~I~

                                    

                                          
A legend.... it sounded so godly to have such a title.... but when it really came down to it and everyone began to create this image of you, who would truly want to be one....?
Pale white hands reached from the dark depths to grab the drowning woman, her hope lost as the creature dragged her back into the darkness of the seas she so desperately tried to escape from. The creature? It wasn't just a creature.... It was her first kill, the first life she took and gave to the sea. It was rotten, taken over by sea monsters and coral. 
Before she knew it the darkness surrounding the woman was filled with crowds of dead men she had once killed, dead men coming to claim her life as their own. 
"Ya dead or something? Get the hell up, Cap'ain!" 
The woman's eyes flew open and pressed a sharp knife against her quartermaster's throat as a defensive response, way too used to getting attacked in her own bed to not handle this way anymore. 
"Aye, it's just me." He hastily put his hands up in surrender and watched his captain's eyes return to their calm and collected stare. 
"How many times have I told you to stop bothering me while I'm sleeping, Samuel?"
"I know, bu-...." Samuel began, but she was having none of it today. 
She couldn't deal with his sarcastic serious attitude today. 
He was always a bit of a stern sarcastic quartermaster, but sometimes she needed someone to humble her when she put too much pressure on things or herself. 
"No buts." She eyed him up and down annoyed, forcing her aching body to get up from the comfort of her bed as he watched her with concern. She never slept. Never ever would she sleep a full night if she did decide to get her rest either. She felt herself too responsible for her men, too responsible for everyone's wellbeing, and she hated facing her nightmares. 
It worried her crew. 
"Why did you decide to wake me?" She dragged herself to her desk chair and pulled her black see-through robe from the backrest, covering her body a little as she watched Sam who sighed.
"I was putting back the map on your shelf when I noticed you twisting and twirling in your own misery. When were you going to tell us about those nightmares?"
"I ain't having those nightmares anymore." She watched herself in her mirror, her sharp cat eyes red from the lack of sleep, yet she straightened her back like she did every day and represented pride and strength as a whole once again. 
She had worked hard for her title for 10 years, resting wasn't an option, weakness wasn't an option. 
She had begun stealing at a very early age, stealing turned into plundering with small groups of men and plundering turned into a small crew after those men saw the potential in her as a leader. They used the money they earned from the plundering to invest in a ship and soon enough they managed to take over a Navy ship big enough to hold 120 men. 
That white Navy ship, now under the name of The Serpent's Medallion, was even after 7 years still her ship. It had made a big name for her and her men and soon enough her crew had grown to 113 loyal men, a crew where no one was allowed to get into anymore. 
She didn't need new untrustworthy strangers in her crew when she had enough loyal and skilled men. 
Despite having such big responsibilities as a infamous captain, the burden of being a woman made it even harder. Having the title of a legend meant she couldn't simply announce herself as a woman anywhere she went. People would take advantage of her, try to get her alone, it was too risky and besides the danger of her own life, men knowing one of the biggest pirate captains alive standing alongside Henry Avery and Samuel Bellamy was a woman would demotivate the pirates. Men didn't believe a woman was able to deal with the responsibility and work that was meant for men only.