“Where she be? I need dy luck herself, I do.” Larry ‘Lemonhead’ yelled at the others in the bar. “Come on!” Almost frantic, the plump, tall and blonde-haired man stamped his foot. “Her and the blue one were just here!” Larry pushed his big way through the crowd and with a series of heavy huffs, came to a stop and leaned on Ruby’s table. “The-there you are, why didn’t you answer since you heard me?” He pleaded while catching his breath.

  Content to ignore the big man, Ruby kept her attention and lips all over Nerice. It was only after Lemonhead banged on the table one too many times that Ruby quietly slipped her encrusted hallmark dagger under Larry’s chin, all the while finishing her kiss. With a sigh and a little firm poke from her dagger’s point, Ruby pulled away from Nerice and focused her hazel eye up. “Why is it that you look like a pig, but smell like a lemon?” She raised one of her eyebrows. “I am trying to rex, drink and not think about anyone but my lovely Natasha here.”

  Unrelenting in his desire to speak with Ruby, Larry waited for the dy pirate to remove her bde from under his chin and then pulled a chair over. With a wobble and minor strain from the chair bearing so much weight, Larry pulled out a tiny cloth and parchment scroll. “See you here now, One-Eye. Treasure it be, me knows you has luck of the goddess with you.” Larry handed the map to Ruby. “Also ye be mostly honest as these things go. More a’fore the adventure, aye?”

  Flicking her dagger back into its sheath by her thigh, Ruby pulled Nerice tighter and nibbled on her lover's naturally blue lips. “I would much rather sit here with you, Natasha. Your lips are craving my attention.” Ruby chuckled quietly when Nerice’s eyebrows went up and the look on her face went ft. “Oh, are you trying to tell me that you’d rather go with this lump than sit here, drink and find ourselves a flowerbed?”

  “He’s not going to leave.” Nerice sighed and pressed her forehead to Ruby’s. “I mean at least he smells good.” She leaned up and shrugged. “I need more kyanite anyway. Mayhaps the treasure has some in it.”

  “Are you alright?” Ruby questioned when she heard Nerice’s choice of wording. “You never speak like the others.” She turned to face Larry. “Alright, let’s see what you have. If I like it then I want twenty-five percent of what’s there, no matter what.”

  Smacking the map on the table defiantly, Larry shook his head as he turned a deep shade of red and matched the color of Ruby’s eyepatch. “Looky here, that’s ft robbery. I already has two others, a total of five.” Shaking his clenched hand with the map in it, Larry added, “Tis me map, One-Eye. I should get the biggest cut.” He stood up to leave, “Never thought my ears would rattle that Ruby wouldn’t take treasure.” Suddenly Larry’s eyes went wide and he looked at his empty hand. “How in the stars?” Defeated, Larry sat down once again and waited for Ruby to look over the map. “So, whatcha be think’n?”

  “Lemonhead.” Ruby pointed to where the ‘X’ supposedly marked the spot. “That’s not too far from here, so I have to wonder if this is even a real map. Who would bury a fortune on a tiny lizard-infested islet.” Ruby walked her fingers along the edge of the map and then stopped. “Humm. Lemonhead, tell me what you know about this map.”

  -“The fabric is all wrong, Ner-Ner. It’s nothing I have ever felt before. Feels like actual skin. What do you think?”-

  Watching Larry as his eyes shifted back and forth to the map, Ruby handed it to Nerice to inspect with her hands.

  -“Oh, it’s certainly not right, Tanya. It's very supple and thin. I want to say this is more like yers of flowers that give it the feeling of skin.”-

  Nerice offered and then reached into a small pouch on her hip and sprinkled a light film of sand and kyanite and waited until she felt the map respond and tell her that it was enchanted. “Larry.” Nerice waited until she knew that she had Larry’s attention and blew the dust right in his face. “You want…her and I to help you find this, right?”

  “Yes, Natasha.” Larry spoke with an empty tone in his voice and a glossy look in his eyes.

  Nudging Ruby once then leaning over to give Ruby a quick kiss on her cheek, Nerice finished her charm. “Good boy. We are more than willing to assist, but you have to insist that we take fifty-percent of the goods along with all kyanite that could be there. Right?”

  “Yes, Natasha. I insist that you both have half of the bounty and kyanite. Myself and the others will split what is left.” Larry spoke dreamily and slowly blinked his eyes like he was sleepwalking. A second ter the big man’s head fell loudly on the table and he was snoring soundly.

  Smacking her hands free of the dust and wiggling her fingers so that a thin blue beam wrapped around his head like a ball of yarn, Nerice giggled and handed Ruby the map. “I almost made him think there was no map, but you wouldn’t have let me.” She pointed to the crowd, “Besides, his big mouth would have gotten in the way.” She sighed and snuggled close to Ruby. “You can wake him up anytime you want, he’s just dreaming about a girl I impnted. Being bad has perks.”

  “Bck-hearted beast.” Ruby curled up the map and stuck it in a small case on her hip. “My blue monster, I can’t think of another person I want to do dirty deeds with.” Wrinkling her nose the dy pirate recoiled at the idea of touching the rge dirty man, “Do I have to touch him? Use your walking stick and poke him.”

  “You big baby.” Nerice stuck out her tongue and grabbed her gnarled cane and handed it to Ruby. “You leave me to do all the nasty work. How bad can he really be? I mean he’s all fruity smelling.”

  Concluding the debate on how to rouse Lemonhead, Ruby had waited for the lemon munching man to leave the tavern before dragging Nerice and herself back to their current ship and adorning their proper gear for such an adventure.

  Gd to be in her bck leather armor that stuck to Ruby’s hourgss figure like a second skin, the dy pirate had grabbed a small bandoleer with tools such as picks and small knives and little potion bottles rather than extra shot for a gun that she didn’t carry. After a small interlude where the two dies found themselves sweating against the main mast, Nerice finally strapped on Ruby’s cutss and the two left their waterborne dwelling hand in hand.

  One of the great things about being in a harbor town, Ruby rationalized, was that it had a rge array of fishing boats that were easily used by two men and could hold up to six with added room for their catch. “Oh, we have to take this one Ner-Ner.” Ruby ughed when she saw the name on the boat. “Mermaid’s Folly, it doesn’t get any better, my love.” Laughing as she did so, Ruby quickly deployed the little sails and with Nerice’s help, a combination of light wind and dolphins pushed the small craft into open water. “Alright, Midnight point is around the little bend and if Lemonhead was telling the truth, he and the other two will be waiting.”

  “Why don’t we just take this all for ourselves? Let them stand there like a few dolts. I mean you are a pirate, we just took this..” She stomped on the cheaply made wood, “...vessel.” Nerice grunted again. “A term I use loosely, but the point still stands Tanya my dear. We can drop this sail, finish what we started earlier and then take a treasure to commemorate the moment.” Nerice fshed her pearl white fanged smile.

  Certainly in the position to take the treasure and leave without anyone else truly knowing, especially if she killed the other three, Ruby rubbed her chin and then shook her head. “Yeah, I know.” Pulling Nerice close and tucking her tightly to her side as she steered the little boat, Ruby expined the feeling that was echoing in her mind. “I can’t shake the feeling that while what you are saying holds a measure of water, we somehow need that silly big man.” She shivered. “I still don’t like that he's both tall and wide.” She pointed to the limited space within their small ship, “He really needs to stop eating so many pies.”

  “Wouldn’t it be funny if they were all lemon curd or something like that.” Nerice ughed and with a kiss on Ruby’s cheek, pulled herself away and began to inventory her own gear.

  It took a few more minutes until they’d rounded the corner and spotted the three men. Getting closer to the shore, Ruby half-smiled as she made out the fact that Larry was in fact chewing on a lemon rind. “Nerice, I won.”

  “That is the skin, not the flesh. I don’t think that counts as eating a lemon. Chewing on a chunk.” She waved her hand, “Not the same.”

  Roughly a hair over six feet tall and easily three hundred pounds, combined with shaggy blonde hair and green eyes Larry stood out in most any crowd. Combined with his penchant to be covered in some kind of goop, be it ale or mud that same crowd usually kept a wide distance. “It’s still a lemon, You’ll pay up or we will decide the tie in a much more sexy way.” Ruby puckered her red lips and pyfully blew Nerice a kiss. “I can hold out longer than you can.”

  Snorting, Nerice csped her hand to pretend she’d caught Ruby’s kiss. “Only because you have more experience than I do Tanya, even with four other gorgeous mermaids for practice.” Nerice used her gnarled staff-cane and stood up with Ruby. “I guess it’s party time, don’t forget your broken speech, old woman.”

  “Thanks.” Ruby adjusted her belt and double checked her dagger’s pcement on her hip then tossed a rope for the men to tie the craft to the small pier they were standing on. Making sure that her red ce embroidered bandana was firmly in pce covering her long bck hair, Ruby tilted a polite nod to the three. “Who is coming aboard, Larry?”