It took at least an hour to escort every pirate down to the brig. They were careful to disarm each one and to confiscated the keys from the captain. The three of them used the confiscated swords to escort each pirate to the brig.
After that, Lucie did her best to explain what happened. Despite how skeptical Clara and Zinaida were they chose to believe her. By the time they made dinner and cleaned up it was getting late so they decided to leave exploring the ship for the morning.
That was when the real work began. The girls took count of all the rooms in the ship. They all agreed to work on the hold last. It was the room that needed the most work but they decided that it could wait for later. They began with the parlor instead. Repairing the furniture the best they could but some of it was too damaged. They all agreed that they would need to eventually buy new furniture. With all the damage done by the pirates it took over a day to clean each room. They ended up searching the hold for supplies to help them out in the cleaning.
Zinaida chose one of the empty rooms as her own room and moved out of the small room behind the kitchen. Lucie moved herself into the captain's cabin as soon as she had cleared out all of the old captains stuff. Clara chose to stay in the room behind the kitchen.
As they were cleaning, many of the useless items they found were thrown down into the hold to be sorted out later. When the girls were finally able to clean out that part of the ship, they found many more useful items than they originally thought were there. From the contents of some of the smashed crates, they assumed the ship had been a trading ship before pirates took over.
Clara was the one who located the barrels of rum. Many of them were empty but there were a few that were still full. Zinaida immediately ran upstairs and grabbed a few cups from the kitchen. She filled each one about half-full and handed them out.
Clar stared into her cup warily, "Should we be drinking this?"
Lucie took her cup and looked in, "Back home she used to always sneak rum from her father."
Zinaida shrugged, "He always had plenty so why not?" She raised her cup in the air, "Cheers to our new captain, Lucie Clark!"
"Cheers," the other two echoed. Zinaida and Lucie both drank theirs in one gulp while Clara only sipped at hers. Zinaida decided to go for more but Lucie out her cup down and continued cleaning. She knew only too well what happened when she drank too much.
"Hey, Lucie. Clara!" Zinaida rushed into the kitchen where Clara and Lucie were cleaning up breakfast. "I found something you need to see!"
The girl barely waited for them to respond before she ran excitedly out of the kitchen again. Lucie and Clara glanced at each other before running after their friend. They followed her down into the were almost done cleaning so the place was easier to walk through. Their friend had run to one of the far walls and was staring intently at the wood. Lucie wondered for a moment if she had rum that morning.
"It's right here," she ran her fingers over what looked like a crack in the wall. "A hidden door."
Lucie took a step forward to get a closer look. She had to really search for it but she could see the subtle line of a door in the wall, "You're right."
"How do you open it?" Clara asked.
"Right here," Zinaida pulled away a square piece of wood from the door revealing a small door knob. "I've tried to open it but it won't budge."
Clara bent over to try but she didn't have any luck. "Stuck, maybe? I don't see a key hole."
Lucie bent to study the doorknob. It was plain little nob the same color as the door. If no one was looking for it then they would not have noticed it. She reached to try nob and it turned easily in her hand. The door silently opened revealing another small room beyond.
"I tried all morning and couldn't open it," Zinaida said. "How did you do it?"
Lucie shrugged, "It just opened."
She led the way inside the room. It was just big enough for the three of them to stand comfortably inside. Shelves lined two of the walls. They were mostly bare except for a number of swords lying on one part of the shelf in back. At the back wall there was an armoire that held a bunch of dresses. Each dress came with a matching cape and leather bodice that Lucie assumed was meant to give them some protection.
"I could certainly use a new dress," Clara said wistfully. They all looked down at their tattered and faded clothes. With all the work they had been doing none of them had the time to make new dresses, even though they had the materials.
"I think we all could." Zinaida laughed before they rushed to the armoire and went rifling through the dresses.
Lucie found a dark sea green dress with little silver seashells embroidered on the sleeves and around the waist. The material shimmered slightly in the light reminding her of the sun shining off of water. The cloak was also a dark green with seashells around the edges. The leather bodice, like all the others, was a dark brown color and laced up in the front. She took the dress off the rack and tried it on. Everything fit perfectly and the skirt didn't hinder her movements as much as the normally did.
"What do you think?" Zinaida asked.
Lucie turned around to see Zinaida wearing a striking blue dress with a strange lightning bolt design embroidered on it. It had black lace along the edges. It's sleeves went to about her elbows with more black lace going further than that. It looked to be a bit thin, but when she slipped on the matching cloak, it looked like it would hold heat much better. The dress and everything that went along with it simply was exactly made for her friend.
"It suits you," Lucie smiled.
"This is much better than those old dresses," Clara said.
She was wearing a deep black dress. Ivory white lace decorated the her cuffs and the neckline. Hanging from the neckline was a fiery red ruby. The sleeves only went down to the elbow but the cloak, which was black as the dress would keep her warm.
"I know a bit about sword fighting," Clara told them as she gazed at the swords. "We should take these swords up and I will teach you how to use them."
Taking up Clara's offer, the three of them gathered up all the swords and made their way outside. They carefully piled them off to the side and then waited for Cara's instructions.
"First things first," she began instructing. "You must find a sword that is equally balanced."
She picked up one at random and tried swinging it around. Lucie reached in and grabbed a sword herself. Just by holding it she could already feel it was too heavy. A few others she decided weren't right after playing around with them. After trying out half the swords she finally found one that worked.
All the swords were double-edged blades and wickedly sharp. Lucie's blade was a bright silver color and the hilt a darker gray. Close to black. The leather grip was like someone painted it a sea blue.
Zinaida was having issues until she came upon the first sword Lucie tried. She held it in her palm and inspected it. The metal was a bright gold color, the hilt a darker bronze. The grip was made of brown leather. Overall, the blade was beautiful to look at. "This one's perfect for me."
"Are you kidding? That one was even too heavy for Clara!" Lucie exclaimed.
"Really, this sword was too heavy for you?" Zinaida asked, directing her question more towards Clara than Lucie.
Clara nodded. "Maybe you just have strong arms, Zinaida."
"That's interesting..." she murmured, her eyes resting once yet again on the beautiful blade.
On all of their sword sheaths, they had strange little charms. Zinaida and Clara had two. Lucie noticed she had three. Zinaida and Clara's charms were both the same. They each had one bow charm, like a hunter's bow. They also had a quiver to match the bow charm. Lucie's had both the bow and quiver charm, too, but she had another of a different sword. She seemed to be the only one to notice them. They were an odd decoration but she forgot about them minutes later as she concetrated on Clara's instruction.
The three girls went outside to the top deck to practice fighting with their swords. First Clara decided she'd train Zinaida. "I want to see your abilities with the sword first. I want to see if you really do have good upper body strength..."
Lucie watched with intent eyes as Zinaida stepped forward and took a stance. "That's actually a good stance..." Clara mentioned. "Now, come at me with the first attack you think of."
Lucie was intrigued. Zinaida unsheathed the blade and stepped towards Clara with an attempted strike. Clara easily blocked, but she looked a bit surprised. She didn't say anything, though. Zinaida whirled around and swung her sword towards Clara's side. Clara blocked once yet again, but the look of surprise still was shown in her features. Then the girl decided to take it up a notch and started raining more attacks on Zinaida.
After a while she finally stepped back. Both girls were out of breath but Lucie could tell that if this had been a real fight then Zinaida would have lost by a large gap.
"You're a natural," Clara praised. "Lucie! Your turn." Lucie traded places with Zinaida and stood facing Clara. "Now, Lucie, it's time for you to show me what you can do."
"Okay," she said, trying to take a stance like Zinaida did, but didn't find it comfortable or natural. She looked at Clara with hesitation, so Clara struck first. Lucie narrowly blocked the hit to her arm. She took a step forward but stumbled on a loose plank of wood on the deck. Clara hadn't taken advantage of her almost trip, but she did strike Lucie once she regained balance. As their fight wore on she kept focus on fighting, and managed to block all of Clara's hits. At the end she managed to add a few strikes of her own but was not at the level of Zinaida. Still, she was just excited to learn how to wield a weapon.
"It's okay you're not a natural like Zinaida. Most people take years of training to get good."
"I want to try fighting against Zinaida," Lucie said.
"Are you sure?" Clara asked.
"Yes," she answered.
Zinaida walked to Lucie with her unsheathed sword. "Lucie... this will be interesting."
She immediately surprised Lucie by attacking almost instantaneously. Lucie barely managed to block the swing from Zinaida, aimed towards her leg. Lucie swung back towards her friend, aiming for the arm. She seemed to easily block it. She whirled around and almost nailed a swipe to the torso and Lucie just barely stepped back in time.
Suddenly, the Lupis Maris lurched to the side, and a wave of sea water splashed the two of them, causing Zinaida to stumble backwards. The water cleared Lucie's thoughts and she was able to see Zinaida's attack in slow motion, almost. She blocked it easily, and then countered. Clara broke them apart after a few minutes.
"That was a really good duel, you two," Clara smiled. "Zinaida... I think you'll be better than me soon... Just a few things for you to correct. Lucie... you definitely did better in this fight than you did against me."
"Thanks," Lucie said, feeling a surge of pride that she'd been able to stand against Zinaida, but feeling a bit surprised that she was able to think clearer the second round.
"I wish the water didn't splash me," Zinaida said. "I'll have to find something else to wear for the night."
"Same here," Lucie agreed, staring at her soaked dress.
Slowly, the rest of the week drudged on. The girls didn't have as much cleaning to do anymore, so they spent most of the time sword fighting. Lucie mentally kept a tally of how many times she won against Zinaida, and how many times she lost. Zinaida won about thirteen. Lucie won about nine.
A few days later, when they were approaching land, Lucie ran to the front and climbed up the masthead to get a better look. Sometimes in her free time she liked to sit up there and read one of the books she had found in the hold. Today she wanted to sit and watch as the little strip of land grew bigger in the horizon. She knew it would still be a while before they arrived but she was excited to finally see land.
It was early autumn but a chill was already starting to keep in. She wrapped her cloak tighter around herself and couldn't help but think that over a month ago she was just a normal girl. Spending her days cooking, cleaning and looking after her family. Her old home is now charcoal but she had found a new one here on this ship. She struggled to believe this was now her reality.
