There was a general rule that every citizen of Tortuga and Eagle's View seemed to understand; never get involved in matters that are of no direct concern to you. The city was simply too dangerous to become entangled in the affairs of others, because more often than not these problems revolved around unlawful things. Most citizens already had enough problems without being persecuted by the law for something that had nothing to do with them.
This was, invariably, the way things went the night Rainne's father died. To a foreigner, it might have seemed odd that none of the neighbours had rushed out and tried to douse the fire that consumed The Sanchez residence, or jumped to defend a man's life as he was beaten by a gang of pirates. Locals, however, were simply following the ancient rule and refused to meddle in other's business.
As a matter of fact, none of the people living in Eagle's View had come into contact with Rainne since that fateful night. Not one. Her home now lay in a pile of ashes and smoking, charred beams of wood long past any hope of salvage or reuse. She had buried her father in the dirt on a grassy hill not to far away from the house. The ground had been rocky and dry, and her hands had been the only tools for digging available to her. They now sported many scratches and a few bruises to match the rest of her body. Rainne had taken inspiration from the natives of the land and she had piled rocks over the grave, marking the spot as well as protecting it from scavenging birds looking for a meal.
A fortnight had since passed, and Rainne had had ample time to relive the murder of her father. To say that she was confused was an understatement; she couldn't think of any reason why her father had been murdered by a band of pirates that Rainne had never laid eyes on. Neither did she have any idea what the man Jonas had been talking about. She struggled to remember the details of that last conversation.
"Do it now Barbary, and think on our dead friends that this man has murdered," was what he had said to the man with the pistol. Her father had murdered someone?
Confusion was not, however, the only emotion that Rainne had felt recently. Most notable was hatred, which reined constantly. Hatred to any who dared call themselves a pirate, for they had by association murdered her father. All pirates were drunks and killers and Rainne had never felt so disgusted and infuriated by the thought of them. Not infrequently had she imagined her revenge on the murderers who had paid her father a visit.
She felt absolutely alone and terrified. Her father was gone, and there was no one else. She had been living in the woods near her father's grave since the incident, simply because she couldn't bear to be away from the one person who had been a constant presence in her life.
Between all of these raging emotions, Rainne had also pondered the very reason for this death, the reason why the men had come to her house and the reason that they blamed her father for multiple deaths. It simply didn't make any sense. Her father had been a workingman all of his life and had never been affiliated with these brutes, and yet… If he hadn't known them, why had he acted like he understood what they were talking about, and why had he defended himself against their accusations? These thoughts often overwhelmed Rainne and she pushed them to the back of her mind.
One thing had made itself abundantly clear. Rainne needed to track down these men, for whom she had two names; Jonas and Barbary. She would find them, and use whatever means necessary to discover the true nature of her father's past, if, that is to say, there was anything to learn in the first place. And so, Rainne decided to venture into Tortuga and begin her search for the men.
As she walked, she realised the danger she could be placing herself in. She was hunting down a band of murderers in Tortuga, unarmed, unaided and relatively untrained in the art of combat. She would need a sword to defend herself, as well as whatever other weapons she could find in the city. The more she thought about it, the less likely her chances of success became. Who would anybody in town give her, the unaccompanied young woman, information about a band of pirates? Things like that simply didn't happen in Tortuga, not to mention she would be the last soft of person who could be expected to ask those kinds of questions.
Rainne frowned. There was only one option then, she would have to dress like a man, and a pirate at that. Her frown turned to a scowl. Despite her loathing the idea, it was the only way to incur trust into the people of Tortuga to provide her with the information she so desperately needed.
She arrived in town looking a wreck; from the dirt and grime all over her, to the torn and singed clothing and scrapes all over her arms and face, it was a peculiar sight. Rainne scrubbed most of the dirt off, and entered a nearby shop which sold men's clothing and accessories.
"How can I help you, miss?" An aging woman shuffled to the front of the store, pausing briefly to stare at Rainne's scraggly appearance.
"I was looking to purchase some clothing for my father," she quickly lied.
"Anything in particular, miss?" Rainne made up a quick inventory in her head.
"Yes, actually. I would like to purchase a shirt and jacket, as well as a pair of breeches and a hat." The hat was essential to hide her rather feminine, long hair.
"And what size of clothing does your father take?"
"He's about my own size, only a bit rounder in the midriff." Rainne was suddenly nervous. She had to make sure there was nothing resembling a woman after she changed clothing or the plan would all be for nothing.
"Here we are miss," the woman called a few minutes later, and she jotted down the price in a book of records. "That'll be sixty three shillings then."
"Right." Rainne dug her hand into her pocket. Her stomach dropped and she felt ill all of a sudden. She didn't have any money; it had burned along with all of her material possessions in the fire.
"Uh… could I return to purchase the items later?"
"Certainly, I'll put them under the counter for you."
"Thank you very much!," Rainne gushed, a feeling of panic swelling inside. She quickly left the shop, well aware of the older woman's frowning gaze on her back. As the door closed behind her, Rainne sank down to sit against the wall, feeling absolutely hopeless.
***
It was sometime in the dead of night when Rainne crept back to the store she had left earlier that day. As she moved, she cursed repeatedly under her breath. Without money she couldn't buy the clothes and without the clothes she had no disguise and with no disguise she couldn't track down her father's murders, and if she couldn't find her father's murderers, well, she would never have her revenge. She was unfortunately left with no choice but to steal the clothing.
She cursed again. She felt as if she was becoming what she hated so strongly; a pirate. Her subconscious reminded her that this was the only way, and she had promised herself to leave money under the door if she ever returned, to make up for the stolen articles. Somehow, that didn't make this sneaking about in the middle of the night business any better in her mind.
She quickly approached the shop, making sure to stay in the shadows, and smashed the dirty glass out of the front window. Her hand groped its' way around until she felt the cold metal of the doorknob. Turning slowly, she admitted herself into the building and moved to the counter where, sure enough, the pile of clothes still lay. Well, at least there was some small amount of luck working in her favour. She seized the pile and crept back out again, dashing behind the building to seek the cover of absolute darkness.
Shortly after, she repeated the entire process, but this time her victim was the blacksmith. She felt even worse about this theft because the weapons were all expensive and someone would lose a large amount of profit because of her. But as guilt threatened to override her, she thought back to the night she had watched her father die, and rage filled her once more. She decided this was a small price to pay in exchange for the justice she would exact on the murdering scum that had victimized her father.
During her visit to the blacksmith, Rainne found a decent sword in an unused sheath, several daggers, pistols and gunpowder, and lastly a belt to carry everything. She left quickly and walked back to the forest to where her father was buried in Eagle's View. After entering the relative safety of the woods, Rainne unceremoniously dumped the stolen goods on the ground and lay down.