Part III: The Levon Pirates

16. Along Came a Mad Man

Jessica sat on the thatched roof of the tavern, watching the busy cobbled street. She sighed as she thought to herself. She couldn't get the dark and mysterious physician out of her head since her return to Southport. She once again looked down at the street, and she perked up a little. It was officially the weekend of the harvest festival, and the red moon would shine above the centre of the island tomorrow evening.

A big smile soon spread across her face as everyone celebrated around her. Colourful bunting draped from building to building, and confetti fluttered up into the air. Music played loudly and people danced. Bountiful food filled the market stalls, and fairground rides reached as high as the sky. A stage stood in the centre of the town square in preparation for the yearly beauty contest, and, of course, the temple priests had gathered the local offerings to place within the temple.

It was the tradition of the priests to collect offerings from people to give to the harvest god, which usually consisted of food or drink. They were strange men - to Jessica they were, anyway. They always wore long grey robes with a piece of black rope tied around their waists, and cowls concealed their facial features.

They weren't allowed to show their faces to ordinary people, and it would be considered extremely disrespectful to look directly at them. The islanders treated them like gods. People would move out of their way and bow as they walked past.

It was for this reason why Jessica didn't like them; she didn't trust people who thought themselves better than others and wanted to hide their identities. It always felt unnerving to Jessica.

Besides, Jessica did not believe in their harvest god. There were two main religions throughout the world of Aqua. There was the belief in the Ancient Gods, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, and then there was the belief in the Sea Witch Morgana, both of which had connections with one another and had their own ideas when it came to cursed souls and the creation of the world.

Jessica was the same as her father, who was a firm believer of the Sea Witch, Morgana.

Jessica smiled. There was no point in watching the festivities when she could join in on them. She jumped down from her spot on the thatched roof and landed gracefully like a cat landing on all fours. Her hand gripped the hilt of her rapier sword, a sword she had finally given a name.

She might not have trusted Jude and may have found him infuriating, annoying, and extremely teasing, but though she would never admit it to him, she found it nice listening to him speak in her native language. He spoke it well. His pronunciation was perfect, probably better than her own. It had been a long time since she had heard her common tongue spoken out loud - a good seven years - and it brought back happy memories. Because of this, she decided to name her new sword in her native language: Aculeus, which in translation meant Sting.

It seemed most fitting, considering that the names of some of her sword techniques were about bees, and the sword seemed to like it, too. Since naming him, it was like he had finally come alive in spirit, and he would hum and vibrate every so often.

At first, she had sensed that her sword's spirit had been upset with her for not taking good enough care of it. Ever since Jessica had kept better care of Aculeus, he shined as bright as the sun, not a speck of dust on him.

Jessica hummed as she skipped between the different market vendors, trying different foods and buying fresh vegetables. She found one of Mr Simms sweet stalls and bought some more honey drops, letting her favourite flavour entice her taste buds and make her heart melt in delight.

A soft, warm breeze blew through the town and ruffled Jessica's purple crop top, and she felt something hit her black boots. She looked down at her feet and frowned, picking up a pirate hat. It was an old looking hat made from brown leather that had worn at the edges. It was torn in a few places and had been recently stitched on top.

For some reason, the hat reminded her of her father, and she smiled, taking her white beanie off and placing the tricorn hat on instead. She continued to skip along the cobbled pavement back towards the tavern.

While lost in her thoughts, mainly about a particular physician she couldn't seem to get out of her mind, someone unexpectedly collided into the back of her. The force of the momentum sent her flying forward, dropping her basket of vegetables and finding herself tripping over. Out of nowhere, a hand caught her arm and pulled her back onto her feet.

Her breath caught in the back of her throat as she stared up at the man with dirty blonde hair, strong muscles, and a deep scowl on his handsome face. As soon as she stood upright on her feet, the man turned away from her and smacked a dark-haired boy around the back of the head.

"Watch where you're going, Levi!" he shouted.

"My hat!" The one called Levi ignored his blonde friend, pointing and smiling at the tricorn hat on top of Jessica's head, a big grin on his cheerful face.

Jessica tensed, freaked out when he appeared next to her in less than a second and snatched the hat from the top of her head and placed it on his own. A cursed soul she presumed. She should be used to them by now, since her adoptive brother was one, but it still freaked her out when seeing them use their abilities. He had to be super fast.

"Levi?" Jessica looked at the boy.

He looked to be around seventeen years old. He had unkempt black hair, a sprinkle of freckles across his cheeks, and wore a dusty green vest and black denim shorts that came down to his knees, as well as brown leather shoes on his feet.

"Is that short for Captain Levon, also known as the Mad Man?"

The boy's puppy brown eyes lit up, and he nodded.

"That's me!" He cheerfully punched his hands up into the air, a big, child-like grin on his face.

Jessica couldn't help but laugh at him, and her hand covered her mouth as she muffled a soft giggle. She looked at the blonde haired man, who still had a scowl on his face as he stared at her suspiciously.

Jessica looked down at the red longsword and the white dagger attached to his belt. "That must mean you're his first mate, the Demon Slayer Alex?"

He nodded, still scowling. This seemed to be his only expression.

Jessica picked up her basket of vegetables, amazed that she had yet again met another infamous pirate on Harvest Island. The Mad Man was by far her favourite pirate to read about in the papers; he seemed to be turning the world upside down wherever he went, especially since his victory against Pirate Lord Madame Cheng.

However, as Jessica looked at him now, he seemed harmless, and the captain didn't look like the vicious pirate she's heard so much about. He stood blinking away, picking his ear and staring at her long red hair in awe.

He flicked the wax he had picked, and it landed on Alex's tense cheek.

Levi started laughing, and a disgusted look fell across Alex's face as a dark aura shrouded his green eyes.

"Hey! Don't flick your earwax at me!" Alex punched Levi in the face, sending his captain flying across the street and knocking into a priest.

Everyone in the street gasped in horror, and Jessica's smile immediately fell. The road fell deadly quiet; all that could be heard was Levi laughing as he jumped back up onto his feet, patting the dust down from his clothes.

"Sorry, old man!" Levi dragged the priest onto his feet, accidentally flicking his hood back in the process and revealing the priest's face.

It was an ungodly sight; the man was bald with tribal tattoos covering his face, his eyes dark as he glared down at Levi.

Once again, everyone gasped and started running away; it was a crime on the island to take the hood off the priest. Things were made even worse by the fact that it was the High Priest, Jessica noticed the red rope around his waist instead of usual black.

"Hey." Alex looked sharply at Jessica. "What's going on? Why is everyone running away?"

"Your captain just committed a sacrilege by touching and looking into the eyes of the High Priest." Jessica looked over in the direction of stomping feet, a cold sweat beading down her face. "The temple guards are on their way. We have to run."

During the chaos, Jessica grabbed hold of Alex's wrist and grabbed Levi by the collar of his green vest as she ran past him. With speed as fast as hers, the temple guards would have seen nothing but a blur as she ran down the street, gracefully dodging out of the way of the locals and tourists. The entire time, Levi laughed his head off as he flopped behind Jessica like a rippling flag, his hand on his head to stop his pirate hat from flying off.

Jessica finally made it to the tavern, and a puzzled Elena looked at her from behind the bar.

"You're dancing up on stage in five minutes," Elena reminded her with a scowl as the three of them approached the bar.

"Why are you always causing trouble?" The first mate continuously whacked the top of his captain's head, who was still laughing his head off.

Was this really Mad Man Levon who fought against the Pirate Lord Madame Cheng? Jessica sighed; their captain seemed like an idiot.

Levi had stopped laughing and breathed in deeply, trying to calm himself down and ordered some food while Alex ordered a whiskey. Both of them were carefree, not at all bothered that Levi had committed sacrilege. The whole island would be after the pair of them by the end of the day.

Alex looked darkly towards the barmaid; she seemed oddly familiar, but he forgot about it when she placed his whiskey down in front of him. He immediately chugged down the beverage and ordered another one.

Jessica ordered a rum.

While picking his ear and wiping the wax on the back of Alex's white shirt without him realising, Levi stared at the girl that had saved his life. His head was tilted as he continued to stare at her. More importantly, he stared at her crimson hair, blinking away like he was waiting for something to happen. Then something clicked in his head.

"Are you Azalea Flint?"

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