Emerald's POV

I walked out onto the deck, the evening air was cool and refreshing. It was exactly what I needed in a time like this. It was exactly what I needed, fresh air, good air, and no darkness. Oh, well, the darkness of the night was coming, but it wasn't the same. The night was fine, the night was peaceful. It was dark, sure, but it didn't have that same terrifying magnetism. I didn't want to get near that, ever, I would not let that consume the world. I would not be taken in.

Ray was being, strangely nice to me. He said he didn't have anything against me, I was just keeping him from Mel, and I wasn't anymore. But, still, it seemed a little sudden? Maybe he was making up for lost time? Or maybe he was a little socially awkward himself, or maybe there was something malicious behind this. Honestly, who knew? All I knew was the advice that they told me earlier… just roll with it, roll with it and take things as they came. If it turned out Ray wanted to be friends, cool, if it turned out he was going to betray me… then, I would deal with it then, wouldn't I? At least now, I had a bunch of pirates to back me up. If he made a move, I ha people to back me up. I didn't have just him anymore… and I had Strider, too. Things were a whole lot better now than they had been at any other point in my life. Even though we were up against a terrifying enemy… things were better than they ever had been.

Once we were all gathered on the deck, Jesse stood up on a raised platform and pulled out her sword. She seemed to use her sword for a lot of things… She took out her sword and tapped it to the ground. Everyone, who had been sort of mulling about before, now stood at attention.

"Thank you for all gathering so quickly." She said. "First of all, I would like to welcome Emerald as a brand new apprentice member of our crew." Something about hearing that made me feel really special, really… really special, wanted. I finally belonged somewhere… after all these years, I finally belonged somewhere… and it felt really nice. For once, things were looking up for the dud.

"Also, I would like you to welcome Ray, Strider, and… uh, old coot… as our official guests."

The pirates turned around and gave us some sort of salute… thing. I wasn't exactly sure what it was. The captain did it to. They had… a lot of respect for us, didn't they? Was that weird? Or was it? Were pirates acting like this a normal thing? I meant… they could have some code of ethics or whatever… like gentlemen thieves or something like that? I had no idea. But, it was nice, all the same.

"Very nice. Now… They have agreed to help on our quest to combat the darkness. Emerald is a princess that escaped the capital, and Ray is her partner. They both will be invaluable in our crusade. We are having this meeting now in order to ascertain our position and create an action plan. I would like Emerald and Ray to come up and speak, and then we will open the floor to discussion." Captain Jesse finished and gestured for us to come up to the raised platform. She wanted us to speak to the entire crew? I wasn't used to speaking in front of people.

I sort of froze up, what in the world did they want me to talk about? I um… No, I really didn't know what to say, this was sort of a problem. I had never gotten far enough with the princess thing to do public speaking. My dad always did it instead… his big grandiose speeches. I never thought I would miss him, and I still didn't, but this was the closest I had ever come to missing it. But… back to the present, I had to say something, and I wasn't sure what was going to come out of my mouth but… there were a bunch of sky pirates looking at me expectantly.

"Hi… I'm Emerald I'm from, uh, I'm from the capital, or, what you guys think of as the capital. I just thought of it as the whole kingdom. Anyways…" I froze up again, but this time… Ray put a hand on my shoulder and gently guided me away from my spot on the deck, taking my place. What was he doing? He was going to… make the speech for me?

"I am Ray, heir to the throne of the world legends come from. We have seen the darkness in this world that threatens to swallow up all that that it touches, that threatens to end this world as you know it, and we find it deplorable. We find it unimaginably horrible. We vow to help you, and do anything and everything in our power to stop this darkness from swallowing the world, to dethrone the dark king and dismantle his court. United, we cannot fail."

I didn't know if he was done yet, but he was cut off by thunderous applause. Seriously, someone down on the ground might have mistaken it for thunder. That would be kind of funny, assuming they didn't catch us because of it, thunder without lightning.

"Wow, Ray! That was incredible!" I said, as he got off stage. Captain Jesse started talking after that. She took questions and comments and suggestions from her sailors. It was pretty incredible, seeing the teamwork between them. They seemed to get through so much, they all seemed like they were all on the same wavelength. Or, rather, that they were on some sort of… average wavelength… like, they all had different opinions, but they all worked well together. Ray and I sort of stayed out of it, even though we had just as much of a right as anyone to have our say… The thing was, we didn't know much about the area, what we were doing, exactly. We didn't know what would be best for the crew. We hadn't been around long enough.

When all was said and done, our plan was pretty simple. There was a major center of trade nearby, about a day away from where we were. The ship was running a little low on supplies, and with a handful of new mouths to feed, they needed to stop and get supplies. While they were there, they would also keep an ear out for the local gossip, which would give us a clue for what to do next… We could find out what the dark court was up to next and put a stop to them… At least, that was the plan.

Well, I said 'we' but we wouldn't actually be going anywhere. We would be staying here, on the ship, to actually start practicing magic and learning to fight and such. This was a great solution to the previous problem of me being too recognizable. If I was hiding in the clouds, on a ship that nobody could ever track down, I wouldn't be found. I'd also get the benefit of going to town without any of the danger, because other people would be going for me. The only thing I regretted a little was that I wouldn't get to see this center of trade up close and personal. I was very curious as to how the people of this world lived, and I wanted to help where I could… and I couldn't help from up here. Then again, I wouldn't be of much use if I was captured, would I? So, overall, the best thing would be for me and Ray to stay there.

After the meeting, the crew dispersed, Back to their daily duties, I supposed. It took a lot to keep a ship like this afloat, I was sure. And yet, I wasn't asked to do anything in particular. I would have been happy to help out, to solidify my spot as a part of the crew, but… nothing. I looked around a little bit for Captain Jesse or First mate James to ask them what my assignment was, but I couldn't find them. Well, no, I did find them, but they were so busy and so surrounded by other crew members that I figured now was not the time to be bothering them. So I finally settled on just… taking some time to rest. A lot had happened in the last few days… a lot. I needed some time just to… process it all. So, I pulled up a deck chair by the edge of the deck and sat and thought for a long while. It seemed Ray wandered off elsewhere. That was fine. He was free to do as he pleased.

A cloud from the bottom looks like a flat image, like someone posted wallpaper for us to look at, but above them, among them, you can see clearly that they are, in fact, three dimensional objects in space. You get a much… fuller, richer look at the world around you, from a perspective you didn't have access to. No wonder birds seem more free. That was what these last few days were for me. The world got turned upside down, and now I could see it as a three dimensional object, rather than a flat one. The capital was a flat little place, a fantasy within a fantasy… worthless and meaningless in this real world. Everything I had ever known. There was very little value to it. But, uh… that was ok. I was learning now. I would no longer be ignorant. I heard the cries of the people, of the world, and I was going to listen to them, and respond with everything I had.

When I got Ray, I thought that was it. All of my problems were solved. My life's journey was at its end, and now I could spend the rest of the time becoming great, like I knew I was meant to be. Ray… had a different opinion, though. And now we were of the same opinion once more, which was a relief, honestly. Being at odds with the soul that is connected to your own, that does something to you, not being in harmony. It's like, there's a certain fatigue that comes with it, and now I was free of that. Ray had done an excellent job speaking, and we could both get what we wanted. We could both get ou happy endings…. Or, die trying. Still, I felt his words from earlier resonate deep within my heart. United, we could not fail. A group of talented people, all heading in the same direction, using all their efforts and resources to make a single thing happen. Not even Arceus himself could stop a group like that. That was, assuming I could even take Arceus at face value. He had visited several times, yes, but was there some trickery in that as well? I would have to ask. I almost didn't want to ask. How much more could get shattered, how much more?

"HEEEEYYYY!" A nosy finge jabbed at my side, breaking my train of thought. I turned around, bewildered. What in the world was happening, what? This, um, there was a kid next to me, her finger firmly jammed in between my ribs. She looked like she had no intention of taking her finger away, either. She was… maybe 12? No older than that. What in the world was a kid that age doing on a pirate ship? This was a pretty dangerous place to be. I hadn't seen any other kids here, either. That didn't mean there weren't any kids, of course. I hadn't seen this kid at the meeting that supposedly had all the crew members at it. Although, looking at her, that miiight have been because she was too short to be seen among the other, fully grown pirates.

"Uh… what?" I asked. Not in a rude way or anything, I just wanted to know what exactly it was she wanted.

"You're from the capital, yeah? A princess from the capital, huh? Huh?!" She had this huge smile on her face, like I was some kind of new toy to her. Some sort of novelty that she could play with. He eyes were practically sparkling.

"Yeah… that's me. Who are you?" I asked, a little on the defensive. This seemed like the type of kid who had no filter and would just do whatever they felt like, with little to no regard for rules or consequences.

"Me? I'm Millie, Millie the great!" Millie put her hands on her hips and struck a confident pose. I couldn't help but smile a little. She reminded me of some of the kids I used to explore with. I wondered how they were doing… I wanted to rescue them. They were just as trapped in this awful place as I was. The only way I could rescue them, though, was to defeat the evil that lurked inside the capital… to destroy my own family. That was what it sounded like it was going to take. It was either that or somehow convince them to turn against this dark master. I would try to do that, but if I was being honest, I had my doubts as to whether that was possible…

But now was not the time for that. I would… I'd… I'd cross that bridge when I got to it. I would… I didn't know what I would do, if it came down to that…

"Uh… hello? Princess? You still there? You're not allowed to ignore me like that!" Millie yelled, her face directly in mine. I blinked and backed away. Little girl was a little scary, huh?

"Yeah, yeah. Sorry, I was just thinking you reminded me of some people in the capital. Nice to meet you, Milie." I stuck my hand out for her to shake. She looked down at my hand, then back up at me, then back down and back up a few times… Did she not understand a handshake? I put my arm back down. "Uh, anyways, what was it you wanted, Millie?" I asked.

"Tell me everything about the capital! I've been all around the kingdom but I've never been there. It's the one place I know nothing about. None of us really do, or they won't talk about it with me. What is it like, tell me!" She demanded. I didn't super appreciate the demanding nature in which she asked, but I was used to it, for sure. I decided to let it go. After all, I wasn't her parent or anything. I really had no right to parent her. But, uh… where were her parents? Did she have parents? Were they somewhere on this ship? Why did they let her on the ship?

"Well, uh, the capital is nice. It's a lot different than here. Everything is this clean white rock and people live content lives. But I guess they can do that because our government preys off the rest of the world. I didn't know that. I thought everything was self contained… like we grew our own food and materials and stuff. I guess it was kinda stupid of us to think that. I mean, I vaguely knew there was some sort of trade or something, I don't know. Seems that wasn't the case though. There was no trade, only plundering innocent cities. Isn't that ironic. The pirates weren't the ones doing the plundering. Then again, maybe that was just a story told to make you guys sound bad, the biggest thorn in the dark court's side."

"Hmmmmm. The people don't know the king is doing this. That's pretty stupid, if you ask me. Sounds like the people in the capital are a bunch of idiots." Millie said, sneering. She probably was pretty easy to scare if I really wanted to, this type of superior attitude… it was to cover up for something, some weakness. I wasn't trying to take her down, though, either. I just knew not to take that attitude too seriously.

"Yep, and me along with them." I laughed it off, and she laughed along with me. Seemed this was just her sense of humor or something.

"MILLIE!" A pirate woman ran up to the two of us, she had bright red hair tied back in two messy low ponytails or low pigtails or whatever you called that style of hair. It was hair that sort of matched Millie's, which meant- "I'm sorry, Emerald. This is my daughter, Millie. She gets excited, if not a little nosy, a little, uh, bossy." She turns to Millie. "I told you not to act like that in front of the princess."

"Sorry, ma." Millie said, but I could tell she didn't mean it, it was just a formality for Millie, nothing more, nothing less. Something she was made to say, that didn't actually mean very much to her.

"Uh, it's fine, actually." I chuckled. "I don't want to be the princess, here. I'd really like to just be part of the crew, if that's possible. I just want to adventure with you guys and make the world right again. Undo what my family has done to you all. So, please… don't treat me special." I scratched the back of my head, chuckling awkwardly.

"She's just like any of us, right, ma? She wasn't on the ship and now she is. Cept me." Millie puffed her chest out. "I was born on this here ship, and I'll die on it!" Millie's clearly very proud of this. Her mom, who's name I hadn't gotten yet, was very clearly not as fond of this attitude.

"Millie, no, don't talk like that." The mother frowned at her, then looked back at me and brightened back up a bit. "It's meal time in a few moments, Emerald. I advise you get there quickly. Food goes fast around here, especially the good stuff."

At the mention of food, Millie immediately perked up and ran off in the direction of what must have been the dining hall of the ship. She really wanted whatever that good stuff was. The mother looked after her child and sighed. She looked at me as if to say "kids, am I right?" and then rushed off in the direction of her child. So Millie was born and raised on this very ship, huh? That was fascinating. She was raised by the whole crew, I imagined. What an interesting life. I would have to talk to her more, find out more about what that was like. For now, though, it was dinner time.

Have an awesome day!