“Angela, our ship,” Fenna says, producing a large weapon from seemingly nowhere. “I still got a couple of bullets in my rifle.”

“Isn’t it against some unspoken rule not to fire on an anchored ship or something?” I say, watching a gaping hole get blown into the side of the hull.

The perpetrator’s sloop is of similar design to mine, this one with a dark red sail. It came upon us from the other side of the island, its approach covered by the trees so we wouldn’t notice, then crept around slowly to line up a shot.

“Also, my name’s not Angela.”

“Yes, it is. It says it right there on your tooltip. Cap’n Angela Connolly.” She points above my head. “Now that I’m on your crew, I can see more info about you.”

Seriously?

The cannon belches again, a sound followed by a splintering crash.

“I need higher ground to get a shot—nobody at the wheel, just the one on the cannon from what I can see. Solo act, I bet,” Fenna says.

She races for a nearby hill. As for me, with a pistol and a cutlass, I’ll need to get closer. The hole in my hull isn’t below the waterline, so my ship isn’t sinking yet, but I don’t have long before they tear my brand new boat to shreds.

Gauging the general speed and direction of the attacker, I realize I can intercept their vessel on its path across the banana cove. And with the shooter manning the cannon and fixated on my ship, they probably won’t notice me swimming out to them. Hopefully, this swim will go better than the last time.

I sprint down the beach, feet plodding hard in the shifting sand. The crackle of a long-gun shot erupts from the hills behind me. I see fragments fly from the railing near the enemy cannon and a figure duck down behind it, taking cover. The next cannon shot misses my ship completely.

Excellent work, Fenna. Keep that up.

I get to the end of the beach—the tip of the banana, so to speak—and wade into the water. This time my pants don’t feel quite as heavy, nor the water quite as cold.

This asshat is about to complete his pass, and then wham, he dips a cannonball across the bow of my ship just at the waterline. Into the hole it forms, I see water absolutely gushing into my boat.

You bastard. I’ll get you for that.

I’m out in the water pretty far from shore, and the enemy ship is getting close now. A few more shots from Fenna keep its operator hunched behind the cannon and away from the edge where he might see me.

I swim to line up with the side ladder and grab on when the ship moves close enough. We’re now past the cove, and I can hear footsteps moving back toward the wheel, probably to turn the boat for another attack run.

Once the movement is passed, I pull myself aboard as quietly as I can, and for the first time, get a good look at my assailant.

She is a pear-shaped gal who is missing a few teeth and an eye as well, judging by the patch. She untethers her wheel and spins it rapidly, pulling her ship into a complete turn. Then, she’s going back for more.

I give her the look and discover she’s a level 1 pirate skirmisher.

The layout of the ship is almost exactly similar to mine. She has high ground on me at the helm, so I creep right underneath her into the captain’s room. She, too, has a map, armory cabinet, and living quarters further below.

I hide in there behind the map table, waiting for her to come back down on the main deck where the cannons are.

Your Stealth ability has improved to novice level!

Sure enough, soon, she comes racing down. Her cannon on this side of the ship is already loaded, and she fires off a quick shot before I can reach her. But as she does, I stick her right in the back with my saber.

Achievement: From Behind! Make an attack with a melee weapon from stealth.

You coward.

Reward: Bonus Exp

It’s a brutal blow, but it doesn’t one-shot her the way I was expecting. She screeches in pain and spins around to glare at me. I see a frantic look in her eyes.

When she draws her pistol and fires it at me point blank, I twist to the side. The shot goes hard into my upper arm, sending excruciating bolts of pain through my whole body.

My health bar drops by more than half, and my hand spasms open. The cutlass clatters to the ground.

She repositions her pistol barrel in line with my face, ready to fire again. I bolt back to the only safe place I can think of—her captain’s room. Running past the map table, I clamor down the stairs in her hull, drawing my pistol with my off-hand.

I’m not confident I can shoot accurately left-handed.

I spot a chest in the corner—my first loot.

Okay, Milton, try not to get distracted. Treasure isn’t any good when you’re dead.

Next to the chest is a small red barrel with crossbones painted on the outside. My mind’s eye tells me it’s a gunpowder barrel.

Footsteps creak on the floorboards in the captain’s room. I switch gun hands momentarily, grab the lantern from its hook, and chuck it at the barrel.

If I’m going down, I’m taking her with me.

Then I put my back up against the wall just next to the stairs as my enemy comes thundering in.

She sees me and the fire all around the barrel at about the same time, and it causes a moment of hesitation. I move at her, firing off a terrible left-handed shot with my pistol, and push past her up the stairs. I have no idea how long that barrel will hold out covered in flames like that, but not long, I suppose.

As I dive overboard, not looking back, I hear the thunder of the explosion. Crashing into the water, I watch as ship debris pelts the water just overhead, sinking around me with trails of bubbles like an underwater fireworks show.

Achievement: You Sunk! Sink a ship.

Way to ruin someone else’s day.

Reward: Victory is its own reward.

Achievement: In Cold Blood! Slay an enemy player.

Now you’re getting the hang of things around here.

Reward: Bonus Exp

Your Pirate Reputation has improved!

I can feel the wound in my arm slowing me as I swim back to shore once again. I have a feeling there’s going to be a lot of swimming in my life here, a lot of getting wet and drying off. I’m not sure whether that’s a good thing.

Fenna is waiting for me on the beach.

“Nice PVP moves, cap’n. I couldn’t hit the shot from here, but you sure showed them.”

“PVP—what? Wait, that wasn’t an NPC? That was a person?” I look around, aghast. “But she was so reckless, just attacking a random ship for no reason.”

“Probably wanted your treasure.”

“But I don’t have any treasure.” My ship now lists sideways in the water from a gaping cannonball hole in its side. It definitely does not look like the ship of a successful pirate who has acquired treasure.

“How was she supposed to know that? And even if not, your ship looked like an easy target. You have no reputation. No upgrades of any kind on your ship. Nobody on lookout. Free money.”

“So you’re saying if I had a reputation, she would have given a second thought to attacking?”

“Hell yeah, she would.”

We watch my ship sink slowly into the oceany abyss (or about twenty feet deep, same difference). It’s like watching the sunset on a first date, slow, melancholy. Such a vision pulls at the heart.

“Well, so much for that. I guess we’re both stuck here now,” I say. “If I die first, and you feel like you need to eat me to survive, I guess I’m okay with that. But I’m not gonna eat you. Just FYI.”

“Angela, you don’t know how ship respawns work yet, do you?” Fenna smiled at me as if I were a little kid. “We’re all noobs at some point.”

“You’re the same level as me. Aren’t you new as well? How do you know all this?”

“Well, I was crew to a level 5 cap’n before this. See, if you lose your ship, one of the ways to bring it back is by spending levels. If you get killed, same thing. But the price is high. Two levels for a sloop, and two levels for your life. I watched her bring our ship back after she respawned.”

“So, your captain died?”

“She went down with the ship, as a good captain should. We were working together. Almost had her righted. I was seconds away from stopping the water.”

“Oh god. You drowned too then, right next to your captain? And you were conscious for it. You remember what that feels like?” Memories of getting torn to pieces by superheated and super-spiced pumpkin metal shrapnel flood into my mind.

“And you came back too?”

“Yea. Cost my levels as well. Cap'n brought me back.”

“Okay, so if a captain loses their ship at level 1, they don’t have levels to spare. And if any of us die at level 1 or 2…”

“Then we’re all the way dead.”

I’m a murderer, but here, with what was going on, it doesn’t feel that way. It was kill or be killed. I did what I had to do.

“So, how do we get levels? Apart from the obvious. Like, how do we get levels when we’re stranded on a tiny island.”

“You get exp from quests, achievements—all sorts of ways. But I’m afraid there’s not much left to do on this island. Nothing to fight.” She shrugs. “You probably have a bunch of achievements potentially, but not two levels worth.”

“Shit.” I kick a piece of driftwood, launching it into the waves.

“But there’s another way to respawn a ship, cap’n. You need to fill your Salvage Meter first. The best way to do that is by defeating other ships and salvaging their materials.”

“So you mean I can get my ship back?”

“Yeah, I think I can teach you how. But you’ll have to swim back out there in the water again.”