Terri took her plate and went topside. The Captain, the navigator, and herself talked quietly over maps of the area inland that they were headed to. They needed to plan a hiding place for the ship and make sure that they were aware of local water currants. The Captain wanted to make sure that if need be, a hasty retreat could be made.

Mike sauntered into the mess hall. He was really laid back and easy going. Born from a family of 6 kids, he was used to dealing with crowds. Looking around, he saw the new guy. Keeping an eye on him, Mike went to get a plate of food. Seeing the baked fish, he smiled appreciatively. Might as well go sit with him. Kyle did take on part of his job after all. It used to be he was in charge of mending nets and sails. He wasn't that great at fishing, but he could sew and mend like there was no tomorrow. It was his fine hands. He also played any instrument you could find and give me. He kept them in the Captain's cabin since the crews quarters were not an appropriate place for such fine tools.

ooc: feel free to do whatever with Mike... I made him up to add another dimension to the story :)

ooc: ok

ic: Kyle looked up at the man who sat beside him. Gave him a slight nod and went back to his food.
Hi, my names Mike. I hear you came aboard to take my job."
Kyle looked up at the man thrown by the statement. Feeling other eyes on him he looks down the table. A couple of the other crewmen were starring at him. "I didn't...I was just wanted work..." Kyle said looking back at Mike. Mike face seemed to stiffen and Kyle straightened up ready for a fight. He was thrown again when Mike started to laugh.
"Easy. I'm just pulling your leg. I'm happy to have the help."
The other men who were watching chuckled and went back to their own conversations.
"I saw you put another net out before you started cleaning up the deck. When we're done here I'll help you pull up the next net and clean and gut whatever fish you caught." he said and started eating his lunch.
Kyle nodded relaxing a little. "Ok, thanks..." he said watching the man. He seemed nice enough even if he did take advantage of Kyles' position as a new crewman.

Terri was bringing back the three sets of plates from the meeting up deck. Walking in she noticed most of the men had finished up. She saw the new guy chilling with Mike. Good. Mike was a great guy and made friends with almost anyone. She smiled at that and headed to put the dishes in the wash bin. Almost anyone that is. Once in port, a man had tried to be overly friendly with her. Mike's sense of good humor didn't appear to leave his face, but his fist sent the guy flying back wherever he came from. The Captain's sense of protection for her seemed to have spread into the crew members. She wondered if the new guy would become part of the crew too.

Noticing that there were the only ones still sitting and talking Kyle gathered his utensils on his plate and got up. Mike followed him over to drop off their dirty dishes and then followed him back on deck and over to where the fishing net was secured.

The two men made small talk as they hoisted the net on board, it was more then twice as full as before. Mostly because it was later in the day and all of the fish were out and moving around now. Kyle and Mike sat with the net full of fish between them along with a couple of barrels or salt and several empty barrels. They continued talking as they sat and started to clean and store the fish.

The afternoon was taking its time. The crews on the sides of the ship scraping barnacles and filling worm holes were almost done. The ship was kept in high maintenance constantly so there was never much to do in that department. The men appreciated it she knew. She climbed up into the birds nest and used her scope to study the coast line. Not much to look at but every now and then there was something to see. She thought about going down to her cabin to read, but thought better of it. Everyone else was working, she would stay here and keep looking through her scope. She glanced down and saw that Kyle had gained Mike's assistance with the fishing. Good. Mike could use more skills in something other than needlework and fiddles. Mike should really learn to fiddle with someone else's time than always teasing and pulling pranks on her anyways. She turned back to looking at the coast line.

The Captain was below deck looking over the stored barrels and packets. He liked to take the time to personally make sure everything was buttoned down right. When an officer came down with a clipboard, they started taking inventory together. It was a good idea to always stay on top of things. Wherever they found port next would appreciate the business this ship would bring the local market.

Another officer slipped in and pulled the Captain aside. Captain, the lady says she saw something of interest on land. You can go take a look if you like, but she says would should come close to shore, lay anchor, and take a rowboat in. Something about saving a damsel in distress." The Captain blinked at him, then sighed, Oh alright. Give the orders. Quietly. There are men sleeping. I don't want a skeleton crew again tonight. Whatever trouble is she getting me into now?

Between Mike and Kyle they had filled and properly stored ten barrels of fish and were about a quarter of the way through the eleventh. Kyle was getting tired of the endless small talk that Mike had. He looked around at the other crewmen who were all busy with their given tasks. He notices Terri up in the crows nest again. "What about her?" Kyle asks looking back at Mike. Mike stops whatever mindless thing he was talking about and looks around until he spots Terri.
Terri? What about her?" he says looking back at Kyle.
"I've heard of female pirates before but nothing like this."
Mike shrugs and goes for another fish. "She's the Captains blood and she's a member of the crew."
Kyle nodded he knew he would have to dig for information some other way.

An officer came onto deck and motioned to the navigator. He immediately turned the ship inland. The officer continued his rounds of the deck, stopping at each group of men and informing them that something of interest had been seen on shore. Terri wanted to check it out. Quietly go get armed and head for the long boats. The crew that was sleeping was not to be disturbed. The cook came topside with a wicked grin on his face. Not to worry. I set off sleeping gas in the crews' quarters. They won't be waking for another hour or two. Some of them men started chuckling at that. The ship layed anchor behind a huge outcropping.

Watching the sudden shift in the crew Kyle straighten and wondered what was going on. "Should we be doing something to help?" he asked motioning around at the crew.
"If they need us to do anything someone will let us know."
Kyle tried to relax but even though he didn't really know what was going on he thought he should doing something besides gutting and cleaning fish.

An officer came over to Kyle and Mike. Hey guys, we picked up a pistol and sword for each of you. Come join me at one of the long boats. Seems there is some trouble offshore that we are going to disrupt. With a knod to Mike he added, The lady saw someone in trouble. It would ease her heart to know that the innocent was saved so to speak. Well gentlemen, shall we go rescue a damsel in distress? He grinned and headed for a long boat.

Kyle dropped the fish he was working on and wiped his hands off before taking the weapons from the. He nodded at the mans orders. Kyle and Mike followed the man over to the long boats where there were already a bunch of the other crewmen waiting. Kyle watched as a couple of the crew lower the long boats down and into the ocean. "Any idea what we're saving this damsel from?" he said nudging another of the crew. Feeling eyes on him he looked over at the crew member. "It would be nice to know what we're running into."

The officer knodded. Once we are landed, we will regroup and be given a general briefing. Sounds carries easily over water, so until we land we need everyone to quietly focus on rowing. He paused and then added, I don't know who we are helping or what good deed we are about to perform, but the "damsel in distress" can safely be assumed to be Terri. She would be distressed if we didn't help some unfortunate soul. This isn't the first time. What really sucks is if we are already fighting for our lives with say, the Spanish, when she sees some urchin in trouble and wants to save their day while we are trying to save ours. A couple crew members grinned at the memory and helped lower the boats into the water.

Kyle nodded and did what he could to help lower the long boats without getting in the way. The crew all seemed to be doing everything without his help.

Once the long boats were safely down and in the water Kyle tried to jump in and helped hold the rope ladder that was draped over the side of the ship to the long boats. Another of the crew did the same on the other side of the ladder and crew mates started climbing down to men at a time.

When they rowed to shore, beached the boats, and were huddled against the hill. The Captain motioned everyone for their attention. Okay, listen closely. On the other side of this ravine is a small farm. It appears that the farm was allowing a small family of gypsies to live with them for the coming winter. Some bandits and possibly local townspeople, who are prejudice by nature, appear to be ransacking the place. In order to protect the local home, we are going in as pirates. Not English privateers. So gruff your hair and put some dirt on your faces. Beat up the bad guys, hassle the local people but don't hurt them. Find a way to get their things off the bandits horses and maybe break an arm of a townperson. As for the gypsies, we are kidnapping them. I know a family a little further on that they would be safer with. Rough them up until they are in the boats, then explain to them your simply acting and that we can take them to a safer place by nightfall. They are gypsies and will be good at acting along if you can explain to them faster than that. Looks like some rich idiot brought his buggy to this humble place. Burn it. Does anyone have any questions?

Terri sat bored in the crows nest, watching from her scope. Of course they wouldn't let her come along. What did they think? She would chip a nail? She kicked the side of the crows nest and paced, then quickly raised her scope again. Why were they talking? They needed to hurry.

Kyle kind of hung towards the back of the group just watching and listening. He was sure he could play his part with no problem he had made his living at acting the part but he knew he would be found out if he went up against gypsies. He wasn't ready to let his cover be blown this early in the game he hadn't found his prize yet. He looked back towards the ship.

He could stand here and wait for the crew to leave and go off perform whatever task they were ordered to or picked and just disappear until this whole thing is over. But standing here even though he couldn't see the the crew that were left on the ship he knew at least one person was watching him. Which meant he had to join in on this little side mission.

Kyle looked back just as the crew was splitting and joining in on the group that was going into town. They all messed their hair up and knelt to dirty their cloths before finally going off to work their tasks.

The Captain whispered quickly, We are going after the townspeople and them bandits of theirs. Beat them up real good. Officers split up. One take the gypsies and one take the house. Those taking the gypsies, whisper what your doing once you get them on this side of the hill. Those taking the house, don't break anything and once the people who live here are dragged inside tell them to scream and holler. Just make sure they understand okay. We don't know how many are in each set up so keep an eye out for a crewman in trouble. Let's go!

He raced out and with whooping and hollering charged down with his group on the bandits and stuck up aristocrats. There were about 5 bandits for hire and they worked as a unit pretty well. However, the ones from town were interested only in their own pockets and pleasure in the pain of others. They weren't so eager to be on the receiving end. The one who came in the buggy struggled to climb in. He got knocked to the ground while the buggy was discontected from the horse and torched.

The officer who had gathered those on deck led the charge against the gypsies. His name was Pete. He simply grabbed a child and ran towards the hill. The mother followed. The father and older sons followed him. The girls were grabbed by the rest of their team and taken out of sight where the plan would be explained quickly to them.

The cook had come along for the venture. He often didn't get to see much excitement. Unlike some of his profession, he stayed fit and healthy. He led the third group towards the house where the local family lived.

Kyle decided to go with the group who were going after the spoiled aristocrats. Though most of them paid for his life style one more then one occasion he secretly dreamed of putting more then a few of them in his place. He just couldn't pass up this chance.

Rushing up to a couple of prissy looking girly men Kyle body checked one knocking the small framed man over and growled at the other. The other man whimpered and quickly fainted. Kyle stood up straight and chuckled at the pathetic examples of men that sprawled on the floor. Kyle quickly picked the mens' pockets clean and then ran on.

He shoved the money he had found into the hands of the first villager he saw and then quickly instructed them to grab whatever family then had in town and take a days vacation. The villager looked around and quickly got the message and ran off.

Looking around at the other crewmen they were all doing what they could to make it look like they were roughing up towns people while actually attacking the invaders. Spotting a couple of the invaders trying to run Kyle quickly went after them.

The Captain saw Kyle jump right in with the rest of his crew. He smiled and hauled a few bandits that were now tied up and dragged them to the their horses. Tying them up, he then spooked the horses and sent them running. He looked around the rest of the yard. The family were safely inside the house. The gypsies were safely on the other side of the hill. The bandits were being dragged across the hills by their own mounts. All that was left was a really fat rich dude whose buggy was burning (guess he was walking back to town) and a few of his peers. All looking worse for the wear.

The group that had gone after the family came outside and helped gather the self-righteous idiots who had come to prey on the weak. The Captain addressed them all, You are long way from help. Make it easy on us and we might let you have your toes to walk back on. That frightened those pompous oofs into scampering back towards town. He turned to his crew and grinned. Okay, let's get out of here before they return with the law. At least the police are reliable to make sure that the family that lives here is treated fairly. Don't leave anything, not even valuable from those that we might as well term as bad guys. We can't have anyone trying to pin this on this simple farm family. Back to shore!

Following orders and the rest of the crew Kyle let his intended targets go and helped clean up the mess they had all made. Within minutes they were all running back to the shore and to the long boats. They all quickly pushed the long boats back out and jumped aboard.

The gypsies sat with their belongings in the middle of the longboats. When they reached the ship, the crewmen helped them abroad and let them settle in. The Captain came over to talk to their guests, I know this has been a very trying day. If you will grant us music and dancing at supper, we would be very grateful. By sundown, we will reach a point of land that is more remote than this area. At the edge of some cliffs is a gorgeous mansion. The owner of that house and lands will gladly welcome you to spend the winter. There are trees to help shelter your tents. And I will make sure anything that was ruined or left behind because of this whole episode is compensated. He continued talking and encouraging them.

Pete stood beside the first mate, Terri, as the crewmen stood near. Everyone was breatheless but happy from the jaunt. Terri smiled and spoke, Thank you for helping them. They were far from civilization and we were their only hope. Someday peasants and gypsies will be treated better. Until that day though, let us continue to help them and have a little fun while doing so. If any of you would be so kind as to sneak me along, I would be even happier. That brought chuckles from everyone. Terri might be spirited, but she was still a lady and they intended that ship or no ship, she would be treated like one and with respect. Pete picked up where she left off, Don't be too hard on the night watch. They missed a great deal of fun because of it. Thank you for your service and hard work. Go ahead and finish your chores that you were working on. Supper will be ready in about two hours. That is all.

Kyle waited for others to start to leave the gathering before he went back to the wish that were well warmed by the sun now. Mike nudged him and gave him a friendly grin when Kyle looked at him. Back to work and then dinner." Kyle nodded and sat on the stool he was sitting on before their little adventure had started. Mike sat down across from Kyle and the two went back to work almost like they never stopped.

Terri talked quietly with the gypsies. They were settled on the main deck against the mast. She listened to their story and gave them advice on the area they were going to be left at. After awhile the father stood and got out a fiddle. One of the kids pulled out a drum. With the main song started, the wife stood and started singing a story while dancing lightly on her feet. She had metal cymbals on her fingers that she clapped together in rythmn. Terri smiled and stood, joining the lady in her footwork. The Captain stood on the upper deck and watched them. It was a fun little party. As the men finished their work, got plates of food, and came up he started sending his officers down to get food too. There was a fun circle starting to building around their guests.

With the fish finally all cleaned and well packing in salt Mike helped Kyle store them below deck in the food hold. It took the pair about fifteen minutes to store and strap down the twenty barrels.

When the barrels were well secured Kyle and Mike returned to the mess they had made. Between the two of them they check the condition of the net, seeing that it was still in fair shape neatly folded the net up. Mike went off to put it away while Kyle got to work cleaning up the mess they had made. Mike returned a few minutes later to help. They both looked over at the gypsies when the music started. Looks like the making of another celebration. We better hurry or we might miss it." Mike said.

Kyle nodded and started to wonder if this party might be the chance he needed to start investigating the ship. Though he hadn't really started looking around yet he thought that the best place to look would be Terri, and the Captains' cabins. He just wasn't sure which one to start in.

The crew was almost all on deck. There were a few asleep yet who would be working the later shifts but most would sleep tonight or had had a nap earlier. So the party was getting into full swing. No beer was brought out, but the apple cider was broken into and that was considered a real treat. So supper was pretty yummy. The crew members took turns dancing with the few ladies there or settled with each other. The music started picking up and a crew other crew members grabbed an instrument to join in the fun. It was going really nicely. Terri slipped away to her cabin quietly and changed into one of the dresses she kept in her trunk. She didn't have much with her from her old life, but she purposefully kept several sets of nice clothes in top shape. Tonight she went back out on that dance floor in style causing cat calls and whistles to explode on deck.

With everything cleaned up Mike and Kyle went to get dinner. Kyle stood towards the back of the gathered crew and watched them all celebrate and have fun. Finishing his dinner he made the excuse of wanted to clean up before joining the fun. Heading below deck Kyle started to go to Terris' cabin when he heard someone else coming.

Hiding in the shadows he watched as Terri went into her room. He waited and watched as she came out all prettied up in a dress. He pecked out of his hiding spot and watched as Terri went back up to join in on the party. Looking down either side of the hall Kyle left his hiding spot and slipped into Terris' room. Making sure not to make any noise as he opened and then closed the door behind him.

He didn't turn on the light but lite a small candle that he had brought with him. Slowly and quietly he made his way around the room, checking every floor board, wall board, every book and box that he saw. He slowly made his way around the room like this until all he had left to check was her bed, a trunk and her wardrobe. He stood there and for some reason he felt a little guilt for what he was about to do, even though he had done it many times before.

Taking a deep breath and straining to listen for any sound of movement that might mean someone was coming he went to work checking all three spots. He was careful to put everything back in the same state that he had found it. When he was done he stood near the center of the room.

She most have given it to the Captain for safe keeping. He thought to himself and then headed for the door. He pressed his ear against the door listening for any sounds in the hall. Not hearing any he quickly and quietly slipped out. Looking down either side of the hall he hears someone coming and quickly heads back to his assigned bed and lays down. He wonders if he'll be able to check the Captains room tonight to, there's no telling when he might get another chance like this.

As the ship approached the destination where they were going to let the gypsies go, the Captain ordered anchor dropped. He personally wished the gypsies well before leaving for the evening. Feeling he had accomplished his duty, he stood at the back of the crowd. As expected, Terri stayed with them the whole time they were getting their things and saying their good byes. Then four officers helped them into boats and headed to the outcropping of land. They would escort the gypsies to the farm family who lived closest. The farm family would then introduce them come morning to the lord of this land. Knowing that particular family intimately, the Captain had no doubt everything would be well for the winter.

The crew started heading off. Some to take up their stations for the night, others to head below and to bed. A clean up crew got to work. He saw Terri staring after the boats wistfully. He silently cursed himself for taking her away from her life. However, he just couldn't chance their uncle harming her. All would be well soon enough. When they found her inheritance that was from her mother. The small jeweled painting hardly seemed like a map, but her mother had taught her the necessary skills she needed. He didn't doubt that.

He gently took her arm and led her below deck. I understand your frustration. Do you want to talk about it? She shook her head with her eyes on the floor. No, I'm fine. I'm just... tired. What if he really killed my mother? He is family though! The Captain hugged her and encouraged her, He might be family. But that doesn't mean much it appears. How did your mother's painting get into his art collection? I'm here and I'll protect you. Someday soon, if all goes well, you'll be once again living the life you were born and raised to live. Just put up with this a little longer. She blinked up at him, I'm not unhappy here. I just haven't quite adjusted is all. Don't worry about me so much. He laughed, Ah! But it is my job. Good night Terri. She knodded and went to her room. He stood there for a moment with a thoughtful expression. Then turned and went to his own quarters.