This chapter is rated R for some implied adult stuff.
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The acrid smell of smoke filled the air. Quirna shot bolt upright in her bed, sniffing the danger. Jumping from her cot and grabbing a blanket, she ran to her parents’ bed, calling, “Mother! Father! The house is on fire and we must get out at once!”
Locating the bed, stumbling a bit in the dark, she made out the shadowy form of her mother. “I’m here, child. Your father won’t wake up, as usual.” Her voice was strangely calm for someone in the midst of a disaster. “Sweetheart, you go on out & I’ll follow as soon as I can get your father up.”
“I love you, Mother! Please hurry!” With that Quirna obeyed, expecting her parents to follow momentarily. She ran out the door to the safety of her yard, although loath to leave her parents inside. However, she knew she needed to obey in order to keep herself safe. Unfortunately, the only water source was a river too far away to be able to put out the flames; by the time she filled one bucket and dumped it on the fire and returned for the next, the house would likely be only a small pile of ashes. Instead, Quirna was forced to watch the only home she ever knew burn to the ground.
After a few minutes, her worry intensified when she noticed neither of her parents had come out of the abode yet. She ran to the front door but it held enough heat that she had to stand several feet away. Calling to her parents, she ran to the back door and found the same scenario there. Completely devastated but still vaguely aware of her surroundings, she noticed the thatched roof of the barn also caught some flames and would soon burn too. She went inside and set free the few animals they owned – a pig, cow, horse, and one sheep. Then, utterly exhausted, Quirna sat in the grass & stared blankly at the devastation. Once she got over her shock, the sobs came and wracked her entire body. She blamed herself for not forcing her mother to join her; this was a burden she would carry for the next few years.
“No!” Quirna cried, awaking with a small scream. It was the same nightmare she’d experienced practically every night these past two years. She looked around at her small cabin, which she shared with three teenage boys, who were all fast asleep in their bunks and undisturbed by her nightmare. Settling down into her own bunk, she reflected on her life’s tragic events. At 20 years old, her life had undergone an interesting turn since her parents died in the house fire when she was 18. No one had wanted to take in the poor, homeless young woman with no family and nothing to her name except the clothes on her back. Nobody would marry her either, due to the fact that her father held the reputation of being a bit lazy, and they expected the daughter to be likewise. Thus she wandered around South Gondor, or Harondor as the natives called it, for several weeks.
One day, she was near the Bay of Belfalas when she happened upon a group of corsairs. She had always preferred men’s britches to dresses, but her mother always insisted that although they were poor and lived in the middle of nowhere, they needed to look and act like ladies; luckily for her, she was allowed to wear pants for sleeping. Her nightclothes were the only garments she had left. Extremely grimy and smelly from not being able to properly bathe, the men mistook her for a young boy. She figured she was safer that way among the pirates anyway. Something else that used to bother her but now rescued her purity was the fact that she was not well endowed and her shirt was loose enough that her telltale bosom was hidden nicely. However, once they took her in she’d wrap her chest with cloths for the day, just to be on the safe side, then release herself in the dark of the night. She also kept her hair trimmed short, hoping it would yield a more masculine appearance.
Spotting the campfire in their midst, Quirna had cautiously approached the warm flames. “Mind if I warm myself?” she inquired timidly.
“Arg, me hearties! Look at the young lad! Naught but skin and bones!” the captain shared a good laugh with his men. However two of the pirates scooted aside to provide a place for her to squeeze next to the fire. Captain Jagwind asked of his new companion, “What brings you to these parts, young sir?”
Sensing the danger yet excited about the prospect of meeting real live corsairs, Quirna withheld her womanhood while explaining her tragedy.
Upon some consideration, the leader inquired, “Well, iffen ye have nowhere else to go, I’d be happy to take ye on as a cabin boy. What’d ye say, matey?”
“I accept, kind sir!” And so Quirna began her career as a corsair, since it seemed the best and only option at the time. Her new mates guessed she was twelve and she did not deny it in order to protect herself. As she spent two years with them, they taught her to defend herself with both a cutlass & throwing knives. They knew her as Finn, a name she invented once she met them in order to protect her identity; a shark’s fin was one of the first things she noticed besides the pirates.
Now you may wonder about Quirna’s female issues and how she was able to hide that while on a ship amongst all males. Well, pirates are rather unsavory characters and tend to have many diseases, so a discharge of blood is not uncommon among them. That fact made it rather easy to hide her femininity; they never gave it a second thought and failed to notice it was at the same time each month, too busy being corsairs to notice.
As she learned the thieving and plundering ways of the corsairs, the new recruit ended up adopting a young kitten found on the shores one day. A scrawny orange tabby, the male cat was christened Starfish and became Finn’s constant companion. The corsairs allowed him because they needed cats to keep down the rat population and one more wasn’t a big deal. Their new recruit could barely contain her excitement.
However, she held little thrill about the prospect of pillaging and plundering innocent people who were likely as poor as her family. On the other hand, she realized she had no other way to survive and felt obliged to follow the pirates in their thieving ways. Quirna had always hated the thought of killing creatures for food, even though she did enjoy the meat they provided. Her father tried to treat her as if she was a boy, and she liked that in some ways because it gave her more freedom and she was able to do many things a girl did not normally participate in. Yet she hated that men were supposed to be tough and insensitive, thus her mother helped her keep and enhance her gentle demeanor. With the corsairs she had to push this part of her personality aside in order to hold her own among them. While she did not like that in the slightest, she knew it was important to blend in with them and appear to like their ways, even if she would never truly be a pirate at heart. She secretly longed to leave her new companions and marry so she could have her own home, but she saw no way to make that possible. However, an opportunity to escape presented itself in a most unusual way.
One day, Captain Jagwind called Quirna to his quarters. “Finn, ye’ve been the best cabin boy I’ve had in ten years! I think you are ready and the best choice for a special task. What’d ye say?” he questioned and commended her, a kindly and almost fatherly look in his eyes.
“Well, sir, I should like to hear what you want me to do, although it does sound rather intriguing!” She was surprised the captain wished her to complete a secret mission for him.
“Arg, Rohan is me enemy an’ has been for a long time. Ye’re the only one of me crew that could pass as a member of the accursed Rohirrim, since none of us have yer golden locks, so I’d like ye to go into their midst as a spy. Rumor has it that the Dunlendings have attacked their nasty country, and I want you to go into their midst and find out their weaknesses, how we can best infiltrate their kingdom and take over.”
Quirna pondered his request a few moments before answering. “I would like to undertake that task, Captain! When do I leave?”
“Aha! I knew ye’d do it! That’s the spirit, laddie! How about you leave at first light? I shall provide you enough coinage to buy a horse. Although I could likely send our ship up the River, I don’t want to risk damaging me vessel or warning anyone of me approach until we are ready to attack, perhaps even meet up with the Dunlendings. Once ye’ve been gone several weeks, I’ll send someone to check with you and send a report back to me so I can plan our attack.”
“Aye, aye, sir!”
“One more thing, your new name shall be Éothain so ye’ll seem one with the bloody Rohirrim. Got it?” the captain stopped her before she left.
“Aye, aye, sir! Sounds good!” Quirna was excited about going on this quest but also rather nervous. The captain dismissed her and she went to her chambers to prepare for her adventure.
“Hey, Finn, whatever are ye doing’?” one of her roommates asked. After living with them two years, the awkwardness of sharing a room faded. Thankfully for her they all had separate bunks, thus her purity was saved. Changing in the darkest portion of the night and once again before dawn became a regular custom, and the three other boys never knew she was actually a female. All four got along splendidly and became fast friends, so seeing her pack up seemed rather unusual.
“Captain Jagwind asked me to go on a special mission for him. I am to leave at dawn tomorrow. I will miss all three of you!” Quirna was sad to leave her new friends but knew getting away from the corsairs would do her good; she noticed she had become rather uncouth, especially during the past year. However, she truly would miss the rough life of a pirate in a strange sort of way.
“Ye’re leaving us? Arg, we’ll miss ye too, matey. I ‘opes your journey goes well!”
“Thank you! I hope it will! Do you mind taking care of Starfish for me? He loves the three of you about as much as he does me. I hate that he can’t come with me.”
“Sure! We all love your kitten and will care for him until your return.”
“Thank you!” Thus she continued packing her bags.
The next morning, Quirna left the ship at dawn as planned. The ship anchored at the mouth of the River Isen and she had been instructed to follow the river until reaching the Fords of Isen, where she could cross and continue the journey to the Hornburg. While there were no cities on the way, the captain thought many farmers built alongside the water and she could probably buy a horse from one of them. Thus as she traveled, she kept watch for any sign of life.
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Two days into Quirna’s journey, she finally spotted a small abode in the distance. She hesitantly approached and found an older man working in the yard.
“Hello!” she called, not wishing to frighten him. She had been given new clothes in order to blend in with the Rohirrim better and so people would not suspect she was a pirate.
“Good day, young sir!” the friendly farmer replied. “What brings you to these parts?”
Since she could not tell the whole truth, she voted for giving the least amount of information. “I am traveling to Rohan to join with the Rohirrim.”
“Without your family? You look too young to be traveling alone.”
“Yes, sir. My family is all deceased and I need some way to support myself. Do you have a horse I could buy from you to make my journey easier?” She tried to stick as much to the truth as possible without revealing anything and hoped she succeeded.
“I do have an extra horse you could have.” He named a price and took her to see him, and she immediately fell in love. The stallion was solid coal black, friendly yet spirited. Quirna paid the farmer and he insisted she come in and eat a meal, so she accepted. Afterwards, she hated to leave the friendly farmer and his wife but knew she needed to be on her way. They made sure she had enough provisions and even provided all the accessories she needed for her new pet.
A couple of hours later, she found herself on horseback traveling along the Isen River. She loved how he felt as though he was one with her as they galloped, trotted, and walked. She decided to call him Silky, because his coat felt slick and soft like silk and his gait was so smooth.
Many days later, Quirna drew close to the Fords of Isen, where she would cross the waters and make her way towards the Hornburg to start her assignment. However, the trip would soon take an interesting turn when she met a stranger at her crossing.