Daftlilme: Doll fainted from exhaustion from all the action!

What a lonely way to be
Lost at sea
Like a star in a night filled with tears
Make the sadness disappear
'Cause you're all that I hold dear

- The Bangles

The Caribbean sun is an inquisitive creature. It is always exploring, searching trough everything that gets in its way, no corner unvisited and no creature forgotten. On this fateful morning the sun decided it wanted to stop by the tiny ship that was rocking gently on the lazy waves of the Caribbean Sea. It crawled along the mast, down the sails and, sneaking around the railing, it finally found what it was looking for. A small cabin hidden away near the centre of the ship, where a young girl was sleeping peacefully.

The sun crawled in trough the small window, sauntering across the room, and tickled the girl on her nose. She turned in her bed, mumbling in her sleep, but she didn't wake up. The sun is not someone easily brushed aside, and it decided to attack her again, this time by softly caressing her cheeks. Her eyes fluttered gently, but didn't open. Only when the sun gave up all notion of modesty, and kissed her on her forehead, did she open her eyes to the light streaming in trough her window. It was a beautiful morning.

The beauty of it was promptly ruined as the door was ripped open and Doll's bright and cheerful voice said loudly: "Lijah? You in here?"

Lijah groaned something incoherent. Doll strode into the small room and poked the bundle of blankets.

"Why are you here? Why didn't you come back to the cabin? I looked all over for you! Why weren't you in your bed?"

One tired and dry eye glared up at the mass of ringlets hanging down around Doll's face. It was a very obvious "get the hell out"-glare, but Doll was obviously not very good at reading glares.

"You have to come out. Everyone are worried."

"I'm fine," came the grumbling reply.

"Not about you. About here. That is, where here is." Doll's voice suddenly sounded tiny. "They won't tell me anything, but… I think we're lost."

Delila sat up in bed, rubbing her tired eyes. How typical. There was nothing like being lost on the sea after a good night's storm. She sat up, noticing that her left hand was heavily bandaged, and it hurt when she put any weight on it.

"Bloody fantastic, a sprain." She mumbled, trying to get dressed using just one hand. "I'll be right up, as soon as I…" as she reached for her pants, Doll grabbed them, pointing at the wounded hand.

"You can't use it, right?"

Delila nodded, feeling a bit foolish.

"Well, erhm, I could help you get dressed. If you don't mind?" Doll looked at the girl in front of her, wondering if maybe she'd crossed the line. Maybe Lijah would take it as an insult?

Delila gaped at the girl in front of her. Help her get dressed? She nodded slowly. "If you'd be so kind…"

She stood up, letting the other girl finish her clothing with nimble fingers. Delila couldn't help it; it was almost like a dream. She was a real lady, being dressed by her maid. It reminded her of how she'd used to dress up in the colourful gowns her father had 'brought her' from time to time. She's stand in front of the cracked mirror for hours, looking at her own appearance. But soon she realized how her father acquired said dresses, and decided she didn't want them after all. Besides, it was just a reminder of a future she could never have… Delila let out a small laugh, and turned around. She noticed that Doll was staring at her, eyes filled with confusion and fear. She looked lost. Delila grasped Doll's hand and held it in hers.

"No worries. It doesn't matter where we are, we'll be okay." She winked. "Here at 'Freedom' our compass actually points North."

"We're lost."

"We're not lost. We merely don't know where exactly we are."

"And how," Will sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, "does that qualify as 'not lost'?"

"Because 'lost' means that we don't know where we are or where we're going," Jack explained. "We know perfectly well where we're going."

"And where is that?"

"Now that you don't have to worry yer pretty little head 'bout. That's up to the captain herself. Isn't that right, Rolf?"

Jack strategically moved so that he had Rolf between himself and a positively furious Will. The First Mate stood a good head over both of them, and made for a good buffer. He was, however, a lousy actor, and looked confused where he was supposed to be cunning.

"Young Captain Sparrow doesn't know where we are any more than the rest of us," he said, and Will looked like he was about to attack, wall-like sailor or not, when the girls came onto the deck.

"We're lost?" Lijah enquired. Jack gestured wildly behind Rolf's back, but Rolf confirmed it with a nod. "We can't be lost. C'mon, Doll, we can't be that far from land." She started climbing the ladder to the crow's nest.

Up there? Doll thought, but then she saw her father's look and realised that if she questioned it, there was no way she'd get to go. Quickly, she followed, and heard her father shout something and come running over the deck, but she was already too high up for him to catch. Then she realised that she was high up. Really high up. At least half-way to the nest. Which was a lot higher up than the balcony on the second floor of the mansion, which was the only height she was used to. And she had never climbed that high, ever.

Clinging to the rope-ladder she looked down, only to see her father in some sort of scuffle with Jack as the pirate tried to keep him from climbing up. Taking a deep breath she started climbing further up. She could do it. Just… one step at the time…

Suddenly, a strong hand grabbed her shoulder and hauled her into the nest. She drew a shaking breath and steadied herself, but then the view stole her breath away again. The sea was everywhere. Nothing like the pictures or the view from Port Royal. It seemed to go on forever… an endless wasteland of glittering blue. And that's when she understood. Understood why someone would be a pirate rather than a law-abiding citizen. Understood why a ship was so important, why it was more than just a thing that got you from one place to another. And she understood why Lijah had named her ship 'Freedom'. It was because that was what she was looking at, out there. Freedom.

Lijah nudged her side and pointed in another direction, then said with a grin: "You want to say it, or should I?"

Doll grinned back, then hollered down to the fighting men on the deck:

"Land ahoy!"

Yeah, but where exactly ARE they?