Chapter 1
Many men and many women have asked me to retell the glorious story of the Pirate wars. I was one of many parts, and I can only tell a fraction of the tale, but I will do the best I can to explain what I saw and did. It all started when I was the cabin boy of the infamous pirate ship called The Thunderbird. I was the adopted son of the Captain, William Crismon. My father made a name for himself as a pirate and became arguably the most feared man of his time. I had spent most of my life on his ship, and he had even given me my own raft to sail with his massive fleet. But when I was nearing the age of seventeen, he told me that it was, according to him, ‘time to become my own man’. My involvement in the war started soon after that when I was in Jack Town. A place for pirates to run from the law, Jack Town was notorious amongst the outlaws for being welcoming and yet dangerous. I figured that I’d be able to join a crew and ‘become my own man’. I soon found a group of sailors hiring for a crew. When I asked them about their ship, they showed me the biggest boat that I’ll ever see. It was called The Incinerator and was a major player in the Dark Pirate’s alliance, feared around the seas for its ferocity in battle. I was hesitant to sign up because I wasn’t a Dark Pirate, but I didn’t see what other choice I had. Looking back on it, I wouldn’t have picked up the pen if I had a fraction of an idea of what I was getting myself into by signing that paper.
As soon as The Incinerator left Jack Town, the Captain came out to greet the new sailors. His name, known and feared by many, was Captain Jack Flame. As soon as he stepped out of his quarters, I knew that he was a man to be feared. He had a black overcoat and jet-black hair. Atop his head was a three-cornered hat with a silver ‘x’ mark on the crest. The silver x was the flag symbol of The Incinerator, known as ‘Lucifer’s cross’, a symbol that shined with terror. Captain Flame walked up to the mast, where I and the other new men stood.
“Gentlemen,” said the Captain. “The Incinerator is not an easy boat to be on. You will be faced with many battles and hardships, but in the end, she will give you fame, money, and best of all, glory.” He stepped forwards, grinning, to one of the men. “What is your name?”
The man mumbled, “John Stone.” The Captain nodded.
“And why did you join our crew?”
“Gold,” said John Stone. Captain Flame laughed. He went on like this for the rest of the men, and finally, he got to me.
“What is your name?” I didn’t want to tell him my name, so I lied.
“My name is James Renora.” The rest of the crew seemed to believe me, but Flame frowned.
He stayed silent for a few seconds but then yelled, “Get to work!” The other men were surprised because he had acted nice when greeting them, but I was expecting it. After all, not many Dark Pirates were nice people. I picked up a mop and began to swab the decks, but I was soon pulled over by one of the other crew sailors.
“The Captain wants to talk to you,” he said. I felt a lump in my stomach. Flame knew something was wrong. I trudged over to the Captain’s quarters and opened the door. He was sitting in an armchair, studying a map.
“You called for me?” Flame looked up and folded his map, which he threw aside onto a table.
“Yes,” he said.
“What’s that?” I asked, gesturing towards the map.
“I’ll ask the questions,” Flame said menacingly. I muttered a ‘sorry’ and walked towards his armchair.
“You say your name is James Renora?” I nodded. “Only four people on the face of this earth know who Renora is,” he said.
“William Crismon, Norton Mokk, Jack Flame, and George Dialga.” I murmured the names; I knew the story by heart. For a second, I thought I saw Flame’s eyes widen.
“George Dialga is dead,” he said. “No, boy, the fourth one is you.” Flame paused and put a hand on his knee. “Who are you? Christopher Mokk?” He slammed his fist down on the armchair.
“I’m not Christopher Mokk,” I said. “I’m William Crismon the second.” Flame started in shock.
“He had a- a son?” I nodded. Flame looked down and scratched his beard. “Very interesting. You may go now,” he said. I started to walk out of the door when I ran into the quartermaster. He ignored me and instead hurried into Flame’s quarters.
“Captain! There’s a naval ship approaching!”
“Prepare to board!” Yelled Flame as the naval ship, The Howler, approached. I lined up and got my cutlass out. I had never been in a real battle before, but I knew how to sword fight. We waited while The Howler got closer and closer.
“Now!” As soon as the order was given, we jumped over onto the ship. Instantly I was met with an unexpected rush of excitement and fear. The deck was packed with sailors and pirates swinging swords and shooting pistols. I realized that there were already pirates on the ship that had boarded from the other side.
“Let no man live!” Ordered the quartermaster. It became clear that the other pirates were Light Pirates, so I shifted focus to them.
“Halt right there, pirate!” I turned to face a naval officer. We began dueling, but he had the upper hand and soon had me in handcuffs. I was brought down to the brig where I could hear the battle continue and hope that Flame’s crew won. More and more prisoners were brought down, both light pirates and men from The Incinerator. But one young man, a light pirate, managed to kill the soldier who had taken him captive. The young man had started walking up the steps and back to the battle. I knew that I needed to do something, so I called out to him.
“Hey, kid! You go up there alone, you get killed immediately. Go up there with a guy like me, and you come out of this with not only your life but also gold and riches.” He turned to face me.
“Who are you?” He asked.
“A guy who wants to help you and get himself out of prison.” The young man hesitantly took the keys from the dead soldier’s belt and opened up my cell. I smiled. Such an innocent boy. I picked up a lead pipe.
“Thanks, kid, I owe you one.” Then I knocked the boy out and charged back upstairs and into the battle.
After the battle, I got used to life on The Incinerator. I memorized the complicated hallways and learned to expect strange things, like finding skeletons lying around from The Incinerator’s many battles. I was admiring a painting of one of the previous Captains when I heard a gravelly voice call out my name.
“Crismon!” I was surprised; I had gotten accustomed to being called James Renora. Captain Flame stepped out of a doorway.
“There you are. I need you to do me a big favor.” I looked up.
“What is it?” Flame put a hand on my shoulder.
“Do you know who Will Harbor is?” He asked. My father had told me that he and Will Harbor had pirated together when they were young and that he was the leader of the Light Pirate alliance, but I didn’t know much else about him.
“Yeah, I’ve heard of him,” I said.
“I need you to find him. You’ll go in a raft, and when you find him, use this to contact me.” The Captain handed me a gold medallion. “It’s a one-way communication system. Just throw it into the ocean and we’ll find it. Then, we’ll come to help you.”
“I see,” I said. My father’s fleet had used similarly cursed medallions for communication in his fleet.
“Why do you treat me like this?” I asked.
“Come again?” The Captain said.
“You act harshly to all of the other crew members, but you act nicely to me,” I said. Flame laughed.
“Because you’re important.” And with that, he walked back out. The next day, the quartermaster led me to the raft that I would use, and I set off on my journey.
I was used to life on a raft from my home with Crismon’s fleet, but I had never truly experienced the feeling of being alone in the middle of the ocean. I enjoyed it; I had time to think. Ever since I joined The Incinerator’s crew, there was a sinking feeling in my stomach. I knew that I wasn’t supposed to be a dark pirate. My father, although neutral in the pirate wars, always wanted me to be a light pirate. I kept telling myself that it was only temporary and that I would soon become a light pirate. But on the raft, I realized that Captain Flame wasn’t going to let me leave. The more that I thought about it, I had never heard any other of the crew members even speak of leaving. I didn’t get very much time to think, because I soon ran into a small schooner that looked like a merchant ship. As I approached, I raised the Jolly Roger to ward them away, but to my surprise, they only sailed faster toward me. As the schooner sidled up beside my raft, I could see that the crew were dressed not in the traditional blue striped shirts that sailing merchants wear but instead in a light green outfit that I had never seen before. They all carried weapons, but they weren’t soldiers because they didn’t have any rank indication or any sort of order.
“Pirates,” I whispered. Their Captain stepped up to the side of the schooner.
“I am Mary Tanager. You are part of Flame’s crew,” she said, gesturing to my flag.
“What are you doing here?”
“I need to find Will Harbor,” I said. The Captain frowned.
“Who are you?” She asked.
“I am Captain William Crismon the second,” I said. The Captain and her crew grew startled looks on their faces.
“Will Harbor is in the burning triangle,” she said quickly and then clapped her hands. The crew got to work and they set sail away as fast as they could. Although I was confused, I still had a job to do. The burning triangle was a massive expanse of water that the dark pirates called their ‘territory’. It was known for the mysterious disappearance of ships that attempted to enter, their fates in the hands of the dark pirates. I could enter, for I was technically a dark pirate, but what Captain Harbor wanted there I could not guess.
By the next morning, I was in the burning triangle. Each corner of the triangle was marked by a burning shipwreck, enchanted forever to stay afloat and aflame. It wasn’t long before I found Captain Harbor’s ship, The Crossfire. It wasn’t really a big ship at all, just a commandeered fishing sloop, but I remembered what my father told me: Small ships are harder to hit. I wasn’t flying Flame’s colors and instead put my father’s flag on my small mast. Although it was dark, the watchman of The Crossfire soon spotted me. I raised a white flag, and they allowed me onto their ship. I had heard of Will Harbor before, but what I saw as I climbed onto the deck was far from what I was expecting. He was just a normal man, and on any other ship, he would look like a crewman. He had slick brown hair and a ragged sailor’s coat, which looked almost older than he was. The stories of the ‘brave and valiant leader of the Light Pirates’ did him far too much justice. Standing beside him were two boys, each about eighteen years old, one of whom I recognized as the boy that I knocked out in the brig of The Howler. The boy leaped forward with his fist raised.
“Who are you? Why are you always intruding on us?” I was thinking fast: What do I tell them? The truth?
“I am William Crismon the Second.” There was a chorus of gasps.
“He had a son?” Asked Captain Harbor with narrowed eyes.
“Yes,” I said, putting on a sad face. I needed to play right into their hands. “I was separated from my father and his fleet. I was a normal pirate for many years. But then, I was forced to be part of Flame’s crew-” There were a few more gasps. “But I escaped, and I need to stay here for a while.”
They let me stay, and that night I threw the medallion into the water. For the next few days, I was just another crewman. The others respected me and were truly interested. Sometimes I felt like I was an animal in a cage at a festival, other times I felt like I was a royal man. But I didn’t care either way; The Incinerator was close.
One day, I was talking to Will in his quarters. “Will, I have something to confess,” I said with a fake uncomfortable tone.
“What’s that?” Asked Will. I could tell that he was worried, so I stared at him with an even more worrying look.
“I never left Flame’s crew.” Will was confused. “You see, I was just sent on a mission. I was told to find a man named Will Harbor. When I found him, I was supposed to contact Flame. Then, he would sail over to you,” said Crismon.
“Then- then I’ll just kill you,” said Will, shaking his head in disbelief. I could see a mix of disappointment and fear in his eyes.
“It’s too late.” I grinned. Will looked towards the window. Now only fear was in his eyes. Lucifer’s Cross flew high above the fog, and the x gleamed in rays down upon The Crossfire. Will got up and ran outside, screaming to alert the crew. I opened the back window and climbed onto my raft, which had been floating behind, and untied the rope.
Aboard Will’s ship, the men were getting ready for the battle that would turn the tide of the war.
