Spark of War (Progression Fantasy)

El's boots touched down on the steering deck of the Wirockian ship, her wings sputtering out even before she reached over to the railing and eased herself to sit against it. Pretty much every part of her body hurt at the moment, that final collision with the very solid, metal deck catching up with her. Really, without her frost armor—Actually, is it even stronger than my flame armor was?—she'd be little more than a pudd-El back on the other ship.

"You doing okay, El?" Laze asked, coming over to crouch in front of El, shielding her friend from the prying eyes of Tas and the captain.

Probably shouldn't be showing weakness, but, burn it, I'm tired.

"Just fine. Could totally take on a second Pilish warship and a seawyrm if I had to," she said loud enough for everybody to hear.

"You look like you couldn't even take on a rowboat or an angry grass snake," Nidina's voice said quietly into the communication magic of their armor.

"Just a bit tired after all that," El replied just for her friends to hear. Louder, she asked Laze, "How many did we lose?"

"Four." Laze's lips pressed together as she said it. "One second, the sea was calm; the next, we had hangnails swarming up the front of the boat. They grabbed the closest sailors and dragged them over before anybody even had a chance to react."

"They came up the one place where we weren't," Dayne added. "Like they were trying to avoid us."

"It's true," Laze said. "As soon as it started, Dayne and Nidina came up to help, then more of those things came out of the water all around. You saw it when you got back. There were dozens of them. Maybe a hundred."

"And the slimy oar-suckers be taking four of me crew," the captain said, stomping over to stand behind Laze. Hands on her hips, with just the smallest tip of the sun still cresting the horizon and tossing shadows across the deck, she cut an intimidating figure. Blood ran down a pair of cuts running from her elbow to her wrist, crimson literally dripping to the deck, and the knuckles of her right hand were scuffed and bleeding as well.

Did she punch a hangnail?

"Sorry about your people," El started, but cut off as the captain shook her head once, decisively.

"Doncha be apologizing ta me," the captain said. "Without yer scrawny, flaming asses, we'd all be being a league under."

"Scrawny?" El asked.

"Flaming ass?" Laze mouthed. "Sounds painful."

"Aye, only yer man be being built like a real man should be. Not like this twiggy here," the captain said, thumbing over her shoulder at Tas.

"Twiggy?" Tas asked.

"Am I not be speaking clearly enough?" the captain twisted around to ask him. "Y'all be repeating me. Twiggy Tas. Yes. And you, big man," she pointed right at Dayne, "ye be reporting ta me cabin tonight ta help me undress my wounds."

"Don't you mean dress your wounds?" Nidina asked, having landed during the small tirade.

"I said exactly what I be meaning," the captain said. "But comparing scars be for later. For now, ye've got me thanks. We don't be having a lot of separate rooms on the Bucking Bride, but we'll be finding ye one, if ye be staying."

Every sentence out of the woman's mouth raised yet another question in El's mind, but thankfully, Tas mouthed Bucking Bride and pointed down at the ship. Must be the name.

"A room would be much appreciated," El said. "We'll stay with you until you dock in Wirock. How long is the trip? It's midway between Pili and Vestis, isn't it?" That'd make it a long trip, since it didn't seem like the ship could move anywhere near as fast as the Firestorm could fly, and they estimated it would take days to cross the sea.

The captain gave another sharp shake of her head. "Wirock be much closer ta Pili than Vestis. Two days with a good wind and no trouble." She turned to look at the full sails, the crew miraculously already working hard to get them moving again.

Then again, a hundred hangnails and a seawyrm is pretty good motivation to get out of the area. Actually…

"Have the hangnails never bothered you before?" El asked the captain, then looked at Laze still crouched in front of her. "Give me a hand up," she said quietly.

Laze nodded, stood, then helped El to her feet.

She still needed to lean against the railing—Everything hurts—but found the captain looking at the fingers of her bloody right hand. "The little monsters with claws. We call them hangnails," El explained.

"Ah, aye, makes sense. Those things must be making taking a piss a real risky experience. One wrong move, or a sneeze at a bad time and… snip," the captain said, an odd sage-like quality to her voice. "And ta answer yer question, no, this be being the first time. Just as uncomfortable too."

El just… couldn't reply immediately.

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"Why?" Laze asked for her. "Not the snip part," she quickly added, seeing the captain starting to mime why it was so dangerous. "Why hadn't the hangnails—or the seawyrms, for that matter—bothered you before?"

"Luck, I guess," the captain said. "We been hearing about the trouble on the Pilish shores; that's why we got asked ta come help, after all. But seeing them slimy bastards? This be being the first time. And hopefully the last."

"Asked, by who?" El asked.

"Slim be asking me," the captain said, like that explained everything.

El looked at Tas, and the man just shrugged.

"Slim is… a person?" Tas asked.

"Barely. Ex-husband," the captain said. "And he unfortunately be living up ta his name in all the wrong places. Does be bringing me some good-paying jobs from time ta time, though, so I haven't be tying an anchor ta his foot. Yet. But after we be getting ambushed like this on our first run, I sure be thinking I might."

"Your first…? I thought you've been picking people up for months?" Tas said.

"Nah, that must be being Slim. He be coming over from his high-and-mighty house on Wirock ta be finding me. Be begging me ta help. Said there be being so much demand, he couldn't be getting everybody by himself," the captain said.

"You don't live on Wirock?" Nidina asked.

"Taxes be high. Don't like em. Me crew and me got ourselves a nice little island with a few other captains and their crews. Not as fancy a place as Slim and his new girl-toy, but it be homey," the captain explained. "But you, girly, look like yer legs are about ta give out beneath you. GAMIT!" she bellowed and turned towards the main deck. "GAMIT, ye be getting yer ass up here!"

"Aye, captain?" the man who'd talked to them at the dock asked, his head popping up as he came up the stairs to the steering deck.

"Gamit, you be getting these three little girls inta the guest room. Make sure they be getting food and something good ta drink. Not that swill we be drinking at dinner last night. Maybe that one we be winning from Cap'n Hogtie last week," the captain said.

"I thought we were saving that for a special occasion?" Gamit asked.

"Surviving be pretty special," the captain pointed out. "Make sure the crew be getting an extra ration as well, and we still be having some of those rolls left, right? Slather some gravy on em and pass em around. Been a rough day."

"Aye aye, captain," Gamit said. "Anything else?"

"You be coming ta find me when the girls be settled."

El bristled a little at constantly being called a girl, but she honestly didn't have the energy to argue about it at that point.

"You can lean on me if you need to," Laze said.

"Actually, any chance you could stay out here a little longer?" El asked her. "In case something happens."

"Was planning to come right back after I drop you off," Laze said.

"I see," El said. "Nidina, Dayne, how are you two feeling?"

"Better than you," Nidina said.

"I can go a few more hours," Dayne said.

El snuck a glance at the captain. "I suspect you may need your strength for other things. Rest while you can. Nidina, think you can patrol around the ship for a bit? Watch out for any more of those seawyrms or hangnails. I'll come relieve you after I get a nap."

"Not going to be able to see much after the sun goes down," Nidina pointed out.

"True, but let's do a few loops anyway. Who knows, maybe just having us around will prevent another attack," El said.

"Fair. Will do. Just don't make me fly all night," Nidina said, though her expression softened when she looked at El. "Actually, you push yourself too hard. I can take care of patrol and rest tomorrow."

"I'll relieve you," El affirmed. "We'll figure out better shifts tomorrow, or we're all going to be exhausted."

"Just one of you flying rings around the ship should be enough, for now," Tas said, joining them while Gamit waited patiently. "Laze can stay out here a bit, but really, she'll just get in the way…"

"So be you, Twiggy Tas," the captain said from her place back beside the wheel. Blood oozed slowly down onto the handle, and she seemed to be rubbing it into the wood with her thumb.

"I am not twiggy," Tas grumbled. "I'm lean. Wiry. Never mind! As you can see, Laze can get some rest too. Macer and I, along with a few of my people, are going to stay up on deck as well. We were complacent, thinking we'd made it safely off Pili. That won't happen again."

"As long as you be stopping offering ta tell stories ta my crew," the captain said. "They be having work ta do."

"And now, so do we," Tas said. "Don't worry, my good Captain Buttercup, we won't let anything else happen to your crew."

"Buttercup…?" El asked before she could stop her mouth. Out of all the names on all the seas, Buttercup was not what she would've given the woman in front of her.

"It be BitterCap," the woman said, pointing to her hair and the bandana keeping it out of her face.

Everybody's eyes followed the gesture, their obvious looks of confusion causing her eyes to look up herself. A small scowl and she cursed something under her breath.

"Gamit, where be me cap?" she asked.

"Lost it to Cap'n Hogtie the same night you won the rum," Gamit said.

"That woman," Captain BitterCap swore. "When I be getting my hands on her, I'm going ta be making her live up ta her name and shove…"

El spun on her heels and started down the stairs leading to the main deck without another thought. On the first step, her leg gave out beneath her, but a strong hand caught her under the armpit and held her up.

"Got you," Laze said.

"Thanks," El said. "Those plasma arrows really take it out of a girl."

Laze glanced back in the direction the two newly formed icebergs floated, and she nodded. "They're effective, though. You're going to have to show us how you and Nexin do that."

"Sure, I'll try to give you some pointers. After I sleep. My brain is so mushy right now, I'm surprised it's not leaking out of my nose," El said.

"The room is this way," Gamit said, leading them off the stairs and to a door leading under the steering deck. "Nothing fancy, but it's got enough cots for everybody, and a window out the side if the rum don't sit right with you."

"Don't think we really need the rum…" El said.

"Everybody needs rum on the sea," Gamit replied without missing a beat. "And if the captain is willing to share her stash with you, it'd be rude not to try it."

"Probably don't want to be rude to the captain," Laze agreed.

They passed through a narrow hall as they talked, a few small doors on the sides and a larger one at the end. A staircase barely wide enough to shimmy down seemed to lead to the lower decks, but Gamit stopped at a door on the right, near the end of the short hall.

"Captain's room is here," he said, thumbing at the thick door. "Walls are thick, don't worry. This here is your room for the night. The mess is down below, but I'll bring the food and rum to you, so don't worry about it. If you need to go, there's a pot and the window. In that order, mind you." He stopped to look Laze and El up and down. "Aye, captain was right. Scrawny. At least you wouldn't get stuck in the window like the last passenger."

"Life on a ship really is different," Laze said quietly to El.

The pair followed Gamit into the room, but for the life of her, El couldn't really look at the details. As soon as her eyes landed on one of the cots—probably a cot, and not just a folded sail—everything grew hazy. She vaguely felt Laze help her lie down, and then sleep took her the next second.