Everyone went quiet for Pardel to start. Loud as they were, all pirates enjoyed a good story.
He held a silent pause for dramatic purposes before beginning:
‘There was once a young couple who lived near the shore. They were happily in love but the girl was as barren as the deep desert. She grew very miserable and, one night – ‘
‘Oh! I know this one!’, interrupted Calico ‘It’s an old legend, that is, me gran used to tell it to me when I was a wee lad, she did.’
He would have kept on talking, but he suddenly felt the cold tip of a dagger on his chest.
‘Do you mind…? By all the gods, you blab like an old woman…!’
‘Sorry, Pardel, terribly sorry.’, gulped Calico. ‘Right you are, please go on, let us hear it, I’ll just pretend I -‘
He resumed his silence when he felt the blade being pressed a little harder.
Pardel cleared his throat.
‘As I was saying…
There was once a couple who lived near the shore and the girl was barren as an old hag. After years of trying to have a child, she finally gave up and decided not to insist with will of the gods. But the gods sent her a message.
One night, in her sleep, the young wife dreamt of a beautiful lady with hair as black as a crow, coming out of the water, where the waves break. The young woman was in such awe she thought she was in the presence of one of them old goddesses. Until the woman finally spoke:
‘Hello, mother’, she said.
‘Mother? You are mistaken, milady, I don’t have any children. I cannot.’
Hearing this, the lady smiled.
‘But you will, mother. You shall. Ask the sea and it will grant you your heart’s desire.’
The young wife wanted to ask more questions but she woke up with a start. Her husband was sleeping, his peaceful face bathed by the full, bright moon.
She got up, quiet as a mouse, and went outside.
Isidora Works 