Tags added this chapter:

Characters: Rhodes

Relationships: Cinder Fall & Rhodes (Family)

Additional tags: Rhodes does the Right Thing / Adults are trying not to swear around kids atm / Will Contain Swearing

Cinder doesn't know ship terminology yet, (and I'm learning for this story) so I hope any sailing aficionados amongst you don't hold it against her (or me). ;)

The soft groan of shifting, well-worn wood and the sounds of splashing water were the first things Cinder was aware of when she eventually regained consciousness. It surrounded her; a calming ambient noise so far removed from what she was used to, that she knew she simply must be dreaming.

For the first time in so long she felt relaxed, truly relaxed, like she was floating away from her troubles. It was peaceful. There was another word for it, this feeling, what was it?

Safe. She felt safe.

She smiled and drew in a deep breath. The sharp tang of apple and faint hints of tobacco laced the air, an odd combination but quite pleasant. She didn't want to open her eyes, she didn't want to wake up and leave this tranquillity.

But her arms ached, her cheeks quivered painfully and she was hungry.

Hesitantly, she opened her eyes... and stared in shock at the low wooden ceiling above her.

She sat up with a gasp; her heart hammered as she frantically looked around. The small room was maybe 6 foot square, enclosed with wooden walls, one of which had a slight curve to it. The bed she was laying on was tightly wedged in lengthways against the curved wall.

She turned to put her feet on the ground, the door standing directly opposite her. There was a small folding table beside the bed, near where her head had been, with barely enough space for the rickety stool stood beside and partially underneath it.

No, no this is wrong. Where am I?

Tears gathered quickly in her eyes and Cinder gasped for air. Nightmarish images assaulted her as she imagined what would happen when the Madam realised she hadn't even started her chores. Cinder scrambled to stand but flopped back onto the bed as her dizziness returned full force. She tried to blink away the blackness, but her wide panicked eyes refused to close; the wooden walls mocked her as her tears worked their way down sore cheeks. She could only sit and struggle for breath while she waited for her head to clear, swallowing the rising nausea.

Suddenly, the door swung open.

A large man stood there, his body completely blocked the threshold. To her shame, Cinder whimpered and scooted away on the bed, putting her back to the wall. She drew her knees up and hugged them to her chest, wedging herself completely into the corner.

"It's good to see you awake finally. I knew you were too tough to just give up." The man spoke. "You had to be, to put up with the sorry situation you were in." He made no move to enter the small room; instead he chose to lean casually against the doorframe while he waited for her to respond.

Cinder tried to stay still and made no attempt to reply. She kept her eyes on her own knees, her ragged breaths loud in the silence. The man sighed.

"I'm Rhodes, Captain of the Scorched Maid." He introduced himself.

Captain? Am I on a boat? Her father had been important to Atlas Naval Intelligence, had the Navy picked her up for some reason? No, they hadn't done that while he was alive, why would they do that after he was dead? Had they mistaken her for someone else?

Oh no. She had to get back before the Madam woke up.

"Please-" her voice came out as a broken whisper. She tried again. "Please, you... you have to take me h-home."

"Oh?" he sounded surprised by her request. She closed her eyes tightly and forced more words past her trembling lips.

"The Madam, s-she'll wonder where I am, s-she'll-" Cinder tried to make him see reason.

"She'll do what?" he gruffly asked. "Nothing is what. Not anymore." He stated firmly.

A fresh wave of tears poured miserably down her face.

"I'm not doing a great job of this, am I?" he groused. "Look, your 'Madam' can't do jacksh- can't do anything to you, because she's currently locked up in my Brig."

Brig? Locked up? She frowned, that didn't make sense. The Atlas Navy wouldn't lock up the Madam, she's too important. So, if he's not Navy... Suddenly, she recalled the sound of bells before she lost consciousness. Alarm bells. The ones located at the Port garrison. He's a Pirate.

"Where am I?" she hesitantly asked.

"My ship." He said simply.

What could he possibly want with a useless girl like her? Stories of pirates said that they stole children and fed them to the sea Grimm to appease them, would that happen to her?

Life is hard. It isn't fair. No one cares about you. No one will save you. Without me, you are nothing.

"Why am I on your ship?" she asked, her voice breaking a little on the words.

He sighed and finally entered the room. Cinder tensed, her fingers dug painfully into her arms as he reached down beside the bed... and dragged the tiny stool back towards the door, giving her as much space as he could in the cramped room.

He sat down and the stool groaned in protest.

"You're here, because when I saw a half-starved little girl bleeding out in the store room of some big, fancy manor house... I couldn't just leave you there." Cinder's breath caught in her chest and she finally lifted her head.

Kind brown eyes met hers.

It was the man she'd mistaken for her father, before she fell asleep. Her cheeks heated in embarrassment; her father was long dead, why had she thought...?

The man, Captain Rhodes, smiled and his dark, weathered skin crinkled around the corners of his mouth and eyes. His long ashen-magenta hair was tied behind his head in a simple ponytail, with some left free to frame his face. He tucked one side behind his ear while she stared at him.

He'd saved her.

But...

No. No, he didn't care about her. He hadn't saved her. Why would he? She was nothing. He wouldn't. No, he wanted something from her. She'd just have to wait for him to tell her what he wanted.

"What's your name?" he asked, gently.

Cinder blinked, surprised by the question. She shouldn't be, really. It was normal to ask for someone's name. It just... wasn't normal for someone to talk to her so... nicely.

"I- I'm Cinder."

"Cinder. It's a pleasure to meet you." He said, still smiling. She tentatively smiled back, then realised with a start that she'd stopped crying. Her breathing was back under control, too. When had that happened? She dipped her head and self-consciously wiped the moisture from her sore cheeks.

"Do you feel like eating something?" he asked. Before she could open her mouth to reply, she was interrupted.

"I lef' some apple mush on 'er table 'case she woke up." A rough voice piped from somewhere beyond the doorway. Rhodes glanced around the doorframe and gestured for whoever it was to come closer.

"This is Algae, the ships' doctor." He told her, and a middle aged man with pallid skin, yellow eyes and dark green hair gathered in a low ponytail shuffled into view. He awkwardly tipped his floppy brown hat to her, then removed it instead and ducked his head.

"Wha' passes for one a' least." Algae piped up.

"Apple mush?" Rhodes asked quietly.

"Fruit solves ev'rythin'." He gestured to a small table beside the bed. On it was a bowl and spoon, with what appeared to be pureed apple inside. Rhodes nodded his head absently, and briefly looked heavenward.

"Anyway... Algae took care of the cuts on your arms and hands. For physical injuries he's the best we've got."

"You still ha' some shards in 'ere. Aggravatin' them injuries made 'em worse, drove th' pieces in more. Dehydrated, starved and yer cheeks're bruised, too. Yer in a bad way, kid, so's you should probly relax them arms." The older man winced as he spoke.

Cinder reluctantly released her grip and unwound her arms from her knees. She gently shook them and placed them slowly down by her sides, cringing as feeling returned to her tensed muscles.

"Well, why don't you try the apple puree." Rhodes indicated the bowl and she nodded warily. Her stomach grumbled audibly and a dark blush rose to her cheeks. She reached out and quickly snatched it from the table before he could change his mind, keeping her eyes on the two men. Rhodes idly began to inspect the roof, and Algae wandered away out of sight. Satisfied that they wouldn't try to take it from her or watch her eat it, she timidly put a spoonful in her mouth.

She loved apple.

The taste danced on her tongue and her mouth watered. She quickly shovelled another spoonful in, then another and another. Before she knew it she had emptied the tiny bowl. It sat in her stomach oddly, and she wondered if she had eaten too quickly. When it didn't threaten to return, she placed the bowl back on the table.

"Thank you." She said quietly.

"We'll get you something more substantial later. For now though, how about a tour?" Rhodes suggested. He smiled reassuringly to her as he stood, pushed the stool back under the rickety table and then stepped out of the room where he waited for her to follow.

Cinder cautiously scooted off the bed. She stood slowly to lessen the dizziness and more importantly, give her time to pluck up her courage. They were pirates, but they hadn't threatened to hurt her yet, or to feed her to the Grimm. In fact they had given her food and looked after her cuts, so that made them good people, right?

She took a deep breath and walked through the doorway, into a narrow corridor.

Half a dozen doors lined the corridor to her left which ended in a T section. All of the doors were tightly packed together, leading Cinder to assume the rooms were all the same size as the one she had just left.

"We're at the aft of the ship. Back there is the Stern Chasers." he informed her, gesturing to the T section.

"Chasers?"

"Guns that point behind the ship; they're good for dissuading anything from chasing us." He winked and she giggled. Surprised at herself, she covered her mouth and dipped her head.

"Store room for food, water, important plunder" he pointed to each door in turn, "and the rest goes in the main hold below." He pointed to the right end of the corridor, which opened out into a wide area. "That's the gun deck; the two rooms closest are for ammunition, powder, that kind of stuff."

He and Algae walked that way and Cinder quickly followed on his heels. It opened up into a large room with cannons lining the walls. There were a lot of them. Sunlight filtered down from a large grate in the ceiling, illuminating the space rather well. A similar grate was directly beneath that one in the floor. Rhodes had said the main hold was 'below'; could those grates be how they get things down there?

A handful of crew members were standing by the guns, checking the weapons over and keeping the area clear. They all seemed to be soot blackened and there was a faint smell of burning in the air. She wondered if they had fired the guns recently.

Then she recalled that they had attacked the Port. She looked away from the guns uneasily.

"The powder monkeys sleep in here." he waved a hand at the crew, who halted in their duties to curiously watch the small procession. "There's always someone asleep aboard ship so, unless we are under attack, noise is kept to a minimum in sleeping areas." He pointed to large folds of fabric which hung from the roof. With a start, Cinder realised that there were people in them.

"Over here," he pointed to a set of steps, leading up to sunlight and started walking that way, "is the way up to the main deck." She followed Rhodes up the stairs, shielding her eyes from the change in light levels. A bracing wind ruffled her hair and clothes and she glanced around at the boat.

Crew members moved with purpose every which way, they busied themselves with various ropes and some climbed a rope net attached to the large poles pointing up from the boats surface. She stared up at the cream white sails hanging from the poles, watching as more crewmen crawled along, appearing to inspect them. The clear blue sky was just beyond that and she paused on the steps, holding the wood as she stared up. Birds wheeled around above them, gliding in the wind and swooping about happily.

Algae moved past her and with a start she realised she'd been gawking. She looked back at Rhodes apologetically and joined him at the top of the stairs. She glanced past him... and stared in awe.

Open Ocean surrounded the boat, glittering blue reflecting the sun and stretching out in all directions into the horizon. There was no land in the direction she was looking; it just seemed to go on and on. It was beautiful!

"Well Cinder, I think you're going to like your stay on the Scorched Maid." Rhodes chuckled, and Cinder grinned, breathing deeply. The air was slightly salty, but far nicer than back home at the Port. It was fresh.

"This is the Main Deck of the ship, those are the Fore" he pointed to the pole at the front of the ship "Main" he pointed to the one in the centre of the ship "and Mizzen Masts." He pointed at the pole, mast, at the back of the boat. Cinder frowned as she tried to commit everything he was telling her to memory.

"Why are you telling me all this?" she asked, curiously.

"I've decided to take you on as my Cabin Boy. You'll learn the ropes as you go and we'll see where your skill set lies." He said. Cinder was stunned. He wasn't going to feed her to sea Grimm? He was going to keep her? Wait, boy?

"Um... but I-I'm a girl?"

"Obviously, but calling you my 'Cabin Girl' just sounds" he glanced at Algae and the two men exchanged a grimace, "inappropriate."

He did want to keep her, but why? She didn't know anything about boats; she'd never even been on one before. All she knew how to do was clean, and the Madam had always found fault with even that. She wasn't worth the hassle; she wasn't anything without the Madam.

As soon as he realised that, he wouldn't want to keep her.

And he would realise it. Hadn't he mentioned the Madam was in his brig? That woman would tell him just how useless she was. Better that he find out now, instead of after she'd had time to disappoint him.

"Where is the brig?" she asked quietly. She watched as a concerned frown pulled at Rhodes kind face. Uncomfortably she hung her head; her hands sought her apron and grabbed it.

"Main hold." He answered reluctantly, and then he sighed. "She's fine down there. She's just getting a taste of her own medicine, that's all."

"What does that mean?" she asked. Her hands twisted the fabric in her grip.

"It means she's getting the bare minimum required to survive. Nothing untoward, I swear." He said quickly, as if he was trying to reassure her.

It didn't really work.

Cinder knew the woman would be awfully mad when she was set free. She knew who she'd blame. She knew who she'd hurt.

"For how long?" Cinder forced the question past dry lips.

"Until you feel like dealing with her." A hand gently touched her head and she glanced up, startled. He quickly dropped the hand to his side. "If you like, I can take you down to see her, but" he crouched down and looked her in the eye, "believe me when I tell you she isn't getting out without my say so."

Cinder nodded her head. He'd let her out. He'd have to as soon as he realised who she was. No one said no to the Madam, she was always obeyed. A flicker of... something crossed Rhodes face and he nodded grimly.

"Alright." He gestured to Algae, who excused himself, wandering off across the deck. Rhodes then turned to Cinder and indicated the stairs they had just come up. "We might as well get that out of the way now."

Am I throwing every bit of terminology I've recently learned at you all? You bet!

Notes

According to the wiki, Rhodes' hair colour is a greying black. I strongly disagree. Just comparing his hair to Cinder's tells me it isn't black at all. I therefore took it upon myself to try and figure out what colour it actually is and came up with this.

#594a5c – a dark greyish magenta, or what I'm going to refer to as 'Ashen dark magenta'. His aura colour is also purple, so I feel perfectly justified saying his hair is a shade of purple. :)