Pixie slowly opened her eyes. How long had she been sleeping, she wondered. Minutes? Hours? As her vision came into focus, the first thing she noticed was that she was soaking wet and that someone had wrapped her in towels and blankets while she'd been asleep. Quietly pulling off the covers, she slowly lowered her bare feet onto the wooden floor before standing up. She gazed around the small bedroom for a second before noticing some clothes laid out on a wooden stool. Nearby was a wooden dressing screen. Pixie wasted no time in grabbing the clothes off of the stool, dashing behind the screen, and changing out of her soggy kimono. Once in a warm, dry red kimono and black cloth shoes, Pixie decided, out of curiosity, to explore the other rooms and check out her surroundings. She tiptoed out of the room, quiet as a mouse, and quietly shut the door behind her. Then she set out to explore each and every room in this place.

First room down the hall on her left was another bedroom. This one had two bunkbeds and a twin bed. There was no one in the room at the moment, but Pixie decided to move on in case someone came back. A little while later, she came across another room with a TV in it. There were two teenage boys, one dressed in red and one in blue, playing some sort of game on the screen. They were too distracted to notice little Pixie poking her head into the room. Suddenly, Pixie heard footsteps coming down the hallway. Panicking, she scurried away from the doorway and ran down another hallway. This led her to an even bigger room with a lot of technical equipment in it.

(This room, as she would later find out, was called the bridge. It was where the Ninja monitored the screens for distress calls.)

Though she was itching to find out what all that equipment was, she turned away quietly and tried to find her way out of here before whoever she had heard coming showed up. She wound up tiptoeing up some stairs and onto the deck of a great ship. The wind whistled past her and played with her silver-white hair. She shivered from a sudden feeling of cold before looking over the edge of the ship's railing. There were so many clouds down below that, for a moment, she forgot what the ground even looked like. Then she spotted the dragon figurehead on the ship's prow. Forgetting her fear and shyness, she raced over to it and looked out at the view beyond. The wind blew all around her in an almost playful way, and she giggled with joy. Never before had she ever imagined that being on a ship could be so delightful.

Suddenly, a delicious smell wafted toward Pixie on the wind, and her stomach growled with hunger. She hadn't realized she was hungry until that moment. Quickly and quietly, she slipped into a small room on top of the ship. In it there stood the warrior she'd rescued after he fell into the canal. She certainly hadn't meant to rescue him at all. After her fright at the tower, she hadn't wanted to encounter anyone else ever again. But there was something about him that made her want to save him. She couldn't explain why, but she felt like it wouldn't be right to just let him drown.

All the same, said warrior was clearly busy cooking something and didn't notice the silver-headed child gazing into the room. When his back was turned, Pixie tiptoed into the room and slid underneath the table. Then she reached up and slipped a delicious-looking chocolate chip cookie off a platter.

(Having lived alone all her life, Pixie had never been taught that stealing food was wrong.)

She took a big bite, and chocolaty goodness filled her mouth and oozed out onto her chin. Little did she realize that the warrior had noticed that there was one less cookie than before. The girl's reverie was suddenly broken when Zane peered underneath the table.

Pixie's first response was to stare dumbfoundedly at the Titanium Ninja, crumbs spilling out from between her lips. Then, after she got her bite of cookie down, she suddenly screamed with terror. Her startled shrieks reverberated through the ship, and everyone on board stopped what they were doing and came running as fast as their legs could carry them.

The team were met with the sight of an eight-year-old girl shrieking and crying in great fright and Zane running out to stop them, waving his arms like someone directing traffic.

"Stop! Don't go in there!" he yelled. "Can you not see that she is utterly terrified? Go! SHOO!"

The others shooed. Then Zane turned back to the pitiful figure huddling underneath the table, eyes wide with fright and face stained with silent tears. He made no sudden moves, but instead asked quietly, "Are you hungry?"

The girl remained silent. But he simply continued. "There's more cookies on the table. And I'm almost finished with some ham and bean soup and fresh-baked bread."

Slowly, ever so slowly, the child crawled out from under the table. She then rested on her heels on the floor like a frightened puppy, face downward in fear. Zane cocked his head to one side and noticed she'd left her cookie under the table. In a flash of inspiration, he went over, reached under the table, and fished it out. Then he held it out to where she could take it. She whimpered a little, but he still held it there, not taking it back, not yanking it away. Just waiting.

Waiting.

Waiting.

She slowly eased a hand out and grasped the cookie before pulling it away from Zane. Keeping her head down, she started nibbling on the chocolaty treat. He then straightened and watched as she went from simple nibbles to completely devouring the cookie. Soon she was contently sitting on the floor licking the chocolate off of her fingers. Sure that she would need more than that, Zane quickly dished up a bowl of soup and a rather large hunk of homemade bread. The girl then slowly progressed from the floor to the table, as her fear began to ebb away.

And that was just the beginning of how Zane's young rescuer became a new addition to the Ninja's family.