A Thief's Honor [Book 2]

Ch.31 Battle on the High Seas!

"We're closing in on one of the Red Sail Sea-Dog Clan." Bentley said. "Beat to quarters!"

"Are you sure you can handle this, Rae?" Sly then asked, concern laced in his voice.

She gave a nod. "I'll be fine. I'm just going to be firing the cannons on my side, so don't worry about me too much, okay?"

Sly could tell she was only saying that to help put him at ease, if only a little, but even so, Sly still caught when Rae placed a hand on her bandaged side, as if to unconsciously protect it -- like on instinct almost. She was most likely still in pain, though if that was the case, she was good at hiding it. The fox then turned, heading for the other side of the ship while Murray and the Panda King were on standby for reloading the cannons. With everyone in their respective positions, Sly was the first to make a call.

"Bentley, try to get us in their blindspot so I can take a shot at them from behind." Sly said.

Bentley nodded, spinning the wheel and heading for the back of the enemy ship. He made sure to keep them from being seen, watching the other ship very closely. Once they were into position, however, Sly let loose with the cannons, trying to ignore the loud booms when each one went off. As the cannonballs made contact with the Red Sail ship, Sly could still hear the faint ringing in his ears as Rae made the next call.

"Bentley! Rotate 180 degrees before they have time to turn themselves around and retaliate!"

"Roger!" He nodded, giving the wheel a quick spin, causing the sails to flutter and the rudder to suddenly shift. "Hang on, everyone!"

As the ship began to make a sharp U-turn, everyone braced themselves, holding onto something as not to lose their balance. However, as the ship made a 180, a small wave hit, but was big enough to jossle the ship a bit. In turn, Rae lost her balance, stumbling forward and quickly trying to recover. She extended her arms, but gave an audible cry in pain when she grabbed onto one of the cannons, having hit her side against the rough iron.

"Naugh!!" She cried out, instantly gripping her side. "Nugh...! Shit...!"

"Ugh! Rae!" Sly gasped when he heard her cry of pain.

She weakly pushed herself up, slipping a bit on the cannon, but managed to not bang her wound again as she got back on her feet, holding onto the wooden rail around the main area of the ship this time. "I'm...I'm alright... I just fell..."

"But you--"

"I'm fine." She then said, though her voice much more stern this time. "We have to focus on the task at hand, don't worry about me."

Sly couldn't help but still worry about Rae, but he also didn't want to push his luck with her either. So instead, he decided to just focus on the task at hand, then he would worry about her. Once the ship had rotated 180 degrees, Rae quickly went to fire of her cannons, however, she paused for a moment, gripping her throbbing side before trying to ignore it. She shook her head, biting the bullet on this one as she just dealt with the pain and pushed on, quickly firing off all of her cannons. They all make direct hits, knocking down the mask of the enemy ship.

"Nice work, you guys! Their mast is down!" Bentley cheered. "Now, I'm gonna pull up next to them, but one of you needs to hop aboard and take out their captain, because they have the sea charts for the rest of the Red Sail Sea-Dog Clan."

"I'll g--" Rae tried to get out.

"No, I will." Sly cut in.

"Sly, I can--"

"I said no, Rae. Stay on this ship, do you understand me?" He said. Sly had a stern look in his eyes as he said this to her -- this wasn't an option, it was an order.