~ Day after the offer is given to Tawny ~

The pirate ship Sea Grail was always more of an unknown ship, considered a wannabe-pirate-ship compared to many others. Ships like the Black Pearl and the Flying Dutchman were well known throughout the sea, as were their Captains. Hell, the place that drowned sailors went when they fell into the Caribbean was named after the Flying Dutchman's Captain. But hardly any pirate ship other than those two ever was considered a huge threat. Though, the stunt that the Sea Grail pulled at Greymouth didn't take long to spread to other islands.

Originally it was just a rumor. The morning after it happened many people heard only of a famous ship being blown apart near the town. But then news of the destruction of Greymouth hit nearly every port in the area. They were told of how an unseen pirate ship shot heavy canons and started fires in almost every building. It was also included that some of the pirates had invaded the town and killed many men, women, and even kidnapped children. Missing children was the main topic among many towns now.

All of this attention brought a smile to the Sea Grail's Captain. At the moment, Captain Burne stood at the top deck of his ship, steering the wheel and watching over his crew as they worked. He could see his men adjusting the sails and making sure the canons were loaded. He could also see his newest crew members on deck. From his vantage point on the ship he could see three young boys, all carrying a single canon ball, walking up the stairs from the lower deck. They struggled from the weight of the balls, but they still took them to the men loading the canons. He could also see another young man, somewhat older than the other three, helping with the sails. The four boys had been below deck in a cell just the day before. But the boys hadn't been alone. A young girl was in the lower half of the ship, helping some other crew members make food that would eventually be for the Captain. But his current favorite of the children taken from Greymouth was on deck. A young girl, maybe five or six years old, mopping the deck as his men walked on it. Her silver hair stood out against the other brown-haired, black-haired, and bald men of the ship.

After he had offered his accord to the young girl, she had taken a while, but she did agree to the terms. Whether or not she agreed out of fear or out of growing loyalty was unknown, but it didn't matter. As long as she agreed and now worked, the Captain was fine. It was finding a job for the two girls that had been the harder part. For the boys, it was easy. They were going to do the same hard work that the rest of the men on his crew did. He wasn't going to give them super easy jobs just because they were children. They needed toughened up if they were going to be pirates on his crew. But the girls was different. Putting one of them in the area where food was stored was just natural. Girls weren't cut out to be hard-working like the boys. But he wanted to give little Tawny a job that could possibly make her more tough than the other girl on board. He honestly didn't see much potential in Tawny when he first saw her other than possibly getting gold from her rare hair color. But he didn't particularly want to get rid of her. He wanted to make her into a pirate.

For now she would merely work on deck, mopping the floor and helping with whatever job the other crew members asked her to do. Eventually she would be given a true job, but not yet.

Despite the fact that she felt the Captain's eyes staring down at her, the silver-haired girl continued doing her job, mopping the ground. She was glad that she had been given a somewhat easy job, but it wasn't as easy as she wished. Multiple times she would mop an area just for it to be stepped on a ruined by the pirates. As a matter of fact, the man that had been slashed in the face the night before would purposely drag his dirty feet across the floor after she would mop it, growling that she missed a spot and that she was just a useless little girl. After multiple times of him doing this, Tawny began to ignore him. She didn't enjoy the fact that she had to mop those spots again, but she didn't have much of a choice.

As she finished mopping the deck, her green eyes locked on the four boys she had been in a cell with the day before. Roulan, Oliver, and Ivo were currently carrying canon balls and spark powder to the multiple canons that rested on deck. She watched as they handed the supplies to the older pirates, clearly tired but still being forced to do the work. She also saw Lewis, who was being taught by two of the pirates how to adjust the direction that the sails were facing in order to catch the wind. Despite their lack of ship knowledge, the boys were doing a generally good job. In a way, she wished that she could say she was proud of them. But then the thought came to her. Her new friends were being taught how to load canons. They were being taught how to work a ship. They were learning how to cook food next to people who probably hadn't taken a shower in years. They weren't learning how to become decent sailors. They were learning how to become pirates. Whether they realized it or not, that's what this was. Unfortunately, she was doing the same thing. She didn't want to, but if she didn't learn to do her jobs well she would get thrown to the ocean.

When she was finished mopping the deck, she dumped out the water over the edge of the ship before taking the supplies to the lower half of the deck. She went passed the cell that her and her friends had been locked in for a full day or two, not daring to look towards it. As she put the bucket and the mop away, she heard footsteps coming down the stairs. As she turned, she saw the silhouette and general appearance of Oliver. When they both saw each other, he gave a quick glance up the steps before running over to her. "Hey Tawny. Are you okay? How have you been? Sorry that none of us have really talked since this morning, " he stated, moving a few strands of his red-brown hair away from his brown eyes. There was multiple times when she had seen Oliver attempt to walk over to her and talk, but he would get called to work immediately. This was the only chance he had, and he was going to take it.

"I-It's fine. We all have work to do so...we can't take many breaks, " the girl said, almost lowering her voice to a whisper. Both of them knew the feeling already. They had went from simple children playing in town to young sailors who worked with no breaks. As a matter of fact, both of them were sure that if any of the pirates walked down those stairs and saw the two of them talking and not doing work, they would both get yelled at.

"Either way. it doesn't matter what these pirates say, the six of us are still buddies. You can come to me if you need help. You just have to as-" but before he could finish what he had planned to say, he heard a voice from the top deck calling for 'red' to hurry up with the spark powder. Shaking his head, Oliver rubbed his knuckle on the top of Tawny's head, waving before rushing over to the storage area that was next to the cell they had been trapped in. He scooped up some spark powder into a small pouch he now had to carry before running up the steps, beginning his new routine once again.

With a small smile pulling at the edge of her lips, Tawny made sure that her mopping supplies were where they needed to be before going up the steps herself. As she got to the top deck, she heard a voice call for her. Only, similarly to Oliver, she wasn't called by her name. The voice that called had said 'little coin', which was what some of the pirates were beginning to call her, just until she did have some sort of name.

That was one thing that all of the kids had learned about this ship when they became a part of it. All of the crew members had real names, but none of these names were actually used. Most of the crew were given their own specific name based on their appearance or attitude or things they have done in the past. It didn't take long for Tawny to find out that her "favorite" member of the crew, the man with the knife-wound on his face, was called Snap. She didn't know why he was called this, but she heard something about him snapping at people when he got irritated. Apparently there was also some sort of story with a snapping turtle, but she wasn't gonna bother learning that. There were many others who had fake names, and so far the only pirate on the ship who didn't use a fake name, as far as the kids knew, was the Captain. Burne was presumably his real name. He had straight up admitted that the reason he used his real name was so that when he "became a famous pirate captain", people would say his true name, most likely in fear.

So far, most of the kids were starting to develop their own names. Obviously, Oliver was earning the name Red based on his hair color. Roulan was starting to earn the name Spark, mainly because the first time that he attempted to bring some spark powder to the top deck he had ended up slightly burning his hands. No one really knew how honestly, but he had managed to shock himself. Ivo was just being called Trip, for he had already tripped over his own feet multiple times during the whole time they had been on the ship. Edith was never really seen very much up on deck, but if she had heard correctly, Edith was being called Tea, but no one knew why at the time. Roulan, he had his own way of doing things. He had already began to grow a habit of whistling to the Captain and the rest of the crew when he was adjusting the sails, which earned him the name Whistle. As for Tawny, her hair was the source of her name. Because of her hair's silver color, she was starting to be called Little Coin, since her hair reminded some of the crew of a silver coin.

After her nickname, which she still wasn't used to, she walked over to where Edith and the better cooks of the ship would prepare meals, instantly getting put to work cutting potatoes and cooking meat.

Chapter 4! Sorry for not updating this yesterday. I had a small case of writer's block.

Anyway, just to let those that follow know, I attempt to update my stories every other day. Since I only have two stories that I am currently writing, I update one story one day, the other story the next, and so on.

Characters all belong to me! (Except for movie character references like Davy Jones and the ship names. I don't own those.)