Juan looked over his raiding party. They were as ready as he could whip them into a frenzy, albeit a mild frenzy. The crew climbed into the ship’s two rowboats, Cera commanded the other boat. With rowing in progress, and Juan thought he looked striking, perched on the prow, with his hat drawn over one eye at a rakish angle, since it wouldn’t sit straight on his head fin.
The beach lay just ahead. There were two dino-villagers standing around looking stupid, one of them wearing a salad on his head. He’d run past them and let his men take the mooks out. Beyond was the village, the plume of black smoke almost put out. Villagers clanged an alarm bell.
The boat lurched when it struck the soft sand, almost tossing Juan out, but he jumped and took off running. His sword raised high while yelling his war cry, “AaaaaaaaaaaaaaahKack! Ack! Ack!”
The last part wasn’t part of the war cry, at least not as Juan practiced it in the Captain’s Quarters. But Captain Raptor had clotheslined him as he ran past, knocking the pirate captain’s hat into the air, which Raptor caught with one hand, while spinning about and removing the old hat with another and hiding it behind his back.
“Well, hello there my faithful crew!” He placed a foot on Juan’s throat while striking a calm pose as he squared his pirate captain hat onto his head.
The remaining crew, which hadn’t actually been running, sped up in excitement, “Captain! You made it!”
“Of course! Everybody knows that if you toss yourself into the sea to save a crewmate that you’ll both end up on an island to wait to be rescued.”
Cera walked up to join the rest of the pirates, “Cap’n.”
“Cera! I got you a salad. Rhona made it. Probably very tasty.”
Cera’s face lit up, she liked salad, and today had been a long day putting up the Juan’s antics. She chomped down on the salad hat while the captain asked her about the ship.
“She needs a new mast.”
“Well shoot, sure is a good thing you all showed up with axes, isn’t it? Right Juan?” Juan groaned as Captain Raptor put more of his weight down.
Cera turned to follow his order, “Aye, Cap’n. We’ll get on that. You lot, follow me!”
Captain Raptor waited for the hoard to move off to the treeline. “Hey Juan. So how long did you wait this time?”
“We all thought you was dead. The crew needed leadership.”
“Like that time the wind blew my hat off?”
“Yeah!”
“It is customary to see a tailor to get fitted for a pirate captain’s coat and have the hat resized. You looked ridiculous. Had you followed the Guide, you would have waited and wouldn’t be in trouble.”
“What are you going to do to me Captain?”
Captain Raptor removed his foot from Juan’s chest and extended a paw. “”Gonna help you up.”
Juan looked up, distrusting the offered, clawed appendage, “Why?”
“It’s obvious you want to be a captain. I can either kill you or you kill me and you become a lousy captain, or show you the ropes so you do a good job when you finally earn it.”
Juan reached out for Raptor’s hand and pulled himself up.
“You’d do that for me?”
“Just stop taking my hat. Seriously.”
The pair turned to watch the rest of the crew chopping away at a tree that was straight enough near the edge of the jungle. They didn’t notice the shadowy figures sneaking up to the rowboats and hiding inside.
Find more at https://www.klforslund.com/dino-pirates