Not exactly thrilled by the idea, Emma nodded. She relaxed, some, when Elliot took Morrison with her. She certainly didn't mind as Elliot was not at her best right now. "One hour," she agreed and waited until her sister had turned away. Morrison would keep Elliot safe, Emma knew, after having saved his life he was rather fond of the twins. Turning on her heel, she headed toward the tavern with two crew members to accompany her. On her way she passed a shop and made a mental note to stop there before leaving the island.
It was a rowdy place as the island was one of the few places where pirates didn't have to place nice as they only had to deal with their own and didn't have to avoid catching the eye of someone in the Navy. This meant there were more than a number of the brothel girls straddling the laps of pirates and more than a few drunks. In one corner two men were fighting it out and no one seemed to blink an eye.
It was loud and smelled of piss and drink. Oddly enough, Emma was comforted by the familiarity of it, even if the stench burned her nostrils a little. At the bar she ordered a drink and eyed the crowd. There were three men in the corner; two were playing a loud game of Men's Morris while the other watched on, an empty board in front of him. They seemed promising as did the quiet guy at the end of the bar. The rest of the patrons didn't interest Emma. She thought herself to be a decent judge of character and these were her men, she could tell.
Grabbing a few chair she dragged it, loudly, to their table and took a seat. The men eyed her, suspiciously and with a bit of contempt, but she would win them over. The young pirate tipped the cup back and downed the ale setting it quietly on the table. "Mind if I play?"
The man lacking a partner sneered. "Yes."
An eyebrow rose and she considered the game, "Afraid to lose to a girl?" She asked letting a smile play across her lips. The other two paused in their game to watch.
"You little..." He reached for his knife, but his drunkenness made him slow and she reached the hilt at his boot before he did. Her companions stepped forward, but the knife was already in her hand and at his throat before he realized what had happened.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," She snapped. Her glare was hard, reminiscent of her father's. She waited one beat. The easy smile returned and she twirled the knife--a move she'd practiced thousands of times on the ship--and offered it back to him, hilt first. "You can have this back, but I really would like to play." He considered and then nodded. "See, that wasn't so hard. Just a friendly game." She beamed and the man took his knife back.
The game was fairly simple, Silver had taught the twins days into their arrival and the twins spent many an evening playing together and against the crew members. The object is to get three of your pieces in a straight line, called a mill. Once you've done this, you can take any of your opponent's pieces as long as they are not already part of your mill. When one player has only three pieces remaining, the game enters into the final phase. The player cn move their pieces to any open spot on the board; you want to keep them relatively close to one another as the goal is to create a mill. First player to get below three pieces loses.
It was his board and she'd intruded, she let the man go first. Having played with such a variety of people, people generally fell into groups in their playing style. After three moves she could tell his style was aggressive: fitting. She played her hand closer to the vest while he was more predictable. The game lasted fifteen minutes until she finally won. He seemed irritated and mildly impressed. "Thanks for the game." He grunted and she continued, "The name is Emma," she offered her hand and he shook it after staring at it like she was offering him scurvy. "The Secret," the three men perked up; she had their attention, "is looking for some more crew members. If you're interested, we leave in..." she leaned around to look out the window, "Three hours."
She stood and wondered over to the quiet man in the corner. He'd been watching the entire time. "You should come as well," She muttered before one of her companions from the ship cleared his throat.
"Captain?" She looked back at the man, making sure the four men she'd been trying to hire along all heard the title, "Time to go." Their hour wasn't quite up but their plan was. She payed her tab and left the tavern, her companions following close behind. She hoped the men would come.
