~ 7 months before ~

                Your father and his sailormen were inside that rat cave, as you liked to call that place, drinking and shouting and making the worst mess, as usual. It had been a good day, robbery brought more profit than expected and your father got satisfied by that. Of course, part of the village was extremely damaged and some people got hurt during the chaos. You used to get worried about them when you were younger, but now all you thought was that they would be fine, eventually. Not that you approved your father, the Pirate Capitan, going around destroying entire villages, taking all their money and food and killing and hurting them, you just learned that if you could deal with some damage, everyone else also could, so over time, you stopped suffering for these unknown people.
                You were leaning against the rock wall, beside the door, a mug half filled with rum in one hand, and looking at your ship from a distance. They had been inside there for hours and it was almost time to leave. At least the noise wasn’t too loud from where you were. You sighed, impatient, and looked to the other side, seeing a silhouette. Tall, male, you assumed, but it was hard to tell in the dark of the night. As it was coming closer, you were sure it was a man, a young one. He stomped his feet, one after another, a sword in his hand and a strong and angry essence in his eyes. He passed by you and was about to push the door open.
                “I wouldn't disturb a pirate party, boy,” you said, making him stop in his track and eye you up and down.
                “Boy?” he smiled sarcastically.
                “You can't even hold this sword properly.” you pointed to his hand.
                “You're one of them…” he thought aloud.
                You only shrugged taking a sip from your mug and placing it on the small table outside. He turned around to enter the place, but you quickly pulled him by the sleeve of his shirt, throwing him against the wall, making him hit his head and scream in pain.
                “I'm serious, if you don't want to die, leave. Right. Now.” you stared into his eyes, defying his anger.
                As on a cue, your father burst the door open, laughing loudly, many of his men carrying countless bottles of alcohol. He looked at you and immediately stopped laughing.
                “What's wrong, deary?”
                “Nothing.” you let go of the boy, still looking in his eyes. “Let's go.” you started walking.
                The Captain drew out the gun from his holster and pointed to him.
                “Anyone who disturbs my girl deserves to die,” he said and you heard the gun cracking.
                You instantly turned around and pushed your father’s arm upwards, making him shoot an empty barrel above and behind the young man. You looked at him and he had his eyes slightly widened, his hand strongly holding the grip of his sword.
                “Father! You're drunk!” you shouted.
                The Capitan looked at you and laughed again, followed by his men.
                “Make him a prisoner,” he simply ordered before turning around and start walking towards the port.
                One man quickly snatched the sword from the boy’s hand and two other proceeded to grab his arms and drag him along to the ship. He struggled and shouted countless times, telling them to let him go and set him free. You stood behind all of them and only watched for a couple of seconds before starting to walk as well.
                Once in the ship, they threw him in the cage and locked him up. You assumed that by his screams and because that's what they always do with a new prisoner.
               The next day was chilly. Strong winds messing with the sails, men shouting here and there and your father peacefully behind the timon. Only by looking you knew he was having a terrible headache due drinking too much the night before, and asking him the destination was definitely not a good idea. Not when you had just saw him whisper a threat to his best sailorman, the man he trusted the most – sometimes, more than you. It was afternoon and you remembered the prisoner. During all these hardships with maintaining the ship in the right route, no one would've remembered feeding the poor boy. You jumped to the first subfloor, where the cage was placed, and walked there. He was sitting on the corner and looked at you as you approached.
                “Did you eat?” you simply asked, not so sympathetic, but also not so harsh.
                “Is this a joke?” he looked at you. “Of course you’d be making jokes, your father goes around from village to village taking people's money and resources, while mine has lost everything he had in his store, taking us to the ruin, because of him.” he angrily stared at you.
                You felt a small tug on your heart seeing he was more hurt than angry. Nonetheless, without showing your weakness, you turned around and went to grab some leftover bread and a mug full of rum in your room, then got back to the jail, opened it and placed the food on the floor. All the while, the young man looked at you. You sat on the floor beside the mug and pushed it to him.
                “Is this poisoned?” he pointed to the mug.
                “If we wanted to kill you, we would've already thrown you to the sea with a sack of rocks tied up to your feet,” you said but he still looked at you suspiciously.
                You rolled your eyes, took a gulp from the mug and put it back in place. Only then he risked reaching out his hand to grab the food. He took the mug and smelled it.
                “Rum? Seriously?” he incredulously asked.
                “Rum or sea water, which would make you die from dehydration. You choose,” you said.
                He then proceeded to quietly eat. Once he was finished the last drop from the mug, you started talking.
                “So this is how things work around here. Starting tonight, or tomorrow morning, you will do everything the Capitan or I tell you to do, and we will give you food and let you live for as long as you're useful to us. You will freely walk around the ship in order to do what we say, but careful; you steal, we cut your hand out and you bleed to death; you neglect your work, we cut your hand out and you bleed to death; you plan and try to kill any of us in the ship, we cut both your hands out and you bleed to death; you try to kill yourself, we make sure you painfully accomplish that or live long enough to taste the damages of your stupid decision. Am I clear?” you finished and stood up.
                He stared at you for several seconds before speaking up. “Why not kill me right now instead?”
                “If that's what you want, just tell me and I'll be glad to save some more cups of rum to myself.” you grabbed the grip of your sword and started pulling it up.
                “Clear enough,” he instantly said.
                “You can walk around the ship and make yourself familiar.” you put the sword in place and turned around, walking away.

                You were beside your father, behind the timon, looking at the lost young man who seemed to never even had looked to a ship before. His gaze was lost and confused.
                “What's his name?” the Capitan asked.
                “Does it matter? He's a prisoner,” you said.
                “He's your prisoner now. Do what you think it's proper.”
                “What?” you shouted.
               “You're growing up. You've learned very well how to take care of a ship an