Times of Courage

by Lady Dawson

Chapter One: Pirate Attack

A young girl of twelve years stood aboard the head of the great ship of which she was a passenger. Her brown hair hung freely around her calm and sensitive face, her bangs hanging into her wide, sea-blue eyes. Oh, but those eyes of hers were as changing and untameable as the sea. One minute, they could go as calm as a millpond and the next, they could be as harsh as the fiercest storm.

Arianna Turner stared out into the misty fog that appeared around them, frowning slightly. Although she had been raised around England her entire life and hadn't actually been out in the sea like this before, she knew that it was more than likely unnatural for the fog to come up so unexpectedly like this. More than likely, it was the sense of something uncontrollable approaching.

Pirates, she thought with a shiver as a few of the crewmembers walked past. One of them gave a wolf-whistle towards the young girl and the other two chuckled.

Ignoring them, Arianna stepped down from the railing and headed through the ship, careful not to get into any of the crew's way. The captain had already enough troubles bringing a girl aboard. Several of the men had superstitions about women aboard ships. Seemed to think that it was bad luck, which was completely ridiculous.

"Ari, what are you doing up here?"

"Looking for you," Arianna said with a small smile at her (slightly older) twin brother. Will grinned and helped her climb onto the railing as he continued to clean the deck on the ship. That was how they had managed to barter their way out of England and head towards the Caribbean; Will was working as a cabin boy for the captain. The first and only time that Arianna had tried helping her brother with his chores, she'd gotten a fierce scolding from the captain. So, she'd unhappily left her brother to doing his chores on his own.

"Will, does this fog seem unnatural to you?" Arianna questioned as she watched her brother.

The elder Turner twin glanced up at her before looking around them curiously. "No, not really," he said with a shrug. "It's just a fog, Ari, nothing else. You're seeing things again," he added with a teasing grin.

Arianna rolled her eyes at her brother, slightly annoyed, but knew he was only kidding. She did have a habit of knowing things before they actually happened. Neither one of them was sure how she did it, but she just knew things.

"No, I'm serious," she said, giving him a playful slap. "Will, it came up so quickly and it's too thick to be natural."

"Ari, we've never been out to sea before, so maybe it gets this thick this far out," Will suggested. Arianna bit her lip, knowing that he was right, but also couldn't shake the nagging feeling that something might be wrong.

Will seemed to accept his sister's silence for her agreement, because he went back to working while Arianna sat musing. Her blue eyes suddenly caught sight of something out in the fog, just out of sight.

"What's that?" she asked, suddenly afraid.

"What's what?" Will looked around and she pointed towards the thing that she saw. His brown eyes narrowed as he saw what she was pointing at. "That's nothing, Ari. Just a ship," he added. The twins were about to dismiss it when another crewmember heard their conversation and came over to inspect what Arianna had spotted in the water.

"That's no ordinary ship," he said in alarm. "Captain!" He hurried to fetch the captain when Williamson himself walked out onto the deck.

"What's the trouble?"

"There's a ship spotted, sir," the sailor answered, pointing towards the unmarked ship. "No colours," he added. Will and Arianna looked at each other in alarm. They both knew what that mean: pirates.

"Look out!" someone yelled and Will yanked Arianna down just as a cannon fired onto the ship.

Arianna let out an exclamation as everything turned to chaos. The crew started firing on the pirate ship as the pirates fired more cannons onto their own ship.

"They're going to sink us!" she shouted, but no one heard her . . . or even paid attention to her. And Will had gotten separated from her sometime during when all the blasting had been occurring. "WILL!" she shouted, trying to find her brother, but she couldn't even see him.

Something dropped down on her and she screamed for her brother again, trying to push the man who yanked her down off. It was difficult, because she was quite a small girl and he was by no means tiny, but she finally managed to push him off. Vaguely, she wondered why he hadn't fought to keep her down, but when she saw his face, she understood.

The man that was lying next to her was lying still and lifeless, his eyes wide and unseeing, his mouth slightly open. She could see the blood wound that was lodged near his heart. There was nothing she could do for him, though, nothing that anybody could do for him. He was already gone from the land of the living.

Arianna felt faint for a moment, having never seen a dead man before—and after all, she was only twelve—but swallowed her nausea as she managed to pull the man's sword from his belt, scrambling to her feet. It was lucky that she picked this moment, because a pirate was on his way, already seeing her and his mouth wide and ferocious.

"Know how to use that, poppet?" he sneered, yanking out his own sword and raising it towards the young girl.

She did know, but hadn't used a sword in years—not since her father had left. Arianna barely remembered William Turner, her father, but what she did remember was that he had told her mother that no daughter of his would go into the world unable to defend herself.

"Not all men are so courteous to women, Patty," he said. "And I won't have our Arianna subject to them with no means of defence."

Her mother had only laughed at this, shaking her head as she went back to helping Will with his lessons.

But it had been a long time—far too long—since she had been able to use those skills. She'd allowed it to get sloppy and her talent with a sword long unused. There was no way that she'd be able to get out of this one alive. A twelve-year-old girl, with rusty skills, against a fully-grown, expert swordsman? She'd be lucky to survive a couple of minutes.

Unfortunately, she didn't have much choice as the pirate chose to strike his sword at her. Arianna managed to block the attack, but just barely as she scrambled out of the way, blocking attack after attack, but not finding enough time to present a return attack.

The pirate wasn't happy with her—however rusty—skills and yanked out a gun to shoot her with. Arianna froze, but someone let out a roar of fury and slammed into the pirate from behind.

Arianna ducked as the gun went off, but Will seized her hand and pulled her away towards the edge of the ship. "Jump!" he yelled in her ear. "Don't look down, just jump!"

Obeying his order without question, Arianna jumped off of the ship and landed with a huge splash into the water. The distance from the ship to the water was a lot further than she'd originally thought and it hurt a lot more, but Arianna struggled to the surface, gasping for breath as she managed to swim to a piece of debris that was in the water.

"Will!" she yelled, trying to find her brother. "Will, where are you? Will! Answer me!"

Panic started to rise through her; where was he and why wasn't he answering her? Arianna panicked easily when he was in danger and her brother knew that; he knew better than to keep her waiting. So where was he?

Arianna screamed when the ship exploded and ducked to avoid the blast that occurred. Shielding herself from the blast, she looked up, tears blinding her as she looked around for her brother again. The pirate ship had vanished into the fog.

"Will, come on, where are you?" she whispered, looking around the water. Pieces of debris from the ship and motionless sailors lay everywhere. But she didn't see her brother everywhere. "William Andrew Turner!" she screamed, starting to get scared. "Don't you dare do this to me! Now, come on, Will, where are you?"

She was answered by the sound of coughing and sputtering. Relief surged through her as she saw her brother struggling to get to her. Arianna seized his arms and pulled him up onto the piece of debris.

"You're okay," she said in relief. Will smiled, but said nothing as he fell against his sister and passed out from exhaustion.

Arianna sighed, helping her brother to lay down as she lay down next to him, staring up at the cloudy sky. All that was left to do was wait, she thought miserable. Wait for a rescue that wouldn't come.

With that hopeless thought, Arianna snuggled closer to her brother and closed her eyes. Sleep came surprisingly easily as she lay there.

--

"Look, there! There's a boy and a girl! They're in the water!"

Jerking awake at the sound of a young girl's voice, Arianna blinked up towards the ship that appeared, glancing groggily up at the sailors that were hauling them aboard. She closed her eyes again, exhausted.

When she woke up again, she found that there was a girl around her own age standing near her brother, who was a few feet from her. If she had to guess, then she would say that the girl was the highborn daughter of some noble or count or governor or something. Her clothes were exquisite and made from the finest fabric. Arianna must've made some noise, because the girl looked around at her.

She smiled pleasantly. "So you're awake," she commented. "It's all right, you're safe here. My name's Elizabeth Swann." The girl walked over to the table and poured her a glass of water, handing it over to Arianna, who took it tentatively. "Don't worry, it's not poisonous."

Arianna smiled wryly, taking a sip of the drink. It did make her feel a bit better. "Thank you, Miss Elizabeth," she said.

"You're welcome and it's Elizabeth," she replied, glancing over at the still unconscious Will.

"Is my brother all right?" Arianna asked, standing up so quickly that she got dizzy for a minute. When her head cleared, she walked over to Will and sat down next to him, taking his hand into hers.

"He'll be fine," Elizabeth assured her. "He just needs rest. What's your name, anyway?"

"Arianna," she answered, looking up at her. "Arianna Turner."

Elizabeth smiled. walking over to them and taking Will's other hand. "Well, Arianna Turner, don't worry about your brother, he'll be okay. What happened to you two, anyway?"

"Our ship was attacked by pirates." Elizabeth's gasp made her look up. "Were there any other survivors?"

"None that we found," Elizabeth said softly. "Did you two have any other family aboard?"

Arianna shook her head. "No, it's just the two of us. We came looking for our father . . ." She stopped, shaking her head. "I don't think we'll find him. Will was hopeful, though."

"I'm sorry."

Shrugging, Arianna looked around the ship that they were on. "Where are we going, anyway?" she asked, glancing towards Elizabeth. She glanced up as a man with a curly wig stepped down the steps and looked towards them. He nodded approvingly as he saw Arianna awake and headed back upstairs. "Who was that?"

"My father," Elizabeth answered. "The governor of Port Royal. That's where we're going."

Arianna nodded as she looked down at Will. "I think we'll go with you," she said softly. "Maybe we can find someplace to settle."