“Move out of the way!” Tisha yells as she pulls back on her bow.

She fires out an arrow with Fiona, dodges the shot as it flies into the side of a pirate. Fiona scowls at her only for Tisha to fire off another arrow that hits another pirate. She shakes her head and tosses her ax, hitting a pirate sneaking up behind Tisha.

“Now we’re even.” She says.

“I took out two. You only did one.”

Fiona smirks as she runs to retrieve her ax. “Well, how about I take out those five other guys?”

“Do it and then we’re even.”

Fiona laughs, charging ahead. “Noted!”

Tisha turns her eyes towards the largest ship still sitting off the coast of the island. Smaller ships surround it, all of them loaded with pirates as Tisha shakes her head.

“We need to get to the main ship already.” She says to herself.

An hour ago, the first wave of pirates landed on the beaches of Jubert Island. The island’s warriors led the charge, pushing back against the wave. Only for the second wave of pirates to make landfall. This time, Tisha and the others joined the fray, with Tisha taking command of their forces. She pushed back the wave and boarded their ships, clearing out the remaining pirates. But plenty more foes lie in wait as the main ship slowly approaches.

“Tan, how’s it from above?”

Tan flies by, landing in front of her. “Not good. I spotted over two dozen on the main ship alone. At this rate, they’ll overwhelm us by sheer numbers.”

“If we can take the main ship, we can cut off the head and stop these guys.”

“But how?” Zanrit walks up to the pair, staring into the distance. “It’d take too long to retrieve your boat and sail around the island to that one.”

Ivar leaps out of the water. “Not to mention, getting these things to sail back would make us sitting ducks for their cannon fire.”

“Well, we can’t let the big ship make landfall. Our fighters are holding their own now, but I wonder how long that’ll last.”

“The people of this island are warriors. They’ll go down fighting before they let these pirates run the island.”

“That’s what I’m worried about. They’ll likely fight until the entire village burns to ashes. Even if they win the fight, we’ll lose the war because we would’ve lost all of our resources.”

“Then how do we get to the ship?” Ivar asks.

“We can’t sail out there. And swimming is out of the question. We could go by air if we had some way to fly or just close the distance.” Tisha says.

“Huh?” Tan asks.

“What? You got close and scout. There aren’t many pirates who can defend from attacks coming from midair.”

Tan flies. “You have a point. But I can’t carry anyone without falling myself. And if my wings get wet, I won’t be able to fly until they dry off.”

Everyone pauses as they try to come up with an idea. Pepper appears next to Tisha and whispers something into her ear.

“It’s an idea,” Pepper says.

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“It’s a reckless idea. If we mess up, we could get seriously hurt. And are you sure he can even do it?”

Pepper nods. “We’ve been practicing and I’ve been guiding him. Trust me, it will work.”

“Then why did you whisper it?”

“Because it’s an incredibly reckless plan. Best come out of your mouth instead of mine.”

Tisha scowls. “I’m not Glyn, you know.”

“But you are taking charge right now.”

Tisha shakes her head. “Okay, everyone, gather up. We’re about to do something incredibly reckless and foolhardy. But since when is that new?”

Zanrit smirks. “So, what’s the plan here?”

“We’re going to jump really really high,” Tisha says.

“What?” Everyone around asks.

On the main ship, the pirate captain stares out through a telescope at Jubert Island. He stares at the beach as his tail twitches with frustration. Annoyed, he tosses the telescope with a nearby pirate, plucking it from midair. He sighs, shaking his head and slamming his fist on the railings of the ship.

“Damn it. This is going to take too long. We’re running out of fighters.” The Captain snarls.

“It’s been too long since anyone’s been around this side of the archipelago. It’s no surprise our latest target would be so heavily guarded.”

“We should cut our losses and leave. There are other islands, some uninhabited. We’d have to fight, but it’s easier than dealing with warriors.”

The pirate looks through the telescope. “I don’t think there’s much of a choice anymore.”

“What?”

“Look up.” He points to the sky.

The Captain looks up to see several figures falling from the sky. “What madness! Everyone battle stations!”

Zanrit falls, crashing down onto the ship. Pirates surround him, brandishing their weapons as he swings his club, knocking them back. A series of arrows fly from above, raining down on the area and pushing them back further as Tisha makes her landing, sliding down the mast of the ship. Fiona crashes down next to her, followed by Faye, with Tan landing beside the pair. Rufus flies down softly, landing on the ground, with Pepper appearing next to him.

“You did good.”

He pants rapidly, trying to calm his racing heart. “That was so stressful. I never want to do that again.”

Tisha looks back. “Pepper, guard Rufus and try to heal him a little. We’ll take care of the mess around here.”

The Captain smirks, brandishing a sword. “An Orc, an Elf, a Harpy, a Spirit, a Mage, and a pair of Warriors. Looks like I picked a bad target to raid.”

“You did. Now surrender or get ready to eat arrows.”

He smirks. “Sorry. But I don’t intend to bow to any King. That’s why we came out here. Your little games ruined our home, so now we have no choice but to take from others. So, I refuse to bow to any of you spoiled brats!”

He swings his sword, signaling the pirates who scrabble to the deck bearing their weapons. The horde rushes forward with Tisha shaking her head and letting loose her arrows. She fires a series of arrows into the deck with vines and plants sprouting out of the arrows. The vines snatch up several charging pirates as the others rush in to attack her.

Zanrit spins his club around, knocking several pirates back as Fiona leads the others in a charge to break through their ranks. The pirates fall by the wayside as several fall overboard, crashing into the water. Tisha leaps up towards the Captain, firing her arrows at him as he spins about, dodging her attacks and slicing several arrows with his sword.

“Impressive Elf girl.” He says, pointing his sword out at her. “You have skill for a brat.”

“I’m a trained warrior. I’m more impressed with you as a pirate. You seem to be doing far better than your men.”

“Sadly, not a lot of them are trained fighters. Most never held a weapon a day in their lives until we had to flee our homes from your stupid war.”

Tisha pauses, lowering her bow. Seeing his chance, he leaps forward, thrusting out his sword and aiming for her head. But Tisha snaps her fingers and a large plant emerges from the mast and traps the Captain, wrapping him up in its vines.

“What is this?”

“When you first got in my sight, I fired out an arrow that hit your ship. An impressive shot of, I do say so myself. All I did was plant a time bomb of sorts and activate it when it convinced me. Sadly, I couldn’t do it unless I got close enough.”

He smiles. “Clever girl.”

“I get it from the idiot in charge. He’s foolish, but he has clever plans.”

“Sounds interesting. Shame I’ll never get a chance to meet him.”

“Maybe you will. I need a ship to go after him and someone familiar with the area.”

“What, your man ran out on you?”

She blushes. “No. He’s missing, and I need to make sure he’s okay. If you agree, we’ll let you and your men go and you can go back to pirating as long as you stay away from our islands.”

He pauses. “What’re you the bleeding-heart type?”

“Let’s just say I don’t want to bloody my hands killing some reckless pirates.”

“Fine then. What do you want?”

“First, let’s start with calling off your men. Then we can talk specifics.”

“Will your King agree to this?”

She laughs. “If I know that guy. This would be the sort of outcome he’d prefer above anything else.”

“Okay, brat. Let’s make a deal.”