“Alright, Serah.” Sam said, “Where should we go now that we're all awake?”

A half hour had passed since Serah and Amber had returned, and we had packed up all our supplies.

“I don’t know.” Serah said crossly.

“Well, which way is town?” Amber asked, “We’ll just backtrack.”

“We took a different route.” Lydia explained, “It’s not the same way as before.”

“Okay, so, Serah, which way do we go?” Sam persisted.

“I don’t know!” Serah protested.

“I thought you said you know where we were going!” Sam demanded.

“Yeah, I lied. I was just going where Lydia was going.”

“I was following Tanner!” Lydia protested.

“I was just going in a straight line, to be honest.” Tanner admitted.

“Great.” Sam said, “We’re lost on an island where the sorceress could easily find us again and I’m surrounded by idiots!”

“Excuse me?” Serah demanded, “No one ever said I was supposed to find our way back. This wasn’t my job!”

“You’re our leader!” Tanner cried, “It is, in fact, your job!”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“You found your way out here in the first place! You should be the one leading us!” Serah snapped back at him.

“You’re lost on your own island?” William asked suddenly.

“Shut up!” Every one of the pirates screamed back at him.

William yelped and jumped backwards, straight into my arms. I scrambled to grab William before he fell to the ground.

“Okay, so. How do we get back?” I asked calmly, putting William down slowly.

“We keep walking straight on til sunrise.” Elizabeth said.

“It is sunrise.” I said glancing around at the rising light.

“Shut up, Sanchez, I was making fun of Lydia.” Elizabeth snapped. Then froze and glanced at Uthera.

Everyone knew Sanchez was the last name of the royal family.

Serah tried to cover it up, “It’s an inside joke, you know? We were traveling this one time through the Arab desert and Lydia said—“

“—Hold up!” Uthera interrupted, whirling on Elizabeth, who flinched.

“I was talking.” Serah said crossly.

“I don’t care, you’re just trying to distract me.”

“Is it working?”

“No!” Uthera glared and took a threatening step towards Serah.

“They are royals…You lied!”

Serah shrugged, “Yes well, that’s what I do. Pirate, remember?”

Uthera lunged, her fingers curling around the collar of Serah’s shirt and jerking her to her feet.

Serah snarled instantly, burying her hand in Uthera’s long, brown hair and tugging back hard. Uthera yelped and smacked her other fist against Serah’s jaw.

Tanner lunged at Uthera but froze when figures began jumping out of the long grass around us. Slowly, one by one, Uthera’s entire crew appeared out of the grass.

“You tricked us.” Lydia said, drawing a sword and pointing it at the closest enemy, “You lied!”

“I’m a pirate.” Uthera smirked, “Remember? Just like Serah.”

“That’s right.” Serah growled, blood now dripping from her busted lip where Uthera had hit her, “And since you don’t ever fight fair, neither will we.”

Her fist wrapped around the arm holding her still and she twisted it sideways, throwing Uthera off balance. Then Serah lifted her leather clad boot and kicked Uthera in the gut, sending her flying backwards. But Serah didn’t stop, even as chaos erupted around her, she lunged at Uthera and began to pummel her even as she lay on the floor.

Each one of us grabbed a sword or stick and lunging at the oncoming pirate crew.