Annie could feel the pull of the strong wind the moment it leaped into the unfurled sails, making the galleon moan and shudder as it responded to its coaxing touch, abandoning herself to its strength and insistence. In no time the ship started to move smoothly under their feet, taking them away from the town which had been Annie's home for so long.

Baba... She sighed, making Giacomo look up at her from where he was kneeling on the wooden floor, as he pulled some shards from the boy's bare feet carefully.

Ahmet was sitting on the surgeon's narrow berth, his teeth clenched tightly in pain, as he heroically resisted the urge to cry out in pain.

"Sit down, Jack," Giacomo offered, motioning her to his bed too. It was the only place to sit in the small, ill lit cabin apart from a stool fastened to the floor next to a wooden ledge under a small round window, where Giacomo kept a couple of leather bags, presumably filled with all those things he used in his profession, and a few books, all stuffed neatly and tightly into narrow shelves so they would not move with each leap and shudder of the galleon.

Annie was just about to refuse when the vessel, having reached the open sea outside the harbour, gave a sudden lurch, making her stumble. She sat next to Ahmet and watched Giacomo clean the boy's face with a small piece of fabric dipped in a water-filled basin he held on his lap, before he motioned to Ahmet to put his feet in it.

The boy nodded and obliged, then, and after a few moments of removing the worst dirt off his skin, Giacomo motioned him to move his feet to a small towel the surgeon had spread on the floor, drying them gently and applying some sort of salve and a bandage to one of them.

Giacomo's gentleness and patience was admirable...

"Jack, would you please tell our little friend that I find him very brave?" Giacomo asked suddenly, looking directly at Annie and making her jump and blush lightly as he caught her watching his every move. "Tell him that before I'll have to send him to Antonio and the rest of the boys, I'll take him to Zehra. Our cook, being the only woman on board, made herself the mother of all our powder monkeys," he said with a smile. "She'll most likely wash him and give some new clothes."

Annie nodded, translating the surgeon's words to Ahmet.

"If you are busy, I can take him to Zehra myself," she offered, remembering quite well where the galleon's kitchen was.

"There's no need, thank you. Your cabin is right opposite of mine, you might want to settle down a little. Usually, we all just eat whenever we are free, and hungry, Zehra's kitchen is always open. But on occasions like these, when we welcome new crew members, some of us dine together in the captain's cabin in the evenings. I guess I'll see you there later, if we won't bump into each other before." He smiled.

Annie nodded, quite liking the idea of having a few hours to herself.

"Be good, Ahmet, I'm sure Zehra will treat you well unless you'll give a reason not to. Should you have any problem, anytime, promise you'll come to me immediately." Annie told Ahmet seriously, watching him nod in response as they followed the surgeon out of his cabin, not liking the idea that the boy would soon become Antonio's responsibility.

Annie then stopped by the door pointed out to her by Giacomo, and with a smile watched the man and the boy disappear down the narrow passage.

Her sea-chests were already there and she unloaded one of them, the larger one full of maps, books and other instruments she would need to help navigate the ship well.

She spread one of the maps on a small table, or rather a ledge, identical to the one in Giacomo's cabin, tracing the route shown to her before by Barbarossa with her finger.

According to him, Restless Soul needed to sail to La Goulette first. There they were to drop off a part of their cargo and money-- the price Barbarossa paid to the current sultan of Tunis for peace and the permission to sail through his waters and dock in his ports. The journey from Antalya to La Goulette would take some fourteen days, with the wind of twenty-five knots, and favourable weather.

Then, once they refilled the ship with fresh water and provisions, they would sail towards Monte Cristo, a small, uninhabited isle between the Italian coast and the large island of Corse. That meant another eight days of journey, with the right wind in their sails.

Monte Cristo wasn't the safest spot of the Mediterranean for them, but as Barbarossa had said, there was something left hidden for Annie by him and her real father. And, since Restless Soul sailed under the Yellow Jack, a flag signalling to all others that there was disease and recent death on board, it had never been accosted by other privateers or pirates.

Annie pulled another, much smaller map from beneath the very tight corset she wore under the male shirt to conceal her curves, and unfolded it on top of the other. This one represented a small, rocky island with a handful of beaches and a tall mountain taking up the rest of it. Somewhere there, inside that rock, she was to find a cave and whatever was hidden in it for her.

Annie was sad that she had to leave Baba but this was... exciting. She could feel the anticipation of the adventure she had dreamed about for so long coursing through her veins.

She folded the small map again and put it back where it had been, then laid on her narrow bed. It wasn't very comfortable but it would do, the majority of the crew did not even have a bed, let alone a cabin.

She let her daydreams carry her to unknown lands, as she fell asleep with a smile on her lips. When she awoke again the light filling her cabin was even more wan than before. She changed into a clean set of clothes quickly, afraid that she would be late for the dinner with the captain.

She just tied a fresh, turquoise kerchief over her tightly plaited hair when someone knocked on her door.

"Come in!" She called in English, hoping it would be Giacomo, but it was Ahmet who ran in, crying.

"What happened to you?" She called, alarmed, as she noticed his broken lip and torn shirt.

The moment she managed to calm him down enough to speak, he told her how he had been beaten by Antonio.

"Come," she told him, making the boy follow her to Giacomo's cabin.

Luckily the surgeon was in, getting ready for the dinner too.

Annie heard his breath catch at the sight of the injured boy. Giacomo cleaned his lip and made sure he wasn't hungry, then made him lay down on his bed. The exhausted boy was asleep the moment his head touched the pillow.