After sneaking behind rock formations and piles and darting from boulders to other boulders for nearly 500 yards, Beth stumbled upon a depression that gave a metallic sound when she unintentionally tripped into it. Jim doubled back to help her but stopped when he heard the metallic sound. He held up his hand and knelt down to look at the sandy depression. He dug aside the sand and brushed around the circle until he uncovered a massive, 15 foot-wide steel, spiral-door circle. "What is it?", asked Beth. "A cannon pit. It hides one of the gigantic guns that are usually on ships" Jim answered with apprehension in his voice. "There's got to be more than a hundred of these around here." Quickly, he pulled out of his cargo pants pocket a discus that looked like two bronze saucers stuck together. He pressed a button and a purple-colored holographic map grew out of the contraption; Beth couldn't keep herself from staring at it as she realized it depicted the castle-fortress and surrounding land and mountains. Jim then pressed a few more buttons that brought up a picture of a cannon somewhere on the land. He then used a sextant to take measurements and then touched & held his finger on the image of the weapon. His finger slid the cannon picture to a point that matched their exact location. "Okay, that's one. Let's find the others." And so it went on as a sort of routine: they'd find a depression, confirm it's identity by sweeping away the sand cover, Jim would take their location from a star chart and the sextant, and then mark the spot with a cannon image. This went on until they 'd covered about 9 miles of ground in which they located nearly 108 cannon pits, 24 hidden spike-bottomed pits, 16 explosive-laced rock piles and 3 empty caverns with rock fortifications and 31 more lava tubes and tunnels. Several times, they did have to duck down and freeze from the patrols that were out scouring for them; fortunately, the duo was never discovered. But by now, Beth was completely worn out and getting sleepy. So Jim lifted her into his arms where she fell back into sleep as he pressed on.
He was trying to skirt the base of the castle three leagues away when he came upon a humongous lava rock formation. It was big enough to crush five galleons side by side and taller than the entire height of the Legacy. As Jim studied it, he began to get a feeling that this rock served a purpose, for the pirates that is. He stared at it for a long while in curiosity before walking up to it for a closer examination. Stopping right two paces from it's face, Jim studied the surface intently with one eye closed. At last, he happened to pick out an inconsistency in the grain—a slight separation, if you will, that seemed to travel in a straight vertical line. Jim studied it more until he realized that it was a line that straight up from the ground, across the face and then down to the ground again. Once the realization dawned upon him, he walked forward and leaned against the "door". And just as he thought, it swung open for him to walk through and swung back again.
Jim didn't take another step as the door swung back into it's previous position. He'd hit the mother lode—the whole entire rock was a hidden cavern for all the pirate ships. They took up every space in the place Me 'n my rhymes, I know, corny. His whole vision was obscured by 3, no, 4, big warships. As he stepped lightly as possible across the sawdust & sand floor, he saw…a 5th…a 6th …a 7th—7 "Man-o-War" class galleons. There were also, let's see… 4…5…6 "Frieda" class heavy sloops and 2 captured Light frigates in Royal Lancastrian Colors. Jim noted their names as the Confidence and the Fer Lingus .
Looking up, he saw that the walls were crisscrossed and lines with wood walkways, platforms, docks, rope lines and big suspended gas lamps. Glancing back to where he'd entered, Jim realized that the side of the cavern where he'd entered was, in fact, two giant stone gates cut out and set with massive hinges. He had to chuckle; this was where Flint's ship fleet could hide and sneak out to battle from—and no stranger could discover except from within.
Suddenly, his "tour" was interrupted by loud speaking coming from the back of the "hanger".
Looking around quickly, he shifted Beth so that she hung over his shoulder and then, as silently as he could, he deftly climbed up into the Fer Lingus and stepped across the deck to the staterooms under the spacious poop deck. He entered and shut the door noiselessly. After laying Beth down on the big and comfortable queen-sized bed, Jim crouched down and snuck over to the nearest porthole. Backing himself against the wall he stood still and listened as best as he could.
"…'n what's going to happen is that, once we get the naval fleet 't come in close, see, point-blank range. Then, when we can see the white's o'v there eyes, we pop up with the cannons 'n give em a raking from below. That throws em back 'n in disarray 'n so we can swarm em with the ships here, see?"
"And how do we get'em 't comin so they's a breath away?", asked another pirate.
"Nothing, that's what we do—Nothing. We stay tight 'n neat and don't r'turn fire 'til they comes in fer a close look, see? They think their first hits were too good 't be true so they come down 't finish us off. Do that 'n they go down like cake with a hogshead of burgundy. 'Course that'll depend on how good yer eyesight is."
As Jim listened, he realized that the main speaker was Pekerth Flint; that would make the others the ship captains, maybe.
" An what if some 'o them land even half 'o their contingents 'o tories? Mayhap even take a foothold" "Ya Bloomin' idée-it," screamed the Flint, "What ev'n makes Ya—"
Suddenly, there was a gigantic booming noise that sounded like two mountains colliding. No sooner had the noise finished reverberating than a ferocious gale-force wind swayed the ships at their anchors and caused them to bump gunwales with each other. Fortunately for Jim, Beth's slumber was too deep to be aroused by the noise and motion. It took all of Jim's bodily effort to not fall over or stumble onto the shaking floor.
Finally the noise subsided until a gigantic thunderclap and a frightening streak of lightening that streaked in from the giant opening that only a few moments before been concealed by the hidden gates now flung back against the walls. The ultra-hot and powerful bolt set fire to patch of sawdust right between the two RLS ships and right in front of the petrified buccaneers. They all jumped back and cowered behind a nearby long skiff.
Then, without explanation, the stone gates swung back into their closed positions; it was as if there was a giant spirit was in the room. Not a second later, the burning sawdust grew into a 7 foot tall greenish-yellow tongue of fire and the fire gradually began to take a certain form. Jim didn't risk showing his face in the porthole yet the light. Yet, something inside of him felt unsafe, as if there was something dangerous about this paranormal substance.
After a few minutes, he heard the cackling flames die out and a few slight gasps that must have come from the pirates. Then, there was nothing, no sound, not even a breath of air for the space of two minutes. Finally, there came a voice that sounded feminine yet icy, hard, eerie and yet commanding.
Author's Note: Long Chapter, eh? I'm sorry for the long delay; I'm really getting more steam in my engine now and juice in my right brain lobe. BTW, this story is about to take a "Crossover" path as more characters & a subplot appear. Keep reading and let me know what you think, want, like or dislike. Savvy?
Oh, and Thank-You so very Much Again, CaterinaWolf, Janna Hawkins & Dolphy for your reviews. They've been an encouragement and a big help. Best of God's Blessings to you and for writing your own fanfics!!!