"Right, I know there's been some rabble rousing about whether or not I'm fit to take over from old Daniel, God rest his soul, but ye' gotta show a little faith, men!" He trudged back and forth with his hands clasped firmly behind his back, every now and then casting a glare down upon the ruffian pack of thieves, plunderers and farmers standing at attention on deck. Though he carried an air of confidence, the nervous sweat was starting to puddle up inside his heavy, black boots; mutiny after the first week out at sea as newly crowned Captain of a pirate ship probably wasn't the greatest story ever told.

"Well, yea, but-"

"A little faith." Half of the crew jumped when the shorter than average Captain slammed his clenched fists down upon the railing while the other half continued to stand at attention, either because they didn't care or because they were a bit too deaf. "Come now, men. Barely half a fortnight since we set sail and you're doubting my judgement? Is that really the sort of joint we wanna be running around here?"

"Well, no..." Some of the men shuffled their feet and looked down, ashamed that they had even doubted the Captain's judgement to begin with.

"It's just..." One of them, with more beard than teeth, raised his voice which quickly trailed off and fell overboard when the Captain focused his glowering gaze on him.

"It's just what?"

"It's just that..." Another continued, one with more teeth than beard, and scratched the back of his head. "It's just that we didn't think you knew about... Well..."

"Didn't know? Didn't know?!" The Captain swallowed a wince as he once again slammed his fists down upon the railing and instantly thought that he must come up with some other way to show his immense frustration to the men; his hands were taking quite a beating. "Would the Captain of the proud galleon 'The Flying Jawbreaker' not know?! I am hurt!" He clutched his chest and groaned, feigning a very dramatic sense of betrayal. "Even if so were the case, why didn't any of you bilge-drinking knuckleheads think to tell me? How can this vessel sail the seven seas and beyond if we keep things from each other?" Even the more grizzled sailors began to look elsewhere to distract them from the shame arising within.

"We're sorry, Cap'n."

"It won't happen again."

"We trust you, Cap'n." The apologetic murmurs quickly raced through the rowdy crowd and the Captain nodded satisfactory.

"Good. Now get back to work, ye' scurvy-ridden dogs!" Deep, bellowing laughter lightened the mood considerably, as it had been made clear from the first day of their voyage that no disease was one of the goals they were going to be working towards. Still chuckling, the pirates all spread out to return to their due duties. "Peg-Leg Ed!" One of the men, who had been standing the closest to the stairs leading up to the elevated deck where the Captain was standing, perked up at the mention of his name and scurried up the stairs, saluting his Captain and old friend.

"Yes, Eddy?"

"Look, Lumpy." The Captain, Eddy, threw an arm around the gangling, yellow-skinned man's shoulders and led him away from any eavesdropping ears. Looking around to see if they were truly alone, he began to speak in a frantic whisper. "Did you know about this?"

"No, Eddy; One-Eyed Frank told me this morning over spam!" Ed got a very firm hand clamped over his mouth as his voice had held a decibel level not suited for under-one's-breath conversations.

"Aight, aight, stick a barnacle in it. Just add it to the checklist." Eddy took off his hat and rubbed the top of his head, annoyed that said list was growing to be the size of a children's novel.

"Will do!" Ed pulled out a piece of parchment from his inner vest pocket, a parchment to which several other parchments had been haphazardly attached, and produced forth a piece of charcoal from his boot. "How do you want it put?"

"'Check that the damn tethering's tied off before you leave port or you're gonna be dragging around a jetty for the better part of a week'."

"Can I shorten it?"

"Do whatever the hell you want, I gotta cut the damn thing loose; no wonder that old geezer in the row boat flew past us yesterday."