Scurvy Stories: Denneson the Sea Serpent
“Captain Black Beard,” Denneson laughed. “How dreadful of you to come.”
“O, Sea Serpent, where do you go?
O, Water Dragon, where do you roam?
Across the emerald sea, you desire
Among the waves of woe, into the eternal fire.”
Black Beard sang this tune under his breath as he came around the bend where he saw a wicked ritual being performed.
Black saw from above a rocky fall, his wife Pearl, dangling from a metal cage as she silently wept. Drums were beaten by hooting black armored green goblins.
Down on the tawny grass, big brutes with spiked armor grunted and beat their breasts to a steady but horrifying tune.
Then a witch doctor who wore white robes and a black sad mask raised up his staff horizontally and beat the air to a nasty rhythm. Looking up, the whole monster concert stared at Pearl in the cage and yelled with glee.
As Black gazed down on the mad audience, his pirate crew stealthily covered the mouths of the troll army and slit them one by one.
As others noticed one giant beast, the size of a large man called out, “Intruders! Seize them! In the crowd!” Black knew it was Commander Gorm. He only heard stories of him. Called the King of Cannibals, Gorm was a savage beast with no moral code.
Then everyone moved, and necks were wrung, and bodies stabbed. Metal clanking against iron, green blood flew in the musty air, and fire reflected off the stone pillars and metal archway where Denneson resided. But he did not leave his haven, Black noticed.
So as the Dragon Cult fought the Lady Kraken crew, Black climbed across a hidden walkway to get to the other side, swooped down, and tried to rescue Pearl.
“Hey,” Black called. Horrified, Pearl looked up and then frowned. Her blue fish scales sparkled in the moonlight.
“Edward, what’re you -What’re you doing here?”
“Come to rescue you, my darlin’. I think a little kiss might do ya some good-”
“Stop it. You know why I’m mad,” she said curtly.
“I haven’t the slightest clue,” Black said, annoyed and slightly embarrassed as he came to her rescue. His cheeks became rosey.
“You made a deal with the devil himself.”
“Ah, Pearl, what have I told ya before-”
“Why would you do that? Knowing Denneson and his terrible reputation?”
“Look, I can’t explain this to ya now-”
“Oh, no, you will, Edward,” Pearl said, crossing her arms. “You will now!”
“I didn’t know he was gonna take ya and banish me from this island.”
“What took you so long?”
“Well, if ya want to be that way,” Black said, wiping his foaming mouth with his sleeve. “Your mother wasn’t necessarily very swift about it.”
“My mother. Now you’re gonna blame my family-”
“No, it’s not — Pearl just… Just tell me how to unlock this thing?”
“It’s around his neck.”
“Huh?”
“The key is around Denneson’s neck. But they said you’ll never defeat him. He’s too powerful, Ed.”
“Enough callin’ me that,” Black yelled angrily. “I’m not that name anymore. I’m Black Beard, Captain of the Lady Kraken. Nothing will stop me!”
“Oh, Edward, why…” Pearl said, defeated. “That’s not who you are. Stop calling yourself that. Whatever happened to you? To us?”
“What’re you spattin’? We’re here right now. You and me! Together.”
“Ed, please. This Captain Black Beard is not the man I married. You have to put him away.”
“I can’t, Pearl. I will never do that because you know why?” he asked quietly.
Pearl hid her face from him. She almost cried, but stopped herself and pressed on. “She was your whole world,” she whispered.
“Poseidon on a sea walrus! Exactly!”
“I loved her too, Edward,” she said quietly, her eyes glazing over.
He wiped his wet eyes, and his heart hardened to escape the fear. “Aye… I know it pained you. That’s why ya never trust a pirate! That’s why the pirate who kidnapped my daughter and threw her overboard, I killed ‘em! I killed him and his whole crew and took it over.
“And I put fear into those criminal’s bones! Making them pay, making them my slaves, making them always remember why we do this! And you were happy, content on the ship.”
“No, I wasn’t Edward,” Pearl said, trembling. “I died long ago. Ever since I’ve been here, I’ve thought and thought for days.
“What were those long days out at sea for? Why’d we sail coast to coast? To escape what you’ve done? Or to forget about, Grace?”
“Don’t you ever say her name!”
“Look at you,” Pearl cried as her eyes reddened. “You’re not the man I once loved.”
“Aye… You’re different too,” Black said, quietly. For a moment, he paused and reflected. “Why? Why did we sail? Because I had nothin’ left.”
“You have me-”
“I had that little girl,” he said, cruelly. “I died that day! Edward died and Captain Black took over. Drowned in the ocean. Died long ago. What else more is there to say?”
Pearl, cut with a knife, cried silently and then said, “The key, the key around his neck, Black.”
“Aye, aye, I’ll get it, my Pearl. My most precious Pearl.”
Then, in the commotion underneath them, while the Lady Kraken crew battled the Dragon Cult, fire from heaven came swooping down, setting fire to everyone unfortunate enough to catch the roaring flames. Cannon fire erupted from the close-approaching Green Owl as it burst and destroyed the jungle greenery.
“Mother of the sea,” Black said. “I’ll kill that George Tumber if it’s the last thing I do.”
Pearl witnessed the mayhem with apathy as she swung silently in the salty wind.
Unmoved and unaffected, Black dropped down and entered the fiery cave of Denneson.
The rock walls of lava brightly erupted endlessly around the whole surface of the cave. Black descended further into it while rock rubbles lay everywhere as he tiptoed quickly.
All of a sudden, a shot of fire came from behind him as he rolled out of the way behind a giant rock. As sweat dripped down miserably and he breathed heavily, panting, Black peaked out. He saw the red snout and heard the deep breathing of the dragon.
“You can’t hide forever, Black,” Denneson said with a low but deep voice. “I see you.”
Black staggered back and emerged out of the other side of the rock formation. He kept running frantically as he jumped across a chasm of rocks and hopped from one to the other in a frenzy of sheer adrenaline.
Then Black stopped. Jumping for cover, he saw the Sea Serpent’s tail sweep viciously over the bed of rocks where he thought Black had been.
Denneson roughly swooped around and revealed his hideous and serpent visage. His eyes raged with a scarlet wildness, his snout like a fat pig, his breath like the fire of hell. The key to open Pearl’s confinement was on a ring that dangled from his giraffe-like neck.
“Captain Black Beard,” Denneson guffawed. “How dreadful of you to come.”
“I’ve come to save my wife! Give me the keys, sea snake!”
“Or have you come to save your life?” he smiled wickedly like a dog panting. “That’s the real reason, isn’t it? The Dreaded Pirate Robert Drefuse told you to come and like a little eel, you’ve come right where I wanted you.”
“I’ve come to pay my debt.”
“And pay it, you shall,” Denneson spat. “Which is your miserable life!”
“You have no power anymore, you have no power from your worshipers. They’re gone! You’re finished!”
“Do you think I’m afraid of you and your little crew? Mere mortals. Destined for destruction. But me, I’ve been destined for destruction from the Beginning.”
Denneson chuckled mildly. “You think I’m afraid to die? No, because I know where I’ll go… back to the pits of hell. The Master told me I could bring one along for all eternity, to be tormented along beside me. And I think I’ve finally decided. I have chosen… YOU!”
The giant, scaled serpent snapped at Black as he deflected it with his sword.
Denneson then hit him with his claws as Black was thrown out of the fiery cave and into the cold, dark night.
The sea roared like a leviathan, beckoning Black to his death. The salty wind caused him to cough as the water splashed him. While his body splattered on the giant rocks on the coast, he managed to rise to his trembling feet.
Then he heard the gigantic foot stomps of Denneson. He gazed up and saw the dragon erupt fire from his mouth. He lunged onto other rocks as the dragon waited to create more fire. Denneson erupted out of the cave and furiously roared to catch Captain Black.
Black saw his crew, and Denneson’s followers fighting in a deadly battle for power. While cannon fire blew up pirates and troll men alike, horrible screams and cries flew up toward the Captain’s ears. Swords impaled in bellies, while curses and raging were heard like a great ballad of doom.
“Look at your crew. Dying for what? Glory, fame? Treasures? And look at you, a puny pirate,” Denneson taunted. “Looking to save your Pearl. But you’ll never save her, for we both know the true reason why you came. To save your own soul.”
“Well, I’m gonna need that key around your filthy neck.”
“Oh, well, come and retrieve it, thief!”
Black ran and, flinging himself, landed on another huge boulder as Denneson breathed fire his way again. It scorched the end of his clothes as he threw them off quickly. He rolled around, but Denneson couldn’t breathe fire and it looked like the water dragon hastily desired to scorch his foe.
Now, Black knew he had to replenish his fire breath and so, smiling slyly, rose with his sword and violently charged Denneson.
But before he could, Black turned and desperately saw Pearl dangling in the cage over the entrance of Denneson’s domain. Crying quietly and clutching her chest, she shook.
Then he saw three men, the leader being Commander Gorm, climb the rocky stairs to retrieve his wife, Pearl. Like an ape, he spun a wheel tied to a rope that pulled her over to the staircase.
“Get away from me,” she screamed violently as the big troll grabbed her and forced her out, down the stairs. The two small goblin guards grabbed her arms and led her down as Gorm smiled gleefully, proud of himself.
Fear brightened his green eyes as Black spat angrily, “Unhand her!”
Denneson beamed awfully and let Black suffer.
Pearl dropped to her knees. Gorm pulled out a dagger. “Well, well, well,” Gorm chuckled. “The Captain came at long last.”
“Let her go, Gorm! Wallace should’ve put you down like the beast you are.”
Gorm giggled like a seagull and spat, “Oh, H. Wallace III, I killed myself. And now I’m gonna take away every little thing you’ve ever cared about.”
Gorm smirked cruelly at Black, who screamed in horror.
“PEARL!”
Gorm stabbed Pearl as she was impaled. Saddened and with a single tear falling, Pearl looked up in time to whisper, “My love…Why?”
The two guards carelessly dropped her corpse into the raging waters as it swallowed her whole.
Shaking with vengeance, Black with clenched fists ran to them. The two ghouls ran on fours and lunged at him, ready to kill. Black swung and chopped off one of the follower’s heads and then chopped off the other’s hands as it yelled. He impaled his chest. Then Gorm, as he made an execution swing, cut off Black’s right hand. Dropping to the ground, Black held his bloody stub, screaming in horror.
Gorm chuckled, “Good, good. You’re gonna die a good death, Captain. But the world won’t remember you. The Legend of ol’ Captain Black Beard will never be told.” He fingered his contorted blade in his green palm. The King of the Cannibals stomped the hard earth, echoing footsteps that pierced Black’s startled heart.
Denneson came and laughed wickedly at his Commander’s triumph.
“Well, done Commander. Now, if you will, let me take him off your hands.” Suddenly, his reptilian tail wrapped around Black.
“What? I got ‘em! He’s mine, Denneson,” Gorm shouted.
“That’s Lord Denneson to you,” the Serpent snarled. “And Black is mine! Nobody will touch him!”
Releasing Black again, he rounded on Gorm instead. Black, relieved, rushed away quickly and back into the fire cave as Denneson was preoccupied with Gorm’s defiance.
“You know, I’m gettin’ tired of your ordering around,” Gorm put his pudgy finger in the dragon’s red eye. “I think me and my men are through!”
“Through? After everything I’ve done for you?”
“You didn’t do anythin’. We’ve done it all for you! You’ve done nothin’. You’re just a mascot for us, for me!”
“Oh, Gorm, you know I’ve always hated you,” Denneson said, as his fire breath was in full ignition, releasing his flames freely. Gorm was burned alive instantly, becoming a pile of ash.
Denneson turned sharply and saw Black coming out of the fiery cave with his stub now burned with fire, orange around the stub where his hand used to be.
He stood angry, shaking, and trembling with pain and rage. He had branded his stub to stop the bleeding and now held his revolver in his other, aiming for Denneson’s eye.
Denneson snarled and began to charge, but Black’s aim was impeccable. He fired it and it went straight for his red peeper.
The Sea Serpent was stunned. He roared and flailed, screeching in agony.
“What have you done? You filthy little pirate! You cheat! Was that supposed to kill me?” He laughed, knowing he was only injured.
“Nay, I was buying time.”
All of a sudden, Denneson gazed out and saw the Lady Kraken circling. The ship’s cannons pointed right at the water dragon.
“Fire!” Gilly Leggs screamed to his mates.
It fired and impaled his red body. Blood and guts were flung everywhere. Red was seen all around.
Then, after the smoke settled, the sea serpent didn’t move. He was silent and dead. The cannon fire stopped as the smell of gunpowder mixed with the salty air.
Denneson was destroyed. Black was relieved and the aftermath resulted in Scudder staring blankly into his green penetrating eyes.
To Be Continued…
