Cap'n Savvy and the Windy Cave

Captain Savvy and the Windy Cave

***

Savvy dashed through the island's jungle flora as fast as she could.  Fleeing in the dark through totally unknown territory was a lot simpler than she expected:  just run away from the noises of the angry native cannibals, and keep an eye open for whatever was ahead-OUCH!  She winced as her right foot hit that banyan root wrong and her ankle twisted.  It slowed her down quite a bit, but not enough to stop dodging the arrows and spears zipping past her head.

"Ow!" Except for that one; it hit her in the shoulder blade.  She pushed on toward the isle's mountain, grimacing at an uphill path that'd slow her down even worse.  She looked heavenward to the starry sky, wordlessly begging Providence for a way of escape.    

Further up the mountainside, she didn't see it until she nearly ran into it:  a monstrously big, gaping cave mouth.  And with the stalactites, stalagmites, and the eye and nostril shaped hollows above it, it did look like a monster ready to eat her.

The savages down below whooped some more, drawing closer.  Savvy steeled her nerve, and hurried into the dark unknown to hide from the sure doom.  Stepping quickly and lightly, she felt her way around, feeling for a rock to pick up for a weapon.  Stretching out hurt; that shoulder blade ached and throbbed, more than a simple puncture wound should.  Feeling her back, she found and plucked out what hit her: a blowgun's dart.  

Savvy suddenly flushed.  A wave of heat washed over her face.  As sweat and a dreaded suspicion peppered her brow, she gently touched the dart's point with her tongue. Pftu!  She quickly spat the bitter taste out.  Poison!

Her arm tightened and stiffened.  Everything spun around in her dizzy delirium.  A sudden wind rushed through the cavern -- or did she simply imagine that?

It can't end like this, she thought.  Please, Lord, it can't end like--

As the surging currents flapped her sleeves like sails into the eye of the storm, she staggered in a circle, fell to sitting, flopped on her back and splayed out on the ground like a sad, lonely drunkard.

Her dreams were a blur.  She thought she felt someone carry her... someone lay her out to rest...  something sharp nick into her wound...something suck away at her wound... something else wash it and cover it with some sort of sticky patch... water held to her lips, which she drank... a soft blanket cover her body... and then murky, dreamless dark.

Much later, her clearest sensations were her sore shoulder blade and someone else's loud snoring.  Slowly, stiffly she rose to sit up straight and feel her injury.  Yes, there was a cloth-like patch, acting like a bandage.  But how did it stay there untied or unstitched?

Her next mystery lay face down on an oddly smooth blue table top by some printed papers, what looked like some bright yellow styluses, and a book.  Snoring away  was a very chubby young lad in a shirt with colors more suited for a highlander's kilt.  What were the Scots doing this far southwest, she wondered. He stirred a little; his fingers brushed the book's spine, which read: Emergency First Aid in the Wild.

She looked around.  She was still in some cave's mouth, but not the one she ran into last night.  It didn't have the candles or table and chairs, to start.  She felt hers: it was like polished stone or bone, but it felt too thin and brittle for either.  And what looked like morning sunlight shining in didn't strike her as the tropics.  In fact, the air seemed a lot cooler, even for being in a cave.

"SssnwwoOOOHHHRK!"  The lad's head shivered as he snored himself awake.  He blearily raised it up and faced her, blinking and rubbing his eyes.

"Oh! Uh, you're up?" he said.  "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to doze off.  Never was good at all nighters.  Are you all right?"

"A fair sight better than I was last night," Savvy said.  "Where am I?  What happened to the savages?"

He puzzledly stared back.  "Savages? What savages?"

Savvy scrunched her eyebrows.  "Savages!  The savages!  You know, those blasted islanders around here!  With the bows, arrows, and darts!"  She turned her back to him and showed her wound.  "The ones that gave me this!"

The fellow blinked.  "I thought that was some sort of poisonous animal bite," he said.  "Swelling sure looked like it."  Then mumbling to himself,  "No way you could be an actor.  Nobody I ever met's THAT dedicated."

She grimaced.  "Actor?! I be no actor! I be Captain Savvy!  And who be you, some marooned physician's son?"

He shook his head.  "Nah, that was just some first aid.  Better get a real doctor to look at that, though."

"You got one on this isle?"

"Look, we're not on any isle, okay?  We're in the mountains.  Near Libertyville, Virginia."  He peered at her.  "America... uh, Earth."

"Aye, aye, I know where Virginia be...wait, Virginia?!  How'd ye whisk me to the colonies so fast?"

"Uh... we're states now." And he reached into a black bag and pulled out what looked like a big book made of the same stuff as the table.  He continued, "And you came to me.  I just came in last night to fiddle with some roleplaying game stuff, and there was this big wind from inside here -- blew out my candles.  Then I heard something hit the ground.  I went in to check it out... and there you were."  By then he'd flipped the book open so the front cover stuck straight up.  By itself, no less.  The pages seemed to glow mysteriously.  

"What sort of book be this, Tosh?"

He looked up.  "Tosh?"

"That be your name, aye?"  She pointed at the cover.  "Tosh Ibba."

He snickered at that.  "No, no, you say that Toe-Sheeba.  And my name's Henry.  Henry Case."

Henry turned the mysterious book-thing to face her.  The page that glowed was really a colorful glass pane, and the facing "pages" on the table were curious dark grey squares with letters, numbers, and symbols, many of which she didn't recognize.  On the lit glass plate was a map which showed the world.  And as Henry traced a finger here and touched a square and rectangle there, the world grew seemingly closer.  It closed in on eastern America, and while all the borders weren't exactly how she recalled, she recognized old Virginia.  Why it was split in two parts, she had no idea.  And it n it centered on a spot labeled Libertyville.  It was like what a bird might see from way up in the sky.  The roads and buildings sure looked strange to her.

Then she spotted something.  "Hey, what be this in the corner?"  And she focused on the lower right.  There was a date:  July 25, 2011.

"Be this today's date, Henry?" she asked.

"Aye.  I mean, yeah,"

She stared at that date for a long while.  "The year of our Lord Two Thousand and Eleven?" she murmured.

The dread started to seep in.  All her mates, her allies.  Her friends.  Her loved ones, her sweetheart.  Gone.  Dead for three centuries.  And no clue to what sort of hazards, threats, and changes awaited in this maddeningly strange and unknown future.  

And worst of all -- she had to face it alone.  

"Hey," Henry said, "are you all right?"

NO.  Despair was for the weak, drunken, and dying.  Providence brought her here for a reason.  And also brought her this fairly good-hearted lad, who knew a good bit of medicine and, judging by his jowls and belly, knew where to find food, too.

On that, her own gullet gurgled hollowly.  Henry glanced at that.  "Time for breakfast, huh?"

Savvy half-smiled.  "Don't suppose ye've got anything to eat?"

Searching through the clutter around him, Henry found something that rustled like paper.  "Aha," he said, "got a spare.  It's not cereal, milk, juice and toast, but it'll do 'till we hit the kitchen."

He handed her a light brown object wrapped in something like paper but smooth and clear like crystal.  It shone with some painted colors and a smiling girl in a funny white and blue hat.  She read her name:  "Little Debbie?"

"Yeah," Henry said. "My favorite."

She fumbled with the wrapped thing, not sure what to do with it.  Henry, amused by this, picked up another one, and showed her how to remove the wrapping.  Then he pulled out the thing... it looked like a disk-like cake with white creme in the middle... and took a bite.

Tearing at the corner, she removed her own "paper" and took out her own.  Cautiously, she nibbled.  A blast of sweetness with hints of cinnamon and spice covered her tongue.  Grinning ear to ear, she took a full bite.  Then a second, then a third.  And before she knew it, she'd devoured  the whole thing.

Savvy looked at Henry with an embarrassed smile.  If all the food in this world was as good as this, she feared she'd end up as fat as him.

Then she looked at the table.  "What are all the papers with numbers for?"

"Oh, that?" Henry held up a colorful card-like box with a knight fighting a dragon on it.  "That's a role-playing game called Swordsmen and Sorcerers. We... well, mostly just I act out adventures, make characters, have fun role-playing."

"Role-play?  Like an actor on stage?"

"Well, some do live action role playing in the Ren Fairs and the university, but here we create characters, announce moves, roll dice for combat, that sort of thing."

"No action?  Ye simply sit around the table and pretend like playin' children?"

Henry bristled at that.  "No, we roll dice for combat and... Well, it's just me, mostly. Lots of solo adventure stuff."  He sighed and mumbled, "Never was Mr. Popularity."

Savvy looked at Henry cock-eyed.  "So ye've never truly handled a sword in yer life, then?"

"Uhh... no."

"Hmph. Well, come now, show me."

"Huh? What's that?"

"Ye heard me." And Savvy pushed up on the table to stand, taking care not to hurt her right foot any worse.  "I want to see how well ye can handle it.  Need to get these bones out into the day anyway."

"But... But we don't have any swords," Henry protested.  "And I'm not a swordsman."

"Fah.  We'll make do.  Ya got two mops, we be in business."  And she half-leaned, half-pushed on him toward the cave's mouth.

He led her into a clearing in the woods, which verily beautified the mountain range around them.  About half a mile later, they came to the wooded lawn and a metal shed behind Henry's house.  It seemed very nice, if a bit shinier and smoother than what she'd seen in St. Kitts.  In the shed, she found and grabbed two lengths of pipe made of the same stuff as her chair.  They'd do the job, she figured as she handed Henry one and raised the other.

"Right, then. Try and swat me with yer pipe."

Unsure, Henry took a tentative jab at her.  Savvy slapped his strike away easily.  He tried again from another way.  She blocked that one, too.  He tried again from two o'clock, nine, four, ten, high noon.  Thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk went his pipe against her parries.

"Ye're usin' too much wrist," she said as he swung away.  "Swing with yer ARM... nay, nay, nay, ye're using yer wrist again.  Hold it straight and stiff.  Like this!  "Thwack!  She smacked Henry's pipe out of his hand.  "See? Yer arm's where your strength is.  Use THAT to strike!"

But as soon as he'd picked up his weapon, Savvy resumed the attacks, slashing away as he blocked sloppily and shied away from her in fear.  "Nay, nay, nay!" she chided.  "Stand yer ground, parry, and strike back like I showed ya!  Why are ye cowering away?"

"Cuz I don't wanna get hit, that's why!" Henry snapped.

"Blast ye, yer gettin' put down and scared off by a woman! A wounded, injured, poisoned lass that weighs half as much as ye!"

"I never said I was any good at this," Henry huffed.

Savvy exhaled sharply, "Tosh, if ye'd stop telling me and the world how good ye never were, and just work on being as good as ye can be, ye'd be a legend by now."  She lowered her own pipe.  "I mean, blimey, ye're well fed, ye're smart enough to read 'n write, ye got magic glowing books that teach ye medicine... ye saved me life, hang ye!  Ya need some swagger in yer step!  If ya always say ye'll never be ready, willing or able ta--"  Then she stopped and cocked her head.  "What was that?" she muttered lowly.

"What was what?" Henry asked.

"Sch," she whispered, holding up a hand.  "Somebody's comin'.  Two of 'em."

"I didn't hear anything," Henry said, turning around.  And there on the edge of the lawn were two older youths with dirty blue trousers, short sleeved dark shirts and sneering smiles.

"Well, whad'we got here?" asked the taller, older one, as they strode onto Henry's lawn.

"Hey, Basket Case," asked the shorter one, "who's the chick?"

Savvy looked at Henry.  "Ye know these two lubbers?"

He hung his head.  "I'm afraid I do."

"Hey, girl," the short one said, "what's with the get-up?  There a costume party somewhere last night?"

"Yeah," the taller one said, "looks pretty historical."  He reached for her chin with his hand.  "Almost as pretty as you, babe."

Savvy smacked his hand aside.  "Belay that."

"Hey, I'm just bein' friendly," he continued.

"Look, Phil," Henry said, "she doesn't want you to touch her like--"

"Excuse me," Phil said.  And he turned to Henry. "SSHH!" he went harshly.  And he turned back to Savvy.  "Now--"

"Hey, Savvy, let's go inside or something," Henry interrupted.

Without looking, Phil stuck out his hand, palmed Henry's face, and pushed him so he fell to seating.  "I said shut up."

Phil's buddy put in, "Hey, you're a pirate babe.  What say we go exploring for booty, huh?"  And he smacked her lightly on her bottom.

Now Savvy glowered as the two laughed.  She had experienced worse than that from better than them.  But she realized she had to teach the louts a lesson, hurt and poisoned or not.  

But before she could say anything, Henry had sprung to his feet, rushed up and belly-bumped  Phil's friend back, and got between her and them.  "Now THAT'S ENOUGH!" he shouted.  

Phil just stared at Henry, "Beat it, lardball," he said softly, "before I break your nose."

"Tell her you're sorry," Henry demanded.

"What?"

"You heard me.  Tell her you're sorry."

Phil put his hands on his hips. "Fine." And he poked Henry in the chest.  "You're sorry. A sorry sack of--"

And faster than that bully, his friend, or even Savvy expected, Henry Case grabbed his tormentor's arm in one hand, his trousers by the hip in the other, hefted him up, careened and swung him around in a circle, and with a heave-ho hoisted him to head level and THWOMP! He slammed him on the ground like a sack of manure.

His friend quickly grabbed Henry by the collar and drew back his fist.  But Savvy had discretely reached into the shed had grabbed the first thing she could find:  a bow rake with steel teeth.  She swung the handle down sharply on the hooligan's arms, breaking his grip.  

"That's for coming here without permission!" she snapped. And she turned to Phil.  Thwack! "That's for mussing my face!"  Thwack!  "That's for insulting and knocking down my host!"  She turned back to Phil's toady.  THWACK!  "And THAT'S for not laying off my stern!"

And Henry had grabbed Phil again and shoved him onto the paved road.  Finally the two had had enough, and they fled, sprinting down the street.  "We'll pay you back for this, you psychos!"  Phil shouted back.

"Be glad she didn't use the metal end on ya!" Henry bellowed after them.  "And don't come back!"

Savvy caught her breath and came alongside him.  "Matey," she said with a smile, "I be thinkin' they won't."

Just then, a piece of paper floated past.  Henry blinked.  "Hey, that looked like...."  He chased and caught it.  "Yeah, it's my character sheet!"

"From your little game at the cave?"

He turned his head that way.  "Probably one of their jerk buddies over there trashing my place while they were hassling us!  Just their speed!  And my computer's there, too!"

Savvy smirked.  "Well, guess we're going to give them a swordplay lesson, too."  

And Henry broke into a quick jog while Savvy kept up, her ankle and shoulder blade giving her nary a protest.  Down the trail, more papers wafted their way.  They both stopped to grab each one, but hurried on to the cave after they did.  The breeze got stronger as they drew nearer.  When they finally arrived at the cave's mouth, a constant gale rushed out to greet them.

"The wind.  This be much like when I hid in that cave to escape the island savages and ended up here," Savvy remarked.

"Wow," Henry said.  "Sort of like a wormhole?"

"Wormhole?"  She squinted at him quizzically, but shrugged it off.  "If it be windy now like when you carried me here... maybe it be my way back to the world I knew."  And she handed him his sheets back.  

Henry stared at that cave mouth.  Then his eyes gleamed.  "Yeah!  A chance to see the world of pirates!  A REAL adventure!"  And he sprang forward to enter... only to be blocked by Savvy's upheld stiff arm.

"Avast," she said.  "Where I go, I fear ye cannot follow."

"But..." Henry stammered.  "But... the adventure!  High seas and plunder!  Doubloons, gold treasure, cutlasses and booty!  The stuff movies and video games are made of!  For real!"  He looked at the character sheets and just cast them aside.  "This IS a baby's pretend game!"

Savvy turned to face him and gripped his shoulders firmly but tenderly.  "Lad," she said, "odds are you'd find my world as bewildering and frightening as I fear yours seemed to me at first glance.  And what about your family?  Yer REAL friends here?"  Her eyes locked onto his.  "This be YER ground.  Stand, watch, fight for and keep it."   

Henry's lip quivered a bit.  "But... I'll never see you again."

Savvy arched an eyebrow.  "Ye never expected to see me the first time, did ye?"  And she gave him a hug.  "If Providence wills it, there'll be no way to keep me away.  For now..." And she let go and smiled grandly.  "Stand proud, swagger, and carry on."

And she stepped smartly into the cave and found her way past the chairs and table with the magic book.  Soon she wondered how wise it was to go in with no light, but she simply followed her nose and pushed against the wind.

After what felt like the longest half hour, the wind died off.  And Savvy saw what looked like traces of dim, murky light.  And she also heard chants, grunts, and shadows.  Yes, the savages were waiting outside.  And then one of them gave a primal scream and began a charge with a spear.

PAF!  PAF PAF!  Just outside, she also heard something she was most grateful to hear for once:  musket powder igniting.  The tribesmen scattered from the cave, and the spear warrior got one look in her eyes.  She simply clawed her fingers toward his eyes and shriekingly growled "REAAAAAAGH!"  The fellow quickly turned tail and fled outside.

By the entrance, a familiar voice yelled, "Hallo!  Ahoy!"

She shouted back, "Aye, who be this?!"  

And by the time she came out, she saw the torchlight, and several burly men with cutlasses, muskets, and blunderbusses at the ready.  Her crew.  Her first mate stepped forward.  "Ye be all right, cap'n?"

"A bit banged up, but recovered, thank ye kindly, lads."

"With all respect, cap'n," her boatswain said, "next time ye leave camp and head off for a midnight stroll, perhaps ye should tell one of us!"  

With a shrug, she felt her pockets... and heard a crinkle.  Unsure, she reached in... and pulled out the clear paper-like wrapper with the smiling girl on it.

A swabbie with a torch peered hard at it.  "Little Debbie?  Who the devil be that?"

Savvy pocketed it, and draped around her arms around her mates' shoulders.  "Me hearties, ye'll ne'er believe my amazing tale...."

***

EPILOGUE

As soon as the wind died down, Henry case went back into the cave.  Grabbing and lighting a candle, he explored the deepest recesses of the caverns.  But though he looked high and low for hours, he found a dead end, an empty beer can, some cigarette butts, and that was it.  No passages.  No winds.  And no Savvy.

Sighing in disappointment, he gathered his role-playing game stuff, powered down and closed up his laptop, and packed the works into his bag.  Maybe he dreamed the whole thing?  No, he still felt the grass stains and bump from being pushed down.  Oh well.  He headed back to the house to see about getting a late lunch.  

"Henry!" his mother called.  "Get in here NOW!"

Oh no, he thought.  Phil's folks must've called up about that beatdown.  No way she'd buy his story.

But when he came in, there was a dark-skinned man in a nice navy blue three-piece suit waiting in the living room.  "Henry, honey," his mother said, "this man was asking for you.  And your ID."

"Are you Mr. Henry Case?" he asked with a friendly smile and an extended hand.  

"I aaaaammm, sir," Henry answered and handshook very tenatively.

"I'm Thomas Montague from the Caribbean Privateers Historical Society.  I need to make sure you are actually Henry Case."

"Uh, yes, sir."  And he fished out his wallet and presented his driving learner's permit.

Mr. Montague examined it, and nodded.  "Thank you.  Well, this is a miracle."

"What is, sir?"

Mr. Montague reached over and presented a box that looked like a treasure chest crossed with a pool cue case.  "Back in the 1660s," he said, "someone had presented and locked away this box in the vault of the Bank of Port Royal, now the Bank of Kingston, down in Jamaica.  It also had a letter which was sealed with explicit orders not to open it until July, 2011."  He presented the ancient letter, golden brown from aging.  "It had instructions to present this strongbox to a Mr. Henry Case in Libertyville, Virginia in the American colonies on this very day, after twelve noon.  We thought it was a joke or hoax, but incredibly, it's not."  He presented a modern form.  "Would you please sign this, to make sure we've got the right fellow?"    

Getting a pen from his mother, Henry did.  And presented with a key, he opened up his mysterious gift.

Inside on ancient velvet was a well preserved metal training cutlass.  Off to the side were several gold doubloons.  And right within another fold was another sealed envelope.  Henry carefully flipped it open and got the letter out.  It read:

Henry,

Just in case I fail to see you again on this side of eternity, I present you with something to help you practice your swordsmanship.  And Providence willing, the money inside should be enough to pay for a reputable trainer.  

Thank you very kindly for your assistance in my time of need.

Captain Savvy

And enclosed with the letter was a very brittle, faded piece of cellophane.  The image of a smiling young girl could be barely made out.  

Mr. Montague blinked.  "How'd that get in there?"

Henry stared at him.  "Sir... you're never going to believe this...."

The End