The small boat, Sea Serpent, was docked at the village of Sefira, waiting for leave to sail. The captain, a grizzled human by the name of Karo Silverpike, was shouting out the final orders to untie from the docks. As Karo prepared to leave dock, an elf maiden hailed him to stop and leaped on to the boat as it was pulling out from the dock. Turning, she looked at him and gave him a confident smile. The captain saw a lovely elf maiden, her gold-brown hair falling to the waist of what appeared to be a merchant's outfit, a purple silken shirt and a blue sash cinched at her waist, if you overlooked the weaponry that the elf carried. She carried a sword and a quiver on her hip, and a long bow and a shield on her back. The elf looked ready and willing to battle for her life, her smirk beleing the fact that she was confident of winning, whatever the case. The elf bowed to the surprised captain.

"Greetings. I request passage on your fair vessel." she told him elegantly, the single white feather on her blue cap brushing the deck as she bowed. He looked her over with interest, wondering exactly what kind of elf dressed in such a strange way but carried such intensive weaponry. Actually, Karo had thought that all elves lived in the forest, as he had never seen one otherwise. Elves, though, were taken as a sign of good luck, and Karo had no intention of sending her away. He could afford to make sure of his passenger, though.

"And what do you have to offer? You appear as a merchant, but that weaponry tells me differently." he said, amused by her tactics. "Are you a fighter or a bard?" he said, grinning as he noticed the flute at her waist.

"Ah, I can see your mistake." she agreed, glancing at the instrument. This had been a gift from Rajasta, and the centaur had even taught her to play it as well. "I offer defense against pirates and others that may bother your fair vessel. Pirates are abound here, no?" she asked, quirking a slender eyebrow to the arrow sticking out from the mast.

That had been from their slim escape from a bunch of pirates, and nothing short of replacing the mast could get rid of that arrow. The last trip that he had made had ended up in disaster as they had been attacked by pirates, losing all of the cargo that he had carried. Looking at the elf again, he noticed a sort of an aura around her that led him to believe that he was looking at an experienced fighter, not just a cocky novice fresh out of the forest. That, and the fact that she had taken out a dagger from her boot and a whetstone and was now expertly sharpening the weapon, as if giving a subtle hint of how invaluable she thought herself to be. Only with experience did you gain that kind of insight, he thought. Now if she could play that instrument, then she could be quite entertaining as well. The best of both worlds for a captain that was tiring of fighting off pirate scum and a crew that had not heard a good bard since he had lost the ships' bard during the last battle. He sighed and extended his hand, realizing the error he would make of not allowing her to board.

"Welcome to the Sea Serpent." he said graciously, shaking the maiden's hand firmly. "I will have my crew prepare your cabin, and if you need anything, just call on me, I am Karo." he said, turning then and beginning to shout out commands to the crew to leave the dock. Celine smiled. This was going to be quite fun.

***

The ship had been sailing for many days, without incident, and Celine was having fun amazing the passengers with her serene flute playing and even some sword tricks that she had picked up from her centaur weaponmaster. Suddenly, at the break of daylight one day, a pirate ship was spotted to the north.

"Pirates!" Went the call from the crow's nest, and Celine darted on deck from her cabin, hurriedly dressed, having just woken up. Her bow was already drawn and and an arrow was nocked in it as she looked out towards the sea.

The ship flew a black flag with a white sabre emrbroidered on it. This flag was known to seafarers as the "Sabre Serpents" logo, and all who could avoid their wrath did so obligingly. However, the pirates had a special vendetta against the crew and captain of the Sea Serpent, as they had eluded them in a prior meeting. The pirates did not like being ignored.

The captain had already told Celine this, and she stood on the prow, as the Sea Serpent sailed right into the pirate ship. She saw the captain of the pirate vessel standing at the prow of his ship as they too sailed closer. Obviously, he did not expect the Sea Serpent to have such a fine archer on board. An arrow whizzed above him, piercing his feathered hat. As the hat fell to the deck, Celine smiled.

"Leave off the Sea Serpent, or you shall be met with force!" Celine shouted at the captain, who had started yelling for his archers and swordsmen to get ready. "We will give you this one chance to leave our fair vessel alone!"

"Prepare to have your ship crushed!" the pirate captain yelled back, ducking behind his archers, who had taken the front of the ship. "My lady." he taunted condescendingly as he ordered his archers to strike. Celine just smiled and raised her bow again. They never even got a chance.

As soon as Celine had seen the archers setting up, she had nocked two arrows. When he ducked behind his archers and shouted his final taunt, she released them, hitting his foremost two archers in the chest. Shocked, they fell down, to be replaced with two more. Two more shots in rapid sucession took down two more of the pirate archers, and the remaining archers looked amongst themselves fearfully. Celine smiled broadly and flexed her arm, getting the remainder of the stiffness from waking up early out of it. Out of seven archers, only three remained.

"I give you this chance again!" Celine shouted. "Four of your archers are down, and I still have many arrows left! Leave this ship alone!" she warned, keeping her bow level with his archers' chests.

The pirate captain was furious. Never before had he been bested by an archer on a ship that he was trying to take. His pride swelled up and consumed him then, and he refused yet again.

"Never!" he shouted, the ships only 20 yards apart now. His swordsmen prepared to board the Sea Serpent. Celine had anticipated this, and was more than ready.

"Get your crew and passengers down to the cabins. Now!" she shouted, turning to Karo she pulled out another two arrows, nocking them together with one swift motion.

"I stay here though." he told her. "I was once a fine swordsman myself, and the captain always goes down with his ship, eh?" he asked, patting the sabre at his hip.

"We aren't going down." Celine muttered, turning back to the pirate ship and downing two more swordsmen with her arrows. Behind her, the captain shouted instructions for the others to go below decks. The ships were now close enough for the pirates to board. Five swordsmen from the pirate ship jumped on board the Sea Serpent. Celine met three of them, the other two going to face the enraged captain.

With a strike from her longsword, she took one man in the chest, a surprised look upon his face as he slumped to the deck. The other two hesitated, and with a blur of movement, she met one of them head on, and longsword clashed against rapier as they met. Celine, though, proved to be the better of the two, and with a flurry of slashes, struck a solid hit on the man's leg, cutting a deep gash. He staggered back and fell over the rail into the ocean. He was not dead yet, but with as much blood as he was losing, it would not be long before the sharks got him. The other swordsman looked at his dead companion, and leaped over the rail, following his other companion, believing the sharks and other ocean creatures which lurked there a better fate than Celine's angry blade. She turned to where the captain was finishing off the two other swordsmen, decided that he could handle them on his own, and then looked to the pirate ship.

The captain was calling out orders to retreat, but Celine decided that it wasn't over, and jumped on to the pirate ship, meaning to capture the pirate captain. The two remaining archers, foolishly standing in her way, were quickly cut down by her sword as the angry elf advanced toward where the captain was cowering beside the wheel of the vessel. He gave her a pleading look as she knocked him to a sitting position on the deck and rested the tip of her sword against his chest.

"Please, good elf. Do not kill me, I surrender and promise never to harm your vessel again." he said shakily, unbuckling his sabre and dropping it to the deck, where it hit with a loud clang. Celine grinned, amused at this cowardly man. In her mind, harming an unarmed man was foul play.

"I won't kill an unarmed man. Nor do I believe that taking your life will do me any good." she said, grabbing the man by the shirt front. "Taking you prisoner, though, will serve the greater good." she told him, dragging him off of his ship. His remaining crew hid and tried to avoid the gaze of the elf maiden as she once again boarded her ship. The captain of the Sea Serpent and his crew were cleaning off the deck, realizing the terror to be at an end. She unceremoniously dumped the sniveling pirate captain in front of Karo.

"Here. I believe I have paid for my passage." Celine said with a smile, cleaning off her blade on the pirate's shirt as she held him down with a foot. "He is unarmed." The captain motioned for two crew members to drag him to the prison hold below decks.

"Thank you, good elf. How can I repay you for saving my ship?" he asked, shaking her hand fervently.

"I require nothing." she said simply. "I however, would like to go back to sleep. If you would excuse me." she said polietly, going back to her cabin, yawning the entire way. The captain smiled wryly. She was an odd creature, laughing and joking at one hand, but deadly with a blade at the other. He had made a wise choice allowing her upon his ship.

***
"The Kin'stara"