Pirate's Treasure

Chapter 15

"Are you ready?" Christian asked, and with my sword in hand, and him with his stance he always stood in when sword-fighting, I wasn't really. For the past five weeks he's been teaching me on board how to sword fight, and I was so close to challenging Val, but I wasn't quite there yet. "I want you to make me bleed. Make me hurt."

"You know I can't do that." I told him, letting the sword fall lazily from my hand. "I don't want to hurt you."

"That's not what the creatures on the last island told us." Christian stated, picking up my sword and handing it back to me. "Fight me. I want you to. It'll prove to me that you're ready."

I shook my head. "I don't want to fight you."

"You're never going to get better unless you practice with a person." He stated, and his sword launched at me, but I jumped to the side before it could touch me. "Fight me!"

"No!" I threw my sword to the ground, falling on my knees and my hands gripped the side of my head, wanting to block him out. "I won't do it!"

I heard his sword hit the ground and his fingers wrapped themselves around my wrists, making them separate from my head. All I saw then was the man I saw kill that creature back on Fairacre, who killed for me. He was different now, but it was still scary; he'd kill for me, and he actually wanted me to fight him.

"Fine." He breathed in defeat, pecking my lips softly. "I'm sorry. Don't fight me. Just don't be scared. Don't cry. I can't stand it when you do." He stood me up, placing both swords on a shelf that hung from the ceiling. "We'll try again tomorrow. I don't think you can even stand the sight of it or me right now."

"I don't want to try again tomorrow." I stated, and he shook his head.

"I know." His arms were firmly on my arms, but moved to my waist once his lips reached mine, this time not so brief. I wanted to kiss him more, but he stopped me before I could. "You can't hurt another living thing if you had a choice. And it's what I love about you."

"Land ho!" I heard Johan's voice, and we sighed as we broke apart from each other. "Land ho!"

I groaned, realizing that we'd have to maybe split for a while and get on land, which wasn't as romantic. "Here we are." I breathed, stepping back and showing him the list I had in my pocket. "And we're looking for something to do with freedom."

"What is that supposed to mean?" He asked, but I shrugged. Who's keeping track anymore?

Christian and I left the practice room and headed towards a railing, looking out over the coast that stretched far.

"Is that a port?" Caesar asked, pointing at something, and we all followed his finger. There were no other ships, but it was definitely a dock.

"Either someone already lives here, someone was expecting us, or someone beat us to it." Val stated from his huge wheel up top, and he steered us into the dock. The crew set up the ropes and connected to the dock, and when we heard the order from Val, filed off one by one. "Be careful, there are probably humans here."

"Yeah." Christian stated, handing me his sword that seemed to always magically appear wherever I go. "You may want this in case we split again."

"I can't." I whispered, walking out off the dock and onto the soft grass. There wasn't anything too special about this place. I didn't see any sparkling trees, no magical, nonexistent animals or anything. Just some trees spread out here and there.

It was normal, and that's what had us all on our toes.

"Split up. Look for it." Val ordered, and Christian took my hand, dragging me off away from the rest of them before he could finish.