"Do women really fall for that girl twirl you just did?" Pearly calmly asked, then held up two fingers. "You can have the second eye, and any other treasure you can carry out. And... I'll call it two favors."

  "What do you mean?" Ruby looked down at the skin right bodice that strategically had an opening for her navel and accented her rather rge and beautifully formed chest. "Always worked, until now that is." Vain as ever Ruby tilted her head and blinked innocently at Pearly. "Really? Nothing?"

  "Dream on, sister." Pearly pushed Ruby forward. "Do we have a deal or not?"

  "Call it all of your favors and the second eye, and whatever I can carry." Ruby then put her shoes back on, snickering.

  "It will be two favors, the second eye and the excess treasure..." Pearly shook her head, "And stop that ughing, I'm not falling for that trick. I am neither going to be considered excess treasure, or what you can walk away with. Keep your hands to yourself, girl." Pearly paused, "I'm not interested."

  Mostly relieved that she didn’t have to go through with the idea of trying to slip into a much older woman’s bedclothes, Ruby held up her hands briefly. “Fine, Fine. Fine.” Ruby ughed, “See how nice that flows, Pearly. Sets of three.” Ruby fshed her own ruby-studded and shiny smile. “You have a deal, let me go get some clothes on.”

  “You’re wearing clothes, Ruby.” Pearly pointed to the other end of town. “We aren’t going far, so st…borrowing, a horse won’t take long. Besides if we have to, there is another town named Carrie Anne we can hide out in.”

  “Carrie Ann?” Ruby raised her eyebrow. “What the hell town is that?”

  Partly ignoring Ruby’s compint, Pearly reached into a small open-ended back on her hip and retrieved a small tattered cloth map. “I figure it is about five miles?” She showed Ruby the map, “As I understand it, the pce is a haunted three-story house-vampire thing.” Pearly wiggled her hand like a wave on the water, “It has a basement with all sorts of … heirlooms of a more sinister nature.”

  “Are you purposefully not answering my question…Captain?” Ruby blurted and began walking in the direction Pearly mentioned. “Sounds like you’ve been tricked. Please tell me you didn’t pay for that cloth … map.” She ughed and did a small twirl as she walked.

  "I wasn't listening, what question?" Pearly calmly asked as she walked and studied her map. "Okay, I think we should borrow a horse in case we need to run quickly."

  "I asked what town was named Carrie Ann." Ruby stopped twirling and caught up to the older pirate dy. "Can I see the map, if you please?"

  "No." Pearly quickly folded up the cloth and stuffed it down her fairly revealing blouse. "I remember towns by women's names." Pearly waved for Ruby to get closer to her as a group of guards marched by. "That one is Carrie Ann." Pearly whispered,"Laugh, a flirty one...hurry."

  "Hey dy, give them back!" Ruby announced loud enough to get the guards' attention. "Give it back! You made me chase you in heels and yell the way here..." Ruby batted her eye at the guards. "She took my streamers and the cloth picture of my house in France. My favorite yellow and orange ones." Ruby lied convincingly. "They match my dress."

  "What?!" Pearly jumped back surprised,"You... Little..."

  A weary guard approached Pearly. "Come on, open the pouches. If there are 'streamers' which I guess are her colors and not yours..."

  Another guard spoke up. "Don't believe either of them, Jones. The one in the dress is Captain Ruby and the other is Captain Pearly." The guard pulled Jones with him, "Let them hash it out."

  Minutes passed and the two captains hadn't moved since the guards left then. Pearly gred at Ruby and Ruby kept a grin on her face.

  "Untrustworthy, young dy. You were really going to get me put in chains over the cloth you handed me?" Pearly grabbed the handle of her pearl pistol. "I should shoot you, but you owe me a ship."

  "All you had to do was let me see the map." Ruby chimed pyfully. "Besides, I would have gotten you out in the morning."

  Stomping off in the direction of the house on the map, Pearly made her frustration clear. "T-troublemaker, I happen to like you as pirates go. So I'm going to give you another chance. You agreed to help me with the Basilisk eye. So I'm holding you to it."

  "I'm a dark-hearted devil, according to Natasha. I'm also a pirate. " Ruby added in her jovial accent. "Fine, so okay tell me what we are walking into."

  "It's my own fault really." Pearly huffed, "I assumed that since there's been an unspoken likeness for one another, you'd help me without any issues."

  Dropping the double-cross, Pearly trudged on into the woods headed in the general direction of their destination. "We..." Pearly leaves down and picked up an old oak branch and turned it into a walking stick, "...are going to a spooky house, so figure that out will contain ghosts, goblins and maybe a vampire." Pearly chuckled and tested the ground, waking around a small bog patch. "T-troublemaker, come towards me, sinkhole there."

  Doing as Pearly instructed, Ruby bounced her way across the sinkhole and scratched one of her ears and her visage slid into her poker-face. “Pearly?” Ruby questioned and put her hand lightly on the older woman’s shoulder. “You have called me troublemaker a few times now…” Ruby grinned, “...while the name is fairly accurate, I really don’t think that is what you wanted to say.”

  “Go on.” Pearly pulled the couple around another boggy spot.

  “Do you know my name? Not Ruby, but my actual name?” Gambling came naturally to Ruby and flowed through her bzing hazel eye. Having read the signs, Ruby pyed her hand and waited for Pearly to answer with the corner of her mouth quirked upward.

  “Paralee.” Pearly affirmed and hummed for a few seconds as she quickly made her way through the dark woods that surrounded them. “No?” Pearly saw the fme behind Ruby’s dazzling eye, “Oh fine. Yes, I know what it is. Tanya.”

  There were many things that Ruby held to her heart very close, mostly in retion to Nerice and Avanora. Nerice was part of her, so entwined that often there was no need to speak as their hearts beat for one another. Avanora came along as the friend that became her confidant with just a look from her shimmering-silvery eyes. Wiped from all of her ink and fme, Ava exposed who she really was. In turn, Ruby recalled pulling her eye patch away and taking off her dagger, then with all she had left, quietly sang her name to Ava before the two moved from friends to devoted and shared love. Allowing them her real name was the bond of absolute trust. “How do you know my name?” Ruby, like the gambler she was, asked the question coolly.