Acquisition of the Dancing Dagger.

  Extended leave was usually something that Ruby could enjoy with drunken nights both dancing and spending time in a lovely woman's arms. This was not one of those times. Right now she was stuck in a small harbor town of New Moon Landing, and was as quiet as the moon appeared. Nightfall signaled all of the residents to close their shops and almost like a parade, the residents went home. When Ruby found out that there was only one tavern that stayed open, she’d practically run to the doors wearing her trusted red and yellow-gold dance dress that she’d had made special for her. Flowing like water, the dress hugged her well-developed frame and hugged her hips perfectly. Together with sunlight-orange streamers on her wrists and well-pced rubies to present a lovely sparkle, Ruby had entered the tavern with the expectation of drunken, dance and delightful dies.

  Nothing prepared her for the complete opposite. Ruby had darted through the door almost like a ballerina anxious to perform her art, and found that it was nearly empty and the tables that were occupied were with other bored sailors that looked ready for something of value to occur. It was only after a swift backhanded light smack on Nerice’s chest that her dymate began to ugh.

  “You can hear a pin drop in a pound of hay.” Nerice quietly commented with a half chuckle.

  While she’d been disappointed, Ruby was still Ruby and made the most of her bad situation at the time. Rather than dancing and raising a bit of mayhem, Ruby found the barmaid and ordered the tavern’s only alcoholic item. Ale. When the barmaid arrived with the pint, she didn’t say a word and simply pointed at the sign above the bar that read ‘Three per person, no exceptions.’ When she’d inquired as to why there was a drinking limit, the barmaid had simply told Ruby that they had to ration out what they had to remain open because shipments were slow to arrive in New Moon Landing.

  Much like the town, very little excitement had come from working for a pirate captain named Vance "White Beard" Eldon on board his ship called, “The Broken Cutss.” A man easily thirty years older than herself and more like a grandfather than a captain, Ruby guessed that the man was close to giving up the pirate life completely and settling down to a more quiet life.

  After signing up with the first mate, Ruby came to realize that it wasn’t just the captain who was cking the drive of plundered treasure and sword fighting. Ruby had found herself in a very unusual position where the pirates weren’t as cutthroat as she would have expected and simply followed the rules id down without any real pushback. While the captain did order the scuttling of merchant ships, it wasn’t often and typically the crew would simply tie up the opposing crew and just take a part of the cargo. Furthermore, whenever the captain docked in the bigger towns it was to simply offload the acquired cargo and then right back out to sea.

  “We’ve settled in with the dead, Ner-Ner.” Ruby commented once after having served on the ship for six months of what she considered hell.

  “It would seem we have found the only tame pirate crew in the Caribbean. Have you ever noticed we only attack Spanish and Italian crews?” Nerice offered. “So while normally I would sneak into a captain’s chambers and poke around with my stick, I went to Captain Eldon and just asked him.”

  “I can’t wait for this.” Ruby snorted.

  “He has a letter of marque that will give him titles and estates a little further north.” Nerice ughed, “His companions, while partly-pirate, are considered privateers. Also part of the letter.” She wiggled her bck-gloved fingers like she was removing sand, “The captain even expined that he was giving the ship and crew to his first mate within the year.” She tapped on Ruby’s chest. “Which includes us, Tanya.”

  “Like hell it will.” Ruby swore at the time.

  Since that moment, Ruby had been stuck in a pattern of working during the day with the others and drinking her three ales at night without any real variation. Exploring the stores for things she could possibly want proved fruitless as the townsfolk had little else than fish and the occasional whalebone items like corsets. Beyond that all of the shopping was limited to common colors of gray and white, shirts and mostly leather pants. A single dress store operated, yet had nothing fshy that Ruby admired or was used to from pces like Boston or Paris. Resigned to wearing a red bandeau and a set of skin-hugging pants that buttoned the length of her left side, Ruby didn’t do much more than watch.

  “Even bored out of your skull, you are a dream come true, Tanya.” Nerice purred and id on top of Ruby with her blue scaled ass in the open air. “Don’t worry, none of the others are here. We were careful.” She snickered, “I would hate to see what they’d think of two women.”

  With a heavy coo of contentment from her entire red-scaled body, Ruby swept her lips across Nerice’s blue ones for a quick added kiss, “They haven’t explicitly said it’s forbidden…” Ruby paused, “...though to hear that goofy priest in the chapel, you’d think that the world was nothing but sin.” A single touch to her closed and damaged eye socket from Nerice refocused Ruby in their own little corner of bliss. “No matter how many times you do that, it melts my heart.” Ruby gingerly kissed all of Nerice’s fingers and stretched in her hammock just as Nerice slipped off to the side, exposing their nude and scaled bodies to the world. “Something around here has to change or I might just burn this whole pce to the ground.”

  “I kinda like it.” Nerice calmly stated and waited until Ruby began ughing. “What? You can read my mind so you know I like it a little.” She reached over and felt for Ruby’s cheek, then gave her dymate a quick kiss. “There is something nice about a pce that is devoid of anything.” She lightly chuckled and licked around Ruby’s nipple and got a heavy moan in return. “Although…” Nerice’s scales quickly fshed bck and then back to their normal blue. “...burning that chapel down and staking that priest like he was a vampire might make the town wonder.” She cackled, then raked her blue fingernails along Ruby’s hip and upper thigh.

  “Wicked woman.” Ruby announced.

  “Bck-hearted pirate dy.” Nerice replied.