((Apologies or the length, not a great deal to write about))

The waves rolled gently by as ship cut along through the water. It was a small affair, perfectly suited for small crossings. No, the boat, not the sea. Anyway, the boat only had a three people on board; two passengers and an old seadog for a captain. One of them, Jack, or 'Captain' Jack as he likes to be known, lay on the fore deck, an empty rum bottle in one hand. He sighed in the gentle sea breeze, enjoying the heat of the sun kissing the sweat at his brow and the sounds o the gulls cawing above. It was a perfect day.

"da da da da da da da da daa..... and really bad eggs" he hummed softly to himself.

Stella leaned on the railing, looking out to sea. The sun glistened off the water, sending sparkles all round. He sighed, content. Such a beautiful day. Other then the sound of the gently rolling waves was a slightly mad (to Stella's eye anyway) captain, who was singing some song about eggs. She giggled to herself.

The shop had been a sail for a while now, and her mind qwas hazy from all the sunlight. She found that day that she couldn't tan, so she didn't have to worry about the suns rays ruining her skin. But the heat... it was becoming intense. The breeze from the see was slight, and every time it passed over, she sighed in happiness.

She had found a new love. The sea. Everything about it was just so.. SO... Peaceful!! Like nothing could ever disturb this wonderful day. She layed across the deck, and closed her eyes. She could not sleep, but the warmth from the sun on her face was soothing. The intense sunlight had evened out her glow, and so you couldn't even tell she was glowing. People didn't look at her weird. It was a nice change.

Jack liked his current circumstances. It was not often he had an easy day. Ah well. The boat continued to rock on the waves, the wind continued to kiss him and the sun continued to beat down. But the rum was gone. Why was the rum always gone? Jack figured it time to get some more. He stood up and as he staggered toward the cabin, realized why the rum was gone.

Making his drunken way to the cabin was easy. So too was opening the door and picking up a bottle. He smiled. Life was good. It was then he realized something was not quite right. His drunken brain fought for a moment to try and figure out what. After spending a few futile moments stationary he gave up and went back to the deck when he saw a very strange sight. There was a small figure on the horizon, roughly man shaped, frantically swimming for shore. Weird. He went to take a swig from the bottle but stopped half way. That was it. Why was the captain swimming away? Who cared? He walked back toward the fore deck.

The sharp, cold feeling that ran down Jack's spine was not an unfamiliar one. Unfortunately he had been in this situation many times.

"Parlay?" he offered.

Closing her eyes, Stella drifted into a dreamlike state - not quite sleeping, because that was impossible. Something was tapping her stomach, well, more like licking. She sat up, opening her eyes annoyed. "I'm awake! Jeez all you..had..." She tailed off, face to face with a man who's face was heavily bearded. He smelled like cigars and rum, and somthing else she couldn't quite place her finger on. She stood up slowly, a knife held to her throat. She eyes it wearily.

"Uhm.." She didn't quite no what to say. She turned to see the fellow passenger, Jack she believed he was called - holding a bottle of some sort of liquid. "Parlay?" She asked, and her eye brows rose. What in Loth's name was THAT? She frowned, then was shoved again some of the masts. She struggled as she was tied up, but it was no use. She couldn't quite reach her wand either. She was stuck. She wondered what they wanted.

Jack watched as the other passenger on the boat, some girl, was tied up just as the blade at his neck was removed. He turned round to see a rather large and not-so-friendly looking pirate staring at him in puzzlement.

"Parley?" Jack offered again, adding to the pirates befuddlement.
"Wha?" the pirate replied intelligently.
"Exactly" Jack said, stepping past the pirate, "Where be the leader o' ya ugly lot? hmm?"

There was a silence, whereby Jack looked from pirate to pirate - about ten in all - searching for one that looked vaguely captain-ly.

"That'd be me" came the growl from somewhere behind the bunch of pirates. A second later they parted, allowing a rather bedraggled looking man to step forward. The man was dressed in a large hat and an assortment of leather and cloth garments and had a scraggly little beard.

"Garberosa" growled Jack, "I should have known."
"Jaaaaaack" growled Garberosa back, "You're supposed to be dead. How in blazes did you get off that island?"
"When you marooned me on that god forsaken spit of land, you forgot one very important thing, mate: I'm Captain Jack Swallows." Jack replied

Garberosa smiled.

"Well, I won't be making the same mistake again" said Garberosa, drawing his cutlass. In the same instant jack drew his own, but rather than engaging his old first mate, he charged back toward the girl, cutting the ropes that held her bound.

"Help!" he yelled.

She nodded once, taking her wand from her belt and pointing at the pirates, who merely laughed. "What yer gonna do with that piece o' stick tur poppet?" One demanded between laughs, and Stella scowled, then raised her hand into the air, the tips of her fingers pointed up towards the havens.

"Watch." She muttered, then yelled "FALLING STARS!" She brought her hand down in a sweeping gesture, then stood, waiting. The pirates - who had become silent during her shouting, began to laugh once more. Lights suddenly lit the sky, and Stella smiled. "Look up." She commented, then moved away from them, grabbing the one names Jack.

"If you want to live, i suggest we get off this boat before them stars hit!" She pointed above at the hundreds of falling stars, then turned back to Jack. "Any sugestions before they do?" She asked.

Jack watched as the little girl did something with her stick. It seemed rather superfluous really, the situation was grim and it seemed they were going to die any way you cut it. But the girl seemed to be crazier than he was, yelling about stars falling. Too much rum, obviously. She asked him a question.

“RUUUUUUUUUN” he yelled, grabbing her hand and pulling her along, out of the path of the charging pirates. Oh yes, they weren’t just standing there. As soon as the little girls bit of stick waving was over they had charged en-masse.

Jack pulled the girl with him to the very pint of the bow, standing up on the railings. Out of the corner of his eye he saw something glinting in the sky. Eh, probably just a seagull. The pirates had stopped a few feet away, safe in the knowledge that Jack and the girl weren’t going anywhere. Jack addressed them all.

“Gentleman, captain, you have my regards. Today is the day that you will always remember as the day that you almost caught Captain Jack Swall-”

But he never got to finish for at that moment the stars hit and split the boat in two, sending jack flying backward off the boat and into the sea.

Stella was dragged across the ship, pirates following closely. She felt mad. Why wern t they taking her seriously?! Stars where SERIOUSLY going to fall and blow this ship apart! She scowled, as her and Jack where cornered. She glanced sideways at him with a smirk. The stars where getting closer, their shine bright. Soon...

“Gentleman, captain, you have my regards. Today is the day that you will always remember as the day that you almost caught Captain Jack Swall-” Jack bragged, but not for long. The stars fell with full force upon the men, and Stella was sent flying at full speeds towards the ocean. Jack was already bobbing up from his fall, and her eyebrows shot up. She pointed her wand at the floor. "FLOAT!" She yelled, and she just hovered at the top of the water, not touching it. She grinned. She didn't WANT to get wet! She ship began to sink, and she watched from her dry refuge above the water.

Turning her head to Jack she smiled. "Told you." She chirped, childishly.

Jack cam back up, coughing water from his lungs. Why did he never get to finish his parting line? Why did these things always happen to him? Why was the rum always gone? He tried working it out before, but the answers never made sense. 42. I mean, come on. He looked around for the girl, the one who had destroyed a perfectly good boat. A perfectly good boat with no captain. A perfectly good boat he could have comandeered. Blast that girl.

The shock of the stars falling was nothing in comparison to the shock he received when he finally caught sight of the girl. In fact he very nearly drowned. When he finally recovered, he glowered at her.

"And what, pray you, am I supposed to do now? That was MY BOAT and unfortunately for yours truly, some of us CAN'T FLOAT!" he yelled.

"And what, pray you, am I supposed to do now? That was MY BOAT and unfortunately for yours truly, some of us CAN'T FLOAT!" Jack yelled and Stella was taken back. She moved away from him, alarmed. "I... I'm sorry" She mumbled, then a sudden idea hit her.

"I uhh... my familiar can carry you!" She gushed, then raised her fingers to her lips. Her whistles echoed far away, and then she waited. She was feeling very awkward, floating above this angry pirate. She floated away further... She felt... weird. She shouldn't have used falling stars spell, maybe just another spell, to blast them away.

Soon Azulu came into sight, followed by Nixi. They seemed to be.. racing? She frowned, then held up her hand. The White dove perched on her left, and the bright, flame coloured Phoenix perched in her right. She smiled at them both briefly, then turned to the pirate.

"Any choice? Their both capable of lifting you" She grinned. She hoped he wouldn't yell again. People yelling at her scared her. In fact, she hated people getting mad at her.

Jack calmed down a little. It wasn't all bad; he still had his Ru... Where was the rum? Where was it? It wasn't floating nearby which meant... it had gone down with the ship. Curse the gods, why did he have to be on the same boat as that blasted girl? However the girl seemed to be offering him a lift, so at least she was trying to make up for it.

"I'll take the white birdie, I don't much fancy the idea of being burnt to a crisp whilst at sea." He was joking really, how could something that small lift a fully grown man?

Besides, Jack didn't really believe in magic, save for the old sea stories and the voodoo women of the islands.

Stella had a strange inkling that this man did not beleive her. The great dove held onto stella's shoulders, lifting her hight still then what she had been while she floated. Nixi lifted the man the same way, her feathers like flames dancing in the sun.

The flew, the light breeze flowing her hair around her like a silver halo, the feeling refreshing upon her face. They flew in silence, Stella feeling awkward and a little guilty for the destruction of the mans ship. Soon an island approached, and Azulu set Stella down carefully. She stroked her affectionately with one hand, Nixi the phoenix with the other, and cooed to them. They where the best est friends she had, and where the only real family she had here in Arda.

After they flew away into the forest to rest, Stella turned nervously to the man, and smiled timidly. "I...i;m sorry about your boat, i didn't mean my attacking to be that powerful..." She trailed off, then sighed. Her eyes skimmed the shoreline for any sight of any other possible human life, but found none.

Jack lay back on the sandy beach, exhausted from the 'little incident'. The waves broke gently on the sand and washed up the shore, soaking through his trousers and into his boots. Gulls cawed overhead in the midday sun, complaining even as they feasted on the fish that sped through the shallows. There was not a cloud in the sky nor blot on the horizon, yet it was not paradise.

Jack lent up on his elbows, looking at the little girl. She was not more than a child, not yet even of marriageable age. How could a child so sweet and innocent cause the devastation to the ship, the like of which had never been seen by he. More so, who was she that commanded such creatures as could lift a man with such little effort. One not natural, that was certain.

"... It's just a ship, mate." he sighed, "But yet again that man got away, and marooned me here. Here, of all places. Funny old world."

Again he was engrossed in his thoughts. He lay back down in the sand and set about the business of falling asleep.

Jack soon fell asleep, and Stella scowled. He wanted her to set up camp... ALONE?! Mumbling to herself in frustration, Stella began to rip off loose dry branches from the nearby woods. Piling them high, she pointed her wand at it. "SPARK!" A small flame leapt from her wand, and the twigs and branches where set alight.

The fire now blazing warmly, she began gathering ferns and other soft plants to set up on the floor, as a carpet, or mattress so to speak. She sat down, and exhaled softly, relaxing. She couldn't sleep, so she just spent the night gazing at the stars - her favorite past time. Everything about this day had been tiring, and she eyed the one called Jack dubiously. Was he still made at her?

The warm rays from the fire heated her face nicely, and she shuffled around, nursing deeper into the the ferns. She released a sigh - like pent up frustration. She never got mad, but knew that if she was going to be stuck on an island with a man who hated her would be difficult.

And so their time began.