AN: This is my first PotC story, so I may come back and change some stuff once I've already written it. Read and review please!

Prologue

"Captain!" a sailor's rough voice cut through the wind on deck, making the tall blonde man at the helm turn to the port side. The man, Edmund, was looking down at the water with a frantic look on his face. "Life boat, sir!"

"Bring her up!" the captain yelled, and several men scrambled to grab ropes and hooks. When the small life boat was dragged up, the men stepped away, their faces masks of disgust. Upon seeing the two dead men in the boat, the captain crossed himself but leaned forward anyhow. One had been shot through the chest, the other cut down with a blade, probably a sword. But it was the odd lump under the stabbed man's arm that had caught the merchant captain's attention.

He moved the blanket aside and drew a sharp breath. A small girl lay curled against the dead man, dressed in a ripped blue dress. But it was the shallow rise and fall of her chest that made him reach in and pull her from the boat. "Get water! She's alive!" he snapped to Edmund. A water skin was shoved into his hands, already unstopped, so he let a trickle of the liquid run between dry, cracked lips.

"She can't be more than three years old," Edmund observed as the girl swallowed, then began to cough. Her eyelids fluttered, like she was trying to wake up, so the captain poured a little more water into her mouth. This time she swallowed it without coughing and whimpered when the trickle stopped.

"Little sips now, little sips," the captain told her softly, surprising the crew with his gentleness. Her eyes finally opened, revealing a bright blue gaze that searched frantically for the source of the cool fresh water. The captain helped her take several small sips before he reached to pick her up.

Instantly she flinched away, her back hitting the side of the lifeboat with a thud. "You're okay, little one. We're not going to hurt you. I'm Captain Davis. These are my men," he told her, sitting back on his heels and waving the crew back to work.

Her head tilted to the side and she looked over her shoulder at the lifeboat. Pulling herself to her feet, she looked into the craft. Instead of coiling away from the dead, she reached passed the stabbed one and grabbed the shot one's arm. Looking over her shoulder, she saw that Davis had not moved and beckoned him over. When he stood beside her, she climbed into the little boat and pushed back the sleeve of the shot man. There was a white tattoo on his forearm and Davis understood immediately. "He's a pirate?" he asked the girl.

She nodded and pointed at the stabbed man. Shaking her head she touched the tattoo again. "And he's not?" Davis checked, wondering why she wouldn't speak. Again she nodded and pointed to the flag she could see on the back of the ship. "He's English?" Another nod and a tapping of her own chest made him ask, "You're English?" She nodded vigorously this time. "What happened to your ship?" This got the dead pirate a jab in the chest. "Pirates attacked your ship? Did they sink it?" Now the girl looked away and climbed out of the boat. She moved to the railing, looking out over the sea, and nodded sadly. She had remarkable sea legs for a girl, and a very young one at that.

"What's your name?" he asked, kneeling beside her.

She looked at him for a long time, her tired blue eyes searching his weathered face. She took in his blue shirt and brown jacket, brown pants, and simple, sturdy black boots. There was a pistol stuck through his belt, and he wore his brown hair tied back in a short ponytail. He didn't know what she was looking for but she didn't seem to find it. In a quiet, ragged voice she murmured, "Margaret."

Captain Davis studied the girl just as she watched him. Her salt-dried and windblown hair would be blonde once it was washed, and she was barefoot. The once nice blue dress she wore had been torn, the skirt shredded, one sleeve torn open at the shoulder. Removing his jacket, he set it about her shoulders and said, "Well, Miss Margaret, welcome aboard the Hawk."