Lyta was walking out of the galley still laughing over one of the cook's good jokes again when she saw the young girl Faith walk out of her cabin. Maybe I should go introduce myself and help her out. Of course she looks like one of the crew would so maybe now.

Lyta could see as she got closer that Faith had had several piercings, including one in her belly button and several in her ears. "I can still go help her out," she thought to herself.

She walked over to Faith and tapped her on the shoulder. "Hello, my name is Lyta. Dacota told me to help you out in anyway and I thought I should introduce myself and see if you needed any help."

Faith stuck her hand out and said, "My name is Faith. And yes I could use some help. Duncaan needs his breakfast and he can eat a lot."

"Ok, no problem. I'll help you take it all to him."

Little did she know exactly how much food Faith meant. It took three armfuls to carry it all. "Wow," she said on their last trip, "He can eat a lot huh?"

"Yeah, he has been like that ever since I've known him." she responded. She turned toward Lyta, "So how long have you been on the ship?"

"Oh, just about three months I guess. I knew Dacota for a long time. He took me away from my uncle who used to beat me."

"Oh, that is just terrible! My family has always loved me, I live on Los Juegos."

"The Casino Island?" Lyta asked her.

"Yes. Oh, you should see it Lyta! I am sure you would love it."

"So you are a gambler huh?"

"That's right," she said, "You have a problem with that?"

"Not at all Faith," she said laughing, "Not one dang problem at all"

In a dimly lit tavern near the Providence docks, a woman clad in black was seated at a table in the most unused corner of the establishment. Her eyes scanned the hazy room for the informant she was supposed to meet with. "There he is. Sure took him long enough," she muttered under her breath.

She managed to get his attention without attracting too much other notice. The man took his place across from her.

"Alright, I'm here. You better have the money," he told her in a voice somewhat slurred from too much alcohol.

"You don't have anything to worry about," she said holding up a dazzling strand of pearls. "As I told you earlier, I'm searching for clues as to the disappearance of my parents. Now, tell me everything you know about this symbol."

The woman handed him a piece of a uniform with an insignia attached to it, inwardly cringing with disgust at his filthy hands and unkempt clothing. The insignia was that of a globe with a sword thrust into it.

After she had enough information to satisfy her, the woman paid the informant and silently strode out of the tavern, her destination clear to none but herself.

A couple days after he had gotten on board, Duncaan finally felt strong enough to go up on deck and start to stretch his sore muscles. "Man, this feels great," he thought.

Of course Faith objected to it, but not as much as Duncaan had thought she would. In fact ever since she had met that Lyta girl, she hadn't been dawdling over him. In fact she was standing about thirty feet away sitting on a coil of rope talking to Lyta.

"As long as she is talking to Lyta and not bothering me I am happy." Dressed only in some warm-up pants, he felt more alive today then he had since the big fight. "I am just glad that's over. I will never have to be hurt like that again, thank God."

As he started to go through one of his routines he saw some of the crew stop to watch him. After all, Duncaan was a very famous fighter and they had probably been to one or two of his fights. So it was only natural for them to start to admire him. Flexing his chest and shoulders muscles, he could already feel them start to relax.

He went through about an hour's worth of exercising when he finally set up a punching bag that the crewman Perri helped him create. Then he launched into it. An hour and a half later, drenched in sweat, he could tell the crew was definitely starting to keep their distance. Don't want to get hit by a stray block or punch.

While he was doing this he felt the presence of someone come up and tap him on the shoulder. Immediately reflexes kicked in and he flung the man over his shoulder and hurl him into a pile of ropes. The young man hadn't been down for more than a second, before he was up and with a vicious sword in his hands. The young man charged and Duncaan quickly dodged out of the way and kicked his sword out of his hand. Without a weapon the young man ran for the main mast and Duncaan followed. As he reached the mast the young man took a step up it and flipped over it.

I know what he is going to do. Flip over me and hit me from behind well not this time. Instead of coming after him, Duncaan stopped and when his opponent was in midair he jumped up and hit him with a spiral uppercut. A pop rang out across the deck, as the young man's shoulder was dislocated. Duncaan landed on his feet, as did Jakar, his opponent.

"It has been a long time Duncaan," he said through clenched teeth.

"Indeed it has Jakar, here let me help you with that shoulder."

"No thanks Duncaan, I have had enough of your help for today," Jakar said quickly.

Duncaan threw back his head and just laughed at his friend. Duncaan and Jakar had been childhood playmates. They had been friends while in school. But when Duncaan went to train in the martial arts at fifteen, and Jakar left to follow his own dreams, the friends had parted ways. That had been twelve years ago.

"You are looking well Jakar. See you still like those big swords of yours. Good against slow moving targets, not so good against Judo experts huh?"

Jakar laughed at that. "Yeah not very good against you at least. Now could you please help me pop my shoulder back into place?"

"Oh sure, no problem Jakar," Duncaan told him.

Within ten minutes they were in the galley talking over a few glasses of good Riatha ale. They caught up on each other, what they had been doing over the years, and other odd bits of information.

While this was going on, a presence came up behind them. "Crewman Jakar I hope you will not be taking these breaks in the future," said a familiar voice.

"Oh, I am sorry Dacota, I forgot you hired me. I'll get back to work," he looked to Duncaan, "I'll see you later buddy."

"No problem Jakar, it's not like I'm going somewhere." Jakar laughed and took his leave.

Dacota looked over at Duncaan and studied him. The sea air and exercise must have affected him positively because Duncaan was looking better then ever. His skin was turning more to its natural color then the pale color it had been when he had first come aboard.

"How are you feeling now Duncaan?" he asked him.

Duncaan took another swig of his ale before answering. "I am doing much better Dacota, thanks. Though I am already feeling sore, so I am going to have to lay off exercising again for awhile."

Dacota ordered a glass of Darsiva Whiskey. After he got his glass he turned toward Duncaan again. "Listen Duncaan, we have to stop at Providence for awhile to unload some cargo and take on some supplies. I hope you don't mind the wait."

"Nah," he said with a wave of his hand, "I don't mind at all."

"Well, that's good. So you take it easy while I go oversee how Jakar, Perri and the rest of the crew are doing."

"Alright Dacota see you tonight at the dancing floor."

The dancing floor had been an idea of Lyta's. To help with the crew's morale, Lyta had some of the crew that could play instruments play together as a band and the few girls that there were would get the guys and dance. All in all, it helped to raise the morale and the spirit of the crew. Frankly, Dacota was thrilled when Lyta suggested it to him.

"Alright I will see you later Duncaan," he called as he walked out of the galley area.

A few days later they arrived at Providence. As the crew started to load the cargo onto the boat, Dacota negotiated with the merchant there for a good price. Finally the merchant gave up and sold the cargo at Dacota's price.

After the merchant left, Perri motioned for Dacota to come over there. Perri had a twinkle in his eye, and that interested Dacota to go see what was up. When Dacota was at Perri's side he whispered into his ear, "Hey Cap'n, there is a young lady here wanting to buy passage to Los Juegos. "

Dacota looked up and for the first time noticed the young lady standing there. "I will go talk to her and try to get a good bargain. Thanks for telling me Perri."

Dacota walked over to where the young lady was standing. "I hear you are wanting passage Miss"....

"Mystryl Nightshade. I need passage to Los Juegos as soon as your ship can leave Captain Dacota," she answered him.

" Well I don't usually take passengers along, so you will have to pay extra," he answered.

"I can pay," she said quietly. Then she reached into her pack and pulled out six gems on a line out of it. Dacota's eyes lit up when he saw what she had in her hand. His mouth started to water with the thought of all the things he could have with those gems.

"Alright," he said as he took the gems, "I think this will be enough to compensate me."

"Good, now if you could have someone show me to my cabin...”

Dacota motioned Perri and told him to give her the biggest empty quarters he could find. When both had left, he started to examine the gems. He valued them at probably a total of fifty thousand danras. "Wow," was all he could say.

That night after the Seabird's Flight had sailed far enough away from the mainland, the crew brought out their Fandals, Triners, and Barrataks. Lyta got some of the other women, including Faith, to start dancing with some of the men.

Jakar watched it all in silence. Ever since he had become on of the crew he had had to work more than ever before. By the end of the night he was too tired to do much dancing. So he sat down beside Duncaan to talk some more with him. Pretty soon they were relating to the crew all of the pranks they had pulled in their childhood days.

"Yeah remember that prank you pulled on Mrs. Denrk in seventh grade?" Duncaan said.

"Which one? I did about ten to her," Jakar replied.

"The time of the end of the year dance. You rigged her dress to fly up on a certain song,” Duncaan sat back to think for a minute, "Oh yeah 'Trading my girl' was the name of it. Well anyway Mr. Jakar here was just sitting over there calm as you please with no date again, when he went up to the band and asked for that certain song. Now as soon as they hit the chorus, the small little insects that Jakar had put in her dress flew up to the chords played in that song. So as soon as somebody played that certain noise, the little insects flew straight up, taking the dress with them! Oh, it was hilarious! What was even better was that Jakar was never suspected because he always never did anything bad. Or so they thought," with that Duncaan ended his story to a round of laughter.

"Yeah, but that wasn't as bad as what you did to..." but he never finished his sentence for Lyta had pulled him out of the crowd and had started to dance with him. "What the...? How the heck," he sputtered at her.

Lyta just laughed and pulled him along in an older song. "You guys just looked so bored over there that I just had to pull you out," Lyta told him.

"We were exchanging prank stories to some of the crew."

"Oh I'm sorry, I can let you go if you want."

"No I can do this dance with you," he told her. But after a few minutes Lyta was getting upset with him.

"Jakar what is the matter? Your muscles are all bunched up and you keep looking around like someone is about to stab you."

Jakar just looked at his feet a moment, obviously dealing with a decision, then came back up to look into her eyes. "I am sorry Lyta, but I have not had a good past. There are people out there that would kill a whole town just to get to me. So I am used to being alert all the time."

The music stopped and they clapped. Then a slower song came on and Lyta turned to him, "Alright Jakar, we all have some secrets, but I still think you are cute." With that she kissed him on the cheek, then left to get Dacota for the next dance.

Jakar was stunned at how lightly she did that. I never knew she cared for me that much.

As he made his way back to Duncaan he could tell that they were laughing at his embarrassment and his assumption was correct as he sat back down with them when they started to needle him about the kiss. Oh well. Let them talk like that if they want. Maybe I should dance more often, he thought. With that he launched into another wild escapade of Duncaan at school.

The night sky is always so beautiful near Providence, thought Dacota as he walked back to his cabin. Duncaan had gotten out of it as soon as he could so Dacota could have it back.

Dacota had danced one or two dances with some of the girls before he decided to retire for the night. But as he was walking toward the back of the ship he noticed the passenger Mystryl sitting all alone on the stern of the ship, studying the map and looking out at the sky. For no reason he could explain, it seemed brighter here than the rest of the area.

"Why don't you go join the others at dancing Mystryl?" he asked her.

The brightness vanished as Mystryl turned around suddenly her hand going to a knife at her belt. But as soon as she saw Dacota she stopped herself. "Sorry, you startled me. No I am not a good dancer at all Captain Dacota. Plus I have some business to finish with before we get to Los Juegos."

"Alright," he said, "But you can just call me Dacota. And as for your business I will leave you to it. "

He started to walk off, when he heard footsteps behind him. He turned and Perri was running to try to catch up with him.

When Perri reached him he quickly whispered into his ear, "Sir, several items have gone missing from the cargo hold. Some of the valuable cargo."

At this Dacota's eyes opened. "Alright I will look into it myself Perri, thank you for telling me this away from the crew."

"No problem Captain," Perri said. With that he walked back to the music and food.

Dacota went into the cargo hold, put in the correct password on the lock and stepped into the smuggling hold of Seabird's Flight. He looked around and he could tell that some of the cases of Satori Wine had been taken from the hold. Whoever did this is going to pay big time. Those cases were worth five thousand danras each. I will have Lyta see if she can find out who did this. With that thought in mind he went out of the hold and closed the door. The automatic lock system clicked on and Dacota left the secret hold.

When he reached his cabin, a sudden fear took him and before he knew it he was reaching for his closet. Inside was a special lance, Dacota's weapon of choice. He looked at it curiously. His father had given it to him. But his father had been dead for a long time with the rest of his family. It was a three-pronged spear. At the point of each prong was a hook like on a fishing lure. As Dacota looked at it he couldn't shake the sense of dread that was coming over him. His eyes started to glow an aquamarine as he looked in a mirror. Great, just great. Right when I think my life could be just a normal one; the abilities have started up again. Well let's just see if it will go away with sleep. He put the lance beside his bed.

As he went into the bathroom to get ready for bed he was just concentrating on getting rid of the glow in his eyes.

When he had changed into his sleeping clothes, Dacota went over to the window and opened it. The beautiful sounds of the sea soothed him. When he lay down he could hear the laughter and music mingling with the sounds of the waves lapping against the ship, and Dacota's soul was calmed.