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She stood in the brush, staring at the place where the two strangers had disappeared. Many of the other children had already run off, half-cocked she assumed, to go see if they could find these cabbages. But Nemesis thought that the given description (big, green and leafy, you can't break the middle) was not very good. She could think of a million plants on the island that were big, green and leafy. Actually, she was standing among some right now. None of them, however had remained unharmed when the others had stampeded back to the Treehut, she presumed to organize themselves.

From this, she concluded either they really had come unprepared, or else she didn't have enough knowledge to actually conclude anything. Nemesis stood there for several more minutes before looking over both her shoulders. No one was behind her, at least not visibly. And she couldn't hear anyone following her as she stepped over a large and very flat fern. The ground was showered with crunchy leaves; the only way to be completely silent, at least as a child, was either to be magical or to step in thick plants. The mermaids could be very quiet when they liked to be.

Not like Nemesis spent a lot of time near the mermaids. The one time she had approached one, she had almost gotten drowned and had almost lost her helm. Yes, it was pretty, but it was not for the mermaids, ever. Not even if one of the older kids told her to get rid of it. And if that happened, she might as well run off to join the pirates.

The pirates?

She remembered the cherries she had gained from her raid on the grove a few days back. And then she remembered that the pirates were always looking for food- they couldn't just scavenge like Lost Children. They spent too much time trying to fix that cripple ship. The Jolly Rodger or something. And there were much bigger kids around the pirates. Bigger kids meant more ground covered in a day than Nemesis alone could cover in three times that amount of time. The problem would be ensuring that, when they stabbed her, it was in the front, not in the back.

She could just go it alone. She knew the island better than everyone, except maybe the Feien and Ahja. But it would go a lot smoother if she could get some help.

It might be safer to ask other Lost Children to help. Her recently-boosted reputation for getting in and out of the cherry grove alive with no one left there (she'd done it only once, but she spent a lot of time scouting out that area) would certainly count for more with them than with the pirates, who probably would think her a pathetic Treehutter.

But pirates had more free time. And even if they got all the 'candy' stuff, she didn't much care. She frowned and discreetly rubbed at her lips again. Whatever that candy was, it was really hot and not good at all! Nemesis had spit hers out.

As she re-entered the Treehut and leapt over chatting groups of babies and children, a thought struck her like a lightning bolt. The maps! Why give up her cherries when she could give them something more worthwhile? She picked up the book of maps she had made and flipped through it. Doubtless another book like this one would wash up soon (although where all these things came from, she didn't know, so she shouldn't assume that a book would float up). If all else failed, she could point at the fat kid and say he must have taken it. And no one could call her in the lie because they wouldn't be able to tell... as usual.

Nemesis looked over both shoulders. No one was looking at her, being inclined to discuss how they were going to find the cabbages and get all the candy. "Not if I can help it," she said to herself. After all, she was one of the best. She tucked the book of maps into her jacket and walked out of the Treehut nonchalantly. Pirates were unreliable. That would make her success much more... successful.

A Mutally Beneficent Proposition
-[Nemesis and Tock

No Lost Children had followed her; Nemesis had taken a longer path than normal to ascertain it. It wasn't treasonous to deal with pirates, but it certainly wasn't good for your standings in the eyes of other children. Especially when you were giving them a book of maps that may well be the key to victory in this search for cabbages in pursuit of candy. Besides, she was paranoid. Anyone who kept her shoes on while she slept and a helm besides had to be a certain degree of paranoid.

She tucked the book (sans her earlier (read, crappy) maps and one or two that had food storage locations marked on it) under her arm and cupped both hands around her mouth, shouted: "Hey!" Shifting the book into one hand, she waited for a response. The Jolly Rodger was quiet today, very quiet. It was almost nervous-making.

Of course she didn't expect that they hadn't already heard about the cabbages. One pirate or another seemed to keep an eye on large groups of Lost Children. But she did expect that they would have left some kind of guard, who could tell her where the captain was. Perhaps Tock- she knew the name of the pirate's leader, just like every other Lost Child did, as he'd faded into the mythology of the children's lives- had even stayed behind himself. If she went out, chances were good another group of children would encounter her.

"Hello," she yelled again.

"It's downright treason to be dealin' with the likes of us. Unless you're here to steal something. Then you're just really bad at it," Tock said from where he pulled himself into view. He sat on the deck of the ship, his long legs hanging over the side. "What are you here for, lost brat?"

He grinned, showing sharp fangs that shined nice and white in the sun. "Or are you switching sides?"

Brat? She was not a brat. And she certainly wasn't switching sides. "I'm dealing," she said. "I saw some of you pirates looking around. I can help with that." Nemesis held up the book of maps so he could see it. "It's a book of maps, good ones. The only ones, I wouldn't wonder. They would be useful in finding things..." Her eyes narrowed a little, not like Tock could tell. "Like cabbages? I presume that's what you're looking for, since you like to screw with our heads so much."

He jumped off of the ship, landing heavily in a crouch in front of her for a moment before he stood. For a child, he was huge, outweighing her by over a hundred pounds, at least, and taller, as well. His thick tail snapped behind him and he grinned.

"What's to keep me from just taking those maps from you right now?" he asked. "I am a pirate, you realize. And there's no way in hell I'm finding you the cabbages."

Nemesis stepped backward, frowning. She would have moved even further back, but if she showed fear he might not take her seriously. She settled instead for craning her neck to look at his face. If she hadn't, she'd be talking to his chest, which wouldn't help her at all. "The fact that they're all written in code," she said. "Without me, you don't know what pages are details of what areas." Defensively, she crossed her arms around the book. "I don't want you to find me the cabbages. I just want to help someone find the cabbages that won't require much more than my maps from me. Personally, I could care less what you do with the cabbages once you have them. The candy they're offering for a reward is disgusting anyway."

"What's candy?" he asked blankly. "The reason I want the cabbages is because Ahja does."

He leaned back, looking thoughtful. Then he shrugged. "Won't work, anyway," he said bluntly. "They see it as a treasure hunt right now, and they'll search wherever they want for as long as they remember what they're doing. They'll be back in time for dinner, wondering what in the hell they were looking for in the first place."

He didn't seem that impressed with his own fellow pirates.

"You eat it and apparently it's good. I didn't like it, but some of the other kids did." She tapped the book against her leg. Maybe she could still pull this off, but... "Would they do it if you offered a reward, or something? I have cherries, fresh ones, hidden back in the Treehut. I'll give them to you if they look again tomorrow." Pirates, from her understanding of them, liked food. Mostly because they had to scavenge and compete with the Lost Children for it. After all, the Jolly Rodger didn't exactly offer a varied diet. She shook her head. "And I think I know where the recent traps have been laid in the grove. I could make a map of them for you."

"Yeah?" he asked, sounding interested. He loved cherries. But for some reason Silva was even meaner to him than he was to the other kids. There had even been a spiked trap that fell down, right at eye level with Tock one time. "You going to go in and sacrifice yourself to distract Silva for us, too, huh?"

He snorted. "I don't trust you, little girl, so no deal." Then he turned, heading for the ship again.

"Alright," Nemesis said, her disappointment evident in the set of her mouth, but not in her voice. But she wasn't so set on the idea that she would argue with someone who towered over her like that. Not even a silver helm could protect her from that powerful tail... or, more likely, a broken nose from his fists. She didn't pride herself on her strength or endurance, after all. "Good luck, then." She turned and headed off, already plotting her route home.

"Wait!" he said, turning as she started to walk away. "I'll give you one chance to prove it," he said. "Show me a map and tell me what it says, and I'll think about your offer."

She stopped and walked back over to him. Flipping through the book, she stopped on her map of the lagoon. "This," she said, pointing to the title, "Says 'Lagoon'." It looked more like a scribble, actually, but the different ups and downs seemed to have been drawn in quite carefully. "And here," she said, pointing to a notation around a little star, "is usually the best place to find driftwood, if you like driftwood fires. The lagoon isn't really that interesting a place, but this star is where I've seen the mermaids go, presumably into their parlor." She didn't know if that'd be useful to Tock, but since he seemed to be aquatic, it might be interesting. No one knew what the mermaids kept in their parlor, and its exact location could only really be extrapolated. They clammed up when anyone asked about it, even if they were the kind that didn't try to drown kids.

"Go with me," he said, tugging off his ratty looking shirt and standing there in a pair of equally worn looking pants. "I can check out the spot to see if it's the entrance to the parlor. If you're right, then I'll work with you."

And he figured he'd wind up owing her something she wasn't mentioning now, but who cared? It would piss Ahja off even more if it was one of her kids that helped him.

She tucked the book away. "Sure," she said, not bothering to mention it was just extrapolation. In other words, Nemesis was extremely sure that she was right. But she might not be. Confidence was key in a lie, especially when you don't know if you're telling one. She tugged on one of her boots and started off along the quickest way to the lagoon. Either Tock would follow, or he wouldn't.

He followed, his hands in his pockets as he looked over the woods casually. There was always the chance that someone was watching, lost boy, pirate, or fairy. "What's your name?" he asked after a bit.

Hell, he thought, even if he didn't find the mermaid place he could probably catch a few fish and have a snack while he was there.

"Nemesis," she said. "I already know your name. You're almost a legend with the little kids, the ones who never met you." Of course, she hadn't met him, either. But she knew him by reputation. She stopped to look inside a crack in a large boulder, but there was nothing interesting, so she moved on (but only after straightening the helm on top of her head).

He snorted. "I was born this way, it ain't my fault," he said with a hint of amusement. The gem hanging around his neck caught on the light, gleaming smugly as if amused, as well. It was a long walk to the lagoon, though, no matter how many shortcuts she knew. It was on the other side of the island, after all.

"Or is it the cliff diving thing?" he asked. Monday was coming, he thought. It was a good time for swimming.

"I don't think it's your face," she said. "Or the cliff diving. It's more the pirating that makes you a historical figure." He'd be entry one on their imaginary tree of history. She considered that. "Why do you go cliff diving, anyway? Isn't it rather dangerous?"

He grinned. "But it's fun," he said simply. That was the motto of the pirates, when it came down to it. Sure it's dangerous, but it's fun! "Besides, the water's deep enough that I don't knock myself out." He always checked first, ever since that one incident.

Not that it had knocked him out, he had a hard head. But it had hurt like hell.

"Well, that's all right then," she said, with a little bit of sarcasm. "As long as it's fun." She stopped on the shore of the lagoon- far enough away that no mermaid could pull her in. She consulted the map, then looked up and pointed to a ridge of rock that jutted out the water like very sharp teeth. "It should be a little to the left of the middle of that ridge." It was near enough that she thought she might see a cavern, but the gray 'fog' imposed over her eyes by the helm didn't help. It might be there, or it might now.

He stepped out of his pants, standing in a loincloth for a moment, his tail twitching behind him as he judged the area. "Alright," he said, taking a running start, then diving into the water as soon as it got deep enough.

And then he just didn't come up again. Minutes passed by, five... ten...

Seeing Tock run straight into the water was certainly awe-inspiring. Nemesis herself, unfortunately, was afraid of the water (more the things in it, really, but same difference) so she spent most of her time in the streams running through the island when she wanted a bath or to wash her clothes. She sat there, studying her maps.

But he was taking too long. Either he was looking over the whole ridge and hadn't found it yet, or he had found it and gotten caught, or he had found it and was looking around inside it, or he was playing tricks. Nemesis looked out at the water and frowned. Still no sign of the pirate.

"Holy s**t, lady!" Tock bellowed as he broke the surface. "I was just look--" He was tugged under again. It didn't seem as though he was too afraid, though, since he hadn't been screaming in terror. Just irritated.

In all honesty he had done things like this several times before.

Apparently he had found it and gotten caught. Well, at least he didn't seem too frightened. It meant that Nemesis didn't need to be too worried. Nevertheless, she jogged to the very edge of the surf, where the water barely lapped at her boots. No way was she going any further in. "Are you okay," she yelled next time he surfaced, clinging to the book of maps to make sure it wouldn't get ruined.

"What's it look like?" he demanded. "Dammit, stop tugging on the clo--"

And then he was pulled under again. It took another fifteen minutes of struggling before he climbed onto the beach, falling at her feet.

She stepped back, rather reflexively, but offered him a hand once she'd looked for (and not found) the mermaid that had been pulling him under. "Was I right?" Nemesis screwed her feet into the sand, in case he did take her hand to pull himself up. She didn't want to topple over.

"Hell if I know," he said, grinning as he shoved himself to his feet. "But I got one of their hair thingies," he said, holding up the shell shaped comb with a wicked laugh. "It's pretty," he said, holding it up to the sun.

"Yeah, it is," she agreed, though the sparkly effect was lost. She pulled her helm up to look at it better; the light was blinding, and her eyes watered, so she wiped a hand across them before putting the helm back on. "Good treasure, anyway." Did this count towards him listening to her proposition?

"You should get back," he told her. "The other tree brats will notice you being gone this long. But I expect you back at the ship when you get the chance, got it?"

He had lied. He had glimpsed something that could possibly be the mermaid's home. But he wasn't about to tell a tree hut brat something like that.

Still, she'd be useful.

"Alright," she agreed. "Do you want to hang onto the book, or should I?" Nemesis held it out. "It's not waterproof or anything, so if you think it's gonna get wet..." But she had offered him the book. It was just useless without her.

"Keep it," he said, waving it off. "They'll expect you to have it. And it's no good to me without you reading it." He tugged his pants on, then slipped the comb into his pocket. He wasn't about to offer it to her.

That was good; even if it was pretty, it would draw attention, so Neme didn't want it. Neither did she want to make Tock angry, and if he'd offered, she didn't know if he would have been. Nemesis tucked the book back into her jacket, where it had been as she walked off to make her proposition to Tock. "See you tomorrow, then, Tock." She turned and strode off- that was the only word to describe it.

After all, she had been successful.

Even if she didn't really care about the candy, she cared about knowing that she was the most accomplished on the island. After all, Nemesis could still keep an eye out for the cabbages while doing her chores. Everything Ahja had listed for her to do was done, so she was washing her clothing today.

Her helm, thankfully, only needed to be rinsed and left to dry in a sunny spot for a few minutes. But it still had to come off, so she always washed her clothes in a fairly secluded part of the Stream, near the ocean. There were enough trees to keep her hidden, but not enough to stop an occasional ocean breeze from teasing her hair. Not for the first time she wondered about cutting it like the others did, shearing it to chin-length. But she knew her hair, and it seemed to frizz when it was short. So long it was, reaching to the backs of her thighs. Sometimes she braided it or pulled it up and tied it under her helm with a vine, but mostly she left it loose.

She waded back to the shore of the stream and put her helm in a warm spot. Squinting in the light, she picked up her black coat and submerged it in the water. Not like she didn't have similar coat, but the black one was better, in her opinion. The other one was brown, and had a stain on one side where she had spilled ink. It also exposed her wrists, which meant sunburns. The shade and her blanket kept her shoulders from turning a brilliant lobster red.

Of course, there were some plants that blocked out whatever it was that made her get a sunburn. But Nemesis often was too busy to go find them and she didn't want people to know that the reason she wore so much clothing. Let them think she was cold all the time. That was also true, and she never knew why she was so cold. Just that she was.

Oh well. She held her coat up to the light and squinted at it prospectively. It dripped in her eyes and she dropped her coat over one arm to rub at them. One downside to wearing her helm all the time was that she got used to looking at things in the dim gray light. Her eyes reacted too strongly to light now, and everything that got in them hurt very badly.

Anyway. The coat looked clean enough, and the berry stain on one cuff (that she was confident no one but herself could see) was gone, so she could hang it on its usual branch to dry.

She sat in the stream to wait for the helm to finish drying, and perhaps her coat also. It was a little chilly, so she shivered, but still submerged herself. Another downside, besides enemies being able to grab her hair, is that she got leaves and twigs stuck in. At least there weren't too many predatory creatures... of course, there was the danger of a spider getting put in her boot where it sat under the tree.

But sometimes you had to take risks. Nemesis liked to be clean.

She had to go visit Tock today. Though it had only been one day, he might think she'd chickened out, when she had only been suddenly busy. With all the kids shirking chores, the older children found themselves saddled with more work to do to keep Ahja from noticing. Nemesis had to continue to contribute or someone might notice that she was so often gone. Everyone was secretive about their own plan to get the cabbages, working within their own little group. No one would think it strange if she spent even more time off wandering on her own.

Yesterday her berry-hunting and flotsam-collecting had ranged from the mermaid's lagoon (a safe distance from the water) to the bottom of the troll's mountain (where she had never seen a troll). She had stepped on several rocks, but no unbreakable cabbages; found several interesting little things, but no large interesting cabbages. These plants were hard to find, especially with no real clue of what she was looking for.

You just cut yourself on a sharp jaggedy rock. It's up to you to display your first aid skills and tend to the wound until you can go get a healer. (Unless you are a healer!)

She tripped, gave a most undignified squawk, and landed face-down in the trees. Her helm bounced off her head, bruising her nose, and landed in a pile of leaves. But that didn't really bother her as much as the newer, larger gash in her left hand. That was going to scar... Nemesis frowned at the injury and watched the blood flow sluggishly down the side of her palm. It came from the older gash, too; they didn't intersect, but it was pretty close. The cut from her cherry raiding injury had been scabbed over. Now the scab had broken, which hurt.

Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes, but she didn't cry. Instead, she pushed herself up and looked around. Seeing no one, she hurried to sit beneath one of her favorite large trees (she only visited it once every week at best, sometimes less if there was a tangible threat). It was her favorite, and the one she chose in this case, because a small, clear offshoot of the stream in the middle of the island ran under its large roots. Carefully secreting herself in one such nook, she looked around again, before tentatively running her hand through the water. The chill stung at the open pair of wounds and she reflexively raised her hand to her mouth. It stopped an inch from her lips. Running water would help clean it. She remembered Ahja saying something like that, and the best sometimes got that way because they remembered the words of those who were once better than they.

So she put her hand back under the water and this time sniffled a few times. When her hand was numb, she pulled it back out of the water. It was good that there weren't any sharks in the water, she remembered hearing that blood attracted them. That had been before the mermaid had tried to drown her. Nemesis scowled and rolled her sleeves back enough to leave her injury where fibers from her coat wouldn't get in it. She hadn't done that last time, and had gotten yelled at for pasting black weeds to her hand. Only after she had washed her hands had they realized they were just bits of wool fiber stuck in the cut.

This time, she was much smarter about it. Nemesis kept the injured limb above her heart to slow the trail of blood, free from the overlong woolen sleeves, and hurried straight back to the Treehut. She had to be ready to get back to work on that fence in an hour.

After the brisk fifteen-minute walk, she sat in her nook. Her back was firmly to a wall (stone, thank you, maybe with a few roots in; no one would catch her with her back turned). But in her hand was one of the pieces of fabric she had been given after she gashed up her hand the first time. Quickly (and efficiently, she definately had better things to do than baby herself) she wrapped up her hand. Unlike other kids, who she had seen bandage themselves into having hammers for hands, she used only as much as she thought she needed and put the rest of it aside. She would need it again, if her childhood continued like this.

Her wound tended to, she curled up under her blanket and settled in for a quick catnap. She'd know if someone approached her. Or she hoped she would.