Anna swapped the deck irritably with a sludgy mop, not making much difference but to add to the existing layer of grimy muck.

"This is the fifth time in a row I've had to do this!" she yelled at the two other boys who sat, grinning, somewhere off. "You lost, Anna dear," one of them called back gallantly, while the other took a swig of something and choked himself to high hell.

"How can you drink that bloody stuff and not die, Jack?" the boy gagged, almost spitting the brownish liquid back out of his mouth, and quickly passed the bottle on. Jack grabbed it, and downed its contents without blinking an eye.

"Who knows?" he said mysteriously, getting up and wandering over, barefooted, to the side to look down at the bustling port. The soft, foamy breaks the waves had against the rocks, the squabbling women at the market bargaining with the stubborn vendors, the lounging fishermen chatting listlessly with each other, the red-coated officers strutting around like important and ridiculous looking peacocks, the sluggish smoke that snailed from chimneys, the children holding a tricorne and screaming with laughter as they ran along in the alleys, being chased by a furious man who was undoubtedly the owner; everything was a sight the boy had seen for the past thirteen years of his life.

One deep breath brought in the tang of salty sea air, tinged with the smells of fish, freshly caught. Another deep scent wafted towards them; this was a tea ship, no doubt, loaded with the leaf from some exotic place in Asia, as the enormous vessel made its way gingerly through the waters peppered with small boats.

"Nice grand ship this is, aye?" he said half-dreamily, running his hand down the wood in an almost loving way. "I'd love to run one of these beauties at the wheel as a captain when I grow up... Captain Jack Sparrow... That would be a fine name, wouldn't it now?"

"Nice filthy ship, you mean," Anna snapped, as she marched over and yanked him to face her. Leaning in, the fierce girl added in a hiss, "Either do this for me, or I'll tell Hec about what really happened to his so-called 'absent' savings."

Jack stared at her, his expression crossing between half annoyance of being threatened by a girl, and amusement. "You wouldn't dare," he said, dark eyes fixing upon her determined ones. She turned with an innocent smile.

"Hey, Hec, guess what-"

Jack hastily grabbed the mop from her hand and started glomping around, giving Anna a mournfully wronged puppy dog look before turning his back.

She pretended not to see it, and took his seat beside Hec, watching in satisfaction. "What did you do to him again, Anna?" Hec drawled in lazy merriment, watching the rebellious boy swish the decks obediently.

"Who knows?" Anna mimicked, hiding a smile behind her windswept hair.

Life for them – the three daredevil, homeless 'devils', as the townspeople called them – consisted of living on the edge and stealing what they could whenever they had the chance to live. A few days ago, they had finally been caught by the law, and sold aboard this ship to work as deck-hands. The three, Jack, Anna and Hector, didn't mind as much, and treated the whole affair breezily as a big adventure, and spent their free time annoying the hell out of most of the crew, nimbly dodging kicks, punches and curses as they laughed and escaped afterwards.

This was a merchant ship bound for Singapore the day after, an island located somewhere in the remote Asian seas. If the officers only knew what they had done when they sent them onto that ship, if only the pompous judge in his wig knew what he had condemned the world with when he decided on that particular sentence…

Jack Sparrow, Anna Maria, and Hector Barobossa… the names of which would later terrorize the Caribbean…