A New Face.

Shipwreck Cove.

Captain Teague was wandering through the bookcase in his cabin. He really wished he didn't have to be the keeper of the keys because it meant that he could never leave. There was no pleasurable company around and the sense of adventure from leaving for voyage to a land-of-wonder-and-discovery was completely out of the question. He knew he hated reading but it was something to do.

"Oh soddit," he cried, and he sat at his desk.

He swung to and fro on his chair for a while. He looked to his left at his beloved lute. He noticed that he had used a small back book to prop it up with. He wandered over and picked it up. It was about A5 size, a couple of dozen pages long and had a shiny black cover on with a rather attractive Jolly Roger on the front.

Teague took the book back to the desk and opened the fist page. There was a picture of a witch or soothsayer drawing on the ground with chalk. Then there was a diagram of what she was drawing. It was all etched in very neatly with shading and extreme accuracy.

He flicked through the pages. There were more etchings of chalk drawings throughout the book. Each had notes in pencil of instructions on how to do the drawings correctly.

"Are these rituals?" he thought to himself, "There's only one way to find out!"

He flicked through the book randomly.

"Ah-hah!" he said, "This looks interesting!"

The diagram was of a huge skull with circle eyes, a triangular nose and crude looking teeth. There were also various stars and lines imprinted on the skulls cheeks and forehead. The whole thing was then surrounded by double circles. There appeared to be writing of some kind in the gaps between the circles, but was probably Latin or Ancient Greek or some other old, dead language.

"Now where is there likely to be any chalk around here?"

Teague looked through every draw in the room until he found a suitable piece of chalk to draw on the floor with. It was pale yellow, but was probably once white.

He got on all fours with the book on the floor in front of him. He followed the diagram to the letter. He picked up the book then stood up to admire his handiwork.

"Was something supposed to happen?" he asked himself, "Or it just there to look pretty?"

He stood there staring at it for a while.

"Bah!" said Teague and he threw the chalk down and tossed the book aside, "At least it gave me something to do for a little while."

He then stumbled out the room and up to bed. Three and a half bottles of rum later he slept soundly.

The clock chimed midnight.

The chalk on the floor turned to powder. The floorboards where the drawing was made swirled in on itself creating a sort of black hole in the ground. White smoke and bright light filled the room.

A girl was thrown up from the hole and landed on the floor with a thud.

"BLOODY HELL!" she yelled, and said a sarcastic "Ouch!"

Teague snorted and then continued sleeping soundly.

The girl had a very pale complexion, looked about 13 or 14 years old and had short, pale grey hair. She was wearing a large dark purple dress with black underlining and white laced sleeves.

"Where am I?" she muttered.