Cape Bonavista June 1715
Elizabeth's an experienced woman by the month of June. She'd left Bristol nearly two years ago, drowning her worries in rum and the smell of gun powder that accompanies firing and looking after one of the port side cannons. Elizabeth became Edward when she was at sea, and being treated as an equal among was easy as tying her light blonde hair up and covering it with a hat. She was only a woman while in Nassau, where her friends knew of her true identity.
"Hold fast!" the Captain yells during the midst of a ghost ship firing at them from behind storm clouds. She's reloaded her cannon for the third time when the ship finally becomes visible in the distance.
"Jaysus," is all she can muster, as she wipes an arm across her forehead. The men around her all have a similar reaction as the Man o' War gains on their schooner. Fear isn't uncommon on a pirate ship, but it's easily drowned in a bottle of rum. Just the sight of this ship appearing in front of them like a ghost ship and threatening to send them down to Davy Jones.
Lightning flashes every which way, illuminating the ship as it pulls up too near for comfort. The final flash perfectly silhouettes a figure dressed in an outfit, unfamiliar to Elizabeth. She can tell it's a woman by the way her body is built and the way her chest protrudes. Not that she was looking.
"Our Helmsman's dead! Someone take the wheel!" the Captain yells down from the quarterdeck. Elizabeth leaves her post to join him by the wheel. "Kenway! Take the bloody wheel!"
Instinctively, she does so steering the ship around so two schooners are on either side. Giving the order the fire on both sides, the two go down. Finally, the order is given to fire a chain shot at the schooner that's appeared in front of them. Her hat flies off and her tied back hair falls down her back. If anyone's noticed, they don't say anything. The ship's already in bad condition because of the storm. Elizabeth knows this. The Captain knows this. The crew knows this. She's even sure the Man o' War that's now ramming into their starboard side knows this. But with a few shots from the broadside cannons, and a strike of lightning, the Man o' War is incapacitated.
"The magazine!" a crew member yells, as Elizabeth comes down onto the deck to look at the sinking ship not 10 yards away. "It's going up!"
And it is. The thing explodes, killing the man standing nearby. Those standing near rush to help when a shake from the ship causing them to stumble backward. "Douse the flames!" the Captain yells, pushing Elizabeth and the other men forward. "Get in there you mongrel!" he curses when a man hesitates. Elizabeth hesitates long enough to see the woman from before jump down onto her Captain, killing him with a blade to the back of the neck.
Elizabeth turns around as the woman squares up, threatening her with just the sight the blades poking out from the wrists. Elizabeth steps back instinctively, the hair rapped in a tie is wet and is blow around awkwardly by the wind, and is immediately thrown overboard from the rocking of the ship.
She wakes up underwater and all her instincts tell her to panic, to flail for help, but for once she ignores them. Shakes her head and swims up to the surface, her heart pounding and lungs constricting. She takes a deep breath when she reaches safety, and it's the sweetest breath of air she's ever taken. She looks around as she catches her breath, relieved at how close shore is. Quickly, she swims to the beach.
She stands up to walk to shore only to fall back down again on her back out of exhaustion. She thinks about how her crew mates are dead at the bottom of the ocean, and how she's most likely the only survivor and she laughs bitterly. Tugging her hair out the string, letting the blonde locks fall loose around her shoulders. She shakes her wet hair out into the sand and laughs again.
The sloshing of the water next to her pulls her out of the daze she's entered. Looking to her left she watches as the woman from before drags herself onto the beach with a groan.
"Was it good for you as well?" she laughs, watching the other woman.
"Havana..." the woman breaths, struggling to speak due to exhaustion. "I must get to Havana."
"Well I'll just build us another ship, will I?" Her voice is condescending and sarcastic, and the woman huffs air out of her nose angrily.
"I can pay you. Isn't that the sound you pirates like best? One hundred escudos."
Elizabeth sits up, having noticed a bottle wash ashore next to her. She lifts it up to her mouth and when nothing comes out she throws it back into the ocean. "Keep talking." she says, and she's done with being condescending. This woman killed her Captain, she hasn't forgotten.
"Will you or won't you!"
Elizabeth stands up and walks in circles around the suffering woman. "You don't have that gold on you now, do you?" she asks, reaching down to search her, but she's sent falling back when the woman pulls out her gun and stands up across from her. She sticks her hand in front of her face as a sign of peace, not wanting this woman to be the to kill her. She does not want to die here.
"Bloody fucking pirates." the woman spits, and pulls the trigger of her gun. Elizabeth closes her eyes, expecting the sound of a gunshot to be the last thing she ever hears. But it's not. The gun clicks, and they both realize the gun powder inside is too wet to even salvage. Elizabeth is still protectively holding her hands in front of her face, when the woman throws the gun onto the beach and runs off into the island.
Elizabeth stands up with a laugh, "I'm on to you Sneaksby!" her legs are sore and she staggers as she stands, but chases after the woman none the less. The chase is relentless and filled with the two women yelling after each other to slow down or "if you keep following me I will kill you,". So Elizabeth continues to give chase only until they've ran around the whole of the island, and the woman stops, turns around, yells at her to "keep her distance," before shooting.
Elizabeth decides that she's no longer chasing this woman to catch up to her. She's chasing to kill her.
Elizabeth continues to give chase through the trees, through the swamp, and down a hill. They reach an open area when the woman spins around, weapon drawn, Elizabeth retaliates with her own two swords and it's two slashes before the woman drops to her knees, clutching her chest, and falls down dead.
The victor of the fight drags the looser back against a rock, where she loots the body. Immediately, she finds a letter addressed to a Señorita Darcy Walpole, small double folded maps, and a strange clear cube found inside a small pouch.
The letter reads,
Señorita Darcy Walpole,
I accept your most generous offer, and await your arrival with eagerness.
If you truly possess the information we desire, we have the means to
reward you handsomely. Though I will not know your face by sight,
I believe I can recognize the costume made infamous by your secret order.
Therefore, come to Havana in haste. And trust that you shall be welcomed
as an equal.
Su más humilde servidor,
Governor Laureano Torres y Ayala.
With a snort Elizabeth places the letter aside, and proceeds to remove the costume from the now dead woman. It takes nearly forever to figure out how to put back on, but ten minutes of struggling with where the straps should go, Elizabeth immediately regrets ever putting this thing on. It's at least 5 pounds of extra weight put on her, in the hot Caribbean heat. She shakes it off, grabs the letter, inspects the wrist blades that came with the outfit and throws them in the bushes.
It's nearly been an hour since she was thrown from the ship when Elizabeth meets and rescues Stede Bonnet, gives him a false name, and invites herself onto his merchant vessel. It's all in well meaning as she pilots the ship for him, impressively steers it out of the twist and turning bay, and sails to their mutual location, Havana.
"You're a natural sailor Darcy." Stede Bonnet comments, walking awkwardly around her. "How is a woman like yourself is better than most men I've met?"
Elizabeth laughs, "A story for another day, my friend." she sighs, "I did a decent trick at the helm some time ago."
"As a privateer?" He asks excitedly, reminding her of a child. She doesn't answer, letting him think what he'd like. "Dash my buttons! Your life seems a grand one, if I may say. So full of adventure! How marvelous." he comments, incredulous to the threat of sailing.
Elizabeth watches as he places his hands on the port side of the ship's edge, and looks off almost dreamily into the distance. "I've seen my fair share of strangeness, aye."