lost and found

Prologue

A mischievous grin settled on her youthful face as she waited patiently underneath the wooden desk set inside the Captain's Quarters. A careless, but unnoticeable, trail of thick liquid dribbled from the hard seat posted in front of the little girl, continuing across the floorboards and leading, eventually, up to her.

In one of her small, delicate hands she clutched a ceramic pot that was left half empty; the other half tipped out over the furniture. She suddenly jumped as the door to the cabin swung open with an alarming force. Flattening herself up against the under wood of the desk she covered her mouth with her free hand, muffling the giggles that were about to burst from her.

"We'll sail for the islands straight away," a large resonating voice boomed from the front figure that led another from the doorway. "Ithania's sure to follow, but we'll cope. His weaponry will never match ours." Risa, the little girl, was absolutely dying with suppressed laughter. Her shoulders quivered further as the Captain's shiny, black boots came to a halt in front of the glue-covered chair. He obviously hadn't noticed the mess yet.

"Of course," another man replied calmly and Risa's laughter stopped abruptly. It was her father. Almost immediately, the eight-year old girl, wished that she hadn't have been so foolish as to attempt a prank of this sort when her father was around—she'd be in so much trouble. But when the Captain voiced his agreement and promptly sat down in his chair, her worries broke free and she tumbled from her stiffened poise, rolling around at the base of the Captain's feet quaking with uncontrolled laughter.

"What in the Eight Hells—" the Captain began as he felt something ooze from beneath his—uh—behind. Instantly he tried to stand up but was fastened to the chair by the cement-like glue that Risa had used. Groans of impatience emitted from the Captain who stared incredulously down at the girl, scolding her, "Risa!"

She scrambled from out of his reach, her face a cherry red as she continued to laugh at the misfortune of her Captain. He looked exasperatedly up at his Right Man, Risa's father, and using his eyes ordered him to do something.

However Risa was too quick for her father who had turned immediately to her, launching himself towards her small frame, and she had skidded towards the door.

"Risa!" Her father called out, his voice twitching with annoyance. She grinned and scrambled to stay up right as she ran along the slippery deck. The crew on board all stood in their ordered positions, pausing from their tiring work. The youngest man rolled his eyes and lifted the dripping mop from the bucket, shaking it mock furiously after her.

"We just cleaned the deck, Risa!" The girl only smiled and kept running, glancing apologetically at the crew members who waved her off and went back to their work; scrubbing the deck. She fearlessly ran past the centred mask and flung open another wooden door that stood boldly in her way. Continuing, she sprinted down the hallway, almost slipping from getting the soles of her slippers wet when running across the wet boards.

Risa's skirts swirled around her legs, catching between her knees as she bolted inside her room, almost causing her to stumble. Hastily she locked the door and jumped onto her bed waiting in anticipation for the Captain to reach her. Exhilaration rushed through her veins and her animated face reflected joy at the speed of the chase, her chest heaving heavily.

Another couple of minutes passed by and Risa was getting impatient. Where was the Captain already? She flung herself across her bed, draping her arms and legs over the sides. Boredom swept over her like a sleepless dream, but a click at the door perked her up again.

A cheeky smile edged the ends of her lips and she held herself poised, awaiting the, most probably angry Captain. Unfortunately her hopes were dashed when the door opened to reveal a miniature image of the handsome Captain.

"What do you want, Grey?" She spat with hatred and stood up, standing bravely in front of him. The boy, no older than her, snickered and leant against the doorframe, his bright blue eyes shining mischievously beneath a dirty blonde fringe. Grey was the son of the Captain and for as long as she remembered she had always despised him. There was never any doubt about her hatred towards him, both often competing roughly against each other in rounds of cards and fighting. While Risa bested him over wining the cards games he, known as an excellent fighter, and granted that he was a year older than her and had the skills of an acrobat, beat her unfairly in those physical fights. Overall she regarded him as the Arch Nemesis—who could easily pick locks and therefore she was never safe.

She had sworn to herself that one day she would beat Grey in fighting and that he would no longer be better than her, but vice versa. She would be the better, more respected one and she would rub his face in the guts of a Silver Tailed Skinner, just to prove her point.

"You, scum, are wanted on deck." He responded airily, putting much emphasis on his little nickname for her: scum. Her green eyes narrowed, flickering dangerously. Grey instantly recognised the warning and his grin widened. "I bet you're gonna be thrown overboard after what you did t'my Pa: The Captain. And I bet there are Toothéd Skinners circlin' them waters, too, so you'll be eaten up bit by bit."

"Nu uh, Hawk wouldn't do that t'me." Risa said scornfully, scrunching up her nose in dislike and sticking out her tongue as an addition to her defence.

"Ya huh he would, I'll tell 'im to. He listens t'me more than he does you, scum." Grey straightened up, crossing his arms over his chest in a defiant act but Risa didn't care what he said—either way he was wrong.

"I don't care what you say, but I ain't movin' from my room. Now get out!" She screeched and stepped forward, pushing him backwards. He stumbled, surprised and she shut the door in his face. She waited, once again, for the chaser to come in but he didn't. Instead the door was locked close; no one was attempting to get in. Then as she turned around, planning on changing into her nightwear, as the sun's light had ceased slightly from entering the port hole, the door unexpectedly swung open and two hands gripped her shoulders.

"Pa wants you on deck, now." Grey said haughtily and dragged her with clenched fists gripping onto the simple dress, Risa's brown curls bouncing wildly around her face as she thrashed around, unable to escape from his grip.

"Let go of me you foul-mouthed, rotten, dung eating, little—" however at that moment she was unceremoniously let go of, her sentence cut off abruptly. She stood, frozen, in front of an imposingly tall Captain Hawk who eyed her warily. She gulped nervously and saw from the corner of her eye, a grinning Grey who stood next to her father, who, she noticed, was looking sceptical.

"Well Risa," Hawk began, his tone calm and collected. The other pirates had gathered around, now, and were watching the scene before them with high interest. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

"Uh—what do you mean?" Risa asked naively and looked up at Hawk with large eyes.

"If you don't apologise right this instant, then I shall have to throw you overboard and into the sea below." He said warningly, the words falling familiar to Risa's ears. Accusingly she glared over at Grey who made a mocking face at her. "Now, what do you have to say?"

"Sorry, Cap'n," she mumbled quietly and shuffled her feet, looking sheepish and truly sorry, which she wasn't at that moment because she was focusing threateningly on Grey's demise.

"Excellent, now," he turned to his crew and cleared his throat, but they didn't seem to take the hint. "GET BACK TO WORK!" A few of the pirates jumped, but they all started back on their duties each cursing their Captain under their breath. Hawk turned away from Risa and strolled back to his quarters where he beckoned for Risa's father, Jacobs, to follow. Obediently he complied, but after glancing over at his daughter. The cabin door was immediately shut with a slight bang and she lifted her head, carefully.

Risa was an impish little girl who'd spent her whole life living with pirates and she knew nothing more than trickery, bribing and betting. Her father, Marcus Jacobs, was the Right Hand Man to the Captain and she knew nothing of her mother. Grey had often told her stories that her mother had been a sea monster and that was why she was so ugly and horrible. He often tempted her into verbal disputes, such as that age-old one, with invalid comments that ended up with a punch or kick to somewhere on his body, it was an endless feud.

She, much to everyone's surprise, appeared a lot more feminine than Jacobs would have liked; a reason why he didn't pay any attention to her. She pranced around in her frilly dresses, dancing and humming to her own songs. Grey often teased her about this but she had just waved them off, excusing him because she knew that secretly he wanted to wear her pretty dresses and have an angelic voice like hers. Obviously, she was wrong, but at that time in her life, she didn't understand that.

"Told you Pa would listen t'me more than you!" Grey taunted and she angrily chucked a lazy punch towards his face. She missed, of course, but she didn't care and she didn't dare try and start a fight. Knowing that she could never show any of her fears around Grey, otherwise he'd annoy and tease her about it, she kept to herself about the threat Hawk had threatened her with because secretly she was afraid that he would. "I see you're finally comin' to the realisation that I'm better than you at fighting," he said triumphantly and when she didn't retort he realised that something was up. But before he could interrogate further a shout interrupted the peace of the sea.

"Cap'n! Cap'n! Ithania's comin' and he ain't the only un'!" A man from the top of the Crow's Nest shouted warningly bringing both the Captain and Jacobs from their discussion inside the Captain's Chambers. "A storm up ahead, its big a'right, them dark clouds ain't lookin' too invitin'! And Ithania's ship is comin' a while back, she's movin' fast Cap'n. We'd better do some'in, quick."

"Right, men, hold down! Emyre ready 'em canons and Jase, fix those sails for that nasty storm, we'll cross through it no doubt. We can't avoid somethin' as big as that." Hawk announced, ordering about the pirates who scuttled off immediately to obey. Then he turned to Jacobs, a serious look shadowing his features, "Put 'em in their rooms and lock 'em in."

Jacobs nodded and scooped his daughter up in one arm, tagging Grey along as well who was protesting violently with loud abuse, "Get the blood 'ell off've me! Pa, I want t'stay with Pa!" While he continued his ranting Risa, dumbstruck just fell limp in her father's arms. Panic began to arise throughout her body and she was dangerously thrown into her room, which she landed safely on her bed. She could still hear Grey's shouts even as the door to her room was closed and locked from the outside.

She'd heard of Ithania before; he was Hawk's rivalled pirate nemesis, a relationship she regarded very closely to the one she had with Grey. And it wasn't until just now that she realised what was going to happen. There was no chance she was going to survive this; Ithania's men would surely dispose of her and even if they didn't the storm would finish her and everyone else off.

"Pa—" She shouted but was cut abrupt as the ship came to a sudden halt and a nasty crunch echoed through her room, water beginning to seep in from a few of the cracked planks in her walls. A sharp stone point was revealed through the crack and panic began to rise in her throat. Another jolt in the ship's movement caused her to roll off her bed and she was about to shriek for help when her head cast a resounding crack as it came into contact with the wooden floor.

Her hair pooled around her as the cold liquid she had once loved so much, soaked her clothes and cast shivers up and down her arms. Her mind hazed and her vision blurred until she could no longer hear or see anything. Risa was left to the state of unconsciousness while outside her chambers battles between men and the sea broke forth.

---

"…'ere, Mack! Come 'ere, you outta see this! It's a girl!" Unfamiliar voices lured her from the darkness and her eyelids flickered open, yet she didn't recognise anything but the blue sky and that was not even in focus. A face peered over her, a man with what appeared to be a coarse, white beard. Suddenly, beside him another face appeared and the strong smell of something rotten careered her back into the depth of slumber, oblivious to the argument that had now arisen between the two men.

"I can see it's a girl, idiot. I ain't blind or nothing and 'sides, you just killed her!"

"Did not, she's still breathing!"

"I'd be surprised if she wasn't, your smell is enough to knock anyone into death…"

"I resent that."