'm not going to let you tie me up anymore." I growled.

Knowing she could instantly melt my heart, she leaned forward and kissed me deeply on the lips and purred. I couldn't help myself, and let my tongue swirl into her muzzle, exploring her sharp teeth and rough feline tongue. She tasted damned amazing. My anger assuaged a great deal by the end of the kiss. She looked at me sweetly. "Even if I ask nicely?" she cooed.

My anger evaporated even more, replaced with desperation. "Please let me go... I have to relieve myself."

Still, she continued to tease me. Idly stroking her delicate fingers through my hair, she softly spoke. "We're making amazing time, love. We'll see land before you know it. This little ship is faster than a large vessel; it cuts through the water almost without a wake. I think that I shall keep it. When we get back to port and find our little home on the shore, I shall complete its construction and refine all the rough edges. I'm so proud of what we accomplished with just some repair tools!"

I blinked, but could not be dissuaded at this point. "That's great, I'm proud too. Now please let me up."

She shrugged out of her blouse and smiled at me. "Not when you've been ripened up so perfectly for me! Just relax and enjoy this."

"We just had sex a couple hours ago! I need to piss!" I snapped at her.

She continued to throw off her clothes, smiling at my words. "It just gets more luscious the more you fuss." Naked, she crawled up over me, showing off her perfect, luscious body as she began to caress my tanned, muscled torso.

Despite my anger, I couldn't help but get an erection, especially when she lowered herself to all fours and began to slide her whole body against mine, purring. I had to piss so bad the erection was none too comfortable, which made me whimper a bit. Her smile widened, apparently that was exactly what she wanted.

She reared up over me, reaching around behind her round, sexy ass to grab my penis and slide it immediately into her wet pussy. I cried out in spite of myself, and she immediately began to fuck me hard and fast. "G... God! Anne! This is painful!" I squawked.

"Let the pain mix with your pleasure! Let them swirl together and revel in the sensation of pain and ecstasy! Give in to the feeling, Caleb, and I promise you'll love it!" she snarled at me, fucking me hard.

This experience was altogether new to me, and I was confused. She wanted me to enjoy this? I tried to relax and welcome the feelings, with little success.

She was pounding herself against me hard, making slurping noises as she screwed me silly. "Come on, lover! Let me see you cum like this! Tied up and uncomfortable, let me see you cum! Hurry!"

She paused for a moment and turned around so her back was facing me and I could see her lovely ass as she bounced it up and down over me, jiggling as she mashed it into my groin. She drew her paws over her perfect figure, and I reveled in her beautiful curves, marred only by her scars, crossing here and there about her body.

She lashed her tail in my face, whapping it into me hard enough to sting, adding to the overload of sensations she was bombarding me with. I shrieked as she drilled herself upon me, turning my head for a moment to try and avoid her tail strikes. This was no good as I couldn't see her, though, and after a second I turned back and endured the blows so I could enjoy watching her go crazy on me.

My pain was building, but when I told her this, she only sped up, fucking me wildly as if she was a feral beast. I was losing it despite everything else. "Anne! Fuck! I'm gonna cum! I... I can't hold it!"

She looked back over her shoulder with a snarl, looking fearsome and frightening. At the same time, she dug her claws into the blankets on our bed, ripping holes in them as she flexed the muscles across every inch of her body. Spittle sprayed from her muzzle as she roared, then she squeezed her eyes shut and came herself.

The feeling of twitching and spasming was too much, and I erupted, dumping a massive load of semen into her lusty body. "Gnnaaaa! Fuck, Caleb! Fuck! Oh Fuck, it's so good! Yeah! Cum in me!"

I spat sperm into her, straining against the ropes that held me immobile, gritting my teeth and hissing at the intensity of the experience. My seed began to backwash out of her, oozing down my shaft and onto my balls. I was in heaven.

We came down off our orgasms, panting. As pleasure faded, it was replaced with my intense need to go to the bathroom. Before I could even ask, however, she reached out and loosed my bonds. I didn't have time to discuss things, and ran topside to relieve myself. It felt wonderful to move my sore muscles and finally change positions.

As I finished up, she wandered up behind me and wrapped her arms around me, pressing our naked flesh together. "Did you enjoy that?"

I flexed my arms and looked out to sea, not meeting her eyes. "No I did not." I snapped.

She stroked me tenderly with gentle fingers. "Really? I was hoping to give you an exciting new experience. The feelings of discomfort can heighten the feeling of erotic pleasure when having sex... I was trying to give you that. Didn't it feel uniquely good?"

"No. I didn't like being helpless with you ignoring me when I asked to be released." I grunted, still feeling anger.

She sighed. "Honestly? You didn't feel any excitement at it? Husband, usually you enjoy it when I take you on adventures, be they sexual or physical. You are always thanking me for getting you to try new things, aren't you? I wasn't trying to hurt you, I was trying to make you happy."

I was feeling somewhat mollified now. She was so sweet when she wanted to be, it was hard to stay angry. "I asked to be set free and you wouldn't do it. I almost had an accident. It was humiliating."

She continued to stroke me, gently touching me as she softly, tenderly spoke to me. "Honestly, Caleb... I would never really hurt you, you know that, right? It's just kinky sex play, there's no need to feel humiliation from it. So what if you had lost it and pissed? It's just me here with you, nobody else would know. You convinced me to let myself go when I orgasm, shouldn't you be willing to do the same thing for me?"

I swallowed. "Well... you could have discussed it with me before doing it, at least..." I said at last.

"I'm sorry, baby. I will next time. Tell me the truth; didn't any of it feel exciting and good?"

Thinking back, I slowly replied "I guessss so. It was... explosive."

She grinned up at me, her eyes twinkling. "You see? Just trust your body into my hands and I'll give you all kinds of new things to experience, my love."

I turned to her and we kissed.

* * *

We were making excellent time, and our rations were holding out quite well. We still had half the smoked bacon I'd made, as well as some other meat staples and a bit of fruit left. We still had a barrel and a quarter of water, too, even though I was drinking from it liberally.

Being on a smaller boat out in the ocean was a different experience from traveling in a full sized ship. Rather than only dipping and rising slightly on the waves, our little ship rose high up on the crests, then came back down to be hidden in the valleys with little visible. The rolling was a little disorienting for me, but Anne, a veteran sailor, seemed to hardly even notice it. She simply kept checking and correcting our course as we were buffeted about by the waves.

That night, she mapped our position out by the stars while I watched, fascinated by her work. At last, she sat back. "We've come well over half-way already. It won't be long now." she said, sounding satisfied.

I grinned at her. "Awesome news! I'll be so relieved when we reach land."

* * *

The next day was uneventful. As evening approached, however, Anne became quiet and scanned the horizon with her looking glass. I could tell something had her concerned, and finally asked "What's wrong, darling?"

She drew a huge sigh. "There's a storm out there, and it looks like it's coming our way fast." she muttered, distractedly.

I gulped at that and looked out towards where her view was affixed. She was right, I could see a darkening in the sky. While I looked, I even saw a flicker that must have been lightning. Cautiously, I asked "Is... is that bad? This ship is awfully small to fight a storm..."

She pursed her brow and continued to look out at the distance. "I'll know more when it draws closer. Gods be damned, it is moving fast. The wind is starting to change, too. Do you feel it?"

She suddenly clapped the glass closed and turned to me. "Go below decks and stow everything. Do you know what I mean when I say that?"

"Tie everything down, right?"

She nodded. "Yes, everything, and I mean everything needs to be held in place somehow. The boat is going to be thrown violently around, so if something is loose down there, it will be dashed to pieces by the end of the storm. You wondered why I took so much rope, now you'll find out. Tie everything down. Understand me?"

"Yes cap'm!" I said smartly and took off for below decks.

I soon learned that the task sounded much easier than it actually was. I'd not thought there could be a problem with just tying things down, but now that I was down here holding rope, I didn't know what to do. Well, the stairs were permanently affixed to the hull, so they would make a good anchor point, right? Deciding to start there, I began by lashing the table to the lowest stair. Then I cleaned everything off the table; our maps, compass, sextant, and a few other ship's tools I didn't understand all went in Anne's trunk.

I tied the trunk to the table, then my trunk to hers. After that I cleaned up all the loose food we had lying about and placed it all back in barrels. I then lashed the barrels to each other and tied them to the chests. Our eating utensils and cooking paraphernalia all went into a separate chest, over which I stuffed in the blankets off our bed to help protect anything from breaking. That finished, I tied it to the barrels.

There were a few odds and ends left to tie up, like the crate that held our rifles, and after that, all of our treasure chests. I was nearly out of rope by the time I finished. As I stood and surveyed my handiwork, I realized the ship was sweeping up and down much more than before. The waves were getting larger.

Before I could even catch my breath, I heard Anne shout from above, "Are ye done, lad? We need two lengths 'o rope up here, soon as you can! Just about twice as long as the deck is all we need!"

I grabbed a length of rope and cut it in half, making it nearly perfect to the length she wanted, then clambered up the steps as the ship rolled back and forth. I looked towards the storm and froze in surprise. It was nearly on us already. How long had I been below? It can't have been long... this storm was moving quickly.

Wind whistled about, blowing stoutly against me. "'Ere, lazy bones!" Anne shouted, breaking me out of my revere. I gave her the ropes, but she promptly handed one back and began tying the other around her waist. "Tie yerse'f up good, Caleb. If we get swept off the deck, these ropes will save our lives."

Grimly, I did as she asked, knotting it tightly around myself. After making sure we both had our knives, Anne tied the other ends to the mast. I glanced up and saw she'd already stowed the sail. "Are we gonna make it?" I asked quietly.

Sounding cross, Anne replied while fussing with the deck lanterns. "'Course we gonna make it! Jist a lil' storm, nothing out o' the ordinary." I thought she sounded like she was trying to cover for her own worry, and her sailor's accent was back in full force now.

Thunder rumbled ominously to punctuate her words. "'ere, Caleb! When these get so waterlogged that they burn out, it's yer job to refill 'em with oil from our barrel. Jus' dump out what's inside, give 'er a good shake and pour in some oil. Not a lot, mind ye! No sense in losing it when it gets full o' water. Relight it with your flint. Unnerstan'?"

I nodded, glancing frequently up at the storm looming over us. "With the lid over the top, how can they possibly get water in them?" I asked.

"She's gonna be blowin' th' water sideways an' upside-down! Don't question me, just do as I tell ye, got it?"

"Yes cap'm!" I said, looking up. It was evening now, and the sun was nearly set on top of the storm sweeping towards us.

It seemed as if each wave we passed over grew larger and larger. I was disoriented as to what direction we'd been facing on our voyage, and Anne turned the ship into the waves. My heart was beginning to pound. In my few times traveling by ship, I'd been lucky and never seen a storm. Was it worse or better to be in such a small ship? I had no idea, and one look at my wife's grim face kept me from asking her.

At last it began to rain. Thunder and lightning now crashed and flashed around us wildly, and I wondered why we even needed the lamps, considering how well lit we were by the lightning flashing around us. In those brief but constant flashes, I looked over the ocean and saw massive rolling waves all around us, dwarfing our tiny ship.

The first of many waves crashed over the side of the ship, making me jump in fright as a torrent of water rolled over the deck. I was poorly balanced to meet it, and was immediately swept off my feet and slid along the deck. My hand flailed around and at last caught on the rope tied around my waist, steadying me. As the water receded, I crawled soggily to my feet.

I looked up sheepishly at Anne, and saw her smirking. "Set yer feet like yer walkin' t'wards th' wave, Caleb. Then ya'll be braced ta stay standing in all but th' worst o' 'em."

I nodded and looked away, blushing and feeling humiliated. Seeing this, she chuckled and added "Hey, it be nothin', dearest. Th' first time I were hit by a wave like that, over the side I went, shriekin' like a child. They had teh throw a rope overboard fer me, an' haul me in while th' whole crew stood on deck and laughed."

I stared at her in shock, thinking of the mental image of that. She was chuckling a little still, and I joined her in laughing, a welcome feeling to lighten the mood I was in from this storm. "I'll bet that stung." I giggled.

She nodded. "Oh yeh, Me cheeks still burn t' think on it."

Any further discourse was interrupted by a giant wave lifting us high into the sky, shifting the boat wildly beneath our feet. I staggered and grabbed the mast for support. Lightning crashed down very near to the boat with a deafening boom. I shuddered and prayed it would not hit our tiny ship. I could see my wife struggling with the wheel, frantically working to keep the ship turned into the waves.

As the ship traveled down the other side of the wave, I felt vertigo and a twinge of seasickness in my stomach. Sheets of rain poured down from on high, obscuring our vision even in the frequent rippling tears of lightning. I suddenly wished I hadn't eaten so much bacon for dinner.

Again and again we were lifted up on high by a wave, crested the top of it, then plummeted down the other side. On and on it went, and I lost all track of time as the night wore slowly on. I was soon exhausted of the noise, the flashing light, and the constantly rolling deck of the ship. I was just about to speak up and ask her how long she thought it might go on, when she shouted "Get tha', me love!"

I looked around and saw the lantern hanging on the mast, just above the wheel had just gone out. I staggered around the mast and pulled it down, fumbling to get the top off and dump the watery mess inside out onto the deck. Another wave crashed over the deck and I was forced to grab onto the mast for dear life, nearly dropping it in the process.

When I could regain my footing, I knelt and grabbed the oilcan, yanking off the cap and hurriedly dribbling some of the precious oil into the soggy lantern. "Slosh it around to try and saturate the wick, too! Otherwise ye'll never get 'er lit!" Anne yelled from out of the darkness.

I did my best to do as she'd said, shaking it around and trying to impregnate the wick with fresh oil while shielding it from the rain with my body. I carefully recapped the oil and set it down just in time to be knocked over by a massive wave crashing over the deck again. The lantern tipped crazily in my hands as I fell, spilling out the precious oil. I let out a curse as I scrambled to me knees, then had to repeat the whole process.

At last, after frantically drying my flint and knife blade, I managed to spark and light the lantern. "What good do these do anyway? I can't even see the front of the ship if the lightning doesn't illuminate it..." I shouted to her, hanging it back up.

She gave me a pinched smile. "It does tremendous good. I'm a feline, remember? That little bit of light lets me see quite a ways out into the ocean. We're in the worst o' the storm now, I fear."

For a while there was nothing much to do but feel sick and wait, waves constantly washing over us. Eventually the front lantern went out and I scrambled to get it relit. After that, hours of rolling waves, and noise, and soaking water passed. I was cold and shivering by this time, evidence we'd come quite a ways north in our journey.

Suddenly Anne spoke up, loudly to be heard over the racket all around us. "D'ya hear that?"

I raised my head from where I was clinging to the mast and looked at her. All I'd heard for hours was crashing, splashing, booming, dripping and whistling wind. "Hear what?" I asked, straining my ears.

I couldn't hear anything at all, but apparently she could. "A thumpin' an' a scrapin' sound. I feel the deck vibrate each time it happens a bit, too." she yelled.

I focused on that. How could she possibly feel the deck thumping and scraping when it was bucking like a wounded bull? She had excellent sea legs, I supposed. I strained but couldn't hear what she was talking about. Finally, I shouted "Is the boat scraping against coral? Or... is some sea creature striking the hull?" Neither idea sounded very good to me right now, and as I spoke I became afraid.

She cocked her head this way and that, but didn't respond to me. Her feline ears dialed around all different directions, trying to locate the origin of it. Suddenly I heard a bang and felt the deck vibrate a bit. "Wot th' sam hill?" she snarled, tying off the wheel and grabbing the lantern. She stepped over to the hatch and threw it open, stepping below deck. I heard her swear and followed after her to see what was wrong, becoming more afraid all the time.

As I stepped down, I saw she was staring forward in alarm. I looked out and saw movement in the faded yellow light of the sputtering lantern, some huge creature thrashing about, like a giant misshaped snake. "What is it?" I yelped.

"Caleb, yeh damn fool! This is how ya stowed all our gear? What in hell's name didja think ya were doin'? This is a mess!" she squawked.

At last I realized what I was seeing. What I'd interpreted as a thrashing monster was all of our gear that I'd so carefully tied together. I'd created long daisy chains of equipment, tying each thing to the next, and the whole line of goods and equipment was being thrown about by the rolling and bucking of the ship as if they were giant arms. My jaw worked but I couldn't think of anything to say.

With a snarl, she turned and slapped the lantern against my chest. "This is yer witless mess, you get to clean it up! It'll give yeh sumthin' ta do fer a while! Dammit! Try to save what's left o' the water, first! Now look here!" She stomped over to a wall, dragging me along with her by the arm. "See this runner board, goin' along the bottom o' the ship? THIS is what ya tie ever'thing to, ya daft fool! Each thing individually gets tied to this board, an' then there ain't noplace fer any o' it ta get off too! Catch them damn water barrels first before we're out o' water! I gotta get back to th' wheel!"

She turned on her heel and took the steps two at a time, throwing the hatch closed behind her. I was left alone, the racket of the storm greatly muffled, my face burning in shame at her sharp words. I felt miserable. What had I been thinking? How could anything this heavy move about so much? Again the ship bucked, and the line of chests, barrels, trunks and tables slid and bounced along the floor.

In between swaying movement, I carefully stepped forward, mindful that everything in the treasure chests was fantastically heavy and would break my bones if any of them slammed into me. I made for the rounded shapes of the water barrels, holding the flickering lantern up high. As I neared, my shame increased as I made out what had happened in the darkness. The lid had come off one of the water barrels, spilling nearly all the contents all over in the hold.

Wet gold and other treasure, loosed from a broken lid on one of the chests, was sloshing around in the puddles formed by our drinking water. Our precious liquid supply was now ruined as it splashed about. I nearly cried out I was so embarrassed, again hearing Anne's anger and censure. She'd never been angry at me before and it hurt more than anything I'd ever felt in my life. I had flashbacks suddenly to my miserable first wife, Trixy, and her constant disdain of me.

I managed to catch and free the open barrel from the mess of ropes I'd failed to use correctly. I peered inside and saw only several cup-fulls remained at the bottom. I gritted my teeth and prayed it was the barrel we'd nearly emptied as I grabbed the other barrel and felt it. No, of course the one that had spilled was the full one. We now had very little water left to us.

I cranked the cover off the second barrel and poured the meager remains of the other into it, then tossed the empty barrel aside and pounded the lid closed on what was left of our water. I freed it from the tangle of ropes and supplies and tied it to the runner board as Anne had shown me. It seemed so obvious now! How had I not looked and seen this?

For what seemed like hours I panted and sweated, straining with all my strength to shove the heavy chests back into place, then hold them there long enough to lash them in place. Several times I slipped and fell on pieces of treasure rolling around the floor of the hold. The whole time I was consumed with embarrassment and humiliation at Anne's stinging words.

At long last everything was tied down correctly. I was suddenly loath to go back and face her, so I took the time to pick up all the treasure I could find and place it back in the chests it had fallen out of. Only then, with nothing else to do, did I meekly make my way back topside, certain it would be into a barrage of cursing and anger.

Before she could say anything, I meekly hung my head and mumbled "Anne, I'm really, really sorry. I don't know what I was thinking... I'm sorry..."

She tied off the wheel and stepped over to me giving me a big, sloppy wet hug. "No, it is I who am sorry. I'm sorry I lost my tempter at you, I'm sorry I yelled, and I'm sorry I called you a fool."

I shook my head. "No, you were right, I was a fool..."

She reached up with a finger and placed it on my lips, silencing me so she could speak. "You are no fool, I am the one who is a fool. You are not a sailor, you've not weathered serious storms as a sailor, you had no idea what to expect or what to do. I took it for granted, and how could you be expected to know these things when you haven't been told? It was not your fault, Caleb, you did the best you could. Please forgive me for losing my temper at you."

I'd not expected this. I'd expected her to still be furious, to remain furious at me for days like Trixy would have. "Of course!" I weakly managed, hugging her tightly back. "I forgive you if you can possibly forgive me."

She squeezed me for a moment longer, then leaned up and kissed my lips, her wet fur tickling me. "I love you. Now, I need to get back on the wheel before we're capsized." she gently purred, pulling back from me.

I rehung the lantern to the illumination of several large bolts of lightning. I watched her take the wheel and expertly steer the ship back into the waves. "What damage did we sustain?" she called over the roar of the waves.

I gulped, still loath to admit what had happened. "Our..." I drew a deep sigh. "The lid on our full barrel of water came open and nearly all of it was spilled and ruined. We don't have much water left at all."

She started to reply, but was drowned out by a loud peel of thunder that echoed across the waves for many long seconds. When at last she could be heard, she shouted "Well, quick then! Go and get the empty barrel and bring it up on deck! We'll collect as much fresh rainwater as we can get!"

I cursed myself for not having thought of that and grabbed the lantern again, hurrying below to grab the empty barrel and bring it topside. Unbidden, I started to lash it to the mast. "Wait, that won't work!" She called to me. "Too much salt water with splash into it down here! It needs to go up at the top of the mast. Can ye do that, or should I?"

My reply was again delayed when a wave crashed over the deck, soaking us both down. I looked up at the top of the mast, accessible only by the web of ropes on either side of the little ship. I'd struggled to get up where when the sea was calm and smooth as glass... "I... I think I'll fall if I try..." I shouted back, at last.

She nodded. "Alrigh', fair 'nuff. Come o'er here and take th' wheel then while I do it."

I swallowed and did as she asked. "I don't really know how to do this..." I admitted, now afraid to try and fail at anything ship related.

"Nothing to it. Turn it left if we drift right, turn it right if we drift left. She keep us pointed into the waves." She said, pulling me over in front of the wheel, grabbing the barrel from me.

I wanted to point out that without feline eyes, I couldn't see much of anything, but another set of lightning flashes illuminated everything and I was able to pick out the direction of the waves and make adjustments. I glanced up too and saw Anne already at the top of the mast, tying the barrel securely in place to collect rainwater. Like a spider, she scuttled back down the ropes and took the wheel back from me without a word.

For a long time we rode out the storm in silence. I was parched from my sweaty work below, and tipped my head back, opening my mouth wide to try and gather some rainwater myself. It sure accumulated slowly, I found. While I was distracted thus, a huge wave came upon us. I had a split-second of advanced warning as Anne shrieked "Big one! Grab hold!"

The deck beneath me bucked like a living thing, throwing me several feet into the air. When I came down, my feet slipped out from under me and I tumbled to the deck, just in time to be hit with a massive wave. I was thrown this way and that, completely unsure of which direction was even up as I flailed, trying to find something to hold on to keep from falling out of the ship. My hand struck the railing, but it was wet and slippery and I couldn't get a purchase. Then suddenly I was out of the water and in the air, falling towards the ocean below. I managed to gasp in some air, then crashed into the churning water.

I flipped and flailed about, trying to orient myself and head towards the surface. The water was flinging me in every direction at once, and I was unable to determine where the surface even was. It seemed like every time I got an idea of where it was, I was flung and spun around. I hadn't gotten much air and was panicking besides; my lungs were already screaming for air.

I felt a yank at my beltline, pulling me down into the depths. I felt terror and began to flail and swim madly, trying to keep from being pulled down. The tugging became stronger and I was pulled down again despite my frightened thrashing. What was I hooked on? I imagined I'd somehow gotten attached to the anchor cannon, and it had come loose and was pulling me down, inexorably towards my doom.

For all I was worth I swam and fought, a futile effort. I realized I was going to die as the yanking became stronger. All at once I broke the surface of the water, just as my lungs reached critical. I gasped in air and looked around, confused. Slowly the world turned around in a half circle and I realized the tugging had been Anne pulling me up by the safety rope. I'd been so disoriented I'd thought down was up and had been trying to swim into the depths.

I looked up and saw she had a foot braced on the railing and was straining, her muscles well defined and rippling. Her pelt was so wet I could really see how strong she was and how muscled her body was from years of living the hard life of a sailor. Belatedly I realized I should be helping and grabbed the rope, scrabbling to gain a foothold on the hull and lift myself up. Then I was tilting over the railing and falling back onto the deck, gasping for breath and coughing up seawater.

When I raised my head, I found Anne had already left me and was back at the wheel, grimly fighting to keep the boat right side up. I wearily made my way to my feet and staggered over to the mast. "Thanks, Anne. How many times are you going to save my life yet tonight?" I said, trying weakly to be funny.

"As many times as it takes. I ain't lettin' you leave me here all alone. We been through too much to be separated now. Now get a good hold on that mast, husband!" she shouted over the roaring waves.

I did as she asked and resigned to watching and waiting. The lanterns both went out again, and I had to get them both lit as quickly as I could. We'd been up all night now, and I was so tired I was having trouble keeping awake in spite of the awful din of the storm. I kept finding my eyes swimming shut and my grip on the mast loosening.

I was startled awake again by my wife yelling "We've passed the worst of it for now! It's letting up!" I jumped and looked around. I realized she was right; no longer was the world being illuminated by lightning, and no longer was the ship being buffeted about by massive waves. Things were calming down.

"How long has it been?" I asked her.

She shrugged. "Oh, at least ten hours by my reckoning. The light of dawn is filling the sky; you should be able to see it within a few minutes, I think. We'll know our situation better then."

The peals of thunder became a more distant rumbling, and sure enough, as I waited and watched, I became aware of the fact that I could begin to see light creeping into the sky. Things were getting calmer by the moment. Had we made it through? Was it over?

Tense minutes of waiting followed, but my elation was growing constantly. The fierce wind had died down and what was left of the storm was mostly just a straight up-and-down rain. Breaking into my thoughts, my feline wife confirmed it. "We're through to the back end o' th' storm, me luv. I can see we're nearing the edge of the clouds now!"

I grinned and stepped over to her. She'd roped the wheel up to lock it into position already, and was waiting to give me a huge, wet hug. We were both soaked and shivering, I realized as we embraced. "We made it!" I laughed, weakly.

The clouds broke and sunlight twinkled through the cracks, sending shafts of visible light through the clouds and onto the ocean around us. I'd rarely seen such a welcomed sight as that blazing orange sun, casting warmth down on two very wet and bedraggled sailors. I held my arms open and soaked in the rays. It was heaven! Thank God for the dawn!

Wearily, I turned back to face her. "Can we go get some sleep? I'm so exhausted I'm going to fall over."

She smiled and nodded. "Yes, go down and go to sleep, my love."

I shook my head in protest. "Not without you, I won't!"

She smiled gently. "I'll be down in just a few minutes to join you. I'm going to try and determine our position and get us sailing back towards our destination again, then I'll fall into bed too."

"Wellll..."

"Shoo! Go! I'll just be a few minutes. Get out of your wet clothes and try to warm up." she said, whisking me towards the hatch.

I went below with a lantern, stripped naked and fell into bed. I was so exhausted I was almost immediately asleep, awaking when Anne climbed in with me. I looked sleepily up at her and saw she was holding a towel and had been drying off her fur. She smiled, seeing me awake. "Thirsty? I got the rainwater here." She whispered.

I nodded. "Can we afford to waste it?"

"There isn't a whole lot there, just enough for us both to slake our thirst, I think. I don't know about you, but after all night of fighting the storm and getting saltwater in my mouth, I was so thirsty I could hardly swallow."

My hesitation was gone and I greedily drank, and drank, and drank the water she offered me until it was gone. I sighed and handed the empty stein to her. "Oh yeah, I needed that." I groaned.

She nodded and smiled. "I know you did. Alright, let's sleep. I'm several hours beyond exhaustion."

We cuddled up and were asleep in less than a minute.

* * *

I awoke with a jolt when Anne sat up stock straight in bed suddenly. A second later, I heard it too; the sound of a ship's bell. We were being hailed. "Ohhhh, what now, dammit?" Anne snarled. "Haven't we been through enough on this voyage?"

She grabbed her clothes and started throwing them on, a move which I quickly copied. She looked at me soberly. "Look, let me do all the talking. I don't know who they are or what they want, but we have a hold filled with enough treasure that even honest men would kill us to get. We need to play this cool and calm, and keep them from coming aboard and looking around. We have no weapons, so we must be very, very careful."

Swallowing, I weakly offered "Maybe it is just a cargo frigate or something? Maybe they'll just see if we need help?" She shrugged, but looked grim.

Ready, we opened the hatch and stepped out into the bright afternoon sun. I blinked and tried to acclimate to the abrupt blazing light, seeing flashes of a very large ship paralleling us within fifty feet. As my eyes adjusted I looked up and felt ill. They were flying a jolly roger.

From across the water, I heard one of the pirates yell "Oi! There is someone onboard it, cap'm!"

"Hail!" Anne called, shielding her eyes from the sun with a paw.

A dapper-dressed human man stepped up and looked over at us, and I knew he must be the captain. "I see what I see, but I don't understand what I see. Care to enlighten me?" he grunted.

I was scared stiff. Pirates were within a stone's throw from us. They couldn't possibly fathom the wealth we were carrying, and if they came on and looked... there went our retirement, and probably our lives.

Anne looked calm as could be. "Us? No great story, I fear; we were aboard th' Umber Crow, and were attacked by th' pirate Cajack. He sunk us, and only the two o' us managed ter make it to an island. We spent years buildin' this rough lil' vessel out o' the wreckage to try an' make it back to civilization. Now we be exhausted, low on food and nearly out o' water."

"Damn Cajack! Ye best no' be sayin' tha' name around me, lass. He attacks other pirates, the blackguard." the captain spat.

Anne bowed gracefully. "I hate 'im jus as much as ye, b'lieve me. I've been in his clutches before."

Somehow, that seemed to please the captain, or at least give him a sense of camaraderie with Anne, because he smiled. "Then ye'll be pleased to know th' bastard disappeared some months ago. Folks are sayin' he met his sticky end at last."

Anne grinned widely. "That do indeed please me! I hope he died alone and afraid! Me name's Bonny Anne, Capm! What be yours?"

"Cap'm Griswold, at yer service, pretty lass. I make a habit 'o boardin' any ship I come across, ya know. Looks like ya got a goodly amount o' gold on ya. Got any stashed below deck?" the pirate calmly said, as if talking about the weather.

Anne sighed. "I been a pirate meself for years. These be all the wealth I got in th' world at this point... An' I'll gladly give it all to ya fer half a keg o' water. We be dryin' up fast. With that, I think we kin make it ta port. Without it... well, th' buzzards'll pick our bones."

The captain eyed her. "Hmm... Are you sure that's all the gold ya got?" he growled.

Anne simply looked at him with a haggard face. "Cap'm, we been marooned on an island for over two years. How in the blue hells would we have any treasure? I were marooned wearing this stuff, an' it's all either of us got."

Just then, I heard a voice from beyond the railing of the pirate ship. "That voice! It sounds like Anne Bonny!" A moment later, an aged pirate appeared, leaning over the railing to get a look at us.

Anne grinned widely. "Cripple! Ya ol' seadog! How ya been?"

"Well, I can't complain about 't. By th' look o' it, ye been better though, I'm guessin'?" the sailor replied.

"Aye, I been better, sure, but I been worse too, as you well know." my wife replied.

The pirate captain interrupted. "You know her, Cripple?"

The sailor turned to him. "Yessir, cap'm! That be Anne Bonny, the finest pirate lass that's ever sailed the sea, an' perhaps one o' the best pirates there ever been."

The captain eyed her cynically. "She don't look li' much ta me." he grumbled.

Again, Cripple came to our rescue. "Oh, b'lieve me, sir, she's amazin'! She can outfight an' outshoot any man I've ever met. She's th' real deal, I swears it on me mother's grave. As good an' honorable a pirate as ye'll e'er meet, what's more."

"He's exaggerating, cap'm." Anne said, blandly. "Kin ya please help us? My gold trinkets for a half a keg o' water? It won't make ya rich, but th' whole crew can get drunk at yer next port o' call with this much gold, eh?"

I looked at her, wanting to protest, for I knew what her jewelry meant to her. She'd been beside herself when she'd not had it even for a few weeks. She'd told me each one had meaning, a symbol of an adventure or trial she endured. I knew better than to say anything, however.

Unfortunately, the captain turned his gaze on me. "Well, ye do look like ya been marooned a while. Th' beard an' hair on that one confirms it. You ain't said much, boy. Why is that?"

My mind raced, for Anne just looked at me passively, awaiting a response. "S...sir, I was just a passenger on the Umber Crow when it was sunk. Anne's kept me alive all these long months, for I would have died long ago without her wits."

"And have ye any other treasure on ye?" he growled.

I forced myself to meet his eyes, trying to keep my voice calm and neutral. "No sir, not after years on an island. What we treasure the most anymore is our lives; we're desperate to make it back to land. Please help us... our water is all but dried up."

The pirate leader shook his head. "I don't b'lieve 'em. Board an' search, boys."

I nearly panicked, but it was Cripple who spoke first. "Aw cap'm, she be a standup lass, I kin vouch for 'er! She's a pirate an' a darn good'n too! Ye just got done sayin' ya despise Cajack 'cause he loots other pirates... yet ye'r gonna do that very same thing now! So what if she's got a few other pieces o' gold hidden away? She already offered us a bunch for nothin' more than a bit o' water. It's more'n fair. Let 'er keep 'er dignity as a well-respected seadog."

The captain glowered at him. "Perhaps ye'd like ta join 'er on that little dingy, then." He then turned and brusquely snapped "Alrigh', yer jewelry fer a half a keg o' water. Get yer keg and pull that little tub up alongside us. Cripple, fetch th' water an' give it to 'em."

I turned to Anne and whispered "All your jewelry..."

She just stared at me with an unreadable expression. "Hush, now. Go get th' empty keg." she muttered, pulling the wheel to ease our little ship up beside the pirate vessel.

Cripple reappeared and was promptly lowered down to our deck via a rope, holding his own keg of water. He filled ours up to exactly half-way while Anne pulled off all her rings, bracelets, necklaces, and piercings. As she passed the treasure on to him, placing it all in a satchel he'd brought, she smiled warmly. "It be good ta see ya, ol' salt. Thenk ye so much fer helpin' us." She murmured, giving him a hug. "If ye're ever in Port Whiterock, look me up an' I'll try an' reward ya fer yer help as much as I'm able... an' we'll swap stories too. I got one that'll curl yer toes an' drop yer jaw, I promise ya that." she stepped back, smiling at him.

I recognized the look in Cripple's face. I'd seen it on every sailor who worked with Anne; a boyish crush for the fiery lass. Her embrace had been as good a reward as he'd ever want, I could tell. "Sure's good ta see you too, Anne! Yer pretty as ever, I declare. I'll take ye' up on tha' offer. Next time I'm in Whiterock, I'll find ye."

She grinned. "Yer as true a friend as I've ever had, for ye helped me when I needed it th' most." She kissed his cheek.

Just then the grumpy pirate captain yelled down "Stop wi' all that kissy garbage an' get back up here! I wanta set sail an' waste no more time on this silly foolery!"

Cripple nodded and grinned to her, blushing shyly at the kiss as he grabbed the rope to be hoisted back up.

I couldn't wait for them to sail away, and could hardly breathe until they were a speck in the distance. Only then did I finally, weakly speak. "Oh Anne, all your special memories... gone."

She looked at me with a funny smile on her face. "Special memories? What? Oh, did I ne'er tell ya th' details o' all that stuff?"

"When I had to take it from you to dress up the dummy corpse so we could fool Cajack into thinking you were dead, you said they were all special to you."

She shook her head. "Ye' misunderstood. Each one is a reminder o' loss, o' death, o' sorrow, and o' pain. I wore the left earring as a memento of the first man I ever killed. I cried and was inconsolable for days with the horror of what I'd done. Each bracelet represents some damned captain I've had ta fuck ta keep meself alive. The right earring be a mem'ry o' when I was slashed across th' face with a cutlass an' lost me eye. On an' on it goes. Short o' settlin' down wi' you an' findin' me family again, th' thing I wanted ta do most when I gave up the sea were to tear off all o' that sorrow and throw it ta th' bottom o' the ocean. This way were better, though; it saved our necks and were useful."

I couldn't think of much to say to that. "Oh. I'm... I'm sorry." I mumbled.

She smiled her pretty smile at me. "I think ye ha'e no idea just how bad off we were just then. That bit o' gold pacified him enough that Cripple could talk him out o' boardin' us. If he'd'a come on an' found our treasure... he'd a killed us fer it. God bless y', Cripple. I got a mind to give him a hundred pieces o' gold when he comes visitin' us someday. Tell him how he saved our necks just then."

I swallowed. "Is it wise to tell him even then? I mean, he's a pirate..."

She shook her head. "Nah. He'll get a kick out o' it, an' b'lieve me, a reward o' a hundred gold'll make him mor'n glad he done it, too. He always were a standup feller."

* * *

The days wore on. Anne taught me to use the ship's wheel, then instructed me in how to read our position by the stars. Being a technical thing, my scientific mind was well suited to learn it, and I was quickly proficient in it. I could tell she was glad to be able to take a break from navigating now and again while I watched our course. She'd sit and rest, or climb up to the crow's nest to scan the horizon.

"I'm not exactly sure where we are, but I think we'll be seeing the end to our journey in a few days time. Is Port Whiterock OK with you? It's where my parents live, so I've been heading us that way." She told me. I noticed her accent had disappeared again. It seemed to surface when she was under stress, or when she was trying to act like a pirate.

We were grateful for the extra water, especially me. I was not used to water rationing, and guzzled it constantly as we sailed in the hot sun and drying breezes. I seemed to drink twice what Anne did.

Four days later, Anne had no sooner climbed up into the crow's nest and opened her glass than she cried "Land! I see our port, right where it should be!"

I squinted and could see it too, peaking up over the horizon. I felt elation. "We made it! We really made it!" I cried to her.

She scampered down, grinning, and we hugged and danced around a little. We'd survived! We were going home!

* * *

For what seemed like the thousandth time, my lovely wife smoothed out the front of her dress with her paws nervously. The carriage we were riding in was bumping along, bringing us ever closer to her parent's mansion. "Hey, take it easy, pretty lady." I crooned to her.

She looked up at me. "I'm scared. I want to see them again so badly, but I'm afraid they'll throw me out after what I did to them. "

I put my arm around my beautiful wife. Her lovely blue satin dress was so startling to see her in, after only seeing her in pants or naked for my whole time with her. The low-cut neckline showed her lovely cleavage, and a low-cut on the other side showed her beautiful, regal, curved back and delicate shoulders. "Listen to me, Anne; if they ever in their lives had even the tiniest shred of love for their daughter, they are going to be overjoyed to see you. There is nothing to be afraid of, I promise. They are not going to reject you."

She looked up at me, smiling. Her long red hair cascaded around her shoulders, making her look all the more achingly beautiful with a cute bow tied in it. Any vestige of her pirate look was gone, save for the scars visible through her soft, creamy-brown fur. "Thank you. You're right, of course." She leaned against me and we snuggled a little as the carriage drew us ever closer to her family reunion.

It had been quite a procession when we'd sailed into port. Anne had brought the whole city watch, as well as all the bank guards with her to unload our treasure and deposit it in the bank. "This is the bank my father uses for his shipping business. He's personally ramped up their security to make it the safest bank in the world. Our treasure will be completely safe now." she told me with satisfaction as we walked back outside after putting our fantastic wealth inside.

After that we'd gone to a tailor and bought her a lovely dress and me a new suit of clothes, then gone to an inn and cleaned ourselves up from months of wild living in the wilderness. She ran her fingers over my smooth face. "I'd forgotten what you looked like without your huge beard and long hair." She cooed.

"Not too disappointing, I hope?" I asked, feeling insecure.

She laughed lightly. "Oh, I love how you look cleaned up. So handsome and sexy." I grinned at her and we melted into a kiss.

Once we were cleaned up and presentable, I could tell she was dying to reunite with her family, so we'd hired a very nice carriage to take us there in style. She'd been ecstatic to be going to see her family again. Now that we were close, however, she was getting more and more nervous.

She adjusted the front of her dress, smoothing out any wrinkles. "This is harder'n killin' Cajack." she mumbled softly.

Our joy at being back in civilization had still not worn off of me yet. "Relax, my love." I cooed to her, hugging her again.

"I want so much for them to forgive me. My father was a good man, and he tried so hard to make his daughter happy... I was selfish and spoiled and took him utterly for granted. I hope he's home and not out traveling." she softly moaned.

I stroked her shoulders tenderly. "You are so beautiful. He's going to be beside himself with happiness to see you again, I promise it."

The carriage began to turn, and Anne leaned over to the window, peering out. "We're there." she grunted hollowly, smoothing the non-existent wrinkles on her dress.

The carriage pulled up to the entrance and stopped. My wife reached for her door and started to open it before I caught her other arm. She looked up at me questioningly. "Ladies wait for assistance." I softly said, smiling.

She snorted. "Alright, alright. You're silly, and don't I remember telling you not to call me a lady?"

I shook my head and jumped down, hurrying around to her side of the fancy carriage and opening the door. I took her satin-gloved paw and helped her daintily hop down to the ground. She smiled cutely up at me. "Thank you, sweetie."

She slid her arm through mine and we walked up to the front door, where she hesitated, taking her arm back and smoothing the front of her dress yet again. "I wish I wasn't so scared." she weakly managed.

"Don't be scared. Just knock and in a few moments you'll be in your parent's arms for the first time in many years." I replied.

She nodded, looking up at me with her lovely eyes for a moment before turning and grabbing the door-knocker and banging it loudly against the door. She stepped back and smoothed her dress again. "Be calm." I whispered. "Nothing to be afraid of, I promise you."

There were several clicks and the door to the mansion we were standing in front of opened on well-oiled hinges. A regal, aged looking butler opened the door. "May I help you..." He started to say, then paused, stared at Anne or a moment, then did a double-take. "My God. Mistress Anne??" He managed to cry.

She smoothed her dress and curtsied before him. "Yes, it's me. Hello Garfield. How are you doing?"

The old butler stared at her. "We... were certain you were dead. I can't believe I'm seeing you standing here! We... we had a funeral and everything. Your parents were inconsolable."

Her face fell. "I know. I'm so sorry for the pain I've caused."

The gentleman stared at her, and began to smile. "This is indeed a happy day! And who is this?" he asked, turning to me.

Nervously smoothing her dress, Anne replied "Oh! Forgive me, where are my manners? Garfield, I'd like you to meet the sweetest, kindest, most selfless, devoted, handsome, wonderful man I've ever laid eyes on in my life. I love him so much it burns inside. This is my sweet husband, Caleb."

I blushed at her kind words and shook hands with the servant. "A pleasure to meet you." I said, smiling. "She exaggerates, I'm not that special."

She snorted. "Yes, he is. Now... may we please come in and... and see Mama and Papa?"

The aged gentleman bowed. "Yes, yes of course! Forgive me, they'll be furious with me for not bringing them straight away. Come in and I shall go find them with all haste."

We stepped in and he gave her a big hug, which she returned with a tearful smile. Then he bustled away to find her parents. She swallowed thickly, smoothing the front of her dress. "Oh... Caleb... seeing this all, where I grew up, where I was happy and at peace and at home. My heart is fit to burst with emotions. This hurts more than I thought it would."

I smiled gently and gave her yet another hug. "Everything is going to be OK, you know..."

I started to say something else, when we heard a shouted "WHAT???" from another room in the house. Then there was the sound of pounding footsteps, of several people running as fast as they could go. Anne looked panicked, and frantically smoothed the front of her dress and her satin gloves, checking the cute little bow in her gorgeous hair and shuffling her high-heeled feet with a rustle of petticoats.

An elderly male with hair as red and fiery as Anne's sprinted into the room, followed close behind by a gray haired feline lady. Both were clearly related to Anne, with exact fur coloring and very similar patterns as well. Her mother was elderly as well, but as with most Furkind, didn't show it to my human eyes and was nearly as beautiful as her daughter.

Her parents froze and stared at her, their eyes bulging. For a second none of the three of them moved, simply staring at each other in shock. At last, Anne fussed with the front of her dress again, smoothing it down and weakly said "Hello Papa. Hello Mama. I... I've come back, and I'm so sorry I ran away from..."

That was as far as she got before her parents gave an ear-splitting cry in unison and dove on their daughter. "It IS you!!!" I stepped back as the three of them embraced, sobbing hysterically and touching each-other's faces as if they could not believe it was truly them. Anne wailed loudly, covering her mother and father with kisses and licks as if she were a kitten as her tears poured down her lovely face.

"Anne! My little Anne! I thought you were dead! I love you so much, baby! I'm so sorry I fought with you! I'm sorry I was so harsh!" her father bawled.

She shook her head emphatically. "No, Papa! No! You didn't do anything wrong! I was selfish and ungrateful and arrogant, and wouldn't listen to you. You were right! You were always right, and you were just trying to help me. I love you, Papa!" she sobbed.

"My little baby girl!" her mother wailed over and over again through it all.

I felt a little guilty to be intruding on this family reunion, but it was without a doubt the sweetest, most touching thing I'd ever seen in my life. I began to cry myself just from empathizing with my wife. They sobbed and hugged and licked and apologized over and over again for fifteen minutes before they began to regain control of themselves.

At last, smiling from ear to ear, they stood back and drank each other in. With a shaking voice her father managed to speak at last. "Where have you been all these years? We searched for you frantically but could find nothing..."

She sniffled and nodded. "I... I did what you forbade me to do, Papa; I ran away and became a pirate."

"Oh Anne..." her mother moaned, looking her up and down and noting the scars covering her beautiful daughter's body wherever her fur was visible.

My wife hung her head. "I learned the hard way that you were right Papa; you were right about everything. My innocence and youth were burned away in the harsh cruelty of a world full of the degenerate. I gave myself over to it and was utterly lost and dead. I was pathetic and despicable, and I'm so sorry for it all. I forgot what you even looked like."

Her father's tears were flowing fresh. "Oh Anne... what brought you back?"

Through her tears, she beamed her brilliant smile. "I met my husband, and he sparked within me all that was good. Everything I thought was dead inside me began to blossom again. I remembered love. I remembered happiness. I remembered my family."

"Your husband?" her mother said, her voice still trembling.

All three of them turned and looked at me, and I could tell her parents were seeing me for the first time, that they had not even realized I was there before now. Anne spoke up, introducing me again. "May I present to you the sweetest man I've ever met, my husband, Caleb."

I bowed low. "Sir, madam. Pleased to meet you both. Anne has long spoken of her desire to return to you and make peace."

Her parents came forward to me and greeted me. I suddenly felt awkward. "Hello Caleb. If you are responsible for bringing my daughter back to me, then you have my undying gratitude." her father solemnly said, shaking my hand.

I smiled. "You're quite welcome for any small part I played in it."

Her father clapped his hands together and smartly said "Well! I think we have many years of catching up to do! Shall we retire into the parlor for some tea?"

I thought Anne might walk with her parents, but she did not, instead returning to my side and walking arm-in-arm with me, we smiled at each other, and I saw she looked relieved and calm and happy now.

EPILOGUE:

We spent several weeks visiting her parents, catching up on all that had happened. Anne told them our story from start to finish over the space of a week. When she told it, I looked back and realized we'd indeed had quite an adventure together. My quiet life had become a high-seas adventure after all.

We found a remote house on the cliffs overlooking the ocean and bought it. It was far enough from the port city to be isolated, but near enough we could travel into town as needed. Anne had docks built below and moored the Bonny Crow there, spending months and years fixing it up and making it into the finest little ship ever to sail the waters. We would take small journeys together on it now and again, and she would regress back to her pirate self. It was the only time I ever saw it anymore, for she truly had become a lady of refinement.

One day about a year after we were settled into our new house, we had a knock on the door. I glanced up from my writing and paused. A moment later our butler, Garfield, stepped in and haughtily sniffed. I looked up at him and smiled. He'd requested to come live with us, apparently having been Anne's tutor, he was still quite fond of her and wanted to be near her. "Sir, there's a rather... tattered man at the door identifying himself as... Cripple? He claims to know Anne. Should I send him away?"

I blinked and smiled. "No, bring him in to the sitting room, I'll go get Anne. She knows him. Just... watch him, make sure he doesn't steal anything. Keep an eye out for Evelyn too, please." I said with a smirk.

I headed out and wound my way down the stairs we'd built into the cliff which led down to the docks where Anne was puttering on the Bonny Crow. She looked up and saw me coming and smiled, waving. "Hi honey!"

"Hello, love!" I called back, grinning. "You've got a visitor."

Standing up and wiping her paws on a rag, she blinked in surprise. "A visitor? Who? My parents?"

Shaking my head I replied "Nope. Someone else."

Putting her hands on her hips and clucking her tongue, she playfully snapped "You know I don't like surprises. Just get out with it already!"

I laughed and winked at her. "Cripple."

She stared, then gave a happy laugh. "Really? Well how about that? I did invite him, didn't I? Come, let's go greet him!"

We walked arm in arm up the path until we reached our backyard, then headed into the sitting room. "Cripple! You ol' seadog!" Anne bellowed to the stooped man standing with his back to us, peering out the window.

He whirled and did a double-take. "Anne? Anne Bonny? As I live, is that you? Yer pretty 'nuff, but... I never seen ya in a dress!"

She breezed forward with a grin, her skirts rustling as she walked. "Indeed it is! But I'm Anne McGilliss now, old friend. So good to see you again!" she cried, giving him a big hug, then letting him kiss her hand.

"Yeh sure come up inna worl' me-lady. I take it this here be yer husband?" he asked. I stepped forward and shook his hand while Anne introduced me. He remembered me from our brief meeting at sea all those months ago.

We all sat down, with Anne calling for the butler. "Could you get us some tea, Garfield?" She asked, softly. The gentleman bowed and headed off to brew it up. I saw Cripple looking perplexed at the thought of tea.

"Yes, much has changed, my old friend. Caleb and I have quite a tale to tell you, if you'd like to sit a while and listen." As Anne spoke she reached for my hand, which I gave her, holding her paw gently.

"Indeed, I'd like teh know how yeh got rich. Last I knew yeh ye were drinkin' all yer money away." The old sailor grunted.

"Well sit back and let me tell you of how the pirate Cajack came to his well-deserved end." Anne said with a grand flourish.

* * *

When my wife got to the part about Cripple's pirate ship intercepting our treasure laden little boat, he began to laugh uproariously. The two of them were in stitches as she explained how he'd no doubt saved our lives, while depriving his captain of a massive fortune. Slapping his knee, he managed to wheeze "Yeh looked s' calm I'da thought yeh were jus' takin' a lil' cruise, an' here ye were sweatin' what'd happen if'n he came aboard!" He roared with laughter at the memory.

Anne giggled as well. "You have no idea how glad I was when you poked your head over that railing, Cripple."

He was still chuckling about it as she finished the story, smiling and getting a faraway look in his eyes as he remembered that day. "Well, that were quite th' tale alrigh' Anne. I'm glad I came teh hear 't."

She sighed and smiled, leaning against me. "In a way, we owe you for our lives, old friend. So tell me, is there anything at all I can do for you to repay you in a small way?"

The wrinkled old man sat forward and scratched his nose, blushing a little bit. "Well... ah... y' see..." he mumbled.

Just then we were interrupted. Anne's ears pricked forward and she stood up. I knew what that had to mean. "Evelyn just woke up. Let me go get her, and I'll be right back." She bustled out of the room.

I smiled as I watched my wife go, feeling love and pride towards her. When she'd gone, Cripple spoke up. "Who be Evelyn?"

I nodded. "Indeed. Good question. Anne will be right back and you'll see. Would you like some more tea?"

"Eh. It ain't bad, actually. Sure, I'd take a cup."

"Did you just get in to port?"

"Well, sort o'. I actually took a carriage from Port Dunwall, teh come n' see me ol' shipmate."

I nodded. "I used to live there, it seems like a lifetime ago. I wonder... Ah, here she comes back."

Anne stepped softly back into the room with our peach-colored, furry little daughter cradled in her arms. The tiny kitten was mewing fussily, obviously hungry. Sitting down and throwing a blanket over herself, my wife calmly began to breastfeed her. Cripple stared, his eyes as big as port holes. "D... daughter? She's yer daughter, Anne?"

"Our. She's our daughter, Caleb and mine." my wife replied with a chuckle, turning to me. "Was she any trouble while I was out?"

Shaking my head, I smiled. "No, she was sleeping peacefully as can be."

Sounding more confused than ever, Cripple blurted out "But he's a human! Yeh can't have chil'ren wi' a human! ...can yeh?"

We both laughed, and Anne looked up at me for the answer. "Well, she married a scientist so... I found a way."

Staring back and forth at us, Cripple finally began to laugh again. "Wild-fire Bonny Anne, terror o' the ocean, breaker of the most rugged sailor's hearts, fighter and pirate... has settled down wi' a family? I feel like I be in a dream, this's so mad. Well, congrateelashuns, you two!"

"Thank you!" we chorused.

When Evee was full, Anne showed her off to our guest. Despite his disbelief that Anne could become a mother and a lady, the adorable little kitten immediately reduced him to baby talk and giggles. His eyes lit up when Anne let him hold the warm little infant.

As he smiled down at the kitten and let her chew on his calloused finger, Anne again said "I'm sorry we were interrupted. I asked if we can repay you."

Cripple had a hazy look in his eyes as he dreamily petted our daughters downy-soft fur. "Well. I... yeh see, I'm plain too ol' for sea life anymore... gimpy leg's just too much of a bother fer me. Yeh remember I always loved... well... plants... Me Mum taught me ta enjoy 'em. I see yeh got a huge yard wi' lots o' flowers an bushes what need tendin'."

Smiling at him as he blushed and spoke, Anne quietly said "Would you like to come live here with us and tend our gardens?"

"It's... a might big a thing teh request, so I ain't gonna be hurt if'n yeh say no."

Looking to me for a nod of confirmation, Anne came forward and hugged him again, mindful of the kitten in his arms. "Our home is your home, Cripple. We'll build a nice cottage for you so you have a place of your own, and you can plant whatever you'd like in our grounds. As you can see, we don't have much out there yet, and it's gotten a bit overgrown besides. We could use a helper to keep it looking nice. And you can play with Evee and help us look after her too." she added, seeming to guess that he'd like that. "Oh, and I'll make sure you never want for anything for the rest of your days."

He looked up at us, his eyes shining. "I'd like that! I surely would! Thank ya, Anne, from the bottom o' me weary ol' heart!" He blushed again and beeped Evee's nose, which made her purr and start chewing his finger again.

* * *

At Cripple's encouragement, Anne and I wrote a book titled "The Culling of the Dread Pirate Cajack" wherein we detailed the events leading up to our revenge on the pirate captain. It became an instant best seller with people in many countries, and she became a local celebrity from it, giving all the profits to orphanages and the needy.

I never achieved another scientific success like my weather mapping system, but it hardly mattered we were so fantastically wealthy. I was free to putter around with it as I pleased, however, and on the days Anne worked on the Crow, I would fuss with my scientific instruments and watch our daughter.

One day, over breakfast, I sighed suddenly and said "I guess our adventures are truly over we've settled down to a quiet life at last."

She smiled at me from where she was nursing and simply said "To live life is the greatest adventure of all."

I smiled, remembering saying similar words to her once before. Of course, she was right.

The End.