Gideon & the Last Voyage of the Betty-Lou

A Fiery Escape

"Navigator. Take us to the nearest inhabited island at top speed!" I commanded. I had no idea which one that might be, but I had faith that he did.

"Ay, ay Sire." The navigator responded. The ship started but the halted abruptly.

It was too late, a whole flotilla of at least 100 ships surrounded us above and beneath. They must have been anticipating an escape attempt.

"Captain Lawrence." I called. I felt uncomfortable calling him Grandfather with my new station.

"Yes, your Magesty." Grandfather said with a bow.

"What weapons and protection does Betty-Lou possess?" I asked him.

"I dun'na know, m'Lord. I've ne'r seen Betty-Lou in this form." Grandfather replied.

"We have cannons, correct? What other things might a warship have?" I probed. I had no clue other than what was fired at us just a few minutes before.

"A well prepared war vessel would have a ballast blower, mast cleavers, razor disks, lightning spikes and sulphur cannons." Grandfather listed on his fingers.

"Ok, I need you to find those things on the Betty-Lou. I need a hole blown through that blockade in the direction we were heading before they can tighten the circle and blow us all to bits."

The armada continued closing in uniformly in all directions. They would be in firing range in one or two minutes. I had to act fast and I knew exactly what to do. I pulled out my sword and lit it in green flames. I pointed to the deck and the whole ship was covered in green flames. While it made us more visible, I was hoping that it would also make us more intimidating, giving us a few moments longer while the armada weighed its chances against us.

I walked to the light stone and opened the shutter to form as wide a beam as possible. Then I willed flame through it and aimed the beam at the ship closing in right in front of us. I had no wish to kill all the crew, just to disable the ship so it could not block us or harm us. I aimed at the ballast tank and as soon as the green beam touched it, it burst into flames and the ship slowly headed towards the ground.

I heard a cheer from behind me and realized once again, I was the center of attention.

The other ships halted while they assessed what just happened.

"Now would be a good time to unleash the weapons, Grandfather." I said as I aimed at the next ship to our port. Green flames ignited the ballast tank and another ship sank in flames.

I was so concerned with the ships in front of us, I neglected to keep an eye on the ones above us. Two large ships had begun their descent and were preparing to pour flaming oil upon us.

Suddenly a loud clicking noise came from a pair of dark brass columns that I assumed were decorations. They swiveled upward and two shiny disks zoomed straight at the closest ship, narrowly missing our own sails and hitting it squarely in the keel. A loud cracking noise sounded with lots of shouts of dismay. The ship descended more rapidly still, threatening to collide with the Betty-Lou.

"Navigator," I shouted. "Full speed ahead!"

In response, the navigator shot us forward almost as fast as when I had asked the Betty-Lou to save us."

We barely missed the sinking ship and following my example, the sulphur cannons began igniting ballast tanks on the starboard and port sides. Since I had not noticed the ships above us, I had the sneaking suspicion that a ship was preparing to fire on us from below. I thought of the invisible part of a flame and only the part of the ship through which I was looking became transparent. This revealed two ships pointing their razor disk throwers at us.