Alice Kirkland leaned forward, savouring the feel of the fresh sea air against her skin, when a suddenly a voice woke her from her trance. "Captain?"
"Yes" she said smiling down at the little powder boy. He was her favourite, always polite but never late when bringing cannon fodder. "Look over there," he pointed out over the rolling waves, "is that the Spanish flag?"
"Yes, yes it is" she replied, frowning slightly. Why would Antonia come now? Hadn't she just had the living daylights beaten out of her? Alice shrugged and sent the powder boy to tell her first mate, then went to her cabin. Arranged along a wall and concealed behind a fake panel were her weapons, a beautifully carved English longbow, a glinting cutlass and a belt of razor sharp daggers. Smiling, she tied the belt round her waist, slid the cutlass into its sheath and slung the bow and quiver over her shoulder. As she emerged her crew stared. They could never understand the change in the normally carefree girl. Yeah, you heard me right. Alice was fifteen, going on sixteen, still just a child. Then there was the bow. The average pirate didn't have a bow and arrows, let alone take one on a ship, but they hadn't lost a fight yet so they weren't complaining.
On the Spanish ship
Antonio was practising with his axe when a cry came from the deck. He dismissed the crew member who he was practising with and ran to find out what the problem was. When they saw him come out the crew shouted "the English ship!" Antonio grinned. So Senor Inglaterra had come to pick a fight. Well, he would lose this one and that pesky English flag would be replaced with his beautiful Spanish one. He walked to the head of the ship, ordering his men to prepare to board the English ship. His smile grew even wider as the familiar figure came into view. Wait- something wasn't right. The features were still the same, but they seemed more feminine somehow and the hair was the same blonde but it was longer and in two pigtails. Then it hit him: the figure at the other ships wheel wasn't Arthur at all! It was a girl. He laughed, this would be easy. She only looked fifteen- sure, her cutlass glinted dangerously in the light and she had plenty of daggers, but could she use them? He didn't think so. Suddenly she frowned. The girl obviously hadn't been expecting this either but she threw her head back and gave a strange call. "KeKeKeKeKeKeKe." It sounded so much like Prussia's laugh, and it sent shivers down his spine. The reaction was instantaneous. THUD! The sound made him jump. One of her crew was already on the boat, having jumped across the gap. More followed until there were almost two dozen opponents. At least half are girls, but they wield their weapons with ease, and before long the majority of his men were engaged in fights, desperately trying to keep the fighters away from the stores. Something whizzed past his ear, distracting him and slicing through the skin, making it bleed. He looked up to where the arrow came from to see a leering girl standing on the rigging holding an longbow. "Hello Spanish boy." her tone was patronizing and she emphasized the word 'boy'. She grinned and jumped down, landing lightly in front of him. "I was expecting someone else, but you'll do just fine."