Unchosen Champion

The catamaran parted ways with the Eye of the Storm as they approached the island. Sharkbait was sailing them around the northern edge of Ghost Reef and through the channel to the dock, but Captain Kayla’s ghost ship was able to sail across the shallow reefs and head directly into the canal that separated the two halves of the fortress. The Tempest Fleet would have a formidable home field advantage if a battle ever reached the island.

While they coasted toward the dock, Coop counted 15 other sailboats. Most were anchored offshore at various spots deep enough to accommodate their keels, but three were beached next to the dock. He wondered how the pirates would make repairs to fiberglass, he was pretty sure the material hadn’t existed when they were still sailing the seas.

The dock had been retrofitted to be more than just the single seawall where the ferry used to park itself. There were now multiple wooden extensions built along pilings that extended perpendicular to the sea wall. They were making parking spaces for multiple ships. Only a few were completed, with several others still in progress. The construction materials were probably holding them back. He was just glad the pirates weren’t chopping down the palm trees to finish the job quickly. Even in the middle of the night, sailors were hanging around the dock, sitting on barrels and at wooden tables, playing cards and custom dice games.

Sharkbait led the wide catamaran toward the outside of the first piling where a group of phantoms were waiting at the end of one of the new docks. The crew threw ropes to the waiting dockhands who caught them and heaved while bracing each other, helping the boat to make the sharp turn into the waiting dock space.

Coop thanked the crew and was the first to leap off the side onto the wooden dock. Captain Kayla was making her way down the dock toward him, taking confident steps in her boots, and looking proud, like she was ready to receive a gold medal.

“Well, that turned out to be a fine excursion! What do you say, Champion?” Kayla slapped him on the arm. “How was that for our first victory together?”

Coop had a wide smile painted on his face before he even realized it thanks to her magnetic personality. “I’d say, make sure I’m further away from whatever you’re shooting at next time.”

Kayla laughed boisterously as pirates gathered and greeted the new arrivals as they disembarked with the crew of the catamaran. “You can put your faith in me, Champion! Any salvo I send will be right on target!” She boasted, poking Coop in the chest for his doubts.

“How did you get the cannons to fire anyway?” Coop wondered.

Kayla laughed at him. “With black powder and a spark, of course! We really need to get you to spend more time at sea don’t we?”

Coop was surprised, expecting her crew to have some active ability or something else that allowed them to use the ship’s weaponry. “Mana didn’t prevent a reaction?” He asked, recalling the gas generator’s failure to start, not to mention all of the dead vehicles back on the mainland. His understanding of combustion engines was really limited, but he thought they would behave differently if the failure was mechanical.

“Why should it?” Kayla dismissed his curiosity as her first mate was the last to exit the catamaran. She slapped Coop on the shoulder and went to greet Sharkbait who looked positively ecstatic with a slight upturn of both corners of his mouth when he spotted his captain approaching.