As in the Pirate of Heffen and Efulric the Apprentice, the events described here took place around two hundred years ago on a world very much like our own. This short story has only recently been discovered.

1

Follow Hathia's rainbow and follow your heart
Follow the track to the centre of earth
Choose any treasure no matter its worth
Turn back on the living and know thee the curse
For life is the key, only then may you feast
Less the riches before you will bring out the beast.

The events related here, seemed at the time to be so insignificant as to be unworthy of a place in the chronicles of my extraordinary adventure on the tropical islands of Heffen. It is beneath these islands that more than a million almost identical worlds drift in empty space.

Subsequent developments however have decided me that this simple tale has sufficient merit to record after all. Whether we live or die in the next few hours hangs very much in the balance. I am forced to face the strong possibility that we are doomed to fail, that the powers set against us were just too powerful for us to resist.

I hope and pray that my humble efforts to record the beautiful Prudence Fairweather's struggle to save our world may find their way into at least some of those other worlds. I am certain that what has taken place here on Heffen will inevitably infect your world sooner or later. Perhaps you may find something that will help your world to prevail.

It is true, however, that this little diversion you have unearthed has absolutely nothing to do with the terrible evil we are now facing. So I do not present it here to throw any light on the final outcome of our endeavours. Rather, now that it seems unlikely any of us will survive, I have taken the opportunity to put pen to paper whilst I am still able.  If my pen is a little shaky and the ink a little blotched, I beg the readers understanding. It seems very possible that we will soon be facing the beginnings of the very end.

***
 I had seen her many times in my dreams. It was always on the same golden sandy beach. I would much later discover the girl to be the notorious pirate of Heffen. Prudence Fairweather was always all but completely naked in my dreams. The tall and curvy, olive skinned apparition, would wade slowly and sensually through the clear shallow tropical water towards me. Her brown eyes sparkled in the tropical sunlight, her dark red curls blowing in the warm and gentle breeze. This shocking vision, filled not just my sleep, but haunted every waking moment of my day.

Her deep brown eyes seemed to mock me. Her swaying hips and one of her long and shapely legs were covered in the finest silk. The material, which fluttered about her in the warm breeze, was a pastel shade of orange and completely transparent. Even in the deepest of my dreams I could feel the fierce heat of the tropical sun beating down on the two tiny figures on the long golden beach.

I could see tiny beads of perspiration form on her smooth brown chest, before running down the curve of her breasts, into the gentle swell of her well-toned abdomen. Sweat was pouring from me too as I tried, but failed, to look away.

This highly improper dream had never varied. I would stand absolutely transfixed as she walked slowly and gracefully towards me, praying that she would press her lovely red lips to mine. It got so as I could no longer imagine closing my eyes, without being transported back to that tropical paradise, and the presence of this impossibly beautiful girl.

Oddly, I confess I had never before laid eyes upon a naked woman outside of these bizarre dreams other, that is, than in paintings and the odd statue. Nor, for that matter, had I ever strayed much further from my parent's country manse than the parish boundary.

Then one day, as I pondered for the umpteenth time the reason for these strangely vivid dreams, it suddenly came to me that I had dreamt of this girl just once before. It had been a long time ago, and the girl in that dream had been much younger. For some reason it had never occurred to me until that moment that it could have been the same girl.

I tried at first to deny any connection. This dream had greatly troubled me at the time. It had been such an enormous relief to wake from this nightmare. Yet it had troubled me greatly for the rest of that day and the next. I felt as if I had been sucked into a dark grey cloud that was slowly squeezing me tighter and tighter so that I could no longer breathe. This was no doubt the reason I had pushed it from my mind. In the old dream, the girl had not been alone. Clutching hold of her hand was a child, whose skin was a beautifully rich dark brown.

At first, I caught only the briefest glimpse of the creature that chased them. It was not human, although perhaps it ought to have been. Wherever this monster came from, it was closer to something prehistoric. Perhaps it was one of the smaller, flesh-eating dinosaurs.

The girl and the child were running and stumbling through torrential tropical rain. They fought their way doggedly through the dense green vegetation, and then turned onto an overgrown path that led to the very edge of the high cliffs overlooking the beach. Tall palms bent double in the storm force wind, like great sea monsters. The terrible storm seemed also to rattle the earth beneath them, as a child might shake a toy.

The storm did much to help impede the girls' desperate bid for freedom. Unfortunately it had absolutely no effect on the beast. The creature was both agile and incredibly fast. There was no doubt that this hideous apparition would catch them. In my dream, I was desperate to help. All I could do was look on powerless to do anything, as with terrible screeching and howling, the monstrous animal tore them apart.

    It is perhaps understandable that I had pushed this nightmare from my mind. The more recent recurring dream had, without doubt, helped me reach my decision to leave the familiar and comfortable surroundings of my father's parish, although I may not have realised that at the time.

A long sea journey all the way across the world to the islands of Heffen. At the time I had no possible way of knowing who she was, or what a dramatic effect she would have on the life of Thomas Anders, the simple geography teacher from England. After all I had always been a man of books, not a man of action and adventure.
***

    Prudence Fairweather had always liked to believe that she was a loner.

"I am an independent girl of independent means," she boasted proudly, her long, red, tangled hair blowing in the strong breeze. She stood tall and proud, cat like. Her long legs were clad in skin-tight breaches and thigh length, well worn leather boots.

The pirates had taken my friend and companion Sydney and me prisoner. They had also captured the young slave boy Odi, who had been looking out for us.

    "Her independence is largely down to the kindness and generosity of passing freighters," pointed out an ugly old man, who had perched himself on top of a pile of old rope and was picking at a dirty fingernail, with a long sharp dagger. "Mind, the more churlish and easily offended would have her hung high if they had their chance," he added, with a grin from one large and lopsided ear to the other.

    "There are times when the best of us might be a little tempted," pointed out a much more agreeable looking man, who was also of advancing years."

    "Please take no notice of these old fools, Thomas Anders," advised the pirate girl, giving me her sweetest smile. "I am a little short of able brained men just now. When I find a couple, I will of course have these two humanly put down." Prudence grinned wickedly, showing a mouthful of white teeth. "It's the kindest thing to do, honestly." She fluttered her big brown eyes innocently. An action, I decided, which had no doubt got the pirate her own way far more often than not.

    In fact as I was to discover later, the two elderly pirates in question, the ugly one, Arthur and his surprisingly debonair friend Harry, were probably the most important people in Prudence Fairweather's life. Both of these rouges were as eager as each other to lay down their life for her.

    "She could manage without that fool," observed Arthur as an aside to me, although clearly he intended his words to be heard by everyone. "Without me, she would sink the Albatross in a day."

    "With you to protect her, my foul faced friend, she would be dead before you'd had a chance to bury me."

    "I've protected her before," insisted Arthur sulkily.

    "Not from demons Arthur. If it had been left to you my old friend's little princess would have been eaten long ago."

    "Stuff and nonsense," argued the beak nosed pirate angrily. "It was you that nearly got her eaten and you know it." Arthur turned to me. "He speaks of the beast of Hathia, my friend. We are cursed with such things in these parts. Only a fool would pretend otherwise."

    "And whose fault is it that Mistress Prudence was nearly lost to us?" demanded Harry, a little angrily. "You were not there when you were needed.

    "Boys will be boys," muttered Prudence. "As I recall, my brothers were just as bad. I expect you are too Mr Anders?"

    "I was not there because I was endeavouring to stop you from drowning," snapped Arthur.

    "You can stay and listen to this nonsense Mr Anders." Prudence eased herself from the old sacking, which had served as a makeshift armchair for her to sit on. Only Prudence Fairweather could make such rudimentary furniture look more like a throne. "After suffering the incessant whinging over those two, even if you weren't feeling homesick for mama and papa and the delectable Miss Anna Groves you soon would be." She turned to go.

    My unreliable friend Sydney had obviously already been sharing some of my private business with the pirate. I, on the other hand, had already forgotten that an important reason for fleeing England with my friend Sydney was to help me forget Mistress Anna, who had rather ungraciously declined my offer of marriage.

    I followed the pirate girl down to her the galley, banging my head quite hard on the low hatchway.

    "Do you live on this ship?" I asked, feeling my forehead gingerly. "Only I am a little prone to seasickness."

    "We have made our home on Sunshine Island. I named it after my father's plantation.  It is our own little paradise. My crew, many natives and many freed slaves live on Sunshine Island, safe from all the evil that is destroying Heffen. A place our enemies would have great difficulty reaching, even if they could ever find it." She pushed back my mop of brown hair, to examine the cut on my forehead. "Nasty!" she said, with obvious satisfaction. "I fear you are a little accident prone Mr Anders. You and your friend Sydney should catch the next ship out of Heffen and go home. This is not your paradise, trust me."

    "I can't leave," I said, "and I won't. I've made promises."

    "Then you are more foolish than you look," replied Prudence Fairweather, who was clearly used to getting her own way. "Which frankly surprises me," she added unkindly.

    "What is all this talk of demons?" I asked, doing my best to change the subject. "Such things are surely just the stuff of fairy tale and superstition."

    Prudence scowled at me. "You have been away from your safe little world for five minutes Thomas Anders, free of Mama's petticoats and Papa's comfortable parish, and already you know so much more of our world than I do."

    "So you are telling me that you have faced a demon?" I demanded.

    "Of course I have" answered Prudence indignantly, as if fighting demons was an every day occurrence for her. "Admittedly only pretty insignificant ones so far, but it's only a matter of time now before I have to face the big one." she added.

    "So this was one of your demons, Harry and Arthur were on about?" I asked unable to hide my fascination.

    "They are not my demons Mr Anders," Prudence was careful to correct me. "And of course you are right, sailors are a very superstitious lot, so you don't want to take Harry and Arthur too seriously. Let's face it, nobody else does."

    "So neither Harry nor Arthur has rescued you from a demon then?" I pressed.

"They certainly didn't save me from anything on the day they were alluding to. As I recall, they were to busy learning how to tread water."

I remained silent and Prudence sighed loudly.

I can see that you will not let this go Mr Anders. "

I looked nervously at the pirate girl. For a moment I had forgotten myself. I was after all a long way from home and everything that was familiar, comfortable and reassuring in my life. I was a prisoner on a pirate ship. Should I displease this beautiful woman, there was no guarantee that she would not have my throat slit from ear to ear.

"I confess that I'm intrigued," I mumbled awkwardly. "My work makes me naturally inquisitive."

"Then I will tell you what happened Thomas Anders. What you make of it is entirely up to you. I swear however that what I tell you is exactly what happened."

I nodded and was glad to sit down before my legs, which had been shaking with nerves, gave away and I fell down

Prudence began to pace around the galley, careful not to crack her head on the low ceiling or dangling oil lamps as I had done.

"It was soon after Harry had volunteered the Albatross to our cause."

"Volunteered?" I interrupted without thinking. Harry had already told a very different story.

"If you are going to keep interrupting me Mr Anders, I see no point in continuing." Prudence glared at me crossly before flopping into a large comfy leather chair that nobody else would ever dare to sit in.

"I hate people interrupting," she said sulkily, wrapping her long legs around the back of the chair. "Burleigh," she continued before I could say anything else. "That is Sir John Burleigh to you, Mr Anders,"

"Now I recognise that name, let me think, isn't he?"

"If you would only listen and not butt in Mr Anders, I would explain who he is."

"Sorry,"

"Believe me," said Prudence, with one of the most alluring smiles I have ever seen, "if you are not careful Mr Anders, you will be."

"I won't say another word," I promised. The pirate glared at me. "Honestly," I said.

"That was another word," pointed out Prudence Fairweather, coldly. "Sir John is our local people salesman, you buy by the ship load." she went on, making no attempt to disguise her revulsion for the man or his trade.

"You don't approve of people depriving others of their freedom then?"

"Only if they persist in interrupting me, Mr Anders."

"Sorry."

 "We were all very bored one day, and had taken the Albatross out towards Mount Niridia, in the hope of driving a wealthy merchant ship into the fault for a little sport. Then someone spotted one of Sir John's fleet of cargo ships. It was a smallish slaver, which was sailing far too close to the fault for safety. You do know what the fault is Mr Anders?"

Before I could answer, I was of course familiar with this strange phenomenon, she added. "Of course I forgot, you already know everything don't you?" She smiled sweetly again, as a supercilious schoolgirl might gloat over a younger child. "The ship sat very low in the water, so was clearly full of cargo. If she wasn't sucked into the evil green mist off the shore of Niridia, never to be seen again, she seemed certain to run aground on Gabrielle's reef."

Prudence paused to get up and pour two goblets of ruby red wine. I watched her move across the room with the grace and agility of a big cat.

"Sending the Albatross after her would simply have meant that two ships would have been lost forever in the fault instead of just one. There was, it was rumoured, priceless treasure on board, as well as a full cargo of slaves. You must remember Mr Anders, slavers are only pirates when all is said and done. Pirates that is, with even less comprehension of common decency than my own motley crew."

I nodded, but remembered not to speak.

"I picked a crew, Arthur of course, and Harry and wherever Harry went, the lad monkey had to be by his side. Then there were three other men, all from very different backgrounds. They had only recently joined the crew." Prudence was perched on the arm of my chair now. "I'm not boring you am I Mr Anders?"

Looking at the olive skinned pirate, I noticed how her eyes, were usually filled with laughter, mischief and an insatiable hunger for life. Incredible considering the terrible darkness she had been forced to live through.

"You are most definitely not boring me," I assured her quickly. Prudence leaned forwards, so that her lips were almost touching mine. "I don't find you at all boring Thomas Anders, but I do find you just a little disturbing.  I am thinking that Miss Anna Groves may live to regret her foolishness in turning you down. You are a dark horse teacher man."

My heart pounded in my chest. One thing was certain. Miss Anna Groves, the young lady whose hand I had sought in wedlock, had never had anything like this effect on me. Physically as well as mentally the pirate girl was driving me insane. Before I could bring myself to kiss the pirate again, as I had done once before, Prudence had moved back to the table to fill her goblet with more of the rich red wine.

"The three new recruits were Joshua, Dorridge and Falcon," she explained.

"From widely different backgrounds?" I said, in an attempt to prove that I was paying attention to her story.

"Joshua was a slave we had freed quite recently. He had little English and no education, although even then, it was obvious he was an exceptionally clever young man. Dorridge was a sailor who had run foul of his captain and had for his trouble, taken one too many floggings. He joined us when we borrowed his Captain's ship. I remember he had the ugliest hound ever. Joshua used to claim it was the canine equivalent of Arthur. Harry used to reckon Joshua should apologise to the dog. Ugly or not, Dorridge was devoted to the scruffy thing and devastated at its loss, although goodness knows why? It was a filthy flea ridden thing. Tell me Mr Anders, how can anyone be so attached to an animal?"

"He lost his dog, his best friend Miss Fairweather. That is a terrible thing to happen to someone. I have a dog, a stupid looking thing with oversized ears, waiting for me back home. I can understand how this Dorridge felt." Prudence glared at me. She had obviously meant it to be a rhetorical question.

"The waters are very dangerous around the fault Mr Anders. Dorridge's dog got sucked into the sea. Things like that happen, trust me, it's very dangerous around here. Somewhere near Pike's Rock I think it was. Such a pretty place too, most of the time that is." She looked at me, to judge if I planned to interrupt her flow again. I had already decided that it was probably best not to. "Does your dog look anything like you Mr Anders?"

"It's a collie," I said. "I don't think it looks like me, why?"

"Well they do say dogs look like their owners, and you did say it was a stupid looking thing. Did you find it interrupted you a lot as well?"

I thought it best to say nothing. I did check my ears, although I have always considered them to be of around average size. Prudence Fairweather carried on with her story.

"The other new man, the adventurer Falcon was said by some to have royal blood flowing through his veins," she went on. "I am not certain if there was any truth in that, but there is no doubting the man was something of a mystery. He was as handsome as any man I have ever known," Prudence paused whilst she pondered this thought.

"Ears not too big then?"

 "Actually he was a very personable young man with a sharp wit. He had a way about him few men ever have Mr Anders."

"In short, you rather liked him," I said

"A little I suppose," admitted the girl grudgingly. I looked at the beautiful pirate. For once this tall, graceful and self-assured woman looked uncomfortable.

"Hang on a minute," I said. "Young Falcon didn't do to you what many a possible Mrs Anders has done to me, by any chance?"

"Not exactly," snapped Prudence, as might a petulant child.

"I can't imagine why anyone would ever turn you down," I blurted out, without thinking. I must have turned lobster red. Prudence was now trying not to laugh. She bit her fingers in an overacted attempt to stifle her giggling.

"Although you are a bit scary." I added, my nerves still getting the better of my brain.

Prudence leaned over me, thrusting her beautiful breasts close to my face. "Only a bit scary Mr Anders?" she teased. She had quickly learnt to her obvious amusement, how difficult I was finding it to cope with the lack of inhibitions, enjoyed by the women of Heffen.

"Perhaps more than a bit," I said, trying to avert my eyes from her extremely pleasing cleavage.

"Yes Mr Anders, I did like Falcon. He was dark and mysterious and I do like dark and mysterious men, Thomas Anders. She was playing with a strand of my unruly mop of hair. "Anyway I am not quite sure if we had much of a plan. Harry, Arthur, Dorridge and I had visited the only island close by a few times before. As I recall we took two small craft and set off to liberate the slaver of its gold and its cargo.