Sunlight reflected off the surface of the water, effectively blinding the skinny girl standing on the top deck.  

“Cripes.”  Tory missed the first step completely and made an ungraceful tumble to the deck below.  The door to the captain’s cabin swung open.

“Mornin’ captain.”  Tory bounced hastily to her feet.  If he was puzzled to find his first mate sprawled out all over the lower deck, he didn’t show it.

“Any sign of our quarry yet?”  Captain James Swallow was a tall and handsome man—in spite of having a slightly hooked nose and a lot of scraggy black hair.  In fact, he was the most handsome pirate ever to sail the seven seas, but pirate captains rarely care about those sorts of things.  

“Um, no.” She reached up to self-consciously brush a strand of sandy hair back from her face.  
The captain was smiling wolfishly.  “You’re wrong there.”  And he stepped closer, wrapped both arms around her small frame, and lowered his mouth to hers.  Tory just about collapsed on the spot.

“Hello?  Our quarry?  Where is it?”

She jolted roughly out of the daydream, and hoped that was not drool she felt at the corner of her mouth.  “What?  Right.  You mean that Spanish galleon we’ve been chasing?”

“That would be it, yes.”  A hint of amused smile tugged at the corners of the captain’s mouth.  

Secretly, Tory had been in love with James practically forever, but—as pirate captains tend to be—he was completely oblivious to her, and being the most fearsome first mate ever to roam the Seven Seas still didn’t make her brave enough to tell him.  After all, Tory reasoned, it wasn’t like you just went up to the most fearsome pirate in the world and said, “Hey, honey, I love you—marry me?”  And so, for years now Tory had been sailing the world with James, content for the moment just to be on the same ship as him.

“Um, I’m not sure.  Billy had the last watch.”  Tory craned her neck to see the crow’s nest, perched up the top of the main mast.  “Billy!!!  Oi, Billy!!!!!”  No response.  “I’ll just climb up and see what’s doin’, shall I?”

James watched as she managed to get up to the top of the mast in record time—no small feat for someone who was born a complete klutz—and then mounted the stairs to the quarterdeck, as Tory appeared to have forgotten that she was steering the ship.  

Up in the nest, Billy—the cabin boy—was sleeping soundly.  He was one of those remarkable people, born with the gift of being able to sleep anywhere at anytime.  

Tory shook his shoulder roughly.  “Hey, Billy!!  You’re supposed to be on watch!!”  He blinked sleepily at her.  “You’re supposed to be keeping a look-out for that ship we’re chasing.”

“Uh…do you mean that ship?”  Tory turned around just in time to see the galleon fire its first round of cannons at them.  

“Cripes!!!!”  Tory was so startled she simply let go of her hold on the mast and tumbled halfway to the deck before getting tangled in the rigging.  Dangling upside-down above the deck, she watched as the rest of the crew came pouring up from their quarters below.  James started yelling orders and within less than a minute they were returning fire of their own.

“Dammit.”  Tory reached up, trying to free herself from the ropes.  One of them was wrapped tightly around her ankle.  Below, James had brought their sleek little pirate ship in alongside the galleon, and the crew were throwing over grappling hooks.  

“Damn!”  Tory said again.  “This is my favourite part!”  

Within another minute, there were several tangled knots of sailors on the deck below.  The Spaniards—obviously unschooled in the fine art of Being Attacked by Pirates—rather than staying on their own ship and fighting, had decided to be pre-emptive and jump over onto the pirate ship.  

Below her, Tory could see the captain cutting a wide swathe with his cutlass.  
Then she remembered her boot knife.  
Whipping it out, she sliced randomly and carelessly at the ropes holding her captive.
“Uhhh, whooooops!”  The ropes gave way suddenly, and Tory free-fell the rest of the way to the deck, fortunately landing on top of a particularly fat Spaniard who had been giving the third mate a hard time.  

“Nice timing Tory!”  Tim grinned quickly at her before turning away to take on someone else.  Tory looked around and groaned.  Now she was down on deck, but unfortunately, she didn’t have her cutlass—only the boot knife.  She ducked hastily as a sword came swinging out of nowhere, took a deep breath, and then bolted for the stairway down to her quarters.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Up on the main deck, the second mate, Isaac, had a battle royale on his hands.  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tory tumble from halfway up the main mast and land on top of the fat Spaniard.  He noted with disappointment that she didn’t seem to be injured as she got up.  

He had never agreed with the captain’s decision to make a girl first mate—although this was mostly because he had wanted to be first mate himself.  He’d been trying to get rid of her for some time now, but his own stupidity, coupled with her unnatural lucky streak, was working against him.  This was made even more frustrating by the fact that Tory had no idea he was trying to kill her, and in fact, thought the two of them were good friends.  

“OWW!  Ya scurvy Spanish dog!” he bellowed, as one of his three opponents got a blow in.  They had him cornered; he could see the triumphant smiles in their eyes as they moved in for the kill.  “Arrr.  I’m not done yet!”  And he drew his hidden second sword from his back.  “Now this makes it a fair fight!”  

The smug smiles vanished in an instant.  Ike swung both swords in a criss-cross pattern—designed more to confuse than to really do any damage.  “Aaaaaoooooowhoooo!!”  He decided to add a scary-sounding pirate yell, just for fun.  At which point, his three assailants dropped their swords and threw themselves overboard.

“Lily-livered pansies.”  With a sword in either hand, Ike took a running leap from his own deck onto the galleon.  By this stage, the fight was almost over, with a decisive victory to the battle-hardened pirate crew.  Ike hurried to the hold to help unload the loot.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Tory kicked open the door from her private quarters and shot out onto the deck, sword swinging madly.  By this stage, most of the fighting was over, but she still managed to get one or two good parries in on her way to the ship’s side.  Gripping her cutlass between her teeth, she grabbed a dangling rope and swung over to the galleon.  

“Eyyaaaaaaahoooooo!!!!!!”  As she opened her mouth to yell, the cutlass fell from between her teeth and disappeared down between the two ships.  

“Damn!”  Tory cursed and looked backwards and down to where she had last seen her sword.  
Thud.  
She collided with some force with the mainmast of the galleon and slid gracelessly to the deck below.  

“Owww.”  Tory put her hand to her mashed nose, and was disgusted to find it dripping blood.  She rose groggily to her feet and staggered towards the hold, where Ike and some of the other crew were beginning to unload the loot.  

“Arrrr.  Mind that first step.”  Tory failed to notice Ike’s outstretched foot at the top of the stairs down to the hold but somehow as she went headfirst towards the steps she managed to stick her hands out and cartwheel more or less safely to the bottom.  

“Arrrr.  Be yeh alright??”  Ike growled.  Touched by his concern, Tory rolled straight back to her feet.  

“Aye, I’m fine!” she called up the stairs.  “You were right about that first step—it’s a doozy.”
Ike slapped his forehead in disgust and hefted his load back to his shoulder.
* * * * * * * * * *
James watched from the bridge of his own vessel as Tory and Ike quickly took charge of unloading the loot.  He shook his head as Ike deliberately tried to send Tory head-first down into the hold—and began to doubt that the girl would ever twig what Ike was really on about.  He wondered how she could be such an intelligent and responsible first mate at times, and yet so gullible at others.

Contrary to Tory’s fond opinion, the captain was not nearly as oblivious as he made out to be.  He knew quite well that Ike was trying to bump Tory off; had known it since he appointed her first mate.  He was also quite aware that he was the most handsome pirate ever to roam the seven seas, and that Tory was madly in love with him—but she was in love with the romantic image of him she held in her airy-fairy head, and not the uncaring rogue that he was.  So James kept quiet and pretended not to notice.

He swung down to the lower main deck as the last of the chests from the galleon were brought on board.  “Tory, would you like to do the honours?”  

She looked up from the chest she was attempting to heave over onto his ship, her eyes positively aflame.  “I was beginnin’ to think ye’d never ask.”  She handed over the last chest, took the tinderbox from his outstretched hand and scampered happily below deck to the gunpowder storeroom.

The Spaniards must have been expecting trouble.  Tory cast a wide-eyed stare around the room.  There were more barrels of gunpowder down here than she had ever seen on a single ship before.  Now, traditional Pirate Technique dictated that the appropriate thing to do would be to place perhaps one barrel of the stuff in a strategic location, thereby blowing a hole in the side of the ship and causing it to take a leisurely dive to the bottom of the ocean.

Tory had never been one for tradition, and worse, she loved fireworks.  What would happen if I set off the whole lot at once?  The thought galloped through her mind.  Before she had time to think of the inherent dangers of such an idea, she had filled a pouch with the stuff, snicked a hole in the bottom with her trusty boot knife, and laid a thin trail down the corridor and to the foot of the stairs to the deck.  

Striking the flint hard against the tinder, she stayed only long enough to check that the gunpowder was alight before sprinting up the stairs to the main deck and taking a flying leap over to her own deck—conveniently managing to land almost in the captain’s arms.  
James took one look at the excited gleam in her eyes and assumed the worst.  He didn’t need to hear Tory gabbling about the ‘biggest mountain of gunpowder she’d ever seen’ before swinging round and roaring at the crew to hit the deck.

KA-BOOM!  

The galleon exploded outwards into about a million pieces, which ripped straight through the main sail, and came raining down onto the deck below, where 32 pirates cowered with their arms over their heads.  Only James and Tory remained upright.  (Miraculously, nothing landed on either of them.)  

Tory gulped and tried hard not to swoon as the captain’s eyes bored deep into hers.  Technically, it was about as far from a romantic look as it could have been, but then, when one lived a life like hers, one learnt to take what one could get.  

For his part, James tried hard to look stern, but then his frown gave way to a charming smile, which quickly became an uproarious laugh.  “You know, if you keep on the way you are, soon the price on your head is going to be bigger than mine.”  Still laughing, he strode away to his cabin, leaving Tory gasping in breathless amazement on the deck behind him.  This was high praise indeed.

“All right men!  Bring down the mainsail!  Let’s get that thing fixed, and get this treasure moving!”  Within minutes, 32 pairs of hands were hard at work, preparing to set sail back off into the wide blue ocean.