Blue

I write this particular prompt under duress, for I donna like being asked to do what I’d rather not. I also do not like to be incited to remember that which I do not wish to remember. Such impositions put me a desire to be naught but all manner of being disagreeable. This is something that I would rather like to avoid. When I find out who is responsible for this particular query, they and I will be having words.

Within the walls of a Mughal palace, in India is a courtyard that reminds me of one at the Hacienda Las Glorias, which is my home. Or perhaps I should say that my home now reminds me of that place I had been so many years before. The blue tile walls were the first memory we had after a particularly long battle against the English. Douglas and I had fought side by side, the Reaper was listing badly, and Douglas was determined that we would not be captured. He would not see his men, nor me nor himself hung like dogs, our carcasses left out to rot in the elements as warnings to other pirates, not to take up the Sweet Trade.

Things were going badly, there was no way that we could win this battle, and well did Douglas and I know it. I was prepared to die, but Captain Douglas Francis O’Riely had other things in mind. The English ship, a second rate of the line, was ready and moving in for her final attack against us. Without warning, Douglas called out to Mr. Snellgrave to get me off the ship. The first mate tossed me over his sholder and into a nearby jolliboat. It was lowered to the sea and cut loose even before I could take out a breath to eén protest. I tried in vain to grab the tail of the rope that dangled down only to have the wake between the two ships sent me too far adrif too quickly. I was shouting and screaming amid the shots and canon fire lobbing between the two, but to no avai. Thankfully I was ignored by the men of the opposing ship of the Royal Navy and by those who had been members of my own crew. Blades crashed and clanked together, the cries of the dying and of gunfire was heard even as I drifted out further into the blue of the sea.

I must have been no more than fifty feet out, when I spotted Douglas on the top deck locked in a heated exchange with an officer of the King’s Navy. I shouted out to him, but he did not hear over the din. In the next few moments, I watched in horror as the other officer’s sword swept up in an arc and came down across Douglas’ midsection. He pitched forward, his eyes must have grown wide in surrise at his assailant’s blow met it’s mark. Those blue eyes that I had looked into countless times were now to be closed forever. In the shock of it all I must have fainted, for when I next woke up, it was within the blue tiled walls of the Mahal of Ghuratkote, home of my friend, lakshmi_bai.

Blue eyes forever closed
Blue of the sky, upon a azure blue sea.
Those blue tiles will forever remind me
of that day and of thee..

Now, every day I look at the fountains and the courtyard and see the same colour blue. The desert sky is also that same shade in the evenings. Nothing it seems can erase that memory, no matter how hard I’ve wanted to forget.

Damn you for making me remember it so vividly now.

Muse:Fanny Fae
Fandom: Original Character
Word Count: 630