TREASURE

The Maps

~~~

The click from the key wakes your mind from your observations. In a second you made sure everything looked like before and thrown yourself over the room and placed yourself on the wine red bed placed in one of the corners. You look down when his heavy footsteps appear, by his stumbling, you can tell he is drunk.
"Go to sleep" he mutters and head straight for the bed. Immediately you head for the corner in the opposite direction of the room. Before you can settle yourself down you hear how the captain falls onto the bed, and loud snores escape his mouth.
  You curl up against the corner, make yourself as small as possible and try to fall asleep, like every other single other night. Your body is nearly trembling because of the cold.

~~~

The first sunbeams hits your face and slowly you're eyes gets used to it. The whole cabin is painted in a light red color that shines from the sky through the big windows. Even if it is the worst place on this awful ship, you have to admit it looks beautiful. Every golden gear shines and all maps are light up. Snores interrupt the beautiful atmosphere. You frown and eye the man that lies there, unconscious. His snores echoes in the room. And slowly the smell of alcohol spreads. His black hat is covering his face, the red captain coat lazy resting against the bed sheets, exposing his white clothing underneath. He will be out for awhile. In fact, the whole ship will. 
  By that, you remember the conversation yesterday, about the pirate. Probably is no one awake, and that gives you a free passage to see him, maybe take that opportunity?
  Since captain is drunk and inside his cabin, the door remained unlocked, so it is no problem to sneak out.
  The sound of the door creaking fills the room, you freeze. Snores still echoing. You're fine. Slowly you make your way out on the main deck to the staircase from the stern. Under the main deck the crew sleeps. But it's divided in two parts. To get to them it's the staircase in the fore. But the staircase closest to the captains quarters leads to the food storage and the main cell, where you are going. Most cells are kept further down, but this one makes it easier for the officers to check the hostage and it's harder to break out from, not that it's possible to break out from any other cell but still.
  It's no windows here so the dark consumes you. But it's no problem getting used to it, you can clearly see. The wooden planks creak by every footstep. The kitchen is closer to the fore, behind the staircase. The food storage is in the middle together with other materials like ropes and extra sails, right were the staircase are built. But in the very back of the stern, have one cell. Quietly you slink by every barrel of food and chests. The thick iron bars that formed a huge cube in the middle between the walls in the stern suddenly appear. You can make out a dark silhouette inside, resting on a wooden bench against the iron bars with his body turned away from you. You get closer, and see clearly. He's wearing dark black pants with some sort of grey lacing on the side. Over a white sleeve he wears a short thin black jacket. His dark hair reflects in the tiny bit of light that enters from one of the holes from the main deck. Aiming for a better look at the sleeping man, you get closer. And you jump back and are just in time to stop the scream nearly leaving you lips. He aren't asleep. He turn, and you can't really make out his face. Then he stand up and moves closer to the iron bars between you.

It's maybe two meters distance to him, with the iron bars between, and the sunbeams has found its way through holes and now lights up his face. He is indeed young, can't be more then two-three years older than you. His facial expression is blank, no emotion at all. But he doesn't scare you. In fact, he's probably just surprised to see you there. It's not usual to see a girl on a ship, especially for a pirate.
  You can tell he is well built, even for he's age.
Then the thought hits you. What did I just do? I'm in front of a pirate, from the seas worst pirate crew. Did I even have an intention with it. Or actually...

"What a waste of food. You know what? Cut of his food rations completely and just give him water, that way he has to talk." The words gets back to your mind.  
  you look down and feel his eyes following you. You can't resist looking up again. His eyes has turned curios and are far from harmful.

"Wait" The words escaped your lips before you could think. Am I crazy? Probably, if captain finds out, he is gonna get furious.
But before you can stop yourself you've gone back to the barrels of food. His eyes was still looking after you, you can feel it.
The crew keeps a very good eye on all food onboard, after a year you've got experience from that. Suddenly an open barrel comes to view, full of apples. Apples? Yes, maybe. No one could possibly notice right? You grab two and get back to the pirate. He sees the apples and his expression shows that he is in quite a surprise, and even more when you get close enough to place them in his hands through the bars.
A small smile curls up on him. It would be a lie to say you didn't like it. He just gave you a warm feeling.
  The ringing sound from the ship clock wakes up your mind. You look back at the staircase. No way. Are the ship awake already? You look back at him.
"I need to leave, I'm sorry"
You run away so fast you didn't realize he just had the time to observe your purple blue arms and you're to thin to be healthy silhouette. An expression of worry replaced the little smile. But you had run off. He let out a breath.
"Thank you..."
The first words leaving his lips for more than two weeks.