Chapter 12: Settling

Helen tried as hard as she could to get the ship as close as possible to the island without crashing. The wind blew the opposite way Helen spun the wheel, making steering the ship twice as hard. Despite all her effort, she struggled to steer the ship towards the island, close enough where Sestiva could drop the anchor and set down the gangplanks. At this point, the gangplanks would be able to get only inches away from the land. It could possible take hours, if the wind changed direction, then she would be able to get on land much faster. Helen spun the wheel to the right. They were close enough. Closer than she thought they were.

"Drop the anchor, Sestiva!" commanded Helen, causing Sestiva to jump, running below deck to release the weights on the anchors.

Sestiva tiredly ran down below decks, taking a sharp left to avoid the storage space. Her route was much faster than Helen's route. It took Helen a minute longer to go through the storage area than to go around. After a while of running, Sestiva made it to the gun deck, she rushed over to the two anchors. She grabbed the weights simultaneously and pulled them toward her body. If she dropped one anchor too early, the ship will tilt to one side and capsize, which will make it fall to where ever all the other ships go. The ship jerked to a stop. The witchdoctor grabbed the gangplanks on the way up the stairs. She couldn't wait to explore the new land.

The gangplanks were down and Sestiva jumped, landing on her feet in the grass.

"Helen, come on! We need to explore this place!" Sestiva yelled, excited for the exploration of the island.

"I'm coming, Sestiva. Just be patient." Helen said in a bored tone.

"Hurry up!"

"I said I'm coming."

Helen stepped onto the grass and looked around. She eyed the forest to the left and the small lake to the right. Where should they explore first? Sestiva already went to the left, and Helen followed closely behind, on the lookout for potential enemies.

There was nothing but trees, the occasional spider web, and open land, the perfect place to build a house. The terrain was rocky, but good enough for them.

"Helen! Look over here!" Sestiva called.

"What is it?" Helen responded.

"It's a whole cave with nothing in it!"

"Good. Now we can train without being spotted."

"What do you mean, not being spotted? It's not like the armada's going to see us. We're just tiny specks on an island that won't be able to be seen. Isn't this island undetected?"

"I wouldn't risk it. The armada is swarming here. There is a chance that the armada could find us if they see the light from your spells."

"I see. This cave could also hold my potions. I don't want to burn down the house because one of them exploded. "

"We're basically training in secret. If the armada finds out we're here, we're dead."

"Couldn't we just defend ourselves?"

"No. They are way too powerful for us to handle. We need more power from our weapons. We might need to make new ones, depending on their condition. We need to start preparing to build our house."

Sestiva looked around for a sharp object to start cutting down trees. Helen took the rifle that was slung across her back and attached the bayonet that she carried around. She swung at the tree, chipping the bark. This would take some time, but until they could make an axe, they had to stick with the way they were currently doing it.

Sestiva found a large branch on the ground along with some stone. The stone was slanted with a sharp tip. She picked up the stone and slammed the sharp edge into the tree closest to her. It made a small cut into the tree. After about 20 swings, the tree fell over and the witchdoctor called the musketeer over to help carry the fallen tree out into the open field for their house. Helen brought a small tree with her putting it in the soon to be pile of trees in the middle of the field.

After a large pile of trees were made in the middle Helen took the bayonet of her rifle and started scraping off the bark on the trees, while Sestiva unloaded some of the things they had brought with them on the trip. Sestiva unloaded some of the wooden planks that they brought with them. She also unloaded some stone and metal parts, glass, and the gold that they had taken from the Monquistan ship.

"Do you have a hammer?" Sestiva asked.

"Don't get started on the house just yet. We still have to turn all these trees into planks that we can use. Can you get some more trees for us to use so that we can build a small house?"

"Sure. I'll go get some. How long will it take for you to take off all the bark on those trees?"

"I don't know, but it will take a while. Now go get some more trees."

Sestiva walked into the forest to get some more trees. She was anxious to practice her spells. She stepped into the cave. It was surprisingly not dark, and had a lot of space, just like her old cave. On the other side of the cave there was what looked like a tunnel. Sestiva walked through it and found herself in a slightly smaller room, enough space for tons and tons of potions. It was exactly like her old cave.

Sestiva walked out and searched for a sharp rock. Most of them were sharp, but they were too big and too heavy. She found the one that she used earlier. She picked it up and cut the tree down with the sharp side. Sestiva cut down a couple more trees and brought them back to Helen, who was busy taking off the last bits of bark from the last couple of trees.

"Are we ready to start building the house yet?" Sestiva asked.

"We have enough trees to start." Helen replied.


Please review! I haven't been getting any lately and I need advice. D: Criticism is greatly appreciated. :D

-TheSamSam