Oh my gods I am exhausted but very proud of myself. I just updated three stories today, and posted my story for the Percy Jackson ship week. Whoo. It'd be less impressive if I weren't leaving for a visit to some out-of-the-city family today, and if I hadn't had to pack and help my two siblings pack.

Anyway, here is today's chapter! It's... harsh... But so is the story in general. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Me no own Rey and Hylla.

11

Greyhounds and Cats

"Survivors aren't always the strongest; sometimes they're the smartest, but more often simply the luckiest."
― Carrie Ryan, The Dark and Hollow Places

Obviously they realized what was going on when that happened.

Well, those who woke up anyways.

Don't get me wrong; I knew exactly what happened when things exploded and people were there. And this one was full flame.

Gunpowder didn't explode all that quickly. But it went up in flames.

The blast kind-of pushed Hylla and I backwards and I landed uncomfortably on my wrist. Like; felt-it-crack-and-probaly-would-have-heard-it-if-it-weren't-for-the-freaking-explosion kind of uncomfortable landing…

Hylla and I got up, coughing.

I was freaking shocked to see that some of the pirates were still alive.

"Oh, for the love of…" Hylla drew her sword and we attacked while the remaining nine pirates were down. Three of them looked to me as if they'd stay down.

Three of them were up on their feet right away. Two charged Hylla since she was bigger and older, one charged me. I caught a blade on my knife and twisted it quickly so that all the pressure that the pirate put against it was suddenly just weighing him down. He stumbled forwards and I drew another knife, slashing him across the back with both knives. It looked like an animal had clawed him.

My wrist didn't hold up to that and I dropped one of the knives, pain shooting up my whole left arm. At least it was the left.

He roared in pain, and turned back towards me. Uh oh. He was mad.

Then I got grabbed from behind and thrown over the deck.

"REY!" Hylla yelled.

I flipped onto my back to see what was going on and I got tackled by the newcoming pirate. Literally, he was spread over me. I couldn't move no matter how hard I struggled- and believe me, I struggle a lot.

"You and your sister thought you were smart, eh?" He said, his face too close to mine for comfort. "Trying to throw the crew, eh?"

I didn't reply. I was too busy collecting spit in my mouth.

"You're just a little girl," the pirate said. "You can't really work these things."

I gathered all the spit near my lips and then spat. It reached his face. He closed his eyes and turned his head to the left.

"You little brat," he said.

The other pirate leaned over me too, his knife pressing against my throat. I felt the skin prickle and tear and I choked in surprise.

"We'll show you what happens to brat that don't behave," the newcomer said.

That's when I felt one hand at the bottom hem of my shirt, and suddenly it started getting pulled out. I yelled as loud as I possibly could and struggled harder than ever. They both laughed and I had to think fast but what his hands were doing blurred my brain. Finally I got one hand free, but it didn't seem to bother them much because I wasn't armed. Oh gosh. Oh gosh, they were going to…

Everyday objects are often magic, Bellona's voice said in my head. Even her voice sounded hurried and rushed and panicked.

Everyday objects…

His hand was closing on me.

Crap, the whistle!

I reached for my pocket, trying not to give the pirate ideas, reached in and managed to press it to my lips before anyone could stop me.

The sound was shrill and high-pitched and it lasted an awful long time. It sounded like a… A dog whistle…

That was the first time I saw them; two greyhounds with no fur but smooth gold or silver bodies, long and muscled legs, flat heads and floppy ears.

One of them grabbed the sleeve of the pirate flopped over me, growling. The other one grabbed the pirate squatting near my shoulder and literally threw him down. I was maybe more scared by these dogs than by the pirates… but they had come at my whistle, right? They were my allies for now.

Finally the pirate was bitten and battered enough that he'd turned to a bad angle to try and swat the greyhound away, and I managed to kick him off, grab my knife and sink it in his chest.

I didn't care that that kind of death was slow. I didn't have any remorse. I would have used Chinese Water torture if I'd had to. I would have slowly choked him. I would have prayed to Bellona asking for the slowest and most painful death there was and I would have done it on him.

I would never forget his face because of what he'd nearly done to me.

I turned to the other one, who was bleeding on the neck. There was no way that a normal dog bite was that deep. He was taken care of, either way. The two dogs looked up at me, as if they'd decided I was their master.

I pushed the pirate off my legs, pulled my shirt down, and got up, grabbing my two knives.

"Okay boys," I said. There are five left." I said. "Let's go."

Hylla was way too swamped with pirates. I saw that one of her biggest problems was the provost.

He was discipline master. He broke up fights, whipped people, and punished them in other ways for work (though I suspected it was also his fun). He would carry pepper spray if he knew what it was, and probably slept with one of Bellona's M16's under his pillow!

And I was flying at him with a dagger and a broken hand.

He looked surprised himself, which gave me a second to jump on his feet to stun him, and gear up my knee to hit him in the groin. He doubled over, but charged at Reyna's legs while he was there. She fell to her back but thrust her dagger forwards before he could do anything. She would've hit him but he rolled out of the way, giving her the time to get back to her feet.

The Greyhounds were busy with another pirate that'd been giving Hylla trouble.

"You haven't got enough of the 'cat, now have you?" He said taking out the whip.

It was the best look I'd gotten at it so far since my back wasn't to it (or was it on my back? What was the correct way to phrase that?). It was just a stick with nine lengths of insanely painful leather to get whipped with.

He swung it forwards but I avoided it. He tried again, but I ducked. It was harder for him to control the whip; it was obviously not his weapon. He'd just taken it out for impression and fear factor.

Born to be strong, I chanted in my head, born to be strong.

"Harder when I'm not chained to a mast, now isn't it?" I taunted.

"Why you little-" he dashed again but only got the back of my hand. It was already in pain anyways, I tried to ignore it. That infuriated him and he decided to drop the whip and take up something else. He twisted a golden band at his wrist and it became a bronze spear. He'd have reach.

Crap, I was so dead it wasn't even funny.

But I still didn't let it show. I could nearly imagine my mother's approval in the back of my head.

He lunged at me and I backed up. He lunged again and I backed up. He was very slow at recharging, pushing me back against the railing slowly and surely. I had maybe a few seconds to pull something after he lunged.

He lunged once again and I jumped and stuck a leg out, so my foot landed with all my pressure on the spear. I was just at the part of the spear that wasn't supported by the ground or the Provost and...

CRACK!

"NO!" He roared. "Why you little…"

"Winner?" I tried. He tried to pull out another weapon but I threw mine. It impaled itself through his hand and he pulled back. He pulled the dagger from his hand. The blood against the gold somehow turned my senses on and gave me more energy. I'd hit blood; I could finish the job.

He threw it overboard and I swore internally, hoping my Mom wasn't in there that particular moment.

I was defenceless.

"I begged Blackbeard to finally get to kill you," he said. "You were more trouble than you're worth. Prepare to die, little girl."

I brought my hand to my house and whistled. The two dogs came racing like Nascars.

I don't know if you've ever seen trained police force German shepherds take down criminals, but I'm imagining that it looks like what the dogs did. On came and grabbed on to the provost's arm.

He tried to shake, but that dog was not letting go. He even somehow managed to raise his arm off the ground- but the dog hung off like a Christmas decoration, clinging to it by the teeth.

He tried to kick the dog but started yelling in pain and there was a sound like kicking a fridge. I grinned. These dogs were completely metal robotics!

"Stubbed toes?" I asked sweetly. He looked at me with pure hate (which I could live with) and tried to shake off the dog again.

I scrambled to pick up the knife I'd had my hands on earlier, before my bad hand had dropped it and I grabbed the provost from behind, my knife on his throat to prompt him to be still.

"If you stop fighting now, I won't have to hurt you worst." I said. My hand hurt so bad- I kept thinking please say yes.

"Never," he said. "I am child of war, I won't stop."

He turned around, hitting me in the stomach with his fear. I didn't bleed, thankfully, because the pressure wasn't intense. The silver greyhound was still hanging on his arm.

I whistled again, and the Gold dog came rushing forwards, getting the Provost by surprise and making him tumble to the ground.

"Well you're out of luck, because same here." I said.

I took the cat he'd recently dropped, but my hand faltered at that. His back was arched- right there, very close.

But I couldn't do that to him. I couldn't. It was just… punishment. It didn't kill or take someone out of a fight that quickly, it just hurt a whole lot beforehand. I wouldn't do that. If I had to kill someone; fine. Survival of the fittest. I would die for Hylla, but I would not die for my conscience.

But I would not play with my food.

So I dropped the cat, grabbed his spear, kicked his back and sent him sprawling to the floor. I pushed down on his shoulders with his spear, holding it down with my elbows and pressing the gold dagger (which I hoped not to lose like the last one) against his throat.

"If I'm more trouble than I'm worth, I must be worth a small fortune. Because I am loads of trouble." I said quietly.

His scream when I impaled his throat?

Not so quiet.

This kill made me feel heavy and tired for some reason, as I got up.

I just wanted this to be over, so I could get my hand bandaged, I could lie down, maybe sleep or eat or something… My mouth was dry as the dessert.

I should have been ecstatic. We were nearly there, they were nearly all taken care of, under our control… We'd taken a pirate ship! A freaking pirate ship! Blackbeard's freaking pirate ship! That was incredible, and nobody had done it before. Or at least nobody had kept it that way considering they were all still free. But the only thing I could think of was 'it's nearly over, I can get out of here'.

"Why not?" The provost asked.

"Because that's what you would have done." I said. We were nearly there, they were nearly all taken care of, under our control…

That's when I realised that I hadn't seen Hylla and Blackbeard in a while…

And I looked up at the totally wrong moment.

Because my sister was playing a dangerous game with a pirate, hanging on rope ladders and the ropes attached to sails, dozens of feet in the air.