Stella wiped the sweat from her forehead as the last skeleton crumpled into a pile of bones, "Phew…those skellies really didn't want me finding this thing…" Stella sighed as she picked up the medallion, "Hopefully the others didn't have too much trouble-"

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEK!"

"I just had to open my mouth…" Stella, medallion still in hand, ran back to the vault entrance where Koa was fending Ali off from a hoard of skeletons with his cutlass. Upon hearing Stella approach, Koa yelled over his shoulder, "Zhen's already inside with his medallion. I'll hold these boneheads off; you and Ali put in the medallions and grab the Shroudbreaker!"

"Right!"

"O-ok!"

Ali and Stella rushed into the vault where Zhen had just placed in the medallion. Stella and Ali put theirs in near simultaneously. The altar began to glow a bright gold and a section of the wall at the back of the room lowered to reveal a gold and silver artifact sitting on a pedestal. "That must be it!" Stella cheered as she rushed over to the pedestal and grabbed the idol. "Is it just me, or does it look a lil'…empty?" Zhen asked. "We can focus on that later. We need to get off the island!" Ali replied anxiously. "Ali's right." Stella agreed, "Let's get out of here!" The three pirates rushed out of the vault to where Koa was still fending off skeletons. "Koa, we're going!" Zhen yelled. "You got the Shroudbreaker?" Koa asked as he pushed a skeleton back with foot before following the rest of the crew to the boat. "Sure did! Let's get this back to our mysterious friend!" Stella grinned. "Nice job!" Koa smirked as they reached the shoreline where the Icebreaker was parked. "You know the drill! Let's get out of here!" Stelle called out as they boarded the galleon. Zhen lowered the sails while Stella and Koa raised the anchor and Ali steered the ship away from the island. Stella watched as the skeletons growled angrily from the shore, raising and shaking their weapons at them. "We did it!" Stella cheered, causing the rest of the crew to follow suit. "I can't believe we pulled that off!" Zhen laughed, "That was crazy!"

"If we keep going at this rate, the Shores of Gold are as good as ours." Koa added. "I sure hope so." Stella smiled, "At this rate, nobody can stop us!"


"I need to stop jinxing myself!"

Stella could barely hold onto the cannon as thunder rumbled above her. The Icebreaker had wandered into a bad storm. And to add insult to injury, a skeleton galleon had emerged beside them, attacking the icy ship. Ali was barely able to steer the ship while Koa rushed about the ship, doing repairs and scooping out water. Stella and Zhen were busy with the cannons, trying to sink the enemy ship. "Ali!" Stella yelled over the sound of thunder and cannon fire, "Any sign of a break in the storm?!"

"I can barely see anything through this rain!" Ali yelled back, shielding her eyes from the raindrops that stung her skin. "STELLA, LOOK-" Zhen couldn't get the full sentence out before Stella felt a sudden searing pain in her side. Her vision went dark as she felt herself soar through the air and plunge into ice cold water. She drifted in and out of consciousness as she sunk below the waves. Her blurry vision could make out the orange glow of explosions above the water, but her ears couldn't differentiate between the sound of the cannons and the thunder.

Eventually, her vision went completely black.


Stella groaned as her vision slowly returned, blurry at first. She could make out the crystal blue sky above her, but in the centre of her vision was a dark object her currently impaired vision couldn't make out. As it slowly cleared, she realised it was a face staring down at her.

"GYAH!"

"OW!"

Stella let out a startled yelp as she involuntarily punched the face right in the nose out of fear, causing its owner to cry out in pain, stumbling backwards before falling onto the sand. Stella shot up from where she was lying and turned to face the person, who she could see was a man, "Oh stars, I'm so sorry! I didn't…I swear that was-!"

"No, it's alright! Kinda deserved that." The man replied, holding his nose, "Quite the arm you got though." Now that her vision had cleared up properly, Stella was able to get a good look at the man. He had very short ginger hair, orange eyes, a bit of stubble on his face and slightly tanned skin with what looked like black paint smeared across his eyes. He wore an open, black leather jacket that reached just above his waist and had a piece of metal that looked like it was glowing with heat on each shoulder, a black belt, black and grey trousers that looked like they had been repaired multiple times judging by the number of stitches, and black boots. There were black chains wrapped around his arms and hanging from around his neck along with a pendant shaped like a crescent, glowing in the same manner as the metal on his shoulders. There were a few tattoos on his body – one of which Stella recognised as the Gold Hoarders' symbol – as well as the odd scar, with one being on his lip. He removed his hand from his nose to reveal it was a bit crooked with a dribble of blood coming from it. "I'm so sorry." Stella apologised, crawling closer, "Are you ok?"

"Yeah…well, maybe not…I think my nose is broken…like I said, strong arm." He chuckled lightly. "Hang on, let me look at-" Stella reached out to inspect his nose but jerked her hand back when her palm began to glow through her glove. "Whoa! What was that?!" The man flinched in surprise. "I-I don't know!" Stella replied in equal shock before noticing her crystal was glowing faintly. "Is this…?" she muttered before reaching her hand out again, "Hold still."

"O…kay?" The man seemed hesitant but obeyed. Stella's palm began to glow again and gave off a bright blue light as a similar glow surrounded the man's nose before it seemed to straighten by itself. The glow disappeared and the man began poking at his nose in confusion, "How did…how did you do that?"

"No clue. Must be a new power maybe…" Stella replied, muttering the last part to herself. The man cocked his head to the side, seeming to be confused as to what Stella meant but shook it off, "Well, I'm not complaining. A fixed nose is a happy nose, as they say…ok, I actually don't know who says that, but my point still stands." He then held out his hand with a grin, "But where are my manners? Name's Stitcher Jim."

"Stella." Stella smiled, shaking his hand, "Stella Icewind."

"Nice to meet ya. Been a while since I've met a new face. Honestly, I thought you might've been dead when I pulled ya out of the water. How'd you end up like that, anyway?"

Stella rubbed her side, memories of being knocked overboard flooding back, "My crew and I were heading back to the outpost when we were hit by a storm and a skeleton ship."

"Oof…now that's bad luck."

"Tell me about it. I must've gotten knocked overboard by a cannonball or something during the fight." Stella glanced out at the horizon, "And by the looks of things, I drifted pretty far from my ship. I can't see it anywhere." Stella sighed before flopping onto her back, "Now what do I do…?"

"Don't worry about it too much. I'm sure your crew's lookin' for ya." Jim reassured, "But for now, you can stay with me and my beloved until they find ya!"

"Your beloved?" Stella sat up and noticed a figure under the wreck of a ship's mast with a red sail serving as a tent. They wore a mask and dark robes while painting on a piece of paper. They briefly looked up and nodded, acknowledging Stella's presence, before going back to painting. "Aye. The flame in my heart, the stars in my sky! No, she doesn't say much. She likes her privacy. Please don't disturb her." Jim explained, "She found me, broken and dying in the Devil's Roar. She rescued me, literally gave me a second chance at life. I'd do anything for her!"

"Aww, that's really sweet." Stella smiled, "I'll try not to disturb her then."

"Well," Jim got to his feet, "Might as well show you around the island! You comin'?" Jim reached a hand down to Stella who happily took it, being helped to her feet. "Sure!" Stella dusted herself off before walking alongside Jim. "So, what's your crew's name, anyway?" Jim asked as they walked

"The Glacial Dragons. Named after my mom's crew." Stella explained.

"Your mom was a pirate too?"

"Yep! A pretty well-known one too! Lemme tell you about…"


The next few days were spent through Jim and Stella telling stories to each other. Stella told Jim stories her mother told her about her adventures as well as what Stella herself had been through. Jim told her about his time with a crew called the Forsaken Alliance who found the Devil's Roar; however, Stella couldn't help but feel he was holding back a few details. Stella also noticed that whenever she would bring up her mother's rivalry with Flameheart, the masked stranger would look up from what she was doing briefly before going back to what she was doing prior. She learned a bit more about Jim too. Apparently, after being rescued by his beloved, he decided to work for the Bilge Rats under a man called the Duke. Jim seemed to be intrigued about Stella's quest for the Shores of Gold too. But despite enjoying her time with Jim, Stella couldn't help looking out at the horizon, hoping to see the Icebreaker sailing her way.

One night, Stella was sitting down by the campfire, munching on a fish she had caught earlier that day. As she finished her meal, she heard music from down the beach. She looked up to see Jim sitting on the sand with a hurdy-gurdy. The tune sounded melancholy and somewhat sorrowful. Curious, Stella walked down to Jim, hearing him hum along as he played. "What'cha playing?" Stella asked. Jim jumped a bit, apparently not hearing Stella approach, "Oh! Um, just a ditty I wrote a while back. Doesn't have a name yet. Wrote it after getting separated from my crew."

"Can I hear?"

"Sure. Have to warn you though, it's not exactly happy. It's supposed to be more of a warning, I guess."

Stella nodded in understanding as Jim began to play.

"The Devils Roar, a land left unexplored.

The Devils Roar, the omen they ignored.

And those who land upon her shore,

Best write to those who they adore.

Just ask the souls who came before…"

Stella noticed Jim take a shaky breath, as if he was trying to hold something back before delivering the last line,

"…those poor forgotten sailors."

As Jim finished, he noticed Stella's expression, "Told ya it wasn't happy. The Devil's Roar was as hellish as its name when we arrived there. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, boiling waters, you couldn't take two steps without running into fire or lava."

"Yikes." Stella grimaced at the thought, "If it was so dangerous, why did you guys go there?"

"The same reason any pirate would go to explore a new land: adventure, treasure, glory. We thought it'd be worth the risk. Looking back, maybe it wasn't…"

"What happened to your crew?"

"That's…something I'd rather not talk about right now. Maybe another time."

Stella couldn't help but notice a tinge of regret in Jim's voice but decided against pushing the matter any further. Jim put his hurdy-gurdy to the side before standing and stretching, "Well then! I don't know about you, Stell, but I'm tired of this sad talk and just tired in general. I'm gonna head to bed."

"Same here. See you in the morning, Jim!"

"See ya, Stella."

Stella watched as Jim walked off. What exactly was Jim hiding from her…? But at the same time, they had only met the other day, so it wasn't like he was going to tell her his whole life story. Still, she couldn't help but feel as if something was off…

Stella shoved it out of her mind and laid back on the sand, drifting off to sleep.

To Be Continued...