I’m almost at the bottom of the rope ladder when the cannon goes off and I’m blown back by the force and I fall to the hard wood about thirty feet below me. The wind is yanked out of my lungs as I hit the wooden floor of the deck. The room is spinning as I try to get to my feet, gasping for air but I can hardly get any, people are screaming everywhere, my body aches from my fall, my ears are ringing from the cannon blast. I finally get to my feet when the next cannon goes off. The first blast was the enemy's, this ones our’s but the enemy quickly returns fire, this one barely misses the mast, and me by about thirty feet, but it shakes the entire ship, I lose my balance and fall backwards and hit my head, the last thing I see is the cabin boy running towards me then all goes black. When I wake up I’m lying on the floor, my hands and feet bound. I smell the salt and feel the water soaking into my clothes. I sit up and feel sick and dizzy, so I lay back down for a moment, I sit up slowly and open my eyes, I’m in a cell in the bottom of a ship, but it’s not the Black Pearl. I look around, all the other cells are empty except one right across from mine, Birdie’s just sitting in her cell, bound like me, she sees that I’m awake, “ Lizzie?” she says quietly, “ Yes?” I say and I notice that there is someone else in the cell with me, “ What’s going on?” I ask, “ We got attacked, you and me are the only ones they took and then they sailed off, who knows where we are by now.” she says, “ We’re not the only ones, there’s a boy in the cell with me , but I don’t know who he is.” I say, but that’s all I get out before we hear someone coming down the stairs. I lay back down and pretend to be asleep, Birdie doesn't get that lucky. I hear a rough voice tell her to get up and follow him. He opens the cell door and cuts the ropes around her legs so she can walk and he takes her up the stairs. I hear the door slam shut and I feel lonely. I remember the boy on the other side of the cell bound hand and foot, he must have been knocked unconscious I think to myself. I situate myself so I can try to find out who he is. Even though it’s short his dirty blond hair covers his eyes but after a minute I realize who it is, he’s the cabin boy that I run into in the hall. I brush the hair off of his face just to be sure, then he groans and his eyes flutter open, he sits up and sees me sitting over him. “ Look, we’ve gotta get out of here, there’s no telling what they’ll do to us. But first we have to save my friend Birdie.” I say, “ Ok, we’ll have to work together. Do you trust me?” he asks, the question kinda throws me for a loop, so I ignore it as if he'd never asked. He takes a sheath out of his boot, and that reminds me I have one in mine, “ They should really check for this stuff.” I say, “ You keep a knife in your boot?” he asks in a surprised voice, “ What, you’ve got one in your boot.” I say, “ Is there something wrong?” “ No. I’m just surprised.” he says and I’m sure he means no offense. We cut the ropes around our hands and feet. I stand up and then fall against the wall, “ Are you ok?” he asks, “ Uh, that’s a good question, I don’t know, I fell off of the rope wall on the mast to the deck and when the second enemy cannon went off I fell and whacked my head, and I feel a little dizzy.” “ You'd think you would be dizzy.” he says sarcastically, “ Look, sarcasm is my job.” I say as I sit down. I look over myself, nothing broken but badly bruised, and extremely sore and my right leg is severely sprained so I walk with a bad limp and have to lean against the boy to keep from falling over. “ What is your name?” I ask, “ My name?” he asks, “ Yes.” I say, “ My name is Peter,” he says, “ What’s yours?” “ My real name is Ella, but people just call me Lizzie, which is my middle name, Elizabeth because I look like my mother.” I answer, “ I like Ella.” he says, “ No one really calls me Ella, not even my family, only when something is wrong.” I say. “ Well we better get out of here, but how? There is a lock on the door and it and the cell are metal, so breaking isn’t an option.” he says. I’m trying to think of a way to escape when I remember the hair pin holding my hair up, I take it out and my hair falls down over my shoulders. I start working at the lock, soon it clicks and we open the door, my hair pin is totalled so I put it in my pocket. We quietly walk up the stairs, “ We must be in the bottom of the ship,” I say, “ look at our clothes, they're damp, and you can smell the salt, and feel the mildew that covers everything.” I point out. “ You’re right, we need to get to the main deck to save Birdie.” he says, “ But how?” " I have no idea, we’re lucky to have made it this far.” I say. ---
---“ There can’t be too many of them, or we would have run into them on the way up, we passed many other rooms.” I say, “ You’ve got a point,” he agrees, “ but how do we get past them, save your friend and escape with our lives?” he asks, “ Well, we may have to fight,” I say “ how good are you at sword combat?” I ask, “ What, are you serious?” he asks in a surprised voice, “ Yes.” I say flatly, “ I know the basics,” he says, “ what about you?” “ My father's been teaching me since I was six.” I say, “ So I know the basics.” I say smiling. We don’t talk again until we get to the top of the stairs. I see daylight coming through the cracks in the trapdoor, we open it carefully and hid behind some crates, and then I see her, I see Birdie on the plank, bound hands and feet. “ Look, there!” I whisper to Peter, “ They’re going to make her walk the plank!” I look around and find a barrel with swords in it, “ They’ve just sharpened these.” I say as I hand one to Peter, “ Are you a blacksmith too?” he asks, “ Kinda, my father is so I pick up a few things here and there.” I say. We look and see Birdie at the edge of the plank, “ They’re about to make her jump!” I exclaim, “ We have to do something!” we walk along the crates and I realize a sneak attack won’t work…