Pirate's Tail

Chapter Eighteen

The resounding blast of a conch shell awoke the village, and it only meant one thing--the Visp had arrived. Ace jumped out of bed and got dressed. Ce-ra was standing there fully dressed, waiting for her son.

"You look a little mixed up," she said.

Ace looked down at himself and recognized why she thought so. He wore a Farobi skirt, no shirt, a green jacket his father had given him, boots, and a tri-cornered hat. He seemed to be a conglomeration of the pirate and Farobi cultures. He flashed a grin at his mother. "I'm paying both of the cultures their respects," he said as he wrapped a pair of lilies around each of his forearms and an additional one around his neck. Ka-me had recommended the one around the neck to Ace. He claimed it would serve as armor for his neck in the coming attack.

Their peaceful moment was shattered when they exited the dune. Farobi people were running around the village, either going to battle stations, or taking their children and fleeing toward the mangrove swamp where Ce-ra had ordered the parents with children hide. There was no point in endangering the future generations.

Ace left his mother and ran through the palm forest toward the pirate village. The forest was full of ammunition, rum, and supplies that the pirates might need if skirmishes broke out on shore. Ace jumped over a pair of overturned rowboats before emerging in the pirates' village. They were set up and prepared, and a few of the men stood on the beach with their spyglasses pressed to their eyes, scanning the horizon for the Visp.

"On the horizon, 'bout two o'clock," one of them commented, and all of the men turned accordingly.

After a few minutes of squinting unsuccessfully with his naked eye, Ace borrowed a spyglass and confirmed what they saw. It was the F.S.M. Visp. He wouldn't mistake that ship anywhere.

He hurried along to his battle position at the base of the north Walrus dock. Captain Harris ran up and down the dock issuing orders and getting the men to prepare the guns.

"We ain't gonna be caught on our heels this time, boys! Load and ready those guns, and wait for my orders, you hear? No one fires without being told first. We fight for our freedom today!"

Ace helped the nearest gun crew ready their gun, then went out to organize a stack of rifles he was to manage. While doing this, a thought occurred to him, and he approached Captain Harris about it.

"Sir, should we attempt to work out any kind of bargain with the Visp? I mean, isn't that the gentlemanly thing to do? To speak first and fight later?"
Captain Harris nearly laughed at Ace. "Gentlemanly formalities are out of the question, Ace. First, we're pirates who don't believe in formalities, even on the best of days. Second, the Visp forfeited those formalities when she showed up here today. Part of the first deal was that she would never again show up at the Farobian Islands, and now here she sits. She's come for us and our blood, but it's her blood we must take."

Ace didn't understand the first treaty, but it felt wrong to attack the Visp without trying to work something out first. If the Visp didn't open fire first, would the island blast the ship into the sea? Would the Visp retaliate, enslave the island, and take them all back to Menquin? The people on the Visp didn't seem like bad people; they were just given difficult orders by a corrupt leader. They'd been accommodating to Ace during his difficult time aboard, and it didn't set right with him to blindly attack them when they got into range. They deserved better than to be shot at on the spot, so far from home. As unpopular as it seemed, Ace knew what he must do.

As the Visp grew closer to the Farobian Islands, Ace slipped away from the northern dock and headed toward the palm forest. He grabbed a longboat and dragged it back to the beach, out of sight from the Walrus dock. Fearing his boots might get ruined, he removed them before pushing the boat out into the water. He climbed into the boat and began to row in the direction of the F.S.M. Visp. He went unnoticed for longer than he thought by the pirates on the dock and on shore, but then he heard Captain Harris' voice ring out.