Poppet: (Jumping up and down holding a script) Yessssss! Yesssss! Precious! Precious!

FallenCherub: Quiet, missy! Cursed movie makers sail these waters. You don't want to bring them down on us, now, do ya? (She hits Poppet over the head.) Idiot.

Poppet: (Looking ashamed) Sorry.

The pirates turned to Abi. "Well, now that she's gone, we can get it on!" Her only replies were blank stares. "Right, well, might as well get a running start." Breaking into a sprint, Abi darted past the former first mate, grabbing his pistol, and launched herself over the side of the ship.

Sofia surfaced as Abi hit the sea, spouting water like a whale and rolling onto her back as though she were going for a swim at a pool, not being marooned.

"Lovely day for a paddle, innit?" she said to her friend.

"Guess whose pistol we have?"

A tiny whistling sound alerted Abi to danger and she dodged as a bullet whizzed past her head.

Sofia began swimming away, calling back to Abi. "Somebody isn't a happy chappie!" Sofia gestured rudely to the ship and dove deep, followed by a hail of curses and bullets.

Abi also dove deep, holding her breath until bullets stopped speeding past her. When she surfaced she was a mere two hundred and fifty yards away from the island. She followed her friend to the shore. Dragging themselves on shore, the two women gasped for breath.

"Damn it," Abi said without emotion.

Sofia concurred with a similar stream of unemotional profanity.

"That was a bloody long swim," Abi summed up. "And now we're going to have to do things to survive aren't we? That's the worst thing about being marooned. You can't just sit on your arse and wait to die. You have to attempt to postpone the inevitable."

Sofia nodded and gently removed the pistol from Abi's hands as her friend ranted. Whistling softly, she extracted the shot and dissected it, careful not to lose any of the pieces. She selected the hammer and the trigger and separated them, stowing the rest in her bandana. Abi finally finished her tirade, observing in distress that her friend had dismantled their road to the hereafter.

"You know, I would have worked it so you died too. We could have lined up or something. You could have put your head on mine, a single shot through my chin, through my head and into yours, if you're lucky." A blank look was her only reply. "Fine. I'll go this way, you go that way and we'll meet back here."

Abi walked off muttering. After scanning the island from the shoreline for a while, she got bored and plunged into the relatively thick vegetation. "Ooh, that looks edible." Abi bent down and heard a rustle behind her. She spun and unsheathed her sword, only to see one pointed at her throat. The man holding it had a very prominent jaw.

"Drop it," he said.

"I'm no' leaving my sword here."

He took it from her. "Go." He ushered her back onto the beach.

As they came onto the sandy beach, there was a whistling, clacking sound. There was a grunt and a thud and Abi spun to find her captor spread eagled on the sand. There was a strange device wrapped around his neck. It was made of three strings tied together at one end, with three objects that Abi recognized tied to the other: the hammer, shot, and trigger of the pistol.

Sofia ran up out of the woods. "sorry 'bout that, luv…Who's this bastard?"

"Idunno. Who are you?"

"A bastard, apparently," grumbled the man, rubbing his head. Abi disarmed him and Sofia retrieved her makeshift weapon.

"You find anything?"

"Nah…not as much as you anyway," said Sofia, gesturing to the man. "Ye have a name, sir?"

"Dom!" called a voice from the trees. Abi and Sofia whirled.

Perched in a palm tree was a young man with shoulder length hair and a very off hat.

"You idiot," Dom said.

The man's eyes were very sensitive, and now they widened, increasing his resemblance to a puppy.

"Ok," said Sofia. "We're clearly going about this the wrong way…You." She pointed authoritatively to Dom. "Where'd you come from? Who are you?"

"Sir, yes, sir," he said, jumping to his feet militarily. "Dom Monaghan, sir, of the pirate ship Dark Skies, marooned at 0800 hours this morning!"

Sofia grabbed the saluting hand and shook it vigorously. "Sofia Drake of the pirate ship Red Horizon, at yer service, luv."

"How do you know it was 0800? What time is it now?" Abi asked.

"How should I know?" he shrugged and grinned. "I'm a pirate. I don't know clocks!"

"Useless bastard. And you," Abi said, pointing at the tree-man. "No way yer a pirate."

"I've known him fer years and I still don't know what he is," said Dom, smiling crookedly.

"My name is Sam," said the tree-man in a soft voice.

Abi cocked her head, smiling slightly. "So have you two found any food around here?"

Dom shrugged. "Nope, just palm leaves and you two."

"Mmm, palm leaves. Well, I bet Sofia would be pretty good." Her eyes widened and her voice deepened. "You two wouldn't happen to have a pistol, would ya?"

"Well, I have one. That great bastard enjoying the flora wasn't considered manly enough to have one."

"Oh, please," said Sofia. "I am far too bitter to be any good for eating at any rate," she said.

"Well Sam's too sweet for anything else," Dom said.

"Alright, well, as fellow maroonies, shall we work together?" Abi asked as Sam came out of his tree. Let's go off and look for food and meet back here."

"Aye, aye, sir!" said Sofia and Dom in unison. Sofia trotted off down the down the beach. Dom headed in vaguely the same direction. Sam wandered back into the vegetation.

Abi waited on the beach for a moment, then followed Sam into the forest. Halfheartedly, she looked for food, not that she really knew what to look for. Hearing a sound behind her, Abi didn't turn, assuming it was Sam, but she did become alert to the sound as it grew closer. Unable to bear it any longer, she spun, drawing her sword and finding a wild boar. She did a double take, and hesitantly ran it through. Now we'll have dinner, she thought as it twitched.

Meanwhile, Sofia, having found no birds or game, decided that fish might make for a pleasant dinner. She looked hurriedly around, but saw no one, so she stripped down to the bare essentials and waded into the surf. For a second time that day she fought the waves and dove underwater.

She quickly realized that the fish were far too quick to catch with her bare hands. Seaweed and lobsters were quite a different matter, however. Several pinched fingers later she arrived triumphantly at the surface with a lobster. She burst out of the water, holding her prize aloft. She did not notice until too late that Dom was standing on the beach. With a squawk she dove under the water again.

Dom looked out over the water. Were chickens common in the Caribbean? He was certain he had heard a squawk.

Going back to the real talent of the story, Abi was thinking about the man who had marooned them. Stupid fool, leaving us on an island with game.

She stopped, hearing something above her. Casually glancing upward she was Sam high up in the tree, eating a melon and staring off toward the shore.

"You're lucky I don' feel inclined to shoo' ya," Abi called, "cause yer bein' rather loud up there." He looked down, moving the melon so that she could see only his eyes, then going back to his melon. "What are ya doin'?"

"Watching Dom and Sofia."

"What are they doing?" Abi started to climb the tree. Sam reached his hand down to help.