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Title: Crossing Blades

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Chapter 6.

        Gwen was getting impatient. Sitting here when here friends were getting hurt.

        That was it, no more hiding behind barrels. She climbed out. Jack shook his head in humor and made his way over.

        "You're nuts, but I have to admit you'd make a great pirate," he said swiftly.

        "Wouldn't I just? I mean it's in my blood," the girl stated drawing the sword that she'd picked up from a dead man. "Where's Derrick?"

        "I don't know or care at the moment," Jack said quickly. He looked towards the rigging. "Oh look, I see him. Hope he don't fall." Two men were chasing Derrick up the rigging to the crow's nest. Gwen quickly made her way to the bottom of the rigging. She shot the man in the leg farthest from Derrick. He froze. She shot again and he fell to his death.

        "Are you crazy?" Derrick yelled down at her. "You could've killed me!"

        "Sorry!" she shouted. She pulled the trigger again, but this time she hit Derrick. She tried again succeeding in killing the man about to cut Derrick down. Now, Derrick was holding on to the rigging with two arms and a leg. Gwen decided to climb the rigging in order to help Derrick. She took off her boots so she wouldn't slip as easily. The sixteen year old started climbing until she reached about halfway. Derrick was only a few feet above.

          "Turner, do you realize you shot me?" Derrick erupted.

        "I noticed," she said dryly. A tugging at her foot made her look down; a man was holding onto her ankle. Derrick grabbed her wrist while wincing with pain. The man twisted her foot in all different directions. Gwen looked around for reassurance and spotted it: a rope hanging from a mast to the ship-deck.

        "Derrick, let go of my wrist, I've got an idea," she told him.

        "But you'll fall," he said.

        "Hopefully with my idea I won't." Derrick nodded and dropped her wrist. She dropped and caught the rope with her arms. The man was still on her ankle.

        "Why are you attacking?" she asked him.

        "Because we need you, Gwyneth Turner," he breathed.

        "What for?"

        "That's for me to know and you to find out." Bang! The pirate's eyes widened and he dropped her ankle. Gwen looked down and saw Jack with a smoking pistol. The teen tried putting her sleeves over her hands so when she slid down the rope her hands wouldn't burn as much. Jack looked at her.

        "You are a little-"

        "Gwen! A little help over here!" Derrick said from the bottom of the rigging.

        "I'm a what, Captain Sparrow?" she asked giggling.

        "Go help Derrick," Jack shooed her.

        Two weeks after the battle the Pearl was repaired. The death toll of the Pearl was twelve and sixteen from the Lorelei.

        "It can't possibly be that easy," Gwen told Jack.

        "Trust me, it's vile," Derrick whispered in her ear.

        "It ain't vile. I've been drinkin' since I was fifteen," Jack retorted. He was teaching Gwen and Derrick to drink.

        "It smells horrible," Gwen said sniffing her bottle of rum.

        "You're not supposed to smell it. You're supposed to drink it. If you ever want to become a true pirate you gotta drink," Jack told them.

        "I think I'll pass," Derrick said.

        "Okay now, watch and learn," Jack took a gulp of rum. "Now you do it."

        "I'll go first," Gwen said while putting the bottle to her lips. She tipped the bottle back but stopped halfway when the rum was almost to her lips. Jack was too impatient. He put his hand onto the bottom of the bottle and poured it down her throat.

        "Never *cough* do that *cough* again," Gwen said when Jack took his hand away.

        "Should we end the lesson there for today?" the captain asked the two. Gwen felt queasy.

        "Gwen, you're turning green," Derrick observed.

        "Don't mention rum ever again!" she walked away with a nasty flavor in her mouth.

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TBC