Emma stood at the helm of her ship, following Rumpelstiltskins' instructions for the treasure. According to him the riches were being kept on the King's prized ship, The Jewel of the Realm. It was on its way to the King's allies in order to buy their support in the war. The King was a tyrant, he cared little for his people and rarely looked out for their best interest. Instead he exploited them and dragged them into wars for no reason, those not in his personal service or his navy didn't trust him. They saw what the wars did, they took the most important thing from them; their hope.
Emma was a pirate, she didn't pretend to have strong morals. But she didn't like it when she would walk into a town and see small children begging in the streets. Mothers holding baby's too weak to cry or worse yet, young women selling their bodies on the streets. That was no way for people to live, so Emma took small portions of her share of the treasure and gave it to people. Maybe she could keep one little baby from going hungry or a young maid from selling her virtue or make sure that a poor little boy or girl had shoes on their feet.
Emma blew a strand of stray white blonde hair from her face and lifted her face to the sun. The rays of soaked into her skin and warmed her to the core as the wind pulled at her grey silk shirt, she adjusted the red sash that hung about her waist and hung her thumb loosely in it.
This Jewel of the Realm would be worth it...if it carried as much gold as Rumple had told her, she could satisfy her crew and take care of an entire village. She would find it and she would make the difference, she might be a pirate...but she could still be a savior.
Killian paced the deck of his ship, constantly adjusting his blue uniform. Everything was running smoothly he was sailing towards the last known location of the Black Swan, he'd been trying to find out more about her. But all he knew was the name of her ship, 'The Raven Saint'. It made no sense to him, why would a pirate want anything to do with "sainthood"? He shook his head, and why did she go by 'The Black Swan' while her ship was 'The Raven Saint'? Pirates.
"Lieute-Captain...I'm still not used to it." A young officer grinned.
"You're not used to it." Killian laughed, "Try being the one being promoted." The young officer laughed and gave Killian a nod, before he leaned up against the rail of the ship and looked out.
"Do you know anything about this pirate?" He asked, turning to look at his new captain. He studied him intently, he wasn't sure how old he was...in his late 20s? 29 maybe? His brother, Liam, was in his 30s and a good reliable sailor, he wondered if the man before him could follow in his brothers footsteps.
"Not much, just the name of the ship and their alias." Killian sighed, looking out at the horizon.
"You know, my brother's ship was attacked by this pirate." Killian jerked up and looked at the young man standing beside him, William Hawthorne if memory served correctly. "He told me, they weren't quite what you'd expect. Not nearly so rough as what's rumored, they'd taken the cargo...asked if anyone wanted to join their crew. Then they disabled the ship, nothing too serious...just enough to keep them from following. But that didn't shock me as much as the last bit, according to my brother, the captain...was a woman."
"A woman?" Killian looked shocked, what woman would want to live around a bunch of violent, vulgar men? And what kind of woman could control men like that? Killian looked out at the deep blue water and then back at William. "If that's the case...that is some woman."
"Alright men! You know who or rather what it is we're looking for!" Emma's voice rang out as her feet thudded across the deck. A few scattered "Ayes!" echoed through the assembled crew. "We'll do this the same way we do any raid! We don't kill unless threatened, we only crippled the ship enough so we can board and we take as much treasure as we can!"
Cutter gave his captain a grin as he stood beside her and felt a certain measure of pride for her. He'd watched the little tyke grow up and when Captain Flinty died he'd made old Cutter promise to watch out for her, the little blonde haired princess had stolen the Captain Flints black heart and shined a bit o'gold out of it.
"We are looking for the Kings vessel...The Jewel of the Realm! We will find her and we will take every bloomin' bit of treasure that we can find. We'll show the King what happens when he picks fights with people unable to fight back! Well, we can fight them can't we boys? What d'ya say?!" Emma bellowed.
"Aye, Captain!" The crew shouted as one. Emma gave bold smile and nodded her head.
"Then back to work! And keep an eye out!" Emma, watched as her crew scuttled back to their duties before turning to look at Cutter. "Was that a rousing enough speech for you?" She grinned, trying to keep the men from killing and just focusing on treasure when they plundered was hard. Every time that Emma had a ship in mind to raid she always planned a speech to both remind them of how it was done and rally them to action. But, Cutter had informed her last time that she need to be more rousing and...brief.
"Aye Captain. Short 'n sweet." He gave her another of his toothy smiles and headed off. Emma stared out at the crystal blue waters as her hair blew in front of her face and she sent a silent prayer upwards to whoever it was that was in charge of fate or destiny or whatever you'd call it. She prayed that this would all go according to plan.
But, does anything ever really go according to plan?