When they appeared back on deck, the captain was barking orders at her sailors.

“We need to get out of here fast or else we’ll be caught. Do you want that Beardy?” She snapped at an older carpenter. His long, knotty beard was matted with dry blood, bits of food and something mushy that Henry couldn’t distinguish.

“N-no Captain. I just woke up and I ate before dinner...” He stuttered and his voice faded as he realized what a poor excuse he had made. The Captain instantly took a hold of his weakness.

“Oh...” She said, her voice had become dangerously quiet.

The man cowered, terrified. “So you’ve been eating all our rations, more than usual, no? So while all the rest of us have been working, you’ve been enjoying yourself in the hull, eating...all...our...food.” She pinned him with her turquoise blue eyes and he whimpered. The entire deck was silent now, awaiting Beardy’s fate.

Finally, the Captain moved. Beardy flinched, fully expecting her to impale him with her cutlass, or grab him by his long beard and shoot him with her gun. But she didn’t do any of that. Instead she merely growled a warning, “Do that again Beardy, and I will not hesitate to kill you.”

He nodded and scampered away, grabbing at sails and straightening them out as he went. Everyone returned to their work, including the captain who grabbed a hanging rope and swung on it. She sailed into the air and gracefully landed on the quarterdeck.

Elizabeth motioned for the boys to follow her and they scrambled to climb to the quarterdeck. The Captain surveyed the horizon thoughtfully as they approached. She locked eyes with Henry for a split second, then turned to Elizabeth.

“We only have about an hour before the Navy ships set out for the day. If we do not move fast enough, they will be upon us.”

Elizabeth nodded then turned to the sailors on deck, she repeated what the Captain had said and barked out a few orders. Tanner leaned towards Henry and whispered, “Elizabeth must be the quartermaster, they are, like, next in line behind the Cap and make sure the sailors follow orders.” He explained.

“How do you know this?” Henry muttered in return.

Tanner shrugged, “Books.”

“I didn’t know you can read.”

“I read all your school books when you bring them home.”

“Oh.”

Elizabeth suddenly turned to them, “What are you whispering about?”

Henry started to retort then became aware of the Captain watching him. “Nothing.”

Elizabeth grunted, then returned to watching the sailors.

The Captain was still watching Henry and they stared at each other-- the Captain thoughtfully and searching, and Henry angrily. He didn’t understand why he had to fall under her order. She was a girl and she was his age...possibly even younger. Tanner brought him back to the real world with his stomach growling.

Elizabeth whipped around, staring at Tanner.

He sheepishly grinned at her, “I haven’t eaten in eighteen hours.”

Elizabeth shook her head. “Well everyone eats dinner around this time, so c’mon.”

They scrambled after her as she headed to the stairs to go below deck. The Captain quietly followed them. As they moved down the hall that led to their quarters, Elizabeth turned right and opened another door. Inside was a table with 10 seats around it. On shelves around the table, food was held in jars and sacks. Small loaves of bread were piled on the table with jars of jam. Henry guessed they had gotten all this in England while picking them up. They had to eat it quickly before it went bad. All four sat at the table and as they grabbed the bread, they had to inspect it to make sure no bugs were hiding inside.

“So,” Elizabeth said, her mouth full of bread and jam, “Cap. These two don’t know how to use weapons.”

The Captain was inspecting a jar, her eyes moved from the jar, to Elizabeth, to Henry and Tanner. She sighed, “Fine. I’ll help you. But we have to hurry because the Navy is getting more and more active. They have more ships and are more willing to destroy us than ever.”

She looked at Henry and pointed her bread at him, “Your father is rich and powerful. If he wants to be spiteful, or build up his reputation with the headline of ‘Rich father saves son from pirates!’ then he’s going to send some ships. We’ve got to be ready for them when they do come. This is a large ocean, but there are more ships than there have ever been, patrolling on it. It’s going to be hard to slip through their notice.”

After she said this, she slowly leaned back in her chair, lifting her feet and placing them on the table. Henry noticed the metal shards on the tip of her boots and made a mental note not to ever get in the way of her feet.

She quietly watched their expressions as they mulled over what she had said. Finally Tanner looked at her,

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“Do I have to use a cutlass?” He asked. She blinked at him.

“Well, what else do you want to use?”

He ducked under her gaze, “Possible something like a bow and arrow?”

She settled again, crossing her arms, “Ok. I think we still have a few in the storage room.”

It was quiet again.

Elizabeth spoke up, looking at Henry, “This is your last chance to return to your father and your safe home. If you travel with us, you will most likely die. We’ve been thrown into dungeons more than once, lost our crews and our ships. Cap and I have only stuck around for the past 5 years because we know how to escape dungeons before we’re hanged. But you need to know that it will happen eventually.”

Henry nodded finally, “I don’t want to go back. I’m already this deep into the pirate business. Can’t get much worse, can it?”

The Captain snorted, “You haven’t seen nothing Rich Boy. You just wait.”

Suddenly, a loud crash resounded from above deck. Elizabeth glared upward, “Drunkards.” She breathed.

Henry leaned forward, locking eyes with the captain. She obviously didn’t like this and took it as a challenge. She scowled back at him but didn’t look away.

“How about a trade?” Henry asked, “You teach me whatever pirate stuff I need to know, and I can teach you to talk correctly. Because “You haven’t seen nothing.” isn’t the correct usage.”

Elizabeth choked after this comment,

“I like you.” She said finally, looking at Henry, “Cap was never really schooled so, this could be a learning experience.” She grinned smugly at the Captain.

“Shut up.” The Captain growled, “You’ve got a lot of guts Henry. That’s good when fighting or killing. Not when addressing your Captain.”

Henry stood up, “Oh come on. You do not scare me. You’re what? My age? And you’re a girl.”

Tanner sighed, “We talked about this.” He muttered.

Slowly the Captain stood, and the tension in the air rose until Henry could feel that her patience was paper-thin.

“Age and gender do not matter. What matters is who can kill and plunder. Who has the upper hand and who is more powerful. Right now, that’s me. You don’t want to find out how fast I can get you thrown off of this ship and devoured by creatures of the deep.”

After a moment, Henry slowly sank back into his seat. Elizabeth was glaring daggers at him and Tanner had his face buried in his hands, convinced that the Captain was about to decapitate Henry with her cutlass. The Captain, satisfied that she had won the small challenging match, plucked a loaf of bread from Tanner’s plate and strode from the room. As soon as her footsteps faded from hearing, Elizabeth exploded.

“I told you; don’t mess with the Captain! She’s got a lot on her mind, and new sailors are supposed to help. All you’ve been doing is argue with her!” She stood so fast, her chair fell over and clattered to the ground.

“She took my bread.” Tanner whimpered.

“What is wrong with you? You never listen!” Elizabeth kept ranting.

“Do you feel that?” Tanner asked quietly.

“If she doesn’t throw you off board, I will! You are a stupid, selfish rich kid who thinks that he owns everything and everyone!”

“Do you feel that?” Tanner repeated, glaring up at Elizabeth.

“And if you think for one second that she’s going to forgive you, you’re—“

“ELIZABETH!” Tanner roared.

Henry blinked at him. He’d never heard such a loud sound from Tanner. Elizabeth went silent, staring at him in shock. Tanner slowly leaned forward towards the glass of water in front of him. The glass was made of gold, probably one of the riches that the pirates had plundered. But Tanner didn’t care about the goblet itself, it was what was inside the goblet that made his heart stop. The water inside was in a permanent tilt. Tanner had thought for a while that the room felt weird.

“We’re tilting.” He breathed, staring at the water.

“We’re in the ocean. With waves. Of course, we’re going to tilt.” Elizabeth said. But she doubted it herself. Normally ships tilted from side to side, constantly moving. But this water wasn’t moving, just tilted.

“I don’t think that loud crash was from drunk pirates.” Henry said quietly.

A split second passed in silence. They looked at each other, then simultaneously scrambled to the door. As they scrambled to the deck, Elizabeth suddenly halted. Henry and Tanner both smacked into her and she put her finger to her lips.

“It’s too quiet…I think we hit something.” She breathed.

Slowly, Henry pushed past her and out onto the deck. He stared at the scene in front of him, confused.

The Captain stood with her back to him, her gun in one hand and cutlass in the other. Across from her, glaring and wielding cutlass’s, the other pirates stood. Elizabeth quickly scrambled after Henry and blinked at what she saw.

The Captain was aware of their presence but kept her gaze on the angry pirates.

“What is this?” She asked coolly.

Darkin stepped forward, glowering. “You know what this is. We’re tired of having you shove us around and bringing two rich boys in, as if to replace us, did not help on your rep, Cap.”

She scowled, “So, what? You want to leave?”

Darkin shook his head, “No Cap, we want you to leave. Either that, or you step down and I’ll be captain. But choose one.”

The Captain chuckled dangerously, there was no humor in her voice. “Are you sure you want to go this way Darkin?” She asked, her eyes narrowing.

He flipped his cutlass in his hand and lifted it slightly, “Then you want to leave, huh?”

Elizabeth pulled two guns from her belt and threw them at the boys. “It’s a mutiny.” She growled, “Which side do you choose?”

Tanner and Henry blinked at each other, “Well, obviously the side that wants us.” Tanner said.

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow, “Good choice.”

Henry blinked and raised the gun, “How do I use this?” He pulled the small latch on the handle and a loud BANG erupted through the quiet air. The Captain instantly ducked as the bullet narrowly missed her head and hit a pirate across from them. The pirate gasped and fell backward with the hit.

The Captain glanced at him, but returned to Darkin.

Tanner, jealous of the attention that Henry was receiving from the pirates was not hesitant in repeating Henry’s motion. He pulled the trigger and hit another pirate, once again almost hitting the captain.

Elizabeth snickered, “Nice shot. But we don’t want our captain dead just so you know.”

“Alright, we made our point.” Cap said, grabbing the side of Henry’s barrel as he prepared to fire again and lowered it.

Darkin was slowly backing up but the Captain would not let him get away so easily. She lifted her gun slightly and fired. He gasped and struggled when it hit him, attempting to get away. He stumbled backwards and the other pirates parted slightly as he fell through them. He tripped over the rail of the ship and disappeared beneath the waves. Instantly, the other pirates scrambled over the edge, attempting to save him and themselves.

The Captain turned to them, "Darkin steered the ship to hit some corral beneath the waves."

"So...?" Henry asked quietly.

She glared at him, "We're sinking."