THE GIFTED
“Where there is a sea, there are pirates…” - Ancient Greek proverb
Captain’s Log, 2nd June 1818
We were somewhere off the coast of Cornwall, no more than an hour into our patrol, when it happened.
A volley of cannon fire that lit up the night sky and ripped two fresh holes through the railings on our top deck, launched from a sloop we never saw coming.
Pirates.
A crew of a few dozen or so marauders, hell-bent on claiming one of His Majesty’s ships as their own.
Within moments, they were calling for our immediate surrender and shouting that we should prepare to be boarded.
We did not yield.
Instead, I gave the order to draw arms, and we prepared to stand our ground.
When the pirates saw us maneuvering into a battle formation, they were infuriated, and swiftly manned their cannons for a second strike, determined to thin our numbers.
It was then one of my men stepped forward.
Despite my insistence that he should take cover, he made his way towards one of the fresh gaps in the railings, and stood directly in the path of the sloop’s cannons.
Had I not seen what happened next with my own eyes, I would not have believed it.
We heard the cannons fire.
We saw the flash of orange light that illuminated our concerned faces.
But the cannonballs never made contact with our ship.
As soon as they left their barrels, my crewman raised both his hands out in front of him, and at his command, the cannonballs froze.
They froze in midair.
And they stayed there, hovering above the water between our two vessels for just a moment, before they rapidly plummeted out of the sky, and disappeared with a loud splash.
All the jeering and laughing about our imminent demise that had been emanating from the sloop’s direction suddenly fell silent, and the face of every pirate on board turned ashen.
With a gesture from my crewman’s hands, their sloop began to rise out of the water, before it was immediately hurled through the air, towards the rocks of a nearby cove.
It was my first encounter with one of The Gifted.
But in my official report, I will say we came across the wreckage of a small sloop during our patrol, that likely ran into difficulty trying to sail in one of the heavy storms that have been plaguing us for weeks.
There were no survivors...
This story was inspired by a Prompt from Leanne Shawler, which you can find out more about here…
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The Gifted! Now that's a story.
This was fun!