Ellisar retired to the cabin not long after the training session. Ashwyn stayed on deck, attempting to stay in character or, at the very least, make it less obvious that she planned to follow and commit some form of war crime in the name of romance. The orc lounged against the splintered railing, trading friendly conversation with Snag and Daana. Despite Ashwyn’s efforts, the impatient shake in her leg was giving away the fact that there was somewhere else she clearly wanted to be.
Snag, having come to the same conclusion as Daana, took great pleasure in extending the orc’s misery for as long as she’d let him. He asked questions, contributed enthusiastic replies consisting of more than one word and not just a harsh look, all while acting truly engaged in small talk–an activity he normally avoided like the spotted plague.
“So let me get this right,” Snag said, not bothering to hide the shit-eating grin split across his weathered face. “You’re saying heat and salinity affect an ocean’s current?”
“Yep. Not just wind, like most land walkers think.”
“Fascinating. Truly, truly fascinating.”
A gray blanket of fog stretched around them, obscuring anything more than a few yards away. Daana couldn’t remember the last time she’d glimpsed the sky. While she may have been on the open ocean, with nothing but miles of rolling waves from one horizon to the next, she felt trapped, like a porcelain figure stuck inside of a swirling snow globe. She kept waiting, days upon days, for the oppressing fog to lift, but it never did.
Ashwyn seemed utterly unfazed by the drab weather. The orc tilted her head at Snag, awarding him the mother of all side-eye glances. “Mate, no offense, but I know you don’t give a rat’s ass about ocean currents.”
Snag’s needled grin stretched wider. “You’re right. I don’t. But I do enjoy putting a damper in Ellisar’s day from a safe distance, when I can.”
Ashwyn’s fingers drummed against the wooden railing. “You think enough time has passed? It won’t look suspicious if I mosey on up to the cabin?”
“No, not at all. The crew would be silly to suspect something going on between my bodyguard and business partner. It’s not like you two were clambering on top of each other with a deck full of sailors watching, ‘bout ready to tear your clothes off.”
“Sorry. I can’t help it. I try to show more restraint, but when it comes to Ellie, she’s like…” Ashwyn curled her hand into a fist as she considered the most poetic way to describe her lover. “A set of cooking tongs.”
Daana lifted her eyebrow curiously. “Cooking tongs?”
“No matter how many times you’ve clacked those fuckers together, the moments they’re in your hand again, you compelled to give ‘em a snap. It’s irresistible.”
Snag nodded his understanding, long ears bobbing behind him with a jingle. “You should put that in a romantic letter to her. Preserve it for all of time. Women love being compared to kitchen implements, so I’ve heard.”
“Eh, we can’t all be wordsmiths. Being handsy has served me better anyways.”
“Gross,” Daana muttered.
Unlike Daana, Snag wasn’t done poking the proverbial bear yet. “What kind of tongs, specifically, are we talking about here? Iron? Bronze? I feel like we’re missing some important context.”
“Alright, if you two are done having your fun, I’d like to go rejoin my missus before she starts crawling up the walls like a cat in heat.”
“Double gross,” Daana said. Especially considering they shared a cabin. It was better for her peace of mind if she didn’t know what sort of terrible things the pair got up to during their romantic couplings.
Snag shooed Ashwyn off with a wave of his clawed hand. “Fine, go. And lock the fucking door this time, will ya? I don’t think my poor eyes can handle another scarring like that last one.”
“You won’t mention the tongs thing to Ellie, right? It’s sort of an analogy in progress.” Ashwyn swaggered off at a speed that was a little too fast to be convincing. She called one last thing over her shoulder. “Oh, and don’t come knocking for at least an hour. Else you are definitely going to get scarred again.”
“You’ve got half that.” Snag’s yellow eyes slowly roved in Daana’s direction. His tone dropped menacingly. “Should be all the time we need to get this ugly business over with.”
Daana’s spine straightened under the weight of his unrelenting glare. Crap.
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The last four days had been tense between them. The few times Daana attempted to strike up a conversation with Snag, he’d give noncommittal, one word answers. She gave up eventually, resigned to the knowledge that he would come around on his own when he was ready. In the meantime, she’d reluctantly accepted that Snag’s short answers and refusal to look her in the eye were his personal way of showing she had yet to regain his favor.
Shame gnawed at her internal organs until her insides felt as though they had twisted into one giant, slippery knot. Daana tried to apologize. Many, many times, in fact, but it didn’t make things better between them. Alas, all she could do was wait for Snag to come around on his own. A prospect that, until now, Daana was starting to fear would never come.
It wouldn’t be long before they reached land. Another week or so after that and she’d be in the flatlands with her mother. Snag wouldn’t have any reason to stick around then. Daana had held out hope that they would reconcile before his parting. After four torturous days of the silent treatment, it seemed their moment had finally come. At least she hoped so. Admittedly, a part of her feared whatever Snag was going to say next would hurt infinitely worse than silence. The thought of being disowned was a prospect that lurked along the edges of Daana’s mind, steadily gnawing away at what little self-confidence she had.
“Dear gods, girl, your face. If you’re going to chum, do me a favor and do it in the water,” Snag said with a shudder. “Otherwise the smell’s going to get me going too. Frankly, I don’t think I have anything in me left. Not that I’m eager to test that theory.”
Daana’s heart raced with a runaway gallop. Here it was, her final chance to make everything right again. And, if she couldn’t manage that, then at least she could get it off her chest. “Snag, I–”
“Nope. I’m doing the talking here, not you.”
“Oh.” Daana wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or not. Regardless, she waited, for what felt like ages.
Snag wasn’t in much of a hurry. He stood against the railing, bundled in several layers of clothing, looking greener in the face than someone with green skin ought to. His collar was pulled all the way up around his neck and his head was bent against the wind. The only demonstrable sign of life were his eyes, which flickered back and forth across the ship, taking in every passing detail.
Finally, after the most unbearable of stretches, he said, “I’ve been thinking about you and this incessant need to use magic, and I realized something. No matter what I say, you’re going to do it again.”
“No,” Daana objected. “I swear. I said I wouldn’t. I–”
“Would you let me finish?” He held up one gnarled hand, staying the flow of words from her open mouth. Snag’s ears drooped as his gaze drifted away, unwilling to meet her gaze for more than a second. “Like I said, I had time to think about it. Not only are you going to do it again, but I realized it’d be unfair to expect anything different. Don’t get me wrong, keeping the armlets was still stupid. Like really stupid.”
Daana winced at his words, hoping there would be more to them than just a laundry list of all the many, many ways she was stupid.
“You may not be a witch, but magic is what you do. It’s a part of what you are. And it wasn’t right of me to try and force you to be something you’re not. Even if I don’t understand it, this whole magic nonsense is what makes you, you.”
She didn’t know what to say to that. From his uneasy expression, appearing as though he was considering jumping overboard into the ocean to avoid being here, Daana decided perhaps it would be best not to say anything at all.
“It’s just,” Snag said as his narrow shoulders slumped lower, “be smarter about it, is all? Will you? Don’t pull magic unless you absolutely have to. At least not until we get you to your mom and she can tell us how to fix it, yeah?”
Biting her lip to keep from saying something really stupid, Daana managed a nod.
“I’m sorry I acted how I did. You owned your mistake and you’ve been trying to make it up to me in your own weird way, but I just…” Words failed him. Snag took a shaky breath and held it, before releasing it as a hiss through tightly clenched teeth. “It’s one thing to watch it happen outside of your control, but to see someone willfully endanger their life because they’re not using their brain, it’s downright maddening.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I know. And me too.” Another stretch of silence ticked by before Snag unclenched his teeth with a sigh. “Losing Curly hurt in ways I didn’t think an old toad like me was capable of feeling. I don’t ever want to ever go through that again. So, if you could, maybe don’t put me right back in that same situation? Don’t make me watch you poison yourself piece by piece?”
An uncomfortable lump formed in Daana’s throat. The pain she’d been ignoring since the mountain, an ever-present weight that lingered deep in the pit of her soul, flared to life once more. Memories of Curly threatened to overtake her senses. Not the time or the place. She winced, willing the thoughts back down.. Stay focused, dammit!
Snag’s irritated stare took her in before it swept back across the foggy deck. “I prefer not to feel things. Especially not the icky-sticky sentiments your dumb face gives me.”
Daana fought the urge to start running the rail-to-rail deck sprints Ashwyn made her carry out every morning. Her sore body, thankfully, protested the very idea. Thus, Daana stood stock still with her arms pulled tight to her chest instead, forced to feel all of her own icky-sticky sentiments bubbling up inside of her. Of all the ways she’d envisioned their reconciliation to go, she hadn’t expected it to end so endearingly.
“Snag?” she said, once the lump her throat had eased a little.
The goblin’s response came in the form of a disgusted grunt.
Daana took it as the go-ahead to speak. “Can I hug you?”
“Absolutely fucking not.”
“Then can I say something…vulnerable?”
“Save it for your mother, girl.”
Daana said it anyway, even though she suspected that deep, deep down, Snag already knew. “If I had a father, I’d want him to be just like you.”
“That’s it!” Snag threw a single, clawed finger into the air as he shoved away from the splintered railing. “Where’s that damned plank Ellisar’s always going on about? I’m ready to walk it now.”