The Pirate and the Mermaid
Chapter 2 – The Pirate Ship
Solu eyed the drunken party all around her with a grimace. It was always like this. She understood that you had to celebrate every day you managed to stay alive on the sea, but she was tired. Every day was scrubbing and maintenance, very occasionally punctuated with a little robbery to break the tedium, and then a drunken party.
Maybe she was just getting to an age where she wanted life to be more than work and a party. That being said, Solu’s captain didn’t seem to mind too much, and she was definitely not young. None of the girls knew just how old Captain Ruth was. There were rumors that she was actually as old as the sea, and had made a deal with an ancient sea god. They said she had traded her soul for immortality and invulnerability.
Solu very much doubted that was the case. She was all too aware that the only thing the girl’s of the Belmarie loved more than drinking, and piracy was tall tales. And some of the things they came up with were more unbelievably giant than tall. Not to mention Captain Ruth’s wife, Ella, had to know how old she was. Granted Ella was the ship’s doctor and a known necromancer, so maybe there was some sort of weird magic thing going on.
Solu sighed and rested her face against the cool wood of the table where she sat. She wasn’t drinking because she had lookout duty tonight. She couldn’t say that she minded too much. It let her be alone with her thoughts for a while. Though it was always ridiculously cold at night, and could get really boring. Captain Ruth said that a boring watch was the best watch, but Solu was pretty ambivalent about it.
“Heard you have guard duty tonight,” Anne said as she set a warm tankard of cider in front of her and sat down. She had only recently joined the crew with her girlfriend Belmoral and was only with us until her debt to Ella for healing Belmoral was paid. Then the two were supposedly headed for Aldclark. Solu had heard a rumor that the two were running away from their parents, but she knew better than to trust rumors.
“Yeah,” Solu replied, “it’s supposed to get pretty cold. Thanks.” She sipped the cider and let the liquid warm her. It wasn’t an effect that would last long but she’d be grateful for it while it did. The two sat in relatively uncomfortable silence, sipping their drinks, until it was time for her shift.
Solu shivered as the bitter wind hit her after leaving the crew’s quarters. The main deck was always bustling with activity, mostly because of the skeletons. Ella had created many skeletal constructs for the daily maintenance of the ship, which allowed the human crew to focus on the more important tasks. Captain Ruth had argued that the girls still needed to clean and help out because it built character, but since the constructs allowed her to keep a much smaller crew she had relented a bit.
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When Solu had first joined the crew, she had been wary of the skeletons. The constant grinning and silent way they moved had freaked her out, and she had had second thoughts about signing up with the crew of the Belmarie. Eventually she had gotten used to them, but even so she tried to limit her interactions where she could.
Off in one corner of the ship, two skeletons were mopping. One of them had a fake beard, and the other wore a long wig. Most of the skeletons were more or less identical, but one of the girls in the crew apparently could tell that these two were assigned together more often than any others and so when we had made port she bought the fake hair and started telling a ridiculous story about the two having been star-crossed lovers before they were raised by Ella.
When she had been asked, Ella said that while she could work with souls, the skeleton constructs were mindless and only gave the illusion of being able to think. Captain Ruth had snickered, overhearing that and said, “So they’re just like everyone else then.” Which had led to everyone laughing. Solu couldn’t help but smile at the memory.
Solu spent the next few hours scanning the horizon and patrolling the ship. After the bustling of the ship had died down and nothing but the crashing of water against the ship and the occasional snore or sleepy murmur from the crew to be heard, Solu leaned against the railing of the ship and sighed.
Looking down over the edge of the ship she thought she saw a person swimming. But there hadn’t been anyone down there a moment ago, and they definitely hadn’t come from the ship. She had definitely been all alone on the main deck, hadn’t she?
She scanned the horizon to make sure that there were no ships. Sometimes crews would try to silently swim up to opposing ships that were anchored, but the sea was ungodly cold at this time of night and she doubted anyone would willingly be swimming.
“Person overboard!” she shouted, setting the skeleton’s on the deck running to sound the alarm and wake the crew. She heard repeated yells of “person overboard” as one of the skeletons handed her a rope with a loop as three others silently secured the ends and prepared to pull her back up.
Even though she knew that it was her job, and seconds counted when saving someone who was drowning, she hesitated. The sea would be frigid, she knew, and it would be all she could do to grab the other person and securing the rope to whoever was down there would be nearly impossible.
After securing the rope around herself, and with a low curse, Solu dived over the edge of the Belmarie and into the inky void.