A Pirate's Heart

Chapter 1: Captain Andrea "She-Devil" Dawson

"Fire!" Sully said, covering his ears. The cannon jerked back as it shot the cannon ball across towards Queen Victoria. A British naval ship that immediately began firing at Neptune's Cannon when it saw their pirate flag flowing proudly in the wind.

"Come on you blundering fools!" Captain Andrea "She-Devil" Dawson yelled over the cannon fire. Even she was using her two pistols and shooting at the soldiers.

"Captain!" John "One-Eye" Nutt yelled, "All their cannons have been blown! Permission to raid?" he said with a mischievous glint in his single blue eye.

Andrea laughed loudly and raised her sword into the air, "Plunder it is you scoundrels!"
The men shouted with glee and swung themselves towards the other ship.

Soon the crew members of Queen Victoria laid injured and quivering in fear.

"Oh you poor British," Andrea said stepping onto Queen Victoria, "You never learn do you?" She quickly tilted the captain's head with the tip of her sword, "What are you called Cap'n?"
The man trembled with fear, his white wig nearly falling off of his close shaven head. He was a chubby sort of man with a piece of chicken clinging onto his shirt.

"C-c-aptain Edward Muller," he stammered.

"Well Mister Muller, today you add me to your list of defeat," Andrea said with a grin.

"We'll never accept defeat!" a solider stood. Soon her crew's guns were trained on him.

"'We'?" Andrea spoke, making her way to the defiant man. He looked young, perhaps twenty two. His blue eyes held fire and pride for the British crown.

"Who be you?" she spoke, raising the tip of her sword towards his neck.

"Lieutenant James West," he spat.

"Well James, do you know who I am?" Andrea said, leaning in, a few inches away from his.

She saw him gulp, "You're Captain She-Devil," he said, his eyes wide.

"Correct soldier," she smirked, "Because you spoke out I'll give you two choices. Join my crew," she slid the sword across his chest, "Or die."

The fire surged into his eyes again, "I would rather die tha-" he was interrupted by her sword piercing his throat, thick blood gurgling from it like a waterfall.

"Come on lads, take everything," Andrea said, sheathing her blade.

*****

Neptune's Cannon, was how Andrea called her beautiful ship. A suitable name for a ship and her captain. No one took her seriously when she first started thinking about becoming a pirate captain. From her years at the orphanage to abandonment on the streets. Oh if they only saw her now, afeared pirate roaming the seas. She acquired her crew little by little, old men whose intelligence, experience and love for the high seas served well on her ship as well as teaching the young boys she recruited. They had grown up into strapping young lads under her watch, learning the wild ways of a pirate. It was difficult for them to accept the fact that a woman was to command them, however as time passed all gotten used to her temper and insults that would make any sailor blush.

The crew knew not to mess with her when she was out for blood. Long ago a nickname had been placed on her after a difficult battle in where she murdered forty men with a single broken sword.

She-Devil.

"Captain," her right hand man spoke, pulling her out of her reverie, "We need to restock on supplies, what says ye to Cooney Island?"

Andrea glanced at him. Peg was his name. A stocky, built man with a wooden leg, claimed in a gruesome battle with a sea serpent.

"'Tis fine," Andrea said, "I'll be in my cabin, let me know when we've arrived."

Peg nodded and yelled at her crew, "Set sail for Cooney Island!"

The boots and yells of lads scurrying about, shifting the sails towards the east.