Jace and his crew made their way out of the cave and cavern they were in and
started to hack their way through the jungle towards the east side of the island.
"So. Do any of you guys have an idea of how to get home?" Jace asked his crew.
Thrasher was leading everyone through the jungle while Jace was behind him, with
Casie behind Jace, and Flamett taking up the rear.
"I've got no clue." Flamett answered.
"Same here. I'm stumped." Casie also replied.
"I've got an idea." Thrasher piped up.
"Let's hear your idea mate!" Jace said with hope.
"Do you guys remember the evil pirate camp we all took out together?" Thrasher
asked Jace, Casie, and Flamett. They all nodded in agreement. "I was thinking, they
had to have some way to transport and deliver all those camping supplies to this island.
And there were a lot of evil pirates too. So I'm thinking that they might have a ship or
some ships docked somewhere on the coast of this island that's close to the start of the
river. I think we should head to the east side of the island and check there, especially
close to the start of the river."
"Why the east side?" Jace asked in wonder.
"Because the river wasn't too far from where the evil pirate camp was. It flows
from east to west through this island and the map showed it was actually pretty close to
the camp. So they probably used the river to transport supplies in smaller boats to save
footwork and bypass the jungle." Thrasher explained knowledgeably.
"Wow! That's really smart! Good thinking!" Jace said encouragingly.
"Thank you!" Thrasher received the compliment and said. "With any luck, the
ships might still be there." Jace and his crew continued eastward through the island's
jungle. They slashed their way through tons of greenery, they climbed trees and rocks,
helping each other along the way. They even fought some skeletons that were tucked
away and hidden in the jungle that were waiting to pounce on anything that moved.
"I think. "Hyah!!!" We're. "Haa!!!" Almost. There!!!" Thrasher after his three big
slashes and grunts of effort finally cleared a way out of the jungle and onto a small hill
overlooking the east side and shore of the island. Jace, Casie, and Flamett all laid down
next to Thrasher on the small hill. They were hidden by some small bushes that were
nearby. And like Thrasher thought, Jace and his crew's eyes fell on two big ships that
were anchored just off shore with their sails furled up. Jace and his crew noticed a busy
bustling on the ships. They were filled to the brim with evil pirates. All of them were
working hard and tirelessly. On the beach were many evil pirates too. They were all
camping on the shore as well. Just like the other evil pirates were doing in the other evil
pirate camp Jace and his crew ran into earlier.
"Man! It's like they have a whole operation or something going on here. What
was so important about that treasure?!" Jace asked himself out loud.
"This is weird. I'm sure The Shadow doesn't need more gold. He's got an army
for crying out loud." Thrasher explained.
"Hmm." Flamett started to speak in a joking way. "Maybe that cutlass of yours
Jace is more important than we think!" She smiled and comically jabbed Jace, who was
laying beside her with her elbow. Jace smiled back and chuckled.
"Actually Flamett. You might just be right about that." Jace grew a sly grin on his
face and got up and gripped the cutlass.
"Wait, what are you doing Jace! They're going to see you!" Flamett spoke more
loudly but hushed while she reached and tugged on Jace's sleeve to pull him back on
the ground. Jace ignored Flamette's pulls and said.
"If this cutlass is possibly important to The Shadow. Then it might be really
powerful. This seems like a good time to test it out!" Jace said confidently.
"Wait! Jace!" Casie and Thrasher interjected. Casie went first, talking in a louder
but quiet tone. "Think this through! There are probably like hundreds upon hundreds of
evil pirates in total out there!"
"Casie's right Jace!" Thrasher said after Casie, still keeping an inside-like but
louder voice. "This isn't smart! We should come up with a plan!"
"We need a way home right?" Jace asked his crew. "So let's get a way home.
Let's take one of their ships and sail it back to Port Savvy!" Everyone paused for a
second.
"You're nuts. You know that?" Thrasher, Casie, and Flamett said together all at
once with blank expressions on their faces.
"So what's the plan then?" Thrasher asked Jace.
"I'll attack first using this new cutlass we got. I'll start with the evil pirates camping
out on the shore. After my attack, you guys charge and fight with me."
"What about the ships? How are we gonna attack those?" Casie wondered.
"I'll leave that job to Flamett and you. Flamett." Jace directed his attention to
Flamett and she met his gaze with wide eyes and listening ears. "After we deal with the
evil pirates on the shore, you fire the biggest fireballs you can at the ships, but don't
destroy both of them.
"You got it Jace!" Flamett exclaimed as her eyes lit up with excitement. And
Casie." Jace shifted his attention to Casie and she listened intently. "Your job is to get all
of us to the last ship floating with a huge air burst. Do you think you can do that?"
"Umm." Casie hummed with doubt. "Maybe?"
"Okay, that's good enough for me. Just try your best when the time comes!" Jace
said proudly. "Alright. Here goes nothing!" Jace clenched the handle of the cutlass and
started to pull it out of its sheath. After Jace revealed an inch of the fine and shiny silver
steel of the cutlasses blade. Jace vanished into thin air, leaving his crew baffled,
confused, and surprised.
"Where'd he go…?" Jace's crew wondered together.
Jace appeared out of thin air right in the middle of one of the evil pirate ships that
was anchored off shore. Jace still only had an inch of the cutlass revealed.
"Uhh…" Jace hummed out a tone of confusion while the entire evil pirate crew
stopped in their tracks and froze in curiosity and shock. "This isn't the shore!!!" Jace
shouted in frustration and sarcasm.
"Who are ye?! Men! I don't know what in the hell is happening, but we have
ourselves an intruder! Get him!" The evil captain yelled out to his crew. The entire evil
pirate crew drew their guns and swords and charged at Jace. Jace started panicking
and didn't know what to do, but then a thought popped into his head at the last second.
He regained his focus and he pulled on the cutlass he was still holding onto. Its peerless
steel sparked as it was ripped from its sheath. Jace swung it around and pointed it
towards the deck of the ship and it hummed and rang with energy. The evil pirate crew
was closing in on Jace, but Jace thrusted the cutlass into the dry boards of the ship's
deck before anyone could get near him. Once the cutlass cut through the grains of
wood of the ship. The entire ship started to light up a shimmering yellow and get
brighter. Once the light got to the point of blinding. The ship instantly turned into a fiery
red and orange cyclone of fire, it exploded into shattered pieces of wood, nails, cloth,
and metal. It sent an earth rocking shockwave through the air, ground, and ocean. The
explosion was so powerful, it moved the entire other ship that was close by. Everyone
on the shore, including Jace's crew, felt the rumble of the explosion in their bones. They
all stood and looked in awe at the large and daunting dark gray mushroom cloud that
was once a ship as it rose into the endless blue sky. Thrasher was the first to come to
his senses and noticed that all the evil pirates that were camping on the beach were all
distracted by the massive explosion that came out of nowhere.
"Hey guys." Thrasher nudged both Casie and Flamett with his elbows. Casie and
Flamett snapped awake from staring at the mushroom cloud. "All those evil pirates on
the beach are distracted. We should hit them while we have the element of surprise,
especially since they outnumber us pretty good."
"Good idea, Thrasher. This is the perfect opportunity!" Casie said with passion.
"I'm with you guys! Let's beat up some bad guys!" Flamett joined in with
excitement. "Let's go!" Flamett, Thrasher, and Casie all ran together towards the beach
that was full of evil pirates. They all ran towards their fight silently so they wouldn't alert
anyone until Flamett summoned some fireballs in her hands that flickered with power
and yelled.
"FIRE!!!" Most of the evil pirates turned around and saw two meteor-like balls of
fire come flying towards their camp.
"We be takin' fire!" Some evil pirates yelled out together. The two massive
fireballs landed and made connection with the ground underneath the evil pirate camp.
They exploded and sent out powerful and concussive waves of heat and force through
the evil pirates that were nearby and sent them flying. Casie had an idea pop into her
head and she started reciting an incantation as she drew her dagger.
"Powerful wind, the wind that lets me control the speed of dauntless ships. Heed
my call and pour out your power on these men!"
Gusts of wind started to surge all around the area and move toward the tip of
Casie's dagger. The wind got stronger and stronger until a ferocious and angry tornado
formed on the tip of Casie's dagger. Once the tornado grew as big as Casie could
control. She swung her dagger towards the evil pirate camp and the flames left over
from Flamett's fireballs. The tornado transferred from Casie's dagger to the ground and
started ripping through the entire evil pirate camp without mercy. After it went wild for a
couple seconds, Casie's plan came true and her tornado grabbed the bright and orange
flames of Flamett's fireballs and turned into a raging fire tornado that glowed with
brilliance. It danced through the evil pirate camp and took out many evil pirates and
destroyed all of their tents and fires. Thrasher stood in awe at the power of his two crew
mates. His eyes then fell on twenty evil pirates that survived and were charging out of
the flames towards him and the two girls.
"Don't worry guys. I got the rest." Thrasher said confidently. Thrasher gripped the
cutlass he had on his belt and got into a sprinting position. Thrasher blasted forwards
towards the evil pirates. While he flew through the air, he drew his cutlass and swung it
with great strength right before he reached the twenty evil pirates that were left
standing. Thrasher moved so fast and swung his cutlass with such strength that it
created a slash of wind that was as sharp as a razor blade. It was so large it moved and
sawed right through every last evil pirate and finished them off instantly. The fire tornado
that ate up everything in its path started to diminish into flames and ashes that floated
into the air while Thrasher, Casie and Flamett regrouped.
"Man! That was a fast battle! We destroyed them!" Thrasher shouted in
celebration.
"They didn't even know what hit them!" Flamett cheered.
"That was a quick battle. Good job everyone!" Casie said encouragingly. "I'm just
wondering one thing."
"What's that?" Thrasher and Flamett asked.
"Where did Jace go?"
"I'm not sure. But do you guys think that he might have been responsible for that
ship exploding?" Flamett replied and wondered.
"If he was, I hope he's okay. Cause that was one massive explosion." Casie
remarked.
Jace clenched his eyes once he saw the wood beneath his feet start to turn into
pure fire. He heard an ear busting blast and felt searing heat all around him and a soul
shaking rumble. But to his surprise he was perfectly fine. Jace slowly opened his eyes
and was shocked. He was surrounded by a golden ball that was originating from his
cutlass. He looked all around himself and noticed he was floating and sitting in the
middle of what looked like an eye of a hurricane, but one that was made of fire, smoke,
and ash. Once the fire and heat dispersed, the golden orb surrounding Jace
disappeared and he fell into the ocean yelling all the way to the water. Jace plunged into
the cold water and swam up to the surface and gasped for air. He was still clutching
onto the cutlass and its sheath. He put the cutlass back into its sheath and held it in his
left hand so he could tread in the water better.
"What just happened?!" Jace shouted in confusion and laughter. "How did that all
just happen, that was crazy!" Jace calmed down and started to think. "So how am I
going to get back to the beach? That is one long swim." Jace looked at the shore and
the people he could see were unrecognizable. "I wonder. Does this cutlass teleport me
when I draw it a little bit? That seems like what happened when I pulled on it before.
Maybe I can control where I teleport if I think about where I want to teleport to, or what I
want to do when I teleport. Let's try it." Jace grabbed the handle of his cutlass and
thought about the beach and its soft and warm sand. He pulled slightly on the cutlass
and when its steel peeked out of its sheath, Jace vanished from the water he was
swimming in and appeared out of thin air on the beach, dripping with water right in front
of his crew who were on the beach talking about him. Casie stopped talking to Thrasher
and Flamett, and they were all shocked and speechless.
"There you are Jace!" Flamett said excitedly. "We were just talking about you!"
"It worked!" Jace exclaimed. He was so excited he didn't even notice Flamett
talking to him. "This cutlass is awesome!" Jace yelled as he held up the cutlass above
his head with a big smile on his face.
"What worked?" Flamett asked.
"I figured out how teleportation works on this cutlass!" Jace said happily as he
held the cutlass towards his crew.
"So that's why you disappeared out of thin air and reappeared!" Thrasher stated.
"Were you the one who blew up that ship?!" Flamett asked gleefully while she
blushed. "Because that was an insane explosion! I felt it shake me to my core!"
"Yeah! That explosion was all me!" Jace said proudly.
"I hate to interrupt your guys' celebration." Casie interrupted and added. "But we
still have one more ship to get to, and it looks like it's starting to sail away!" Jace and his
crew all looked towards the other ship that was anchored by the shore and it was now
turning away and opening its sails.
"How are we going to get over there?" Casie asked in anxiety out loud. "I know
the plan was to use an air burst that I could summon to launch us to the ship, but it's too
far away."
"No worries Casie!" Jace said encouragingly. "I have an idea! Everyone! Put your
hands on me! Let's see if this cutlass can teleport multiple people!" Casie, Flamett, and
Thrasher all put their hands on Jace's back. After they made contact, Jace reached for
his cutlass and thought intently about the ship that was sailing away. He thought about
the deck and its sunburned wood. After focusing for a moment. Jace tugged on his
cutlass and revealed a hint of its iron. In the blink of an eye, Jace and his crew
disappeared from the beach and landed perfectly onto the deck of the ship that was
sailing away. They landed in the middle of all the busy evil pirates, and once the evil
pirates noticed Jace and his crew, they all panicked and started getting out their
weapons.
"Attack them! They might blow us all up too!" The other evil captain shouted at
his crew. All the evil pirates from below the deck started to emerge to the deck, and all
the evil pirates that were up by the sails and crows nest started to climb down towards
the deck and surround Jace and his crew. There had to be at least hundreds of evil
pirates on the ship Jace, Casie, Thrasher, and Flamett wanted to commandeer. Jace
and his crew all went back to back and got ready to fight.
"Now Flamett!" Jace yelled out. "Flash them!"
"FLASH!!!" Flamett shouted and pointed her hand above her crewmates. A
singular fireball shot out of her hand and stopped above everyone on the ship. All the
evil pirates stared at the fireball in awe while Jace and his crew all looked to the ground
and closed their eyes. Then a loud reverberating hum filled the air. The fireball grew
brighter and brighter until it was pure white, then it instantly exploded and sent a
blinding flash all throughout the evil pirate crew. Jace was the first to look up and said to
himself.
"It looks like I have no choice but to cut up some evil pirates now. If I don't, then
we will die and never make it back to Port Savvy or defeat The Shadow." Jace
unsheathed his powerful cutlass with aggressiveness and yelled out. "I wonder what
happens if I throw it!" Jace threw the cutlass towards the evil pirate crew. It flew from his
hand and started to spin insanely fast. As it flew, it reverberated with power and had a
golden hue surrounding it. It tore through many evil pirates. It traveled around, up, and
through the entire evil pirate ship to as many evil pirates as it could find and slashed
them, all while cutting through anything else in its way, whether it be rope, the canopy of
the sails, or even the pulleys and deck boards and cannons. After it flew around for a
while, Jace reached above his head and opened his hand. The cutlass stopped
spinning and moving but retained its glow and humming. It then zipped towards Jace's
open hand and landed in his palm. He gripped the cutlass and got ready to attack again.
"I'm with you Jace!" Thrasher got ready to attack as well as he drew his saber. In
a flash, Jace and Thrasher started darting through the evil pirate crew and took them
out with blazing fast speed and force.
"Hey Flamett!" Flamett darted her attention towards Casie who called her name.
"Let's start taking out some of these guys as well! Use your fire magic to shoot fire at the
evil pirates, I'll use my wind magic to spread your fire around like last time!" Flamett
nodded and replied.
"You got it Casie! Here we go!" Flamett yelled out fire again and some flames
appeared in her hands. Then she yelled.
"IGNITE!!!" The flames in her palms started to glow brighter with robust reds and
oranges, and flames shot out of Flamett's hands like a blow torch and started igniting
the evil pirate ship and the evil pirates that were in her line of fire. Casie called out
another incantation.
"Wind, hear my call and come to my blade! Rush and flurry and blow for me!"
Casie took out her dagger and wind started to surround it in a sphere of power. Once
the wind sat on her blade for a couple seconds, she swung her dagger in multiple
directions all around herself. As she swung her dagger, the wind shot off of her dagger
and created blasts of powerful wind that rushed all around her and the evil pirate crew.
The wind caught Flamett's fire jets and spread the fire around so it burned more of the
evil pirate ship and tons of evil pirates with walls of rippling flames.
"This just isn't possible." The evil captain said to himself as he watched his entire
ship fall into the hands of the enemy. "There's only four of them!" He watched as his
crew was whittled down to almost nothing, bit by bit in flurries of attacks and plumes of
fire until he was the last one standing. Jace and his crew approached a defeated evil
pirate captain. The evil pirate captain looked at them and said, "I… Surrender. Please
spare me and let me row a boat to the island." Jace looked at the evil pirate captain and
felt bad for him.
"We're not merciless sir. You can go to the island, we won't kill you. We just want
your ship so we can get home."
"I'm grateful, I will get a boat from the ship and start headin' to the island." The
evil pirate captain replied. He lowered a row boat from the side of the ship and made his
way towards the island. As the evil pirate captain rowed away, a cheeky and
mischievous grin spread across his face.
"Just ye wait ye fools. Ye will soon regret lettin' me escape. I'll signal for help and
tell The Shadow about all of ye! He won't rest until he finds and kills ye all! He will send
his captains to hunt you down and slaughter you!"
"Sweet!" Jace started to talk to his crew with excitement. "Looks like we got the
ship guys! Let's get her moving and head back home to Port Savvy!" Jace went to the
steering wheel of the ship and grabbed a hold of its smooth and finely shaped handles
and got ready to steer the ship. Thrasher went up to the crows nest so he could spot
any enemies if any showed up on the horizon. Flamett went around to all the cannons
and made sure that they were all ready to fire. She infused all the gunpowder that was
in the cannons with her magic so it was many times stronger than normal gunpowder.
And after Casie finished putting out the fires on the ship she and Flamett caused, she
got ready to help sail the ship and yelled out, "UNFURL!!!" to all the sails on the ship
and they all whipped open and caught the warm and salty wind. The proud ship started
to move and tread through the sea.
"Hey Thrasher!" Jace called up to Thrasher who was in the crows nest. "Which
direction is Port Savvy from here?!"
"I'm not sure, Jace! What if you use your navigation special ability to find Port
Savvy?!" Thrasher replied loudly so Jace could hear him from the top of the ship.
"I'll try Thrasher! Thanks for reminding me that I had that ability!" Jace yelled
back at Thrasher gratefully. After Jace replied to Thrasher, his eyes fell on a compass
that was on a wooden support just behind the big wooden steering wheel of the evil
pirate ship. He instinctively rested his hand on the compass and focused on Port Savvy
and its two tall cliffs and busy and bustling stalls. He thought about its beauty and
homey feeling it emitted. The compass's needle completely disobeyed magnetism's rule
and pointed from north to south.
"Looks like Port Savvy is south Thrasher!" Jace shouted out.
"Sounds good Jace! Let's head home!" Thrasher shouted back. Jace let go of the
compass and its needle reseted to north and worked normally again. Jace then reached
out and grabbed the smooth and polished handles of the big wooden steering wheel
and turned it, it turned smoothly and steadily and Jace directed the ship south. Jace and
his crew sailed away from the island and into the horizon towards home.