“…this is a good day.”

  Piper turned to his officers, tirelessly bringing supplies onto the ship.

  “Ya’ll feeling this positivity? I was in a real bad mood after what was pulled on us, and now that heinous action can be rectified.” Piper insisted, watching over Sadashi and Bridget’s unconscious bodies lying in the middle of the deck. “A proper execution, all in Syrille’s name.”

  “Sir.” One of the higher-ranking officers started, before indicating to Bridget’s ship still in the dock near them. “What should we do about their ship?”

  Piper clicked his tongue.

  “There’s no honour in shootin’ down a vessel with no one aboard. Just a waste of parts.” Piper explained. “…however, if you spot that Aloette girl on there, well, it’d be dumb to let that slide. She may not be a priority, but havin’ seen her spunk in person, I could easily see her wantin’ to get involved.”

  Piper turned back to the ocean.

  “…any minute now.”

  ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~

  “…okay.”

  Aloette ducked herself down, hiding behind some of the storage containers near the distillery entrance, as she ran her hands through her hair. None of the guards had spotted her yet, but she still wasn’t in a good position.

  “…alright, this won’t be a problem. This is just like when I broke Sadashi out of the castle…” Aloette let out, before glancing back at the Precession ship. “…except this time, the guards are actively looking for me. And the guards are surrounding them on all ends. And they’re on a ship with only one exit…”

  Aloette sunk back down.

  “…th-this is exceptionally bad news…”

  Aloette shook her head, before slapping both her cheeks.

  “Don’t be deterred! Work the problem, Aloette!” She insisted to herself, before analysing the situation. “What’s the best way to handle this?”

  She started stroking her chin. “Should I get Richards, or some of the other staff here?...no. If they’re loading up on this many supplies this late, it must mean they’ve been strongarmed. I doubt they’d be much help at this point.”

  She sighed out, before poking her head back up. “I guess it’s just up to me then.”

  She watched as the Precession officers made off with more supplies, while Piper simply stood in front of Sadashi and Bridget, watching and waiting for them to wake up.

  She also noted the other officers surrounding them, and Piper’s falcon sleeping atop its perch nearby.

  “Why do they nee…” Aloette wondered, before snapping her fingers. “They’re making a beeline for Intide! Syrille’s probably furious Sadashi hasn’t been executed by now. And Bridget too, since she’s an accomplice.”

  Aloette’s eyes drifted off to Bridget’s boat, pretty much being ignored by the officers.

  “…right.” She said, pumping herself up, as she looked to the side of the Precession ship. “I’ll sprint over, grab what I can, scale up the side of their ship…and figure it out from there.”

  Right as she was about to make a dash for the boat, she spotted some netting alongside the storage containers, before taking a second and grabbing it, as she quickly hurried down the docks.

  Fortunately, it seemed the officers attention was on keeping the prisoners on the ship, and not so much guarding the perimeter, especially as the prisoners were just starting to come to.

  Sadashi’s eyes fluttered open, as his surroundings started fading into view, with the first recognisable shape being Piper’s smug grin.

  “…well hey there, sunshine. Did ya enjoy ya nap?” Piper started, standing directly over him. “I gotta say, this feels pretty good. Ya’ll were meant to die by that outcrop, but I guess this works out.”

  Sadashi simply glared at him, making an effort to take in his current situation, with Bridget still unconscious next to him.

  “I think we hit her a little harder, so she might be a bit. Guess you’re just more precious cargo.” Piper noted, as Sadashi kept glaring. “…really? Ya got no comment on the predicament ya currently in?”

  In response, Sadashi lowered his head, looking like he was about to speak, as Piper leaned in to catch it.

  Only for Sadashi to take the opportunity to spit right into Piper’s eye.

  Piper stumbled back a bit, glaring back at Sadashi in return, as Sadashi mockingly stuck his tongue out.

  “…ya get that one for free. Get comfy.” Piper said, cleaning his eye up, as he started to head back to the helm of the ship.

  …I should’ve known the Precession would only get more competent. Sadashi admitted, as he scanned around the boat. …fifteen guards around us. They’re not kidding around.

  He desperately tried to free his arms, but could only manage to move his hands slightly with the restraints.

  Of course…this is just great… Sadashi admitted, before realising Aloette wasn’t with them. …did they forget her? Or just ignore her?

  He tilted his head. Or maybe she managed to esca…

  Sadashi shook his head. She wouldn’t leave us here…and there’s no way she’d pass up the chance to raid a Precession ship.

  He sighed out, before staring up at the stars.

  …come on, Aloette. I know you’ve got this.

  Having very quickly snuck her way over to Bridget’s ship, Aloette did her best to hide herself again, right as the guards were passing by again.

  She managed to grab up Sadashi’s sword, Bridget’s daggers, and of course…

  “…no, it’ll give me away too much.” Aloette said, putting her pink coat back down and heading to leave the ship, only to stop herself.

  She went back and forth, biting her lip while realising she was running out of time, before finally making the smart decision and bringing the coat with her.

  This is too good an opportunity to pass. Aloette insisted, throwing it over her nightie, as she leaped off the boat and snuck her way over to the ship. Hiding just in time by some nearby boxes, she caught a few of the officers hurrying back into the building after having dropped off some supplies.

  Seeing her gap, she ran out, before spotting a ladder on the side of the ship and jumping over to it.

  She could feel the weapons strapped to her back pulling her down, as she nearly lost her grip, before tightening it and continuing to climb.

  No backing down.

  She finally managed to get onto the deck, hidden away from most of the other guards due to how dark it was. Now that Sadashi was conscious, the guards had turned to watch him, meaning she could make her way to the mast unnoticed, before spotting rungs up to the crow’s nest.

  Bracing herself for another climb, she took a breath, before heading up again.

  …what’re my odds here… Sadashi wondered, as he looked over the stone-faced guards. Fifteen to one, I’m dead.

  He glanced the swords by the officers’ sides. If I had sword and broke these restraints, I could probably take out half. But that still leaves the others.

  He sighed. Never thought I’d want Bridget’s help, but she could at least take a few off my hands.

  Sadashi found himself staring back up at the sky, wondering if holding out for some miracle was the best idea.

  However, that’s when he finally caught Aloette in the crow’s nest, waving her arms wildly until he spotted her. He did his best to hide his relief, as she started pointing at Piper at the deck above, then pointing back at herself.

  Sadashi cocked his head, trying to figure out what she wanted, before managing to put it together.

  Does she…want Piper to spot her? Sadashi deduced, as Aloette kept up the hand movements. …whatever you’re planning, Aloette…

  Sadashi nodded back to her while she ducked out of view, as he waited until Piper made his way over to the railing.

  Once he was in earshot, Sadashi made a point to gasp loudly and turn up to the crow’s nest.

  “ALOE-!“ He cried, before ‘cutting himself off,’ as Piper and the other officers took notice and followed his gaze.

  They spotted Aloette’s head popping up from the nest, before she quickly ducked down, as Piper let out a belaboured breath.

  He grabbed the flute around his neck and blew into it, causing his falcon to jerk awake from its perch. He indicated up to the crow’s nest, as the falcon prepared itself, before darting right up there.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Aloette noticed and pumped her fist.

  “Alright, he took the bait.” Aloette let out, reassuring herself, as the falcon flew closer. “Now I just have to do this correctly…”

  She grabbed the netting she brought up, right as the falcon crested over the crow’s nest, before flying right at her, claws at the ready.

  “AH!” Aloette let out, trying to avoid its claws, only for it to get a good few cuts across her arm and right through her coat. She did her best to block it with the netting, before managing to get some height over it and throw the netting.

  It started to tangle up the falcon, as Aloette grabbed some nearby rope and tied up the ends of the net. The falcon struggled against it, getting it claws trapped in the gaps, before finding it couldn’t move at all.

  Realising it wouldn’t get free, Aloette finally let herself breathe.

  “Phew…sorry, birdie.” She let out, only for the pain from the claw marks to start making itself known.

  She winced through the pain, doing her best to stick to the plan, as Piper and the officers looked up at the crow’s nest, expecting a scuffle.

  Piper grit his teeth, as he headed down the stairs to join everyone else.

  “…head up there.” He said, directing a few officers to climb up, only for Aloette to stand atop the crow’s nest, grabbing hold of some of the suspended rope, and brandishing Sadashi’s cutlass.

  In a moment of confidence, she hit her mark.

  “…R-Royal Precession!” She cried. “Th-This is your first and final warning! Release my crew…or face the consequences! I p-promise not to show mercy!”

  “Aloette, what’re you…” Sadashi muttered to himself, watching as the Precession hesitated for a second.

  Fortunately, Aloette’s yelling managed to stir Bridget back up. She took a moment to assess their situation, while also recovering from the splitting pain in the back of her head.

  With Aloette having finally shown her hand, Piper assessed the situation and managed to crack a smile, before calling up to her.

  “Alright, that was a nice little performance ya put on!” Piper remarked, encouraging the officers to lower their weapons for a second. “Why don’t ya come down here and we can chat this out? I’m sure we can be reasonable adults about this!”

  “Aloe…tte?” Bridget managed, as Sadashi now noticed she was up. “…what’s she doing up there? And what’re we-”

  “Just wait.” Sadashi assured, looking back up at Aloette.

  Aloette held her ground, before tightening her grip on the rope.

  “Y-You asked for it!” Aloette declared, her cutlass at the ready. “My name…”

  She let out a breath.

  “…is Aloette the Pirate Princess!!! The greatest goddamn pirate to ever live!!!”

  With that, she dropped off the crow’s nest, holding tightly to the rope, as she swung all the way down to the deck.

  As Piper found himself amused by her sudden show of bravado, it was only now that he registered the trajectory of her swing, and that she was coming straight for him.

  The moment it connected for him was when her feet connected with his chest, as she let go and launched them both into the room they’d met in before, smashing a massive hole in the side.

  A huge plume of debris and dust kicked up, clouding what had happened, as most of the officers, now in a panic after what she might’ve done to their admiral, made their way over, swords at the ready, very cautious not to get Piper in the mix by accident.

  It was only now that Sadashi realised Aloette had, during her swing, managed to drop Bridget’s daggers and his cutlass onto the deck for them to escape…

  …about several metres away by accident.

  …fortunately, Aloette’s own small knife she kept in her coat had accidentally fallen out right in front of Sadashi, as he quickly turned around to grab it and cut through his restraints.

  Without the guards attention on them, he noticed Bridget still stumbling to her knees, as he took a second to consider leaving her for the Precession to take.

  …she’ll only be a problem in the future…and it’s what she deserves…

  He tightened his grip.

  …but is that what I’d do in this situation?

  Biting his tongue, he eventually leaned over to break her restraints as well, before tackling the furthest officer from the hole in the wall and making his way through the other officers, their attention still mostly on Piper’s safety.

  “Piper, are yo-“ One of them called out, making his way into the room, which was still fairly dusty from the crash. Piper couldn’t be heard, but a small voice rang out.

  “Ow ow ow…okay…not broken…fortunately his body took most of the impact.” Aloette assessed, rambling somewhat, before trying to get up and wincing. “OW! Sprained, definitely spr-“

  In her panic, she only now noticed an officer having made his way over, now swinging his sword at her.

  Before it could connect fortunately, Sadashi burst his way inside, launching into the guy and knocking him out, as Bridget followed and took out the officers behind him with her daggers.

  “Aloette!” Sadashi cried, holding his hand out. “Can you walk?”

  “Not especially.” Aloette said, before pushing it away. “Take care of the other officers, I’ll be fine. Piper won’t be up for a while.”

  Sadashi took a second, before nodding and doing just that, grabbing an officers sword as well. “Understood.”

  With Bridget’s help, the rest of the officers were disposed of, knocked out if it could be helped. Sadashi wasn’t about to have Aloette’s personal victory tainted with the sight of death, after all.

  During the fighting, Sadashi caught an eye of the ship’s telephonic device. Unfortunately, it looked like one of the officers had very recently made a call on it.

  “Dammit…” He let out, as he knocked the last guard out.

  Once he and Bridget were finished, Aloette had managed to pull herself out of the room and onto the main deck, still limping her leg and covering her bleeding arm.

  “We need out of here now. They’ve contacted backup.” Sadashi insisted, hurrying them off the ship, as he helped Aloette walk with her sprained leg.

  They managed to get back onto the docks, before catching a glimpse of Richards on the shoreline.

  Sadashi gave him a quick wave, ensuring they were somewhat okay, before heading back to the ship, only for Bridget to hesitate near the Precession ship.

  “Bridget! Hurry it up!” Sadashi yelled, right as she took a pipe from the dock and started swinging it into the side of the ship.

  Before Sadashi could protest any further, her swinging managed to produce a few holes in the side of the ship, letting in some water.

  She kept doing this across the ship’s side, creating more and more holes, then chucking the pipe at the end, before joining back up with Aloette and Sadashi.

  “Can’t follow us if they’re water boarded.” Bridget remarked, smirking to Sadashi, before jumping onto her ship.

  Sadashi lay Aloette down, as Bridget took up the wheel and unfurled the sails, leaving right as the dead of night was disappearing for the light of morning.

  “Oh Sadashi…” Richards muttered, waving to them as the ship pulled away. “The pirate life truly never leaves you, does it?”

  ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~

  It was a few hours later until Piper came too.

  His vision was still groggy, and admittedly, he was struggling to recall how he’d been knocked out in the first place.

  It took him a second before he could finally make out the rest of his crew, desperately trying to salvage the ship, as it slowly sunk in front of him.

  Turns out he’d been moved to the dock while knocked out, and that almost half the ship was underwater now.

  “Sir!” A nearby officer cried, lifting him up to talk. “Are you okay?”

  He noticed his falcon nearby, mindlessly eating some pellets on his perch, not really caring about the ship’s inevitable fate.

  “…how’s the…telephonic…thing?” Piper asked, still mostly coming to.

  “We managed to recover it from the wreck. We only came to a short while ago.”

  “…good.” Piper said, before standing up and dusting himself off. “We’re sending a message to King Syrille.”

  He flexed his hand into a fist.

  “Aloette, the Pirate Princess. Enemy of the kingdom, kill on sight.”

  ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~

  “Just hold it there.” Bridget advised, as Aloette pressed a cold piece of metal against her sprained ankle, holding it with her coat sleeve. “Richards left us some chilled goods, so they should last until you’re healed.”

  “Thank you.” Aloette replied, looking down at the bandage on her arm, as well as the stitches on her coat where the claws had torn.

  “It’s not the best stitchwork, but I tend to get by.” Bridget remarked, showing off her cloak with a massive slash through the middle, haphazardly sewn back together. “That’s what you get for such a fancy coat.”

  “That’s a weird way of saying thank you.” Sadashi pointed out, turning back to her from the wheel, as Bridget rolled her eyes.

  “Fine, fine, thank you Aloette.” Bridget insisted, as Aloette rubbed her neck awkwardly.

  “…it was nothing.”

  “You better not downplay your accomplishments like that.” Sadashi assured, smiling back at her. “How’d you know taking out Piper would’ve scrambled the other officers?”

  Aloette awkwardly gazed to the side. “Well…you two didn’t know what to do without me.”

  Sadashi stood in silence, as Bridget scoffed, before shaking her head.

  “The attitude on this girl!” Bridget let out, punching Aloette’s uninjured arm. “I was unconscious!”

  Sadashi found himself slightly amused by her bravado, as he kept his focus on steering, before a question he’d yet to ask came to mind.

  “Aloette?”

  “Yes?”

  “…pirate princess?”

  Aloette’s face immediately went flush, as she did her best to keep her composure.

  “J-Just…something I made up in the moment…” Aloette excused, clearly hiding some shame. “…to intimidate Piper! O-Of course!”

  “With a nickname?” Bridget questioned, as Aloette avoided all eye contact.

  Sadashi could clearly tell she was nervous, maybe for the first time he’d ever seen. The bright, ever-confident girl was cowering at the mere question…

  “…I suppose it doesn’t matter, all things considered.” Sadashi remarked, relieving Aloette somewhat, as he moved his attention back to the wheel. “We’re heading straight to Lassound. We’re not gonna give the Royal Prec-“

  “…it’s…”

  Sadashi and Bridget turned to Aloette, still bundled up into herself and avoiding eye contact, as she pressed her knees to her chest.

  “…it’s something dad used to call me.” Aloette remarked, running her hands together nervously. “Back when I was a kid and wouldn’t stop talking about being a pirate…”

  She huddled up even more.

  “…it helps me miss him a little less.”

  As Sadashi found himself at a loss for words, Bridget immediately went in for a hug to comfort her, with Aloette leaning into it.

  Sadashi then cleared his throat.

  “…well, captain.”

  Aloette turned up to Sadashi, giving a thumbs up back to her.

  “I think it’s a worthy title.”

  ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~

  “Lum de dah dee, da da dooh da day…”

  “Jabber, did ya hear me?”

  “I heard you. You just talk so much, it’s hard to hear myself.” Jabber remarked, as his sailboat trailed its way to Lassound, following as close as he could behind Bridget’s ship.

  “Keep an eye out for that Aloette girl. No underestimating her, I’ve done that far too much already. Let me know when you’re getting to Averole.”

  “Yeah yeah.” Jabber said, hanging up the telephonic device, before snickering to himself. “He didn’t even notice me there when he showed up himself? That man has the most severe tunnel vision…”

  Jabber finished off the bottle nearest to him, before chucking it aside.

  “Sorry, ol’ Piper. I’m not looking for her on Syrille’s business…”

  He grabbed out a spyglass and smiled.

  “This is strictly for me.”