Magic in the Caribbean

Chapter 7: Studying, training, sailing

Over the course of the next couple weeks Francis continued to threaten Mabel with the whip. But he never actually hit her with it, she didn't know when he would actually do it which made him grin every time she flinched. But now he was looking over her shoulder as she drew the map of the Caribbean, the islands the ocean, plotting down the capitals. Once she had finished he studied it over before nodding and then they began studying weapons.

That eventually got to the point where she needed to be able to load a gun blindfolded. Studying practicing and learning she eventually passed all of the tests with flying colors. They moved onto sailing, the starboard and port were the sides of the ship. The mast was the big pillar thing which held up the sails. Once all of this was covered and she had memorize the ropes the names and everything else that had to do with a ship she was finally free to move onto combat training.

This, Mabel already presumed, would be a lot more fun than sitting in a dark room and studying Edward wasn't entirely as mean as the legends said he was. But Mabel guessed that was because she hadn't done anything to make him mad. So they trained, and trained some more. Mabel got a few cuts from missing an attack but she recognized the patterns and quickly learned her own way of fighting which caught even Edward off guard.

Edward lunged in with an attack, a distraction he quickly spun his sword to her leg which she blocked and then attacked his leg as well. He then blocked it and they went about the area blocking one anothers attacks. Mabel began to smile feeling confident with herself. But instantly regret the confidence when Edward moved in and cut her shoulder.

"You left your shoulder open. You did good go take a break."

Mabel sat her sword down and began walking down the beach watching the waves push themselves up closer and closer to her feet. This was typically how all the lessons ended, she was wounded and got the rest of the afternoon as free time. Once she was far enough away from the town she used her magic to heal her wounds. The rest of the day until nightfall she had spent experimenting with her powers. She was getting better at manipulating the elements and the other powers she had yet to discover. She was tired of losing, beginning to wonder what adventures Clara was having right now as she was stuck in Nassau learning combat and navigation.

Thinking of Clara made her heart sting, she had screwed up and that had almost cost both of them their lives. She knew why she was sent here to train. Sighing she had gotten up and made her way back to the town picking up her sword.

"Again," She looked at Edward with determination in her eyes. She wasn't going to lose this time. Watching as Edward came back over to her and drew his sword again. Nodding that he was ready she lunged in for an attack blocking his attacks and moving out of the way somehow they both had moved to the peer as they continued to fight. Spinning around after dodging another parry to her shoulder she now was behind him and gave him a gentle kick in the back which caused him to fall into the water.

Francis and John both burst out laughing as Edward climbed back onto the peer and smiled.

"Great job, your done with your lessons with me, go bother John now." Edward smiled before walking off the peer.

John began walking up the peer and led her onto his ship.

She had been in Nassau for several weeks now and she had finally reached the final point in her training. Following John up to the helm he made her sail out to sea and look about for any ships carrying cargo. She had learned that the way you can tell is by how low to the ocean the ship is. Grabbing the telescope she looked around before finding a ship, about the same size as hers.

"Get to your battle stations!" Mabel yelled. John stood back and watched. "Now remember this is when sailing is most important, you have to watch their ship, look out for any weak points and keep your ship from crashing into anything. Oh and try not to take to much damage to my baby."

Mabel nodded and rotated the ship now sailing right next to the Spanish ship. "Weapons ready!" The quartermaster yelled.

"FIRE!!" Mabel yelled back and instantly after yelling that the sound of twelve canons going off filled the area around them. The Spanish ship was getting ready to fire back. "HEADS DOWN!" Everyone ducked as canon balls flew past the heads of the sailors. Luckily they missed.

"FIRE!!" The crew fired again this time exposing the storage area, where a couple cartons of gunpowder lay hidden.

"Use your swivel gun on that exposed gunpowder." John said in the background of all the commotion of battle.

"Hey, shoot right at that carton of powder!" Mabel yelled. The sailor nodded before taking aim and firing. The entire back of the Spanish ship blew up into hundreds of shards of wood. The rest of the ship was on fire and they now were immobile.

"Now go in to board." John said. "This is when Edwards training is most important."

Turning the ship to head towards the soon to be sinking Spanish ship the men threw in their hooks and began pulling the two boats together. Mabel drew her sword and ran jumping over the railing and onto the other ship. Men charged after her and she began moving and dodging as she took one man out at a time. This was way more stressful than fighting Edward. Swords were swinging at her from all around and she could hear other crew men locked in battle as well. But she had to remain focused. Finally killing all the soldiers that had surrounded her she began running about quickly taking out the soldiers that were winning against the sailors. Grabbing her pistols she shot the two gunmen at the top of each mast before holstering them again and drawing her swords. Seeing the captain she began sprinting towards him dodging his attack and swinging at his leg cutting through an artery causing him to fall before swinging her sword and cutting off his head.

The rest of his men quickly dropped their weapons admitting their defeat. "Quickly grab the cargo before the ship sinks." Walking around making sure none of the soldiers try anything stupid as some of the crew members quickly grab the cargo and move it onto the other ship. Once all the crew was back onto their ship the hooks were removed and the men gave the sinking ship a nudge to get us away before firing once more to seal the deal. Beginning to sail back to Nassau as the flaming Spanish ship they were just at slowly sank its way to the bottom of the ocean.