Storm clouds covered the skies, making the world a dark place. Neither the light of the stars or the moon were able to pierce through the thick layer of clouds. Wind blasted at incredible speed over the ocean, causing the sea beneath the sky to be rough, with huge waves crashing down on several occasions. The only real source illumination was the occasional lightning that cracked between the clouds or on occasion hit the restless ocean. After the flash, of course, followed the thunder, either with a delay or it came with the lightning. If that was the case, it generally meant for Cera to get the hell away from where she was currently flying, less she risked getting fried in mid-air. Of course, getting the hell away from one position didn't mean that the dragon was safe, not even by a long shot. Being airborne during a storm generally meant the chances of getting struck by lightning during a storm where higher than if Cera where to travel on foot. However, without any landmass being in sight, the only thing that she could do was to continue flying. Technically speaking swimming was an option, yet not a very feasible one at the moment. The waves would either drift her off course or take her beneath the ocean's surface. And while she could indeed hold her breath longer than any human, given the currents she would be facing, there was a good chance for her to drown. And dying wasn't very high on her priority list right now. The one thing currently being most tops on her list of things to do was to beat up her stupid little brother for getting her into this situation in the first place, right after finding a good spot to land and rest up, until the storm had passed. Apparently, she needed to do those things in reverse order, as she could not beat up her brother when she was dead. As such, she swung her neck left and right, desperately trying to find even a speck of land she could land on. However, as previously mentioned, finding her way around was considerably tricky, given that she could barely see where she was flying. So far her plan had been to just fly ahead until either she came across land or the skies cleared up and she could orient herself with the help of the stars. The problem was, thanks to the strong wind she couldn't be sure whether she was flying straight or in a circle. She had to adjust her angle and direction very often, less she risked getting swept up by the wind. Cera couldn't remember when had been the last time she had flown under such severe conditions. She was pretty sure this was the first time.

("I swear, when I get out of this, I'm gonna eat my brother's tail."), she silently swore to herself, adjusting her own tail to get a bit more altitude. She had gotten dangerously close to the ocean once again and only noticed thanks to a random lightning bolt in the distance. The following thunder was so loud, it could be compared to dynamite being detonated right next to her ear. She could feel the vibrations going straight through her entire body. It felt a little bit heavy on her stomach for some reason. At the same time, the rain intensified, making the raindrops feel like tiny daggers hitting on her scales. Luckily that was more of an annoyance than anything else. The real problem was the cold. Not only was the air around these parts colder than back at home, but the water also started to cool down her body considerably. If this kept up for another few hours, she wouldn't be able to move her body anymore. The result of that would be either death by drowning or worse hypothermia. None of those options were considerably appealing at the moment. Luckily for Cera, she had a way of warming up her own body at least a little bit. It was a bit tricky, but if she spat her flames just at the right angle, she could heat up one body part after another, giving her precious more hours to find land. Of course, doing this mid-flight was what made this endeavor so tricky, but it wasn't like she had much of choice. Turning her long neck around, Cera decided to hover in mid-air, while she carefully unleashed a weak stream of flames out of her mouth. She shot the fire a little bit too high, so she had to adjust her head a bit to get them properly flying over her body. She miscalculated the shot a small bit and accidentally hit her wings. It stung just a tiny bit, but only because her wings had been cold, to begin with. Her scales were capable of enduring much more.

Since her wings were continually flapping up and down, she decided only to let out short bursts of fire, just shooting whenever her wings were down. Once her back had considerably warmed up, she proceeded to do the same with her sides, as well as her underbelly. Her tail, however, would have to remain feeling like popsicle since it would take a lot of twisting and turning in order to reach that place.

However now that her internal body temperature was at a slightly higher level again, Cera felt more energetic than five minutes ago. With new vigor, she continued her flight, hoping to get out of this storm soon enough.

XXX

Eizen didn't even try to hide the sigh of relief he let out. Finally, the storm had passed, the Van Eltia came out of it more or less undamaged (some planks would need to be replaced in the near future), but once again his curse had struck and cost three crew members their lives. Of course, those three had known what they had been getting into, just like the rest of the Aifread Pirates. However, that didn't change the fact that the first mate was feeling guilty about the loss he was mainly responsible for. Yet there was no time to mourn for now. The crew needed to get back on course. Who knows how many days they've lost because of that storm? Eizen turned around and was about to look for Benwick when he saw the blonde man with the sylph jay on top his hat approaching the first mate.

"First mate, we got a problem," Benwick said with a frown.

"What is it?" Eizen asked with a frown, crossing his arms.

"Our compass, sir. It looks like it got thrown overboard during the storm," the blonde man informed the first mate.

"Damn it," the earth Malakhim cursed. "Without the compass, it will be impossible for us to navigate properly."

"I guess we have to rely on our luck to get around, huh?" Benwick half-joked, trying to lighten the mood somewhat.

"Luck, huh?" the so-called Reaper took out his coin and flipped it into the air. The gold coin flipped a couple of times until it landed in Eizen's palm. It showed an engraving of a hooded skull, similar to how the infamous Grimm Reaper was portrayed in mythology. He turned the coin around in his hand, revealing the image of a woman's face from the side. The first mate looked up towards his crewmate, putting his coin back into his jacket.

"We need to get a compass as soon as possible. That means we either steal one or we manage to find a port and buy a new one. Tell the Crow's Nest to keep their eyes peeled for any ships we might be able to assault. Also get some men to check up the ship one more time. The last thing we need is to sink because of a loose plank."

"Aye, aye, first mate." Benwick saluted and the sylphjay on top of him mimicked the human. The blonde pirate was about to issue the orders to the others when all of the sudden a shout came from the crow's nest.

"First mate! Land ho, starboard!"

Eizen and Benwick immediately turned around and looked over the railing and out in the vast ocean. However, none of the two men could see any land nearby.

"Where's the supposed land?!" Eizen called back up.

"It's a small island, just ahead!" The man in the crow's nest shouted back. "It's no bigger than a caravel! But there's a girl stranded on that island!"

"Say what?!" Eizen and Benwick exclaimed and tried to make out the island once again that their watch had spotted, but there was still nothing their eyes could make out. Having an idea, Benwick turned towards one of the nearby pirates, who happened to carry a monocular with him.

"Hey, can I have that thing for a second?" Benwick pointed at the instrument he was interested in.

"Eh… sure," the pirate replied and handed his superior over the monocular.

"Thanks," the blonde pirate nodded and immediately looked through it. Now being able to see further, he could quickly make out the small island the watch had made out. Actually, calling this little rock sticking out of the ocean an island was a bit much. It really was just a big rock with a little bit of sand sticking out of the blue sea. And indeed, his eye spotted a girl lying on that rock with her eyes closed. The girl lying on her back had slightly darker skin, red hair, wore a red tube top, black trousers and something was hanging from her neck. Benwick couldn't make out all the details, but if he had to guess, the girl looked around the age of 16, 18 at most.

"Yeah, I see her now too," Benwick gave the monocular back to the other pirate. "Not sure how she got there, didn't see a boat or anything."

"She might have fallen off her ship and managed to save herself. In any event, let's get her out of there. Hard starboard! We got a shipwrecked to rescue!"

As soon as the order was heard by the other pirates, the deck fell into a state of controlled chaos. Quickly the Aifread Pirates went onto their positions, unfurled the sails and steered the ship in the right direction. One of the rowboats was made ready to approach the quote, unquote "island", since no one wanted to risk the Van Eltia accidentally run aground or worse hit a riff. Like a well-oiled machine, the pirates worked as if they were getting ready to rescue one of their own. Given the relatively short distance, it didn't take long for the rock to come into view to the naked eye of the sailors. After a couple of more minutes, the ship was close enough so that everyone on board could see someone lying on the rock. It was at that point that Eizen ordered the ship to sail in a circle around the small isle, since the bottom of the ocean turned out to be too deep for the anchor to be dropped anywhere, but very close to the rock. At the same time, two pirates entered the previously prepared rowboat and made their way towards the rock. It turned out the sea wasn't really shallow until you were like two feet away from the rock. The pirates guessed from under the surface the rock must have looked like one tall mountain.

When the pirates came up close to the girl, they noticed that she had a flower attached to her shirt, a blue dragon-shaped pendant hung from her neck, two golden bracelets were around each of her wrists and a small, brown bag hanging from her hips. Her black shoes looked like they were in pretty good condition and only a little wet.

"She must've dropped off a merchant ship," one of the pirates guessed as he and his "colleague" stepped onto the isle and checked up on the girl. "Might even belong to a minor noble family."

The second pirate put his ear close to her mouth and listened in for a couple of seconds. "Still breathing," the second pirate told the first one. He put his hand on her forehead, checking for a potential fever.

"Feels cold. Not sure if this is a good or a bad sign. Definitely no fever, though."

"The fever might still come. Let's get her back to the Van Eltia," the first pirate suggested.

"Aye."

Carefully the two pirates picked up the girl and put her into the rowboat. They couldn't exactly put her into a comfortable position, so they curled her up into a ball, placed the redhead in front of their feet and made their way back to the Van Eltia. Needless to say, the crew was quite curious about the girl they just picked up. Every crewmember on deck looked over to where the redhead was being carried by the pirates who picked her up. Eizen approached the two members who just came back to the ship. The Malakhim took a look at the girl, before addressing the pirates carrying the girl.

"Any complications?"

"None, first mate. The girl looks fine, all things considered. I think she's just sleeping."

As if reacting to the pirate's words, the girl subconsciously snuggled up deeper into the man's chest, mumbling something incomprehensible. The pirates around let out chuckles at the display, before Eizen pointed towards a door leading into the inside of the ship. "Get her into my cabin. She's probably going to need some rest, especially if she dropped off her ship during the storm yesterday."

"Aye, first mate."

As the pirate carried the girl into Eizen's cabin, the girl stirred in her sleep, her face scrunching up a little bit. The pirate guessed he could probably wake her up if he wanted, but the girl probably needed her rest. As such, once he was inside the cabin, he tucked the redhead in under Eizen's blankets. He was about to leave the girl alone, when he noticed that the girl had opened her eyes, revealing her eye color to be red. This was a little bit of an unusual eye color. The pirate was taken a little aback and rubbed his own eyes, thinking he might have looked wrong. When his sight was free again, the girl had her eyes closed, her chest rising and falling under the blankets.

"Must be the light…" the pirate mused, as he walked out of the room. If he had stayed a little bit longer, he would have noticed that the girl had opened her eyes for a second time and was looking around the room. Her eyes, however, were unfocused and didn't fixate on anything. Her irises changed from a round shape to that of a slit serpentine for a couple of seconds, before returning to normal.

"Weird dream…" Cera mumbled, turning around in what she presumed to be her bed, while allowing the gentle shaking of the ship to rock her back to sleep.