Moon Light

Luna's question had taken her by surprise. Her eyebrows practically flew to her hairline as her eyes widened. Slowly, a smile crept onto her lips. Letting out an explosive laugh, she tossed back her head and roared with laughter until her gut hurt. Squatting down to Luna's level, she lowered her gun, but waved it around dangerously as she talked.

"Why am I a pirate? I was raised into piracy. It's sort of--" she paused, trying to think of the right phrase, "a family business you could say. My papa was a pretty notorious pirate in his time. I doubt you're old enough to know who Adrienne J.S. Edwards was." Her eyes became misty as she spoke of her father.

"God I miss him." she said softly. Looking at Luna again, she made a serious face, "Why do you ask?"

Luna paused looking at her, then smiled happily. This was just the thing she was hoping for, pirates because of family, "Why?" she repeated in a high pitched hyper tone, "I JUST ADORE PIRATES!"

Luna paused all of a sudden and put her hand over her mouth, now probobly wasn't the best time to be blurting out stuff like that, especilly to a pirate. She paused looking back at Captain Edwards, she hoped that the pirate would think of Luna as an anoying little kid and chuckle and go away or tell Luna how to be a pirate, but she was sceptical.

Luna's sudden outburst caught her by surprise. It was impossible not to stare, wide-eyed and open-mouthed. What was this girl getting at?! Albeit it was a delayed reaction, Ana's shock slowly turned into uproarious laughter. It took every ounce of her strength not to roll around as her abdominal muscles seized up as she laughed.

"Y-you just adore pirates eh?" she finally said as she caught her breath, "Coulda fooled me missy." Wiping a tear from her eye, she sighed and gave her a serious look. "I call BS."

Luna looked over at the pirate who just finsihed laughing, was it really all that strange to adore pirates? And why had she suddenly turned all serious on Luna? It wasn' really all that fair on her, then she looked puzzled and chwed on the tip of her finger, "BS?" She asked counfusedly, tilting her head to the side.

Pushing on her knees, Oceana stood up and looked down on Luna. Frowning disgustedly she shook her head.

"Cut it out with the cutesy act Chiquita." she said, "That seems quite suspicious to me. Were you expecting me to say 'Oh that's nice, I'll take you aboard?' or something?" In her mind, Ana could already see the scenario playing out. Luna would come aboard and pretend to be helpless and innocent. Perhaps she'd win a few friends while her ankle recovered. Then when all was said and done, she either rob them and run, or she'd have to deal with an attempt of assassination.

"How do I know I can trust you Luna?"

Luna looked up at her, join a crew?! She thought to herself, the sentance had hardly even crossed her mind. She always thought of herself as more of a loner type persan, not having to rely on anyone but her own mind and sword. She stood up and carefully attached the sword back to her belt. She started to walked back and forth pondering while looking at the pirate.

"Regardles if I am cute or not I am still a worrior," she paused, hand on chin and looked over at Ana, "I'm not saying 'come over here and kill me', but I do expect a certain amount of respect for all the training I've done." She turned forwards as she pulled her hair behind her ears and sighed, "And how do you know if you can trust me? You ask?" She tilted her head down, "I'll answer with a retorical question, How do I know I can trust you?"

Grinning and shaking her head, Ana found herself lacking the words she needed. Luna had her right where she wanted her... Not that it mattered though. Judging by Luna's own judgment calls, Ana was definitely under-estimated. Looking like she did, that happened very often. It bothered her as much as the next pirate heiress, but it sometimes had its advantages.

"Here's how you know you can trust me dearie." Ana said, grinning impishly, "You can't. Out here in this big old world, you can't trust anyone. Not even your own shadow." Sighing long, she sat on her heels and traced her finger in the dirt, feeling extremely childlike. "How about this. I let you come aboard the Ethereal for the time being? You don't pull anything funny, I don't kill you. Then we'll drop you off at the next populated island. Deal?" Thrusting her hand in Luna's face, she waited for the girl's reply.

((You have returned! So that makes 4 active members...))

((hahaha!!! yeah... sorry 'bout that))

((weve had our down periods, we always seem to bounce back, glad to see your still among the living and a better writer than ever ))

Luna looked at Ana suprised, was she joking? Most likely, Luna was probobly going to fall asleep and never wake up or atleast wake up without a few limbs and/or swimming in the ocean. However anyone who suddenly reverted back to a childish state and drew in the ground must not be that bad, right?

Luna put her hand up next to Ana's, smiling. It would only be a small trip to the next island, that way her name would be clear there, hopefully. She smiled agian and looked at Ana, "sure, why not?" She winked.

((Midori has also returned!!))

((Yeah HI!))

((people are comeing back hoo-raeh!!))

“Alright then little missy. Let’s go.” Ana said jumping to her feet, brushing her hands against her coat, before taking Luna’s hand and shaking it firmly. Then, nearly pulling the poor girl’s arm out of her socket, Ana hoisted her up and put Luna’s arm around her shoulders. If she was walking on that sprained ankle of hers, she wouldn’t be much good now would she?, Ana thought with an impish grin as she led her newfound “crewmate’ to the Ethereal.

“Captain? Who’s this?” Nova’s voice rumbled.

“Never mind little Luna, I’ll explain later.” She said with a wink before leading Luna to a small cabin by her own, large captain’s quarters. The walls and the small hammock were covered in dust and cobwebs. It was the original women’s quarters when Ana’s father started out, but female pirates were becoming more and more scarce these days.
“This’ll be your room lass. Any questions before I bid you goodnight?”