The Cursed Sea Captain

When he was but a young boy, he lived on the mainland.
But his feet were landsick and his soul longed for freedom.
So when the lad was old enough,
he built himself a boat.
He vowed loyalty to his ship, promising her never to set foot on land again.
In return his ship made her promise keep her captain safe at all cost.

For many a day the young captain sailed happily and content,
until he noticed a small island lying peacefully on the horizon.
His curious mind overcame him and he decided to take a look at the island.
He left his boat anchored in the bay,
and swam to the pearly white beach.
There he saw a young maiden bathing in the salty waters
She was so beautiful, with melancholy green eyes and long brown hair that danced like seaweeds in the waves.

The boy and the girl fell in love and they had three daughters.
But the boy had wished for one son at least,
to take out sailing as his shipmate.
He started to resent the young woman for not giving him a son,
so he left her and his daughters on the island and made his way back to his boat that had been waiting patiently for him in the green silver waters of the bay.
He raised her anchor and let the wind billow her sails.
He did not look back.
All he had eyes for was the horizon in front of him,
the deep waters beneath him and the wide skies above him.
But whilst he made his way towards the open seas,
his lover and daughters wept by the shoreline,
their tears washing into the ocean, one by one.
At first they wept tears of grief,
but soon they became tears of anger and eventually they wept tears of a most bitter rage.
It was on the seventh day since the young captain had taken sail,
that a storm unleashed her anger upon the sea.
A storm so fierce, so dark and cruel,
it would have swallowed up any boat in but a few moments.
But not this brave little boat,
for she would not be crushed by the mighty powers that ravaged the very heavens
producing it.
She flew over the enormous waves like a fierce Sea Dragon,
bouncing and thumping upon the mighty swells.
Even when the lightning struck her mast and sail,
she did not surrender.
When the flames spat their fire onto her deck,
she did not perish.
She withstood the brutal beatings,
pounding down upon her from the sky,
because she had made an oath to her captain, an oath to keep him safe from the mouth of the hungry sea.
And so he and his brave little boat would forever sail the Cursed Sea.

Now the captain’s legs are old and frail,
sick is his stomach and hopeless his heart,
his spirit finally broken by the endless violence of the storms.
Often times he tries to jump into the raging ocean,
in desperate hopes that Death would have him and deliver him from despair.
But whenever he attempts such an escape,
whenever he leaps his tired, old body over the side of his boat,
she pulls him back in and throws him onto her deck.
For she would not have him leave her,
bound he was to her, her hull and keel and mast.
Destined to sail with her upon that brutal Cursed Sea,
until forever into eternity.