First two chapters

### **Chapter 1: The Missing Crew (Lilian)**

“Ok guys, we’re only here to get supplies then get out of here before anyone recognizes us.” I remind the crew of The Starlight, already seeing Kira staring at a woman’s silver necklace.

“But captain, Jack has already left the group” Daniel said, pointing behind us where you could just make out Jack’s skinny figure looking at some silks.

“Ugh, you guys keep going. I’m leaving Amy in charge. Make sure you stay on track. Meet you guys back at the Starlight in 30.” I say to the crew, “Make sure no one heads off again.” I whisper to Amy as I head off in the opposite direction towards Jack. I make it to Jack just before he steals a silk scarf. I grab Jack by the ear and tell the vendor that my “brother” had run off from mum and dad and to pay no attention to us. As we walk away I can feel the vendor still eyeing us suspiciously.

“What was that for?” I ask angrily to Jack as soon as we turn the corner.

“Well I was trying to get you a nice silk scarf sweetheart,” he said grinning. I roll my eyes in disgust… Jack still doesn’t get that I don’t like him. “Fine” I reply.

“Come on lets get to The Starlight before the rest of the crew does.” I say dragging him towards The Starlight. When we make it to The Starlight, a giant ship that has 6 sails and is made of cherry wood, I finally get to have some time alone to myself in my captain’s quarter. I think of what it would be like if I weren’t a pirate all my life and maybe if I were rich what type of person I’d be…Would I be wasting money on little things like jewelry or would I be engaged yet? Suddenly there’s a knock on the door. Sighing, I get up from my bed and go over to the door and see Jack standing outside it. Exasperated, I cross my arms.

“What Jack?” I say a little more harshly than I meant.

“Um, well captain, its been bout a hour and the rest of the crew isn’t even back yet.” he says looking nervous.

“Okay well then, lets hang around here and pull outta here and leave!” I say sarcastically. Jack apparently didn’t know I was joking and was about to leaving.

“NO! Don’t lift that anchor Jack we’re going to search for them!” I say pulling him away from the anchor and towards the dock.

“S-S-Sorry captain,” he stutters, not hiding his fear to well. We walk around the dock for 20 minutes, looking for Amy and the rest of the crew.

“Captain, I don’t think they’re at the dock,” Jack says as I roll my eyes and look at him. “Thanks for that, Captain Obvious.” “We should probably go to Oscars shop where they were supposed to be getting supplies.” I say, walking towards the town square. When we get to Oscars shop, all we can see are some weapons and tools but the crew is nowhere to be seen.

Stepping towards the counter I ask Oscar, “Oscar where are my friends? They were supposed to be here.”

“They were here Lilian, but then a bunch of Pirates came in and took them and your supplies,” he responded, cowering already knowing what I would do next.

“WHAT!?” I yelled, slamming my hands onto the counter as Oscar winced at the noise. “T-T-They said something about The Ruby, maybe that’s their ship,” Oscar stutters, just as Jack and I are about to storm out of his shop. As soon as we are out of his shop, I tell Jack to go look for the Ruby.

### **Chapter 2: The Deal (Lilian)**

Jack somehow finds it within two minutes

“Captain! It’s over here,” he says, pointing through an ally. As soon as I walk through the ally, I have the breath knocked out of me. The Ruby is a massive ship… it has at least 6 floors, 9 sails, and is 3 yards long and made off wood that sparkles in the sun.

“You ready to fight hard Jack?” I say, pretty sure I wasn’t hiding the waver in my voice as much as I wanted to. As soon as we step towards the gangplank, a 20 year old looking man holds a rifle towards us.

“Why are you here?” He questions us.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa… Hey there buddy. We’re just here for my crew. Mind if we take a look at your magnificent ship?” I respond, trying to play it cool so I could stall time and try not to get us both killed. He laughed for a long time. I was starting to get ticked off, when he finally stopped laughing and called out, “MACY GET THE CAPTAIN”. We waited 3 minutes until someone who was probably Macy called back, “TAKE THEM TO THE CAPTAINS ROOM”. The man signals for us to come up and then blindfolded us.

“You do know you don’t need to blindfold us right” I say, stumbling on a stair that he didn’t tell us about. Suddenly, someone took off the blindfold. Blinking, I had to get my eyes adjusted to the candle lit room. When my eyes finally adjusted, I saw that I was in a large room that had a king sized bed, desk, chair, bookcases, and maps laid out on a giant table, and a large fire place. “Whoa! This is so cool Jack,” I said

“I’m sorry but I’m afraid I don’t know who Jack is,” a male voice said from behind me. Frightened, I whirl around and as soon as I do, I see a boy who is a little bit older than me and who looks more like a military commander than a pirate.

“Oh great. Have you locked him up like you have the rest of my crew?” I say glaring at him. “What makes you think I’ve locked them up sweetheart?” He replied, his voice dripping with icy kindness.

“You know what, I shouldn’t be wasting my time here so me and my friends will happily leave your ship and go home,” I say heading towards the door.

“Hah, you’re the stupid one here if you really think I’ll let you leave without a fight” the boy said, drawing his sword and standing in my way.

“Well for your information, your welcome party took my weapons,” I said crossing my arms. “Ah, well they did, so now you and your crew are my prisoners, yeah” he said smiling. Now I was really getting desperate glancing at the table with the maps on it when I got an idea.

“Let’s have a contest” I propose. “The first person to get the star shard, gets to have the other one’s crew.”

“So your saying that if I win, I can keep you and your crew as prisoners?” He responds putting his sword back.

“Yes,” I say. “So you give me back my crew and we can have the contest,” I say slowly walking towards him.

“Fine,” he replies. “But you guys sail away and never come back. I will hunt you down and kill you guys.”

“Deal” I say, sticking out my hand.

“Deal” he replies, shaking it.

Opening the door he calls out “AARON! GET THE PRISONERS.” “ALL RIGHT CAPTAIN,” a voice calls back, who is probably Aaron. The boy leads me through a maze of hallways and up to the deck. At first, I can’t see anything because it’s too bright but then my eyes adjust and I see Amy and Jack and everybody else heading down the gangplank. Running, I catch up to them but I can feel the boys cold gaze on my back making every hair in my body raise.