Prompt 234-Best Friend

Describe the day you met your best friend, from your friend’s point of view.

A pirate ship was anchored off shore and two small boats rowed purposefully toward the island. Kita’s heart pounded in her ears as she watched the water from her perch high in the trees at the edge of the forest. She could sense a ninja among the boats. A captive.

This side of the island was mostly uninhabited. What could they possibly be doing here? Her stomach dropped as it occurred to her they were probably bringing their prisoner ashore to kill them. She had to do something. Even though she was an exile, she was still ninja. She had no desire to kill pirates, but she would do whatever she could to rescue their captive.

She thanked her luck that there were so few with the landing party. That would make extraction that much simpler. Not that anything was ever simple with pirates. She also had the advantage of cover. There were several large rocks and driftwood on the shore, but she had a whole forest behind her. And speed. She was the fastest ninja in the Isles—er, had been—and no pirate could track her movements.

Kita stuffed a sack full of smooth, small stones and made her way to the edge of the foliage. She wouldn’t throw them hard enough to crack the skull, just enough to knock them out. Her plan was to take them out a couple at a time from up and down the tree line. With her speed, she could mimic an ambush. Maybe they would retreat and leave their ninja quarry behind.

She was able to take out three before the rest took cover behind the boulders and driftwood on the beach. The ninja stood his ground, though. “Come out and face me you bastards!” Was he putting on an act to convince his captors? Kita nodded grimly to herself. She would have to take out the rest before she could take him to safety.

She flew out of the cover of the trees and incapacitated the man nearest her target. A rage-filled howl froze her on her way to another. The ninja was lunging at her!

She flipped away from his blade and landed several paces away. She paid no heed to the remaining pirates. They were too stunned by her presence to interfere anymore. Besides, she had another problem. A tall, green-eyed, curly-haired ninja in pirate garb swinging a sword at her.

Kita barely had time to draw her own sword to block his next attack. She didn’t want to hurt him. Why was he fighting her? “What are you doing?” she hissed. “I’m trying to save you!”

He pushed his sword against hers and leapt back towards the pirates. She was resolved not to antagonize him. She let her sword hand fall casually at her side and remained where she was, placing her free hand on her hip. His face twisted in a grimace. “Has the sun gotten to you, ninja? In what world would a pirate need saving from a ninja?”

Pirate? He was a ninja, wasn’t he? She examined the faces behind him. “They aren’t your captors?”

“Capt- that’s my crew!” he bellowed. “I’m the Captain of the pirate ship Eternity, Captain Leo Peaches!” He jabbed his thumb behind him.

Kita glanced around him towards the vessel lurking in the bay. It was a beautiful ship. His words sunk in as she stared at it and she shook her head. “That doesn’t make any sense. What’s a ninja doing captaining a pirate ship?” she muttered.

He made a strangled noise as he pointed his sword in her direction once more. “Listen here, wench.” Kita raised an eyebrow and hardened her stare. Wench? “You may be addled in the head, but you’ve killed too many of my men today and I will not suffer your life any longer!”

Her heart skipped a beat as she quickly scanned the downed bodies. They had to still be breathing. “I haven’t killed anyone, dumbass,” she said with as much heat as she could muster. She had never killed a pirate and she would not let this…confused man insinuate she had. She sheathed her sword and folded her arms across her chest. “If they’ve suffered more than a headache, you can kill me where I stand.”

“What?” He refused to take his eyes off of her. “Rhea, check the men.”

The lone woman among the crew went around to each of the bodies. This Captain was certainly unconventional if he allowed a woman to sail with him. She gasped after she had checked each man. “They’re… they’re all still alive cap’n.”

Kita grinned. Of course. She had calculated it perfectly. The Captain thrust his sword into the ground and pointed a threatening finger at her. “What game are you playing here? Where are your comrades?”

A dull ache in her chest pulled across the sea. She looked out towards the horizon, towards the home she could never return to. “I have no comrades,” she said softly. The cool breeze off the water dried her tears before they could form. She turned back to the pirates and addressed their odd Captain. “If you’re really in no need of rescue, as you say, I will depart now.” Her ponytail flipped in front of her as she bowed to them. “I am sorry for causing you trouble.”

Before they could respond, she darted back into the cover of the trees. It had been a fool’s mission from the start, but she was comforted in the knowledge that there was at least one other ninja who did not hate pirates. She wondered how he had convinced them. In any case, he was not in danger from those people around him. They would have died for him. Comrades, huh? What a pleasant thought.

Notes: Did this seem familiar? If you’re a regular reader of the blog, it should. This was the same scene that I wrote for an earlier prompt, but from Kita’s POV instead of Leo’s. I thought it’d be a fun exercise to describe their first meeting from her POV this time. This is the beginning of their friendship, after all, and as Kita and Leo were once proxies for myself and my best friend, it seemed a suitable response to the prompt.

To be honest, I don’t remember the first time I met my best friend, and therefore couldn’t come up with a context to write what he might have thought of me on that day. We hung out in similar circles so our “first meeting” could have occurred on any number of occasions. At the very least, it was in high school. I was a shy kid in high school, so I can only imagine people saw me as the quiet girl in the hall with her nose in a book. Unfortunately, that doesn’t really make for an interesting story. So you get a Captain Leo and The Ninja Spaz piece instead.

Hope you enjoyed revisiting this scene, and if you missed it the first time around, go check it out! If you want more of these two, check out the other prompts they appear in by clicking on the tags or by exploring my Recurring Characters post from last June. (I should really update that with everything I’ve written since… oh well) That’s all I’ve got for you tonight! See you tomorrow!

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