He was just a boy when he first saw her. He'd picked her out of so many others, for reasons inexplicable until he'd gotten the chance to look her over. She was beautiful. By all that was holy, she was so beautiful. Every part of her was perfect, just what he'd always wanted.
And when times got hard, and there was no place to stay, he would go out and sleep by the wharf with her shape black against the moonlit sky. She guarded him, and he promised her, "I will captain you, Pearl. I swear it. One day you will be mine."