Tʜᴇ Exᴘᴇᴅɪᴛɪᴏɴs ᴏғ Tʜᴇ Lᴀᴢᴀʀᴜs ☠ ⚓ ☾ɪᴄ☽ ☾M☽
Tʜᴇ Exᴘᴇᴅɪᴛɪᴏɴs ᴏғ Tʜᴇ Lᴀᴢᴀʀᴜsrated M for mature; anything under the umbrella of this rating is permissible
Four months at sea. It doesn't sound very long, but four months in uncharted water with no heading and too few supplies to even keep even the swabbies fed, let alone the two overgrown lizardmen on board, can be dangerous. They had been fine for the first eight weeks or so, but as of late, the merchant ships had been too heavily guarded for even the Lazarus to take and the winds unfair. Their last prize had come with few supplies and even less in treasure – the Nisse would be a good pay day when they made ashore, but for now, she was only another mouth to keep fed. Brigit knew exactly the bind they were in and hand spent a better part of the night pouring over the star charts with the pilot and helmsman. Sitting in his cabin, Captain Sebastian Grimm was hunched over his log staring at the same entry he's made for a week solid.
Supplies low, need to restock before mutiny.
Nothing but flat waves and a small current keeping us going aimlessly forward, need a heading before mutiny.
The men are getting twitchy and the women are getting paranoid whenever a man looks their way, need to smooth out those tensions before mutiny.
"At least there is still rum..." He lifts the quill and reaches for the glass of rum on his left, but as he picks it up it feels way too light. Looking into the cup he sees that it is empty, hmming gently he placed the quill in the inkwell and goes to his rum shelf leafing through the many bottle shaking them to see if anything is left. Much to his dismay, each bottle was empty, with increased urgency he recheck the shelf then began tearing around his cabin looking for some forgotten blessings from heaven hidden away like buried liquid treasure full of rich burning amber.
But it seems Sebastian was doomed to despair, because there was no rum in his room. Closing his log book he grabbed his coat, sword, and pistols before exiting his room and moving down in the galley. He was hunting for the rum, the most precious thing onboard in some cases. Being used to the sometime eccentric and undying Captain, Jabberwocky the Cook, a former circus performer from the backroads of Ethello simply stepped aside letting Sebastian look through everything.
Tasting the broth, the human cook studied Grimm as he opened every box and cabinet. "Problems Captain Grimm?" He asked a slight country twang to his words.
The Captain grumbled as he continued to look through things, "Rum, who took the rum?"
Jabberwocky quirked his eyebrow and answered, "None down here sir, try Annry, our beloved Boatswain. She was doing some inventory in the hold last I saw her."
Nodding the man made a beeline from the galley and into the hold. It was dimly lit, but the light pouring in from above helped that, but all it really did was dishearten the scarred man further. Many crates were empty and what few things they had were stacked near the center of the hold and being looked over by a bored looking rabbit-woman dressed in a flowing black dress, tall leather boots, and a form fitting bodice with daggers running along a shiny black belt hugging her slender hips.
Walking right up the Captain looked over the beastwoman's shoulder frantically studying her shot list. "Where has the rum gone?"
Annry was so engaged in her task she didn't even notice Sebastian until he spoke, reacting frantically she spun around, gasping, her long ears with a large brass earring whipping against the Captain's face and stagger him a little. The girl grasped her clipboard over her mouth in shock and horror as she spied the red mark blooming across his face.
"By the Plains! I'm so sorry Captain Grimm sir! Are-are you ok?" The rabbit stammered.
Rubbing his cheek Sebastian nodded looking at the woman. "It's fine, where has the rum gone?"
"Uh...we have none here."
Shock was plastered across the Captain's face as he ran from the hold and to the First Mate's cabin. He nearly busted the door down and shouted into the mermaid's room. "THE RUM IS GONE! WHY IS THE RUM GONE!?"
Brigit screwed up her face in a snarl as she finished pulling her linen blouse over her head and tugging it down to tuck it into the loose waistband of her loose harem-style pants. She pulled her vibrant red hair from the collar of the shirt and she crossed the floor of her cabin to her captain in just a few quick strides to shove him, with both hands against his chest, back against the wall beside her now open door.
“First!” She bellowed in response to his shouting. “Because it is a vile drink that turns even the most respectable men into complete scoundrels! Second, because you have not been able to find us a single ship for us to take and your pride has kept us from finding port!”
The merling took her hands from her captain and moved away, snatching a length of belt off her bed and wrapping it around her hips, slipping the leather scabbard onto it before fastening. She added her length of crystals and gems around her neck, dropping it down her shirt to feel them against her skin. Brigit could feel Sebastian watching her, but her back was to him as she fastened her hair up off her shoulders so it looked much shorter than it was.
“Now, it was clear last night and Ikkan and I were able to determine our bearing. The current has pulled us toward the Arthinain and Ethello border. It is up to you to decide where to go from here,” she told him as she groomed; she’d woken not too long ago, mostly to the sounds of her captain acting like a lunatic in his search for rum.
“We have two weeks of rations - rum is the only thing we’re completely out of because of you and your crew’s drinking problems,” her eyes fluttered in a little roll then glanced back toward the captain.
The good Captain momentarily forgot his rum woes upon seeing and subsequently admiring the entire front of his fair First Mate’s torso. Mermaids have always been rumored to be well-formed and fishysticks was no different. But he knew how much being obvious about ogling her annoyed the young woman so he simply pushed himself off the wall and straightened his clothing, locking eyes with her.
“Runepeak is a grand enough time to make port in and the girls are cleaner and far less likely to steal your kidneys. And that drinking problem as you so eloquently put it has been keeping some of our more surly crew from guzzling down all the water, and it’s lack of presence is the quick way to slow mutiny! And maybe we’d have better luck if you asked your dolphin friends for some information or maybe asked some whales to capsize some boats for us we could lift morale a little.”
“No one wants for your kidneys,” she remarked and slipped her cutlass into its scabbard. She was going to leave well enough alone but for his last remark. “Oh, yes, let me just call over a couple of sea turtles, you can rope them together and you lot can swim off and take a few ships on your own. That’d make for great stories to pick up morale!”
Brigit heaved a sigh and ran her fingers through the loose hair near her face, pushing it back, and stood in thought for a moment, her hands on her hips. “Right,” she said, “For Runepeak? It might be harder to play the merchant there, with the fabrics we picked up from that third ship, but Rivers might be able to make contact with whomever she needs about the Nisse.”
“Aye. Sea turtles,” Sebastian nodded reverently at the mention of sea turtles. “Never joke about sea turtles lass. They hear all, but dolphins are far more chatty they could be more helpful. Runepeak is a great place to play merchant. I have some mates that can help us with them. Besides, don’t we have some contract waiting for us there?”
If Brigit rolled her eyes any more, they would ache. She moved past the captain as he spoke of a contract in Runepeak, and she tried to recall as she came out into the small space between her own cabin and the pilot’s.
“Doesn’t he summer in Goldspire?” Making a little face, the merling moved onto the main deck. She hadn’t gotten much sleep; she could tell by the ache behind her eyes and that the air was still cool. “I’ve never liked that man. Do we have to?”
Sebastian followed the girl out and nodded, patting her shoulder gently as he said, “No one likes that man and he doesn’t like anybody else; not even sure if he likes himself for that matter. What a paradox he must be in all the time, but we need money and he pays, so aye, we’ll have to.”
Her footfalls striking hard on the deck was something of signal to her waking crew to pay attention before her voice raised, carrying across the deck and over the noise of the ocean around them, “Strike the sails! Captain has our heading.”
Sebastian would head to the helm, ascending the steps behind her to get them on their way. Her eyes scanned the faces of the crewmen scattered around the main deck and then spotted Roz in the rigging, looking blustery yet coiffed - how he managed that, she would never know.
“Roz! Go check on our new pet and payday, please,” she asked him as she passed under him. Her green eyes looked up to meet his as she said, “And don’t play any mean games.”
A familiar voice reached her ears and she saw Graveward standing on the upper bow deck instructing one of the cabin boys in the finer points of grappling; she ascended the starboard steps and came beside him, her hand moving to cup his elbow, fingers pressing into his forearm to express the urgency that her tone did not portray.
“‘Ziah,” she said, canting her head. “We’ll need to get the crew through a few more weeks without any more rum; unless, by some miracle we find a few kegs in the hold, but...” She gave her head a slow, grave little shake. From where they stood, Brigit could see all around them, feel the wind as the Lazarus cut through the sea below them and hear the snap of the canvas as the sails filled. A storm was headed their way, but in fall near Arthinain, that wasn’t too unusual; the purple lightning, however, was a bit off.
nafein]The lizardman's eyes popped open, studying the wall over his tail, as the door to the cabin next to his burst open. Ikkan listened to the argument as he stretched, uncurling from the ball he slept in. Slipping back into his pants the large crewman stepped out his door and slunk past the couple. He couldn't help but overhear a few comments.
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