AN./ Thank you, all reviewers and subscribers! Just so you know I am one of those obsessive authors who just LOVES reviews! If you do not review, I won't know who is reading, which may result in my stopping updates in the future! So, please, R&R, tell me what you think, just, no flamers, please :D

There is no Norrington in this chapter, but he will be in the next one, I promise!

Enjoy,
~ Silvertongued Dreams


Chapter Two: A Challenge From Fate

Two Years Earlier

"Ariannnnnnnnaaaaaa!"

I smiled, laying down on my stomach on the canopy bed in my room as I continued to write with my calligraphy set. Nothing gave me more joy than to write my heart and soul onto paper in a world where my thoughts and ideals would be nothing but ignored. My family and friends did not quite seem to understand me, but I did not care, so long as the hope of, one day, finding a man who wholly appreciated me, reigned above everything else.

My life had been far from ordinary. Born in Shropshire to an Englishman and his Spanish wife, my first years were relatively pleasant, and spent in a secluded part of the country—in order to avoid controversies—where my little brother and I would play for hours and hours, laughing as we danced in the rays of the golden sun. By the time I was four, I had lost both of my parents and younger brother, and since then, I had been taken in by the kind and generous Lord Ashworth, a widower who had been left with no children of his own. Had it not been for him, I would have been left to rot amongst the filth and terrors of an orphanage, and so would my adoptive sisters, Jenna da Silva and Stephanie Morrison.

Life had been very good to me since I had been adopted—being a part of Lord Ashworth's misfit family had proven to be the fresh start I had longed for. Under his watchful and protective eye, I had flourished and grown into quite an accomplished young woman, with an undying passion for writing. And, despite my heritage and what many people would dub my 'unusual' interests—I had not scared away every potential suitor in London: in fact, young aristocrat Alexander Forbes seemed to have a thing for me, and, somehow, I found myself not minding that at all….

"Ariana!" the jolly voice of my best friend, Jenna da Silva, rang out again.

"Up here!" I returned, tapping my quill against my chin as I contemplated what I would write next.

Before my thoughts could get very far, however, Jenna came up to my room, panting and out of breath as she dramatically thumped herself down on my bed.

"HEY!" I screamed in horror as the large inkwell I had been using flew up into the air and spilled all over our dresses. "Oh, Jenna! Now you've done it! Green ink. Green! And this was my favorite dress!"

"I am so sorry, Ariana," Jenna apologized sincerely, her sapphire eyes turning looking downward. "I was just so excited to tell you!"

"To tell me what?" I replied, furrowing my eyebrows.

— "Oh, Father hasn't told you?" interjected Steph, who had just come in.

"All right, since when has my bedchamber become public domain?" I asked rather indignantly as I arched a clever brow.

"Listen, Ariana—!" Jenna squealed excitedly before she was cut off by Stephanie.

"Oh, goodness, Stephanie! You think that, just because you are the oldest, that you can just barge in here and spoil my sur—"

"We are moving to the Caribbean!" Steph exclaimed all in one breath, glancing at Jenna victoriously, to which the latter merely rolled her eyes and moved off of my bed and stomped over to the other side of the room.

My face fell, and I placed a hand over my now-racing heart. London had been my entire life—my entire world! Everyone I had ever known and loved in this tight little suburban London community—I would never be able to see them again. In the few seconds that had just passed, my whole world had collapsed.

"A—Ariana? You do not look pleased," Steph replied with concern, sitting down beside me and placing a comforting hand on my back.

It took all I had within me to keep a blank expression, but any trace of restraint quickly started to fade away, replaced by a look of complete devastation. "How soon?" I asked in a choked voice.

"Within the fortnight, I am afraid," Steph replied in a greatly lowered voice. "And we cannot take much with us."

This was all too much to take in. What little bit of my world I would have left would also be taken from me—and it was beyond me how my two dearest friends could be so elated! How could they be so happy knowing that I would be going through such pain?

"The change will be good for you, sweetheart," Steph said kindly. "It—It will give you an opportunity to get your head from out of that imaginary little world you shut us out of so often. My dear… this can be the adventure you have always dreamed of!"

I breathed shakily, and stood upright, looking out of the bedroom window and down into the beloved garden that had been my unchanging view ever since I was a little girl.

"Ariana, please—"

The tears welling up in my eyes started to drip liberally down familiar well-worn trails on my face. "I—I have to go out," I spoke through my strained sobs. "Excuse me."

With those words, I fled the room, crying bitterly as I rushed down the carpeted stairs of Lord Ashworth's mansion, and down into the luscious gardens, where I collapsed amongst the heart-shaped enclosure of rose bushes and indulged my tears.

"See, Stephanie?" Jenna scolded, waving a finger in her face: "I told you it would have been better if I had been the one to tell her!"

Steph rolled her eyes. "Haven't I told you often how much I hate being called Stephanie?"

"You… you are so… so…" Jenna argued, breaking off as she began to realize that she really had nothing she could put against Steph. "Ugh."

"I'll go talk to her," Steph said softly. "Oh, but one thing."

Jenna turned to look at her, and felt rather penitent for having scolding her so. "Yes?"

"Have I ever told you how much I hate being called 'Stephanie'?"

Jenna scoffed, and forced a smile. "Yes, well… you should… probably, just… go and see how Ariana is doing." Her face betrayed her, however, and, past it all, Steph could see that she was trying to apologize for being so childish—without actually saying a word.

With those words, Steph nodded, and, with one last look at Jenna, stepped out of the room cautiously.


Even after all of the suffering I had had to deal with in my life, at that moment I hardly knew how to take everything in. It had always been hard for me to adjust to change, but, yet again, never before had I been faced with one this… monumental. My lips quaked from crying as I thought about all the people I would be leaving behind. Why would Father wish to move to the Caribbean? Never before had referred to the organizations he founded as anything more than a routine charity to keep the 'save the world' people from off of his doorstep, hounding him for money. Never before had he expressed any actual interest in any of his organizations—so, what had caused the change?

Before I had a chance to think any further, I felt a warm, reassuring hand on my shoulder.

"Bless you, my dear child!" came the kind voice of my adopted father, Lord Ashworth, spoke gently to me as he sat down on the bench beside me. "Whatever is the matter?"

"F—Father!" I exclaimed, quickly sniffling back any tears I still had in me. "I am ashamed that you should find me in such a state!"

"Hush, there, now, every young lady needs to cry now and then—otherwise, they would not be much of a young lady, would they?" he asked with a charmingly innocent smile that made me laugh despite myself.

"Tell me, my dear—what bothers you so?" he asked, wrapping an arm about my shoulders comfortingly.

"You shall probably think me rather silly," I returned with a nervous titter as I wiped away more tears.

"Nothing that makes my darling daughter sad shall ever be deemed foolish in my eyes," he replied, squeezing my hand. "Now, tell me. What makes you weep so?"

"S—Steph told me that we are going to be moving," I returned. "To the Caribbean."

Father shrunk back. "Did she, now? Well… it was not her business to go around spreading such news."

"Is it true?" I asked, wiping away my tears.

"I am afraid so, my child, but I had wished to tell you myself, for I know how dearly you love this place, and how much you shall miss everyone—particularly Shayla Forbes, and her brother, Alexander. I know that you have grown particularly close to them of late—that is why I wished to hold off telling you about all of this until we had a chance to talk in private. Apparently, though, the excitement was just too much for Steph and Jenna to resist."

"Would it be untoward if I were to ask… the reason for this sudden decision?" I asked, relieved that I was finally starting to calm down.

"No, it would not, but should I disclose it to you, it would put me in a rather awkward position, I am afraid," my father replied with undeniable regret in his voice. "Let's just take this as a challenge from Fate, all right, my sweet Ariana?"

"But of course, Father," I returned with a bittersweet smile. "I trust you—more than anyone else in the entire world."

"I know you do," he returned in a soft whisper, kissing my forehead tenderly before pulling away and looking at me with soulful and quickly saddening eyes.

With those words, I began to walk away, a small smile on my lips. Talking to father always helped sponge away some of the pain—I knew that, deep down, he knew what was going to be the best for my sisters and I. Even if it meant separating us from all that we had been familiar with.

Little did I know, at the time, however, that this decision to move to the Caribbean had absolutely nothing to do with interest in his charities, or wanderlust, or anything of the kind….


Well, well! Poor Ariana has no clue as to the wondrous changes about to future that awaits her in the Caribbean… and a certain attractive commodore… (winks) Anywho… hope you enjoyed, so please R&R! And if you have any questions, just let me know! Another thing, I tried really, REALLY hard to not make Ariana Perrin a Mary-Sue. Did I succeed in making her a likeable character, or no?