Mirrah couldn't believe her luck. She never expected someone to come so soon and upon hindsight, it probably would've been smarter to knock the man unconscious than to make a run for the deck. No doubt he'd start shouting something about the hostage getting loose where it would've been easier to work veiled by the chaos. No point in thinking about it now. Mirrah threw open the door and the roar of the upper deck slammed right into her face.

It took her eyes a few seconds to adjust to the darkness. Someone above her was screaming out orders at the bodies on deck, and everyone else was either straining against the ropes or stuffing cannons with gunpowder. It looked like someone had lit lanterns that ran down the center of the ship. Mirrah felt her heart sink slightly. She had hoped to move under the cover of night, now she had to dodge these damn lanterns as well as pirates?

Mirrah tossed a glance behind her and, just as she assumed, both pirates she encountered were getting back on their feet. Without hesitation, Mirrah swung the door shut behind her and, taking a swift glance at what she had to work with, dragged a full barrel of fresh water against the door. Mere seconds after she blocked the door, the wooden frame shook with impact. Mirrah moved away, just in case the pirate decided to try and impale her through the door. A muffled curse from behind the door was all she could hear over the shouts covering the deck.

There wasn't that much time. A single barrel of water wouldn't hold against two people pushing against it. It was only a matter of time and perhaps good vision before she was noticed by the pirates on deck. She had to do something.

In turning her head a mere fraction, she saw it. The Patrol ship. She couldn't see the actual ship per se, but Mirrah could see the stark white sails, practically outlined against the night sky, flapping against the wind. The emblem of Patrol was printed against the sails. And as her eyes refocused to grounds much closer to where she was standing, she finally saw what had made the ship shake. A harpoon was embedded into the deck, gleaming against the firelight. The rope, as tight as it could be, must've been linking the two ships together. And there were at least two pirates hacking away at the rope.

With adrenaline pumping through her veins, she hardly even considered that she were walking right into the circle of light, much less thought that she was on a hunk of wood floating in the middle of the ocean. She wasted no time in covering the distance to the harpoon and bashing one of the pirate's face against the metal. The other turned his head to shout something only to have the air knocked out of his lungs by an elbow into his gut. Mirrah grabbed hold of the pirate's sword hand, clasping the pirate's arm with her other hand and, lowering her center of gravity to her knees, flipped the pirate right over her shoulders and into the deck. The pirate's hand relaxed the slightest bit upon impact, just enough for her to ease the blade from his grip.

"Felicia!"

Mirrah's eyes whipped back to the door leading below decks, the stream of daylight from the glow orbs belowstairs shining out. The first mate's head was poking out through a crack in the door, the barrel scraping against the force. His face was red with strain but it did nothing to lower the strength of his voice.

"Felicia! The girl!"

Her eyes flew up to the balcony where the large woman's eyes had also turned from the pirate at the doorway to land on Mirrah. She thought it was the large woman she was supposed to be worried about until the husband, the captain, feathered hat and all, leapt over the balcony to the land on the deck. His sword was already drawn by the time he charged at her.

She blocked his first strike easily only to find the vibrations violently shaking through her fingertips down to her elbows. The blade felt so heavy in her hand. While she saw the next strike coming, she couldn't bring the blade to block in time. The captain's sword slipped through her hand guard, the flat side of the blade sliding against her knuckles. Before Mirrah could even look the pirate in the eyes, her sword had already been pulled free and sent clattering against the deck.

But the captain's hands and sword were now pulled behind him, and even though a smug grin began to emerge onto his face, Mirrah considered the captain, in that split moment, as vulnerable. She stepped forward, landing a solid blow with her bare right hand into the captain's stomach, but before she could smash the man's face in with her gauntlet, he blocked the blow with his free arm.

The force sent the captain stumbling backwards. Mirrah didn't pursue. The captain coughed loudly, pressing his free arm against his stomach. He raised his head where the grin had shifted into a growl.

"I got her!"

Mirrah almost assumed the highly effeminate voice had come from the captain until she swung her head to the right to find the girl pirate lunging herself head first at Mirrah, shouting out a war cry. The sight took Mirrah off guard and in that moment where she considered if it was okay to punch a little girl in the face if she was a pirate or if it was still wrong in every sense of the word, the girl collided into Mirrah. Both of them collapsed to the floor just as the ship crested a wave, sliding the heap of bodies across the deck towards the railing.

It had to be just then that Mirrah's body instantly remembered the ocean and a ship full of hostile pirates became second on her list of worries. Panic raced to her mind as the girl pirate's weight pushed against her stomach. Mirrah wasn't even aware that she tossed the girl off of her, only that now her breakfast was about to spill across the deck. Mirrah had pushed her self up, one hand clawed against the railing, the other clasped over her mouth. The girl pirate apparently had recognized the motion and, instead of charging back into combat, decided to stay a safe distance away and look onward with a disgusted face.

A sharp explosion, the sound of a whip cracking, covered the sound of Mirrah vomiting over side of the ship. Soon, it didn't even matter what Mirrah was doing. All eyes turned back towards the harpoon where the rope was nothing more than a twisted bunch of frayed ends, the rest of it existing only as chaffed wood on the deck and railings. The captain's sword had already finished it's wide arc, the tip just barely touching the wood underneath.

There was no celebration on the pirate deck (or despairing on Mirrah's part). The gazes that were on the captain now had drifted beyond towards the Patrol ship rearing closer than ever before.

It was too late. Even though the harpoon rope had been severed, the stress of being pulled with the wind and dragged back by the rope had slowly turned the ship sideways. The sails had already gone lax now that they were no longer catching the wind, leaving the side of the ship open for a full frontal assault from the Patrol. The opposing ship was already speeding forward.

There was that split second of silence just before the woman at the wheel shouted as loud as she could.

"GRAB HOLD OF SOMETHING!"

Even Mirrah couldn't help but listen, but she was not familiar with ship or even how strong the impact would feel like. So when the Patrol rammed into the side of the Thief, every other pirate had tightened their fingers into the nooks and crannies in the very grain of the wood while Mirrah, hands still tingling from her fight with the captain, couldn't even wrap her arm securely around the railing. Or even keep her feet on deck. The night sky flooded into her vision, the thick clouds and it was only the raising wall of wood to her feet that made Mirrah realize she was falling.

It was then that she suddenly remembered the story of how the dog would miraculously learn to swim the moment he was thrown into the water and was in danger of drowning. But that was only a story. And Mirrah had already broken the surface of the water.