Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 3 | Page 122

New Tales of the Ming Treasure Voyages
Island School, Pollard, Kale'a - 12
Pulling my hair into a bandana, I climbed up the crows nest to sit and watch. We were awaiting the arrival
of the leading Chinese admiralty ship, lead by Ma He, or as I used to know him, but now everyone knows
him as Zheng. He had trained me in Yunnan before he left to join the admiralty. I spotted a Chinese ship
off towards the west. It was huge! Our ship looked like an ant compared to it but we knew that only a few
were going to be aboard, so we had found our bait,
"Bingo! Off towards the west! I say we capture them, steal as much as we can carry, then let them free!" I
called down to the other pirates aboard our ship. Captain Jack called back up,
"Rob them, yes, but let them free why? I don't think so! All hands on deck!" I swung down landing on my
hands and knees. I pulled out my guns, checked that they were loaded and quickly sharpened my cutlass on
the cannon while my friend Connor loaded it.
"Ready!"
Our ship swooped in to face the larger Chinese admiralty ship that we had been preparing to fight for
weeks. They leaped aboard our ship guns blazing. I felt gruff hands grab me from my hiding spot behind a
cannon. I turned to look at a Chinese man dressed in an admiralty uniform. I fought to get out of his grasp,
slicing at him with my cutlass till he let me go. I pulled a loaded pistol out of my belt and pointed at his
head but then I stopped dead as I watched another soldier pull a gun's trigger it's bullet pointing straight at
Connor. it felt like I watched it in slow motion, I ran in front of him right before the bullet was gonna hit
his surprised face. I felt a fiery pain in under my left rib, even though the bullet only grazed me, I fell to the
ground writhing in pain.
"Lillian, you crazy girl!" Connor caught me as I fell, I managed a smile back up at him.
"At least, you are okay" I whispered.
I heard footsteps behind me, I stood up to see a man towering over me, he had a band over his armour, he
must the leader Zheng, I recognized his face but his eyes had changed from being a soft grey to a cold stone.
He spoke something in Chinese, I gritted my teeth hiding the pain and stood up to face my captor with a
gun pointed at his face, who looked at me smugly,
"Little Girl wants to fight?" He waited and turned away but I spoke up
"Yes, I do!"
I shoot the rigging on his ship with the gun, the sail came falling down on his warriors trapping them
underneath, with the distraction my other friend Jaxon and also Connor stood next to me on either side
ready to fight. Zheng looked at me with fear but also wonder.
"You, you are the Lillian Jacks, you're the one the emperor wants!" He looked at me like he wanted to
murder me, my old friend had changed.
I answered in a shallow tone, "Yes I am Lillian Jacks, the best lady with a gun. You won't hit a girl, will
you? However, I will smack you upside the head if I wanted to, now buzz off and if you sink another pirate
ship, I will hunt you down!" I moved closer as I spoke and drawn my cutlass holding it up to his neck, he
tried to get up, but fell into Jaxon and Connor's hold as I the jumped onto his ship with Captain Jack and
we took enough treasure to last a lifetime, once I was done, I grabbed him by the wrists and pulled him
across the plank in between our ships, grabbed a rope and swung off his ship landing on ours and facing him
with a deadly stare. I felt like I was putting on a show but I don't want to hurt him.
"Goodbye, Imperial Zheng and friends I am sure you will have a tale to tell your Emperor, happy sailing!"
He quickly ran to ropes ready to sail away but they had fallen,