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Strangeness on the High Seas (Mr. M & Finnaholic)

Christina looked a little uncertain, but he hadn't done anything to harm her yet, and the locket would probably be safer with him. Reaching up, she took it off and handed it to him. "You won't let anything happen to it?"

She glanced down at the nightgown she was still wearing, then back up at him. "Are you sure it's safe for me among your men, dressed as I am? I wasn't really given much choice in attire when your men dragged me onto the ship, so unless you or your men have a penchant for wearing women's clothing, I think it would be best if I stayed in this cabin until I get some other clothing to wear."
 
“I swear, nothing will happen to it. It’s yours, and you’re being generous to allow us to borrow it. If we can track down the treasure, this bauble will be inconsequential to any but your sense of sentimentality.” The captain smiled, still fascinated by the locket.

As if for the first time, Thomas eyed her outfit. “You’ve got a point. Let me see what we’ve got. We’ve had a few cabin boys ship with us over the years; if there’s any clothes left over, we might be able to kit you out.” He grinned. “I don’t know if a well-brought-up girl like yourself has ever worn pants but you’d be a lot more mobile with a pair.”

He stood up and stretched. “I need to find some paper and ink, sharpen my quill. Let me take a look in the hold. Please don’t close that locket again; I don’t want to have to poke you any more than I have to.” He winked and chuckled lasciviously before turning to leave the cabin.
 
Christina wasn't too keen on the idea of wearing pants, but she didn't want to stay in the cabin either. Nodding, she watched Thomas leave the cabin. "Just bring back anything you can find." Once they got to Havana, she would see about getting some dresses so she wouldn't have to wear pants all the time.

After Thomas left, she went to sit by one of the windows (assuming there are any), wondering if her parents were looking for her. She'd never left the island without one or both of them before, so they probably had the townspeople searching the whole island for her. Maybe she could get a letter to them, saying that she was alright.
 
Thomas came back shortly with a variety of clothes, several sizes of breeches and some shirts. He even had a couple of pairs of boots. “I found these, and there are a couple of hats, if you’ve need to shade your eyes. The crew knows you’re needed, and you’re not interested in being… bothered.”

He deposited the clothes on her hammock. “Come on out when you’re dressed; I’d like to get to work on transcribing some of those sigils. The sooner we can figure out where to set a course, the sooner we’ll find our fortunes.”
 
Christina was still by the window when Thomas returned with the clothes. Hearing him speak, she turned to face him, smiling in appreciation. Getting up, she moved away from the window. "Thanks for the clothes, Thomas. You will let me know if you figure out what that locket is for, I hope?"

She waited for him to leave, then started going through the pile of clothes that Thomas had brought for her, looking for a pair of pants that would fit. Once she was dressed, she folded up her nightgown and set it on the hammock.

Leaving the cabin a few moments later, she moved to stand near the railing of the ship,
 
Thomas nodded to her as she left the cabin, and moved past her to go back into it. The crew kept their distance, although they couldn’t help but stare, and a few of them couldn’t quite suppress their leers. Some few nodded more kindly to her, though, and one old pirate, scarred and missing a leg, edged a bit closer.

“If ye’d be needin’ anything, lassie, and the captain isn’t handy, feel free to come to me, old Lucky Jim. I’ve got a granddaughter just about your age, and I’d like ta think if I treat you well, it’d be fair if someone treated her well in return.” He nodded and winked in a paternal manner.

Some hours passed, but finally Thomas came out of the cabin and asked for the navigator to join him. And an hour after that, the navigator came out and changed course.
 
Christina also kept her distance from the men in Thomas' crew. Considering the way she came to be on board the pirate ship, she was a little wary of anyone who approached her, Thomas excluded. The way they stared at her didn't help make her feel comfortable, and she did her best not to appear frightened, knowing that any one of them could easily overpower her. With Thomas holed up in the cabin, there was really no one to protect her.

She continued staring out over the water, though remaining aware of her surroundings. Turning when she heard someone talking to her, she gave the old man who had approached her a wary smile. When it became clear that he held no ill will toward her, she turned back to lean on the railing. "Thanks. It's nice to know that there is one person aboard this ship that doesn't stare at me." She said that with the utmost sincerity, glad to have one other person besides Thomas on her side.

She spent the next few hours talking with the old man. When she saw the navigator go into the cabin, she wondered what was going on. She kept watch on the door to the cabin till the man came out an hour later, a brow raised as he moved to change course. Moving away from the railing, she went to knock on the cabin door before poking her head in. "Thomas? I thought we were going to Havana? What changed?"
 
The table was spread with maps and charts, and there were drafting tools throughout. “Look, here,” Thomas said, lost in thought. He had the locket in the middle of the table, and as she watched, he moved the glowing rod from one corner of the table to another.

“See? The figures change. They’re coordinates. I think they indicate the location of the rest of the treasure. It’s a complicated relationship, but I think I’m figuring it out.” He was absorbed in the work, making notes on his sheets of paper. “What I’m not sure about is what constitutes distance.” He looked over at her, then showed her his notes. “Do any of these marks seem at all familiar to you? Even from a dream?”
 
Christina moved further into the room, shutting the door behind her. Surprised that he even knew she was there, she watched the locket, blinking when the figures above it changed whenever he moved the glowing rod.

She glanced up at him when he spoke again, moving closer to get a look at the notes he was making. She was quiet for a few moments as she looked over his notes, realizing that some of the stuff on the pages did look somewhat familiar. Glancing up at him, she nodded. "It does look familiar. When I first found the locket, I started having dreams about it. At the time, I just thought it was nothing, but now that I think about it, I think it was somehow telling me where the treasure is."
 
“Oh, really?” Thomas arched an eyebrow at her. He sat down at the table, gesturing to the notes and locket. “Perhaps you’d be of more use to this research than I had initially thought.”

His voice grew softer, more soothing. “Well, take a look at these symbols. Take a deep breath, and think back to your dreams. Can you remember any imagery? A place, a thing, a device, a person? Do any of the symbols remind you of any… any meaning? If you looked at one, and just thought ‘north,’ that would be impressively convenient, I must say…”
 
Christina smiled, glad to have something to do besides stand on the deck staring at the waves and avoiding lecherous pirates. There were currently only two people aboard that ship that she could trust, though one of the two she doubted could protect her if the rest of the crew were to try to do anything with her.

She picked up some of Thomas' notes again, looking them over. After a few minutes, she looked back at him, setting one of the sheets of notes down in front of him. "These four seem the most familiar." She pointed to each one in turn before continuing. "Beyond that though, I don't know how much more I could help you with your research."
 
"It helps," he said slowly, taking the notes. "I'm not sure how, yet, but it helps."

The next few days passed reasonably quickly, for all that Christina didn't have much to do. Thomas spent most of his time poring over charts or doing experiments with the locket and rod. He issued course adjustments every few hours, and ordered more ink brought up from ship's stores just about every morning. He personally shot a passing gull just to get fresh quills.

Lucky Jim mostly took care of the girl, showing her around the ship, warning off any sailors with lascivious intent. The crew gradually got used to her presence, keeping their untoward thoughts private, and to what degree she could, Christina no doubt got adjusted to being there. It's possible she even started to appreciate the usefulness of trousers by the time Thomas abruptly burst on deck and announced they had to put in at the nearest large port for certain supplies. He looked... worried, it seemed.
 
Christina was grateful for the old man's presence on board the ship, as it was helpful in keeping the other sailors at a distance. At least with the cabin boy clothing, she could hide the fact that she was a woman, to a certain extent. She quickly grew bored of having no one else to talk to, as Thomas kept himself holed up in the cabin when she wasn't in there sleeping.

She was surprised when he finally came out of the cabin, blinking when he said they were to drop anchor at the nearest port. The look on his face got her worried as well, and she went over to stand with him. "Why are we porting? What did you find out about my locket and those notes?"
 
Glancing around, he took her aside, and lowered his voice. "I was having a devil of a time figuring out what was going on. I could get a reading on the basic mass, but there was something weird that took me days to figure out. There's another rod out there, and it's moving!"

"That means there's somebody else with the capability to track down the treasure, perhaps in a more crude form without your locket, but still. We have direct competition. I can only hope they don't have as much of a head start was we do."
 
Christina's first thought was about the safety of her family, but if the second rod was moving, it was more likely that whoever possessed it was tailing them. "Were you able to tell how far away from us the owner of this second rod is?" She kept her voice low as well, figuring Thomas didn't want to alarm the members of his crew to the danger.

If there was another ship following them, then she, and her locket, was probably what they were after. "How far are we from port?"
 
"There's a seasonal port. In hurricane season the island gets washed clean of everything but palms and mangroves, but this time of year, there's a freeport that has what we need. We ought to reach it by nightfall, if the wind keeps up."

"As for our competition... I don't know. I can tell the figures are changing, and I believe I've determined which one is the larger concentration from the smaller, but it's moving, and I haven't yet figured out distance. Both what I think is range and what is direction are changing, so if they're closing on us, they're spiraling in, or switching back and forth. Maybe tacking against the wind? I don't know."

"But that's why I want to stock up on powder and shot, as well as whatever other tools we may find. Having direct competition with a direct lead like this, it changes things." He patted her shoulder. "Don't worry, we'll get through this and have you back to your quaint little island soon enough."
 
Christina was quiet, listening as Thomas told her of the port they would be stopping at. She was a little concerned about what they would find when they got there, hoping that whoever was after her grandfather's treasure didn't beat them to their destination.

She wasn't sure if she wanted to go back to her island home anymore, having gotten used to being around Thomas and his crew. She just smiled in response and unless stopped, she would turn to head into the cabin where she would spend the rest of the day.
 
The day passed uneventfully, and they came to the port as the sun set. There was a lot of activity, but no one came to rouse her from the cabin. She could read and think as they laid in supplies and made additional preparations. They would have set sail that same evening, but the weather didn't look promising, the wind being against them, which was unusual for that time of year.

They stayed at anchor that night, as a slight mist of rain dusted over the harbor. The gentle noise lulled everyone a bit more than usual, which is why no one noticed the small, dark boat as it sculled up to the rear of the ship, and a dark figure climbed nearly silently up the side of the vessel, peering in the window of the cabin, spying the sleeping female form there.
 
Christina had stayed in the cabin all the rest of the day, reading over the notes that Thomas had made regarding her locket. She couldn't make any sense of them, not really knowing what order in which to read them, so she just left them scattered on the table. She had eventually dozed off, lulled into slumber by the gentle rocking of the ship as it moved through the water.

She had woken up briefly when she heard the noises of the crew outside the cabin loading supplies, but didn't stay awake for very long.
 
She woke up again as she was picked up and carried out through a window for the second time in a week. This time, her kidnappers were even more prepared, and even less careful about her comfort. A thick wad of rough cloth was shoved into her mouth and tied there, and a coarse burlap sack was yanked over her body before she was even awake, then belted on the outside so that her arms were pinned to her sides and her legs were bound together.

She might well have struggled, but in short order she felt herself entirely airborne, swinging freely on the end of a rope and pulley, being lowered to a skiff floating below the aft of the ship, keeping very quiet as they stole her away from her original kidnappers.
 
They held her struggling form still, many hands on her, and she felt uncomfortable pressure on several sensitive places as those hands ... took liberties. She found her breasts squeezed and kneaded, and the same with her buttocks, as those new pirates charged with keeping her still in the boat didn't hesitate to abuse their power.

But soon she was taken onboard another ship, and this was a stark contrast to how she had been treated before. Where the first freebooters had stood her on deck and presented their case, these scallywags bundled her off to some dank, close cabin, threw her unceremoniously against a corner, and left her there while they got underway, from the feel of the ship's movements. Finally, she heard the hatch open, heavy bootsteps, and then someone picked her up, smacked her blind, gagged face a couple of times, and then took her out of her bindings, uncovering her face at last and yanking out her gag.

In the dimness, she couldn't tell who was there, but he was dark and large and held her like she was a rag doll. His breath had rum on it, but not overly much, as he held her up and growled at her, "how much do they know, hm?"
 
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