*continued from Part 7!*

Circus Pirates - Part 8

“This place is messy!” I said looking around at all the ropes and sludge and barrels of miscellaneous items on the deck. Andrew grabbed a lantern, took me by the arm, and led me carefully up the ladder to the quarterdeck and up another flight to the very back of the ship.

“Watch your step,” he said, catching my balance several times. I had surprisingly not spilled my cake yet.

I reached the top of the ladder and walked around a mound of supplies wrapped under a canvas tarp. I leaned over the back railing looking at the churning water the ship was kicking out far below. The silver reflections of the tiny sliver of a moon reflected its light onto the water and into my face.

“Whoa, whoa! Not so far,” Andrew said. He took me by the arm and pulled me back from the railing a bit too quickly. My cake tumbled off my plate, and I stumbled back and sat on the tarp. I was then suddenly pitched forward from the tarp.

“Whoa! This ship is moving fast!” I said, standing and regaining balance.

“You lost your cake!” Andrew said taking my plate without my noticing.

I heard a grunt behind me and Andrew began laughing. I whirled around to see the tarp fall back and a huge man appear beneath it. His giant head popped up a few feet away from me. I stared bug-eyed at this anomaly. It appeared as though I had sat on the sleeping man’s knees, disguised by the oversized tarp he was using as a blanket.

“Hello?” the giant man said in a deep, distorted voice.

“Sorry David. We didn’t mean to wake you,” Andrew said laughing at some inside joke.

“Oh, no. That’s alright,” the man with dark black hair said in a very slow tempered voice. “Who is this?”

I had been staring at this man in a slack-jawed expression thus far. I closed my mouth.

“Ah,” Andrew said. “This is Iza, the girl we picked up,” he pointed at me with one plate. “Iza, this is David. He’s a giant.” He pointed at the tall man lying on the deck with the other plate and fork.

“Hellooo,” I said, waving slightly. “How tall are you?” I asked incredulously.

The sleepy giant smiled at me with a huge mouth. “I am eleven feet and four inches,” he said in his slow, articulate voice.

“Wow!” I simply said.

“It is nice to meet you, Iza,” he said. “But I need my sleep, so if you may excuse me…”

“Of course,” Andrew said stroking my arm. I turned towards him, confused by the gesture.

David had closed his eyes, and smiling, he slowly laid his head back down, pulling the brown canvas over his large body. When lying down, his stacked knees were as high as a hay bale, and his shoulders came up to my waist.

Andrew and I stood there for a moment awkwardly before he asked, “Shall we take a stroll?”

“Sure!” I said.

He smiled at me. “Alright. First, let’s go to the bow so we don’t disturb David anymore.”

“Why isn’t his name Goliath? I mean, it’d seem more appropriate than David because in the story David was the little one and Goliath was huge!” I prattled.

“Yes, that seems to be the case,” Andrew said as he jumped to the bottom of the ladder.

“Wow, you’re limber!” I said, taking my time stepping down one step at a time.

When I was about halfway down, he put his hands on my waist and lifted me down the rest of the way. “Woo!” I squealed. The unexpected movements made the ship spin again for just a moment. Andrew smiled and his eyes twinkled at me.

*Part 9 will be coming eventually...*