Finally, after almost a whole night in which Luz and her friends thought they were dying at least sixteen times and in which they did nothing but continually replenish the boiler with coal, the storm subsided and the sea returned as flat and calm as a table, and with to their great relief the ship no longer seemed about to capsize at any moment. As soon as that happened, Luz literally collapsed on the deck of the ship, no longer even having the strength to keep herself up, and only the providential intervention of Vee who grabbed her by the shoulders at the last moment prevented her from hitting the back of her head on the solid wood below. Even though she too was made of wood, no one really wanted to check which of the two would withstand the impact better.

While she was lying down, Luz with an inhuman effort raised her hand towards her jacket pocket and opened it slightly. "Urgh… is it over?" Gus whispered finally emerging from it, followed by a rather tired Willow. "I felt like I was constantly on a roller coaster… hey, is it morning yet?"

"Well, we survived, that's the important thing" Masha said helping the two arthropods to go out, since Luz was too tired to even move her fingers properly and open the pocket completely. "Are you two okay?"

"Yes, we managed to avoid throwing up" Willow replied patting her head. She didn't know why, but she felt like she had a spinning top inside her brain, and now she saw everything rotating around her. "Don't worry about us, for you it was surely worse. At least we're dry. That jacket is truly miraculous: even though Luz is soaked on the outside, all the inside parts of her dress are dry as if nothing had happened"

Suddenly a loud bark called their attention. "Wow! You did very well for your first storm" Barcus said as he approached, followed by Jerbo. They both had smiles on their faces. "It's obvious that you're tough people. The first time I experienced it, I spent two hours curled up on the ground like a newborn"

"Pff! Yeah, that was a lot of fun" Jerbo chuckled.

"Don't act superior. From what they told me, you actually fainted the first time" Barcus grumbled, immediately silencing his friend, and then he turned back to the girls: "You still have a lot to learn, but you have what it takes to be excellent sailors. Why don't you join our crew? It would be nice to have some new faces around, especially if they are such nice girls"

"Are you hitting on us by any chance, doggy?" Masha giggled. Although they hadn't forgotten that the person in front of them was a dangerous pirate, they couldn't help but find the situation funny. "Sorry, but I'm already busy with Vee. And I'm not a furry"

Barcus looked down. "Rejected because I don't have scales like a basilisk... I've hit rock bottom" he murmured, letting out a whine, and then he looked at Luz: "Um... would you by any chance be...?"

"Sorry, I'm not interested" the puppet replied, barely sitting up, but miraculously managing to sit back down. "Don't get me wrong, you're not ugly to look at, but you're definitely not what I'm looking for in a guy, and I don't want to commit to a relationship right now"

Barcus became even more dejected. "And you, cricket?" he asked looking at Willow with hopeful eyes. "I have no qualms about the size difference, I can..."

"No" was Willow's curt reply.

Gus chuckled. "Yes, she already has someone else in her heart! A brave and strong wandering hunter, capable of facing monsters and taking down guards and... OUCH!" Willow slapped him in the face before he could finish his sentence.

Barcus looked desperate. "Ok... I didn't think I'd get that far... but I'm also willing to switch teams!" he exclaimed, looking at Gus. "Would you like...?"

"No" Gus replied in the same dry tone as Willow.

Barcus collapsed on the ship's deck. They had demolished him. Jerbo patted him on the shoulder. "Come on, you'll see that sooner or later you too will find someone! Try to understand them, I doubt that any of them will want to get involved with a dog. They will definitely be looking for a cool, mysterious, dark guy, perhaps with a certain aptitude for bad actions such as piracy... by the way, perhaps someone of you..."

"NO!" the five of them all said in unison before he even finished his sentence.

Jerbo looked down, just as defeated as Barcus. "Dude, I think we should get together. It would be easier than continuing to look for someone who wants us"

"No" Barcus replied.

Jerbo's eyes widened. "Seriously!? You too!? We're two bachelors, we should be in the same boat!"

"Yes, but I'm not yet desperate enough to try to get together with my best friend. I want to not go beyond this type of relationship" Barcus replied. Jerbo looked like he was about to hit his head against the wall.

Luz looked at Vee and Masha, and then at Willow and Gus, and they all had the same curious and confused look. Those pirates were absolutely not what they had imagined. Actually, silly jokes aside, they seemed quite friendly; they were no different from the normal kids they wouldn't mind making friends with. "Um… so…" Masha stepped forward and tried to make conversation. "Have you two known each other long?"

"Yes, about... two years? Yes, I would say it's been two years" Jerbo replied. "I was already part of the crew at the time, and that's when Barcus joined as well. He immediately understood that I was trustworthy, you know, canine instinct... and also we shared some interests, so we became friends"

"Wow. This seems... definitely more normal than I expected" Masha admitted. According to the stories they had heard about pirates, those people sealed their friendships through a bloody boarding.

"I assume you imagined a story of blood and swords, and perhaps with a treasure buried on an island, right?" Jerbo laughed. "We are not that kind of pirates. I don't deny that some pirates are like that, but we prefer to live in other ways. We are just a big family that goes around the sea boarding ships that seem to us to be carrying too much riches and which is therefore ours duty as good neighbors to relieve them of part of the load"

"Even if you make it sound like a good thing, I'm pretty sure you mean you rob them, right?" Vee intervened, asking for explanations to make sure she didn't offend anyone.

"Of course that means we rob them! What kind of pirates would we be otherwise?" Jerbo responded with a laugh. "But... at least we are more selective. We only attack the largest merchant ships, so we can leave them some of the cargo and not ruin them. And if we can we avoid sinking their ship. And sometimes we target the others too pirates… after all, it's not theft if you steal from another thief, right?"

"I'm pretty sure that the law doesn't say that" Willow pointed out.

Jerbo shrugged. "Maybe the law that is used on the land. Pirate law says so" he replied. "And here at sea it's the only law that matters"

Willow rolled her eyes, but she remained silent. After all, she couldn't expect too much from pirates. They had already been lucky enough to have met freebooters who at least followed a moral code and didn't just kill or enslave anyone in their way.

Luz also thought like her. In fact, she was now more intrigued than ever by those people. "How did you two end up on this ship?" she asked them.

"Oh, it's time for backstories, hm?" Barcus exclaimed, and for a moment he looked extremely satisfied. "I'll start. Before becoming a pirate I was a thief, the classic gentleman thief who stole from the rich to give to the poor, and who was surrounded by beautiful young ladies who..."

"He was a street stray who stole food to survive" Jerbo interrupted. "And I don't think that he ever had a young lady around"

"Excuse me, this is MY backstory!" Barcus grumbled, glaring at him. "Anyway... oh, fine, I admit it, I was a stray. But I was good as a thief, and partly also as a swindler since from time to time I went to casinos to play Hexes Hold'em, a card game very popular where I lived, and since I cheated I almost always won... unfortunately, however, all the thefts and all the winnings at the casinos attracted a lot of dislike from people of my town and so I decided it was better a change of scenery, so I went to the port and I secretly boarded the first ship I found. Well... it was this ship. I had intended to get off as soon as the ship reached another port, but Captain Salty discovered me in the hold two days later while I was stealing some supplies. He said that if I wanted to eat on his ship I had to earn it, so I did a few odd jobs here and there and I found that being a pirate wasn't that bad. And then here I met my best friends, Jerbo and Viney. So... in the end I stayed, and since I have some skill with seafaring duties, after a while I became boatswain"

"I instead was already a sailor when I came on board here" Jerbo told in turn. "I used to work as a cabin boy on a merchant ship, but I've always had a passion for inventions. I've always thought that the propulsive power of fire could be used to move ships and not just to shoot cannonballs. Unfortunately, my old captain didn't like me he let me experiment because he thought it was too dangerous. So I went to work on another freighter, and then another, and another... but no one let me try more than a couple of times. In the end, exasperated, I chose to do it secretly... too bad I had the wrong dosage of some ingredients and I had also added a bit of gunpowder..."

Jerbo suddenly fell silent. The girls waited for him to continue, but he didn't seem to want to. "Well?" Luz murmured. "What happened next? Your story has no ending"

"Don't mind him, he's just ashamed of blowing up a ship" Barcus said with a chuckle.

"You blew up a ship!?" the five of them repeated, widening their eyes.

"I didn't blow up a ship! Just... the front part" Jerbo admitted. "Well... let's say that the sailors didn't take it very well. While the ship was sinking I escaped in a lifeboat and all the rest of the crew started chasing me in their lifeboats. If they had caught me I don't know what they would have done to me... fortunately just at that moment Captain Salty and his crew passed by and seeing me in difficulty they made me come on board". A smirk formed on the boy's face. "When I explained to him what had happened, the captain laughed and offered me to stay here, but he warned me that if I was dead weight he would throw me to the fish. So I tried to be a good pirate... but when I had nothing to do the captain allowed me to continue my studies. Unlike the others he believed in my abilities. And then when Barcus arrived we worked even harder together, given that thanks to his sensitive ears dog could warn me when something was about to explode, and therefore I could put it out in time without causing damage... and in the end I managed to create the steam engine you see here. It basically collects all the energy emitted by the smoke from the fire and releases into the sea creating propulsion, making the ship much faster and inefficient. Thanks to this ours is the fastest ship in the whole sea... when I manage to get it started, of course, since it doesn't always work"

"Almost never actually" Barcus pointed out. "Now, for example, it's not working"

In fact the boiler had gone out again. "Yes... well, I still have to figure out what the flaw is. I suspect it's in the coal type, but I'll have to think about it a little" Jerbo said. "Anyway, after seeing my skills, the captain appointed me as the ship's carpenter and technician. And here I am"

Even though their stories weren't about blood and death, they were still very interesting, at least from Luz's point of view. Her gaze went to the brown-haired girl who was currently observing the horizon on the mainmast. "And Viney? You three seem very close. Has she always been this crazy or…?"

"Oh yes, she was reckless before too" Barcus replied with a chuckle. "When we came on board she was already the first officer, but we asked her to tell us her story. And believe me, she was tough ever since she was little". His canine muzzle became a little grim. "Even if her backstory is a little more... tragic than ours"

"Worse than blowing up a ship and nearly getting lynched to death by enraged sailors?" Luz asked skeptically.

"Well, at least all those sailors were and are still alive" Jerbo said. "I didn't have to see any of my old comrades die"

A lump formed in Luz's throat. "Oh... so she...?"

"Let me explain to you" Jerbo said, and then he began to tell: "She grew up in a circus and from a young age she was an expert trainer of beasts. She didn't have many affections on the ground, in fact she didn't even have one, and given who didn't disdain money at all, as soon as she had the chance she had... implemented a rather bizarre plan: she had stolen a boat small enough to be able to steer it by herself, and then she started... training sharks"

Luz's eyes bulged so much that her eyelids seemed to disappear. "Training sharks!? And she succeeded?"

"Oh, of course she succeeded. There is no animal that cannot be trained by her" Jerbo replied. "And once she had trained them she started acts of piracy along the entire coast using sharks as a destructive force to sink small ships and fishing boats. Over time she then expanded her crew with other fish, such as tuna, sawfish, puffer fish... any creature that could be useful in boarding ships was welcome. She had been the terror of the eastern coast of the central continent for quite some time, and had amassed quite a fortune... but you know, too much success takes pride, and in the end she made the mistake of wanting to aim for larger prey and therefore she began traveling in the open sea in search of some nice merchant ship to board. Unfortunately she hadn't calculated that the ocean doesn't tolerate too much arrogance.. .and in fact she ended up encountering a kraken that ate all her sharks and the other fish and almost devoured her too; the only one of her animals that survived was her carrier pigeon, Puddles, which she had trained to act as a lookout and that had escaped the monster's fury because he could fly. Fortunately, Captain Salty was passing by at the time and saved her by repelling the beast with the cannons, but... let's say that she was pretty upset mentally and emotionally"

"According to the captain, she had fallen into total depression" Barcus said. "She locked herself in the hold in the dark and no longer wanted to come out. She seemed to have sunk into apathy: she didn't speak, she didn't eat, she barely slept, and she didn't have the slightest reaction to what was happening around her. She didn't even move an eyebrow when the other members of the crew, just to get a few words from her, went so far as to threaten to sell her into slavery or throw her to the fish"

Luz felt a little sorry. And for some reason she also felt a certain familiarity with that state of mind. "I didn't think Viney could be so… well, down" she said, as that description didn't fit the jovial girl who jumped on the head of a giant shark laughing like crazy.

"For Viney, her animals were her crew. She felt responsible for having failed them" Jerbo explained. "But Captain Salty was patient and comforted her for as long as she needed, until she started eating and talking normally again. I don't know exactly what he said to her, but he managed to make her smile again and he welcomed her into his crew. After that he taught her everything he knew and since she was a quick learner she rapidly earned the title of first officer. Someone even said that the captain is thinking of leaving his position and this ship to her when he'll retire from piracy"

Luz was quite fascinated by the story. She didn't expect pirates to have such interesting lives. Sure, you couldn't say it was an honest life... but it sure was interesting. "Your captain seems like a really nice person... well, for a pirate. You seem to admire him a lot..."

"Of course we admire him a lot. He's like a dad to us" Viney said appearing behind her. Luz jumped in surprise since despite her fine hearing she hadn't heard her coming, demonstrating how stealthy she knew how to move. "By the way, if you wanted to know my backstory, all you had to do was ask me, you didn't need to investigate using them"

Luz scratched her head a little ashamedly. "Sorry, you just seemed so busy... and then I have no idea how to get up to the mainmast"

"Don't worry, I'm not angry. I came to give you this. I thought you deserved it since you immediately ran to my aid yesterday, even though there was no need" Viney told her, and before the puppet could say anything she put a band on her head. It was a light blue headband that almost completely covered Luz's hair, over which a white skull was embroidered. "Well, now you already look more like a filibuster! Of course, you have to work a little on everything else, but after some time in the crew you will be a perfect pirate"

"Um... I appreciate the gift, but I don't intend to join your crew" Luz replied. "I don't want to be a pirate... and with all due respect, I don't want to stay on a ship whose members jump into the faces of giant sharks or laugh in the middle of a storm! I care about my life!"

"You're only saying that because it was your first time. Trust me, the more time that passes, the more normal this will seem to you" Viney told her. "And anyway you don't have to fear for your life. With this ship we have faced everything, even leviathans and sea dragons. Nothing and no one will ever be able to sink this ship!"

"Except Belos" Barcus added.

Viney rolled her eyes. "Yes, yes... the captain always wants us to remember that Belos could destroy us without effort... but come on, that monster hasn't been seen for decades! Being afraid of him is like being afraid of a ghost"

"Um..." Luz hesitated for a moment, then said, "Look, fell free to call me ignorant, but unfortunately I haven't been in this world very long, so... could you please explain to me who or what Belos is?"

In canon we know virtually nothing about the backstories of Viney, Barcus and Jerbo, and we actually know very little about their personalities, so I took the liberty of creating them from scratch based on what we know about them. Barcus never speaks in canon, but since all animals in this world speak, he does too; and since it is briefly shown that he is very good at playing cards (by the way, Hexes Hold'em is a card game that exist in The Owl House canon), I gave him the classic backstory of the swindler with a gambling habit who makes too many enemies and is therefore forced to escape on the first ship he finds. Jerbo in the canon has even almost less in-depth analysis than Barcus, but he is shown to be a guy who thinks "outside the box" and also has some aptitude as a scientist (in the finale we even see him wearing a researcher's coat), so I made him an inventor who dabbles with a very early and primitive version of the steam engine (which in a world where ships still use the wind to navigate means going COMPLETELY outside the box). Viney finally... she got the tragic backstory for reasons you'll see later, although you can partially guess them from Luz's reaction to heard it.

Oh, and by the way, the bandana that Viney gives to Luz is the same one she wears in episode 1 of season 2, so from this point on, imagine her in that outfit.