For details regarding the series: A Story from 10 Words, please read my about page, and feel free to contact me with your own 10 words and I will write you a story!

If you would like to read some of the other submissions, please check out the series page!

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This week’s submission came from the lovely girlygeekgirl, please stop by and check out her blog when you have time!  She is an extremely prolific writer and has something different and interesting put up for each day of the week!

Her submission details were as follows:

Words: Map, lost, gold, treasure, royal, ancient, flower, sparkle, smile, mystery

Theme: Disney’s The Little Mermaid

Song: “Colourful” by Rocco Deluca and the Burden

This is the story I created from it:

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Charlotte’s Story

Standing at the bow of Leviathan’s Bane, staring out at the rolling sea, a wolfish grin touches the cracked lips of her captain.  The spray of the salt water and the brisk ocean air fill her lungs with the promise of a long awaited dream.  Her wild copper hair flies back from her catlike face as she grips an ancient map in her thin, long-fingered hand. 

Today.  It will finally be mine today. 

Her first mate saunters up, a portly man made of leather and grease.  He sets his feet wide and crosses his arms over his barrel chest and spits over the railing into the trailing wind. 

“Ya syar ‘bout this, cap’n?  I ain’t likin’ tha’ smell a ‘er.”   

The captain turns, raising a thin eyebrow at her first mate. 

“I was unaware you had a sense of smell, Mac.” 

Mac gives her a wide smile, his yellowish brown teeth peering out at her from behind the tangle of his salt and pepper beard. 

“Aye, I keen smell.  Like a hawk, I am.”

The captain drew in her brows and blinked quickly, her mouth dropping open for a moment. 

“I believe hawks are known for their sight.  I am actually quite certain birds have no sense of smell, Mac.” 

The smile faded from his lips and the gruff old man spat again. 

“I still ain’t settled.  Nasty piece a’ business ya drug us ow ‘ere fer.” 

The captain knows exactly what Mac’s problem is and the man is just beating around the bush, a tactic she has no time for.  She needs to focus on what will come next.

“You don’t trust the fairy.  That’s your problem.” 

Mac bristles, shaking his head quickly and crossing himself. 

“Dreadful back luck, them.  Tha’s why they are so blasted small,” he says in a whisper, turning his head to the left and right to make sure he was not being overheard. 

A small gold necklace hanging around the captain’s long, thin neck lifts up and floats toward Mac.  There is a sphere at the end of the chain the size of a walnut and it begins to glow impossibly bright, a flower of amber gold light accosting his face.  Mac leaps back and crosses himself again, a string of indiscernible curses erupting from his lips.  The captain’s sharp emerald eyes flash at her first mate and she wraps her delicate fingers around the amulet, whispering to it.  The glow dies down and she returns her valuable to its place under her shirt. 

“I would be more careful with your words, Mac.  Wouldn’t want you to end up with a tail or the like.” 

The gruff old sailor spins away from the captain and begins shouting orders.  He wants nothing to do with magic.  The captain turns back to the open sea and unfolds the map she has been crushing in her other hand.  All her life she has searched for the ultimate treasure, and now she holds the key.  The location of the lost city, the pathway to the ultimate royal treasure.  She would be robbing the great sea king himself today.  Another slow grin plays on her thin lips and she looks down at the amulet. 

“You are certain it’s possible?  There is no doubt?”

The amulet sparkles an intense gold and the captain feels the warmth from her new magical friend like the sun on a perfectly clear day.  It was settled then.   The captain casts her eyes back over her shoulder to see if the others are watching and knows that many have given her up for crazy.  They think what she seeks is only a myth, but she knows better.  She is about to prove that. 

Finding herself alone and unwatched, the captain stuffs the map into her breast pocket.  This too is a magical object, otherwise it would not survive what happens next. 

“I am trusting you, my friend.  Don’t fail me,” she whispers a final time to the amulet around her neck.  “It’s time to drink like it’s water and swim like fire.”  Casting her eyes upon the horizon the captain feels her heart leap in her chest.  “There is no tomorrow.”  

Then Captain Red, the most notorious treasure hunter roaming the Pacific, mounts the railing of her own ship and dives into the deep blue sea, never to surface again.

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Some say Captain Red Grayhomme died, drowned by the sea she spent her life taming, but her first mate refuses to accept that.  Mac claims that nothing could have killed Captain Red so easily as all that.  “She was made of the sea.  Practically a fish herself,” he says. 

So what drove her into the sea that day?  Why would the wealthiest pirate known to man abandon her beloved ship and crew.  The mystery still survives to this day.  Did Captain Red drown?  Is she just another cast off rattling about in the bowels of Davy Jones locker?  Or was there something more? 

Those who know the legend best speak of an old map she carried around with her, day and night.  They will tell of a fairy she caught in the forests of Ireland and of an old legend, the legend of the lost city and the god who ruled it.  They speak of a magic that transforms and the powers of the ancient Nereids.  These are the ramblings of the superstitious to many, and the gospel for those who live by the sea.

These men would tell you that, when the sea rises and the riles of the deep have been ignited, a flash of darkest red can be seen.  There, rising above the tide astride a great hippocampus with a great forked trident in her hand and an army of dolphins at her side, you can see the captain again. 

Though, this would be the last thing you ever saw in life. 

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If you would like your own story, please feel free to contact me with 10 words, a theme (it can be a genre, favourite movie or book) and a song and I will write you a story as well!  I am open to any and all submissions!  They are posted every Sunday.  

Next Sunday (21st February) will be Aubrey’s Story.  Look forward to it please!

We will also be having a special edition next week, released on Monday, February 22nd!  It will be the sequel to Framboise’s Story! 

Thank you all for reading and your feedback is greatly appreciated.