Episode 10

The Sirius landed on the island of Fidos, its small population made it a perfect spot without having to worry about being recognised. As usual, Captain wanted to head straight for the bar, insisting that the rest of the crew came with him.

"Forget about getting supplies for now," Captain said, "Let's celebrate our vacation!"

Everyone got off the Sirius and walked towards the town centre. Mara was carrying the dress that she wore when she first got on board, hoping to sell it. It was of no use to her now – wearing a dress wasn't practical on board of the Sirius, especially with the amount of work that she did.

"Captain, is it alright if I catch up? I want to try and get rid of this dress too," she asked when they passed a boutique.

"Of course you can!" Captain laughed, the loudness of his voice turned a few heads in their direction.

"I can accompany you, if you don't mind, Miss Mara." Thomas took the dress off her and carried it over his shoulder.

"That's a fine idea, Thomas, considering you got too drunk last time," Russell gave him a playful punch on the shoulder.

Mara and Thomas went into the shop while the rest of the Sirius Pirates headed towards the bar.

"We haven't found any treasures or had any adventures lately… I wonder how long until we have something exciting happen again!" Thomas said, taking a good look at the shop.

"You mean you can find something more exciting than me?" Mara joked as she headed for the shop counter.

Thomas and Mara have become inseparable. They treated each other with growing affection – she felt as if he was a brother that she never had. Russell was affectionate towards her too, but only to some degree as he looked up to Nathan more, so Thomas and Mara always stuck with each other.

"Hello, how can I help you?" A young shop assistant came out when Mara rang the bell at the counter. She was a pretty young lass around Thomas' age, with beautiful sandy curls which framed her small face.

From the corner of her eyes, Mara saw Thomas' face go red as he found invisible fluff to pick on the front of his shirt.

She elbowed him and said to the girl, "Do you buy second hand dresses? I've got one here which I don't need anymore."

Thomas cleared his throat and dropped the dress on the counter before wandering off towards the front of the shop.

"Please wait, I'll ask Mama if she'd accept your dress." The girl went to the back of the store and came out shortly after.

"She said that it will be magnificent once we restored it to its original condition! We'll give you five hundred gold coins for it."

Mara agreed when she noticed a wig on display behind the counter, the same colour and texture as the girl's hair.

"Um- Is that wig for sale?" she pointed at the wig. The girl grabbed the mannequin head which displayed the wig and lifted it down to the counter.

"Yes, it was made using my hair when it used to be longer! It's three hundred gold coins if you're interested."

"How about I take the wig in exchange for the dress?" Mara asked, and the girl had to ask her Mama again before handing the wig over.

"You've got yourself a deal," the girl smiled. She then handed Mara a folded piece of paper along with random small items. "These were inside one of the pockets of your dress."

Mara pocketed the letter and items, said thank you to the young shop assistant and met with Thomas who was waiting outside.

"Did you sell your-" Thomas stopped abruptly and blushed like a tomato when he saw her.

"Do you like it?" Mara grinned, twirling a long tendril of golden hair. She looked like a life-sized doll – the colour of the hair made her steely blue eyes more prominent. "This wig was made of that girl's hair."

Thomas' mouth gaped open and closed as his face went redder.

"Did you fall in love with her? Does this wig remind you too much of her? Should I return it?"

"M-Miss Mara! Stop teasing me!" He exclaimed, walking off ahead of her.

Mara laughed and chased after him, her new locks flowing behind her as she caught up with Thomas.

"I'm sorry for teasing you," she said, wrapping an arm around his shoulders while he sulked. "But do you always blush that hard when you meet girls like her?"

"No!" He retorted, poking her on the side jokingly.

They both laughed as they arrived at the bar. The crew was easy to find because they could recognise Captain's loud voice anywhere.

When they walked close to the table, there were four other people sitting with the Sirius pirates. One was a man with dark hair and a hat similar to Captain's, one was a plump woman and the other two were young men who looked identical to each other.

Thomas pulled Mara aside and told her that they were the Sirius pirates' long time rivals – Captain Alan, Fuzzy, Tom and Colin of the Rika.

"Get out of here, Alan!" Eduardo's voice said as he took out his gun. Nathan stood up and pulled out his sickle axe, with Russell following suit with his two swords.

Mara walked calmly to where the two captains were seated and slammed her hands down on the table. She looked at Morgan, who was staring at her, his eyes glinting with amusement.

"Everything alright here, Captain?" She turned to Alan and glared at him, "Is this man bothering you?"

"What's this, Morgan? You've got a woman for a bodyguard now?"

The Sirius crew were staring at her, no doubt surprised at her new appearance. Mara then pulled out a knife and pointed it at Alan.

"Don't talk to our Captain like that," she said, earning a laugh from Morgan.

"Our… captain?" Alan gave Morgan a questioning look, "Is this woman a pirate?"

"She sure is!" Morgan grinned.

"What?! Impossible! I'm the only woman pirate around!" The plump woman who was called Fuzzy stood up and glared at Mara. Morgan laughed even louder.

Alan grabbed her arm and pulled her closer to him, her knife only inches away from touching his throat. "You're feisty… I like the looks of you," then he continued, much to Fuzzy's disdain, "Why don't you join us at the Rika instead?"

"She's part of our crew, so you can go to hell, Alan," Eduardo replied for her. She lowered the knife at Alan's throat and gave Eduardo a questioning look. She shot a surprised look at Nathan who also defended her, "No way, she's way too good for the Rika."

"I agree – she can probably kick your butts right now!" Russell joined in. Behind her, Thomas nodded in agreement.

The Rika pirates stood up and glared at each other. Captain Morgan suddenly stood up and said, "Enough of this! We're going back to the ship now. If you know what's good for you, Alan, you'll leave it at this."

He walked towards the front of the bar and the rest of the men followed. Thomas pulled on Mara's arm and she lowered her knife and followed the others.

"I'll come back for you, blondie! You'd look good all tied up on my bed!" Alan yelled behind them.

"What a total creep," she muttered to Thomas.

"Yeah, that's Captain Alan for you," he replied, shaking his head.

When they reached the town square, Captain turned around and Mara saw the look of amusement was still there on his face.

"Nice wig, blondie," he grinned, "You look good in it."

"Thanks Captain," she grinned back.

A group of women suddenly appeared and flirted with Eduardo and Nathan, so Captain pulled her aside and walked her to the fountain as the crew entertained the women.

"I've been meaning to ask you, kid," Captain said, but got distracted by a curvy young woman who walked past.

Mara cleared her throat and gave him a look, "Yes Captain?"

"Oh- As I said, I've wanted to ask…" He focused his attention back to her, "Where did you get such amazing combat skills?"

She explained to him that cooking wasn't the only thing she learnt during her childhood sailing in her father's ship.

"Can you use a gun? Set off a canon? Drop an anchor?"

She nodded to all his questions – she'd seen her father do all those things a million times before and he'd taught her how to do them.

"Is there anything you can't do?" he asked, to which she replied, "I can't paint very well and I'm no good at mathematical equations."

"Your blood's worth bottling, kid!" he roared with laughter, giving her two solid pats on the back.

Mara gave Captain a mock salute and chuckled to herself. Her father may have taught her all those things so that she was prepared if ever they were attacked by pirates – but somehow she doubted her father would approve if he knew she had a change of heart and even became part of a pirate crew.

The Sirius Pirates to be precise.

End of Episode 10