She ran, and she ran as fast as she could with a sack in hand, running away from the crowds of people. They were each carrying weapons of their choice, pitchfork, knife, anything they could find and screaming at her. That was the typical day for Ophie Orphe, a common thief, trying to survive another day.

        "I swear, it's just 50 gold. Calm down, people."

            Before she could blink, she felt a knife thrown near her, almost hitting her. If she hadn't ducked, she would have been dead. Running towards a corner, trying to lose the people before jumping on the walls and hiding behind them, was what she did before taking deep breaths. The steps, the screams of people who thought she had passed another way, soon began to fade.

         She opened the sack of money she had, it looked like it was a lot, but she knew in her heart that it wouldn't last a week. She sighed before standing up and walking out from there, feeling that the villagers were greedy. It's not like she stole 50 gold from one villager, but rather a collective, a bit by bit, because she knew they also needed money.

         The path back to her boat was long, and it took her a while to walk. The girl had long, black, unruly hair flew in the wind as she watched the leaf fly into the air. She had an eyepatch, hiding her right eye from sight. Even her clothes were dark and ragged, making her seem more like a criminal from the start and causing her to be more isolated in society.

         Due to her constant isolation, she had no trust in anyone, but for her, it didn't matter for the only reason why she was here was to search for her father. She was the only one who didn't let her go after all these years, but she wondered what had changed, why did he leave so suddenly?

        Looking at the seas from the distance from the hill made her wonder how her mother, Ceras the Lady of Sea Monsters, fell for a simple blacksmith. She was the most dangerous, bravest Pirates of the Stars.

      She wished to know more about her mother, but she was gone when she was just a kid. She barely remembered her mother; all she knew was how she looked and a few bedtime stories that her mother told her. Most of what she learned about her mother was from her dad, who described how they met and fell in love.

        "Hey, Ophie, you want to know how I met your mother?"

       "Dad, you told me this story a thousand times already," young Ophie chuckled.

        "I mean unbelievable, isn't it? She fell for me, that woman, the Queen Of The Seas, Lady of Sea Monsters, just because I brought a rose to her."

       Because of that single rose, everything had turned upside down like a rabbit hole from Alice in the wonderland. All the confusion, the tragic memory, was just too fast. Sometimes she wondered whether what her father did was the best thing. If the great Ceras had never married her Orze, the poor blacksmith, maybe she would have never been caught. But that's too something to debate about; her powers were scary to other people, especially because she could control the ocean spirit, the Kraken, hydras, and even the mother of the sea herself is her friend.

        She sailed the seas, fighting with her sword, raiding other ships, indeed the life of the freedom that many pirates lived and experienced. Everyone knew who she was when they saw her, the woman with long white hair, pale blue eyes, the strength of a thousand men, and the bravery that any man could not conquer.

         That's what people thought, but not everything was true.

       "If only people knew the other side of my mom, would they treat her like a human?" Ophie said, looking at the ocean from the top of the hill, wondering about things she had heard.

        She was thought of as strong, but that was only a facade so that people wouldn't get her. Finally, on the night where it all ended, she came to their house, sneaking in a while her daughter was sleeping, and her father woke up in the middle of the night hearing noises of something tumbling inside. It barely woke Ophie up, but her father knew who was it.

        Ceras came inside the house, shivering, trembling for her life, but she didn't want to harm her family, and nobody should ever know that the two were in love or that she had a daughter with him. For it would endanger them, people don't want even to imagine what happens if a monster had a child, and to everyone else, that's what she is, and that's what made her get hunted down by the rest.

          "Don't cry, Orze. It was my fault," she said, wiping her husband's tear, kissing his cheek, and hugging him, "the only regret I have in my life was that I couldn't raise Ophie to be the best daughter, so will you take care of her for me."

         "Ceras, I would never let you go. You can't get yourself executed; stay with me," Orze fought back, "if you go there, think about us."

      "I think about you. I cannot let our family get hurt," she said as her eyes wet before drops of tears fell from her cheek, "I have to leave before they find out about you two. Luckily Ophie looked like you more than me."

        "She's as gutty as you, Ceras. She's just like you."

         She chuckled last time, "may she be better than me at least then."

     That was the last conversation the two lovers had before she left to surrender herself so that her family wouldn't be in trouble. She hated that she made so many mistakes, but not even Orze would tell his daughter about that, and Ophie never learned about her mother's mistake.

       All she knew was her mother was destroyed because she was too powerful. On the final page of the book, her mother was hanged with the rest of the crew after being beaten to death.

         The cruelty of the villagers was untamed. Thanks to them, the pirate queen watched as all were mercilessly tortured in front of her before the crewmates were executed in the courtyard. Not even the pirate queen escaped their cruelty. All the crewmates were mercilessly tortured in front of her before she and her entire crew were executed in the courtyard. Her corpse was all chained up, with so many wounds on her body.

         It was a miracle that Orze managed even to bury her body, hidden from everyone at the back of the house. Ophie remembered her father's look after losing her mother, but at last, the villagers still tried to kill them, burning their homes and forcing them to travel every time. So was the real monster truly them, or was it the people around them?

         Her father disappeared after she was older, more mature, and stronger. She had always searched for her father, who had been gone for years, and she still believes that he was still out there and she had a feeling she would find her father no matter what. That was her vow to search for her father, no issue how long it took because it never made sense to her why her father would have left her.

         As she walked back to her boat, ready to sail to another island to find her father, she saw pirates surrounding her boat and was taking her things.

       "Captain, should we take the boat too?"

        "I said take everything you see; nobody should ever leave to the seas."

        "Aye, aye, captain."

         Hearing those words, she sped up towards her boat, with her eyes widening in shock as she saw three men surrounding her boat, looking at a red-haired man who was watching the ocean move while sitting on a crate. Unable to believe her eyes, she jumped down, rolled down and took her blade out from her belt.

          "Halt!" She shouted and lowered her body, getting ready for a fight with a sword in hand; she glared at them as they turned to look at her, "that's my boat there."

      One of the crew members grinned at her and walked closer to her, "it ain't yers anymore. It belongs now to us, crews of Astellar Pirates."

        She shook her head and took a step forward as the rest of the pirates took out their blades. However, it didn't cause her to budge; she stood still, getting ready for a fight.

        The red-haired captain said, "Be gentle to her. We don't want anyone to get injured."

        "Bad choice. I won't be the one who gets injured."

        The rest of the pirates started running towards her with their blades, each trying to slash her as she dodged backwards, crossing swords with them and even sliding beneath them. The most petite pirates wanted to hit her near her neck, but she kicked him out before throwing a slash at his chest and jumping backwards as the other two watched in horror seeing blood dropping on the sand.

         "Charles!

        The other two couldn't accept that their friends were getting attacked. The pirate with the most prominent body started using his fists to attempt to hit her, but she jumped backwards, somersaulting as she went, and looked at the man's expression. He looked angry, "nobody messes with Astellar Pirates, not even girls like you."

        "Nobody messes with me, rascals."

      She rolled over as he tried to attack her with his fists; she jumped above him before dropping down to the ground, rolling over and slashing his leg before kicking him from the back as he fell to the floor. She did not leave room for him to recover as she cut his back.

         Another one came by, with a rapier crossing swords with her. She lowered her stance, pushing forward with her sword. Her eyes met the pirate as she glared. In a flash, he started slashing her sword multiple times, her leg was stepping backwards, but she waited for an opportunity holding on. She started seeing that he was slowing down before she gave a strong slash, causing his rapier to fly upwards before she kicked him away right before the rapier fell to the ground.

       With her sword in her hand, she stood alone, walking towards the lone captain, pointing her sword at the back of his neck; the captain could hear the grunt and pain of his crewmates, "C-captain, we are sorry that we disappointed you."

       With no mercy, she told the captain, "yer better pay up if ya wanna survive here."

        He watched the sunset, sighing as and snapped his fingers.

             The strong sandstorm blew her away; the girl was taken aback; she could barely see, her eyes were hurting, and she was confused about what was happening as she dug her sword into the sand for some stability, but it was still low.

        "With that attitude, you wouldn't be able to survive a day at the sea."

          "W-What?"

         He got up, turning towards her, with his violet eyes visible; she had never seen violet eyes like his; she could feel something inhuman about him. The sand storm did not bother him a little bit; instead, he was walking in it just fine, "did I come off to you as harsh? To warn you to not seek for a wild goose's chase?"

         "You--"

         "Don't waste your time," he said, walking past her; she turned in his direction, holding her sword with her boots dug into the sand, "hey bastard, don't ya just ignore me! Fight me!"

         He did not heed her words. Instead of going towards his crew as he held his hand at an amulet that connected his ruffles, a green light appeared, turning into an orb in his hand before separating into three and moving towards each of his crewmates.

        All the crewmates' injuries were healed, and the girl behind him witnessed it. She knew that he was not just an average human and that he was one of the Stars too, a powerful one at it.

        He turned to look at her, "I don't think you can start to understand what lies ahead of you in that sea, "if you fight, you will become like them too."

          Those words did not bother her; she swung her sword to the sand and screamed back to the young man with anger in her voice, "I don't care! I want to meet my father again!"