Her head is pounding relentlessly, making her vision swim, even if it is in complete darkness.

Everything seems blurry. The sounds, the smell, even the blackness of her vision.

Everything aches. Her head, her arms, her legs, even her eyes.

Groaning, she tries to crack open an eye and finds it's glued shut by the salt from the sea winds and waters.

Moving a hand up to her face and rubbing her eyes, she looks around, slowly blinking in the bright sun.

The side of her face is pressed against the sand, her hands and legs splayed out in different directions.

The next thing she comes to terms with is that surprisingly, most of her supplies that had been strapped to her clothes were still present, which made her heart leap. 

From afar, she must look dead, and that's certainly what the birds think as they are sitting on the rocks around her, watching her with a curious eye.

Pushing up with her hands, she rises to a sitting position. The birds squawk around her in protest, some flying away, others simply ruffled.

Squinting in the bright sun, she brushes the sand off her sleeves, pants, and face.

Glancing down at her clothes more closely, she finds they are ripped, gashed in several places.

The tears in her pants reveal gashes in her knees and calfs. The same is for her arms, torn in several places, and gashed. Some wounds are larger than others, oozing blood, others small pink scratches.

Touching her hand to her face, it's met with a warm, sticky liquid. Blood again.

Glancing around, she finds an entrance to what looks like a set of caves. Seeing as that was the only shelter within walking distance of her condition, she prepares to stand.

Wincing several times as she rises to her feet, she stands still for a moment before walking.

Taking a step forward, the world spins and she falls.

Placing a hand on a rock beside her she rises again, this time using the rocks to steady her.

Stumbling toward an opening in the rocks, she came across a set of pools. The rocks along the side are jagged, and unless she wants to sit waist deep in the water, she needs to find a place where the rocks are flatter.

Moving deeper into the caves, she finds a level slab of rock to lay on.

Collapsing half onto the rock and half into the water, she tears open her shirt, revealing dirty wounds and gashes with the need to be cleaned.

Leaning toward the water and making a cup shape with one of her hands, she pooled water onto her wounds.

A thought struck her as soon as water splashed down her side. What if this was salt water? She thought she had traveled down the cave far enough, but what if it wasn't? Surely it would make the wounds worse than their current state, and at the moment, she couldn't afford that.

After sitting tensely for a moment, waiting for the pain to set it, she scoops another handful of water from the pools.

After what feels like hours to her, the wounds on her arms and legs look less infected, the blood washed away into the water.

Cloth, she thought, would be great right about now. She could use that to bind her cuts, speeding up the healing process.

With a cautious hand, she stood up and began to walk further into the cave.

The tunnels were intricate, and she wasn't sure if was going to be able to find her way out again. But at the time, that was the least of her worries.

It was a while before she noticed that the water was sparkling with gold.

Coins, necklaces, and other trinkets littered the rocks, causing the water to be reflected off the walls in a shimmering veil. 

Kneeling down in the water, she scooped up a handful of gold coins.

A small laugh escaped her, and she wasn't quite sure why, but it seemed funny that there was gold in an abandoned cave.

But perhaps it wasn't abandoned. The thought made her blood run cold, maybe, after all this time, there was someone in here along side her.

Maybe watching her.

Moving over to hug the wall for cover she, for the first time since she had arrived, took the time to glance around, look from any detail that showed life.

Her mouth dropped open.

Having not looked up and kept her eyes on the ground to prevent her from falling over, she hadn't taken the liberty to look at her surroundings.

And they were pretty much all gold.

Gold. Silver. Jewels. Expensive clothes. And a large chest at the top of a pile of such valuables, containing who know what. 

No longer stumbling, but moving with earnest and excitement, she first made to a pile of clothes.

As her clothes were covered in blood and dirt, she required new ones.

Finding a set of brand new looking trousers and jacket, she slipped out of her old ones and hid them behind a rock.

Removing her sword from the pile on the rocks, she turned toward a dress alongside the gold.

It was a thick material, and heavy. She wondered how women wore such things.

Drawing her sword, she sliced it into long strips, wrapping them around her wounds.

There was one on her thigh, it was one of the larger ones and had required a thicker strip of cloth.

There was one around her bicep, a smaller one, but she didn't want to take chances. The one around her torso was the worst, the blood still oozed from the wound, a long, deep gash half the width of her body.

Her hat, much to her dismay, had been lost in the storm. Picking through the piles of jewels and treasures, she finds a hat. From above, it looks like a triangle, and it fits comfortably on her head. Tucking her hair inside, she wanders through the objects.

The chest in the middle of the vast cavern draws her attention. 

The patterns along the sides, the heavy lid, it all looked old, ancient.

Pushing the lid with as much strength as she had, it fell open.

Coins. Gold. Coins. All with intricate engravings. It looked as though all of them were skulls, glaring up at her. Gingerly picking up one with her hand, she ran her fingers over the etchings.

It was masterfully done, beautiful in her opinion, but a voice quickly snapped her out of her admiration.

"Dump it 'ere lads!" She tucked the coin and bolted to the shadows. Only when she had retired did she realize the lid of the chest was lying on a pile, and not covering the coins as it had before.

And then, men, at least thirty of them, came running, blaring into the cavern making her jump.

They all had one thing or another in their hands. Whether it was a chest, a box, or anything else, they came with their hands full, dumping the contents into the growing heaps.

They all had raggedy clothes, some with tears, others simply covered in dirt.

They rush forward, and in the back, a single man emerges from the gloom.

Between the wooden leg, the feathered hat, the scraggly beard, the sword at his belt, she finally realizes that these are pirates.

Deciding that the best course of action is to blend in, she moves forward and begins to throw treasure from the waters into piles.

Another pirate joins her, unaware she isn't part of the crew.

The man, perhaps the captain walks forward, and to her impending doom, he walks to the chest.

"Who left it open?" He shouts. All the men freeze gazing up at their captain, anger, confusion, and blank stares are reflected across their faces.

"Count em up!" He cries. Two men rush forward and shuffle through the coins, counting them one by one. There is silence for minutes on end until finally, they both stand up straight.

"881," One of the men mumble.

"Are ye sure gents?" The man you gave the order in the first place asks, he has a strange accent, but she can't place it.

"Yes, cap'n." So he is the captain.

Another man comes forward, this time, holding her ragged clothes. Her heart plummets further.

"Found these Cap'n." He says, holding them out to him.

She holds her breath, knowing that any minutes, he'll turn to her, point her out, and she'll be killed within seconds.

"A woman," he says, a slight grin on his face.

"Dreadfully wounded, not in the capability of walking, nothing we need to worry about gents. To the ship!"

They roar in approval, and for a split second, she could've sworn that his eyes flicked to hers for the briefest of moments.

Turning it from her mind, she roars along with the rest of the pirates, running out of the cave along with them.

I APOLOGIZE FOR THE LATER THEN USUAL UPDATE!! My computer died, leaving me without a writing and or posting source, I had to wait until now to post. SO SORRY!!! Thanks again for reading! Comment if you figured out who the captain was, or the island!!! XD XD XD 

LOVE YOU ALL!!!

~Kelly~