"This is Tortuga?" Cloud asked.
"Aye, what had ye been ‘specting?" Barret asked.
"Round, hard, looks like a rock, about yay big," Cloud said, gesturing with his hands. "A bit green."
"You make me glad I did not take you to the Canaries," Barret commented. "Right, lad. Keep yerself from bein’ too obvious, and try not too make too much noise when yer not with Tifa."
"What do you mean by that?" Cloud asked.
"Ah, ye shall see when we get there. Come, she and her buxom friends lie in yonder tavern." Said Barret giving Cloud a wink.
Cloud just followed, completely missing the innuendo.
The accident seemed to have no ill effects. He had recovered fully, two days afterward and the storm left with his illness. His vision had returned completely, the fever having done no permanent harm to his eyes or his brain, though his amnesia still remained.
……………………………………………………………………………………
"Tifa!" Barret called out. "Ahoy!"
"Barret! She called back, turning to him.
"We brought a bit of a present," Barret said, shoving Cloud towards her.
"Cloud!" she exclaimed, picking up her few skirts and dashing over to him. She flung herself at him and wrapped her arms around him. "Cloud, you’re alive! You’re alive! I cannot believe it! I thought you had perished out at sea!"
"So, you are Tifa," Cloud said, pushing her away and examining her appearance.
"Cloud?"
"He took a bit of a hit to the head," Barret said, patting Cloud’s hair. "Thought ye might be able to remind him why he likes ye, if you catch m’ drift."
"What drift?" Cloud asked, as Tifa pressed his head closer to her chest.
"I must apologize to you, Captain. Even if I be a bonnie that lies over the ocean for this handsome lad, my skirts don’t go up without something to fill my purse."
"She’s a harlot?" Cloud asked.
"Best ever this side of the trade winds" Tifa said. "But if my purse stays closed, so do my legs."
"I got the brass," Barret said. "Lord knows ye been pining for him for years."
"If I get nothing up front, I take nothing up the skirts."
"Ye and yer friends keep care of Marlene," Barret said, handing her the money. "I want her to stay in school, learn to read and all that mess. You girls would not be getting a guinea if you refused to take care of her."
"I know, I know." Tifa said, leaving with Cloud, who was distracted with how low her shirt was now. "You want her to grow up just like her father. Well, you just remember her father was a fishmonger, in as many senses of the word and he had an insatiable appetite for the bucks, in just as many senses."
"Aye, and as long as she kin read, she be better than I and that be the way I want it."
Tifa giggled and lead Cloud off into a vacant room.
"She may pine for him, but that alone cannot keep her from taking other woods," Jessi commented, crossing her arms.
"Ah, Jealousy will get you nowhere, bonnie. Jus’ ‘cause another took the fish you were after do not mean there ain’t no more in the sea. Jus’ keep yer eye out fer sharks."
"Aye, Captain," Jessi said. "You watch out for too many folks for your own good, Captain. It don’t seem too good for your health."
"I keep my eye on my ‘mates, Jessi. I be a blasted Captain to let them run themselves aruin."
……………………………………………………………………………………..
"Oh, Cloud," Tifa said, leading him to the bed. "I’ve waited for you. I’ve hungered for you. Tell me, is your past all that you’ve forgotten, that you merely cannot recall our last night together and how happy I was, but that you can still give me such bliss."
"Tifa…"
"I be paid by the hour, Cloud. Talk if you must, but, please, my thighs long for your touch, my petticoats wish to stray from my hips, my bosom aches for your gluttonous lips. Loosen those bothersome clothes while you do."
"Tifa…" Cloud said, loosening the ties on his shirt. "I have to say… I cannot remember. I cannot remember that night… that moment. I swear I would always keep it in my mind, my heart even, if I could." He began undoing his trousers.
"Do not belittle yourself, my heart’s friend, rapid though you may be," Tifa said, helping Cloud’s shoes off. "’Twas more than a mere moment." His shirt was slipping down his arms, his trousers down his legs. As a sailor he had neither luxury, nor convenience of undergarments. All that was truly staying on him was a torn and dirty undershirt that showed continual bloodstains that had dried into an ugly brown, each over the last.
"Did you really receive this many wounds the few years you were away from me?" she asked. "The war was hardly fought at all, I heard. Cloud, are you sure you can remember nothing? If not of us, then of how you got these wounds?"
"I remember nothing of the past, Tifa, and these reminiscing light no fire for my body nor my soul."
"Then let us start again," she said, taking his hand and placing it under her skirts, which had traveled as far up as they could manage. "Let us share the entire night together and let you have something that rivals all the treasures in heaven and be so strong that no injury can take from you."
"Or let us die trying," Cloud said, glad to work at Tifa’s clothing where she had placed hi hand.
Tifa leaned forward, straddling his bare hips and pulling her shirt off before pressing her chest against his. He hands crawled up his thighs, daintily touched his blond hair before crawling up the stained undershirt.
"No!" Cloud said, his hands flying out of her skirts to her wrists and taking her hands from his shirt. "No. Past or not Tifa, leave me with my secrets. Enjoy the rest of me, but do not pry there. You would be opening more than Pandora’s box."
"Tifa!" they heard someone yell from behind the door. "Tifa, get your due, then get out! They find you with one of Wallace’s crew, you’d be hanged with them!"
"Elmyra?" Tifa yelled, pulling her shirt back up.
"Out the door, out the window, just flee, girl! That Turks band be tearing the place to kindling and dog scraps!"
Cloud grabbed his trousers with one hand, wrapped the other around Tifa and pressed her close. He rolled out of the way of a rock, as it sailed through the window.
"Thanks," Tifa said, and pushed off of him. Cloud quickly fastened his trousers, while Tifa reached into her petticoats and pulled out her brass knuckles. "We’re surrounded, Cloud."
"We had a saying on the boat, Tifa," Cloud said, grabbing her wrist and leading her out the door. "You may be surrounded by water, but that does not mean you have to drown.
"That would work for water," Tifa said. "But ‘tis no water we face here."
She was right. Three people were thoroughly tearing up the bar. The benches had been overturned and all the chairs had been broken, either against the wall or patrons. The chandelier was now hanging by two of its three chains. "Any of those scoundrels leave this establishment and we burn it to the ground!" the redheaded male of the group yelled. He looked as if he would burn the place down just for fun either way.
"No offense to Elmyra, but I hope she has fire insurance," Cloud said, picking Tifa up by the waist.
"Cloud, what are you—"
"Don’t move," Cloud said, climbing onto the broken railing. He leapt off, flying over the fighting and screaming crowd, and caught the chandelier with his leg.
"Weeha!" Cloud yelled.
"Look!" the blonde woman of the three yelled.
Cloud swung back on the chandelier for momentum, knocking a candle off. The chandelier swung forward and Cloud let go, flipping through the air, Tifa still in his arms; the two were flung out the window, free from the group trashing the bar.
"Turks. Dammit!" Cloud said, placing Tifa down after their soft landing.
"This way!" Tifa yelled, leading Cloud down an alley. Cloud complied and followed her; knowing he had no knowledge of how to flee from the town.
They they continued to run down the alley. Cloud noticed he could hear screams and the occasional gunshot.
"Damn!" Tifa yelled, seeing their way blocked by and overturned and rather inside out cart.
"Fear not," Cloud said, again picking her up by the waist, this time with both arms. "Can I trust you to land on your feet?"
"I’m only on my tail when I’m paid, Cloud," Tifa answered.
"Then land like a cat fleeing the hound," Cloud said, and threw Tifa over the cart.
After hearing her land, Cloud quickly scrambled up the cart, which wobbled under him as he tried to climb it. He got no further than the very top when he saw Tifa, held around her chest and her mouth by a very large German with an unruly and long beard, laughing in a way that was somewhere between a goat and a boar.
Another woman dressed just as scantily as Tifa, but with more finery, held a pistol, aiming it at Tifa’s head. She was also laughing with a screech like a peacock in heat. The image of the haughty bird dressed in beautiful plumage, but with the brains of it’s turkey cousin fitted the woman. Another image entered Cloud’s mind, this one far more appealing: the woman sharing the fate of the peacock, to be roasted over a large fire, dripping juicy fat.
"Scarlet! Heidegger!" Cloud yelled, only to find himself in a similar situation with an identical pistol aimed at his own head.
"I believe I was right about destroying the cart," the new man said.
"Shinra be in need of such Turkish trash? Since when?" Cloud asked. "Shinra proclaimed to own the seas, whence did they have any need of bounty hunters?"
"Since we needed a replacement for our burnt fleet," Heidegger answered. "And since these few could easily more than replace such a loss."
"And since Shinra still had the brass to pay us," someone new said, stepping out of the shadows. From the look of his skin, he was another of the Irish-Turk bounty hunters, dressed similarly, but with far less care than his friend. Whereas the one with the pistol had long and flowing black hair behind him, this one had scruffy hair in a ponytail, giving the image of having been groomed by a blind man. The rest of him: none tucked in, halfway stained, one sock falling down, and his hair singed at most tips exaggerated the thought. "As well as the balls."
Heidegger screamed as his hand left Tifa’s mouth. She struggled to free herself with an attempt to impale his stomach with her sharp elbow, but he was too huge to do any damage.
Scarlet started laughing.
"Silence that foul cackle of yours!" Tifa yelled. "Your mouth be just as foul as that which you put it to,"
"You be one to talk, Tifa," Scarlet said. "You may pride yourself as the good one. Our lord and lady know what you did when we were under the same roof. "I tell you here and again, let our Lord and his divine son be witness: There is no such thing as a good whore."
"May those witnesses shed their forgiving pity upon you two," another said, proudly stalking out of the shadows. He was amazingly dressed in immaculate white, somehow having missed any ash, blood, or dirt from the carnage. "Your captain and crewmates have been captured, save for the three we found at your ship. They’ve already met their fate for betraying Shinra, the boat their pyre. You have been found guilty of treason, arson, larceny, and heresy. Both of you share your fate with Barret Wallace upon the gallows at dawn. Take them to the ship’s prison."
"I beg your pardon," a soft, yet gnarled voice said in a strange accent, a mix of Rouen and Venetian dialects. Whoever the owner was, they opted to stay in the shadows. "Is it truly safe to leave them on the ship, maitre Rufus?"
"Don’t be a bastard, Erik," Rufus replied. "Of course we put them on the ship. This place has been far too infested with maggots to trust that they won’t chew these criminals out of the town. The guards know to cut the ropes and set the ship afire if anything should go awry. Or is there something you are failing to tell me, Erik? Perhaps you used the prison for your own devices without telling me, your leader and captain?"
The Turks glanced over at the figure in the shadows, knowing smirks on the face.
There was a long pause. Cloud could hear the figure in the shadows shift slightly, the sound of it strange, almost disturbing.
"No, maitre," the figure finally answered. "Never."