Chapter 1: Pulled From the Ocean

"Captain, you may want to come to the deck." Selene Celeste Fonix and her Sailing Master, a quiet man named Yukiya, looked up at the Quartermaster, Serge, a normally hyper pink-haired man who looked unusually solemn.

"Is there an approaching Navy ship?" she asked. It's too early for my wanting to deal with them.She thought. I don't know how well we'd fair at the moment.

Serge shook his head, "No. It looks more like shipwreck flotsam."

She sighed, "I'm coming." She set down the plotting tool and pushed her chair back, standing up. She headed up to the deck, followed by Yukiya, Serge, and Yukiya's wolf familiar.

Peering over the edge, she saw Luca, her first mate, down in one of the two lifeboats, searching through the wreckage. A ship must have been wrecked in the storm the pervious night. She called over to him, "Anything worth anything? Any life?"

"A few odd objects. No life as of yet." Serge said.

The ship's Gunner, Merlin, who had come up as well, held out his spyglass to his captain. She accepted it and and searched the surrounding waters. Things seemed to be mostly on the starboard side. She spotted something, "Luca!" She shouted some coordinates.

"Aye, Cap'n!" He called back, rowing the boat a little further out. Selene watched as Luca spotted the thing she had directed him to and scramble to grab it out of the water, and watched as he pulled a person out of the water and into the boat. Luca checked the vital signs of the body and pumped a fist in the air three times, the crew's sign for life. Selene exhaled. Survivor.

Luca rowed the boat back towards the ship. Yukiya and Serge lowered a smaller net, and Luca heaved the body into it and shouted up for them to pull. Yukiya and Serge slowly backed up. Merlin and Selene lifted the boy onto the deck, untangling him from the net. Luca rowed back out to continue searching the wreckage.

Selene sent Merlin to go get their healer, a young girl named Katalina, who, despite being only eleven, had a strong affinity for healing and a desire to learn (whenever the raided a Navy ship or base, they made sure that healing supplies and books on the subject, if they could be found, were among their spoils).

Looking carefully at the boy, Selene was pretty sure she knew who he was, even if she had never met him. If he was who she thought he was, then she knew his older brother better than she'd like to. If the survivor had violet eyes to go with his golden hair, there'd be no doubt as to who he was.

Katalina came rushing up to the deck, immediately going to the boy and quickly inspecting him, "Can someone carry him to the cot in my room?" Katalina's room doubled as her workspace. Yukiya nodded and picked the boy up. He left, followed by his wolf and Katalina.

"Could he be…?" Merlin began.

"I think so." Selene said.

"What are we going to do?"

"I'll figure it out." She waved her hand dismissively. "Now, if you'll excuse me, Yukiya and I still need to figure out the course. I'm afraid we may have to stop a little earlier than we originally planned. The ship took some damage in last night's storm."

Elias ached. Everywhere. His head, his body, everything just ached. His eyes fluttered open, but the room was too dim to see much, lit by a single candle next to the hard cot he lay in. He heard something and slowly glanced over to see a girl, about his age, come up to him, brushing his hair from his forehead. She was beautiful, glowing slightly in the candlelight. He tried to speak, but all that came out was a drap rasping sound.

"Shh." She hushed, pressing something to his lips, "Drink."

He parted his lips and swallowed the warm water that came into his mouth. Under normal circumstances, he would've gagged at the warm, stale-tasting water, but at the moment it tasted as good as fresh water from a mountain stream. But there was an odd taste that didn't seem to be the water.

"What…?"

"Hush. You're dehydrated and feverish. All questions can be saved for when you're better." the girl said gently. "Now sleep." She stroked his hair until he once again feel asleep.

"Now, if we take this course, we can catch the Weway current and be in Hinomoto by noon tomorrow." Selene said, "Sound about right?"

Yukiya nodded, "I think that'd be the best course. Katalina says she needs to restock as well. We also lost a water barrel that fell and broke open during the storm, among other things."

Selene nodded slowly, "We'll have to raid a Navy ship again soon. We're low on coins, too, according to Serge. Not enough to completely restock everything we need. It's been too long since we've raided, anyhow."

"I'll go change our course. I'll take the night shift if someone takes the early morning."

"I'll do it. I'll be awake anyway." Selene waved him off as she tided up her large desk. She had always been a neat person, and living on a ship only increased that. If things weren't put away in drawers that latched shut, they tended to get scattered everywhere about the room when the waves get rough. "Also, if you see Philyra, send her in, it's about time for her lessons. Katalina, too."

Yukiya nodded and left, his wolf following at a lazy pace.

The next time Elias woke was when the room jolted ever-so-slightly, and the rocking motion that had kept him asleep had faded to a more gentle sway. He sat up, rubbing his eyes and trying to remember what happened. He remembered leaving school and getting on the boat to go home. He'd been on it for several days before a storm struck. The last thing he remembered before waking up and the girl giving him water was being washed overboard as the ship started to fall to pieces.

But where was he now?

Slowly, slowly, he pulled his still-tender body off the cot and made his way toward the crack of light. It was a curtain covering a round window—a porthole—and he pulled it away, squinting at the sudden burst of light. It was past midday,and he could tell that much, and he could see that this ship was located at a port of sorts.

Which means there might be a navy crew—if not a base—that'd be able to take him home! The moment he mentioned his last name, he'd be on a speedy ship back home!

He went to the door as fast as he could and tried to open it, only to find it locked. Why would it be locked? Unless he'd been picked up by...pirates. He was a recognizable person—well, his brother and father were, but he looked just like them—and if pirates had found him, it could turn out badly. Use him as ransom against his family, or just kill him to spite his father and brother. Oh, Klaus would never let himself get in such a situation like that!

He scrambled back as he heard footsteps approaching the door, frantically searching for a weapon of sorts. The closest he could quickly find were sewing needles, which wouldn't do much. A key turned in the lock and the door opened. It was pushed open by a green-haired man with an earring and a sword strapped to his waist. Definitely a pirate. Behind him came in a small, short girl, a couple years older than him, with a tray of food that immediately set his stomach to rumbling the moment he smelled it. When was the last time he ate?

The girl eyed him warily with one grey eye—the other hidden by long black hair—as she set the tray down on the small by the door. She left, but the green-haired man stayed, shutting the door behind him and leaning on it.

"Hurry up and eat. The Cap'n will be back soon and she'll be a-wantin' to meet ya." The man drawled.

Elias eyed the man, and then the food. What if they were trying to drug or poison him?

The man sighed, and picked up a few bits of food with one hand, and dropped it in his mouth, chewing and swallowing. "Well, Prince Elias, I guess you can see it's not poisoned. Cap'n doesn't like poison, anyhow. Says it's cheatin'. I'm Luca, by the way." So they did know who he was.

Elias inched forward, only to snatch the tray and back up to the other side of the room. "Don't call me that." He snapped, "It's disrespectful to the royal family, you filthy pirate." He began carefully eating, trying not to make a mess. Proper manners had been drilled into him since he could eat real food, and kicked in even when he was caught in this situation.

The man, Luca, laughed, "Ha! I love it! It's like yer a generation behind. Well, Prince Elias, I don't hold any 'spect for your royal fam'ly. All they do is treat common folk like dirt. Throwing away anythin' they don't like." His voice held a slightly bitter tone that Elias ignored. This man was a pirate—all pirates hate the authority that seeks their lives. "'Sides, I'm pretty sure your dirtier than I am. As for bein' a pirate, yer right on. We all are, on here. But we're not going to hurt you unless you do something stupid, and the most punishment you'll likely get is a whack upsi' the head from the Cap'n. She doesn't tolerate stupid, no sir."

She. The captain of this ship was a she. He scrolled through his head of known pirate captains that were female. He could think of about three that were well-known (compared to the nearly thirty infamous male captains). Aliana "The Trickster" Cooper, June "The Siren" Crawford, and the worst of them all—Pirate Princess Selene Celeste Fonix, commonly referred to as "The Silver Flame." The rumors that flew about her were the craziest of all.

Such as her ship, which was said to be the most unusual ship in the world, fast and strong. It was said to be made of silvery materials that caused it to blend into the water during the day. She was like a phantom, striking navy ships and bases at random—or at least in a pattern so complex no one had been able to figure it out—and then disappearing. No one could say for sure what she looked like, other than she was said to have short hair and odd eyes.

You'd think Elias would know more of what she looked like, but despite the woman pirate being the main focus of his brother's energies, Klaus refused to talk about the woman who kept escaping his grasp. Admiral Klaus Goldstein was famous for capturing infamous pirates, and had managed to capture several of the most notorious captains (as well as their crews) since his promotion to admiral after catching a particularly slippery pirate gang about five years back, when he was twenty-two.

And the only one he hadn't managed to capture or kill after setting his eye upon them was the infamous Silver Flame, who was, in fact, a fairly new Captain, and had only been well-known for about three years. It had been two years since Klaus had set his sights on her capture, and he still hadn't managed to get her. And he wasn't the only one. She was just as wanted, at this point, as the Pirate King himself.

Elias finished the food on the tray—it was phenomenal, and Elias had a hard time believing it was a pirate who made it, which led him to believe that the cook might be a captured chef—and looked up at Luca, unsure of what to do.

Luca gestured to a little nightstand by the bed, "Katalina pestered Yukiya and convinced him to let you use a set of clothes, since the ones yer in are destroyed. Try not to wreck 'em. Yukiya's a careful lad, who takes very good care a' his things."

Elias went over and grabbed the clothes. He paused and then looked at Luca.

The green-haired man snorted, "Nobles. Pansies, the lot of ya. Jus' come out when yer done." He left the room, shutting the door behind him.