"C'mon, boy. We're going for a ride."
Daniel was awoken by his father's gruff voice and his hand violently shaking his shoulder. The young boy glanced out his bedroom window, noticing the still, silent night, before his father tore him from his room.
He held a lantern, and was pulling Danny around harshly. He always knew his father wasn't very fond of him, but he had never been this mean to him and had never woken him up in the early morning for no reason.
Danny was led out to the stables, where his father lifted him onto their trusty horse, Snowflake. He climbed on after, behind his son, and flicked the reigns and the horse broke into a run.
The countryside around them slipped away as they rode towards, from Danny's knowledge, the docks. Why was his father taking him to the docks? At this time at night?
As he had predicted, soon enough, the two of them galloped slowly up to the docks, before coming to a rough stop. Danny looked up in confusion. There was nothing even in the water.
Then, before he had a second to vocalize his thoughts, a ship—a very large ship—became visible through the thick fog, coming to a stop and docking. This confused Danny further; where had it even come from? It wasn't there just a moment before, but it was right in front of his eyes now, and there was no mistaking that the large vessel was certainly real and not just a figment of his imagination.
Daniel's father kept a firm grip on his arm, holding the lantern up as if to assure himself that the ship wasn't leaving and that it was actually going to dock.
Danny frowned in confusion and worry, looking up at his father. "Papa—what is this about?" He asked softly, the words escaping his mouth in a tone barely more than a whisper. The reply was a rough grunt, to which Daniel understood clearly by now; be quiet and stop asking questions.
Finally, in the midst of the silence, an older man, presumably the captain of the ship, walked off, approaching the father and son. Daniel looked him up and down, cautiously, but found no reason to fear him, which left him feeling a little less uneasy; the man had kind eyes, and he could tell he was trying not to scare him. As the captain approached, the grip his papa held on him loosened, and he pushed his son toward the man.
"Get goin', Son," the captain said softly, gesturing to the ship. Daniel looked between the captain and his father for a moment, but the challenging look he was met with from the latter caused him not to question, and scuffle quickly to the vessel.
He watched from the deck for a moment as his papa and the captain exchanged some words that, to him, didn't seem to be the friendliest.
"It'll be alright." The higher pitched voice from behind startled him. Danny turned to see a girl around his age with dark skin and chocolate brown eyes. He was scared for only a moment, as she seemed nice and trustworthy.
"What's happening?"
He didn't mean for it to come out so scared and sad, his small voice cracking with the question. The girl only frowned.
"You're a part of Captain Tory's crew now."
The blonde boy opened his mouth to respond, but no words escaped from his throat. He didn't know what to say or ask. He searched the girl for answers, noticing she was wearing a pair of purple pajama, that had a name sewn into the left side. Lilac.
Finally, he found words. "Your name is really nice."
A smile came to the girls face for a moment, but it fell quickly, as if she hadn't smiled in a while. "Thank you," she replied quietly. "What's your name?"
"Daniel. But you can call me Danny."
With a short glance to where Captain Tory and Daniel's father still stood talking to each other, Lilac nodded. "Alright, Danny. You must be tired. Let's go get you ready for bed."
~~~
The night went quick. He was tired, he just would admit it before. The next morning as Daniel woke up, he noticed that Lilac was already out of bed as well.
He also took notice of the many other children on board, some chatting excitedly with each other, some sitting silently reading, and some searching for Captain Tory.
He still had many questions to be answered, but one that he found out on his own became painfully obvious as he looked out on the sea, the boat rocking around him as it sailed.
His father was no longer within clear view, as both of them had moved away from each other during the night, only one knowing of the departure.
