The Tale Of William Sunshot

The storm broke eventually, spreading a deep blue blanket over the Caribbean. The day is cloudless, and the sun shines brightly through the windows of my cabin. I rise, dress quickly, grab my effects, and head out on deck. My men are bustling about and seem to be in good spirits. I see Eoin barking at them from up at the helm, his supernatural skill with the sails keeping our ship moving faster than I ever thought possible. I greet every sailor I pass, and they smile and greet me in turn.

It's a great morning.

I walk up to the helm where my Irish pilot is muttering to himself about some sort of tacking issue or another. The man is all business. "Good morning, Eoin!" I shout

"Mornin' capt'n!" he shouts back, a grin spreading across his face "We should hit that island ye oriented us towards today, should be there 'round noon."

"Fantastic, keep me posted."

I checked in with a few more people and places aboard the great ship, noticing that the cannon crews had prepared the newly captured Fury and Thunderbolt rounds. Some other trinkets were stowed in the hold, and I was (as always) pleasantly surprised at the cleanliness of the crew quarters. I insisted that the men keep themselves and the ship neat, and they did so happily. Disease avoided my ship like the plague.

A few hours later, I heard the call from up in the crow's nest.

"LAND HO!!" bellowed the lookout, a small wiry man named Pete.

The crew brought us in, dropped the anchor a ways out, and moved closer to the rail to look. It was indeed an island, and a seemingly small one. Its shores were sandy, but there were dozens of masts sticking up from the shallows, indicating there were rocks aplenty. It seemed peaceful, and nothing really stood out until I examined the coasts more closely.

"Bring us around the west side, but keep light on the sails. Slow and steady will be best, I don't think we're alone." I ordered, and the men jumped to work

Eoin looked at me strangely. I pointed west, to where I had just seen a mast. Eoin's gasp confirmed it:

We had found Teague's ship, the Troubadour. There were two problems to this; one, the ship was on fire. Two, the fire was bright blue.
 

We sent a longboat out to shore, and another to the Troubadour. I went along with the group going to the flaming ship, and Eoin stayed with our own craft. An odd tingling rattled up my spine as my dual memory reminded me of what happened last time I was on this island.

The fire.

We kept going, pulling right up close to the burning ship. I looked up at it, and noticed that despite the ship being very much ablaze, there seemed to be no damage to it at all. The ship seemingly hadn't been touched by the flames.

The screams.

We chose not to board the ship, but left a small group of well-armed men to watch over it and call us if there was any activity. I went with the rest back over to where the other landing party was to meet up and head deeper into the island together, but I was stopped dead by what had just happened. Despite being the middle of the day, the sky went dark, and the shore was pitched into a dark, starless night. There was no moon, nothing. Just the men on the shore, the burning ship off to our left, and my own ship to our right.

I shouted the orders to return to the Conqueror. Both parties started running. From behind me, I heard a noise, a familiar one.

An animal made a sound. We were not alone.
 
We all made it back to the ship save for one unfortunate lad. He was dragged into the forest bordering the shore by something big and gray, though we didn't see what exactly it was. The crew gathered on the main deck, and awaited orders from me after seeing the man get dragged off into the night.

A terrible, bloodcurdling scream pierced the darkness, chilling us to the bones.

"Alright men, enough messing around." I shouted "Run out the long guns, arm them with grapeshot. We're going to flay whatever's out there."

The men ran to the gundecks uneasily, loading the canisters quickly. I gave the order to fire from near the helm, and watched as the massive cannons of my warship blew the first hundred yards of forest to splinters. After doing so, I immediately wished I hadn't done so.

Standing in the newly cleared plain was a line of men clad in silver armor that gleamed despite the lack of a light source. They moved silently, gracefully. An order was issued, and a large cannon was brought forth.

"MOVE US, NOW!!" I ordered, seeing the size of the cannon

It was too late. The cannon spat out a huge stream of blue fire, striking the Conqueror squarely in the side. The men screamed, and everything went black as a deep, burning sensation swept over my body.
 
When I woke, I was looking at the ceiling of what I though was a high stone chamber. It was very bright, and there was some light from outside coming in along with the torchlight. When I looked at the torches and saw their fire was blue, I quickly remembered where I was.

I looked around quickly, taking everything in. I still had my sword, gun, daggers, and grenades, good. My body felt well, no problems there. Everything checked out, and I stood up.

I was in some type of a cell. The door was a shiny silver material, not unlike the armor on the people that had shot at my ship. When I looked out through the bars of the door, I noticed my crew across the way. I shouted to Eoin.

"Hey, what is this place?"

"Don't have a clue mate, but these doors are solid. We're all here, no injuries. As far as we can tell, there's only one other cell here, but we're all here. Dunno who's in that last one."

"I am, mate." said a low, gravelly voice that made my blood run cold

"Ca... Cap... Captain Teague??" stammered Eoin

"The one and only" replied the voice.

Having had enough, I looked at the silver door in front of me. I kicked it once, hard. It didn't move. I decided to try something else. Reaching into my pouch, I produced a grenade. I poured a little powder from it onto the hinges of the door and ran to the back of the cell. Pulling my repeater, I took careful aim, and sent a trio of shots into the three hinges, blowing them off with the extra black powder. I kicked the door again, and this time, it swayed open.

The other began to work at their door, and I moved to help Teague. To my surprise, he was already out of his cell. He moved quick.

"Turn." he said, as he drew his pistol

I dropped and looked behind me. Five of the armor-clad men were approaching. Teague shot one of them through the face, blowing his head off. I drew the Lost Sword and dove in.

Things were getting messy.
 
Ikr? Really, really messy ... Another rated "M" story with all the violence. You all just have some dark inner side over there ... I'm amazed how many of you (writers), who could describe the gore and blood expertly. And my imagination could portray it just fine :D, unfortunately. You are no exception, William!
 
My blade danced through two of the guards, while Teague shot another in the throat. The man collapsed gurgling to the floor, and his newly severed compatriots followed him. I looked around frantically for the last one, not seeing him and having lost track. A loud double-blast sounded, and something heavy fell from the ceiling. The man had leapt into the rafters above, with the intent of surprising us. Eoin had watched him, and served him with a double shot to the chest from his two pistols.

We all cleared out and went out onto a large balcony. The view left us all breathless.

We were atop a massive stone tower looking out upon the whole island. A good-sized stone city was laid out beneath us, with more people walking about with bits of silver in their garb. Off in the distance, under the darkened sky, we could see our two ships, burning blue out on the ocean. More of the large silver cannons dotted the wall around the city, protecting it from harm.

"This'll be fun." remarked a crewman

At that, we heard a shriek from above us. My blood ran cold as my memory remembered the same shriek from the shipwreck my other half had endured. I drew the Lost Sword quickly, and felt a calm wash over me. The crew gasped.

I had turned into a ghost.

Teague smiled.

I thrust the sword in the air, and a ghostly green aura floated out among the crew, turning them to ghosts as well. They drew their blades in time, as a number of silver-clad soldiers came clanking up the steps. As they came through the door to our room, they were cut down or shot quickly, clogging up the stairwell quickly. We made a break for it, our ghostly green forms taking little damage from the strange silver spears the warriors wielded, and flew down the stairs. When we reached the bottom, we all reverted back to our normal forms.

In front of us lay the city, and a massive group of soldiers. Teague set the example and threw down his gun. Eoin did likewise. I sheathed my blade.

"Brave, you are." said a leader, as he took off his helmet. We were in for another surprise.

The man behind the helmet was none other than Jack Sparrow.
 
ooooooooh! didn't see THAT one coming! hahahahahah i wait with baited breath for the next installment William! Thank you so much for sharing. :D
 
We were lead through the city to a large palace on top of a hill. Sparrow had put his helmet back on, and was leading the way. The men in the armor were silent, their silver spears shining menacingly. The crew was uneasy, keeping hands on their guns and swords, and Teague was as calm as a sleeping puppy.

We reached the palace and entered into a large throne room, complete with a guy on the throne. Sparrow approached us.

"Right, so this be the place you're looking for, savvy? The fellow up there on that rather large and shiny chair would be able to free your ship from it's burning predicament. He's also got something that the two of you want, or are looking for, or seeking. It's near the tower, under a seat."

With that, he turned around and left. We looked back at the guy on the throne, who beckoned us closer. We walked up and looked at him. He was slightly shorter than the men with spears, yet not too short. He was a little heavier, but not too heavy.

"Who ah ye?" he said in a raspy voice

We introduced ourselves. He nodded.

"Ye look somethin mine. Can't have."

I looked at him, puzzled. I knew full well what I was here for, and I think Teague did too, but we had to pokerface it through this.

"And what would that be?" asked Teague

Booming laughter echoed through the hall as the man laughed.

"Ask him, he has part," he said, as he pointed at me. With that, his men dropped their spears to point at us, and our men drew their weapons. The armored men began to advance as our crew circled up. Eoin drew his two pistols, Teague drew his cutlass, and I brought out the Lost Sword.

Showtime.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top