On the Twelfth Day of Christmas Anne went to bed and had, Twelve Odd Dreams.

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas Anne went to bed and had, Twelve Odd Dreams.

“Got yourself into another scrape?” Hawkyns couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face at his daughter’s predicament.

“Just untie me please.” Anne muttered. Hawkyns cut the bonds around Anne’s wrists and ankles and she managed to wriggle out of the rest. “I think I’ve had enough for one night.” From the look of it, many people had already had enough fun for one night. Frobisher was nowhere to be seen, probably upstairs in one of the rented rooms. She’d have to make her way back to the ship on her own. It weren’t too far a walk.

The swaying of the ship usually sent Anne into a dreamless sleep that she would wake from just in time to take her watch on deck, but that dreamless quality that Anne held dear eluded her.

Anne’s dreams began back in the small room her mother rented. Anne had grown up in this Inn, the only child of several floozies who rented rooms. The whole house was empty of people. The streets were silent. In her dream, Anne ran down the stair and stepped out into Fleet Street.

The moment that her feet would have touched the road, the streets of London transformed into a forest. Out of nowhere, Robin Hood and his Merry Men came racing through yelling about the sheriff being on their heels. Anne didn’t waste any time in following Robin through the maze of trees.

Just as Will Scarlet was giving Anne a hand up into the branches of one of the trees, the branches became ropes and Anne was back on the Gabriel, tossing in a gale. This dream wasn’t so unfamiliar, there had been one or two storms at sea during Anne’s voyages. She gripped a knife between her teeth so that she could cut the lines. One faulty step, and Anne was sent tumbling down into the sea.

Remarkably, Anne found that she could breathe underwater, as one often can in dreams. Sirens swam around her and reached out their arms. They pulled Anne through the waters towards the surface and Anne crawled out onto a sunny shore of someplace that looked a bit like Italy (if Anne ever knew what Italy might look like).

A group of people surrounded the gasping young woman. Their facial features was so exaggerated that they almost seemed to be wearing masks. Anne couldn’t understand their strangely accented speech, but after a few moments Anne was hoisted into a hay filled cart and the group started out on a journey of some sorts.

As she was being pulled, Anne swore that she saw fey folk trailing them along the road. A blue fish like fey sat next to her in the cart and few bubbles in her face. Anne’s limbs felt so heavy that she couldn’t brush him away. Pan, eating a pretzel, appeared not too long after, making faces as he consumed the salty snack.

The worst was yet to come as more fey folk joined Anne in the cart, then proceeded to pick up the cabin “boy” and fly off. The flight itself was terrible, but Anne could have sworn that she had seen the Normyl sisters somewhere in the sky during her flight.

The fey folk set Anne back down in Bristol in the middle of a great crowd of foreign looking people. Merchants sold and hawked their wares under a blistering summer sun. Performers mingled and showed their tricks and pieces. The rat catcher delighted children with a trick where he made a mouse pop out of a book. Anne wandered around until she tripped and found herself face down in the dust of the street at the feet of some high born lady.

Looking up, Anne gazed into the face of none other than Queen Elizabeth herself. Scrambling to pick herself up off of the ground, Anne bowed low and hoped to high heaven that she hadn’t committed any serious faux pas. Daring to look up, Anne now stared into the face of a rather spectral dark figure that moved without sound. They were all about the town of Bristol, and shivers ran up Anne’s spine. One of them touched her and Anne’s world went dark.

Opening her eyes, Anne found her next dream world to be in Captain Frobisher’s cabin. Captain Frobisher was throwing out all of the ship’s rum, insisting that it was from the devil himself and should not be aboard any self respecting English ship. Anne knew that this had to be a dream, there was no way that Captain Frobisher would ever throw out any booze of any sort. Anne hurried from the cabin into an even stranger scenario.

Outside on the deck of the Gabriel the crew were fighting with what appeared to be most of the Draco disciples. The strange part of that scenario was that they were fighting with clothing fabric and seeing who could come up with the best gown for Queen Elizabeth within half of an hour. Debating whether or not to go back and help Captain Frobisher dispose of the rum (and stash some away for her own personal use), Anne looked over the side of the ship and promptly was shoved overboard for the second time in her dreams.  

This time Anne fell into a mass of fluffy pillows, or so it seemed. Sitting up, Anne found herself in one of the lovely but quite impractical noble’s dresses. Afternoon sunlight flooded the garden of some wealthy estate and another young lady dressed in a green gown similar to Anne’s was hurrying towards her.

“Anne!” She said in a very familiar voice, “Anne wake up!”

Anne opened her eyes, on Christmas Morn, to see a very disgruntled Crew assembled behind John the boatswain. “Anne wake up!”

“What?” Anne replied blearily, nearly falling out of her hammock. “Will said he’d take my watch for me!”

“It’s not about the watch lass,” John sighed. “Captain’s in jail again and we need you to get him out.” He handed Anne a dress and she sighed.

“I’m gonna kill him one of these days.” She threw the skirts on over her clothing and laced up the bodice. “Who’s got the money this time?” 

And it was back to business as normal. 

Fin. 

Well I hope you all enjoyed the most random thing I've ever written in my life. I hope it gives you giggles. I had fun writing this and it was a good lesson for me in keeping to something and seeing a self set deadline through, even if I finished two days late. Thanks for bearing with me. 

I'm probably going to let Anne cool off now that I've abused her character for this story. Possibly some Anya stories coming up, or just some random prose that has nothing to do with the characters that I've been playing. For some reason I'm much more protective of those characters than the ones that I act out. 

Once again, thanks for letting me post my rubbish.

On the Eleventh day of Christmas Lefty gave to me…Eleven pieces of Rope!

On the Eleventh day of Christmas Lefty gave to me…Eleven pieces of Rope!

Inside the Duck once again, Anne was pulled aside by Lefty, the Inglesman. Another employee of Jasper Trustworthy, Lefty knew nothing of his background other than one day Jasper had found him in the streets and made him his assistant of some sort. Lefty’s reasoning for his being English was that he spoke what he called “Ingles” and therefore he must be English. However, Anne and most others, couldn’t help but wonder at Lefty’s nationality when he spoke Spanish and spoke with that particular accent.

“Anne Drew!” Lefty bounced up and down and Anne had to put a hand on Lefty’s shoulder to keep him still. “Want to see a trick?”

“All right.” Anne agreed with a little bit of misgiving. One could never tell what Lefty was going to do when he started one of his magic tricks. He was a very apt magician and the children gathered round to see what he was going to do.

Lefty started out by producing eleven pieces of rope. “We are going to have to tie you up!” Anne, despite her misgivings, let Lefty knot the ropes around her arms and legs. The children murmured among themselves and giggled as Anne made faces and tried not to get nervous as she lost movement abilities.

“Now what Lefty?” Anne tried to keep her voice civil. Lefty finished the last knot near Anne’s ankles and stepped back.

“I run away now!” He grinned and scampered off. The children erupted into laughter and Anne was at a loss as to how to fix the situation due to the fact that Lefty had also tied her wrists together. 

Fin. 

Sorry about the delay. Life got in the way again and I haven't been able to post until now. I guess I'll be finishing a day late, but I'm going to stick with this and get this challenge done!

On the Tenth Day of Christmas Anne went outside to see…Ten Lords a Leaping!

On the Tenth Day of Christmas Anne went outside to see…Ten Lords a Leaping!

“Anne!” Came a voice from Anne’s elbow. It was Maggie Pie, the pickpocket and employee of Jasper Trustworthy. “Come outside with us!” The young girl tugged at Anne’s sleeve and handed Anne a cloak and a pair of boots. Knowing better than to ask where the cloak or boots came from, Anne wrapped the fabric around her shoulders and pulled the shoes on her feet.

“What’s outside Maggie?”

“There’s some high born lords out there kicking around a ball on the ice!” Maggie led Anne out of the Dirty Duck Inn and they watched as some of the wealthier inhabitants of Bristol went sliding and leaping about on the icy patches of the streets.

“Want to go sliding?” Maggie asked.

“Why not?” Anne stepped out on the ice and slid a few feet. A memory of the arctic and the icy shores flashed through her mind. “Come on Maggie!”

Maggie slid a bit more cautiously than Anne, but within minutes the two girls were sliding about and throwing snow balls at the lords playing football. Some of the children of Bristol joined in and Anne found herself being tackled by many of the nipperkins from the Dirty Duck Inn.

“Watch my head!” She cried out as she allowed herself to be tugged to the ground. “All right all right, you’ve got me!”

Just then there came some sort of cry from the door of the Duck promising a hot beverage if the little ones would be ushered in. Anne and Maggie had their hands full rallying the anklebiters back into the warmth. It might have only been a quick fifteen minutes of skating, but it was worth the frozen noses and fingers. 

Fin. 

On the Ninth Day of Christmas there Just So Happened to Be, Nine Ladies Dancing!

On the Ninth Day of Christmas there Just So Happened to Be, Nine Ladies Dancing!

Anne endured the teasing jibes of her fellow sailors with the least amount of blushing that she could manage, which only made them tease her more about her “tumble” with Roxy. It was a well known fact that Anne liked to stay away from brothels, and Andrew always took flack for not visiting the houses of ill repute during shore time.

“So, you’re finally a man now are you Andrew?” Frobisher gave Anne such a hard slap her back that she almost choked on the mug of beer that had been handed to her moments before.

“I s’pose so Capt’n.” Anne rasped out as she caught her breath.

“Couldn’t let the men keep teasing you about being a girl.” Captain Hawkyns teased with a twinkle in his eye. Anne wrinkled her nose at her father and too a swig of beer.

“Exuse me.” Came the voice of young Daisy Crazy LeStrange, a member of the Bristol Buskin Frolic. The bells on her hat and belt jingled brightly as she bounced up and down with excitement. “We’re going to start dancing and need some men!”

“Come on Andrew!” Captain Frobisher dragged Anne from her seat. “Go dance with the girls.”

The menfolk helped to move most of the tables in the Dirty Duck Inn to the sides of the room, creating a fairly good-sized dance floor.

Those of the Bristol Buskin Frolic who played musical instruments pulled their various noise makers out from nowhere and a few more of musicians joined in starting with a lively reel.

While Daisy Crazy LeStrange dragged Anne into the dance, it soon became apparent that Anne Drew was the only “man” among the dancers. In fact, they seemed to be one lady short of ten dancers. Fiona LeSmitherfield the Fiddler was dancing in among the others while playing her fiddle.

As Anne hopped and twirled and chassed her way through the reel she wondered how much breath she’d have by the end of the dance. The musicians seemed to never want to end the weaving and turning melody. One by one dancers dropped out and were replaced by others. It came down to Daisy and Anne as the only two original dancers remaining.

Anne could hear the shouts of encouragement and teasing coming from her comrades, and she could see how Daisy was starting to tire out. Anne knew how to push through being tired from her days on the Gabriel. She also knew when to spin out of a dance, and now was not the time to be competitive.

Jumping out of the dance Anne added her voice to the triumphant cries congratulating Daisy on staying in the dance the longest. Daisy collapsed against a table and was surrounded by her friends laughing and hugging her.

The musicians gathered together for a few moments then started another country tune. Anne decided to sit out this one and catch her breath, there’d be time for more dancing later. 

Fin. 

Sorry about the short length of these last two posts. I'm battling something that's not quite a cold and writing's been tough, but I'm still plugging away! 

On the Eighth day of Christmas the Floozies Gave to Me…Eight Minutes Peace

On the Eighth day of Christmas the Floozies Gave to Me…Eight Minutes Peace

            Anne glance up (for once) at the diminutive Draco Disciple and tax collector, Vinz Clortho. “Heaven forbid you’d ever catch me breaking the law?”

            “And why would someone like you break the law?” Vinz questioned, peering over his round spectacles.

            “I don’t see how this is relevant to the occasion.” Anne avoided the question and looked to the floozies for assistance.

“Well,” Roxy Coxcomb drew a long puff from her pipe. “I think it’s a criminal offense to not be having any fun on Christmas.”

“Does Andrew want to have some fun?” Jezebel added, wiggling her…eyebrows.

Vinz frowned, but as the floozies proceeded to crack jokes about Anne’s supposed lack of experience and teaching the “lad” a thing or two, he slunk off to rejoin his fellow Dracos.

“That was nearly a disaster.” Anne sighed.

“It’s not quite over yet luv.” Chastity tilted her head towards a fairly irate Captain Frobisher.

“Can you distract him?” Anne pleaded. “I’m not going to make it through the night if the captain finds out.”

“Come with me,” Roxy brushed off her skirts and wrapped an arm around Anne’s waist. “I’m sure they’ll stop talkin’ now.”

Upstairs the din of the party was barely muffled. Anne could make out the sound of the Captains different laughs and the tunes that the Bristol Buskin Frolic was playing. She and Roxy sat in silence, waiting for a long enough time to pass before they went down among the party again. It'd been at least eight minutes.

“Any word of Fanny?” Anne asked from by the window, looking at the snow falling gently on the streets of Bristol.

“Nothing new,” Roxy sat of the edge of the bed. “Sorry dear.”

“S’alright.” Anne shrugged. “So how long do we need to stay up here before people will believe my lie again?” 

Fin.