Chapter 4 : Eric

It had been about a week since the small boy had been adopted into the Tsubasa crew. As it turns out the boy could actually walk, though it took a few days for that discovery to be made as the trauma from what he had saw seemed to of taken away that ability for a while. The boy had been mainly keeping out of the way of the pirates, only joining them for meals, in which case he would sit as far away from them as he could get. The boy could remember that pirates were bad people, his parents had told him so, but something about these guys seemed different, they had taken care of him, and so far had been quite nice to him. Well apart from that skinny red-haired guy who seemed to hate him for some unknown reason.

Endrino was sat out on deck, in what seemed to be his favourite place, sat in a chair with his feet upon a round shaped table, his eyes where shut and he seems to be dozing, though that was difficult to tell seems as one of them was hidden behind a curtain of thick black hair.
"S'cuse me Sir?" came the voice of the small boy.
"Hmmm?" The visible eye of the bulky teen opened, and presumably the other with it. Endrino turned his head to see the small boy stood next to him. He smiled, *so finally the boy is going to talk to someone* he thought.
" Ummm.." the boy stammered for a moment, face to face with those glimering emerald green eyes, the confidence he had worked up within him self had evaporated. "Ummm… When can I go home?"
Endrino considered the child for a moment, he had thought from the boys size that he couldn't be more than 3 years old, but he seemed to speak too well for that. "How old are you miget?"
The boy paused for a moment again, he hadnt been expecting to recive such a question in response to his. "I'm 5 Sir".
Endrino smiled again, that explained why the boy spoke so well, but now he should get down ansering the boys question. "I'm afraid we cant take you home." He wasn't really sure how to explain what had happened to the boy, especially when even he didn't know most of the details.
" Why?" Came the next, obvious question. The boy was now watching the large teen pirate with curious eyes, he wasn't going to leave this man alone until he got a good answer.
Endrino sighed, trying to work out how to explain what he knew to the boy. "Well…. Some nasty guys seemed to have done something bad to your home town… so we took you onto our ship to save your life."
"Is that why I can remember people with guns, and fire?" Asked the boy.
"Yeah… that would be about right" Endrino itched his beard, talking to a child about such things really wasn't a comfortable conversation.
"Where are my parents?" came the next inevitable question from the boy. "I think they got hurt, mum didn't talk to me or hug me or anything."
Endrino frowned he knew this question had been coming and he hadnt been looking forward to it. "ugh… well…." he stammered, he couldn't work out how to get around this question.
The boy stuffled his feet and looked down at the ground. "Theyre dead, arent they? Those people in white killed them?" The boy sniffled, looking like he was going to cry any second.
Endrino's eyes went wide, *the boy had witnessed that much?* in he back of his gaze an angry glimmer flickered, he had been right it was the marines doing. The captain sighed deeply "unfortunately, yeah, that seems to be the case."
And with that the boy started to cry. Tears streaming down his face.
Endrino watched the boy for a minute, not sure about what to do in this situtaion… he hadnt really encountered kids much. Apart from his brother when they were younger and growing up. But something deep down within him told him to pick up the boy so that's what he did. He took his large booted feet off of the table and sat up, sitting the boy on his lap. " It's ok kid, I lost my parents too, You'l be ok if you stay with us."
The boy sniffled. "really?" he asked, and when the pirate nodded he sniffled again. "But I thought pirates were bad guys?"
Endrino looked up at black flag flying in the sky at the top of the front mast. "To some people, pirates are bad, and some of them actually are. But I'l let you decide if we are or not."
"Hmmmmm, ok!" came the response from the boy, who wiped the tears away from his face, and looked round at the bulky pirate, who's lap he was now sat on.
Endrino smiled. "Looks like you've got some spunk there kid, whats your name?"
"I'm Eric, whats spunk?" The boy asked, looking confused.
Endrino burst out into a hearty laugh at this question. And the boy started to laugh too, though he wasn't sure why.

After this over the next week, Eric went round the pirates asking questions and making some rather unusual friends.
He liked the little cook man most. He was nice to him and gave him treats in return for doing things like washing the dishes. His next favourite has the captain himself, he was funny and friendly, but he could get mad too sometimes, especially if someone woke him up. Isamu was friendly too, and would help him out if he was stuck with something. The giant had looked scary, but once Eric had plucked up the courage to go talk to him, he had made a great friend. The other crew members were nice too, but there was one who he didn't like. He wanted to be friends with everone but Sangrie would only yell at him to go away every time he tried to talk to him.

Eric sighed, he had been looking for Sangrie but couldn't find him anywhere. So he decided to go ask someone if they knew where he was. He went over to the captain who looked like he had dozed off in the mid-day heat again. "S'cuse me" he said, tugging at the captains vest-top.
Endrino growled, not happy to be woken up at all. "What?!" his voice showed off his annoyance.
"S-sorry Captain, but I want to know where Sangrie is?" Eric stammered, he could tell the captain was in a bad mood, and this made him nervous.
"Just leave him alone. He hates most people here, bugging him isnt going to make anything any better." Grumbled the still sleepy Pirate.
"Oh…. Ok" Eric wandered off. He sat down by one of the masts and tried to work out why Sangrie might hate him so much.
Endrino however seemed to have gone back to sleep. He always slept at mid-day, especially on a nice hot sunny day like today was.