[A floor plan schematic of the Mermaids Purse - a fishing boat]

[Nudge shadowed, standing in the cabin doorway]

The cabin door clatters open and a large hulking form stands in chiaroscuro, the position of the lantern half illuminating, half accentuating the figure’s form into shadow. The sound is enough to startle Hood’s bird brain and it instinctively lets out a raucous caw and takes flight, circling back around only by the will of Hood to alight on the mast, the sail flapping slightly. Hood blinks and watches the drama unfold, blackness wreathed in white flames.

The figure unhooks the lantern as he steps forward onto the deck, cautiously peering about.

From immediately behind him a voice from within the cabin says: “There - just some bird Nudge - told you it was nothing,”

Nudge grunts and makes to the mast to slowly begin dropping the sail.

“But it wasn’t nothing was it Wink?” says Nudge, as another smaller, fatter figure emerges from the cabin, carefully playing with another lantern and bringing it to light. “An’ what’s it doin’ out at this time of night?” Nudge continues.

“Could be asking the same thing of ourselves Nudge…Making some coin at the expense of others, haha! You got the jitters me ole friend. Need to relax!” says Wink, waddling onto the deck, as Nudge ties off the sail.

Wink closes his eyes to the cool breeze and gently shakes his head backwards and forwards as he inhales deeply the fresh salt air. Slowly exhaling, he opens his eyes again and smiles. “See! You should take some deep breaths, calm down.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Aye you’re right, I know it, but can’t help thinking Wink - it don’t sit easy, you know? What’ll happen when the Guild gets wind?”

“They ain’t goin’ to know, an’ they ain’t be bothered if they do. No one cares - it’s just a bit of extra coin for a couple o’ lads who need a bit of a lift.”

“Aye but rules is rules.”

“Aye, but anyways. Come on, you weigh the anchor, an I’ll look for the beacon.”

Nudge takes a few steps forwards but abruptly stops at the sound of soft insidious laughter. Raising his lantern before him it illuminates a cross legged figure, masked, and leering ominously, from a tarpaulined stack.

[Madeleine sitting cross legged on a tarpaulin stack, Nudge holding up a lantern before him, looking terrified - Wink a few steps behind]

“What the!…”

“The Guild ‘ain’t going to know’ says he. How strange then that I’m here,” says Madeleine, her voice like claws rasping the darkness.

Nudge, for a large man, has turned extremely pale and begins to shake, rooted to the spot with fear.

“‘No one cares’! How strange then that I’m here,” Madeleine says again, almost hypnotically.

Madeleine suddenly moves forward on all fours, smoothly, lithely, with precision, like an insect stalking its prey. Moves across the stack, moves until her mask is almost pressed to Nudge’s forehead, so that he can see the glisten of her right eye through the carved hollow. And all the while she is smiling at him. She clasps the back of his head with a gloved hand, “Rules is rules,” she whispers, and the whisper travels so that not only Nudge can hear it but Wink also.

[Madeleine clasping Nudges head, her mask pressed to his face]

She tilts her head, her smiling mask still smiling at Nudge, as she draws back slightly: “Let’s just be very clear shall we. The Guild knows and the Guild cares. Now, why don’t you both take some deep breaths, and while you calm yourselves down, I’ll weigh the anchor for you.”

Madeleine stands and hops down from the stack, walking casually to the stern and slowly releasing the anchor. As it drops into the dark waters, and the boat begins to turn slowly with the tidal currents, Nudge turns to Wink. Both of them are scared out of their wits.

“What’s going on?” mouths Wink to Nudge.

Nudge, his eyes wide in terror, just points at his trousers and mouths back: “I think I’ve wet myself!"