Outer

cold wind began

cold wind began to blow the rolling waves into white crests. Leaden clouds covered the sky and began to send out silver lightning bolts down onto the surface of the ebony water.
“How—how can the weather change so fast here?” cried May, watching the churning black water with mounting anxiety.
“It’s the battle,” said Sheila. “The battle is causing it.”
“That’s not possible,” shouted May.
All the emotion was drained out of Sheila. “Sometimes May, I think you’re so busy figuring out what’s supposed to happen that you don’t actually see what does happen.”
The loud cannons of the two ships began firing on one another.
A thunderous crack rang out from the pirate ship as the towering main mast split in two, midway up. They watched the top half of the mast teeter back and forth in the wind then plummet down with a crash onto the deck.
There was a pitiful, tumultuous outcry of men’s voices from the Fortune.
“The captain’s dead,” said May.
Several minutes later, the pirates slipped a scarlet red figure over the side into the cruel black ocean.
The wind increased to a gale, and cold hard raindrops stung May’s face and hands. Clutching the side of the rowboat with one hand and the underside of the bench she was sitting on with the other, she clung to the small skiff as it was tossed around violently on the waves.
The rowboat suddenly rose high, hung in the air a moment and then dropped. May’s stomach jumped. The boat hit the surface of the water brick- hard, and the impact sent a shock of pain up May’s spine as she slammed against the solid wooden seat again.
The raging ocean left the tiny rowboat suspended on the edge of crests, oars uselessly clawing air. Carlisle