A/N: okay, this is a prologue to The Princess Bride. i wrote it for English class a while ago after reading the book. i thought it turned out pretty good, so... here it is! just follow along; you might not get it for a bit, but it all makes sense.

** The Princess Bride is copyright to William Goldman, not me. all subsequent characters and names from the book belong to him (though i did make Perkins up). **

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The man tilted his head up to sniff the air. He could almost tell just from smelling the air that there was a nearby ship just waiting to be boarded. He turned away from the rail, his cloak swishing behind him. After several weeks with no one else in sight on the sea, they would at last be able to raid. The man marched down the deck toward his cabin. A nearby mate nodded to him as he passed.

"Morning cap'n," the mate called to him, smiling.

"What is this? A man smiling and saying 'good morning' to me?!" the man cried, drawing up his pudgy body to a reasonable height. "Perkins!"

"Yes sir cap'n, sir," replied another man, coming around the corner.

"This man said 'good morning' and smiled at me! What do you say I should do?"

"I say make him walk the plank."

"Excellent suggestion," the original man replied, smiling evilly. At orders, two more men came out and shoved the offender towards a ready plank.

The mate was kept at sword point as he walked down the plank, forcing him forward. "Oh, and one more thing."

"Yes, cap'n sir?" the offender replied meekly.

"Why in this whole world of land and sea, did you smile at me?"

"Why I... I was just... what I mean to say is that... well, you see sir, cap'n sir, it was because... because... umm..."

Before the poor fellow could continue, the captain cried out, "Shove that poor excuse for an existence into the water Perkins!" Perkins hesitated a moment. "What are you waiting for, you fool?! I said shove him into the water!" Quickly following, there was a large splash. "Alright, what is wrong with you men?" cried the captain once the offender was gone forever in the deep dark sea. "You are trained to be ready to kill, ready to die at any instant! But you hesitate when it's a mate! You can't even do your jobs properly, I bet. And smiling! Never! Any other man on this ship who ever smiles at me will have a worse fate than this man," the man continued with a sweep of this hand. "Now then, get to what you should be doing! We will be raiding a ship shortly. Get!"

As the other men quickly got to their duties, the captain held Perkins back. "Perkins," he started, with a rough whisper, "you ever hesitate again to give a man what he deserves, and I will customize your death. Get it? Well then, get on with your duties; there's much to be done."

As Perkins hurried off with fear gripping his heart, he shuddered to think what would've happened if the captain if the captain had been in a bad mood that day. He might've hanged them all, just for one man smiling. After all, it wouldn't be hard to find a new crew these days; many would be eager to join him.

The captain watched the poor man flee, grinning wickedly at his own ferocity. No one could cross him and get away with it. No one dared cross the captain of Revenge. And if they did... there were grave consequences. For a moment, the captain wondered if he had done the right thing. For a moment, he wondered why he had to act so fierce; why he had to kill a man for a smile. For a moment, memories of prior days came to him. Memories of times when he would've thought the previous event was cold murder. For a moment, just a moment, he felt Felix Raymond Ryan surface.

And then, as quickly as the sensation had come, it was gone. Once again, he put on his cold mask. Execution put him in a good mood. He even started to whistle as he caught sight of the ship he had sensed earlier; it was called The Queen's Pride. Hey, his crew wasn't allowed to be happy, but he never outlawed it for himself. No, no one could tell him what to do. No one could order him around. Not him; he was the Dread Pirate Roberts.

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A/N: i hope that made sense! i made a lot of references, so if you know the book, you'll know what i'm talking about! ^-^ i had to write a prologue and i thought this would be a good way to write it, and a good person to write it about! please review and tell me what you think!