Hiya! So this is my first post on here EVER, and I'm super duper excited~ But I have to warn you, I vomited this out after watching Pirates of the Caribbean and yeah... I can't promise it'll be spectacular.

This is just a prologue, and the real story will be coming soon~ :D

Hope you enjoy!

"Mama, shouldn't we get outside?"

Another roar of laughter was heard from outside the small house, followed by the crash of a broken window and a small, round, black object rolling a few feet away from a young girl and her mother. A familiar sizzle was heard as the already lit fuse grew smaller and smaller, until the small piece of rope was no more, and the pair prepared for the inevitable explosion that neither could avoid. The child shut her eyes in preparation for the impending boom, but found the sound to be muffled as her mother's hands clamped down onto her ears.

She looked up to find the woman hunched over her own body protectively and made to lay a comforting hand on her shoulder, but the girl's frail limb only made it halfway before her mother's hands grabbed hold of her thin arms.

"We're going to get outside. I promise, love. It's just that, now's not the time. We need to wait for all the bad people to leave first." She could hear the obvious quiver of fear in her mother's voice as the woman stroked her ash blonde hair, and it did nothing to help slow her own racing heart.

"Don't you mean the pirates?" The young girl inquired innocently, recalling the tales she had heard while she was down in the marketplace, listening to the retired sailors tell stories of adventure and excitement to one another.

"Yes, love. They're pirates. But mama doesn't want any of them to come near you, so we're going to stay here until most of them leave, okay?"

The young girl snuggled further into her mother's chest and gave a small sigh. "Alright. But we have to stay together, okay mama? Oh! Maybe papa will come and save us from the mean pirates! Oh, he surely will, won't he? Of course he will! We'll be safe in no time, mama."

Her mother looked down at her with small, sad smile. "Of course, love. I don't doubt it for a second." The older woman gripped her daughter tighter and tried to back farther into the corner they were scrunched against. But as soon as the little girl seemed to find some relief in her mother's protective embrace, a loud crash was heard in the next room.

Loud laughter and the sound of heavy footsteps were heard, as the mysterious intruders ventured closer and closer toward the mother and daughter. The older woman's breathing seemed to stop altogether, while the other tried to contain her sobs by taking long, deep breaths. Time seemed to slow for the two until finally, a group of unfamiliar faces sauntered through the door of the parlor and glanced over at the two terrified figures in the corner.

"Well, well, well. And what do we 'ave 'ere?" More laughter. A few shouts from the back of the huddle of men, although neither mother nor daughter could make out what they said. "Pretty li'l things, aren't they?"

"The smaller one looks like she'll do good cleanin' the brig!" A voice yelled from the back, resulting in more guffaws and a few drunken stumbles on either side of the group. Did everything just amuse these filthy people?

The small girl was surprised as her mother let go of her and made to push her up against the wall. The woman took a shaky step forward and then straightened up, a look of determination and pure hatred etched onto her beautiful features.

"You will not touch her," she spat, evoking a collective guffaw from the group a few feet away.

"An' what are you going to do about it?" The man who seemed to be the leader of the group took a drunken step forward, stumbled a bit further, but then quickly caught himself and stood nose to nose with the woman.

Just as she was about to open her mouth, most likely to spit in the disgusting man's face, he spun her around, pushing a pistol up to her a temple with a cold sneer directed towards the young girl in the corner.

"Looks like the li'l one'll be seein' her mummy die today, ay poppet? Such a shame that a pretty face like yours will 'ave to go to waste."

The furious woman looked to the panic stricken face of her daughter, her plump, and once bright red, lips forming a single, yet crucial word.

RUN

Before the pirate could process what had happened, the small girl shot up from her place and ran to the broken window, praising and cursing the pirates at the same time for their violent ways. After leaping over the short window sill, she turned to glance back at her mother who was now struggling to fight her way out of the huge group of men.

She was visibly growing more and more tired after every jab at the still-huge mob. The child anxiously searched for some kind of weapon to assist her mother, but could only find various broken pieces of wood and glass. A loud scream immediately drew her attention back to her mother, and before she could let out a shriek of warning, she watched as a cold, steel blade impaled itself into her mother's back.

Her scream was caught in her throat as she looked on in pure horror, tears building up in her mossy green eyes. Her mother wasn't going to make it. Not after this. They would not stay together any longer. She would not keep her promise of never leaving her. The only family that she had was clutching at the gaping wound in her abdomen, and slowly sinking to the wooden floor of their tiny house.

Why did it have to be them? What good did this bring anyone? They didn't have money or riches. They didn't own anything of much value. All they had was each other, and now that was being stripped away from them too.

Finally finding her voice, she took in a huge gulp of air and put all of her strength into one last, agonized shriek for her mother.

"MAMA!"

The men's heads automatically snapped up to her crippled figure, suddenly remembering the tiny girl that had been watching the entire time.

"MAKA! MAKA, YOU NEED TO RUN!"

She knew. She knew she had to get away. She knew that if she didn't move at that moment, she would meet the same fate as her mother. And yet, her short, pale legs could not find the strength to lift her off the ground.

"MAMA, PLEASE! YOU CAN'T-"

"GO! MAKA, GO! NOW!"

Firmly planting her hands on the ground, she bowed her head and gathered all her strength into the one, pitiful push off of the hard earth. She followed a single wet speck as it traveled down her nose and fell to the ground without so much as a sound, before realizing that it was one of her own tears, and that she had finally allowed the slowly filling pools in her eyes to empty in seemingly endless streaks down her face. Her body shook with loud sobs, but she somehow managed to get her legs working. She stood slowly to face her old home, and with a final look at her mother's lifeless body on the wooden floor of the house, she turned around and started her sprint from the village.

The once peaceful village.

Filled with joy and happy memories.

The village that was now engulfed in flames, covered in carelessly scattered bodies, and echoing with the terrified screams of families.

The village she no longer wished to remember.

She continued her run, ignoring her tiring legs, wishing to get as far away from the image of her mother as possible. She stumbled and fell, caught herself, continued, and then after running into a nearby forest and tripping over an overgrown root, she stayed on the ground; knees pulled into her chest, she rocked back and forth slowly, her loud sobs echoing throughout the forest and her mother's last, pained yells ringing in her ears.