Emerald's POV

Man, I loved being in the ocean .. yep, this was the best. I loved everything about this, not annoyed at all. No, Ray, no, don't mind me, I'd just swim. Swim in the ocean with… who knew what was down there, could be all sorts of horrible dangerous creatures or gross things in the water or like, something that would eat me. It was cold too. I knew I made him mad but he didn't have to toss me into the ocean. He didn't have to-

But at the same time, I understood why he did it. I just, I couldn't, I knew all the things he was saying were right, and it wasn't my place to ask him to just start over here with me. I did make him wait, but that wasn't my fault. I tried to have the ceremony on time, I really did. I didn't know why I couldn't do it, I was just… I was the dud, like everyone used to say, I was the dud, and that was why I was so useless. And now I was in the middle of the ocean, being dragged forward by the guy who was supposed to be my partner. We were supposed to be adventuring buddies. Maybe… maybe I had built up the expectations in my mind so high, Ray could never have lived up to it anyways. I wished there was a way without losing everything that made life worth it, everything I had ever worked towards. I couldn't just give everything up. Why'd it have to be like that, where one or the other of us lost everything? He wanted me to give up everything…

If I were a bigger person, I might have done it, too. But… I was always a failure. I did some crazy things to try and up my magic, and it meant everything in this society.

But…if it was made stronger by pain and death… if magic demanded life energy, sacrifice of the soul or… whatever this was. Was the worth of magic in the first place misplaced? If it fed off the pain of others… I shook my head. That meant everything I knew… ever… was wrong. No, no time for that right now, I had to keep swimming. Ray was lucky I was a strong swimmer. Otherwise… I might have downed here, and my corpse dragged along, just below the ocean surface. That wasn't a fun image. I wondered if someone's magic could stand to gain from something like that. That was all kinds of messed up and I wanted nothing to do with it, still, I couldn't help but picture some guy in a dark and heavy robe laughing maniacally over my dead body as my soul's essence was absorbed into him to increase his own magical prowess.

My sisters… There was no doubt that was how they got so strong. Was that what… separated the strong from the weak when it came to magic? Who did these depraved things… all that… death, the murder of villages, of innocent people? No wonder I wasn't any good at it, then.

Wait, what was happening to me, I was being… hoisted up in the air? What? My eyes went wide as the ocean got further and further away from me. I was flying? But, I wasn't doing anything, this was not of my own volition, which meant this was the result of somebody else's will enacting upon me, someone else's magic… or Ray was just flying higher and dragging me upward. I looked up to see if I could see anything physical was hoisting me upwards. Nothing was, that was what I thought but I figured I would check.

And so, up I went, and higher and higher… if it was Ray, how far up was he going? I was pretty sure there was only so high he could go. If he went too high, I was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to breathe. He could get away with exceedingly low oxygen, but he couldn't go past a certain point. And me… I needed a lot more oxygen than him. I hoped… he wasn't trying to kill me, to threaten me with death so that I would send him back. Was he that desperate? Or he knew I wouldn't send him back, so he wanted at least the satisfaction of making me suffer? No, no that didn't make a whole lot of sense… if he was that sadistic, he would want to be nearby. Plus, there were a lot easier ways to kill me than that. So, what was up? Why was he going so-

Oh, haha, I got it "what was up." Wordplay. Wow, even in situations like this, I couldn't help but follow every single thought like a little scurrying creature. That was going to get me killed at some point. It had already gotten me in trouble countless times in my seventeen years on this planet.

And then I saw it… something huge in the sky. It was too dark to tell what it was. Whatever it was, I was going up toward it. Was it friend or foe… friend or foe. Knowing the world… I was pretty sure it was foe, or at least this was the best thing I could assume. Everything was more likely out to get me than help me. What a cruel world. What was it… over there, it was big, it was wooden, I think. What was this thing? Was it, the shape kind of looked familiar? This was… a boat? Yeah, that's what it was, like the boats that were in the lake, but it was a huge, and I was going right to the bottom of it. But, it was weirdly in the sky? A… flying boat? I had never seen anything like that. But, I supposed, with the right amount of magic, with the right amount of… that which made magic powerful, I supposed anything was possible. Where was Ray? Was he on the boat? But then, how was he hoisting me up, and why was he on the boat in the first place? Questions flooded my mind as I inched closer and closer to the boat's bottom. Closer… closer… and then my face squished against the bottom of the boat, and then I still felt myself being pulled, like whatever was pulling me was trying to pull me through the boat itself. When it tried pulling me a couple of times, I started to drag along the side of the boat, my face and body dragging along the outside of the boat. Well… this was pleasant. Yep, yep, just getting my face dragged on wood paneling. This is exactly what I wanted in life.

And then, after a long, long time, way longer than it probably should have been, my face felt the cool air. It was no longer pressed up against the wood. I opened my eyes and saw a big burly man with a beard. That beard was something else, thick and orange and unruly, dirty, like the man had not washed himself in quite a long time. Behind him, I could see a Pokemon who was unmistakably Ray, although his head had been covered with a black bag, and he was tied up and limp, probably unconscious. My eyes widened, what did they do to Ray… what were they going to do to me…? Oh… what was I supposed to do here? Strider, if Strider was here… he wouldn't let these pirates kidnap me… he still needed to be paid.

"STRIDER! HEL-"

I was knocked on the head and fell unconscious, too.

When I woke up, the first thing I saw was, not the face of the burly man, but a sleek and stylish… powerful looking woman. Who was this? I immediately wanted to know anything and everything I could learn about her. She seemed so… exactly what I wanted to be, the spirit of adventure…

"Who are you…?" I asked. In lieu of an answer, she did nothing but pull out a sword and point it towards me. It was very close to me, a thin, sharp, but effective blade it seemed like it could slice through very existence itself. I didn't know why that phrase popped into my head, but it did. Ok, cool, she was a big sword lady, that didn't answer my question, though… who was she? And how could I be like her? And also here were we and was I about to die? Probably. That was not good… um, so what could I do to get out of this life-threatening situation?

I chanced a look around me, a little, and saw that I was just at the same place I was before, the deck of the flying ship. It was nearly dawn, I could see. The sun was just starting to peak over the eastern sky. That was… a new experience as well, seeing the sun rise over the horizon, usually, you know, the kingdom's walls were quite high… or, the capital's walls, I guessed. The place I knew as my kingdom was only the capital, and this was the land I was the princess of. These thieves and killers and crazy beings were my people… that was a hard pill to swallow. I always thought, you know, there would be other people out here, cool people with different ways of life. And, well, this was that but I wasn't expecting so much… vulgarity of character. Oh, now I was sounding all sort of stuck up. I was just… a sheltered child after all, huh?

Anyways, the sun was just beginning to rise, there was nobody else on the deck except for this lady… Ray was next to me, tied up, still knocked out, too. It must have been hours since I was knocked in the head. Ray was still out… that didn't make any sense. He must have been knocked out several times, or at least twice. Or maybe, something was keeping him asleep.

"The anesthetic will wear off eventually, he isn't dead." She said, she had a deep, authoritative voice and shook me, it reminded me of that same quality I heard from that guy in the robe that my family called dark lord or something like that. It was a very intimidating quality. The only thing was this was unmistakably female and the other was unmistakably male. I wondered if they were dating or something, that would be weird and hilarious. I didn't know why I thought that. But um, past how she said it, what she said… what did she say? Something wearing off… but she didn't know what that word was.

"Anesthetic?" I asked. I was, very confused, was this some sort of magic? She had never heard of this type of magic before, if it was.

"He's asleep, he will wake up." The woman said, then sighed and put her free hand to her face. "You guys in there really are hopeless, aren't you?" She said. I… had absolutely no idea what she was talking about.

"What…?" I asked.

"In the capital, you don't know anything in there. I'm surprised you aren't dead yet, Emerald."

"How do you know my name?" I asked.

"You are a princess. It would strange if I didn't know about you. Although, honestly, it was nothing but a pleasant surprise, running into you two." Running into us two… so they saw Ray and captured him, and then pulled me up by the tether and captured me too. Um… how did they manage to do that? I had thought, if I was pulled by the tether, then Ray was being pulled way far away and our tether was still at the full length but… no… he was right here, right next to me. So how did they manage to do that? Did they have a lot of powerful magic too? And this, anesthetic thing… Did they kill a lot… were they going to kill me too on the altar of power?

"What are you… going to do to us?" I asked, glancing over from Ray to the woman. I was really… afraid, and fascinated. I wanted to learn more about her. But, um, the thing I wanted most of all was not to die here. It was too much to die here, I had people to save, I had things to do. And yet, there had been so many threats to my life recently.

"I'm going to be very honest with you, Emerald… I'm not sure what we're going to do with you yet. However, you are too valuable to just let go. So… you two will be staying here until we decide. And, by the way, those bonds suppress magic, so don't try anything, ok? It may not look like it, but this ship is a little tricky. It wouldn't do to have a magic fight here." She said. She made a show of slashing her sword through the air, inches away from my face, and then sheathed her blade. She was… incredible. But, there wasn't time to think about that right now.

"There's nobody else here." I said, frowning. I mean, there was the burly man from before, but I didn't see him anymore. Where was everyone? Don't tell me… this woman took on everyone herself? That was absolutely incredible! That… wow, if that was true, I didn't even have words for that.

"They are asleep below deck. It's a little early for pirates. I'm just here to watch you." She explained. Pirates? She was a pirate? A pirate in the sky? That… something about that sounded really cool. I didn't know about this, though. I had read about pirates. They were amazing adventurers, but also ruthless and such. They could live by their own weird ethics code, like some thieves did, or they could just… just not follow any rules. Those were the types of people you had to watch out for, those who didn't have a set of rules that they followed, a code of ethics or something. If they didn't, you had no idea what they were willing to do.

"Oh." I said. I didn't, um, I didn't know what to say to that. When I thought about it, it made a lot of sense. The sun was just rising, of course everyone was still asleep. "Are you tired?" I asked, I didn't know why I was being this considerate for a person who had just pulled a sword on me. It was just… I didn't know what to say, you know? It seemed like she was sort of done talking, I wasn't about to try to escape with her right in front of me. That seemed like a really stupid idea. And, well, so there was nothing to do but either try and talk with her, or do nothing. And, I really didn't like doing nothing. I liked to keep moving, even now, my body was wiggling a bit, my toes were tapping and such.

"Yes. Why do you care?" She said. "I'm not going to be lulled to sleep, if that's what you are asking. I am not going anywhere until the next shift comes to watch you." She said… she said she was tired, but she really didn't look it. This woman was on high alert. Now that I thought about it, it was only natural she was a pirate, she looked like the various pictures of pirates I had seen in my life, what with the slick flowing jacket and all. I loved the aesthetic. Pirates had been used as a threat before, something I might find if I went to the ocean beyond the walls of… the capital. I was still getting used to thinking of it as a capital city, and not a whole kingdom. I had never been afraid of the pirate threats, and never let it go and stop me from trying to get out there and explore all the same.

"Just trying to make conversation. There's not a whole lot for me to do here." I gestured to the bonds on me, and to Ray, my only other ride. I um, I was just kind of stuck here. There wasn't really anything I could do to escape, not yet, at least. I might try to find a way, maybe when I didn't have this pair of sharp eyes on me, with an even sharper sword.

"Oh… um… alright." She said, like she was considering if I was a worthy of having a lot of conversation with. If that was the best idea, she thought and thought for a little while. I almost considered trying to escape, she looked so distracted, but it was a stupid idea, so I declined that idea. "Sure… what do you want to talk about?" She said, she might have been more bored than anything, to talk with a prisoner.

"Who's… the captain?" I said, that was the first thing that came to mind, anyways.

"Me. Did you think it could be someone else?" She raised an eyebrow, perhaps a little offended, even. Oh, I didn't want to offend her. I didn't realize she was the captain. It wasn't that she didn't seem like she could be captain, she just, um, I dunno, I just didn't think of the captain as taking a dawn guard watch. Couldn't she just get someone else to do it and then get some sleep, herself? That would have made a lot more sense.

"Well, just, you're here, watching me… when a subordinate could do that. You could be getting some sleep. You have that authority as the captain, don't you?" I asked.

"Typical princess thinking." She shook her head and laughed a little, like she… pitied me? Felt sorry for me? What did she mean typical princess thinking? She saw my confused look and shook her head again, then started to explain. "That you can just pass off duties to your team members whenever you want. On this ship, we all chip in. We all have duties. We don't pass off responsibility to anyone else. We chip in and lead by doing. It was my turn to do guard duty, so I'm doing guard duty. You just happen to be there to guard. If anything, I'd take other people's shifts, not make them take mine. Lead by doing, you know? Or… do you not actually know anything about being a leader… even though you are royalty?"

I had… nothing to say to that. I guessed I didn't know a lot about being a leader. I never really went and tried to learn about it. I think Lilly tried to teach me about it a few times, but I didn't pay very much attention. I put the entirety of my attention on learning magic, there wasn't any time to also learn to be a leader. When was I going to be in the position to lead people, anyways? I was royalty, but in a kingdom I did not know, and the ones who did rule were trying to kill me because I would not blindly follow them. I didn't know enough to be a leader… but, if I did lead, I would call dibs on the shifts during the day, forget being up late at night. That sounded incredibly lame.

"I guess I don't. I'm a bit of a special case. Or, that's what they said to be polite."

"Outcast, huh?" She said.

"Yep." I replied.

"Hm…" She scratched her chin for a moment. She looked like a person who was very thoughtful, and did not move forward until she had things clear in her mind. But when she did move, it was fast and deadly. "Why are you being this friendly to me?" She asked me. "You know I'm more than likely going to kill you, right? Well, it might not be me directly, but someone on this ship."

"Um…" That was a super amazing question. I um, I had no idea, no real logical reason. I just, I guess I didn't feel maliciousness coming from her. I should have but something felt different about her. I sort of… wanted to follow her? Was she that good a leader, that she could make even her enemies bend to her will? That was pretty crazy. I thought the best thing, probably, was to just tell the truth. "I think you're really cool, and there's not a whole lot else to do." I answered. She did not seem to know what to say to that, exactly.

"You're a weird kind of kid, aren't you?" She said. She seemed to look at me, or maybe through me, or maybe inside of me, I had no idea what it was she was doing, exactly. Was this some sort of magic, or simple perception? Who was she… she was so cool. She exuded confidence. She could completely destroy me in a single blow, or take on an army, I was sure, I had no doubt. She was incredible. Or, maybe it was just me making things up in my mind, my crazy little mind. Maybe my imagination was getting away from me.

"Yeah, I suppose I am." I said, chuckling weakly. She thought a little more, and then smiled at me mischievously.

"How would you like to be a pirate, Emerald?"

Have an aweosme day