The snap of the sails filling with wind, resounds through my ears.  As I look up from my map, I feel the cool, salty breeze blowing through my face. The sun, a large unblinking eye looks down on my crew, and my ship, Graecus, as we sail the seas in search of a destination that no one has seen for 20 odd years, causing it to fade to little more than legend and folklore.  The crew never seemed to worry, but I heard rumors.  Some crew members thought that I was an old crackpot.  They were wrong.
Suddenly, the voice of my first mate jars me out of my thoughts.  “Cap’n, where we headed to now?”
“The place we are headed to is known only as the Advent.  I managed to recover an old map that should lead us there.” I said.  I pointed to an island on the map.  “There is the Advent, a small island that has never been explored.  Every explorer vanishes.  We will be the first to explore it and live to tell the tale, Sol.”
“But Captain, how long until we should reach the Advent?”
“We should reach the Advent at about noon tomorrow, assuming that we don’t encounter any unexpected circumstances.”  I should’ve known from the look Sol gave me that I’d made a mistake.  The sailors believe in jinxes, or cursing yourself by saying something will or won’t happen, then it happening or not.  Sol thought that we would meet an unforeseen circumstance.  I now know he was right.
I woke up with the dawn, getting dressed and striding out of my cabin, the deck rolling beneath my feet.  To fresh sailors, the rolling was unfamiliar, an alien experience.  I have been sailing for 10 years, since I was 15.  The rolling has become soothing, like a mother rocking a cradle.
As I climb the steps up to the main deck, I hear the boys talking to each other, quietly, so as not to wake thee others.  I walk out into the sunlight, blinding after the darkness of below decks.  Unlike most captains, I sleep below decks, albeit in a separate room than the crew.  As the sun bathed the deck in a pink glow, I took in the scene.  All of these men were tired, but they tried no to show it.  They were mindlessly cleaning the cannons, or talking in a desperate attempt to stay up.
“Alright lads, that’s enough.”  I say, trying to show compassion, while still keeping an authoritative tone in my voice.  “No need to work yourself to death.  That’s my job.  Now get below decks, you’ve earned some sleep.”
After the night crew were sleeping, up came the morning crew.  I appointed one to keep the ship steady as I helped the crew on deck.  I took note of the cannons, and how they were.  All 48 were right in order.  After confirming that, I relieved the helmsman and took the wheel myself.  It was about midmorning when I heard Sol.
“Cap’n! There’s a ship coming up on us from the rear.  She’s still a ways away, but she looks like she’s bearing straight for us.” he said.  I could see he was hoping for it to become a fight.
“Thanks, Sol, but we aren’t here to cause any trouble.  Be cautious, but don’t make it obvious.”
As Sol walked off, I myself looked behind me.  The ship in question was rather large, even for a frigate.  She had 10 sails, all down and filled with wind.  I think Sol might have been right.  The ships course was angled a slight bit ahead of us, but it would hit us.  Thinking nothing off it, I focused on my ship.
“Loose all sails!  Let’s get some speed!”  I hollered, trying to get the ship moving, to get away from the frigate.  Unfortunately, the frigate kept pace with us.  I could read the name painted on the bow in fanciful script, Fuego Pájaro.  I swallowed hard.  Fuego Pájaro meant Firebird.  The Firebird was the most feared ship in all the land, if not the world.  It was a thing of legend, and now the most dangerous ship in possibly the entire world was heading straight for us.  I was hesitating on what to do, but a plan suddenly sprung to mind.
“Sol, wake all the men from belowdecks.  Tell them it’s an emergency and to ready the cannons on the port side.”
“Captain,” Sol said nervously “You don’t plan to attack the Fuego Pájaro, do you?”
“Sol, we aren’t going to be able to outrun her.  I have a plan.  If we don’t try, we’ll get torn to shreds by her chase cannons.  Now will you obey my orders or I’ll put you in the cannon and fire you.  Is that understood?” I said, growling.  I didn’t want to fight Sol, but I would if I had too.
“Aye Captain.  I trust ya.  We’ve been through hell before, and you’ve always pulled us through.  What’s your plan?”
“Sol, go down to my cabin.  Get dressed in my clothes.  Have the men bring some spare barrels up from below.  We can’t take her by force, so we’ll have to use trickery.”
“Alright.” said Sol, clearly not completely understanding the plan, but who would?  I hadn’t given him enough information.
Once Sol had dressed like me, and I like any normal crewhand, the plan was set.  I was loaded into a barrel, fully equipped with both swords and pistols, along with four other crewmembers.  We were tossed overboard, making the enemy think we were trying to gain speed.  As we drifted, I saw we were behind the Fuego Pájaro.  I pried the lid off my barrel and slipped into the water.  I tapped the other barrels to let the crew know it was safe to come out.  One by one, they slipped into the water, following my lead.  The ship was fancy, and was thus covered with raised designs.  I grabbed onto a raised edge and pulled, starting the long climb to the lowest row of cannon holes.  It was slow going.  Each handhold and foothold needed to be picked carefully, so we didn’t fall.  One crew member’s foot suddenly slipped, and he was left hanging by only his hands.  He managed to find a foothold and started climbing again.  When we reached the row of cannons, I wasn’t surprised to see that the cannon weren’t even readied.  They expected to just ram us and sink us, but it’d take a lot more than that to sink the Graecus.  As we hauled ourselves in, the deck was completely bare.  We heard laughter and cheers accompanied by talking from above us.  Most likely the men decided to drink some rum and laugh at our attempts to flee.
The whisper of steel sliding against leather met my ears.  I pulled out my two swords as quick as I could and turned around to face the assailant.  Clearly, this one had done something wrong, so he got stuck manning the gun deck, alone.  The other men turned around, surprised to see him.  He was not an impressive specimen, with a scraggly beard and long, unkempt hair.  As he opened his mouth to shout for help, my sword nestled itself in his stomach, while the other one pierced his heart.  He crumpled to the deck soundlessly.  We put the body behind a couple barrels of gunpowder, hoping he wouldn’t be discovered.
“Come one.” I whispered, breaking the silence.  We crept along the ship’s decks, making our way to the stern, until we found the rudder chain.  It was actually two ropes, but the name was still there.  “Now, cut the ropes.  And be quick about it.” I shouted as quietly as I could.  All men drew their swords and began sawing away at the ropes.  Once the first one snapped, the crew moved on to the second one, and made short work of it.
“The signal.” I said.  We moved back to the cannons, moved one out, loaded it, primed it, and lit it.  Even with hands over my ears, the boom of the cannon was nearly deafening.  We climbed down the side of the ship, getting a free ride and just hanging on for dear life.  As I looked up, I see Sol got my signal.  The sails were being taken down, and the grappling hooks were being thrown.  As our ship turned to show the Fuego Pájaro our port side, we started pulling her in.  As the Fuego Pájaro hit my ship, I could hear the splintering wood.  I grabbed the lip of one of my cannons and hauled myself up.  The rest of the crew followed suit.
“Sol!” I shouted, as the feeling of being captain again spread through me. “Are the cannons ready?”
“Yes sir.  Good to have you back sir!”
I turned my attention to the crew, who were just staring at me.  “Well don’t just stand there like a barrel of wet fish!  Open fire!”  The sound of 24 cannons firing spheres of fiery death filled my heart with joy.  A better sound followed, the sound of 24 said spheres ripping through wood, flesh, and steel.  Suddenly, and explosion ripped through the stern.  I smiled, guessing they got the gift I had left.  I had stacked a couple barrels of gunpowder down next to the cut rudder chains.  I jerry-rigged a lighting device that would light a trail of gunpowder leading to the barrel as soon as someone opened the door.
“Cease fire!” I yelled, checking all of my pistols to make sure they were loaded and ready.  “Stow the guns!  Prepare to board!”  I grabbed a rope and swung over to the ship.  The following time passed in a blur.  I fought like a devil.  I used my blades so much they felt like they were just an extension of my body, twirling, blocking, stabbing, and slicing.  I had already shot all of my pistols, so I just picked more up off of dead bodies, fired them, and threw them away.  The battle I do remember is the battle with the captain of the Fuego Pájaro, Johnathan Redfield, or Bloody John.  He was a mountain of a man, wielding the deadliest weapon I had ever seen.  It was an axe, with a sharp dagger blade attached opposite to it.  Bloody John had gotten his name because he had been a pirate and had taken more ships then you could count.  He eventually got tired of raiding only government ships and attacked everyone, including pirates.
“Captain Thane.” he said.  “Time to die.”  With that he swung his axe down in a massive two-handed strike.  I barely jumped out of the way and stabbed at him, but it hardly left a scratch.  He kept swinging the axe as if it was a regular sword.  I kept backing up, not daring to block.  I stumbled and fell backward and landed hard on the deck.
“Well, I guess this is it Thane.  See you in hell.” With that, Bloody John rose his axe above his head, ready to cut me in half, when a bullet hit him in the back.
“What?”  he whipped around.  It takes a lot more to kill John, but I took advantage of the distraction.  I grabbed my swords and stabbed them both through his back, and heard the bark of two more pistols firing.  John turned back to look at me, and his face was a mask.  He breathed his last shuddering breath, and then died.
“See you in hell, John.” I said, pulling my swords out of him.  I look up and saw a sight that made me look twice.  Sol, standing there, two smoking pistols in his hand and a third at his feet.  He had saved my life.  “Thanks Sol.”
“No problem Captain.  Let’s get back to sailing.”  As we got back onto the Graecus, Sol said “Captain, I’ll guide the ship.  Go to bed.”  I wanted to fight him, but he was right.  As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out.
“Captain! Wake up! You better come see this!”  I threw on some clothes, grabbed my weapons and burst up on deck.  I was temporarily blinded by the bright sunlight, but when I could see, I thought I was dreaming.  I was looking at a regular looking island, but on it was a dense jungle.  In the center of the island was a massive stone temple, whose top could barely be seen above the tree line.
“Sol.” I said, trying to keep my voice level.  “I think we’ve reached the Advent.”