Chapter 81: THIRD POV.

’What in the...’ Jacob nearly gasped when he was on her ship with her.

Up until this moment, he had been looking at the massive vessel from the deck of the smaller slaver ship.

He had expected to see men hanging from the rigging, guards standing at every railing, and the constant noise of a busy crew preparing for war.

Instead, as his feet hit the polished wood of the main deck, he was met with a silence so thick it was eerie.

The wind whistled through the massive sails, and the ship groaned as it moved over the waves, but there were no voices.

No shouting.

No sound of boots running across the wood.

Jacob stood there for a second, his eyes darting left and right.

He looked toward the helm, then down toward the gun deck where dozens of cannons sat idle.

He looked up at the crow’s nest. Everything was still. He walked a few paces forward, his own footsteps echoing loudly against the deck.

Normally, he wouldn’t be this stunned by the sight of such a large ship, but he was, due to the fact that the entire thing was empty, except for her and him.

"You didn’t have a crew from the very beginning?!" he blurted out.

He turned to face the white-furred tigress woman, his jaw practically touching his chest.

The shock was so great that he forgot to be intimidated by her height or her sharp teeth.

"Yes? Is that a problem?" she said. Her tone didn’t sound like someone who believed they’d done something wrong.

She looked at him with those golden eyes, her ears twitching with a hint of confusion, as if she couldn’t understand why he was making such a big deal out of it.

She leaned against a massive wooden mast, crossing her arms over her chest, looking perfectly at home in the middle of a ghost ship.

"Is it a problem? Is it a problem?!" Jacob shot back at her, his voice rising. "How do you intend on becoming a pirate without a crew?!"

He gestured wildly around the deck. "Look at the size of this thing! It’s a mountain on the water! You need at least a hundred men just to handle the sails and the anchor, let alone fire the cannons or defend the deck! You’ve been sailing this thing all by yourself?"

’ How’s that even possible?!’ he wondered, finding it hard to grasp.

This woman was more out of thought than he had imagined. When he first saw her sliding down the chain, he thought she was the leader of a powerful organization.

He thought she was a "Pirate Lord" or something equally terrifying.

But now, looking at the empty deck and her blank expression, he realized he might have walked into a very strange situation.

"Oh... Well then, problem solved, right? Since you agreed to join my crew," she said, a small smile playing on her muzzle.

She stepped closer to him, her tail flicking behind her in a lazy arc.

"Umm.. you are joining, right?" she said, as if trying to be sure.

For a split second, the air of superiority she had been carrying around seemed to crack, revealing a bit of worry.

It was like she had just realized that if he walked away, she’d be back to pulling the ropes with her teeth.

Jacob stared at her for a moment before placing a hand to his forehead. He felt a dull throb behind his eyes again.

He had just spent the last few hours worrying about how he was going to survive among a bunch of cutthroats and thieves, only to find out the "crew" consisted of one cat-woman who had nothing but some dream driving her on.

She acted like she was older than him, she certainly looked more experienced and moved with a grace he didn’t have, but from his point of view, she seemed more like some child playing pretend instead.

’ No... Maybe this isn’t a bad thing after all.’ Jacob said to himself.

He thought to himself that since she basically wasn’t a real pirate and only wanted to be one, perhaps he could lead her in a different direction.

Now he didn’t have to worry about being forced to kill.

The one thing he knew would spark trouble if he had joined a real pirate ship.

’ She’s just like an overgrown child I can build up.’

"Wait a moment," Jacob said, suddenly realising something amiss.

He looked up at the massive masts that reached toward the clouds. "Where did you get this ship, by the way? A ship like this must cost a fortune. It looks brand new."

"I stole it, of course," she said matter-of-factly. She shrugged her shoulders, her sublime pirate coat shifting with the movement.

She said it as easily as someone might say they found a coin on the street. There was no shame in her voice, only a strange sort of pride.

Her reply made him facepalm. He dragged his hand down his face, feeling the rough skin of his palms.

"Of course she stole it..." he muttered beneath his breath before letting out a helpless sigh.

No wonder her ship was so big. She definitely didn’t know what she was doing. She probably saw the biggest, fanciest ship in the harbor and decided she wanted it, not bothering to think about how she would actually manage it once she was out at sea.

It was a miracle she hadn’t crashed into a reef or been caught by the authorities within the first hour.

Jacob decided to ask her a few more questions to figure out exactly how deep of a hole he had jumped into.

For one, he wanted to know how long she’d been a so-called pirate until now. He also wanted to know why she decided to be a pirate in the first place, and what her relationship was like with other pirates in these waters. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

"Umm... Maybe about close to a few weeks now?" she answered, tapping her chin with a clawed finger. She seemed to be counting the days in her head.