[Sorry for taking so long to return! I have been studying for end of semester exams!]

Kael ascended the stairs and began shouting orders briskly. He walked to the prow of the ship where the three potential new recruits stood awaiting scrutiny. The others had been dealt with he assumed. He looked over the three men. One was fat and stout and that wouldn't do for his crew. All of his men were fit and muscled. It made them less vulnerable. He shook his head at that man. One of the men lead him away and he struggled untill a sword found his throat.

The next man was taller than Kael stood at six feet and had a good build. He looked like he had an attitude. No matter though. It never took very long to sort out poor attitudes around the Selkie. Kael looked at the last man and saw that he too would do.

The last one was younger than the other two and about five to seven years older than himself. His eyes were defiant which Kael liked. He nodded slightly and said, "Welcome to my ship. I am Keal Northstorm." The older of the two looked disbelieving but when none of the crew contested it he calmed. Kael ordered his men to orient the new members.

Kael oversaw the last of the loading and smiled. The Selkie sat a great deal lower in the water than she had before. "To port men!" There was a cheer and Kael grinned as well.

((That's okay! ^^))

Keary was polite to people who treated him politely...but he was not about to be taken advantage of. Especially when he had the means to defend himself. So, despite his situation, he looked pretty confident in himself.

He finished the bread he'd gotten for himself and stood in the kitchen, waiting for Kael to come and find him as he'd promised.

Once Kael was finsihed he decended the ladder into the belly of the ship. He found Keary where he left him. "You found something to eat I trust?" He asked. The boy was awfully small. Kael wondered how old he was. "How old are you anyway?" Kael asked him suddenly.

After he blurted that he paused and without waiting for the answer continued, "I have decided that we can try your plan. I may just find an excuse to expose of a lug that I wish to be rid of."

"I found some bread." At the inquiry about his name, Keary hesitated, knowing it might make it worse. But, he did have his powers to defend himself with... "I'm...fourteen. I turned fourteen three days ago," he admitted, finally.

Keary nodded. "Okay...I can work with that."

Bread didn't seem like enough for the small boy but Kael figured that there would be plenty of time to deal with that if the boy was determined to stay. He was suprised, the boy was actually slightly older than he had expected him to be. He had guessed twelve or so because the boy was so slight of stature. He'd only just turned fourteen though so that wasn't much better but that was just him being a hypocrite. He himself had stowed away on a pirate ship at age 8 and had been the captain for a while now.

He knew the boy would hgave no problem with his words because that was Keary's plan in the first place. Kael had only agreed because he knew that Keary probably would have gone though with it anyways. At least now it will be with Kael's okay.

"Well we're about to set sail and you can either come with me while I set the course or you can go straight to the cell," he said. He was begining to feel remorse about his decision to keep the boy in the brig.

Keary was used to people being surprised about his age. He was quite tiny. People also tended to mistake him for a female, due to his almost beautiful looks and long hair, which he liked keeping up in a loose ponytail. It was shocking to these people that he was actually fourteen, and male, no less. Though it was obvious at the moment because of the slightly tight dress shirt that he wasn't female...he tended to like loose clothing.

Keary felt better knowing he could now defend himself and not be reprimanded for it, indeed.

"I'll come with, for now. Chances are I'm going to get real bored down there...I can defend myself if something happens...if something does look like it's going to happen while I'm up there, could you just let it happen? That way I'd be able to prove I can defend myself in front of an audience...I won't kill anyone if it happens. But, if something does happen and you don't notice...I'm going to defend myself, regardless of given permissions..." Keary mumbled. Now that he was away from his father, he felt no more fear about using his power to defend himself if needed, but only in a demeaning or desperate situation.

He nodded as Keary said that he would accompany him for the same reasons that Kael has said he could come. It would be very boreing for Keary stuck in that cell for the majority of his time. He contemplated the small boy. HE certainly seemed paranoid that something would happen. Probably because of his past.

He was almost certain that nothing would occur on his watch but said, "If something happens feel free to defend yourself. I really am not concerned about you killing someone. If they defy my orders they shall be marooned or thrown to the sharks anyways. I shall be quite angry if you harm the Selkie however," He only cared about his ship. Men could be replaced.

This young man was going to be difficult to keep aboard the ship. He could already forsee that, Oh well, Kael thought, I already told him he could stay. "That was me giving you permission if you didn't notice," Kael said heading back towards the deck so that he could direct the ship towards land to sell off their recently stolen goods.

Keary was indeed very paranoid about something happening. He'd been hurt in the past, many times over. He'd never been in any sort of...inappropriate activities...that hadn't been forced. Even having nice people flirt with him was too much for him to bear, and he would get irritated or upset and flee.

"I won't harm the ship," Keary assured him, idly. "Only the person responsible for any bad actions. If I do manage to catch something on fire, it will be something small or easily replaceable, like a barrel or some rope." He seemed sure of himself, in that sense.

Now that he knew he probably wouldn't have to go back on land, Keary felt elated, and happy. It meant his father would not be able to find him. Joining a group of pirates was the best thing for a runaway these days--he would be practically unable to be found.

Kael went straight to where Dren stood at the wheel awaiting orders from him. Kael looked at the map and after careful consideration he decided that going to the port where the goods were already expected was the best option for selling them because there were already buyers.

He could pose as the merchants son or nephew and sell them easily enough. He told Dren the plan and then walked towards the prow of the ship where he could watch the ocean which was one of the things he found doing most often. He had kind of forgotten that he told Keary that he oculd acompany him topward on the ship. The ship was a beautiful color of blue grean and the wind blew his hair from his face. The salty sea air was sweet and refreshing. He smiled slightly.

Keary followed him for a while. He could also help pose as the son of a merchant, because of how young he was. Or even the daughter of a merchant, if needed.

After a while, he wandered off, exploring the deck of the ship. He was wary, of course, but he didn't pay much attention as he walked along, studying things and peering over the side of the ship a few times.

After a while Kael came to his senses and frowned. He looked around. "Hmm," he said aloud. "I suppose I should have just put him in the cell after all." He sighed. He didn't blame Keary for wandering off but he supposed he should go find him. Kael had been making plans about what to do once they sold off the goods. He had decided that once they sold them they would try and get in another good haul or two and then head for their home port to lay low for the winter months and live off their stolen gold.

He walked back in the direction from which he had come in search of Keary. It didn't take him log to find him. "Did you enjoy looking around?" He asked Keary sitting down on the end of a barrel.

Keary didn't mind staying in the cell, in all honesty, as long as he had something to do and someone wasn't bothering him. He also didn't mind living near or on land, as long as his father had no way of finding him. He would never go back to him. No court in the world could make him return. He didn't care what they said.

He looked up when Kael returned. "Yes. Being able to actually walk around instead of having to hide from the crew members is a nice change..."

Kael laughed slightly, "I bet it is. I didn't last long when I stowed away. I got caught stealing food a week into the journey," he added remembering how sick and tired he had been of hiding by then. He was ready to show himself anyways. Altough stealing food was not the best thing to get caught doing on a pirate ship.

The captain had thought him gutsy and decided that if he was brave enough to sneek on a pirate ship he was brave enough to stay. That decision had been the worst of the old captains life however since Kael had been the death of him. He hadn't even realized it was a pirates ship when he was sneeking on. He just wanted the first ship out of that hell hole.

"So Keary Byrne," he siad, "If you could sail anywhere in the world where would you go?" He liked asking questions that were pointless.

"I lasted a while...I brought food with me. Food that wouldn't stale. In other words, I brought candy." Keary grinned. "Candy rarely ever goes stale."

Keary pondered Kael's question. "...Somewhere new...somewhere undiscovered," he decided finally. "I want to see new places...find new places, and new things."

Kael laughed, "Candy? Well there isn't much of that around here." He noted that the younger boy had a cute smile when he did choose to smile. That was the first Kael had seen.

He thought about Keary's answer to his question, "Well if you've never been away from home before everywhere seems new. There isn't many places left where no one has been. A lot of places that are forgotten about though. Those are the places of interest to me."

"You should keep a store of it, somewhere, in case you run out of food. It never goes stale--I'm not kidding," Keary replied, nodding. He'd kept candy up in his room all the time, for the nights when his father decided he wasn't going to feed him. That would often be several nights in a row.

Keary nodded in agreement. "Sounds interesting. Old, forgotten places. Chances are someone at least remembers them, or knows of them..."

"I'll think about the candy idea but I doubt my men would like that very much. Candy isn't very filling when you do hard physical labor all day," He said. He looked at Keary thinking vaguely about the boy's past.

"Its those old places described in books that people have forgotten existed, those old rotting tomes that nobody cares about anymore," he paused and then said, "Well except maybe me." He looked away from the other boy, "I came across a book like that in the captains quarters of the last pirate ship we sank. It told of some fantastic places. An island where everyone has powers like yours and only someone with the power can find it." He laughed, "I tried to have someone teach me to use power once, they could control the wind, it didn't work for me.

"True. But it's tasty, and could be a side to any meal," Keary drawled, amused. Candy was like his fuel...chocolate tasted the best to him, along with strawberry candies.

"That does sound interesting. But...well..." Keary paused. "My power...no one else in my family has ever had any strange powers. Not my father...not his relatives...not my sister...and not my mother. Believe me, I've checked my family records, and all that stuff...I'm the only one. I think it comes from...somewhere else, for me."

It sounded like Keary was reluctant to say something...as a result, he was hiding something.

"Well maybe when we go to port we can find some Sweets," Kael said in an amused tone. He thought it amusing , the boy's love of candy. He supposed every one had something that they liked to eat the most.

"Well, its just an old book. Not everything you read is accurate," Kael said with the slightest trace of a frown. Keary's sentences seemed to be hesitant and as such Keary seemed to be keeping something. However Kael wasn't one to pry into buisiness not his own and decided it was best if he let it go. The boy seemed like the type that prefered to keep their own council.

Keary grinned, cheerily. He seemed to be quite happy about that. He loved candy, so much. It often brought him solace and gave him something to eat when his father was being too rowdy for him to sneak down and pilfer food from the fridge.

"True..." Keary sighed, detecting that the other could sense he was hiding something. "In case you're wondering, I am keeping something to myself...I'd rather not talk about it right now...maybe another time. When I've had more time to go over it in my mind. It's nothing dangerous. Just...if my eyes turn red, don't let anyone or anything do something to annoy me, because I'll flip and not really mean to."