Braver looked up at the open sea, where his next adventure
would begin. He was at the edge of the Tyrannian land mass. He was at a little
harbour there, now. The Pteris were everywhere. Their flapping sounds filled
the air. Braver closed his eyes and felt the ocean breeze.
He snapped back into attention when a sea captain
started shouting at him, "Are you deaf? Quit daydreaming! I said that the ship
will be ready soon." In his last adventure, he set out for an expedition in
the Haunted Woods. He plans on reaching it by ship. Braver takes a look at the
strange shininess of the ship docked. "So what's the ship made out of?" Braver
inquired of the captain.
"It's made out of metal. First of its kind… Ah,
yes. A dream come true for a true seaman!" the captain answered.
"I don't-" Braver said before he got cut off.
"WHAT? You don't trust it will sail?" the captain
asked with vehemence in his voice.
"I never said that. Er… So what's our travel
plan?" Braver asked, not trusting the captain.
"We'll sail through the ruins of Maraqua, and
just sail west until we hit land at the Haunted Woods," he answered plainly.
"Then we'll pass Krawk Island," Braver said thinking.
"Don't worry about them! They wouldn't dare shoot
at a METAL ship!" the captain said sure of himself. Some days later, the metal
ship, docked in the Tyrannian harbour was ready for departure. The Lupe team
gathered with all their needed possessions, and boarded the ship. After more
preparation, a sailor shouted, "Full steam ahead!"
Urali, the ship, let smoke out of its whistle,
a foghorn sounded, and it pulled out of the harbour slowly, and sped toward
the Haunted Woods. Braver turned to a crew member of Urali. "So this is the
first ship run by coal?" Braver asked.
"Yep. She's a beauty. Don't you think?" he asked
to no one in particular. The other Lupes swallowed hard finding out that the
ship is the first of its kind. Like a prototype.
"It could sink unexpectedly," a Lupe was saying
to his friend. "This is so dangerous!" Braver was happy to find out that no
Lupes were seasick. The only problem was that some couldn't swim. After two
days, on a beautiful morning, Braver flipped to a new page in his journal and
wrote, "The voyage will be faster than usual because of the new energy source
used to power the ship. It is running at around six knots. Or so the captain
says. The day I dreaded came quicker than I thought it would. We approached
pirate territory cautiously."
"This ship is equipped with cannons! Ten of them!
Just because the material the ship is made out of metal and how it travels is
different doesn't mean that the cannons are outdated. They are still deadly.
Those pirates wouldn't know what hit them! After all, I'm the captain here.
I'm sure they've heard of me. I'm Captain Bret, after all," Captain Bret bragged.
Off in the distance, a galleon kept a watch for
any trespassers. The lookout scoped the area out with a telescope. When he spotted
our ship, he yelled,
"Arg! There's a ship ahead. It's comin' pretty
close! Looks…. Like metal….."
"Arg! A metal ship? What's got into your mind,
mate? Are you crazy?" the captain asked harshly. The lookout made no reply.
"Prepare the cannons! We'll show those sailors
that we are the best of all!" the captain commanded.
"The cannons are ready, Captain!" a sailor reported.
"Well don't just stand there! Fire at will!"
the captain yelled.
Back on our ship, we just saw a big black dot
getting bigger and bigger. "It's a cannonball! Ah! Hit the deck!" a crewman
screamed. Everyone fell to the floor, and put their paws over their heads. The
blast shook the entire ship. Captain Bret laughed. "It'll certainly take more
than that to kill us!" he exclaimed.
The cannonball created a hole in our bow. Luckily,
the hole was above the water, so no water leaked in, and we stayed afloat.
"Get in closer and fire back!" Captain Bret ordered.
The Urali made its way deeper into pirate territory
until the galleon was more visible. The crew prepared the cannons and fired.
A sailor with a telescope informed us, "It's taking in water! Their ship's going
down!"
The passengers of the ship rejoiced. "We'll be
heading to Mystery Island for some repairs now! Don't worry! We'll make it before
we sink!" Captain Bret assured us.
But they wouldn't be heading anywhere. They were
deep in pirate territory. More galleons blocked off the way to Mystery Island.
We were surrounded on all sides.
A galleon approached the Urali. Their captain
shouted, "Prepare to be boarded!" Tons of pirates were all running around like
crazy. They were all Krawks, including their captain. A wooden board was set
between our ships, and the captain boarded with maybe thirty pirates as bodyguards.
Pirates took hold of everyone on the Urali. The
captain stepped up to Captain Bret and asked, "What are you doing here?"
"Please, we intend no harm. Just let us go,"
Braver said. With a swift punch to my guts from the pirate captain, I fell to
the floor. The pirate holding Braver released his grip…
"Owf!" Braver said as the air was knocked out
of him.
"Was I asking you? Now what are you doing here?"
the pirate captain asked again to Captain Bret, losing his temper.
Captain Bret replied, "We don't mean any harm.
That's all you need to know." The pirate captain jabbed him in the stomach as
well. "Don't talk to me like that! You're in no position," he stated.
Braver was right behind the pirate captain, on
the floor after he jabbed him in the stomach, with no pirate holding him, so
he took action. Braver got up fast and elbowed the pirate behind him, and threw
him into some other pirates, allowing more Lupes to free their paws. We all
made the same move for their swords. The Lupes with the freed paws drew all
the swords of the pirates that were holding onto them before. They all pointed
them to surrounding pirates and those pirates allowed other Lupes to take their
swords. I held the sword in my paw up at the pirate captain's neck.
"Drop your swords!" he ordered not hesitating
a bit.
"Tell your pirates to leave now," Braver hissed
at the captain.
"No harm will come to you," he said to Braver.
Braver peered over at the crowd when there was some noise as a pirate tried
to grab his sword back, but it was all taken care of. The pirate captain took
this chance to punch a Lupe in the stomach and take his sword.
Lupes started to move forward, but Braver gave
them the signal to back off. The crowd all backed away. Tension was building.
"Are you all talk? I don't think you can even touch me," the pirate captain
said.
Braver made the first move as he tried to knock
the sword out of the pirate captain's hand. The captain dodged and tried to
knock the sword that Braver was using out of his hand with a vertical slash,
but Braver held his sword horizontally with both hands and blocked the attack.
Then, as the captain's sword was on Braver's, he pushed it forward attempting
to hold it at Braver's throat so he could get all the Lupes around to drop their
swords, but Braver pushed his sword upward, and the blade of the pirate captain's
went an inch above his head. They drew back both their blades, lunged forward,
and held their blades at each other's neck.
"I underestimated you maybe. But no one actually
won. Until now!" the pirate captain shouted. He tried to stab Braver in the
head, but Braver dodged by simply moving his head to the side. Now time froze.
Braver stared into the captain's eyes, and he stared back. Here they were. Braver's
sword up at the captain's neck, and the captain's sword up next to Braver's
head not as much of a threat at all. The captain dropped his sword and said,
"Just kill me now. I've lost my dignity already."
"No. I'm not like you. I don't sink down to that
level. I wouldn't kill any creature on this planet," Braver responded. Braver
started to address the crewmen and the Lupes. "Now drop all the swords into
the ocean. Don't worry.
They won't try anything with their captain in
this situation." The Lupes moved slowly to the edges of the ship, and tossed
their swords overboard.
"Tell your rotten pirate crew to get back onto
their ship now."
"You heard him," the pirate captain said to his
own crew. The pirates moved back on their ship in a run. All was back to normal,
but the pirate captain was still an inch away from Braver's sword.
The Urali's captain cleared his throat and said,
"Full speed ahead to Mystery Island for the repairs!"
When they were at the edge of pirate territory,
and as close to Mystery Island's harbour as they could get, Braver gripped the
pirate captain by his coat collar and whispered to him, "Have a nice time swimming.
Oh, and one more thing. Pirates have no dignity."
After that Braver tossed him overboard. At the
harbour, a Neopet told us in a bored manner, "A rich Flotsam contacted us. Your
visit to the Haunted Woods has been canceled. Your next destination is the ruins
of Maraqua. A submarine will be sent over here soon." Braver smiled and knew
what was on everybody else's mind: Can we go WAY around pirate territory?
The End | 
