“What is your dream?” the little boy asked as his cedar brown hands sank into the sand. Staring out at the ocean as the sun began to set, the girl next to him, his friend, glanced at him before returning her eyes to the ocean’s waves and salty scent.

     “My dream?” the five-year-old girl repeated, the words feeling foreign on her tongue. 

     “Yea”, he said, letting his hand find a closed shell behind him. The shell’s beige color appeared gold with the help of the sunsetting sky as the little boy fiddled with it in his hands.

     “A few nights ago…” the little girl started, “I had a dream that I woke up on a boat with a porcupine and a black cat sailing to their home kingdom. There was an evil king that was a lion and he-”

     “I mean, what is your biggest goal in life, what do you want to do? What do you want to be known for? Not what you dreamt about a few nights ago” the boy interrupted, flipping over the shell in his hand to inspect it more. The shell was surprisingly two grooved carpet shells stuck together.

     “I know what you meant, I was getting to that part. As I was saying, the king lion was taking all the money and food for himself and the tiger nobles, causing sadness and poverty in the kingdom. I went on a journey to show the lion king his wrongdoings and within a few days the cat, porcupine, and I were able to fix the kingdom!” the girl exclaimed, punctuating her last line by throwing her hands up in celebration.

     “The relevance of this is…?” the boy inquired, his brows furrowed as he was struggling to pry the shells open.

     “Aaron, do you want your answer or not because if you do, you need to be patient” the little girl smiled while keeping her eyes trained on the now navy blue sky. Every once in a while, she glanced at the shell in the boy’s hand and giggled at him trying to get it open.

     “Once again, as I was saying when I woke up that day and went into town. I saw nobles and their royal guards abusing their power and talking down to random people who didn’t have a lot of money. I walked up to the noble and told him what he was doing was wrong. He laughed when I told him to stop bullying people. This went on for days, the same cycle repeating until one day I kicked him in the leg and made a run for it-”

     “You did what?! What were you thinki-” the boy interrupted, accidentally letting the shell slip from his hand. The shell cracked open revealing a shiny golden pearl.

     “Hush I’m almost done, besides, he never caught me. My little legs were too fast. He was chasing after me until a noble that was higher in rank stopped him. That day, I realized that not everyone can be changed through words alone, so I decided I was gonna be a pirate” the girl continued, determination laced in every word. The little boy looked at her full of admiration as he clenched the pearl tight in his hand. 

     “I’m going to find the world’s finest treasures and give them to people in need. I also decided that if Sinbad could travel the world and become a legend, I would do the same, I would conquer the sea and become a legend so people will have to listen to me when I speak for the oppressed. That is my dream” the girl finished as the boy beside her, handed her the pearl.

     “For you,” he said as he extended it to her. The boy blushed as the girl hugged him, accepting the pearl.

     “Thanks.”

     The rain pounded on the tavern roof, determined to tear down the sign that read Bandit’s Tavern. Thunder clapped, following its brother, the lightning as the pine forest trees fought to stay grounded. The rain was so aggressive that anyone would have believed the god Poseidon had been angered.

     The sky was a bleak tired gray, making the forest that enclosed the tavern appear pitch black. Birds flocked with vigor away from a seemingly traumatized man rushing into the tavern.

     “They’re real! They’re real! I saw them with my own eyes! My entire crew is dead! It killed them!” The man was screaming, running out of breath, which caused a stranger across the room to glance up from their glass to the man’s direction with amusement. 

     The man had brown hair, eyes that screamed fear and truth, a dirty torn blue shirt, ripped and ragged pants, and his entire body covered in water. The man tracked his muddy boots into the tavern leaving a trail of muck behind him.

     “Woah, woah, woah, calm down. What happened? What are you talking about?” a barkeep probed, sitting the man down on a stool, wincing at the man’s smell. 

     “I’m Jayson, leader of the Blue Serpent Pirates. I-I went out to sea after hearing about the legend of The Bringer of the Tide. I thought the creatures were fake, but they were real. I-it was huge, it took out all five of my ships at once,” he replied. The strangers in the tavern glance at him, some with doubt, some with fear, and one with levity.