Giacomo observed the coast they were approaching as he stood next to the captain on the main deck, elation surging through his veins.

He removed the black kerchief matching the thick layer of kohl spread under his blue eyes from his head, letting the wind, which now carried a whole lot of new scents from the proximate dry, and for him unknown and mysterious lands, tousle his shoulder-length brown hair.

It has been weeks since they touched the shore the last time. Giacomo enjoyed his life on Restless Soul greatly, but the captain's promise that the seamen would be finally allowed to spend one night in the harbour if they wished, made him realise just how much he craved the firm ground to steady and anchor his legs for a while.

"What do you think?" The captain asked, leaning closer to Giacomo, making sure that he would hear his words before the wind would snatch, and carry them away.

Antalya, the harbour they were heading for, didn't look as impressive as the captain had described it to him. From this vantage point and distance it was just a bright cluster of houses dotting the shoreline of the apparently not too deep, turquoise sea.

The waters were so clear in this part of the Mediterranean that they permitted the young man to watch a pod of friendly, playful dolphins as they chased each other in the frothy waves caused by the hull of the ship cutting swiftly through the water. Giacomo was convinced that he could see all the way to the sea's bottom, where he could almost perceive the moving shadows of the dolphins' large bodies and the huge shadow of the galleon, projected on the bright sand.

"It looks good," he said as his eyes strolled back to the shore.

He spoke in that peculiar mixture of English and Italian which he and the captain developed to be able to communicate with each other, over the few months since Giacomo joined the crew of Restless Soul.

Giacomo smiled at the other man, letting his profound gratefulness show in his eyes-- this was the first ship on board of which he actually had some free time to look around and enjoy himself a little.

The English galley that took him on board when the small smuggling ship on which he sailed before sank during a storm, only to throw him, the only survivor of that disaster, half-dead when the privateers fished him out of the raging waves straight to the oars, had been a hell in comparison. Exactly like his life with the smugglers before. Destiny had not been generous to him, not until he encountered this vessel and its captain.

The young man did not hesitate when the English galley was accosted by the Ottoman galleon several months ago, the pirate captain offering any willing man the opportunity to join his crew, before he would take care of the rest of the seamen and the cargo, as he seemed fit...

There was no difference for him, an Italian, between sailing on the English, or the Ottoman ship; both the captains were outlaws, privateers. Pirates.

So was he-- orphaned at an early age with no relatives rich enough to be able to afford to take him in, he was obliged to join the smugglers when he was eleven. On their ship, being too young to do much else, he learned from an old sailor how to clean and dress wounds, heal the most common ailings affecting the seamen and many other things. As he grew up, Giacomo got so passionate about his new skills that he started dreaming of becoming a surgeon, and spent every single moment and opportunity to learn more, to be able to pursue his dream.

Finally, on joining the crew of Restless Soul, his wishes came true-- the moment he left the English galley, he ceased being one of the many dispensable, underpaid oarsmen, and became a valued surgeon.

"Are we really going to meet him?" He asked the captain as his rambling thoughts strolled to the promised encounter with the legendary pirate Barbarossa, who owned this ship along with at least eighteen other vessels sailing across the Mediterranean, fighting against the ships of the Knights of St. John.

"Tomorrow morning," the captain replied, nodding. It seemed to Giacomo that his eyes... gleamed with mirth and anticipation, as if he knew so much more than what he was saying, when he added, "He is to deliver us our new sailing master before we leave Antalya again."

*I do not own the pictures.