Disclaimer: I'm only going to do this once. I do not own any legal part of Pirates of the Caribbean. I do however own millions of paraphernalia, so please don't steal that.

So, here's a story for you. This idea was thought up between and two of my friends and I. We started writing it, and one of us would write a chapter at a time. However, we only got to chapter five, and it was honestly a horribly written story. So, after two years, I finally decided to try and rewrite it all by myself. Please don't trouble yourself trying to find the original version, unless you love horrible sues and bad grammar.

1

The Beginning

(a bit of a flashback…)

As he dismounted from his young gelding, the young man smiled. He was home. This was probably going to be the last time he would be able to come home, and he was hoping that he would be able to make the most of it.

He threw his reigns to the stable boy and called out for his mother and father. True, he was four and twenty years, but that didn't mean that he still didn't love to see them.

His father was the first one out of the front double doors, seeing who was making such a racket so early in the morning. But one glance towards his son and a wide grin spread out on his face. He leaned back into the house and called for his wife and then jogged out to meet his son, giving him a hearty handshake. "Welcome home boy."

"MY BABY!" Screamed his mother as she galloped over to where the father and son were standing. She stopped just in time so she didn't collide with him and then wrapped her over-protective arms around her eldest child.

"Hello mother. You seem to be getting along fine." The young man chuckled as he returned the hug.

"Well, you know how it is, raising your father and everything else this house has to offer" she joked as she pulled away and gave him a full up and down look. "The job taking good care of you then?"

"I have never been better." He truthfully answered.

"ROBERT!" screamed a female voice from inside the house. He had just enough time to look before a young girl pounced, sending him flying backwards with his younger sister wrapped around his middle.

"Hello there Lily." he answered. "You look well."

She smiled as she looked back up at him, her thirteen-year old face glistening in the sun. "Father has let me go out riding on his horse, and I've been able to tend to the chickens also!"

"Well don't work too hard or you might be confused as a man wearing a girls attire!" He joked as he picked her up in his strong arms and strode into the house, Lily jabbering all the way.

"So what have you been doing then Robert? You've been gone from home for so long." Lily asked as she sat in the kitchen area where Robert was making her "a special treat".

"I have actually been working for the King's Navy." Robert answered. He then turned to Lily and handed her a glass full of a green liquid. "Here, drink this."

Lily smiled and took a large gulp. Sputtering, she winced and asked, "What in the world is that?"

"I have no idea." Robert answered laughing as he poured himself a glass. "But we have this every day on the ship. It's a meal."

"Well, if you can drink it, then so can I." Lily answered prideful, and then downed the rest of the cup. However, when she swallowed, she looked as green as the drink.

Robert chuckled as he drank his glass, apparently more accustomed to the retched stuff than his sister.

"So what do you do on the ship?" Lily asked, her young eyes full of wonder.

"Well," Robert began. "I give commands, hoist the sails, and basically do what I am told, and what is best for the crew."

"I would love to go with you, I've never been on a ship."

"And it should stay that way; a ship is no place for a lady. Especially a lady of status, as you will be one day." He said, pinching her cheek.

It was true; Robert and Lily were from very good breeding. Their father was actually one of the main men in charge of running Port Royal, their home.

Lily rolled her eyes at the technicalities of it all, but she could never be very angry with her brother for too long. They had always been very close, and with her Robert gone all the time for work now, she wanted to spend as much time with him as possible before he was called back out into service again, which would most likely be very soon.

"Don't you worry about it, there's absolutely nothing exciting about being on a ship." Robert said, trying to kill the idea that he knew was forming in his sisters' mind. "It's just a lot of work, and you're not made for work." He re-positioned himself so he was sitting next to Lily now. "But look here, I have a present for you."

"A present? Oh Robert, I was hoping you would!" Lily said, letting her wishes finally out.

Robert let out a deep hearty laugh and then reached into his left pocket, pulling out two gorgeous opal earrings.

Lily gasped at the sight. "Oh...they're beautiful!" She grabbed them and put them immediately into her ears, which Robert had actually pierced for her a few years ago during his last visit. "Where did you get these?"

"Oh… a pirate ship." Robert said nonchalantly. "I've got a bracelet for mother and a stone pipe for-"

"PIRATES? Oh, that must have been terrifying!"

"No, it really wasn't. You come across many of them in these waters." Robert said, waving his hand. "But these were very inexperienced pirates, so we were able to apprehend them quite easily and put them in their place."

"And steal their stuff?" Lily asked giggling.

"Well…what can you do?" Robert replied chuckling.

"I suppose so…that must still be so frightening though. However, I still think that it would be horribly romantic to be on a ship, even with all the pirates."

"Horribly romantic?' Robert asked, chuckling. "You have been reading too many novels."

"Well, there's nothing else to DO here!" Lily said, throwing up her hands for emphasis.

"Well, it's not 'horribly romantic.'"

"But, the swaying of the ship, the crew…"

"The swaying can actually make you feel quite sick, and the crew can be a bunch of blaggards."

"Well…what DO you enjoy about sailing?"

"Well…" he sat back and thought for a second. "The scenery, the freedom…"

"Scenery? What is there besides the water?"

"The wildlife. My personal favorite is the dolphins, which are like really big fish."

"That sounds quite disgusting in all honesty."

"Well…" Robert leaned back and smiled "it's really not woman work."

Lily sighed. "That's ALWAYS the response I get. It's getting rather annoying."

"Well, I'm afraid you're going to have to get used to it darling."

Lily groaned and rolled her eyes again.

"Now, while I'm gone, I want you to take good care of Knickers for me." Robert said, patting his horse. "You did name him after all."

"REALLY? He's mine?" Lily asked, unable to contain herself. She had always loved this horse, and even began calling it Knickers, due to the fact that he was always knickering, before Robert ever had the chance to name it.

"Well, your old mare I think is past her prime. And Knickers just hangs around not getting any exercise while I'm away. You can take good care of him." Robert patted the young gelding again and then handed the reins to Lily. "Goodbye, my little flower." Kissing her cheek, he then gave his father and mother both hugs.

"Be safe honey." His mother said, kissing both of his cheeks. "I love you."

"You'll be fine son." His father said, giving him a large bear hug.

Robert chuckled, and then mounted another horse that his fellow shipmate had brought for him. With a wave, he turned and then cantered off.

Lily ran after him as far as the gate and kept waving until he was no longer in sight. She then walked quickly over to Knickers to put him away, and noticed that both her mother and father had gone back into the house. An idea forming in her head, she quickly mounted the young horse and then trotted over to the docks where she thought Roberts ship would be.

When arriving at the port, she dismounted and tied the reins up at a post. Walking by all the ships, she now understood what her brother meant by "bunch of blaggards." She was only thirteen, yet was still getting many whistles and propositions from the sailors. Lily looked for her brother's ship, or his fellow workers.

Stopping suddenly, Lily realized something very important: She had no idea what his ship looked like. She didn't know what it was called, and she didn't know any of the other men who worked with him.

"Oh buggar" Lily said, stealing a word she had learned from her brother. She wished she could sit down and think about her predicament, but she didn't trust the wood, and sitting could create a problem with these men.

So, she turned around and started walking back down to dry land. But she quickly leapt behind a nearby trunk as her brother actually walked by. He didn't notice, but kept on walking towards a gangplank of a ship that Lily would have never guessed was his.

Lily didn't really understand why she had hidden, even though she was trying to find Robert a few minutes ago. However, now it was just too late to jump out and yell surprise. But she did want to know why Robert hadn't climbed onto one of the navel ships that Lily knew of. Maybe this was a new ship that was just being introduced? She slowly crept up to another crate, and hid behind that. Slowly but surly Lily got loser to the ship and eventually peeked over the side.

There was Robert, inspecting ropes by the sails. Another man walked up towards Robert and then said "Captain."

Captain? Lily thought. I didn't think he was a captain.

"Captain," the man continued. "What happened?"

Robert stopped fingering the sail and then looked over his shoulder towards the man. "Just what I wanted."

"So…" the man looked a bit confused at the matter.

"So," Robert finished. "I did what needed to be done. Everything is put into place."

"Do you think it will work?"

Robert glared at the man. "Who do you think you're talking to?"

"I'm sorry sir, I didn't mean anything."

"That's right, you didn't. Now go round up the crew, we need to leave as soon as possible." And with that he walked away from his startled crewmember and through a doorway.

Lily scuttled back to Knickers and rode home at a fast gallop. She ran through the double doors and up to her room where she sat by the fireplace and tried to piece everything together. Why was Robert called captain? What did he have to put into place? And why was that man so afraid of him? It really didn't make sense to her adolescent mind, and no matter how many times she turned it over throughout her brain; it still didn't make any sense.

Well, perhaps Robert will explain things to me eventually. Lily thought. He doesn't usually keep secrets from me for very long. In fact, I've never known him to be able to keep anything for me!

Irony is an amazing and hateful thing. Lily would have asked her brother about these weird questions, but she never had the chance to. Word came back to her family about a year later that Robert had been killed.

Lily wasn't told anything about it, except for the fact that he was dead. But she overheard her parents talking that he died at the hands of a pirate.

Pirates always used to be in a way respected by Lily. But now she just hated them with a passion.

So, what do you think for a first chapter? Let me know.

SeethingxShadows