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"What kind of people have I allowed myself to get captured by?" Aldora thought in disbelief as she followed Hidey down to the kitchen. "Pirates! Eukasian pirates with a vengeance for my father...and phony pirate accents? And these guys are holding me for ransom? Is this some kind of elaborate prank or -" Aldora was snapped from her thoughts as a plate was handed to her. She turned to look up at Hide who was now ushering a fork into her hand. "This one's way too nice...especially compared to the captain. There's no way he's really this kind?" she thought. She took a moment to gauge him again before taking the fork from him...and deciding to test him out. After taking a step back, she turned from him to pace the room a bit. Closely examining the salad, she pushed veggies this way and that over the plate. "Hmm...I'm not sure I should." she droned. "After all, you're are the man who knocked me out before." Still holding the fork, Aldora paused her pacing and rested her head on her fist. "What am I to do if you've decided to drug my food and plan to do unthinkable things to me?" She tightened her grip on her fork, just in case.

Bancroft lay over the bar table. He groaned looking up. "Bartender...get me another one." he slurred. The bartender did as he was told. "You sure you can 'andle it, mate?" Bancroft bellowed a laugh flashing his wide smile suddenly revived with another mug in his fist. "I'm a man of the sea. My veins flow with salt water and rum!" He said, still garbling his words. "You're a lot more lively than the sea dogs, I've seen 'round 'ere lately. Why a pair just last night took their drinks outside without barely saying ne'er a word to me." "How were you able to tell they were of the sea without speaking to them?" The bartender rubbed his thumb over his nose. "The smell of 'em. The smell of salt's just been bore into their being. You could tell these two 'ad been on the sea for a while, too. And get this, mate. They didn't order ne'er a drop of rum. One 'em didn't even drink alcohol." "What!?" Bancroft shouted, almost tossing the contents of his mug on the floor behind him. 'No rum?! And you expect me to believe these are men of the sea?" "The bartender chuckled. I don't believe they were from around 'ere, mate. One of 'em had a little emblem stuck to 'is cloak of a family crest of some kind glintin' at me. Like nothing I e'er seen before." The bartender proceeded to describe the little designs he had noted on the little button. "Oh, I could almost kiss you!" The bartender took a step back, obviously not in favor of the notion. Bancroft slammed down his pay and a generous tip before swaying into the streets. "Wait, until I tell his majesty that there have been Eukasians in the city and not just any Eukasians. These guys are pretty high ranked, I'd bet. It may take a few days to get the fleet together, to get over the hangover I'm bound to have, figure out where they're headed...to get back to the castle -- 'Ell, for all I know they're just tourists but the king's bound to call an investigation which means Bancroft's back to the seas! Bancroft jumped up, clicked his heels and stumbled onto the ground drawing the attention of several bystanders. His mood not the least bit dampened, he picked himself up and went on his way through the streets to see if he might happen on the way back to the castle.

Aldora tried to hide her snicker at Hide's reaction. He seemed virtuous enough. But as he told his story, Aldora's smirk dropped. For as long as she could remember, her teachers had taught her how the glorious Darnvian army overpowered the entire Eukasian kingdom but this side of the story was new to her. She'd known war was bad in general, but hearing the story told from someone who was actually affected so strongly by the war...it was bewildering. After Hide left, Aldora was left alone feeling quite guilty for being descendent of the legacy that had scarred such a nice man -- for enjoying the nobile title and promise of future rule of a domain that didn't rightfully belong to her.

She stood for a moment in thought before realizing that she had been left alone and was totally unsupervised. After scanning the room Aldora did not see any immediate means of escape other than the window leading to the ocean and the door leading to all the armed pirates. Deciding she didn't like the idea of being the only one on board who was unarmed, she dug through the drawers of kitchen utensils and found a formidable-looking knife and a piece of twine. She tied the twine snugly to her calf and carefully stuck the knife into its makeshift sheath.

After smoothing her the skirt of the nightgown she still wore to cover the blade and testing to make sure that she could walk without cutting her legs she contemplated leaving the cabin to explore the deck. Glancing over the room once more to make sure there was no chance of escape, her gaze fell on the bowl of salad that was left out. Being hungry, she picked a tomato from the bowl and tentatively placed it in her mouth. "Not bad" she thought, plucking a few more veggies from the bowl. After satisfying her munchies, she gripped the jacket Hide has gifted to her and walked out onto the deck and began to look around.

As Benji explained, Aldora looked down at the coat that had been presented to her. She figured that it must be pretty valuable , either monetarily or sentimentally, and it made it her feel pretty special to be allowed to wear it. Remembering Hide's story, Aldora's thoughts shifted momentarily to Mrs.Tanya before they were interrupted by Otto's barking of commands.

"Cattle? I hadn't noticed any cattle on board this ship. Perhaps it's just some pirate jargon." And her train of thought left her. She refocused her attention on the approaching city. Having never been on the deck of a boat before without having to entertain company, she occupied herself with trying to make sense of the various men shuffling about and barking orders and at each other. Some men pulled on ropes while others tied ropes to things with complex knots and still others seemed to mostly supervise. To Aldora, it was like magic how the pulling and tying hoisted the sails. She smiled a bit while she watched the city get closer and closer as the ship began to slow.

The city was quite pretty. The sea may be nice but there was nothing quite like solid ground. Besides, it was a lot easier to run away in a crowded city than on moving ship.

"Something I can move around in? That rules out what I usually wear, doesn't it?" she mumbled to herself. Glancing over the plethora of all kinds of fabrics, Aldora found herself a little overwhelmed and a little too intimidated to begin. However, after a moment, she realized that her captor was going to getting her free clothing. Figuring she was probably the luckiest captive on the globe, Aldora began to eagerly browse through the clothing admiring the design and workmanship and criticizing others. She recognized a few brand names but many of the more foreign styles were unfamiliar to her. Often she'd pause to set an interesting piece to the side to try on later.

BanBan settled herself in the shadows of an alley. On hands and knees, she peered from behind a barrel at all the people bustling by noting that all of them seemed to have a decent status. She settled herself back again. Leaning against the wall, she leafed once more through a book with strange runes on the cover stopping on a page with a sketch of several jewels and gems. Reaching into her pocket, Ban pulled her fist out. She paused a moment, praying that somehow her stash had doubled. Sadly, it was as she remembered it. In her palm sat a few rings, a golden tooth, a shiny button and a few gold and silver coins. She sighed, lifting the lid to her sandy colored cauldron that sat next to her to toss her stash in for safe-keeping. She pushed the pot back into its hiding place under a tarp with her feet before stamping them firmly in the ground to hoist herself up. With a firm tug to put her hag snugly in its place, Ban stepped out to the edge of the alleyway and after a quick scan for the police disappeared in the crowd.

A while later Aldora emerged from the dressing room wearing a white button-up top tucked under a knee-length green fabric sarong skirt that was split up one side to allow the exposure of a pair of black stockings which dissapeared into a pair of dark brown boots that also concealed the knife that she had stolen from the kitchen. She also wore a pair of fingerless gloves that extended up almost to her elbows not that one would notice since she was still wearing Hide's jacket. Her long curly hair was tied back with a thick ribbon that matched the green of her skirt and she wore dangling earrings and a necklace to match. "I've never worn anything quite like this through the entirety of my life, but I must say that it's growing on me already. What say you?" she asked, turning on her heels.

Aldora managed with great difficulty not to come skipping out of the back room. At Benji's whistle, Aldora secretly took some delight in his 'compliment'. Despite, she countered with a tart "Ensure that you keep a check on your wandering eye lest you lose it." Upon hearing about the plans, Aldora was torn. She knew she should probably be set on trying to escape but found herself eager to parade around the town with her new image. After being led out and thanking Mrs.Susan-Q, she overheard the two men discusses the price and laughed. "Well, when an oppurunity presents itself, what fool would I be not to take advantage of it?' It was not until after the suggestion to visit the Plaza did she realize the great advice she had just given herself. And thus, she followed the men with such joy she feared that she might begin to float.

After a few minutes of moving through the crowd, Aldora realized that Hide was right in saying that it can get busy. Many times as Aldora was admiring street shops, she would bump into a passerby and as she turned to apologize would back into yet another passerby. Soon she adopted the strategy of using Benji and Hide as meat shields to shelter her from the oncoming crowd, holding on to the back of Hide's shirt so that she could still glance through shop windows without getting herself lost, until they entered the Plaza where the people were stationary enough for her to feel safe enough to distance herself a bit. She began to gravitate, almost as a reflex to her curiousity, toward various vendors and began inquiring the contents and origins of several snacks and toys she'd never seen.

BanBan toted her little cauldron around on her back, much like a backpack. With a triumphant march, she paraded through the streets. In the last hour or so, she had managed to add 2 more coins and a few pearls from a necklace that some lady had snapped to her stash. BanBan was now making her way to her favorite perch overlooking the town's plaza when she noticed a very excited woman examining merchandise. Chuckling to herself, she changed directions to make a beeline for the woman seeing her chance to make an easy steal.

As Aldora turned to ask about a nearby vendor's merchandise, she came to an abrupt stop when she found a small girl directly in her path. In an attempt to evade each other, it appeared they both made a step in the same direction. "Excuse me, miss." the girl said perfectly mimicking the step of the woman in the other direction. "Oh, pardon m-OH!" As Aldora made another step, BanBan being as small as she was was able to squeeze past by shuffling between Aldora's legs and pushing herself through the fabric of Hide's coat. "Well, I suppose that's another method of doing it." She paused a moment to steal a glance at the girl before composing herself and turning her attention back to the nearby vendor.

BanBan peeked over her shoulder. When Aldora had turned her attention elsewhere, BanBan unfurled the fist that appeared to be holding the straps of her 'backpack'. In her tiny palm was a small mound of shimmering buttons (I Googled it and didn't really see any buttons on wrap coats, but if you could please just roll with it). She reconcealed the mound in her fist."Today's been a good day." she thought as she began to make her way out of the Plaza.