The noise of the door opening immediately put Captain Taylor back on guard, drawing her pistol and sword again.

“Hilda, Sam, Ami, we need to… Holy, don’t shoot!” My sister ducks behind the cover of her shield.

“Don’t shoot, Captain, they’re with us.” Hilda urges Captain Taylor to calm down.

“What’s up with you people and startling me, honestly.” Captain Taylor holsters her pistol.

“Good, you found her, we really need to go. The inquisition is inspecting buildings down the quay.”

“Ah, so that’s why those shitheads are here... because of you lot.” Taylor looks over our party before she starts smirking. “Luckily for you I was about to set sail one of these days anyway so our supplies are already stocked. Let’s go, you can finish introducing yourselves once we are safe aboard.”

None of us object to Captain Taylor’s invitation and we follow her outside but not before she yells at the barkeep. “Put their drinks on my tab! I’ll pay it when we come back.”

“Aye, aye.” The barkeep replies.

“My ship’s right over there.” She points at a big three-master that’s docked in the opposite direction of where the inquisitors are coming from. Captain Taylor hops on one of the horses that’s tied up against one of the posts and starts leading us towards it. “As for your horses, we should have plenty of provisions and space to accommodate them on our trip.”

“Thank you, but why are you so eager to help us? Just a minute ago you were still pointing a gun at us.” Hilda asks.

“That’s easy.” Captain Taylor laughs. “An enemy of the church is a friend of mine. And apparently my sister owes you a big favour so there’s that too.”

“She’s your sister?”

“We are quite different aren’t we?” She laughs again. “But anyhow, anyone who helps my baby sister is good in my books. Even flirtatious chibis.” She smirks over to me, making me blush a little.

“Flirtatious chibi?” My sister asks. “Wait… Ami, what exactly did you do in the two minutes you were inside?”

“Let’s keep the stories for when everything is loaded.” We’d already arrived at her ship. Her ship had one gun deck with 15 gunports from what I could tell in the short amount of time it took us to board.

“She’s a beauty.” Hilda comments.

“Definitely is.” Captain Taylor then proceeds to call in a couple of her crew to help us load the horses.

“But I can’t see her name anywhere. Or did I miss it?”

“That’s right, the nameplate got shot to pieces last time and we’ve not yet hung another one. Happens all the time.”

“Are you sure we should be taking this boat?” My sister asks.

“Ship, it’s a ship. And feel free to find another captain to take you?” The captain interjected, in the direction of the inquisitors. “I’d hurry up if I were you though.”

“Good point.” Élise shuts up and helps the crew members with the horses while the rest of us get on board.

Getting the horses on board luckily didn’t take very long as the inquisitors were getting closer by the minute. I could even swear I saw one of them looking at us right as we sailed off.

“Yeah, those buggers definitely saw us.” Captain Taylor made me jump back a bit, I didn’t even hear her coming. She was holding one of those long telescopes you’d see in the pirate movies. “They might come after us but this is a fast ship, so don’t worry about it too much .” She put her hand on my shoulder.

“I hope so…”

“And if not we have plenty of firepower to scare them off.” She winks. “Anyway, why don’t you and my party come to my cabin so we can get to know each other a bit more.” She starts walking off to the center of the ship, her body language betraying that this was more of a command than a request.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

“Let’s go, Ami.” It was Sam’s turn to put her hand on my shoulder now. As we rejoin the rest of the group and head into her cabin together.

“Ah, so that’s what happened.” Captain Taylor laughs after our party has recounted the events that happened to us the last couple of days. “I heard something about a Goddess but I would never expect her to board my ship anytime soon.”

“It’s not that I chose for any of this to happen.” I pout.

“I can believe that. It sounds like a big pain in the ass.”

“Captain Taylor, I have one question about your vessel though.” Hilda remarks.

“What about it?”

“I don’t see you flying any flags.”

Taylor’s smile turned into a smirk. “That’s because the one we fly usually is of the skulls and crossbones kind.”

“I assumed as much.”

“Wait, you are a pirate?” Sam asks.

“Well, yes. I assume I don’t look like much of a naval officer to you, do I? And merchants generally don’t sail around in frigates.”

“Oh…”

“But don’t be alarmed, Miss Sam. We are the good kind of pirates. Free the oppressed, steal money from the rich, that kind of stuff.”

“Ah, like Robin Hood.”

“Who?” Captain Taylor tilts her head. “Never heard of that fellow, what’s he about?”

“He does the same things as you do, just with a bow and arrows, less grapeshot and cannons.”

“Eh, I’d prefer cannons, but he sounds like a decent guy nonetheless. Anyway, any more questions before I give you all a tour of the ship?”

Everyone thinks for a second but it’s ultimately Sam who replies. “Why exactly is the ship called Sam’s Revenge.”

Now Captain Taylor grew a very big grin. “You see, once I had two lovers, and they were both called Sam. Well, one of them was Samantha but she also prefered Sam so…”

The rest of Captain Taylor’s story was too lewd for me so my mind blocked it out completely.

“And that’s why she’s called Sam’s revenge.” Captain Taylor ends her story, leaving Sam staring at the ground awkwardly, not knowing what to say, and others short of breath from laughing too much.

“Sailors do tell the best stories.” Hilda wipes away a couple of tears. “How much of it was true?”

“Let’s say around 30%” Taylor winks. “So, who’s ready for a tour?”

“Come, Sam, let’s follow them.”

“H-how are you so unfazed by her story? You are ace, right?” Sam stutters but takes my hand anyway.

“My mind just blanked, I have no memory of what happened the last ten minutes.”

“I wish I had done that too...”

I give Sam a long head pat. “There there, I’ll cuddle you later to make up for it.”

“I’ll hold you to that.” She squeezes my hand as we rejoin our party.

After having us shown around the main deck and the main gundeck we arrive at a couple of crew cabins.

“These two cabins are for clients, since you are the only non-crew aboard, feel free to use these as you please.” Captain Taylor opens one of the doors. The rooms have two bunk beds each and have a small table and a desk.

“Not too big but it’s not like we’ll be spending months here.” Élise goes to one of the mattresses and puts her hands on it. “Good mattress though.”

“How long do you think this journey will take?” Nikki asks Captain Taylor.

“Two days probably, could be faster if we have good wind.” Taylor was leaning against the door frame. “I’ve made this trip a couple of times already. Never took longer than that.”

“What’s it like?” Hilda’s curiousity was peaked. “You’re the first person I met who went there.”

“Humid, that’s for sure. The one port town we visited was quite nice. That’s where I’ll be dropping you lot off and so I can do some trading.”

“A trading pirate?”

“It’s quite lucrative, you’re looking at one of the only captains who dares to go there. I’m actually not sure why, looked safe enough to me.”

“Captain, the first time we almost got eaten by a giant squid.” One of the crewmembers who was passing by the cabins comments on his Captain.

“Oh, right! I almost forgot about that. Was pretty tasty though. Hopefully we encounter another one of those.”

“Hopefully not.” Élise laughs nervously.

“Haha.” Taylor laughs. “So feel free to leave your gear here. I guess you must be hungry since you had to leave Skaok that fast.”

My tummy starts rumbling right when she says that. “Maybe a little.”

“Alright, see you in the galley.” With that Taylor leaves us alone to sort out our things.

“So about the rooms…” Hilda looks between me and Sam and Élise and Nikki.

“You can sleep with us if you want to, Hilda.” I poke her, Sam is nodding in agreement.

“Me and Ami probably only need one bed anyway, they are wide enough.”

“Thanks, girls.” She smiles.

“Alright, me and Nikki take this room, you three the other. See you at the galley?”

“Yep! See ya!”

We all put away our gear and prepare for our first meal aboard the ship.

-I wonder what kind of food they will serve us…-