Isaac could feel his chest starting to bruise as his knees continued to press against it, and as the minutes ticked by it became harder and harder to breathe. He had carefully considered every aspect of this plan, and he had not had this problem in any one of his scenarios. But then again, he hadn't been flipped onto his back in any of those either. It had been a couple of hours now since he felt his hiding place tumbling along the floor, and that in itself was no walk in the park. It only grew worse when he finally came to a rest with his knees pressed against what was now the top of the box.

He kept listening to hear if any of the crew was walking around, but all he heard were the waves slamming against the side of the ship. His breaths were becoming more and more shallow, he knew that he would not be able to sit in this position much longer. Growing more and more lightheaded, images of his old life started to flash before his eyes, the young children laughing at him, calling him names, and then running away in fear. The adults who comforted him, picked him up when he was down, suddenly turning their heads away. As all these memories flooded his brain, one word echoed in his mind that he heard from every man, woman and child:

"Freak."

The closed box was making the voices louder and louder, to the point where he just couldn't take it anymore. Kicking his knees up against the inside of the crate, he felt the wood begin to give way, but it was going to take a long time before he got out this way. Taking as deep of a breath as he could, he listened once more for any movement outside.

But his ears found only silence.

Maneuvering his hand up to the top of the box, he placed a finger along one of the wooden corners. Closing his eyes, he very carefully allowed the heat inside of his body to run down along his arm. He felt his skin boil as the energy made it's way down to his fingers, he winced at the pain but bit his tongue to stop from screaming. His finger grew red hot as a small jet of fire erupted from his index finger, and he quickly pressed it against the crack. Running his hand along each corner of the box, he felt more air begin to rush in as the nails holding down the top melted away.

As the last nail was melted in two, Isaac pushed the lid off of the box and sat up in a panic, his lungs crying out for fresh air. He thought that he would be able to create enough artificial air but after he got tossed around he couldn't concentrate enough to keep the spell going. While he was attempting to stand up to stretch his legs, he was suddenly knocked to the ground as the ship rocked violently to the side. Trying to regain his footing, things went from bad to worse as he was blinded by the outside light as someone opened the door into the storage room.

"Oi!" a silhouetted figure exclaimed. "What in bleedin' 'ell do ya think yer doin' 'ere"

The growly voice of the heavy set man was not the sort of welcome Isaac was hoping for into his new life. He was going to have to talk his way out of this one if he didn't want to walk the plank, go swimming with the fishes, become a pirate's 'girlfriend' or any of the other horrible things he had been told about.

"Well you see, I-"

"Oh sod it, grab a crate and git out 'ere, if ya try anything funny, I'll open yer up from yer nave t'yer chaps, got it?"

Isaac nodded reluctantly, so much for negotiations. Grabbing one of the heavy crates that the large man who had something against bathing was talking about, he joined him on the deck of the ship. It was everything that he had always imagined a pirate ship to be: a gang of muscular men, cannons lining the walls of the ship, a black flag hanging high above the water.

Not to mention an English Navy vessel firing at them from less than a league away.

He dropped off the crate next to No-Bathe McGee, who proceeded to pry it open with his knife. Inside lay a pile of worn, dented, rusty cannonballs; as Isaac was reaching down to grab one to examine, he felt a strong hand on his shoulder. Forced to spin around, he was surprised to see the beautiful hazel eyes of a woman. She was undeniably beautiful, with dark blond hair, a button nose and rounded cheeks. Granted all of this was covered in scars and dirt, but she was still lovelier than all the girls that he knew back home. She began to open her mouth and he listened to see if she sounded like an angel as well.

"Who the fuck are you and what the fuck are you doing on my ship?"

Well, the looks of an angel are good enough at least.

"I'm Isaac, I was just running away from home and I was looking for-"

"Sod it," she interrupted "I don't have time for this, someone toss him overboard."

I wonder if I'll ever get to finish a sentence again before I die.

The burly man from before suddenly had his hands under Isaac's arms, and within seconds he was dangling over the edge of the boat kicking his legs and pleading for his life.

"Sorry mate, if ya ain't no use t' the cap'n, yer only extra weight."

Before he could get a chance to prove his worth, Isaac had splashed down into the ocean. Watching the pirate ship slowly pass by, and hearing the sound of cannonballs smacking into the water, he was suddenly struck by an idea. Which, at the moment, was a much better occurrence than being struck by a cannonball.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________
 

Captain Cassandra looked over the side of the boat quickly to see if their unexpected guest was trying to climb his way back up. After a couple of seconds of not seeing him, and after another cannonball grazed the side of her ship, she realized she had better things to do.

"Get those cannons loaded, you bastards, before we don't have a ship to shoot them from!"

Her men obediently sprinted towards the crates of cannonballs and started loading them into the cannons. She quickly scanned them all to make sure they were lined up properly (something she could do in a few seconds, part of the reason she had never had a ship sink on her.) Satisfied with the aim, she gave the order and felt her eardrums fill with the all too familiar noise of cannonfire a few feet away.

Looking at the English warship, it had sustained some damage, but was very much still on the offensive. As her men brought the next load of cannons over, she knew she only had a matter of moments before the next volley of cannons came from the English ship. Bracing for impact, she was preparing herself for anything, except what happened next.

As she stared down the warship, she saw the water between them begin to quickly freeze over, as if it was freezing in a direct path in front of the enemy ship. As the instant glacier positioned itself in front of the ship, it only took a couple of seconds before it rammed the block of ice at full speed.

They could hear the collision all the way from their own deck, and Cassandra and her crew simply watched as the ice melted as fast as it had come, revealing a gaping hole in the bow of the English ship. It began to tilt forward into the water, and anyone who wasn't completely mesmerized by the sinking ship would notice a small chunk of ice just a dozen feet in front of their own ship. A water soaked man climbed on top of it, turned his head towards the crew and shouted.

"So, Captain! Am I of any use to you now?"

2: Interrogation for Two

A torrent of water hit Isaac in the face, not the most pleasant way that he’d ever waken up, but then again it wasn’t the best way he’d ever been put to sleep either. The sting from the pirate’s knuckle was still giving off a small tinge of pain just above his eyebrow. As he opened his eyes he saw a bearded man standing in front of him holding a bucket. Making eye contact with the man, his cheek was suddenly met with the side of the bucket with great force. Spitting out a mixture of blood and water, he looked around the room to see Captain Cassandra sitting on a stool in the corner of the dark room.

“So did someone forget to teach you folks how to say thank you when you little or something? Because I’m betting those Navy guys would have been a lot more courteous if I saved them instead.”

The bearded man raised his fist and Isaac closed his eyes and clenched his jaw preparing for the hit, when he heard Cassandra’s voice speak calm but forcefully from the corner.

            “Alex! Leave us.”

Being sure to shoot Alex a dirty look as he walked out of the room, Isaac allowed himself to sag down from the chains that were holding him to the ceiling. Cassandra stood up as the door closed and began to pace back and forth in front of Isaac.

“Y’know, my shoulder was feeling kind of cramped up before, but this really helped me pop it back into place. So thanks for caring, but you can let me down now.”

The Captain either didn’t hear him or refused to acknowledge the fact that he was talking because she continued to pace back and forth for a while longer. Taking the time to get a better look at his captor, Isaac noticed that, even though she was wearing rather baggy, raggedy clothes, she appeared to have a rather impressive body underneath. Before he could start picturing it too much, she finally spoke up.

“Only a fool would help the people who just tossed him off of their ship, you realize that don’t you? Either a fool, or someone who is after something on that boat, or someone.”

“I think you’re missing a third option.”

“And what would that be?”

“Someone who’s trapped in the middle of the ocean and would rather take his chances with you instead of the Brits.”

This seemed to surprise Cassandra, because she finally stopped pacing around the room and stopped to look at him.

“And why would you prefer the company of Pirates to the Navy? You do realize there was a good chance we would have killed you if you tried to get back on board?”

“Well it’s a much better fate than what they would have done.” Isaac admitted, which prompted the Captain to send a puzzling look his way. Taking a deep sigh and realizing she wasn’t going to leave it at that, he added: “They would have taken me back home.”

Cassandra smiled at this, even though she tried to hide it as she turned around, Isaac caught enough of it to know the kind of grin she was forming.

            “You know what it’s like to not want to go home don’t you?” he asked.

“I’m a pirate, what the hell do you think?” she snapped. Leaning her head back, she composed herself as she got on with the rest of the interrogation. “Now then, let’s talk about what the fuck happened out on the water.”

This time it was Isaac’s turn to grin, for the first time in his life he knew that he was going to be able to freely admit something. Even more though, he had a little something up his sleeve to throw her off.

            “Simple, magic. Now let’s talk about how you curse when you get upset.”

“First off, fuck you.” She tried to hide a smile yet again, but it was there for a second “Secondly, why on earth would I believe you?”

            “Because you already do.”

He took a gamble with that statement, but by the frustrated look in her eyes he had hit the jackpot. She bit the inside of her lip as she struggled to accept what she had just heard.

“It doesn’t matter what I believe, my crew isn’t going to believe that some lanky mother fucker is a magician just because I tell them so.”

 Being sure to roll his eyes before he went on, Isaac scoffed at her assumption.

“I’m sure your crew would believe that sharks could grow wings and eat albatrosses if you told them to. But fine, you really want your crew to believe me? Bring Beardy McBucket-Tosser back in here.”

She looked like she was about to say something along the lines of ‘His name is Alex’, but bit her tongue. Isaac didn’t know this, but it was largely due to the fact that she was worried she would burst out laughing if she opened her mouth. So she simply walked out of the room and left Isaac quite literally hanging.

He was glad for a couple of seconds alone because all of the swimming and the magic and the punching had actually taken it out of him. If he was going to pull off what he was planning to do, he was going to need at least a little energy. Closing his eyes and taking in as much air as he could, he held the breath in and allowed it to seep into all of his cuts and bruises. Mixing with his own energy, he felt the air closing over his cuts and healing his bruises. As he exhaled a small puff of orange vapor, the door opened and the Captain ushered Alex back inside.

            “Ey, where’d all the blood go? I coulda sworn I cut you up real good.”

“You must be losing your touch there princess.” Isaac said, and immediately braced himself for another smack to the face. Thanks to a forceful hand by Cassandra however, that punch never came.

“Our prisoner here-“

“Isaac” he interrupted.

“Isaac, has something he would like to tell you, and if you believe him, I want you to go tell the rest of the crew.”

The big man stared at Isaac with a sort of intrigued idiotic stare, like he was trying to figure out if he was actually awake or not. Looking at this face, Isaac decided to once again go for this simple explanation.

            “I can use magic.”

            “What?” Alex asked, apparently the dumbing down of the subject didn’t help anything.

“Magic, y’know, fire from the fingertips, shooting lightning from my arse, that whole freezing water thing you saw outside? That was me.”

Suddenly Alex burst into laughter, and Isaac could feel little droplets of rum stained spit land on his face. As much as it bothered him, he knew that he was going to be able to wipe it off in a couple of seconds.

            “Are ya serious? Why on earth should I b’lieve that?”

Cassandra had that grin on her face again, but this time it was completely directed at Isaac, as if she was trying to say ‘I told you so’ with her face. However, he just grinned right back, and started to bring a cold rush from his chest down his arms, towards his wrists.

            “Sorry, could you repeat that?” he asked Alex.

“Why. Should. I. B’lieve. Ya?” Alex repeated, getting inches away from his face, enjoying this far too much.

“It’s quite simple really...” Isaac said, as he pulled on his chains, shattering the wrist bindings and landing his hands on Alex’s shoulders. “I could have gotten out of here whenever I wanted to.”

Alex pushed Isaac backwards and looked like he was about to scream, holding back a chuckle, Isaac picked up one of his wrist straps that were now lying on the floor.

“Here, catch.” He said, tossing it to Alex, who caught it and then immediately threw it to the ground.

“At’s ice cold!”

“Good man, I always find things are easier to break after they’ve been frozen, don’t you?”

Without saying another word, Alex went sprinting back up the stairs to the deck of the ship, and a couple of seconds later Isaac and Cassandra could hear him screaming to the rest of the crew.

            “I think they might believe you now.” Isaac told her.

The Captain leaned down and picked up the bucket from the ground, tossing it to Isaac. He caught it and saw a small streak of blood where it hit his face, he must have been bleeding more than he thought.

            “Clean yourself up, and get ready for dinner.”

            “Are you serious? You’re going to let me eat with the crew?”

            “Don’t be daft, I don’t trust you that much yet.” She said, as she began to walk up the stairs. Just before she was out of view, she called back one final             thing. “You’re eating dinner with me.”

3: Dinner and a Dance

            “Is that really the only thing that you could find to wear?”

Looking down at his outfit, Isaac couldn’t exactly blame her for noticing, he was forced to borrow the smallest outfit that he could. It wasn’t exactly hard to get someone to lend him clothes, after the word spread about his abilities, all of the pirates seemed a little scared of him. That part was easy, finding something that fit was not. Even the smallest outfit that he could find sagged over him like a burlap sack draped over a lamp post.

            “Isn’t there some sort of magic thing you could do to make it fit?”

            “I don’t know, what happens when you set fire to cotton, think that might work?”

The Captain let out a breathy chuckle and motioned for Isaac to sit down at a small table in the middle of the room. Following her instruction, he walked over to the table, and was surprised at the meal that was laid out before him. A full roast duck was in the centre of the table, and it was surrounded by potatoes, vegetables, and more than one bottle of wine.

            “You look surprised, were you expecting gruel and rum?”

            “No, I just thought that, um, I wasn’t expecting.”

“It’s okay, other captains give me the same look when they come aboard too, all those ideas you have about pirates are probably closer to the truth than not.”

“Except when it comes to you?”

“Exactly.”

Cassandra uncorked the bottle of wine and poured half the bottle into a large steel mug in front of her. Handing the bottle over to Isaac, he spotted a much smaller mug in front of him. Still, it was at least twice as big as a regular wine glass, but he felt obligated to fill it up to the top, the Captain had probably emasculated enough men in her time, no need to add another to the list.

They clinked their mugs together in silence, save for the metallic clunk when the two tankards touched. Taking a tentative sip from his mug, Isaac was taken aback by the strength of the wine, but surprised at the fruity aftertaste. Looking back up at the Captain, she was still drinking from her mug, and when she slammed it down onto the table he saw that her mug was almost half empty.

Determined to catch up, Isaac raised his mug once more and started to down his drink. The alcohol burned in his throat but he toughed through it until he felt that he had finished more than half of his cup. Slamming his mug down on the table, he looked up to see Cassandra hiding her face, but Isaac could catch the smallest of glimpse as she grinned uncontrollably.

            “What’s so funny?” he asked.

“That’s not how I drink my wine.” She began, fighting back a laugh. “I just had to see what you would do if I chugged down my mug.”

Feeling like his forehead suddenly gained 5 pounds, he realized just how bad of an idea it was to drink that much wine that fast. But as he looked back and forth between his wine and the Captain, he couldn’t help but start to smile. The smile turned into a small chortle, and when Cassandra starting laughing as well, the chortle turned into a full forced bellow of laughter.

Isaac wondered what the crewmen outside the door must be thinking, chances are they wouldn’t be that afraid of him anymore. When he was wondering around looking for clothes they were almost cowering away from him, now they could no doubt hear him howling during dinner. Granted, seeing the way they were looking at him, they would probably think that he put a spell on the Captain as was merely maniacally laughing.

Power, it wasn’t something that he had ever felt a lot of…but he could get used to it.

            “So do I need to be worried if I get a drunk mage on my hands?”

            “Just keep me away from anything flammable, you should be good.” Isaac joked.

He played it off as jest, but he started to wonder what he would actually be like if he was drunk. Hiding from everyone in his hometown he never exactly had the opportunity to have a lot to drink, something he remembered as the wine started to hit him. Judging by how idiotic the people he knew would act when they were full as a goat, he started to worry for the safety of the crew.

            “Did you forget that you’re on a wooden ship.”

He had.

            “Well…I hope you have some water handy.”

The two of them locked gazes once again, and as soon as their eyes met, they burst out into laughter once more. Trying to control himself so that he didn’t look half seas over, he reached across the table and grabbed a knife to start carving the duck. It was then that he got an idea. He waited for Cassandra to stop laughing and grabbed her attention, pointing towards his eyes he motioned for her to pay attention.

Closing his eyes, he laid his hands on the duck, with a small outreach of energy he began to feel everything inside of the bird. Struggling for a second to locate all of the bones, he was about to try something that he had never ever tried sober. Using part of his concentration to hold the meat in place, he began to telepathically pull at the bones. Being able to feel everything inside of the duck, he felt the strangest sensation as the bones were ripped out of the body and flew across the room.

Opening his eyes he saw a partly amazed and partly disgusted Cassandra, but he wasn’t finished yet. Reaching out and holding all ten fingers over the now boneless bird, he froze the air into ten sharp ice blades. Positioning them above the meal with his mind, and with a couple dramatic swings of his arms, he chopped their dinner into neat, boneless cuts.

            “Is it too late to say that I like the drumsticks?” The Captain asked.

Looking over his eyebrows, he gave Cassandra a look that said ‘are you bloody kidding me?’ As she smirked though, he knew that she was kidding, and proceeded to put a couple slices on her plate, and then some on his own as well.

Dishing up the rest of their food, Isaac tried to look back and remember the last time he had felt so comfortable using his magic. As hard as he tried however, he couldn’t pick out any time as great as this. Not to mention the last time he laughed so much, and as he looked across the table at the cause of his laughter, he realized that he knew next to nothing about her.

“So, how does one get involved in piracy anyways?” he asked, being the only icebreaker that he could come up with.

“Well it wasn’t what I dreamed of doing when I was a little girl, I can tell you that much. It wasn’t too far off though.”

            “Wait, so what’s close to piracy that you wanted to do?”

“I always wanted to marry a sailor and see the world, granted that was back when I thought I had to be married to a sailor to do it.”

Isaac tried to imagine Cassandra as a housewife, but seeing the scars on her face, and having heard the way she can scream at her crew he just couldn’t do it. Although he did get a little bit of entertainment by picturing her as a lovesick schoolgirl fawning over a sailor.

            “So what happened? Decided it was easier to just get a ship of your own?” Isaac asked.

            “Oh no, I actually did marry a sailor, he just happened to be a pirate.”

            “Wait, you’re married? Where is he? Does he have his own ship?”

The Captain took a bite out of her impressively cut duck and chewed it for what seemed like an age. After she swallowed, she took a sip of wine and exhaled in delight. She seemed to take great pleasure in watching Isaac squirm waiting for an answer, but she finally decided to end his suffering.

“This is actually his ship, as for where he is…I’m not entirely sure, I only know the ocean floor so well.”

Isaac fell back into his chair after hearing this, he wasn’t quite sure if he should be afraid or a little turned on. With his body not quite sure how to react, he ended up being a little bit of both. As he leaned back, completely awestruck, Cassandra leaned forward in her chair, having finished her dinner. Resting her hands on her chin, Isaac felt her eyeing him up and down, and once again didn’t know how to react.

            “I was wondering if you would be willing to do something with me.” She began.

“I suppose it all depends on what it is.” Isaac said tentatively, leaning forward and resting his arms on the table, staring the Captain down so that she would stop looking him up and down.

“There’s something that I’ve done far too many times before, but never with someone with your set of, how shall we call it...skills.”

Isaac’s heart began to beat wildly, from this distance he could smell the sweat coming off of Cassandra, the scent of the ocean coming off of her clothes. With the look in her eyes, he could tell that whatever she was about to suggest was something that excited her like nothing he had seen yet. When she opened her mouth to finish her proposition, Isaac could almost feel his heart in his throat.

            “I want to fight you Isaac.”

Not entirely what he expected, but Isaac would be lying if he said that he wasn’t interested. Whether it was the dismantling of the Navy frigate, breaking out of the chains, or the effect of the wine, he was feeling more powerful than ever. Still though, he knew that the Captain was a lot more experienced in battle than he was.

“I don’t know, I haven’t exactly been in a lot of fights.” He admitted, as much as he didn’t want to.

“Oh don’t worry, this isn’t a fight to the death. I don’t know what you think about pirates but it isn’t in our best interests to kill someone who could be incredibly useful to us.”

This did reassure Isaac, but he was still uneasy, he hadn’t exactly ever used his magic in a real fight before. But he somehow found it too hard to say no to Cassandra, so he started to plan out different strategies in his head.

            “Alright, but just so you know-“

Before he could finish his conditions, a cutlass was swinging across the table. Sliding his chair backwards he barely dodged the blade as it swung inches away from his chest. The Captain stood up from her chair and started to slowly walk around the table.

            “What happened to taking it easy?!” Isaac demanded.

“I told you I wasn’t going to kill you,” Cassandra began, as she rounded the edge of their dinner table. “I never said I was going to take it easy.”

With nothing between them now, Cassandra turned her body sideways, so that her shoulder was pointed towards Isaac. Raising her cutlass, she seemed to be waiting for him to make the first move. Hesitating, he knew that he could simply shoot fire at her and the fight would be over, but he didn’t want to seriously hurt her.

Deciding to take a little pain himself rather than injure the Captain, he quivered as a jolt of electricity ran down his arm. Winding up as if he was skipping a rock onto the ocean, he shot a small lightning bolt towards Cassandra.

To his surprise, she hopped out of the way like it was nothing, and the bolt simply shattered the glass of the window behind her.

“Rule number one: Don’t telegraph your attacks.” She said, making Isaac feel incredibly impressed and very much like a fool.

Before he had a chance to try another strike, she was lunging towards him with her blade in front of her. Jumping backwards he dodged another slash across the chest, and barely ducked out of the way of a stab to the shoulder. The Captain wasn’t letting up however, and with two quick swipes of her sword she made a hole in his shirt and a gash across his face.

“Rule number two: Never get backed into a corner.” Cassandra instructed, as she stepped back, giving Isaac a chance to catch his breath.

Gritting his teeth, he pressed his finger to his cheek, running it over the cut. Wiping away the blood, he closed the wound and prepared himself for the Captain to come at him again. Sinking down into his knees, he started to pay attention to her every move. When she jumped towards him once again, he stepped to the side and just out of the way of her thrust. Pressing his hand against her back, he sent a jolt of electricity to her spine. She twitched her entire body as the static ran through her, but quickly spun around and rammed the pommel of her sword into Isaac’s jaw.

While he went reeling backwards, she came at him again with a diagonal slash, which he barely ducked out of the way of. Falling off balance, he landed on the floor and Cassandra came lunging towards him full force. Her blade raised high in the air, Isaac panicked and couldn’t think of what to cast, and merely raised his arm above his head.

Closing his eyes, he prepared himself to lose his hand, but it wasn’t pain that came next, instead there was a metallic clink. When he opened his eyes, he saw Cassandra’s sword pressed against his forearm, or at least what used to be his forearm. From his elbow to his fingertips was now completely made of some kind of metal, and the Captain looked as surprised as him to see it.

Hesitating no longer, Isaac pushed the sword off of him as hard as he could, setting her off balance enough for him to get to his feet. She didn’t wait this time, coming at him with rapid stabs and slashes. After encasing his other arm in metal however, it became very easy to block her strikes. With each metallic clang, Cassandra became more and more frustrated, and Isaac became more and more comfortable with his new arms. She squared her shoulders towards him and grabbed her sword with both her hands. Swinging as hard as she could she struck him overhead, to the right side, the left, and when she finally stepped into a thrust as hard as she could, Isaac saw his opportunity.

Stopping the sword by batting it out of the way with one arm, he grabbed it with his other hand. Pulling her forward by the blade, he stepped forward and brought his arm down on the steel cutlass, breaking it in half. With his back to her now however, she slid her arm around his neck and started to squeeze. Losing air quickly he had to think fast, and he decided that since he was already getting hotheaded, he might as well make it literal. Within seconds his neck was boiling to the touch, and the Captain withdrew her arm in pain. Before she could draw it all the way back however, Isaac took hold of it and swung her over his shoulder. It was a lot easier than he thought it would be thanks to his steel arms.

Unfortunately he was now a lot heavier than he remembered, and he flipped forward along with her.

Landing on top of her, he was less than an inch away from her face, with his mouth almost touching hers, he pressed his hand against her head. Sending out small electric jolts to let her know what he could do, he said:

            “Looks like I win.”

Suddenly he felt a stiff object jabbing into his gut, and before he could get a chance to look to see what it was, he heard the sound of a gun hammer cocking back.

            “Don’t be so sure.” She replied.

Their bodies pressed together in a stalemate, Isaac was suddenly aware of the comprising position they were in. Overtaken by adrenaline, he decided to go for broke and pressed his lips against hers. To his surprise, she didn’t push him off, and actually wrapped her arm around his head. Rolling over, she ran her hands through his hair, and as her felt her breath grow heavy against his lips, he ran his hands down her face and across her body. Right as he caressed the small of her back, she grabbed his hand and slammed it down to the floor.

At first he thought things were simply getting rough, but when he felt cold metal press against the side of his head he knew he had been beat. Cassandra sat up on his stomach, keeping her gun pressed against his skull, and sported the widest smile he had seen from her yet.

            “Rule number three: Never trust your opponent.”

4: Meeting with the Mate

Isaac closed the door to the captain’s quarters behind him, still feeling the flutter in his heart from the rush of the fight. Looking back and remembering each moment, he reminisced over what happened just a few minutes earlier. As hard as he tried, he could not get that kiss out of his mind. Even though he ended up on his back with a gun in his face, he couldn’t help but think that for a split second, Crystal was into it.

Utterly lost in thought, his aimless wandering was interrupted when he walked right into the chest of a man nearly twice his height. Getting jolted back to reality, he looked up to see the grizzled face of a warrior. The visage of a strong black man was staring down at him, his rotting teeth twisted into a snarl. His nostrils flared, and his single eye shooting daggers down at Isaac while the other was covered by a jet black eye patch.

            “You really should watch where you’re going.” Came a heavy Irish accent from above.

            “Sorry, the moonlight must have hit the top of your head, it blinded me for a second.”

The man reached up to rub the top of his bald head, but stopped at his shoulder and clenched his hand into a fist. Isaac could see his ebony skin start to turn white as he dug his fingernails into his palm. Breathing a silent sigh of relief, Isaac started to feel his confidence return, something that he desperately needed after his spar with the captain.

“Listen here, if I were you I wouldn’t go around making enemies on this ship. The captain may think you’re all well and trustworthy sure, but it’s the men you should be worried about. If they don’t like you, then things could get a little dangerous.”

“In case you didn’t notice today, I can handle a little danger.” Isaac replied, as he stepped forward to move past the large man.

“You got skills kid,” began the man, as he stepped in front of Isaac.  “I won’t say that you don’t, but those skills don’t nothing when you’re sawing logs in the middle of the night.”

Isaac slowly began to encase his arm in steel underneath his shirt, watching for any sudden movements from the behemoth. Even as the cold steel began to cover his wrist, Isaac could feel his pulse pounding against his skin. All of the confidence that he had a couple of seconds ago had disappeared. Now was the time to see just how good of an actor he could be.

“Is that supposed to be a threat?” Isaac asked, puffing out his chest and locking eyes with his aggressor.

“Not a threat Mister Isaac,” the man took a step back while saying this. “Just a warning. I don’t know what kind of fantasies you have had about being a pirate, but this is a community, and one that doesn’t take too kindly to strangers.”

Feeling like he could once more take a breath since he was no longer standing face to face, Isaac realized that they were the only two people left above deck. He relaxed his body and his arms were once again covered in skin rather than metal.

            “Who are you? Why are you telling me all of this anyways?”

“I’m telling you this because it is what you’re going to need to know if you want to survive. As for who I am, the men call me Si, but you can call me Cyrus.”

This didn’t satisfy Isaac’s curiosity, as he was still wondering why they were the only two left on the deck. He didn’t know much about operating a frigate, but he figured there at least had to be a couple people making sure that they didn’t crash.

“Well it’s nice to meet you Cyrus, but that’s not what I meant. Why is it you that is telling me all of this? Why couldn’t someone else?”

The snarl was finally wiped clean off of Cyrus’ face, and it was slowly replaced with a mischievous grin. Once again Isaac tensed up and felt the cold rush of metal over his arms, he started to brace himself for an attack, or maybe even an ambush.

“To be perfectly honest,” Cyrus began, his Irish accent taking on more of a sing-song tone. “When the men heard that I was going to be talking to you, they all seemed content to stay in the mess hall, shaking in their boots. They think you’re some kind of god Isaac, but eventually they’ll learn the truth.”

Feeling the weight of his hardened steel forearms, Isaac was starting to think that ‘god’ was a pretty good description.

            “What truth is that anyways?”

“Anyone who looks as afraid as you do right now is no god, just human like the rest of us. Since all humans on this boat are my responsibility, I thought it would probably be a good idea to make sure you don’t joke your way right into a cutlass.”

Realizing that his entire act was now coming down around him, Isaac took a couple of steps backwards, needing some distance between him and Cyrus. Leaning against the centre mast, he looked at Cyrus once more, whose grin had only grown wider as Isaac retreated.

“Why is it your responsibility anyways? Is this ship under your protection or something?”

It was then that Cyrus did the one thing that Isaac was praying he wasn’t about to do, and his smiling face just made it all the worse. As Cyrus began to walk forward, Isaac focused with all of his might to keep just his arms protected by metal, fearing what would happen if Cyrus realized what he was doing.

“For a man who wanted to run away and join the pirates, you really don’t know much about the life do you?” Cyrus asked, now only a couple feet away from him. “Don’t worry, that will all change soon enough, that much you can be sure of.” Now standing at arms-length from Isaac, Cyrus reached out and extended his hand. “I’m First Mate Cyrus Barrow, nice to meet you.”

Frozen for a second, Isaac stared down at Cyrus’ hand, as if he was wondering what to do with it. When Cyrus thrust his hand a little closer towards him, Isaac impulsively shook it, and winced at the strength of his grip.

“There, since that’s over with allow me to show you where you’re going to be sleeping from now on.” Cyrus said, as he walked away and gestured for Isaac to follow him.

Before he took a step forward however, Isaac had one final question for him.

            “Wait, you said that I was going to learn about the life soon, how can you be so sure?”

Without turning around, Cyrus called back to Isaac, and his answer was something that he hadn’t even considered.

“You didn’t think that you’d just get to lay around all day did you? No better way to learn about sailing than working on the deck of a ship!”