Looking back, Kristen comments, “If that is true, then why am I so far ahead of you now?”
Trying not to step on all of the beautiful island flowers growing close to the ground, they finally catch up to their sisters just as everyone is rounding the bend where the ship is finally in full view. Shocked… they stand for a moment…. With their mouths opened and their eyes as wide as can be, they wonder if this could really be true.
Finally they all shout, “A ship!”
“I didn’t know that there was a ship other than the ‘Mysterious’ on this island?”
“I didn’t either until after the storm when I heard the warning bell ring,” Diana says pointing in the direction of the ship, “…see that bell? I secured it again so that other people wouldn’t hear it and find the ship.”
“But, it looks so old?” Marie comments with a frown.
“You think this looks old now… you should have seen it the first day I saw it. It looks a lot newer today. ”
“How can it look newer today than when you first saw it, Diana?”
Looking at every corner of the ship Diana begins to question herself, “Maybe I just forgot what it looked like with all this excitement. Anyway we need to get it into shape. When do you want to get started?”
“Now!” everyone shouts as they all jump up and down unable to contain their excitement as they smiled at each other. Finally they could see a solution to all of their problems. The possibility of finding their little sisters was real and they begin squealing with joy.
“Let’s go back to the village and get some ladders, tools and paint.”
Running to the village, the girls start gathering everything that will help them return the ship into a sea worthy vessel.
Hearing the girls as they run back to the village, Diana’s mother is busy, looking in the opposite direction as she calls, “Diana, lunch is ready. Please tell everyone to come and get something to eat.”
“All right mother.” Diana realizes that her mother… well all of the mothers… will be quite surprised when they finally look in their direction. All of the girls put their tools in a pile and sit down to eat.
Bringing the food to the table and finally taking a good look at their daughters, Grace and the other mothers are shocked.
“What has happened to our daughters?” she questions in fear.
Diana grabs her hand, “Mother, somehow we have become older… When we woke up we were all older. But it’s a good thing, mother, we are old enough to go find our little sisters. We don’t have to wait for our fathers to come home.”
“How are you going to do that?” Shelly asks still in shock.
“We live on an island and father has the ‘Mysterious’,” Grace adds.
“And if you haven’t noticed that’s the only ship on our island,” Pauline states.
All of the girls begin giggling with excitement.
“My sweet daughters, what do you have up your sleeves?” Grace questions.
“Mother, it’s so exciting! When we get it done we’ll show you,” Diana answers with a huge smile.
“Sweetie, just be careful.” Grace cautions as she and the other mothers adjust to the change in their daughters.
Before she sits down, Jaci sneaks off to hide her jewels under her mattress and quickly returns. Sitting next to Kristen, she leans over and whispers, “Did I miss anything?”
“No, everyone has just been laughing. But no one has told our mothers the secret yet.”
“This is going to be so exciting! I can’t wait…. But right now I’m hungry.”
“Me too, shall we have a contest to see who can eat the fastest?”
“Kristen, you always want to see if you can be faster than I can, but I always win.”
Looking at Jaci, Kristen smiles, “Yes, but someday you won’t.” And quickly takes the last bite of her meal.
“Hey, you started before I did.”
“Why do you think that I wanted to see if you could finish before me?”
Poking Kristen in the side, Jaci smiles, “You little rascal.”
After everyone else finishes their meal, Diana and her village sisters quickly gather their tools and run to the cove. Rounding the bend they are once again stunned..…looking at the ship everyone is confused.”
“Jessica what do you think?” Diana asks.
“It looks different…it looks like someone has been working on it.”
“…See? What did I tell you? Or am I just looking at it differently?” Diana questions.
Stacey thoughtfully comments, “No, I can see the same thing…just like Jessica said, it looks like someone has been working on it.”
“It does? It’s not just me?” Diana questions.
“No, we can all see it!” Marie empathetically states.
“We believe you now Diana,” Kristen states as Jaci shakes her head in agreement.
“Maybe this is a magic cove…maybe we won’t have to repair it…chuckle…it would probably sink out in the middle of the sea if we worked on it anyway,” Diana says with a huge grin.”
Jaimie hasn’t said very much because she has been formulating everything in her mind, “I think that Diana is right in what she says, something is happening here that we don’t understand.”
“If someone or something is fixing our ship, let’s go practice our sword fighting as father asked us to do. We will check on it again in the morning,” Diana suggests. “It seems like it is being fixed a lot faster than we could fix it anyway.”
“Let me get this straight Diana, we’re going to practice our sword fighting while this ship is magically repaired?” Marie asks.
“Yes, that’s exactly what I said. Do any of you have any other ideas?”
“No, that sounds good to me,” Stacey laughs.
“Me too,” Danielle adds. “I think that I’ll sunbathe for a while.”
Looking directly at Danielle, Diana says with a smile…“No way, you’re going to be my partner while we practice our sword fighting, and I want you to get your flips higher.” Looking at Danielle, she puts her arm around her shoulder, “Let’s take everything back and get started with our practicing, partner.”
Looking at the rest of the island sisters she adds, “First of all I’d like all of us to practice front rolls, back flips, front flips and front tucks. All of this will help you to gain physical strength, agility and coordination.”
Arriving at the practice arena Diana asks, “Jaci, would you please start?” Looking to the others, “Everyone else take your turn behind her doing one front roll after another over to” she points to her right, “that tree and back again. As soon as everyone has finished, Jaci start with back flips, then front flips and finally front tucks…Are you ready ladies?”
“Yes, Diana.”
Jaci begins the front roll as Diana coaches each sister. “Keep your front rolls tight. Let’s try them again.”
“Ah, do we have to Diana?” Kristen questions, “My head hurts.”
Looking over at Kristen, Diana says, “You need to get these front rolls down… the rest of you, be creative. Use ropes, barrels, anything that would be on the deck of a ship, learn to use them in your fighting. All of this can be a great distraction to your opponent and they can also be terrific maneuvers to get you to where you want, or need to go.”
Watching her sisters as they practice, she begins to say words of encouragement, “You can do it Kristen, in fact why don’t you start this time?”
“Diana, this is too hard. I don’t want to do it.”
“I know that it is hard, everything that we endeavor to learn is hard to do, but we must move forward. We must press on!”
Begrudgingly Kristen begins the procession as instructed.
“Great job Kristen, keep it up. Come on girls you can do it. We have to practice. Your body needs to become familiar with your moves. You can’t make your body do something that it is not ingrained in your brain to do. We have to have these surprise moves if we
are to survive; it is only with these skills that we will be able to find our sisters and bring them home.”
Diana has said the magic words and each sister puts renewed effort into her practicing.
Finishing their front rolls once again, Diana goes to the front of the line and leads out with back flips, front flips and finally front tucks. “See, I need to continually practice also, otherwise my body will lose its ability to move as it needs to. My mind won’t forget how to do it, but my body will lose its flexibility to perform these stunts.”
Soon everyone has finished going through all of their gymnastic moves.
“Thank you all for working so hard. Let’s go and get something to eat and then let’s work with our swords.
Walking to the village kitchen the girls take a quick break sitting down to eat the freshly picked fruit.
As Diana looks at her sisters, she realizes that in order to be prepared for their journey, they must all have a common goal, a moment in time when everyone will be ready to find their sisters and bring them home.
“Sisters, we must talk.”
As all of the island sisters listen to Diana as she expresses her concerns, her desire to keep everyone safe and to return home with the younger island sisters, a fire begins to grow in their hearts.
As Diana ends her conversation, everyone stands raising their right hand in agreement while shouting… “We can do this!”
Heading back to their practice area with renewed strength, they have all agreed on a goal… to be prepared for their rescue mission by the time the ship is finished. In this they have all united by making this pledge: “For our mothers, our fathers and our younger sisters, we will be prepared.”
Now in the practice area, each girl gets her sword and stands in a line facing Diana.
“I know that you know a lot about how to use swords because our mothers have been practicing with all of us since we were small. What I would like to practice tonight is the advance, the lunge, the attack, the extension and the feint. Keep your body lines straight so that you can keep control of your advance and retreat. We need to also practice our press and the pass both forward and backward…are you ready?”
Soon everyone is following Diana’s example, mirroring her exact moves.
After the food is put away their mothers, who have graciously told them to go and practice rather than to help them clean up their lunch, walk over to see how they are doing.
“Diana, would you mind if we added our expertise as we duel with our own daughters?”
“What a great idea!”Diana states with excitement.
As the mothers duel with their daughters, they continue to coach them as they have for so many years. With admiration, Diana watches the expertise and courage demonstrated by their mothers.
Over several days with loving encouragement from their mothers, the daughters quickly become experts in tumbling with and without the sword, finally becoming pirates to be reckoned with.
***
Aboard the Queen Anne’s Revenge Black Beard throws a sword, handle first, to Gray Wolf.
“What is this?” he questions.
“It’s called a Cutlass. If you want to be a pirate you need to know how to fight with it.”
“Have you ever used a bow and arrow?” Gray Wolf asks.
“I can’t say that I have.”
“Don’t you think that it could be an advantage if you are fighting pirates on another ship? They are great for long distance fighting.”
“Well, we have cannons for that.”
“I bet an arrow would go a lot further than a ball of lead would go.”
“Gray Wolf, you might have a great idea there. When we get to the island, let’s see which one goes farther. While we’re there, I’ll also show you how to use a pistol and a Cross Bow. You have a lot to learn if you want to be as famous as I am.”
“I don’t know what famous means, but my question to you is, what are you going to do with these girls?” Gray Wolf asks as he looks over at Jody and her island sisters.
Also looking in their direction, Black Beard walks forward a few steps. “Strange,” he comments as he continues to walk toward them. “I was wondering if it was the light that was shinning on them or what it was. For some reason they don’t look so young anymore. Did we go through a time warp or did I sleep too long? In fact…” finally looking closer at Gray Wolf, “you are no longer a little boy, you are a young man, and just as tall as I am. Did someone give us a magic potion?”
Smiling, Gray Wolf asks, “Didn’t you feel the ship last night Black Beard? The waves were moving like they were dancing, and there was something weird in the air. When we all woke up this morning, we looked older and had grown a great deal…whatever happened, we’ve grown…we’re not the same as we were yesterday. There’s nothing we can do with what destiny has given us captain. Now back to the girls, what are you going to do with them?”
“I was going to say… I’m just going to take them to Haiti, my island, and keep them there until either we see Ian, or he finds us. I know that he has a large amount of treasure hidden somewhere, and rather than having to search for it, I’ll use these girls to bargain with him.”
“So you’re not going to sell them?” Gray Wolf questions with a surprised tone.
“No. I could never sell the island daughters. I’ve got girls of my own, and if anyone ever did anything to them I would go wherever I had to go to get them back… and the person who took them would never escape my blade. I know that Ian would feel the same way. For now though, we’re on the ship, and I have a lot to teach you about being a Pirate. Have I told you the rules of our ship yet?”
“Yes sir…would you like me to repeat them?”
“Yes, please do,” Black Beard encourages him to see just how much he does know.
“First of all there is no stealing from other shipmates; there’s no smoking or drinking aboard ship; don’t bring women aboard for overnight pleasures, and all lights are to be out by eight o’clock…oh, yes and pray often.”
“Good job, Gray Wolf, now for the sword. When I try to strike at you, you counter by blocking my move. We’ll just go slowly back and forth until you get the feel of it.”
“This sword is heavy compared to a bow. It’s awkward too.”
“I remember feeling like that when I was the age that you are now, Gray Wolf, but the more you use it, the easier it will get.”
“Are you sure that you don’t want me to just use a bow and arrow?”
“What good would that do you if someone came at you with a sword?”
“They wouldn’t be able to get close enough to me, Black Beard. I would shoot them before they get anywhere near me.”
“I can see that you have never fought on a ship before have you, Gray Wolf?”
“Well, no I haven’t…”
“Look around you son.” Black Beard sweeps his hand. “Look from the bow to the stern. Arrows are used for long distance. When the deck is full of our crew and the enemy, we are fighting elbow to elbow. Do you see the difference?”
“I’m beginning to, Black Beard,” Gray Wolf states as he tries to envision their ship full of men fighting each other.
“Good, now let’s get started.”
Day after day, Black Beard and Gray Wolf continue their practicing as they move along the deck, bow to stern and Starboard to Port. The rest of the crew has made sure that they are aware of where they are on the deck, so that they don’t get hit by their blades.
“Gray Wolf is catching on quickly,” a crewman notices. “He’ll soon be a match for Black Beard… and you know what that means…next he’ll teach him how to shoot a pistol or crossbow and we’ll really have to watch out!”
***
Daniel continues to stand at the refracted waves of the underwater portal watching as ships enter and leave different areas of the underwater city. “They have grown so much quicker than I ever thought that they would.” The ships move so quickly, he isn’t sure if all
of them have the same insignia that he had seen before on Gliese.
“I’ve got to make sure. Do all of the ships have the same people who took over my world, or have they put together a confederation?”
Daniel goes to the security station to get his night vision binoculars.
Curious, Treysen asks, “What do you need night vision for, Daniel?”
He answers with a concerned tone, “I have to make sure of something.”
Back in the Hall of Corridors he looks through the folds of the refracted waves. His night vision binoculars make it a lot easier to see every inch of the oval, silver colored ships darting about the underwater city. Checking and rechecking the insignia on each of the ships, his heart fills with a combination of anger and fear. Once again he wonders, “How did they find this world? Was I followed?”
Memories of what these people did to his people and to his family flood into his memory. “No, they didn’t follow me or they would have taken me to one of their many prisons already. They have come to do to Earth what they did to my world.”
Daniel continues to watch, amazed at their preparedness. “I found out too late on my world that they had taken over many other worlds… and their final plan is to take over the universe. All they think of is power.”
Treysen walks to the Hall of Corridors, “Is there anything that I can do to help you, Daniel?”
“Do you remember when we talked about the water people?”
“Yes.”
“I need to tell you about them. I want you to understand what they are like, because you will probably have to deal with them at some point in your life.”
“What do you mean?”
“Treysen, they won’t stay in the water forever. They will only stay there until there are enough of them that have come here and until their people are in positions of power.”
“I don’t care if they are in the water…”
Daniel cuts Treysen’s comments short, “No, you don’t understand! They aren’t here to live in the water. The water is a transition place, yet, if they have done here like they have done on other worlds, they already have underwater access to tunnels that crisscross all over the world where they have landing docks. Besides the water, they are probably living within the mountains and miles underground all over this world. They can go anywhere they want.”