[Poggio]

Smoke and the smell of gunpowder… cannonfire... Annie?

Names pass through the lips of man, spoken and set free like effervescent bubbles on the tide. This name spoken in blood jolted a soul out of its disembodied slumber. The sweet taste of fermented blood brought it to life.

A thin wisp of translucent smoke slithered from the center of the summoning circle. Slowly, it gathered bringing with it the hickory smell of burning wood and the distant sound of a sizzle…

She reached out, searching the fray for her true treasure.

A loud bang bellowed from the core of the summoning circle spraying exhausted gunpowder and metal into the air. Withit came and large plume of gray smoke and ash, churning the smell of burning wood into the cannon fire. Among the metal debris stood the poor eviscerated body. Cloth and tissue clung to a hallowed ribcage leading down to a spine where the only remains of human were in its leg muscles. A wind picked up, pushing the wind around the skeletal remains of the former pirate. The metal soon inverted spinning wildly towards the center of the circle. Each flake of cannon fodder reconstructing into first tan skin, black locks, right down to the sun peeled flecks on the rounded nose.

Jaundiced hued eyes, clouded over by a thick gloss of white stared at the heavens. Her first words in centuries taking the form of only a primal scream. A name.

“ANNNNNNNNNIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE” she bellowed, until globs of congealed rum and seawater pooled over the corners of her lips. Her plea became a mixture of incoherent bubbles and spit.

Frantically she turned her head, watching her crew fight off the dregs of land lovers that threatened to blow them apart. Betwixt the smoke she saw the blonde off the starboard side of the vessel.

Mary whipped her head towards the only living body in the room. The body heed the commands of the mind. Ambling like a newly risen calf, she slugged her way towards her master. Once she reached her master, she completely engulfed him in the smell of gunpowder and charred remains. Mary wrapped her arms around her Annie, clumsily fondling through the golden tresses, leaving a nuzzled trail of alcoholic goop.