With one small, delicate hand firmly gripping the ship’s side, a young woman gazed upon what would be her new home. The sky overhead was tinged a heavy grey and looked about ready to release the rain held back for so long. However, it did not and the young woman turned to look again at the fast approaching land. Blinking away the small droplets of mist that had settled, she watched the waves as they crashed and raged against the small wooden ship.

Shivering slightly, the first sign of discomfort in the inclement weather, she pulls the loose rags about her closer and narrowed her gaze. She could see the port more closely and looked over the brown, faded collection of buildings and the absence of boats. Before she could examine more of the land, her thoughts were interrupted. Over the crashing of waves, the voice of a man who’d spent far too much time yelling was heard and she, reluctantly, turned towards the sound.

-

Glaring at the girl, the captain of the steamer muttered under his breath about stowaways and pointed angrily down in the direction of the hold. Seeing the girl nod slowly, turn, and start walking away he turned himself and looked out on the sea. The ocean was raging, which was unusual considering the near perfect weather an hour ago.

The Captain scratched his stubble in thought. As far as he could see, it was a swirling mass of water that far off on the horizon was met with grey storm clouds...grey like those girl’s eyes...mist covered pale skin...soft, red lips...

Shaking the thought out of his head, he turned back to the quarter deck after giving a nearby sailor am angry shout to get his ass moving. Lazy scoundrels.

-

Peeking around a nearby capstan, the woman waited for the Captain to retreat into his cabin before standing up and returning to the spot she was at. Tapping impatiently, she realized it would take far too long before she’d reach land and, noticing the eyeing she was getting from several nearby deckhands, deciding against waiting much longer. After tucking in bits of her clothing, she jumped up on the railing and, maintaining her balance, gave the surprised deckhands behind her a cheerful wave before then diving.

The idea of icy needles came to mind as she hit the water but was soon disregarded in favor of making it to shore. After several minutes of hard swimming, she dared to look behind her. Grinning at the sight of no pursuit, she resumed the fast pace for a slow numbness was beginning to creep into her body. Grumbling internally about supposedly bright ideas during the middle of the winter, she almost didn’t notice the shoreline near in front of her. Bursting into an ungraceful, splashing race with time, she managed to reach the shore and drag her soaked body out of the freezing water with some effort.

Shivering heavily, she gathered her surroundings and then near sprinted towards the one end of the port. Giving a nearby sign one quick read, which said “Philadelphia” in faded gold letters, she let out a small cheer. Quickly making up her mind, she kicked in the door to a nearby shack and, thanking her luck at finding an empty building, proceeded to drag in a large metal barrel from outside. Filling it with bits of wood and other flammable materials, she kept her eye out for anything of use. After lighting it and stripping down to the bare amount needed to keep her modesty, she sat down and warmed herself.

“Welcome back to America, Nea.” She whispered,” I should have left Ireland before autumn though...” Laughing at the thought, she slowly closed her eyes and lightly dozed while her ragged clothing dried.