Sea Beast

"What are we going to do about this warship?"

It was a question that had been circling around us since the meeting started.

"We could make some money off of it." Masque looked at the walls as if they were made out of money as he continued to talk. "But we'd need to go back to Aramox."

"If we go back, we'll run into other saylors," Saul stated with disapproval.

"We couldn't go back even if we wanted to." Lorena rolled out a map on the table as she said that. "See, we're somewhere around here. That means Aramox is way over here."

She used a finger to circle a part of the map, trying to show us where we would be before she slid her finger to point at the name of the town. I was never good at reading maps, but it seemed the journey back would take too much time.

Three weeks at least.

"We'll need to see how much food they have. Considering the small number of saylors I spotted, I don't see them carrying a lot. Just the bare minimum," Saul said as he looked towards Captain Velwyn. "What do you want to do?"

He was staring at the map, his eyebrows were knotted together before an easy-going smile filled his face. He looked up, meeting each of our eyes. It seemed that our Captain had figured something out.

"Let's go here," he said, pointing at a name on the map.

Looking down, I read the name. "Island of Giants?" I asked, surprised that any pirate would want to go there. "You do know that they will be covered in ships who won't give it a moment's thought in attacking pirates, right?"

"Good thing they won't know we're pirates," Velwyn answered with an air of ease. "How long do you think it'll take us to reach it, Lorena?"

Lorena's fingers tapped against the table. "Three or four days." She glanced at Wiley who nodded. "If the weather doesn't go bad. I've been there before. The journey can be a bit unpredictable when it comes to the weather."

"How unpredictable?" Saul asked.

"One sec it'll be sunny and the next you'll see ice falling from the sky."

Captain Velwyn nodded. "Everyone good with that?"

Words of agreement escaped from around me. Even if someone didn't agree, I doubt they would have said anything. Their excitement at having a warship was like the electricity that was shooting through the air.

They didn't care as long as they got to keep their new plaything.

"Now that's settled, we still don't know how to sail this ship," Saul stated, giving the Captain a pointed look. "It's not like the old ship, Captain."

"I'm not worried. Wiley and Lorena can handle the navigation, right?"

"We might need a few others," Lorena said as she looked at Wiley. "I've been in an old warship before, but that was before they added electricity to it. I'll have to look at the controls to see how similar they are."

"Trade with whoever the one is steering us now."

I didn't feel very comforted that he didn't know who was at the wheel.

"On it, Captain."

The two navigators left the room, Lorena making sure to take the map with her. The door gave a loud thud as it closed after them.

"Masque has the medical wing and ship repairs."

"I'll do what I can to fix the ship if it gets holes in him," Masque agreed. "I haven't had the chance of seeing what their medicinal area might look like. I'll do that once the meeting is over."

"See, nothing to worry about."

Saul shook his head. "What about the rest of them? You going to just let them do whatever they please?" He demanded as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Yes."

"You... You..."

A hand tapped my shoulder, Romeo jerking his thumb towards the door the rest in the meeting were leaving through. I followed, figuring that if the others left that the meeting was over. From the way that Saul was spattering his words in anger, I didn't want to be around for the scolding the Captain would get.

The halls felt cold even with the others walking through it. Walls made of metal surrounded us, making our steps echo as we walked. I walked away from the others, trying to put a distance between them and me as my mind wandered.

I entered what appeared to the kitchen, spotting Goran and Leticia. The surfaces of the room were cleaner than the Undead Beauty ship. Much cleaner.

It was also built differently.

There, in the middle of the room, was what appeared to be large flat stoves. So different from anything that I had seen before, but I had heard something about them. George, the year before, had mentioned getting an upgrade and complained about the latest stoves.

He said they didn't use wood and that it would cost too much to run.

I walked past the stoves, pushing through another door and into the back. A silent chill brushed against me, my eyes going to what looked like a cold space. I spotted William, his back facing me. It looked like he was searching for something.

Turning to get away from the coldness, I found that the only way to get out was back through the kitchen. Leticia called after me, but her words didn't stick. It was like I couldn't understand what she was saying as I tried to get away to find a quiet place.

Clenching and unclenching my hands, I walked down a set of metal stairs. I didn't know where I was trying to go or how far around the ship I would have to go to find it. I just wanted to be alone, away from everyone and everything.

A whistle reached me as I continued lower into the ship. I paused, listening to the sound that came with faint voices. It was high pitched and different from whistles I heard on a passenger ship.

Backtracking to avoid the noise and voices, I found more rooms. They differed from the ones on the pirate ship or even the Going Merry. Some of the rooms were larger with pipes in them, or heat steaming from them.

My fingers trailed along the metal wall as I continued down the hallway before I found what seemed to be the crew quarters. It was nothing like how it was back on the Undead Beauty. We had slept on hammocks and yet here, they had beds.

Real, soft beds.

Something about this warship didn't sit right with me. With it being made with metal and how the inside looked, it made me wonder how it could use sails. How did they make it move through the water?

Sitting on a bed, I dropped my head into my hands. Rubbing my thumbs against my temples, I wondered why I wanted to be away from people. I didn't want to be around anyone.

I was too tired to sort through my emotions. Nothing made sense anymore. Everything felt like it was becoming too much.

Sleep. All I needed was sleep, and I knew that laying on the softness under me would cure that. Laying down, the cushion sinking in with no fear of moving wrong and rocking the hammock, I tried to rest. My chest grew heavy, my heart feeling like it was racing to get out.

Fear gripped me like death did those around me. My eyes snapped open as I sat straight up. My hand pushed against my chest. Pain stabbed through me. Over and over.

What was wrong with me?

A jolt of the ship rocking woke me. The darkness of the halls, the chillness that came from the sea that surrounded us. I was up and moving, using my hand to keep myself steady as the ship rocked and I ran blindly through the darkness.

Hours had passed and the sun had long since set. My foot caught into a stair, my body slamming forward and my toes bending in the wrong angels. Hissing as I rolled onto my side, I felt as someone ran up the stairs.

"Oi, you shouldn't lay on the stairs."

Keeping in the comment that wanted to escape, I pushed myself up and started to limp up the stairs. It took me longer than it would in our old ship to find the way out onto the deck. The sky was clear, not a cloud in sight and the stars were there to guide us.

A roar brought my attention to the large shadow that towered over the ship.

"Fire oh!" Was shouted from multiple pirates before the sound of a cannon went off. One cannon. Not two. Not three. But one.

I eventually found Captain Velwyn as the warship was hit. The sound of teeth scraping against metal was loud and caused me to flinch. It almost sounded like the metal was giving way but if this was a warship, I doubted one sea beast could do such damage.

"What is it?" A voice came from behind me.

"I was wondering where you were Frumgar," Captain Velwyn said as he didn't look away from it. "Magnificent sight, isn't it? How... What was it called again, Altmar?"

The man sitting on the floor, drinking something, looked up. "Jörmungandr, Cap Wyn."

"Right, how the Jogandr," I raised a finger to correct him, but stopped myself as he continued to talk, "isn't able to do much to the warship. For the last ten minutes, it's been trying to tear into that one side, and so far it's left nothing but scratches."

"Where's Saul?" I asked, knowing that he would be the more trustworthy one to take care of the sea monster.

Captain Velwyn looked towards me, noticing that I was also standing there. "I locked him up in a cell."

"You..." I trailed off hoping that I didn't hear that right. "So, we're facing a sea monster, a Jörmungandr, and you lock the smarter one of you two up?" I asked.

"Yes. He was rather being picky about telling me to take my duties as a captain a bit more seriously since we have a warship now. So I led him down below and had him get into a cell."

He talked with too much ease about it. And made it sound like this was not the first time that he had pulled such a trick on the quartermaster. I started to wonder what had driven me to join this group of pirates on that day I left Carlisle.

"Alright."

An explosion--a flash of light like fireworks--appeared in the sky. The different colors mixing as whatever was fired hit the sea monster, causing it to let out a roar. It moved back before ramming more viciously than before into the ship.

Shouting came below and what I could almost mistake as laughter.

Another attack came, this time with the cannon following. The booms were like thunder in the open sky, as each weapon hit the beast. Lights once more appeared, like shows of falling stairs as it rained around the creature.

"Now it's a real party!"

I raised a hand, rubbing my temple. I didn't know how we had survived to that point with a captain that didn't seem to care about the ship he's supposed to be sailing. I've never heard of a pirate not caring about their vessel. Or a saylor.

It seemed almost impossible for one not to. Almost.It seems this captain was part of that almost.

A hand falling out to my shoulder alerted me. I jerked away from the person, a hiss escaping me. "Don't fucking touch me." The words were louder than I meant for them to be as I looked to see who it was.

Jacob stood there, shock written on his face as clear as day. His hand was still half-raised but moved back. I looked away from the boy, ignoring the guilt that swirled at the look on his face.

"Ignore the lass," Casimir said as he joined the rest of us. "She seems to be on her blood days."

"Come on, Cas, we would all be in a bad mood if a sea monster was trying to tear our ship part." A woman carried a lamp as she walked out of the door from behind us. "Seriously, Captain. What's the plan?"

"Masque and Romeo have it under control," Captain Velwyn said as more lights filled the sky. "We found them bombs, well, fireworks. The light should eventually chase it away."

"And if it doesn't, Cap Wyn?"

"Then we continue to fire till it gives up or dies."

The seconds felt long before another cannon joined in. Eventually, the sea beast was taken down, falling into the water. I followed after Captain Velwyn as he walked towards the part of the ship that had been attacked.

Jacob walked in front with Casimir and Emily, the two throwing questions at the Captain. The light from the lamps made it easy to see Masque standing by the edge of the ship, with his back facing towards those waiting behind him. Abelhelm approached him with what appeared to be a rope.

Just as we reached them, Masque went over the edge, calling a greeting to the Captain about how fine a night it was. I stopped further back, watching as someone else lowered a lamp over the side with the pirate. No doubt they were trying to see the damage.