It wasn’t difficult for me to justify spending damn near all of my pouch money on a couple barrels of exotic food. Of course it was stock for the ship. If I found myself on the sea…or air for a long period of time, I didn’t want to be without. But the real reason was because Estoc always had a limited menu, the markets sold salted beef, Albion forest berries, mid quality cider and little else. Karsland had the biggest range of foodstuffs and snacks I had ever seen before, as was to be expected in a port-town. I felt a little exposed dragging barrels back to the ‘secret’ shiphouse on a loud trolley, but me and Knives were so protective of the haul we would have happily died defending it.

By the time I had finished the back-breaking task of getting the last barrel on the deck of the ship, the natural light had almost left the sky and my body insisted that I be horizontal for 10 hours or more. I waved Knives goodnight as he made his way to the roof of the shiphouse and plodded to the cabin. I wanted him to hang around for a while as I attuned to the new space, but a ship’s hold is no place for a bird with a full stomach.

When I was finally able to get my head down in the captain's cot with a clear head and a full stomach, I started to think seriously about my situation.

First off, what the hell am I doing here?

It was only 48 hours ago I was being held on sky authority’s cargo ship as a prisoner-sailor. I watched men die during a pirate attack and I seemed to have formed a bond with an inanimate golden shield as a result. Maybe it’s a coping thing? Maybe I finally snapped?

Questioning yourself in the dark usually leads to only more questions than answers, but I think in this case it was warranted. I’m actually considering throwing everything away to become the captain of a pirate ship. A ship that I somehow know even less about than one of the seas. Considering my situation, Frank is probably right, I can’t really go back to Estoc. But maybe I don’t need to. Maybe I should just find some small town somewhere, start again. I could train a small flock and get back into postage. Maybe even a courier business…

My train of thought was interrupted by a banging sound. It was distant, but audible. Thumping on creaking wood. Someone with a pretty strong arm too. It was the outer doors of the warehouse for certain…and that’s when it hit me.

I was too busy stuffing my face to remember to lock the front and the back exits. The was nothing stopping the thumping guest making their way in. I sprang out of the captain’s cot and my body instantly felt way too heavy. I was full of delicious food and my body already began to fall asleep. No shape to fight off an intruder, but I ran out of the cabin anyway. Once I was out on deck, I could hear that the thumping had stopped, but Knives had started a ruckus. Luckily for me, he was a more effective night guard then I could ever be, but I still didn’t want him facing the danger alone, so reached under for the floor hatch to grab my stashed shield.

That’s when I heard it.

“Fuckin’ turkey, keep it down, it’s late!

No.

“Where is that pleb with the rest of the…fuckin…money! Let me in this fuckin…”

The fired up, scratchy voice unmistakably was Ruby Jack’s. But the words were clumsy and loose. Knives probably realised it when he saw her. She had been drinking.

“Let me in tha…damnit where’s the door…where’sa ah hah!”

The light tap of boots against wet dockboards told me she was making her way around the warehouse. Knives was a fearsome guard, but I know he would have no interest in clawing away at a drunken Ruby. He may not have liked her, but he was familiar with her now, and that’s a big thing with direhawks.

It took her seconds to find the other round the back, and she didn’t even bother knocking. One hard kick and the latch gave way. It was an unlocked crappy, soggy wooden door, so I tempered my reaction. I ran to the edge of the deck and tried to hide myself behind one of the cannons, it didn’t work.

“Pleb!! You were gonna let the…great fuckin…red menace run dry on a night like this? Cough up the rest of the coins!” Ruby slurred as she marched towards the ship, navigating the walkways amazingly well considering the lack of light.

“Get lost, Ruby. The rest of the money is mine and…how the hell did you find me?” I demanded to know as I emerged from my terrible hiding place.

“You mean apart from… that…trail of bird shit from the marketplace to the front door? Frank told me when…I was on my 4th round…I think. Seemed kindy jumpy too.”

“Why would Frank tell you-”

“Why not? We got here on the same ship. Still probably thinks you rescued me or some shit, hahahah. Well he can think what he wants. Just give me the damn money. I haven’t finished drinking yet.”

Ruby swayed as she walked but I had no doubt she was still alert enough to cause trouble. I briefly considered pulling out the shield but decided against it, preferring her not to know where I stashed it.

“You ain’t welcome in here Ruby. You want drinking money , go pirate it. I’m getting some sleep.” I tried to sound stoic and demanding, but I was feeling so lazy. I had no energy for her confrontational shit.

“You spent it didn’t you pleb? Buy a new pair of undies? Hahaha….hey wait…” Ruby’s strut turned into a jog as she closed in. That’s a fucking….ship!?”

"Took you that long to realise? Are you sure you ain't done drinking?"

My smart mouth, right on cue.

"I was…twice dis lushed when I sssank the Captain Gorman's Golden Firefly. Blew his fuckin' tub out the sky…this…"

Ruby was slurring her words in general, but her eyes darting around the deck of the ship was the main impediment to her speech. She looked to be in both awe and fear.

"Thisss is too fuckin…tiny and small…can't be an air vessel…why does it have tanks on the hull…pleb…"

She was getting on my nerves, but not because of her rummy voice, or constant hostility, that I was sadly getting used to. She pissed me off because she was questioning the ship…my ship. It shocked me, but then it didn't. Just like my shield, it felt a part of me, and her words stung with insult.

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"It's an early design, a compact piece of skyfaring technology. It's supposed to go unnoticed, quick and stealthy…"

I stopped myself heaving praise on a ship that I technically knew nothing about, and a real ship captain, even one as drunk as Ruby would and did notice.

"Whooa you got the rudder romance already? You don't even own this tub pleb,"

Ruby sneered as she cleared over the wood railing to land on deck in one impressive jump. "You wouldn't know what to do with a dingy like this…"

"It's not a dinghy!" I growled a little louder than I wanted. "And who the hell invited you aboard? Me and you are all done, separate ways. I don't want you on my arse any more."

"Well that's too fuckin' bad considering dat you…" Ruby paused and extended an outstretched finger dramatically. "...killed my crew, busted up my ship, and still won't give up the shield!"

I was mildly fascinated by how belligerent she was. It was nothing if not sincere, but I was sincere too.

"You fucked your own ship and crew the minute you decided attacking and pirating was a good idea, and the matter on the shield is closed."

Ruby's drooping scowl turned into a leery smirk. I realised my stupid choice of words just before she pointed it out.

“So if pirating is such a bad idea, why are you on a pirate ship, Captain Pleb?”

“I’m not a…”

Then it hit me. What else was I going to do on a ship like this? Far too small to haul cargo, nowhere enough guns for mercenary work, I don’t think I’d do too well trying to draw maps as a charter. This was a pirate ship through and through, perfect for stealing, fleeing and little else. But Casper Kingsley is no damn pirate…but why did I have to even confirm that to myself?

“I’m the Red Menace! I’m the only one who should be at the helm of a pirate ship!” Ruby declared loudly as if we had an invisible audience of her scummy peers. “You’re nothing but a civilian fugitive, and by law, I’m taking this ship and that shield.”

I almost burst out laughing in disbelief.

“You’re drunk enough to be making up laws now? What exactly is this legal right that you’ve dreamed up?” I snorted with my arms folded. Ruby’s face went hard and she clenched her teeth into a wild, predatory smile.

“Common law of the sea and sky, the law that I learned from the bishop isles as a kid, the kind of law…” Ruby paused again, with a flash of genuine reflection in her eyes, “that you'd never understand. The law of strength.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I snapped angrily, getting very tired of her slurred ramble.

“I’m talking about might-makes-right! The law of the wide-blue, if I want something. I’ll take it!”

She didn’t leave me enough time to challenge her nonsense, with a speed that I’d be impressed with coming from sober legs, she leapt at me like a red bullet. She tackled me too high to knock me down, but hard enough to send me stumbling back a good few steps. I’d abandoned whatever fighting code I may have held for not fighting someone drunk. My ego would like to say it’s because my patience was long gone, but the truth was it was again for self-defence. My shield was in the hatch, and my body wasn’t fully awake, Ruby could seriously hurt me even on the off-chance she didn’t want to.

“You ruined…everything!” She swung wide as she finally stopped careening backwards, missing my cheek by a half inch. “My ship, my…fuckin’ crew!” I attempted a counter punch that didn’t fully unfold, and was nothing but a sloppy forearm strike that seemed to bounce off her collarbone. I stretched out my freehand to grab a wrist, or anything, but her arm was moving too fast and fist slammed into my shoulder.

“Ah…you fucking….sore loser!” I spat, taking some pride at any attack on her ego.

I regained my balance and wrenched her to my wright, making use of her failed first punch to grab her bicep. I was trying to pull her off her feet, but didn’t have a lot of leverage with her so close to me. She countered with a similar move, pulling and swerving with imprecise struggles. We must have looked to be in something of a primal ballroom dance, spinning each other around in an ugly rhythm throwing ineffective and badly timed punches at each other, with no room to wind up.

“I’ll rip your fuckin…ahhh!”

The stalemate was broken when Ruby pulled her shoulders back for something resembling a headbut but snagged her boot on the hatch lock on the backstep, causing herself to tumble. Her grip being like a fucking king crab, meant that I was going down with her. With my size advantage, I was hoping I’d benefit from landing on top, but due to either her scrappy instincts or just bad-luck gravity she was able to roll backwards, lifting me over and turning both of us into a temporary wheel, that was fast and heavy enough to blast through the ajar captain’s door.

“Ahahaha…grr…hrrk..hahah”

As we continued to tussle, I could hear her cackling through the grunts of combat, I had taken a knee and was on my way up to standing, but was being brutally interrupted by a flurry of knees and elbows that were mostly landing. I took full advantage of my elevated position and gave her a slight lift before slamming her on the floor. Even with the luxury rug softening some of the impact, it knocked the wind out of her enough to stop the attacks.

“What’s so damn funny?” I snarled as I tried to pull my arm free to raise a fist.

“This cabin…hahaha…it’s so pampered and soft…no wonder you love it so much…hahaha….”

I was able to slam a quick punch into her elbow, which probably hurt me as much as her. But it was something.

“Did that feel soft, Menace!?” I grunted, feeling an odd heat rush through my body, it wasn’t anger, it felt like something more raw. I was impressed with it.

“Getting better!” she chuckled before driving a hard knee into my thigh. I was impressed how much force she was able to generate from basically being on her back, and she followed up by trying to scramble for position which I was able to manage a little by pressing my palm down on her shoulder. I didn’t feel confident fighting off my back, at least not as much as she seemed to be.

“The law…of strength…it’s making sense now isn’t it…?” She said with a struggling giggle. “Fighting for what you want…knowing how much you want it.”

Her words still made no sense to me intellectually, but the heat I felt earlier has come again in a new intense surge, washing all over my body waking me up from the inside-out. My senses seemed to ‘switch on’ just as fast as any of the cutting edge light bulbs would. I could see Ruby clearly even in the low light of the cabin, her frost blue eyes and her brilliant-red, fight-matted hair against the luxury backdrop of the cabin. I could hear her guttural breaths blending with my own as we struggled together. More than anything, I could smell her, even through the booze and the lingering musk of the vegetable pie half eaten on the table, I could smell the wild aroma of whatever expensive perfume pirate steal, but underneath that, she smelled like a woman.

We rolled once more and she wound up on top, she was no longer trying to hit me. I thought at first it was a choke attempt as she had one arm around my neck, but it became very clear that she was grinding against me. Her eyes were still flashing the crazed desire of combat, but her lips were parted, no more clenched teeth, not even much in the way of grunting, just breaths, heavy panting breaths.

“You…still think you’re a captain…?”

She said between pants, with all traces of insult and sneer gone from her voice.

The heat washed over me once more, and there was no question. I let the instincts take over.

“I’m your captain now, Ruby.” I said before pulling her down towards me in a kiss.

“You’re-mff!!”

She was muffled in surprise as I pushed my tongue in her mouth. I was possessed, the taste of stale beer with the slightest hint of blood in her mouth was intoxicating me, it made my kiss harder.

There was still a struggle, but only from the neck down. She seemed to be letting me lead the kiss, while she fought for dominance at the torso, pushing and pulling me hard to wind up on top.

My ability to resist was hampered when her hard, hot tongue shot back, wrestling against mine as if to start a new war in our mouths. I was rudely interrupted when she slammed a fist into my chest. Not enough torque for it to hurt but it got my attention.

“Mmmpphh-ahh this fight ain't over.. you fuckin…”

Ruby had pulled away and finally rolled me on to my back, she was straddling me at the waist, I could feel how firm her backside was pressed against my crotch. She lunged one hand for my throat that was able to snatch by the wrist.

But before I could say anything the other hand was wrestling with her own belt trying to remove it.

This pirate was crazy, and at that moment I was too. I lunged for her throat, and got it. Using my strength to push her down to her side. Her legs wrapped tightly around me before she finally was able to snatch my neck. We probably could have mutually strangled each other to death. But we pulled in to kiss simultaneously. So hard we could have smashed our heads together.

We probably absorbed all dozen slaps and punches between each other before we managed to undress halfway with our non- fighting hands. We rarely came up for air, but when we weren't kissing we were cursing. Mostly Ruby gnashing out challenges of combat.

Once we found each other's nether regions there was no struggle at all. We were both slick as could be, most of it sweat. When I made the first thrust, Ruby roared with vigor as if I brought her back to life with my manhood. My time enveloped in this fiery villain felt exactly how you might expect, it was hot, loud, and dangerous. My shoulders and back were like a bloody pin cushion for her nails and teeth, my back must have looked like a fresh canvas of mild torture. Mind you, her back couldn’t have looked much better with the amount of times I slammed her into the floor…and the walls. Somewhere in the chaos I managed to stand up with her coiled around me, making a chaotic mess off the cabin’s shelves as we knocked almost everything over. Somewhere in the frenzy I surged in orgasm and she made a sound of ecstasy that almost got me going for a 2nd time. However immortal my lusty spirit was, my body’s limits caught up with me, and I pretty much blacked out. The last thing I saw before the darkness was blazing red hair, freezing blue eyes and a furiously gleeful smile.