Chapter Text
You gasped for air, holding on to the mast as tightly as you could as the enemy ship rammed into yours. With a loud creak, as loud as the growling thunder from above, the floor under you split, marking the end of the wooden transport device you had called your home for so long now. You could hear your comrades shrieking, the captain urging everyone to continue and to fight, but you had long lost your bite in this war. For you, it was over.
Panicked, you looked around, trying to make out the dinghy. Even if all your supplies were going to sink with the enormous boat, the smaller one would secure your survival at least for a while. But your hopes were cruelly shattered as you heard a splash that did not fit the usual ones around you. You couldn’t even see the dinghy anymore, hidden somewhere below your vision, as some of your - still alive - comrades had already begun sinking it and rowing off. There were many, many more people on the ship, but that lifeline had been torn.
There was another loud, terrible crash as the enemies struck again. With the rain pouring down mercilessly, you felt your grip slip away in the rumble all around you. The sounds of cannons being fired rang through your brain like nothing had ever before, even after all the countless sea battles you had participated in before. And there was the thunder, always the thunder that seemed to reprimand everyone for their actions in this war.
You were no coward, but in the very moment that you felt your grip on the mast loosened, you felt an unspeakable fear falling over you. This was the end. That was the moment you’d die. Your fingers let go of the wooden pillar, helplessly trying to reach for a stray rope that was close by. But you missed and instead, fell backwards. Suddenly, the noises were blocked out by the fear in you, your own screams echoing through the night, as your body tumbled to the floor.
Like so many of the other people you had lived with, your body spun over, your shoulders crashed into the ground, your head hit it only seconds later. There was no way you could say which direction you were going anymore, as you rolled into the one of the open water, unable to stop yourself from tumbling overboard.
However, before you fell to your sure death, you once more got to feel the indescribable pain of having your body pierced. For a second, your tumble got held back by the broken railing, split wood piercing into the side of your torso, making you shriek in pain. But your body reacted, gripping onto what was left of the railing, your hands bleeding as the clawed into the last hold you had.
Never before had you felt as seasick as now that you could see the raging, black waters below you. The movement in you had been strong enough to have you involuntarily sway from side to side. You readjusted your grip multiple times, whimpering every time you could feel the sting in your body from all your wounds. You wished this was all a bad dream, that none of this really happened and you’d wake up in your hammock soon, ready to sweep the deck for the day. But the reality was harsh, cold and dark. If not for the blood on your hands, you might have been able to hang on long enough for someone to pull you up, but the more you readjusted, the slippery it got.
Soon enough you were hanging by your last two fingers only, frantically looking back and forth between water and boat until suddenly - another crash. Another hit from your enemies, another death sentence for so many of you. Without warning you got tossed off the boat, hearing only the thunder above you and feeling the hard clash as you hit the water and then…
Silence.
Nothing anymore, just irregular splashes which you could faintly make out. If not for the creeping feeling in your lungs, you would have thought that this was it, the end of the long dream. But the longer you stayed underwater, the more your lungs screamed in pain, your body convulsing and trying to get back to the surface. You felt like you were on fire, the wounds burning because of the sea salt, your lungs giving out on their function without air to supply them, and your eyes burning as you tried to see anything. There was so much panic in every cell of your body, the adrenaline kicking in to help you survive an almost impossible situation.
You knew you had breached the surface when you heard the screams and the cracks again. More and more people splashed into the waters, mostly dead than alive. Right in front of your eyes - from the little bit you could see through your blurry vision - you saw the boat dividing itself into two pieces, barrels falling overboard as well as people jumping to what they thought was better than staying on the ship. You knew, or at least, your body knew it had to get away from the sinking piece of wood that would tear everyone down with it, but you could only watch in pure disbelieve, mixed with sadness, mixed with the inevitable knowledge that you’d die when it sank.
You almost saw the mast you had previously held on before too late as it came into your direction. It was almost too hypnotic to take your eyes off of it, as it slowly fell over you and your mouth let out another scream while your mind recited a silent prayer. And with the last bit of consciousness you had, you sank back into the water as deep as you could, hoping that whatever being had heard your pleads, would rescue you.
A loud groan escaped your body and you instinctively gripped your side, feeling the pain of it erupting through your nerves. Under your dirty, bloody fingers you felt a slimy consistency and your eyes shot open in a moment of realization.
You were not dead.
Sure, everything hurt. From your hands that stung like a million bees, to your head which had gotten hit pretty hard after all. The place you were laying was uncomfortable, crunching every time you moved around, though when you gripped into it, you felt all too familiar sand running through your fingers.
More groans escaped you as you tried to piece together the happenings of the night. It must have been hours since then, the sun blinding you so much, your eyes began to produce tears to water them. Your ship had been wrecked by another crew of pirates, you had lost your grip on the mast, plummeted against the railings and fell into the water where the mast almost battered you to death. So far, it was clear to you what happened. But where were you now?
Hissing and whining from the pain you turned your body onto your healthy right side, hearing the sound of water softly splashing near you. Taking a moment to breathe deeply you squinnied your eyes tightly together, trying to get rid of the burning in them.
When you opened them again, you were met with another pair of eyes looking at you as if they were staring directly into your soul. Dark grey jewels that blinked shyly back at you, their color indescribable with the words you knew. They were surrounded by red strings, that looked like velvet hair, flowing in the water and they blinded you as they reflected the sun. If you had learned anything in all the years a pirate behind you, those features were not from an animal.
And they were not human either.