Chapter One - DON'T BE A COWARD -

He was sitting there, a shadowy figure over him.

He was unafraid, in fact he was comfortable, the warm embrace of the figure causing him to lower his guard. It was as though he was a child once more.

A familiar feminine voice began to speak to his younger self.

"Run Jason, run", said the voice.

"Run, not away from your fears or even away from the danger but run towards adventure.

For that is what separates the great from the ordinary; the willingness to run head first into a journey unknown."

She continued: "The journey we as humans crave, a journey that surpasses all expectations and makes the hardships faced along the way worthwhile.

Run towards it Jason. DO NOT BE A COWARD…."

Suddenly the image fades away to the boy, sixteen-years of age, running towards the shore- sprinting as fast as he can past the area the locals call "Mercado De Arvore amores" or "Lovers' Tree market".

Jason, with a lollipop in his mouth, hears the voice of a shopkeeper.

"You're up bright and early today" she says,

"Why the rush?" Her sarcastic tone made all the more jaring by her spanish accent.

Jason looks up to see a lady in her early forties smiling at him whilst standing at her little bakery.

"Tia Gerelda?!", Jason exclaims.

=BANG=

Jason, unaware of his surroundings for merely a moment, steps into a pothole and trips hitting a nearby sign face first causing the lollipop to fly out of his mouth.

"Jason! Oh! ¡Dios mío!", exclaims Gerelda.

She ran towards Jason who was laying on the street having just had the wind knocked out of him.

She is able to get a frozen fish from her neighbouring shopkeeper and hands it over to Jason.

"Mihijo, why weren't you watching where you were going?" asked Gerelda.

"You are the one who called me while I was running." Says Jason holding a fish to his forehead whilst groaning in pain.

"That's beside the point!" exclaims Gerelda, slapping the back of Jason's neck.

"Now look what happened to you! Where were you even going?!"

"Argh! The captains in town." Says Jason,

"He said since I'm old enough now, agh, I can sail with him.

I was just in a rush to get there before he left."

Gerelda looks at him with confusion.

"Do you really think that Cesare would leave before seeing me?" asks Gerelda

"Oh I didn't know he hadn't seen you." Jason responds.

"He's been here since yesterday, I assumed you had already seen each other."

Gerelda Da Silva Santos Quatararo was the wife of Captain Cesare "Don" Quatararo, the captain of the "La Morte Flotta" Pirates.

"Oh you know how Cesare is," says Gerelda,

"He is probably at Giovani's right now buying the whole bar a round of drinks.

The good thing for me is that it means he will be spending the night." Says Gerelda as she is blushing.

"Eeew, I don't wanna know that!" exclaims Jason with a disgusted look on his face.

Gerelda chuckles and says:" All I am saying is you have time. Go to the ship, make yourself comfortable and just wait patiently for tomorrow."

"Ok Tia." Says Jason as he breathes a sigh of relief and puts the frozen fish on the table.

"Either way, when were you going to tell me that you are sailing with Cesare!" exclaims Gerelda whilst slapping Jason on the back of his neck once more.

"I was gonna tell you once I had made enough money to pay you back."

"Pay me back?What for?" asks Gerelda as though she was confused by what Jason had said.

Jason reaches for a lollipop on the counter of the bakery.

"Are you kidding me?" asks Jason,

"You and everyone else took care of me, even when I was being a little brat."

Jason unwraps the lollipop and lightly touches his forehead."

"Ow, ow, ow…"

"You don't need to repay me for that." Says Gerelda

"I was just doing my duty as a member of Vila dos Pescadores and as a friend of your mother."

"Well, I want t-"

Randomly Jason's thought was interupted by something that caught the attention of his quivering eye.

Fixating his eyes on her, what caught his attention was a girl who looked as though she was no older than he was, wearing a beautiful blue dress, on the street and she was about to be hit by a truck.

"It's too late to warn her…" whispers Jason.

"What are you talking about?" asks Gerelda.

Without hesitation Jason runs out of the bakery and jumps into the street.

He reaches for the girl and in that moment their eyes meet.

He sees her rose pink eyes glistening through her tears.

He tries to push her out of the truck's way but he can not reach her.

He closes his eyes thinking he was also about to get hit by the truck but when Jason opens his eyes and sees that she has fallen onto the sidewalk, he realises he had pushed her away from the truck and somehow he had also survived.

"What…what just happened?" Jason thinks to himself.

He stands up and walks towards the girl.

"Are…you…okay…?" Jason asks the girl as he reaches his hand out to her.

She reaches back slowly but suddenly Gerelda runs towards them screaming.

"Are you okay?!" she exclaims with tears flooding her eyes.

"Tia…?" says jason

The girl, unnoticed, pulls her hand away.

"Oh mi querido sobrino! Are you okay?"

"Yeah Tia, I'm fine…But this girl…sh-"

Jason turns to look at the girl but she has disappeared.

"Sh- She's gone? Where did she go?" asks Jason.

Gerelda is not listening to what he is saying- she is more focused on the fact that he is okay.

"I'm so glad you're okay." She says as she blows her nose on his T-shirt.

"Why do you always do this, eh? Why do you always have to make me worry?!

Why would you just jump infront of a truck like that, huh?!"

Jason gazed at Gerelda with a confused and distorted look on his face.

"What do you mean…?" he asks gerelda.

"Didn't you see the girl?She was about to get hit by the truck."

"Jason…there was no one infront of the truck…" responds Gerelda with a concerned tone.

"Huh…? But I swear.-"

"Are you sure you are okay Jason?" asks Gerelda.

Gerelda took him back to the store and Jason began to think.

"I swear there was a girl here, but no one else saw her.

Argh, maybe that fall was worse than I thought."

"Are you sure you can go to the ship right now? Asks Gerelda,

You took quite the knock."

"I'll be okay Tia." Says Jason,

"I'm sure Cap's on his way anyway. You shouldn't worry about me and focus on enjoying your time with him."

"Oh mi sobrino, be safe." Says Gerelda.

Jason grabs his bag and fills it up with lollipops for the road and runs towards the ship.

Gerelda watching on from the bakery begins to speak.

"I know you are there Cesare." She says,

"You can come out now, there's no point in hiding."

A few seconds pass and Captain Cesare "Don" Quatararo emerged seemingly out of nowhere.

"How long did you kno-" Cesare tries to say

"Since the truck." Gerelda interjects.

Cesare laughs:"I could never fool you."

"And you never will." Responds Gerelda as she laughs whilst taking Cesare into the bakery,

"Yet you still try."

A few minutes later Jason arrives at the shore and sees what he has been waiting to see since he was a child.

"II Grande Apalachin"

Says Jason, completely awestruck….

Τριακοστή πρώτη Δεκεμβρίου