My Brother, the Pirate

Synopsis:   Tale-Spin fanfic.   Isabella Ferro has always longed to fly but her adoptive parents forbid it.  When she’s captured unexpectedly by Don Karnage, she realizes they are long lost siblings and she’s forced to make a choice; either go into the family business as a carpenter or follow her heart and join Karnage’s ragtag crew.

Chapter 1—The Sky Calls

          I was never like the other girls in school.   Firstly, they all knew I was adopted.   They would taunt me for it but I never let it get under my fur.  I was strong-willed by nature, fiery, spirited and independent.  I found friends that respected that and we got along swimmingly.    However, I always had a longing to fly.  I wasn’t certain of why but I had dreams that stemmed to before I was left at the orphanage by my real mother, Helena Ferro.  I knew her name, though I couldn’t really understand the exchange she and the adoption agency had before I was taken by them.  I never knew my father, but it didn’t really matter.  Mother wasn’t there for me either, so I learned not to trust until my adoptive parents took me in. 

          They named me Isabella after their grandmother and the moniker fit me well.   It was the name of royalty, but every day, I wanted to find myself in the clouds, looking down at the world below.   Dad would chide and reprove me, gently, saying, ‘Izzy, why do you want to do such a boyish thing ?   It’s not meant for Ferros to become pilots.  At least be a carpenter like your papa !  It’s a fair trade, one that doesn’t pay well, but at least it keeps a roof above our heads.   Ha !  Carpenter humor !’, my fetching, loveable papa, Ira would say.    It wasn’t what I wanted though.  I didn’t mind working with my hands, but it didn’t suit me.   Call me a tomboy, but I preferred learning all I could about airplanes, even if it was under my parents’ noses.    Little did I know that fate would give me what I wanted.   What I never realized was to be careful what you ask the Universe for, you just might make it manifest. 

Chapter 2—On the Beach

          Ira and my mother, Gina, were sunbathing.  We had planned a summer picnic before school began again this fall and I was studying to become an interior designer.   Granted, it wasn’t in my purview but I was exceptional when it came to ‘seeing in 3 dimensions’ where others could not.  My whole existence was in ‘dense geometry’.  While I did that, I secretly went to flight school and was taught by my friend Georg how to pilot a Sesna.   It was easy.  I knew the mechanisms of flight and understood the inner workings of planes long before I ever got my hands on a control stick.   I even wanted to name my own plane, should I ever have my own.   I would call her ‘Crimson Rose’.   Someday, I sighed, dreamily.   Ironically, this would be the plane that would come to strike fear and terror into the very souls of those in Cape Suzette.   I’m getting ahead of myself, though. 

Chapter 3—Kidnapped ! 

          The dread pirate, Don Karnage had thought it would be entertaining to plunder the beach and do some ‘recruiting’ by force.  The Sky Pirates hadn’t grown in years, so they took me with them.  At first, I didn’t want to go, but Don’s scent was one that was so familiar I couldn’t put my finger on it.  

          Flashback.   Rainstorm.  I was only days old but his face is the one I see.  It’s blurry. I can hardly see.   He is singing a song to calm my nerves due the fractious thunderstorm.  He fades from the scene, and ultimately from memory, but I swear I can hear him humming my mother’s lullaby for some odd reason.   I come along quietly so as not to be knocked out by chloroform.  

          ‘I don’t know why, but you seem very roguish just by your character.   You’re very tough and I like that.  Yet, you seem to know when to give up.  I like that about you.’, Don said, studying me.   I still couldn’t perceive why but he was so achingly familiar my heart hurt slightly.  I fought back tears and put forth my best shields of resilience. 

          ‘Thank you for the compliment.  I’m Isabella Ferro.  You do realize my parents cannot afford a ransom if you offer one.’, I managed.   Karnage laughed. 

          ‘I don’t intend on making one.  I’m giving you the choice.  The reason I recruited you is because of your character.  Stick around, kiddo.  You might just learn something.’, he said, with an added wink.    There was another recent pirate who had become acclimated to the crew.  His name was Mako Inari.   He was a samurai who played the violin soulfully.  He was a fox, much like myself.  Oddly, we had an instant rapport though he didn’t speak much.  Ah, but when he did, it was marvelous music.  

Chapter 4—Wrestling with Feelings

          My parents had written letters expressing their concern to me daily and I was pulled between my new life, my own plane (and yes, she is named Crimson Rose) and what waited for me back home if I made the decision to return.  I had been trained by Don himself and Mako taught me how to shoot.   I already had an eye for shooting because I had played darts to pass the time in my dad’s pub.   Darts and shooting weren’t much different, honestly.    I had incredible focus and even Don congradulated me on that.  

          ‘I must speak to you in private though.’, I said.   Don raised an eyebrow quizzically, hoping I would give him the answer he sought.

          ‘What is it, Izzy ?’, he asked, sitting down at his desk, lacidasically propping his boots upon the lacquered masterpiece.  

          ‘Have you taken a look at us ?  How alike we are ?   We have the same color fur and even eyes.  If I’m not mistaken, you’re left-pawed.’, I said, astutely.

          ‘Yes, but you couldn’t have known that unless you knew mama.’, Don retorted.   I felt a twinge in my heart.  I had known mama.  That day, the one I had trouble recalling, came back in a flood. 

          It was monsoon season in Cape Suzette.  My mother, a gypsy, wanted to give Don to a loving family, but despite everything, Don could never find parents to give him a comfortable, accepting home.   Unable to trust anyone, Don managed to go off on his own and create a gang that became unstoppable.   I was still by her side, and she wanted only the best for me.  Apparently, I had been crying and she sang her lullaby to me to assuage my fears.   She had loved me.  I was incorrect about feeling no attachment to her.  She had done what needed to be done by letting me go before she died.   I remember now.  She had been deathly ill with some kind of disease that affected her lungs.  I remember her coughing up blood and having difficulty breathing.   I don’t know how long she lived after she gave me to my adoptive family, but Helena realized she had to act fast before the Angel of Death took her to the unending azure sky. 

          ‘Our mother’s name was Helena.  I don’t know why you took the last name Karnage.  I suppose it appealed to you to strike terror into the hearts of everyone you plundered.  It is a pretty petrifying pirate name.  Try saying that 3 times fast !’, I said, chuckling.    Don’s brown eyes grew wet with tears and he got up and drew me close in a hug. 

          ‘All this time I had wondered why I had dreams of a woman singing softly in another language I knew and understood extremely well.’, Don said, sniveling.  

          ‘We truly are related then.  I don’t know what our surname was before, but that doesn’t matter.’, I said.   I wiped my brother’s tears and let no one else know he had been crying.   Heaven forbid Don Karnage’s reputation be ruined over the shedding of a few reminiscent tears.  

          After that conference I knew what had to be done.  I wrote my last letter to my parents and said my farewells.   After that, I became ‘Izzy the Terrible’ of the Sky Pirate crew.   It had a splendid, catchy ring to it.   

Epilogue

          Though I knew mom and dad would never understand at least the Sky Pirates ‘got’ me in a way that no one else ever had.  Maybe it had been due to the fact I was raised as a gypsy so young that pickpocketing came so naturally to me (though mom always said she never participated in that activity, I knew she did behind my back whenever I pretended not to be looking).    My flying skills had improved in time and I was learning how to thrust and parry like a true swordsman.   My name would probably never go down in history like Don’s would but at least I would have renown for making him the most successful pirate in Cape Suzette’s history.   We still didn’t have our city, but one day, oh ho, yes, one day, we would rule it as we had always desired to.   With Mako by my side, I could already foresee the Iron Vulture blocking out the sunlight of frightened beachgoers.  It was a far way off, but somehow, someday, we’d get what we truly wanted.  

The End…For Now.