I want to thank everyone for taking the time to review!

Okay guys, second chapter coming at ya. Be forewarned that characters will be speaking in the diction used back in the 1400s and onwards. I really hope this doesn't annoy anyone too much because it's kind of fun for me to write like this. Plus I think it gives the story a little more authenticity. Which sounds kind of dumb when I remember that this is about fairytale beings, but whatever. It was also pointed out to me that since it's the 1400s at this point in the storyline, contractions don't exist yet. Davy will still use contractions of course from time to time, making her speech stand out a little more in comparison to others.

Chapter 2: First Encounter

"Darkness always had its part to play. Without it, how would we know when we walked in the light? It's only when its ambitions become too grandiose that it must be opposed, disciplined, sometimes –if necessary, brought down for a time. Then it will rise again, as it must." –Clive Barker

1418

It was the sudden unmistakable dread and terror of a fellow Spirit that called out to Pitch, that which lured him out of the shadows and onto a ship adrift at sea. Ever since his downfall at the Guardians' hands nearly twenty-one years ago, he had been greatly weakened. He'd lost so many Believers so quickly that it had practically left him staggering and gasping for air almost desperately.

He now spent his nights slinking from bed to bed, searching for a way to make the children Believe in him again, and struggling to maintain the Believers he still had. The ominous noise of floorboards creaking, an almost inaudible thump coming from the closet or down the hall, of tree branches scratching at bedroom windowpanes, the shadows twisted into horrible monsters creeping along the walls and ceiling. Pitch threw every single trick he knew at them, getting almost no results for his efforts.

Oh, the little ones reacted easily enough, shivering in their beds and too afraid to investigate where the noises were coming from. Pitch could always get them to scream for their parents when he rose from underneath the bed, creating shadow-like claws that reached out to drag the child into the darkness forever. But adults quickly soothed their fears, saying that he was only a bad dream and more often than not the Belief that they'd felt towards him was taken away within moments after being born.

It was a torturous cycle.

It was also much more difficult to affect older children now. Most of the time, they merely slumbered through his scare tactics. Those that did wake up were able to reassure themselves that his attempts were simply caused by the wind. Their reactions, or rather lack thereof, left Pitch with a bitter hollowness in his chest that felt like humiliation and tasted like failure.

Before the Guardians, before his defeat, everyone had feared him, even the adults. He had stood behind them in broad daylight and whispered such irrational fears that the humans had instantly clung too. "Witches art in thy village, such vile and horrible creatures; they wilt turn thee in to a toad if thou art not careful." "Medicine? Lies, that be not healing, tis sorcery. They art trying to steal thine soul." "There art Demons living in the forest, keep thine children inside and send them to bed early so that they may be safe."

Such foolish superstitions, but the humans, no matter their age, had believed him simply because of their fears. It had made Pitch laugh, seeing the humans swarm over themselves like rabid dogs, picking off the weaker ones for simply being different. "For surely anything that is different from thee must be inherently evil." Fear had been so abundant then.

And now there was almost nothing left. The Guardians' and their light had chased away his fear and darkness. The world was changing rapidly. Man was now calling what used to be the Dark Ages, a Renaissance of all things. New things, changes, humans used to fear such ideals. Now they welcomed it, embraced it, and went looking for an adventure. It infuriated the Boogeyman to no end.

But then, whilst he was making rounds in a small fishing village just off the coast of Spain, Pitch had sensed it, the delicious fear that came from another Spirit. He hadn't wasted the opportunity, even if the Spirit in question had turned out to be one of the Guardians. It had been too long since he'd tasted such a potent terror from one of his own kind. And he had felt weak for too long. Damn the risks.

It had puzzled Pitch at first, when he arrived on a ship with white sails, and he looked over it with little interest. He had found that sailing to discover new lands was the only good thing to come out of this… Age of Enlightenment. Humans were afraid of the beasts that lurked beneath the deep. Fears of krakens, of angry sea gods, and seducing creatures that led sailors to a watery grave. It was in those superstitions where he could find the most fear nowadays.

Children sailing to the New World were afraid of all these things and more, afraid of the storms that battered into the ship, afraid of the powerful waves that could run them aground, afraid of drowning. Yes, in Pitch's opinion, sailing across the treacherous seas was the best thing to be inspired by this new era.

He carefully crept onto the ship, hiding in the shadows as he observed his surroundings. It appeared normal enough from what he could see. The ship seemed to lack any cannons, but there was always the chance of them being stored below deck. Barrels rested at random intervals, extra rope was stockpiled in areas that might have need of it in case of an emergency, but something still struck him as different. Looking about, a flutter of black caught his eye and he spotted a large dark flag stationed at the top of the mainmast. It had a white skull and a pair of crossbones sewn into the black fabric and he idly wondered what the ominous symbol meant.

As he took a closer look, Pitch realized that the ship seemed strange because it was clean in the most impossible ways. The sails were as white as clouds when they should be stained yellow from the spray of the sea. The decks shone with dark varnished wood, missing the scuffle marks and grime that he'd seen on so many other vessels. The barnacles and salt trails were missing from the lower sides of the boat and the riggings had yet to be covered in rust, instead they glinted sharply in the quarter-moon's light.

The ship looked new, too pristine and too perfect. It only made the Boogeyman suspect that the ship itself was just like him and the Spirit he was hunting, intangible to non-Believers. A gift from the Man in the Moon no doubt, much like his Dark Cave or North's Workshop. Pitch, however, must have let himself become too distracted by his investigations. He felt something heavy drop upon him and he instinctively began to struggle, entangling the thing around him even further.

"All hands on deck, all hands on deck!" A feminine voice from above him shouted, and he cursed as he heard the response to the woman's shouts. Feet stampeded below the deck, vibrating through the wooden boards he was now laying on. Pitch felt the thing, a net he realized with no small amount of disgust, tighten around him as the woman dragged him from the safety of the shadows and out onto the open deck. Damn those wretched Guardians a thousand times over. He could have escaped easily if he'd still had the power he'd possessed some twenty years ago.

Pitch glowered at his captor, seeing that he was now surrounded by a crew that was entirely made up of women. There seemed to be a standard uniform among them, each with different variations. Their britches instantly caught his attention as they seemed to shimmer in the moonlight a little. There were different colors, various blues, greens, reds, purples, and each differently tinted so that none of them were the same. The shimmering material went from their hips down to their shoeless feet, seemingly blending into the skin at their heels and waists, and he realized that the odd material was actually apart of them.

For their shirts, each woman wore an alternated version of a plain white blouse. Some had long sleeves, others were ruffled, a few were cut at different lengths, the hems ending in the middle of the stomach, or opened at the collar, revealing the cusps of their chests. No matter what style, none of these women seemed to share an ounce of modesty as each seemed to exposing their skin one way or another. He felt unseemly just looking at them and adjusted his gaze accordingly by focusing on their faces.

The color of their hair ranged from various shades of blondes to brunettes and redheads. In their tresses, the women had styled themselves with shells of all colors and shapes, taking away even more from the uniformed look and making them stand out as individuals. Not that they needed it as they were mostly from different ethnics. Each woman was good-looking, he supposed, but there was more to it. They exuded an otherworldly glow that made them appear all the more enchanting. Pitch quickly shook off their allure and glared at them warily.

"Tis a man!" One of the women shouted. It didn't sound like she was upset with his presence on their ship, rather the opposite. "Dost thou think the Captain will let us keep him?" Pitch wasn't sure whether he should be worried or not at this point.

"Oh, I hope so. I would like to play with him for a time." Another Spirit added and he felt a smidgen of apprehension begin to build in the back of his mind. "How long dost thou think we have before the Captain arrives?" As the women began to argue about how much time they had and what they wanted to do with him, Pitch caught himself hoping that this mysterious captain would arrive soon.

Davy woke up with a jolt, her breathing a little strained, as she tried to focus on where she was and not on the nightmare she'd just been having. She slowly sat up on the bed and rubbed at her tired eyes. Mind still in a daze, she let her gaze roam over her bedroom, the captain's cabin.

Manny had already gifted the room with everything she could ever need, but after five years, Davy had added her own things to it. Her bed was just a tad too small to be classified as queen sized, but it was still too big to call it a Double. It was dressed in the same sheets and blankets that Manny had given it, continuing with the color scheme of blues and seafoam green. She had a couple of different sized pillows and a rather unique pink one that was shaped like a starfish.

A small chandelier hung in the middle of the cabin, the candles now partially melted from use. A row of windows took up most of the back wall, looking out over the ocean and providing adequate lighting during the day and on clear moonlit nights. Some candelabras had been strategically placed throughout the decently sized room to give off extra light when needed.

A large mahogany desk resided in front of the windows near the corner of the room, books and maps of the New World spread out on top of it, becoming slightly cluttered by her slowly growing collection of literature. A big wooden globe of the world showing the Lights of Believers was setup a little ways from the desk, resting by a mostly empty bookcase and tucked into the very corner of the room. Davy knew none of those Lights were for her, but she hoped that someday soon that would change.

Then there were her personal effects that she'd added to the cabin. A vanity table with a large mirror had been pushed up against the wall near her bed, the dark colored wood blending in perfectly with the room's décor. The vanity's draws were filled with impressive jewels and trinkets that Davy had plundered over the years from sunken ships. She'd discovered a few years ago, after a particularly brutal spar with Sandy where he'd thrown her overboard, that she could breathe underwater and could swim as fast as any Mermaid. A knock came from the door, bringing Davy out of her stupor.

"Yes?" She asked, the question sounding more like a croak. She cleared her throat and tried again. "What is it?"

"Captain, thou art needed on deck. Aegean caught an intruder onboard." Undine said from behind the cabin's door.

"Aye, I'll jus' be a moment." Davy replied tiredly while shaking her head to wake herself up. She climbed out of bed and went to the vanity, grabbing a brush and quickly running it through her tangled light blue hair. Her eyes trailed over her face, taking in the changes from her rebirth as Davy Jones. Her freckles were still there, but her eyes had changed colors, once where they'd been hazel they were now seafoam green. Her lips had changed too, turning a bright pink color, looking glossy and making them stand out against her tanned skin.

Reaching into the draws, Davy pulled out some jewelry. Four gold bracelets, two placed on each wrist, a pair of jade earrings, a matching jade ring, and finally a gold chained necklace that had a simple pink starfish ornament at the end. She then stepped over to the trunk that rested at the foot of her bed and pulled out a naval captain's coat. It was black with gold buttons that went down the front and up along the sleeves. The trim was white and she'd stitched a small pink starfish onto the lapel, resting just a few inches below her collarbone and over her heart. The coat's length was long, stopping at her calves, with a slit going up the coattail that ended near her upper thighs.

Davy had to roll back the sleeves so that they wouldn't irritate her fins, which turned out to be very sensitive to any form of touch. She stumbled over to put on her boots, minding her leg-fins, adjusted her sword into place, and grabbed her hat before leaving the cabin. As she arrived on the upper deck, Davy saw her crew quickly pull away from something huddled on the floorboards. It was a man, which explained what the commotion was all about, but he was wrapped up in a net, making it difficult for her to see who Aegean had captured.

"Avast ye scallywags, back up and let me see what scurvy codfish be tryin' ta stowaway on me ship." Davy called out harshly, effectively quieting down her crew. They had long since stopped laughing at her pirate brogue, which tended to make her sound pretty intimidating when she wanted it to. She moved closer and blinked in surprise at the Spirit who they'd somehow caught. "Well shiver me timbers, if it ain't Pitch Black."

"Ah, so thou has heard of me." Pitch drawled, somehow looking not at all bothered by the fact that he was trapped in a net made of enchanted seaweed. "Tis a shame that I cannot say the same." It took Davy a few seconds to recover, genuinely taken aback at seeing him in person, at the way he talked, but she quickly performed an exaggerated bow, earning a round of chuckles from her crew.

"Beggin' yer pardon Mister Black, the name's Davy Jones and I be the Cap'n o' this vessel. Now, if I may be askin', what business have ye bein' on me ship uninvited-like, as it were?" Davy asked with a roguish smile, making no move to free the man just yet.

Ever since meeting Sandy five years ago, Davy had wondered about who she was going to run into next. Meeting Pitch had become a daydream that she'd entertained herself with, each made-up scenario more unbelievable than the last. She'd never imagined meeting him like this, trapped in one of her nets, but it didn't make the fact that she was actually talking to him any less exciting.

"Well then, Davy Jones–"

"Captain Davy Jones." Davy interrupted, while raising a finger that she then proceeded to wag at the Boogeyman. She heard Coral share a giggle with Java and Bering quickly shushed them both, making the captain smile a little at her crews' antics. "Forgive me horrid manners, Mister Black. Allow me ta introduce ye t' the finest crew ta ever sail the seven seas. Thar be Adriatic, Aegean, Arabian, Baltic, Bering, Black," She paused to smile. "No relation to ye of course, Caribbean, Caspian, Coral, Flores, Halmahera, Ionian, Java, Kara, Koro, Laptev, Luzon, Mawson, Mediterranean, Molucca, Okhotsk, Persian, Red, Salish, Sibuyan, Timor, Visayan, White, Yellow, and finally me First Mate, Undine." Each of her shipments gave their own greeting, ranging from an excited hello from Coral to a reserved nod from Undine.

"A pleasure, now if thou dost not mind, I wouldst rather like to be free of this net. It smells foul." Coral giggled again before whispering something to Flores that sounded suspiciously like, "Tis handsome and humorous." The creeping smirk on Pitch's face told Davy that she wasn't only one who heard this.

Davy nodded to her crew, Mawson and Salish stepped forward before the others could, and removed the net. Pitch stood after a moment, his lanky frame finally straightening out, making him the tallest person aboard the Flying Dutchman. He was ridiculously tall in fact, with the top of her head just reaching his shoulders, and she was 5'8". Manny hadn't messed with her height or anything, had he? Instead of feeling intimated by him, like she probably should, Davy only felt giddy. A part of her wanted nothing more than to gush about how awesome she thought Pitch was. She restrained herself, if just barely.

"Now then matey, if yer comfortable, how can I be o' service to ye?" Davy asked cordially, knowing that Pitch couldn't have caused her earlier nightmare. She clearly remembered him admitting in the movie that it had taken him a long time to learn how to change Dream Sand into Nightmares. But his appearance was a bit too coincidental for her liking. Had he sensed her bad dream? The Captain grimaced as she recalled her nightmare. She remembered feeling hopeless, the sound of rushing water, and of someone screaming her name. The nightmare was hazy now, Davy couldn't remember what it was about, only that it had shaken her badly.

"I was attracted to this magnificent vessel by a… scent, a feeling really." Davy felt her breath catch somewhere in her chest as her seafoam green eyes met Pitch's silver-gold irises. She could tell just by looking at the way his gaze studied her intently. He had come to the ship because he'd sensed her fear, her nightmare.

"That doth not excuse yer skulking abound the ship like a bilge rat." Undine retorted harshly and Davy smirked at her First Mate, amused as the woman shot her an accusing frown. Undine had disliked her pirate brogue from the beginning, claiming it made her sound like an uneducated fool. Needless to say she'd found it hilarious when her First Mate had accidentally fallen into a similar speech a year ago. Undine had been mortified. She slipped up every now and then, usually whenever she became tired or angry. It was only a few words here and there, but it made the Captain very pleased with herself all the same.

"Indeed." Pitch agreed amiably as he nodded his head and gave them all a sharp smile. "And had I known this ship was governed by such fair maidens, I would have introduced myself properly." Davy held back a smirk as she heard another one of her shipmates titter. Oh she knew what Pitch was doing; he was trying to flatter his way out of this. She had to admit that it was a good tactic too, her crewmates adored men.

"Ah, 'fraid it were me own doings that led ye aboard me ship." Davy said, pointedly looking away from her gawking crew as she answered Pitch's earlier explanation. "Perhaps we could take this ta me cabin?" She suggested lightly and the girls turned to whisper to each other in excited tones. "More a private matter really."

"I would not wish to intrude–" Pitch began while trying to back away, but the crew of women rushed forward, none too keen to see the male leave their company so soon.

"Oh thou art not, believe me." Red purred as she pushed Pitch forwards and the Boogeyman stumbled, looking caught off guard for a moment. Coral promptly wrapped herself around his left arm, tugging on it playfully to gain his attention.

"It has been so long since a man boarded the Dutchman." She giggled, absentmindedly twirling a locket of her long, curly blonde hair with her fingers.

"Actually, there has never been a man onboard." Yellow added as she latched onto Pitch's other arm, pressing her shapely body against his, her straight dirty blonde hair swaying against the small of her back.

"And what of the Sandman?" Undine pointed out, she and Davy being the only two women who hadn't swarmed over to Pitch.

"Ooooh, I love Sandy, he is adorable!" Ionian cooed, getting a similar response from the other crew members.

"True, but Sandy is not quite… masculine." Visayan muttered shyly as her cheeks turned a soft pink, almost matching her short strawberry blonde hair in color. "Mister Black on the other hand…" She trailed off there as her blush deepened, making some of the others hum and titter in agreement.

Davy watched Pitch's reactions, from his surprise at being greeted so warmly, to the bold compliments her shipmates was making about his physique. He seemed a bit stunned and unsure of how he should react. Instead of looking anyone in the eyes, he kept his gaze focused either on his feet or on a part of the ship. She chuckled, it was rather endearing to see the Boogeyman so befuddled and out of his element because of a few pretty women.

"Wait, thou knows the Sandman?" Pitch asked, finally able to get a handle on the situation now that he had something familiar to focus on. "He has been here?"

"Aye, first met the little man five years ago shortly after Manny made me Davy Jones. We meet on occasion. He makes his nightly rounds on me ship and I get ta enjoy the company of a friend." She answered, making a few of the women who'd wanted to answer Pitch pout in disappointment. "He be a good listener, as well as a mighty fine sparrin' partner." Now that little tidbit made Pitch's eyebrow-less ridges rise slightly.

Davy turned to her crew, rolling her eyes as she saw the girls staring avidly at Pitch. The few that had managed to cling to him didn't seem ready to let go anytime soon and the others looked on jealously, waiting for a chance to slip in and steal their spots. She sighed and shared a look with Undine. Separating Pitch from the crew so soon would not make them very happy with her. Still, she wanted her shipmates to show at least a little decorum.

"Alright me hearties, let the man go. Ye be needin' ta get ta work anyhow. Sunrise be due in an hour." Davy stated calmly and her crew instantly protested. A chorus of moans and objections answered her in kind. "Belay that!" She shouted loudly, making the entire ship fall silent. Even the Wind stopped pushing the sails, leaving an eerie silence in her wake. The crew stared at her silently. "Now I gave ye an order and yer to follow it without complaint, savvy?"

"Aye aye, Captain." The crew of the Flying Dutchman chorused, sounding professional for the first time all night. They all still managed to squeak in their flirty goodbyes to the Boogeyman, some even reaching out to touch the Spirit before leaving, and promptly jumped overboard.

Pitch leaned over the railing, eyes widening as he saw that the crew of women turned out to be a crew of Mermaids. He recalled the way the material of their britches had gleamed in the moonlight and realized it was because they hadn't been made of any sort of material at all, they were scales. Stunned by this revelation, he could only stare as the one called Coral waved to him, flipping her dark pink flipper once before joining the others underwater.

"Bet ye didn't see that one comin'." Davy said as she smirked at the stunned Spirit.

Pitch instantly regained his composure and straightened himself out as he placed his hands behind his back, looking uninterested as the last Mermaid disappeared from sight. Admittedly, he was handling it a lot better than she had. Davy had gawked at them for a good twenty minutes the first time she'd seen her crew take on their real forms. Sandy hadn't even blinked, he'd just stood there, smiling as the crew of Mermaids cooed over his extreme cuteness.

"Thar be somethin' ye wanted ta say Undine?" Davy asked after a moment before turning towards her First Mate, taking in her rigid posture. From the corner of her eye, she saw Pitch step back quietly, taking refuge in the shadow cast by the mainmast, silently watching the two shipmates interact.

Undine was definitely one of the prettiest women among the crew. Her long dark brown hair had streaks of blonde running through it, looking far more natural than Davy's light blue tresses. Her scaled legs were a dark green color and her white shirt had long sleeves that were slit from her wrists to her shoulders. The collar was cut a little deep, but the end of the shirt flowed outwardly, covering her stomach completely. She wore some jewelry, a few silver bracelets on her wrists and a necklace with a seashell attached at the end. Unlike the rest of her crewmates, Undine did not decorate her hair with seashells, but instead she braided it, tying it back with a simple dark green ribbon.

"Permission to speak freely, Captain?" The First Mate asked, making Davy smile warmly. Maybe it was because of her position, but Undine was the only Mermaid she was close to. Her crew was of course her friends; she depended on them and appreciated their company. But Undine stayed around longer, pulled her into conversations beyond normal greetings or reports, asked how she was. The Captain frowned; maybe it was incorrect to call her crewmates her friends. They were friendly certainly, but they were more like coworkers now that she thought about it. Undine though… she was definitely Davy's friend.

"Always."

"I do not think it wise for thee to be left alone with him, Captain." The Mermaid said while sending the Boogeyman a withering look. "Thou knows who he is, what he has done."

"Aye, that I do." Davy agreed easily with a small smile on her face as she too looked over at Pitch. Seeing him standing ominously in the darkness, she could understand Undine's caution. Even though he was no longer the big bad threat he had been years ago, it didn't mean he couldn't be dangerous. "Don't ye worry Undine, if Mister Black here were ta try anythin' untoward, he'd have done it already." She continued before patting her First Mate on the shoulder. "Now get goin', thar should be a few men out on their fishin' boats by now."

"Aye, Captain." Undine sighed before turning back to glare at Pitch one more time. He gave her an unimpressed look and she dived into the sea, the water instantly changing her scaled legs into a tail with a light green flipper replacing her feet.

"Shall we?" Davy asked as she turned back to Pitch and gestured towards her cabin. He nodded and followed her into the room, all the while sticking close to the shadows.

Unsurprisingly, the Captain's quarters proved to be just as pristine as the rest of the ship. Pitch let his eyes roam over the room, taking in the layout and plotting out possible escape routes. Fortunately there were plenty of shadows in the cabin. His eyes landed on the globe and he moved towards it. It was a simple thing compared to his or North's. It only came up to his elbows and was cased in a wooden stand that allowed it to slowly rotate without being disrupted. As he looked over the globe, his eyes lingered on the numerous Lights of Believers. There were a few scattered in the New World, but there were some on the seas as well.

"Can I get ye a drink?" He heard the woman ask from behind him and Pitch turned to see that she'd already shed her coat and set her hat on the back of a chair. "'Fraid all I've got be rum, though." She added afterwards as she set down two glasses and held up a half empty bottle of alcohol. Pitch barely held back a sneer, knowing that the quickest way to get answers was to humor her. Still, he did not wish to speak with such an illiterate Spirit, nor did he enjoy having to decipher her butchery of the English language. Forcing a smile, he nodded.

"A drink would be pleasant. I thank thee." The Captain nodded and poured him a glass, looking more tired than she had out on the deck moments ago. Pitch took it, studying the amber colored liquid drearily, before looking back at her, watching with hidden disdain as she downed her drink within a few short gulps. She sighed happily and licked her unusually bright pink lips before pouring herself another glass.

"Ah, thar be nothing quite like a shot o' rum ta start the day." The woman said as she leaned against her desk, frowning as if she just realized that she had only one chair in her cabin.

"Thou spoke earlier about how thee was the cause of my coming here?" Pitch began as he perused her small collection of books. Most were recordings and findings about the New World, but he spotted a few fictional works such as the Odyssey and Iliad.

"I had a nightmare." She answered simply and Pitch furrowed his brow at the unfamiliar word.

"A night-mare? What is that?" He questioned and she looked up at him in confusion before understanding suddenly took over her features.

"A nightmare, as they'll be called in the future, be just another word for bad dreams." She replied before taking a light sip from her glass. Pitch did the same, grimacing somewhat as the harsh liquid burned against the back of his throat.

"Oh, thou can see the future then?" He scoffed slightly, barely holding back an eye roll at the new Spirit's claim of being a seer. He doubted that even the Man in the Moon had that kind of power.

"Not all of it, no." The woman shrugged, clearly uncaring that he did not believe her.

"Tell me, dost thou have any Believers yet?" Pitch asked, the sudden shift in subject catching her off guard. The Captain followed his gaze, which was focused on the globe the Moon had given her. She sighed before shaking her head, a sudden deep tiredness burrowing itself into her back, making her shoulders slump a little.

"No, me crew does though. Ye'd be surprised how many young'uns Believe in Mermaids, though I suppose we have the sailors ta thank for that." Davy said as she took a deeper draft from her glass. Five years and she still didn't have any Believers. She honestly hadn't thought it would bother her as much as it did, she'd never really cared about kids before.

When she'd been alive, she'd never gone out of her way to impress children, but they'd always sought her out, acting as if she was the coolest person in the world. At parks or parties they would flock to her for some reason, each wanting to spend time with her even when she wasn't doing anything interesting. She'd acted like they were a pain when her friends or other adults were nearby, groaning on about how they wouldn't leave her alone. Then, when no one was looking, she'd wink at the kids and chase after them in a game of tag. Their adoration had come naturally. Now though, there was this incessant desire to be seen by the children, for them to Believe in her.

Davy was pretty sure that this desire was a side effect from becoming a Spirit. Or maybe her maternal instincts were finally kicking in.

"Thar will always be superstitious men on these waters. I'll have me own Believers, someday." She didn't look at Pitch as she said this, but out the row of windows, her eyes trailing the moonlight that reflected off of the waves.

Pitch hummed in response, studying the Spirit in front of him whilst she was engrossed with her own thoughts. She was fairly tall for a woman, perhaps around 5'9", but he noticed that her boots also had a bit of height to them, meaning she was most likely 5'8". Her figure was shapely and like the rest of her crew she was striking, though unlike them, she carried no glamour that continuously tugged on his mind. Her beauty and charm, what little there was, were all her own.

He had no doubt that what she said was true; humans had already made up various tales about the sea. It was very likely that the name Davy Jones would be somewhat known in a decade or two. Pitch briefly wondered if she would be as well-known as the Guardians or as himself one day, but he doubted it. Only so many children would be at sea, her numbers in Believers was already limited.

"This bad dream, was it truly so frightening?" Pitch offered after a moment, ready to leave, feeling that he'd spent enough of his time in the woman's presence. He'd only come to the ship to harvest her terror, which was now gone. It was still early enough for him to return to the village and reap some fear from the children there.

She nodded while staring at nothing, appearing haunted by the memory of her dream. Pitch felt his interest peak as the fear he sensed from before returned, only to a much lesser degree. It was a deep-seated fear though, the kind that turned men into cowards and left children traumatized for years.

"Can't tell ye much about me dream, I barely remember it. I can only say that it filled me with dread." The woman's shoulders tensed, hands clutching her drink tightly and Pitch took a closer look, trying to determine the cause for her dread.

There were some basics fears on the surface, an old fear of spiders and a growing anxiety of never being Believed in. Pitch paused at that, it wasn't an unusual fear. Almost every Spirit experienced it at some point, but it still managed to take him by surprise for some reason. Finally, he came to the terror that she was currently reliving, the one that had been caused by her bad dream. It was a clouting feeling, one he had only ever sensed from those in peril, facing the very real chance of death. As curious as he was, Pitch didn't dig any further than that. His interest in Davy Jones was already starting to wan. He had Believers and a reputation to salvage.

Pitch set his barely touched drink on the desk and nodded at the woman before disappearing into the shadows. Idly pondering over the amount of fear one little bad dream had created. He was so lost in thought, he didn't even hear the Captain's soft farewell.

"See ya round, Pitch." Davy muttered as she watched the man vanish, his mind seemingly preoccupied with something else. "Don't stay away too long."

~Dark Waters~

Whew, that was harder than I expected. Pitch isn't all that difficult to write, but I was hoping he would have turned out a bit snarkier by the end of this chapter. Oh well, stiff and proper Pitch worked just fine. I liked having him not too sure of himself when he'd been surrounded by Davy's crew, it was adorable. As you can see, Davy already has this weird openness around Pitch. We haven't gotten a broader view on her characteristics yet, but we will during the next couple of chapters.

Ye olden time speech is actually turning out to be a pain to write. I can't wait for the story to progress so that the dialect becomes more modern. Though Davy will still keep a bit of her pirate brogue as I've decided to make that one of her weird little quirks.

For those curious, I got the Mermaid's names from a list of seas around the world.

–Hexalys