StarfishOnTheBeach- Yeah, I know. I forgot to turn on Spelling Check on my computer and I'm horrible with typos and spelling. Anyway, I fixed it and I saw your story this morning and changed my name immediately. I don't really like this name better, but I'll find a way to make it work. And thanks, I think. Nice to know my awesome story writing kept you from being pissed. And I do usually check the spelling, just forgot.

Mandy had been living with her father as a pirate for 5 years. She was now 11 years old and already promising to be one of the best pirates ever to live. In other words, she was Jack's pride and joy. He told her stories about his many adventures and he let her meet many of his old friends, who always seem to like Mandy much more than her father. He taught her thee secrets of pirating and how to man and run a ship. He had her work with the crew, cook, and clean. He often played swords with her, only they used fake wooden sticks. Today was her first day of Jack actually teaching her how to use a real sword, even though he taught a lot with the sticks.

"Now, the most important thing about sword fighting is to remember its dangerous. One mistake and you can have a sword drove in your chest. So it's a good thing to know what you're doing, even if you are immortal, I imagine it still hurts."

Mandy nodded solemnly, hanging on her father's every word, as usual. The crew was watching and promised to help her with her training, too.

"Well, you already know the basics, let's fight."

The two fought and Jack toke it easy on her. She blocked, parried, and stroke with ease. After a while, he let the crew have a go at her and she did just as well. They were certain she'd grow to be the best. As she sat down to catch her breath, Fortune wrapped around her legs and meowed expectantly. The gray cat had come to replace the monkey as the ship's pet. And ever since they had arrived, no rats had ever been found among the ship.

She picked him up and pulled him into her lap and stroked his head. She loved her life. She loved the sea, she didn't think she get ever part from this life. She had originally wanted to go back to her mother some time, but changed her mind somewhere along the way. She loved this too much, no matter how much she missed her mom. And most importantly, she loved her father.

She looked out at the endless vast of water and wondered where they were going and why. Her father had his own reasons for doing things and you could never simply guess just on knowing him. She never questioned her father, but his crew was becoming very skeptical. Even she was on the edge of asking him what was going through his head. The only one who know was Gibbs, the first mate. He was also the only one Jack saw fit to tell exactly what Miranda was and how she got there. He trusted his crew, but not with everything.

She stood up and, after checking to make sure she had no chores to be doing, knocked on the Captain's quarters door.

"Who be it? Gibbs?"

"Mandy."

"Oh. Come on in, then."

She stepped through the door and looked around. She slept with in the room with her father, only ever since age 10 she slept on a little hammock set up in a corner. It was comfortable enough. The room was messier than she remembered leaving it that morning and looked at what all her father had dragged out. On the desk was several maps and charts, and a lot of it had been thrown on the floor after it usefulness had been lost. It seemed they were heading toward an island west of the Florida Peninsula and just north of the Bermuda Triangle.

As she bent to pick up the mess on the floor she called, "What is all this, Dad? What's on that island?"

Jack paused before answering. He had refrained from telling her about it so far, but he told her everything else, and decided he'd better tell her this. "On that island, is the most valuable treasure known to man, yet the most overlooked. It may make us the most riches pirates to sail the seven seas." He smiled when he saw Mandy's eyes grow wide.

"What? What is the treasure, Daddy?"

That moment Gibbs came in through the door. "Ah, you're telling her about that aye?"

"Aye, well, darling, the treasure is... Knowledge."

"Knowledge."

"Yes, you see, there is a library on that island that contains all knowledge of everything on earth. If we can remember and find the right things, we can become extremely powerful and rich, imagine." Mandy did imagine. She imagined all the information in the world but in books in one library on one tiny little island.

"It'd be impossible to find the right information."

"Well," said Gibbs, coming into the conversation, "that is why..." He and Jack went in to a speech describing the plan and all they learned of the library, and what they would look for when they got there. But Mandy was only half way listening. She was thinking about this library. If it really did contain all the information in the world, then it should have something about people like her. It could answer her questions. Like, what happened if she tried to carry out someone else's wish without her wanting it too? Something her mother had told her before she had gone away was that the age seventeen was supposed to be a sacred and dangerous year for people like her. But what made it so?

When they finished explaining, she spoke again, "I have two questions to ask. One, what information do you want and why?"

Jack sat down and motioned for her to too. "The last time I saw your mother, I left her on a tiny island that was along a popular trade route. Don't worry I gave her a gun and a bullet to signal a passing boat," Her mother? He never mentioned her mother, ever! "She told me lies to try and con me into staying, but I didn't believe them and left her there. It was for both of our sakes. I have reason to believe that one of the lies maybe true and I know another one is true."

"What are the lies, Dad?"

"The one that maybe true is that there is a treasure that can grant you powers to rule the winds and tides. The one I know is true is that she was with my child," he said while ruffling his daughters hair.

She grinned his grin and asked, "What were the other lies?"

"There was only one other lie. It was that she loved me," his voice sounded very depressing at this point.

Mandy nodded, thinking of how when her mother told her stories about him, she refused to paint him in an ugly light or say anything directly rude about him. She didn't know if this was because she didn't want her daughter to have a bad idea of her father or if she really loved him.

"Did you love her?" she asked innocently, looking up into her father's dark brown eyes.

"I-I, uh-"

"Well, if you did or not, i don't think she really told you a lie," she said honestly. She really thought her mother loved her father.

"Oh, Why, err,"

"I still have one more question," she announced.

Jack was happy to change the subject and replied, "Sure, go ahead."

"I was wondering that if while we're at the library, if I could go look for books about, well, people like me."

"I'd take her watch after her, Cap'ain. I'd be happy, a bit curious about her me self," said Gibbs for the first time in a while.

"Fine, fine. That's a splendid idea, actually."

Mandy went back to picking up the mess on the floor when she noticed something on the maps, "You're having us sail through the Bermuda Triangle?"

"Sshhh! You don' want the crew hearin' that," hissed Gibbs while Jack shrugged.

"You're full of questions today, daughter dear. I thought you only had two that had to be your fifth."

"Dad, that is mad, you can't sail through there, we'll all die!"

"No we won't. You'd be surprised at the things you can survive. And you won't die," he said cheekily.

Gibbs cut in, "Look, we're only going through that little corner there near the Florida shore, we'll be out in no time. If we go around it'll add months to the voyage."

"Mandy, can't you go see if the crew needs your help with something?" asked her father. Mandy had already finished cleaning the room.

"Alright. But if I come in to that mess again, I'm cutting off your hair in your sleep!"

After she left, Gibbs turned to Jack and said, "She's like her father, ain't she? She has your smile, laugh, and sense of humor."

"Aye, but she got her mother's temper. Sometimes you can hear a slight Spanish accent in her voice."

"Wasn't her mother the one you had 'stirrings' for?"

Jack was silent for a moment before saying, "Yes, I had 'stirrings' for her."