Disclaimer: I own nothing but the orphans. XD

Author's Note: Sorry this chapter's short, I'm leaving for vacation. But Ill add more on when I get back. Enjoy! Edit: I have added more on, so just in case you havent read that part, you might want to.

"Oh, my name's Ben by the way," the boy said, maneuvering himself and Morgan to God knows where in Tortuga, "Stay close," he added as they narrowly avoided being bowled over by a drunken man. Who, upon missing them landed face first in a large puddle of mud.

"Where are we going?" Morgan asked in a voice so small, she wasn't sure if he'd heard her.

"We're going to meet the others," Ben said, smiling with anticipation.

"Others?"

"Oh, right. The other orphans. You didn't think you were the only one in Tortuga, did ya?" Morgan shook her head vigorously as she struggled to keep up with Ben's fast pace, she was nearly having to jog to keep up before he stopped abruptly, almost causing Morgan to run into him, "This is it," he said, this time with a broad smile on his face.

She looked around, but all she saw was a building that looked something like an abandon stable of some sort. Over all, it was very rundown there were holes in the walls here and there, and there was a large hole through the only window of the place. Of course that made sense; they were all orphans after all. It's not like any of them could afford a room at an inn or anything.

Ben opened the door, "Ladies first," He said winking and making a gesture with a sweep of his hand. Morgan did as he said and stepped through the threshold, gasping at what she saw. She had never seen so much food in one place before! Everything you could think of that would go in jars, a variety of fruits, rolls and whole loaves of bread, Morgan even saw what looked like a whole chicken and a few links of sausage in the pile.

The second thing she registered in the old stable was all of the people, boys actually, gathered inside. Their ages seemed to range from a little older than Ben to a little older than she was, but they all had one thing in common, they all stopped what they were doing as soon as Morgan stepped into the building.

"Who're you?" one of the bigger one's asked. He had what looked like red hair, though you couldn't quite tell through all of the dirt, blue-ish eyes, and a nose that was slightly too large for his face. It was then that the red headed boy, along with most of the others in the room, took a step forward, as if to emphasize that one question in a very menacing way.

Morgan spun around in an effort to go back through the door that she had come in, only to have Ben in her way, "Don't bloody frighten her, Az, I brought her here," Ben said while rolling his eyes at Az.

Az gave Ben a glare that could peel paint before saying, "What'd you do that fer?"

"She's fast," Ben replied, getting looks of interest from the rest of the group, "Real fast,"

"She's a girl!" One of the other boys shouted, Ben merely rolled his eyes.

"Common then, Ill prove it to you gits. It's worth it," Ben said it with confidence as he lead Morgan out of the building and back into the streets of Tortuga, with the rest of the gang following to watch her initiation.

edit

"Okay, here's what you do," Ben started. He and Morgan, plus Az and the rest of the gang had been sticking to the shadows of the town square looking for a perfect target for Morgan for nearly twenty minutes. Apparently, for this sort of initiation you needed someone who was actually sober, otherwise there would be no challenge, or point, to this sort of thing at all.

It wasn't either to pick just one individual out of all of this mess either. There were bar wenches strolling about using their assets to advertise the bar that they were employed at, there were also the plain old whores, who of course were using their assets to advertise themselves. And then there were the men, who could all easily be fit in to one category, those looking for pleasure, either at a bar or with a whore, but usually both. Then of course there were those types of dangerous, or just plain stupid drunks that usually did not use there common sense and tried to shoot something off of someone else's head.

But every one in this part of town had one thing in common; they were all drunk or getting there at this time of night.

Morgan was interrupted from her observations when Ben spoke again," See that man there?" Morgan looked in the direction Ben was pointing, and instantly saw who he meant, so she nodded in reply. He was a fairly tall man, who was well dressed in clothes that were much finer than anyone else present, plus he had an obscenely large hat with a very tall scarlet feather stuck on to it; this man would definitely have a coin purse worth her trouble, "You have to get his money, then get back here without him seeing, alright?" Morgan nodded again in consent and Ben gave her a little nudge out into the crowd.

"Aye, and if you get caught, we're not coming after ya," Az's voice came from behind her but she tried to ignore him and kept walking. The last thing she could here before she disappeared into the crowd completely was Ben's voice saying, "Don't scare that girl. You know," She didn't get to hear the end of his sentence before the noise of everything around her consumed all other sound.

As Morgan approached the man she tried brain storming of ways to accomplish her mission. Should she just run by and make a grab for it? Or should she try something with a little more finesse? And in the event she went for the latter, how on Earth would she pull it off?
Before she answered any of the questions that were running through her mind she was jarred out of her thoughts when a very dirty person who smelled of rum and urine bumped into her and sent Morgan sprawling into the man she was supposed to steal from. The man barely twitched in reaction to the collision, as if Morgan was simply a minor annoyance, like an insect instead of a human girl, but running into this man made Morgan fall flat on her back.

Morgan learned two things from stumbling into the man in such a manner. One, that he was much bigger than she had originally presumed, though he might have just seemed like a giant sine Morgan was so small and was only a little taller than the man's waist. And two, she now knew that he kept his coins in the left pocket of his finely embroidered coat. How did she know about the latter, some might ask? Morgan knew because her face ran right into it during the collision, and no sound is more recognizable than the sound of money shifting around in someone's pocket.

Now, it was time for her to either think of something clever to do, or just go for it. Though she had never been good at thinking of plans especially not on the spot, so she went for the second of the two options. Morgan got up slowly, dusting herself off and trying to look as casual as possible before she was about to strike.

Morgan, as quick as lightening stuck her hand in the man's pocket, grabbed the bag of coins and was just starting to make a break for it when a strong grip encircled her slim wrist. Morgan felt her stomach to a flip-flop.

"Well, well, well. What have we got here?" The man finally looked her way and the sadistic smirk that had settled on his gaunt, hawk like features was thoroughly unsettling. She gulped and struggled against his grip, but to no avail.

"I believe you have something that belongs to me," he said, hunching over so that he spoke directly into Morgan's ear with his voice that sounded as slippery as oil. His breath was hot on the side of her face. It was clear that his intentions concerning Morgan were less than honorable.

But then, just like in the; her body reacted to the situation like it had a mind of its own. Morgan's leg shot out and landed right where the 'sun don't shine' as her mother used to say, and as a result the man immediately let go of her wrist doubled over in pain. Then in another flash of movement she was behind him and gave his rear end a firm kick that sent him sprawling for a change. And then, she was out of there running as fast as her little legs could carry her. Though she did look back once, and what she saw was the man still on the ground clutching his groin, surrounded by a group laughing men with their harlots attached to their arms doing the same.

On her way back to the alley, Morgan took the long way around the square to make sure that she wasn't followed, and she didn't stop running the whole way.

Continued…