East Blue / Dawn Island / Goa Kingdom / Gray Terminal Outskirts (Woodland Cabin Near Mt. Colubo): 1529, Age of the Sea Circle.
(Anthony's POV)
Morning came ugly.
Gray.
Wet.
Quiet.
The storm had died before sunrise, leaving the forest soaked in mud, ash and old screams.
Mog dragged my sled back toward the cabin with both hands wrapped around the rope, his ugly bald head lowered like a mule that had finally learned religion.
Tallow walked beside him with the chest hugged against his skinny body.
He kept shaking.
Good.
He remembered pike.
He remembered jory.
He remembered the dead tree kneeling in the mud.
Fear was a good teacher when blood handled the lesson.
The cabin waited between the trees.
Small.
Wooden.
Ugly.
Smoke rising from the chimney like it had something peaceful to say.
It did not.
Matilda stood in the doorway.
Tall.
Still.
Dry.
Somehow dry.
Her milky white eyes moved from me.
To mog.
To tallow.
To the chest.
Then back to me.
"You've returned, why are you back." Asked matilda calmly.
I smiled from the sled.
"Missed me already." I asked calmly.
"No." Said matilda, somehow I instinctively knew that she rolled her eyes.
"Cold woman." I said with a chuckle.
Matilda closed her eyes and nodded while saying calmly "Correct."
Mog dragged me inside.
The cabin smelled like blood, wet wood, soup and death.
Jory was gone.
Pike was gone.
The blood remained.
Good.
A room should remember what happened inside it.
Matilda and mog lifted me onto the bed.
Pain swallowed me whole.
White.
Red.
Black around the edges.
My fingers tightened around the gun until the world stopped spinning.
I did not scream.
I did not groan.
I breathed.
Wet.
Rough.
Controlled.
Tallow placed the chest near the bed and opened it.
Gold.
Berry notes.
Jewelry.
Two pistols.
A map.
Letters sealed in noble wax.
And no fruit.
The fruit was inside me now.
The king-king Fruit.
It sat in my body like a crown made of pressure.
Heavy.
Arrogant.
Awake.
I reached into the chest and picked up one of the letters.
Lord outlook.
Gray terminal.
Payment.
Disposal.
Loose ends.
Pirates.
Evidence.
I read enough.
Then I laughed softly.
"Bluejam was an idiot" I said calmly with a snicker.
The room went silent.
Tallow looked down.
Mog looked at the floor.
Matilda watched me from near the doorway.
"You speak of yourself as if your another man." Said matilda calmly.
I smiled and said "Because he is."
I tossed the letter back into the chest.
"Bluejam trusted nobles. Bluejam begged for scraps. Bluejam thought polished shoes meant clean promises and bluejam was weak. It is that simple." I said calmly.
My tongue moved across my gums.
Empty.
Swollen.
Ruined.
My smile faded completely.
"Bluejam died in the fire." I said calmly with cold eyes.
No one argued.
I looked at matilda and said with the left side of my lip curling upwards "You said I needed teeth."
"I did." Said matilda with her arms crossed.
"Can you fix them." I asked calmly with both of my eyes squinting.
"Yes." Said matilda calmly.
"With gold." I asked calmly with a serious look on my face.
The cabin went quiet.
Tallow blinked.
Mog slowly looked up.
Matilda stared at me.
"Gold teeth." Said matilda calmly with a weird look on her face.
"Yes, gold teeth." I said calmly as a memory of my old man's teeth in my past life flashed.
Matilda looked at the chest.
Gold rings.
Chains.
A broken bracelet.
She stepped toward it.
My gun lifted slightly.
She stopped.
I smiled.
"Ask." I said calmly with a cold smile on my face.
The room went cold.
Her face did not move.
"May I." Said matilda calmly.
"There we go. It wasn't that hard." I said calmly while waving my hand for her to do the honor.
She took the gold and got to work.
The next hour was pain.
Not poetic pain.
Not dramatic pain.
Pain.
Matilda heated the gold over the fire and worked with small sharp tools that looked too delicate for hands that large.
She pulled broken pieces from my gums.
Filed edges.
Pressed hot gold into the places bluejam had lost everything.
Blood slid down my chin.
My vision went white twice.
Tallow looked away.
Mog watched.
Matilda did not apologize.
Good.
Mercy made medicine dishonest.
At one point, pain hit so hard my gun rose before my mind did.
First toward her chest.
Then toward the diamond in her forehead.
Matilda froze.
The fire cracked.
The room stopped breathing.
I smiled through blood and said hoarsely with a bloody grin as I enjoyed the view "Keep working."
Her eyes went colder.
Then she continued.
When she finished, she picked up the cracked mirror and held it in front of me.
I looked.
Bluejam stared back.
Burned.
Bruised.
Ugly.
But the mouth was different.
Gold flashed between bloodied lips.
Not all gold.
Enough.
Enough to make the smile look paid for.
Enough to make it look like a threat wearing jewelry.
I stared for a moment.
Then smiled wider.
The gold caught the firelight.
Mog swallowed and said with a mutter as sweat formed on his forehead "Goldtooth."
The room stopped.
My eyes moved to him.
Mog went pale.
Tallow looked at him like he had chosen death.
Matilda's eyes narrowed slightly but ignored him.
I stared at mog for a long moment.
Then I smiled.
"I like that, goldtooth." I said calmly as it slid right off my tongue smoothly.
Mog swallowed and said carefully with fear in his eyes "Goldtooth."
The name sat in the room.
Rough.
Ugly.
Simple.
Perfect.
Not bluejam.
Not anthony zarwick.
Something made for this world.
Something that could be whispered in taverns.
Spat by nobles.
Written on bounty posters.
Feared by cowards.
I smiled wider.
"Goldtooth. I'll be called that from now on." I said repeating softly.
The room was silent for a moment.
I looked at tallow.
"What is my name." I asked calmly with one eye closed.
Tallow dropped to one knee.
"Captain goldtooth." Said tallow quickly.
I stared at him for a moment and said calmly with a deep tone "Drop the captain. I'm just goldtooth now and I don't plan to be a generic pirate anymore."
I glanced at mog.
He dropped slower.
But he dropped.
"Goldtooth." Said mog Immediately with a shaky tone.
The candle flame bent toward me.
The floor creaked beneath the bed.
The air grew heavy.
Mine.
The word did not leave my mouth.
But the room felt it.
Mine.
The chest.
The gold.
The two rats.
The bloodstained floor.
The ugly cabin.
Mine.
Matilda did not kneel.
Of course she did not.
Her hand rested near her stomach.
Her milky eyes stayed on mine.
I smiled.
"You standing on purpose, or are your knees naturally disrespectful, either way your still my woman now since your carrying my child." I said calmly with a shrug.
"I kneel to no one." Said matilda calmly.
"Yet." I said calmly correcting her.
Her eyes went cold.
"Careful, Goldtooth or you won't get new legs." Said matilda with a gentle smile forming on her face that I never knew she could even make.
I laughed softly.
It hurt.
Everything hurt.
But pain felt smaller now.
Like a tenant realizing the owner had returned with a gun.
I leaned back against the pillow.
"You can heal me." I said calmly.
Matilda stared at me and asked "Did you just command me."
"No. I would never do such a thing to my baby momma." I said with a smile.
The room went cold.
Then matilda laughed.
Softly.
Beautifully.
Inhumanly.
"You are vile goldtooth but I commend your efforts that have proven unsatisfactory thus far." Said matilda calmly.
"I am recovering. Give me time." I said calmly as my eyes lowered toward her chest.
Her laugh faded almost Immediately and she shifted her arms to block my view but only made it made it better.
"What do you offer." Asked matilda with a calm motherly smile on her face.
I stared at her for a moment with squinted eyes and looked at her stomach.
Then her diamond.
Then her face.
"No one touches you or what's growing inside you without going through me first. I can do that much." I said calmly.
The room went quiet.
Matilda's expression shifted.
Barely.
Not trust.
Never trust.
Recognition.
Protection.
Ownership.
Possession.
All ugly cousins sitting at the same table.
"And in return." She asked.
"Shelter. Medicine. Food. Information." I said calmly. "Goa kingdom. Gray terminal. The nobles. The roads. Your race. Anything useful." I said calmly with a kind smile.
Matilda stared at me.
The king-king Fruit shifted inside me.
The candle flames bent inward.
Tallow lowered his head.
Mog lowered his too.
Matilda did not.
But her breath changed.
Just once.
I smiled.
She knew I heard it.
"Agreement." Said matilda calmly, extending one sharp golden nail.
I touched it with my finger.
Cold.
Stone after rain.
"Agreement." I said calmly.
Something pulsed.
Small.
Clean.
A boundary.
A beginning.
Matilda pulled her hand back slowly and asked calmly "What did you do."
I smiled and said nothing.
Outside, morning light crawled weakly through the window.
Gray.
Wet.
Ugly.
Alive.
I looked into the mirror again.
Gold teeth.
Bluejam's ruined face.
Anthony's eyes.
A stolen body.
A dead name.
A new one.
Goldtooth.
My smile widened.
Bluejam was dead.
Anthony zarwick was alive.
Goldtooth had just been born.
And outside these woods, Goa kingdom still believed trash stayed burned once nobles stopped looking at it.
My gold teeth flashed in the cracked mirror.
"For now" I thought calmly with a wide grin.
…
THE END…