Pirate Pandemonium

By Devika Hardikar

My eyes scanned the large map that was placed before me in my quarters. As captain it was my job to make sure we stayed on route. THUD. My eyes darted. I ran up onto the deck to the sound of a wet body being thrown against the splintery wood deck. Boots tapping the hollow floor of our massive ship. My heart stopped to see the one person I hated the most.

“Kurt.” I spat.

“Yeah, we found him during recon, he had been left there bleeding. He says that Axel has gone rogue and he’d rather help us just to wipe his brother out.” Spoke Coraline. Withdrawing her sword. And pulled herself back on board. I signaled my crew to grab him and tie him to the post. I turned to look out to the horizon. Scanning the luscious blue water for any trace of enemy ships.

“I don't trust the guy.” Coraline said burning holes at Kurt with her eyes.

“You know he'd actually be pretty fun to hang with, I mean if he weren't trying to kill us all the time.” Helen started.

“You gotta love the way he talks. Liam I'm afraid our time together has come to an end. I must now kill you if you have no objections.” Laughed Iris

“Like he's not gonna have objections. And then I'll go: All of your crew must also go. With my sincerest apologies.” Helen joked

“I'm with Coraline. This is all just one big game to him Liam.” Walt added.

“Axel is coming to try to wipe us all out along with his secret weapon. Are we really gonna take any chances with Kurt here?” Coraline pressed.

“You guys are right, I've got this.” I grabbed Kurt, untied and dragged him towards the cells.

“Liam, you must reconsider.” He pleaded as I threw him into a cell.

“Kurt I’m sorry but there's just too much bad blood for us to trust that you'll do anything but try to, oh I don’t know KILL US!”

“Axel will attack this island with my cannons. I'm afraid he won't stop until all of you are, well, you know.” He moved his finger up to his throat in a slicing manner.

“And encouraging, as always, Kurt.”

“You see that's just it! I could be of considerable assistance in helping you defend your home if you would allow me.”

“We'll take that under advisement.” butted in Caroline, arms crossed above her light green shirt. Sword strapped against her trousers.

“They're here, well I mean not here exactly but very soon, soon they will be here. I'm thinking we might need to start getting ready.” Both our heads then turned to address the loud footsteps entering the cabin. I looked towards Iris’s other half

“Translation, Helen?”

“Hunters, with multiple ships headed this way.” she spoke, pushing her sister aside. BANG! The whole ship rocked as my eyes changed into fangs and darted towards Kurt. I sighed the battle was almost upon us.

“Everyone to their quarters! We have to wait out the initial attack!” I hollered hoping everyone heard me. “We have until dawn, they'll be in range by then.”

“Liam I have a thought, and now follow me on this, okay come along for the ride, I don't know about you guys, but I'm not completely attached to this place alright, let it burn to the ground. I mean it's been fun, great views, but it's worth dying over, that's what you have to ask yourself. Alright, let's take a vote. Anyone.” he asked. I watched as all of our heads turned to face Lucas who was wearing a smug look on his face, his sea green eyes showed signs of panic.

“Lucas if we don't stop them here, where do you think they're going to go next?”

“Uhhh....”

“They're going to go to the cove, our cove. We have to make our stand here, and do whatever it takes to stop them.” I interrupted speaking for him.

“Well, that's one nay, no surprise there.” He puffed.

“Walt, take the scrolls to the center of the ship, and find a safe place to hide.”

“Wait, he gets to hide!? Well, we can all hide just well.” I internally cursed at the sound of Lucas’s whining.

BANG! Another cannon came. This continued for a good 2 more hours. Luckily we had taken the time to re-enforce the ships.

“I'm not sure about you, but there's no way I'm sitting through that again. We have stronger cannons, we should be out there sinking their ships.” Lucas seethed

“The fire isn't coming from all the ships, it’s coming from the Blazewing.” shot back Walt

“I hate to be the one to say I told you so but-”

“How did you get out!?” I yelled at the sight of Kurt out of his cell, releasing all the bubbling frustration like a pressure cooker.

“My friend Lucas was good enough to allow me to use the facilities.” Kurt spoke shoulders back with one arm slung around Lucas.

“Oh, he did, did he?” I asked, shifting my eyes to a now uncomfortable Lucas, hands on my hips.

“What? He scares me. And besides when you got to go, you got to go, and who knows that better than me?” he spoke, offering a small uncertain grin as if asking for approval.

“Laim, you must allow me to assist you for the sake of us all. The Blazewing’s range is over a mile, Axel using ships, my ships to be exact, to protect it.”

“Then we need to get past the ships.” Caroline said pushing past everyone and standing next to me on high alert with her arm on her sword.

“Then we better do it quickly. Helen, Iris, you're up.” I ordered looking up at them.

“We're on it.”

“Hey! What about me?” Lucas questioned, clearly offended.

“Why don’t you look after your new best friend there.” I gestured to Kurt who was now bearing a maniacal grin.

“Where's the fun in that!?” He yelled

“It's not supposed to be fun. And I don't care how scary he is, do not let him out of your sight again.” I retorted sassily walking out and onto the main deck.

“We need to slow them down a little and move on. If they fire on us, we fire back.” I said approading Caroline signaling her to tell the rest of the crew to start manning the cannons.

“Whoa! Aren't you supposed to be watching Kurt?! Is that the cells on fire?” I cried at the sight of Lucas coming out from below deck.

“You said don't let him out no matter what.” He said dumbfounded.

“Lucas, use your brain!” I screeched leaving my post and trying to get below deck with a barrel of water in hopes of stopping the fire before our whole ship would start taking water.

“Oh my god! You're so mercurial. Kurt taught me that. I don't know what it means.” He argued.

“Ugh” I said running back to the cells, coughing and yelling out for Kurt as smoke filled my lungs.

“Liam, You came all the way back to rescue me. I'm honored.” He said as I slung him on my shoulder.

“Yeah, don't be. If I left you here to die, it would make me no better than you.” I replied

“ Well, you'll be glad you returned. I can help, if you will allow me.” He asked

“How? How are you gonna help?” I yelled.

“I can advise you on defeating my brother and stopping the Blazewing.”

“You got that all figured out, do ya?”

“As luck would have it, I do.” He replied. I nodded signaling him to the cabins.

“Okay, I'm confused. You said keep him in his cell. You can't toy with my emotions like this, I'm too fragile right now.” Lucas whined.

“He's right, I mean, sort of. Are we really trusting Kurt to be on the loose, especially now?” Asked Caroline. Suddenly I wasn’t so sure, but I needed to keep going with Kurt’s plan.

“ Well, if Kurt can help figure out how to stop this attack.” I argued

“ What if he can't? What if he won't? What if it's part of the plan? We just walked into it.” She fired back

“Then, we just walked into it. But, I'm making the call. Kurt and I are gonna take this thing down, we’ll take the dingy and try to get onto the ship. On my signal, I want you guys to start closing in on the Blazewing. Everyone nodded, understanding my decision was final. I walked to the edge of the ship

“You know, there's a word for a tournament. To be hosted by the Tribe of the Whispering Trees.” Kurt spoke

“Yeah, is that right?” I asked bored

“The winner, apparently, receives a life-size game set. Made of solid gold.” He pressed on.

“Oh, lucky him.”

“Poor, dear, Liam. The truth can be complicated. Am I right? And while I can't put myself directly in your shoes, I can most surely empathize with your situation.” Humored Kurt

“You can, huh?” I said, sounding rather vain.

“Absolutely. To be the culprit of an unjust murder. Not sure how I would balance such a precarious situation. It can certainly cloud the mind, impair judgment. Make even the simplest decisions vexing.” He smirked

“You know what's, "Vexing,"Kurt? Is why you're rambling on trying to get inside my head. I would think, by now, you'd have given up. You see, I'm focused, I'm clear, decisive. What I am not, is your friend, your ally, your tournament buddy, okay? So let's leave our personal lives out of this and get down to business.” I exploded with nothing but pure venom coming out of my mouth.

“I'm only trying to help.”

“If you wanna help, why don't you tell me where we're going,what we're doing and how just the two of us are going to .” I raged, gripping the oars tighter and steering my gaze back to him.

“You’ll see,” he said, giving me a deranged smile, bringing up his fist to collide with my face and then, darkness.

By Devika Hardikar