Iris lay awake in the night, unsure if she couldn't sleep because she wasn't tired, or because of the thoughts swirling around her head. Despite having come closer to dying than ever before, that fact itself didn't really affect her that badly -- not only could she have used the necklace from her mother if Titus had said he couldn't save her, but she was growing numb to near death experiences all around.
Rather, it was the memory of the moment she looked down and saw the trident puncturing her chest, and the stomach twisting sensation that accompanied it, that truly haunted her. Grievous wounds always came with a sickening sense of wrongness, but none had ever been quite as extreme as this one. The image would occasionally flash through her mind and the sensation would return, each time feeling as if her whole body was screaming "it shouldn't be like this."
On top of that was the realization that her main fail safe ability, the Special Use of her Spatial Distortion ability that would teleport her far away should she face imminent death, wouldn't activate unless she knew the deadly attack was coming. All things considered, she was lucky to have as many shields against death as she did, and really didn't feel like she was in any position to complain -- but still, it was frightening to learn that she was more vulnerable than she previously believed.
And then there were the mermaids. It had all happened so fast, and just like that they were moving on. That was the nature of living on a pirate ship, she supposed, but she felt like she didn't truly even know what had happened. She had so many unanswered questions, and so many things felt unresolved. Not to mention their journey had just begun -- they hadn't even reached the far side of the lake yet, and already they'd faced and conquered an existential threat. What more awaited them in their journey across the continent?
A quiet, pitiful cry took her out of her thoughts. Littletooth was poking his head out of the bottomless bag and looking at her with the saddest eyes she had ever seen. Panic shot through her as she realized she didn't know if he had eaten the whole time she had been asleep and recovering. To her relief, Abby responded by reaching out of the bag with a pair of tentacles that placed food and water bowls on the bed and promptly filled them. Littletooth dived into the food with his usual ferocity.
"You've been taking care of him, then?" Iris asked.
Harmonious tones emanated from the bag.
"Good," she smiled.
She glanced nervously at the other pirates in the infirmary. They, too, had woken through the day and were on their way to recovery, but for now they were sleeping and snoring loudly.
"What do you think, Abby?" she asked, "are we ready for the challenges up ahead?"
A mixture of harmonious and discordant tones overlapped each other, like two musicians playing opposing songs.
"Does that mean you don't know?"
Harmonious tones.
"Well, that fills me with confidence," she sighed.
The tentacles withdrew into the bag, and returned a moment later wielding daggers. Abby stabbed repeatedly at the air, as if fighting off a foe, and then harmonious tones emanated from the bag.
Iris laughed quietly, "you're right, we'll stab our way through it all, if that's what it takes."
Littletooth finished eating and lapped up an absurd amount of water, than hopped off the bed with a few flaps of his wings. Iris shot forward to catch him, but halted when pain shot through her abdomen. The baby wyvern landed somewhat gracefully and stomped off across the room.
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"Littletooth! Wait!" she hissed, but it was too late. She watched in horror as Littletooth nuzzled open the cracked door to the infirmary and slipped out into the crew quarters. "You little shit," she whispered under her breath.
As hastily as she dared, she climbed out of bed. She was wearing a simple shirt and plain trousers, with no socks or shoes. She was decent, at least, but it wasn't how she'd prefer to run through the ship chasing after a wyvern. She stumbled across the room and caught herself on the doorframe without falling, peeking out into the crew quarters to see Littletooth scurrying under hammocks and across the deck. She blipped Abby into an outstretched and held her by her waist, without a belt to latch onto with her drawstrings Abby instead wrapped a tentacle around her waist to hold on.
Iris risked a blip, coming out of it dizzy but still standing as she appeared amongst the hammocks filled with snoring pirates. One of Abby's tentacles swooped down to grab Littletooth, but he hopped to the side to dodge and then darted under a hammock. Iris sighed and blipped again. This time Abby's tentacle managed to wrap around the baby wyvern, but he slipped most of the way free before it could constrict around his torso. Instead, Abby caught him by the leg, causing him to trip and thump onto the floor. He twisted around and sunk his tiny, needle-like teeth into the tentacle, causing Abby to release her grip and recoil back as she emanated angry, discordant sounds.
"Shh!" Iris hissed, blipping again to chase after the fleeing wyvern.
He was sprinting at full speed now, and after thwarting a few more capture attempts he soon crossed the entire deck and started climbing the stairs. Iris blipped ahead of him onto the stairwell landing, allowing herself to fall against the wall to catch her balance as the dizziness began to overwhelm her.
"What now?" she smirked at him.
Littletooth looked up at her and cocked his head to the side. He had only managed to awkwardly climb a few steps, and stood no chance of slipping past Iris and Abby while trying to climb the rest. Instead, he glanced upwards, and disappeared.
"What?" Iris asked.
Worried sounds emanated from the bag.
Iris pushed off the wall and blipped up to the gun deck above, swaying and stumbling as her sense of balance began to spin and the pain in her abdomen ramped up even further. She spotted Littletooth curiously sniffing a cannon, before looking back and noticing her. He disappeared again. She groaned in frustrated and blipped up to the main deck, catching herself on the outer wall of the quarterdeck. Littletooth was happily sprinting across the wide, relatively open space towards the bow.
"You are so grounded!" she half whispered, half shouted.
Her next blip brought her right in front of him, forcing him to scramble and skid to a stop as he desperately tried to turn back -- but it was too late, Abby's tentacles converged all around him and held him tightly, hoisting him up into the air as he whined.
"You can't run off like that!" Iris chastised, "what if someone saw you?"
Angry but affirmative tones emanated from the bag.
Littletooth whined and struggled against his restraints, but Abby kept her tentacles well clear of his gnashing jaws. After a moment, he froze, and his eyes went wide at the sight of something behind Iris.
Iris stared nervously at the shadow that was cast over her, Abby and Littletooth, and across the deck before them. She turned around to see the Shark Titan standing silently over her, blocking out the moonlight.
"C-Captain-- I-- This isn't--"
The titan erupted into uproarious laughter that bellowed through the night. He clutched his chest and even stumbled back, completely overwhelmed with laughter. Iris, Abby and Littletooth were all frozen in place while he slowly regained some composure.
"It was you?" he shouted in absolute disbelief, pointing a finger at Iris, "you stole the wyvern egg?"
He launched into another bout of laughter before speaking again, "what are you, level ten?"
"Eleven-- sir," she answered nervously.
He laughed again, "I'd sell my ship to see Bridge's face when he finds out." The Shark Titan clapped her on the shoulder so hard she stumbled to the side, "good work, girl! You might just be a pirate after all!"
The captain stepped around her and continued his patrol of the deck, laughing and shaking his head. After a moment, he shouted again, "Meredith! Where are you? You won't believe this!"
Iris looked over at Littletooth, still held suspended in the air by Abby's tentacles. She would have exchanged looks of disbelief with Abby if she had a face, but instead she just looked at the bewildered little wyvern.
Questioning tones came from the bag.
"I-- I genuinely don't know, Abby," Iris said, glancing down at the bag, "I guess we're good, though?"
Littletooth once more started squirming against the restraining tentacles.
"Ooohh no!" Iris shifted into her best angry mother voice as she wagged a finger in his face, "this does not mean you get to run free. You are grounded, young man. AND SINCE WHEN CAN YOU BLIP?"