DISCLAIMER: If you recognize it, I don't own it.

The knocking was quiet and hesitant, but Albino Pirate heard it all the same. "Come in...oh, hello, Miss Jennifer," he said as the barn door slowly swung open.

She remained in the doorway, wearing a dark blue dress with a sunhat and carrying a small basket. "Jenny's fine, if that's what you're comfortable with. Um...good afternoon," she added, doing a quick curtsey.

"Afternoon! Dr. Wechsler's off talking to Mr. Hedley right now — "

"I was hoping you'd be here, actually."

"...Really?"

Jennifer held up the basket. "You haven't had lunch yet, have you?"

"No."

She smiled in relief. "It didn't turn out as I'd hoped," she continued as she set it on the table. "All I could find for the sandwiches was some Swiss cheese and ham — "

Albino Pirate's face lit up. "Why didn't you say so?"

They made a kettle of tea on Wechsler's stove and soon began to chat over the sandwiches and a plate of badly burnt cookies. "It's all very nice!" Albino Pirate kept saying.

"Consider it a thank you. For yesterday," Jennifer answered. "So...you like ham, do you?"

"Oh, I've quite missed it!" he said in between mouthfuls of his sandwich. "We would have Ham Night back on the boat, and Captain would always make a show of slicing it up." A faraway look came into his eyes. "I wonder if they've had any more...oh, Polly, that's not polite!" The dodo had jumped onto the table and grabbed one of the cookies in her beak.

"At least someone likes them," Jennifer said, shooing her off. "...What kind of bird is that, anyway?"

"A dodo."

Her eyes bugged out. "But they're supposed to be extinct!"

"Mr. Darwin says that, too. He thinks Polly's the last one."

"And you and your friends have it."

He nodded happily. "She's like our auntie!"

"...Who are these friends of yours, exactly?"

She had intended to stay only half an hour, but time quickly became irrelevant as some of the strangest things she had ever heard were poured into her ears. Tales of going to London and battling the queen and destroying a warship, exploring islands and hiding in volcanoes. She was told about people in masks who lived in a pyramid, and a funny man called the Doctor who fell out of the sky in a blue box. She wouldn't have believed it if she had been listening to anyone else; he seemed to, however, and his excitement spread to her. When it was finished, all she had to say was "How on earth are you still alive?" The Albino Pirate merely shrugged.

"Doc, please tell me y'all are seein' this, too." Hedley and Wechsler stood in the doorway, staring at the scene before them with bemusement. "Didn't 'spect to see you here, Princess."

"What time is it?"

"About three."

"I'm sorry, I must be going," she said to Albino Pirate as she gathered her things. "Thank you again."

"Will you and Beatrice be coming to class tomorrow?" he asked.

"...We'll certainly try."

Hedley shook his head and strolled back outside. "Now I know I'm seein' things."

Jennifer looked from the wooden sword in her hand to the children, who were happily clashing away at one another. "I'm not sure about this," she muttered, struggling to hold the weapon right.

"You'll catch up!" Albino Pirate chirped. "Just try swinging it."

She did as she was told, only to trip and fall on her face. "...I don't think this is going to work..."

"Sicher nicht," Wechsler remarked as Albino Pirate helped her up. "You cannot fight vile dressed like zat. Vee vill need somesing lighter..."

The sleeves of the shirt were shorter than what she was used to, the loose skirt felt odd, green wasn't her color and the clunky brown boots made her feel short.

"Zey are vorn," said Wechsler as he looked them over, "but zey shall do. I vas going to use zem for scraps, actually..."

"Yes, yes, now what's next?"

Albino Pirate held up the sword once more. "Try hitting it."

Planting her feet, Jennifer swung. When her sword collided with his on the first try, she screamed and dropped it. The sound of Beatrice laughing from across the room made her wince.

"That's better than I usually am!" Albino Pirate answered, picking the sword up and handing it to her. "Now try again."

Jennifer begrudgingly obeyed. "Perhaps we can do something different tomorrow."

They certainly did. While Albino Pirate stayed in the barn and showed the children how to use slingshots, Hedley leaned against the outside and watched as Wechsler showed the trembling Jennifer how to aim a shotgun. "Hold it next to your shoulder und pull zee trigger. I must varn you, it has a bit of a — "

"OW!"

" — kick."

The scream echoed throughout the town, and the people were soon gathering behind the barn. Jennifer was on the ground whimpering, and the target set up had a bullet hole in it a foot above the bullseye. Miss Winters couldn't possibly have made that...could she?

Hedley rolled his eye. "Use a revolver!" he called out.

"I don't suppose you'd like to demonstrate?"

Looking at the ground, he began to shuffle off. As he walked, one of the men stopped him. "You know if that boy would let folks watch?"

"Cannons...barrel traps...them weird box thingies...how long is puttin' all this together gonna take, Doc?"

"A veek at most. Less if zee rest of zee town vill help."

"Shouldn't be a problem, then," Hedley answered, glancing out his window towards the barn. A good chunk of the population was either in or around it, and the ones who weren't were off practicing somewhere else.

Gathering his blueprints, Wechsler tucked them under his arm and headed for the office door. "Might I make a suggestion, Sheriff?"

"Go ahead."

"Zee children sink you should learn to use a cutlass. Zey say it vould be fery good for you." With a smile and a tip of his hat, he stepped outside.

As Hedley watched him from the window, he caught sight of the Winters girls. They were in the street, practicing with their swords — not very well, but he was more impressed by how they actually looked happy to be around one another. Well, whaddaya know.

"Achtung! Three...two...one...begin!"

The children and Wechsler watched as the townspeople stationed around the cannon sprang into action. One cleaned the interior with a sponge on a stick, another pushed the gunpowder and cannonball inside and yet another rammed them in. They scattered as a fourth person lit the fuse. The ground shook as the cannonball shot out and obliterated the wooden target placed several yards away.

"How long did that take?" Beatrice asked.

Wechsler looked at his watch. "Sirty seconds! New record! Someone get another target, vee must get it down to at least tventy-five!"

"Does the gen'ral store look alright, Sheriff?"

Hedley stepped off his porch, a cutlass hang from the spot on his belt where a pistol would normally rest. "Put one more barrel on the roof. Over the front window." He strolled down the road, looking around as Blue Mud pulled itself back together. Flaps on the fronts of buildings concealed cannons, tar barrels were perched on the roofs just out of sight and patches of dirt hiding box traps dotted the ground.

Throughout it all weaved Wechsler. "Yes, yes, vheel it in gently...some of you could hide beneath zat porch, perhaps...? No, zat goes in zee oser way. Vith zee flaps facing up." The people whose jokes he had been the butt of a fortnight before smiled and answered "Yes, sir."

"Is it goin' alright, Doc?"

"Fery well! Vee vill finish a day ahead of schedule at zis rate!"

"Say, you know where that boy's gone off to?"

"He said something about Miss Vinters, I beliefe..."

"It's alright, Jenny! You're nearly there!"

"That only means I'm going to fall that much farther!"

They had found a nice tall rock with plenty of crevices for hands and feet to go. Albino Pirate had insisted that Jennifer learn to climb, but she failed to see the value in it — not with one hand dangling free and a good ten feet between her and the ground, at least. "Look, I can't do this!"

"Of course you can! Just look up!"

Taking several deep breaths, she turned her eyes towards the top of the rock. It was about three feet away, closer than she'd thought. She lifted her hand back up, scrambled for a hole and soon found it. Albino Pirate cheered as she made her way up the last stretch and stumbled onto the top of the rock.

When she stood up and looked around, Jennifer couldn't help smiling. It wasn't like looking out her window; there was something different to see each way she turned, and being so out in the open gave her an unfamiliar thrill. "You ought to come see this!" she called down.

Albino Pirate was already on his way up. "It's just like being in the crows' nest!" he said when he reached the top. "Well, almost. You're moving and there's water instead of ground. It's still very fun!"

It certainly sounded so.

Two Days Later

The clock was close to striking twelve when Hedley came out of his office, a cigar in his mouth and a content smirk on his face. "Well, boy, your month's up. I'd ask how y'all did, but I don't have to."

Everyone in town was milling about in the street, clutching guns and slingshots and bags of smoke bombs. They were all whispering amongst each other and anxiously staring out at the horizon. Albino Pirate saw him first and hurried onto the porch. "I think we're all ready, sir."

"We'd better be."

"How do you know they're coming today?"

"They always wait 'til it looks like we're done fixin' the place up. Just after noon."

"...Well, maybe they've finally given up!"

The sheriff patted him on the shoulder. "That'd be nice, boy."

A silence fell over the town as the clock bells began to chime. Each ring seemed harsher than the last. Nine...ten...eleven...twelve. As the noise died down, the crowd turned to watch the plains. For what seemed like the longest time, nothing happened. Then, almost in a second, the cloud of dust rose up and began to sweep towards them.

"They're coming!" a woman shouted. "They're coming!"

Dun-dun-DUNNNN! Ain't I a stinker?

To be honest, I wasn't actually intending to end it here. I thought the chapter was getting kind of long, though, and I didn't want to rush through the next part. On the upside, we're gonna start off Chapter 11 with a bang!

Well, I gotta go. It's late, and I think some demonic seagulls are about to attack the helpless schoolchildren of Bodega Bay. See ya later! :)

~ A. Kingsleigh