Here we are! Chapter 26! I won't keep you from it any longer!

Chapter 26: Isn't That Just Precious

The next thirteen minutes were pure chaos.

Ten minutes before sunset, Finn had gotten the boat close enough to fire the cannons. But just as they had started firing at Maleficent's ship, retaliation had begun.

Philby was yelling "FIRE!" every few seconds, while cutting the ropes and grapple hooks Maleficent's sailors were throwing onto their ship with his sword. Finn was trying his best to steer the ship further away from the other, but Maleficent's ship was closing in—and fast.

Amanda ran up to Finn with his sword in her hand. "Go! I've got the wheel!"

Finn turned to her, a shocked look on his face. "What?"

"HARD LEFT!" Willa yelled from the bow and Finn responded by spinning the wheel as hard as he could to the left. It didn't do much though, for the grapple hooks were pulling their ship back to Maleficent's with a significant amount of force.

"Jess will cover me!" Amanda shoved the sword into Finn's hand. "GO!"

Finn grabbed the sword without a second thought and jumped down the short staircase to where Philby was manning the cannons.

"We're going to have to fight!" Philby yelled at him.

"What do you mean? If we can steer the boat out of here, we'll be fine!"

Philby pointed to Maleficent's ship which was now only fifteen feet from theirs. One of the sailors on the other ship carried a twenty-foot long wooden plank to the railing and slowly lowered it.

Then Philby said the most obvious thing about their situation. "I don't think we're going to have a choice!"

Finn stared at the wooden plank in awe. The plank was barely wide enough for one person. How does anyone expect to cross that? He searched back and forth along the railing and saw two others trying to lay planks down as well.

"Let's beat them to it!" As soon as the plank landed on the top of the railing on their ship, Finn jumped up and started walking across. A sailor from the other ship met him in the middle.

Finn swung his sword at the sailor at a downward angle, connecting with his leg. The sailor fell to the ground and hung on to the plank with one hand. Finn stepped on his hand and the sailor went flying down into the open ocean.

Finn glanced back at Philby and smiled. "Come join the party!"

Finn took off across the plank and was immediately attacked by three sailors. But luckily for Finn, they were all bad at sword fighting. He sent two of them flying overboard and the other got knocked out by the hilt of his sword.

A fourth sailor came at Finn from behind and knocked him facedown to the ground. Finn turned around and saw the sailor raise his sword. Finn thought he was a dead man, but at the last second Philby jumped off of the plank and smashed into the sailor.

Philby reached down and offered Finn a hand to help him up. "I'm sure the captain's going to hate missing out on this!"

"Let's make sure we just live to tell the tale!"

After a few minutes of intense fighting, Finn and Philby felt like they were on top of the world. For some reason, every single sailor on the ship fumbled with their swords and were easily defeated. But neither wanted to take the time to wonder why.

Philby had just sent yet another sailor overboard when he saw him.

Walking steadily toward Finn from behind was an older man. He was dressed in a formal uniform—one that only Maleficent's admirals wore. Before Philby could realize what we was doing, the admiral spun Finn around, grabbed him by the back of the head and placed his sword at his throat.

He leaned in close to Finn's ears and whispered something that angered Finn. Finn tried hard to get out of the admiral's hold, but the sword at his throat was a great limitation.

"Look here boys! We've got Prince Finnegan himself!" The admiral shouted to his crew. Every sailor left laughed. The admiral searched the crowd and his gaze landed on Philby. "And it looks like he brought a friend too. Tie him up."

A sailor pointed his sword only inches from Philby's throat. "Drop your sword."

Philby, realizing there was no way he could get out of this, dropped his sword. A second sailor behind him tied his hands tight with a rope behind his back. The first sailor continued to hold his sword near Philby's neck. The second soldier held his sword to Philby's back-not too far away from his hands.

"Now boys, we're glad you showed up for our little party." The admiral handed his sword and Finn off to another sailor and moved to the railing farthest from Captain Maybeck's ship. "See, we've got ourselves a little dilemma. And I was hoping you two could help us out."

"We're not going to help you!" Finn yelled as he struggled against his captor.

"Don't be so quick to judge, your majesty. I think we could help each other very much!"

"Why would we want to help you?" Philby asked in a surprisingly calm voice.

"I'm seeking revenge on an old friend of mine and I hear you two are very good friends with him now-a-days." The admiral leaned back against the railing. Philby noticed the sun setting behind him. They didn't have much time before they weren't going to be able to see. "That makes us mutual friends, per say."

"Who are we talking about?"

"Oh the infamous Captain Terry Maybeck of course." He waved the two forward with a few fingers. Both Finn and Philby's captors moved them toward the admiral. "I'd like to propose a deal."

"And what is that?" Finn asked. Philby hoped that the admiral couldn't hear the anger in Finn's voice. The last thing Philby wanted was for Finn to die because his anger got the best of him.

"I'll let you and you're little friends over there live a few days longer if you help me bring the pirate to justice."

"What do you mean 'bring the pirate to justice?'" Philby asked. He sure didn't like the sound of that—especially when he was taking about his friend.

"An execution of course." The admiral pushed off of the railing and took a step toward them. "Well, I'm sure Maleficent will want a trial. The last thing we would want is the people to think her majesty is unfair to criminals." He smirked at the boys, giving Philby an uneasy feeling in his stomach.

But Finn started laughing. "Maleficent's dead you idiot."

Philby wanted to slap Finn across the face, but the admiral beat him to it.

"How dare you speak of such blasphemy?"

"It's the truth. You'll find her cold, dead body on the floor of the ancient temple. It's about four or five days from here. But we'll take you to see if you'd like." Finn smiled weakly.

The admiral leaned in close to Finn's face and started whispering—but it was loud enough for Philby to hear. "What proof do you have of her majesty's death?"

Finn studied the admiral. Upon deciding what to do, Finn leaned in and whispered, "we have the journal."

The admiral's eyes went wide. Apparently the journal was a secret. Interesting…

"How do you know about that?"

"Because we have it! We had a spy on the inside the entire time. We know everything." Finn smiled at him. Philby made a mental note not to make Finn mad. This side of him was scaring him more than it should.

"Do you now? Who is it?"

"Does that really matter who the spy is? I think what matters more here is the contents of the journal!" A female voice came from behind Philby. He slowly turned his head to see Willa standing in the middle of the one remaining plank between the two boats. She had an arrow in her bow ready to fire. Philby followed her aim and saw that it was aimed right for the admiral's head.

Philby knew exactly what she was up to and he couldn't help but smile.

"And how do I know you're not just making this up?" The admiral called out to Willa.

"Because I know everything in that journal. You can ask me any question you'd like, if that'll convince you."

"Alright." The admiral walked past Finn and Philby and to the edge of the plank. "Tell me one creature that lurks in this ocean."

Willa's serious face turned to a smirk. "That one's easy. There's a giant shark lurking below us." She took a step toward the admiral, refocusing her aim to his heart. "I would tell you the name, but it doesn't have one."

"There ain't no such thing as a giant shark in these waters! Admiral, she's crazy!" One of the sailors joked. All of the other sailors burst into laughter—all except the admiral.

Willa took a step forward. Now she was only a few feet from the admiral. "Now I'd let my friends go, or you and I both know what might happen."

The admiral's eyes went wide. "That's just the stuff of legends." But Philby could tell the admiral was trying to convince himself.

"Are you sure about that?"

The admiral snapped into an angry ambience and got up onto the plank with Willa. She backed up as he stepped forward until she were in the dead center of the plank. Willa kept her bow at the ready—still aimed at his heart. Philby watched with careful eyes. The last thing he wanted was for her to fall. He honestly could care less about the admiral.

"I would lower that bow if I were you, Princess Isabel." The admiral's tone of voice wasn't one that Philby was enjoying.

"I'm flattered, but it's Lady Isabel."

"You don't know?" The admiral laughed, causing Willa to lower her bow a little. "Oh isn't that just precious."

Right when he said the word precious, the entire boat shook violently. Finn and the rest of the sailors dropped to the floor. Philby fell backwards and the sword held at his back cut the rope binding his hands together. The admiral fell backwards onto his ship.

Philby scrambled to his feet and saw that Willa was gone.

"ISABEL!" He figured using her real name was safer. He ran to the railing to see her hanging onto the wooden plank with four of her fingers. She was staring at something in the water.

The sun had set a few minutes ago, making it harder and harder to see.

"PHILBY!" With her free hand, she pointed to something in the water.

Philby squinted his eyes to see. Even in the dark he wasn't sure of what he saw. But he was pretty sure he saw a giant fin disappear into the water.

Cue theme music from Jaws!

I hope y'all have been enjoying these past few chapters! I've loved writing them!

See what happens next chapter! I'll try my best to have it up asap!

And don't forget to review! So close to 150-and I'm not going to lie, getting 150 on my first story would be awesome! Just saying...but it's totally up to y'all for actually posting them!