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The goblin rolled his eyes and shook
his head. "A pussy name for a pussy pirate. Well, where's your shit. Let's
go! There's a dwarf and a kid on the ship that are going to start getting
curious!"
Cris kissed Alaia's head and
reluctantly let go of her, walking toward their belongings that were piled
neatly on the ground. Alaia stifled a little sigh when he let go but she was
grinning as she moved to help pick things up. "Gerty's here?"
"Aye, but she stayed in the
galley. The kid's blindfolded. Unlike SOMEONE..." Ziggly looked at Alaia
then to Cris. "...I watch out for our shit."
Cris began to lift bags off the
ground, most of them belonging to Alaia. "It's going to be her shit
now."
Ziggly smacked his forehead hard.
"Oh no...not again. NOT AGAIN!"
Alaia wiggled her fingers at Ziggly,
briefly showing off the two rings she now wore: the titanium wolf head, and a
brilliant diamond ring on her left ring finger. Ziggly shook his head again and
Alaia continued to fold up her tent. But it was something else that had her
attention when the goblin spoke. "There's a kid?"
Cris stopped at her question and
looked at Ziggly, who was over-reacting to the rings. "Wait, you said
kid?"
Ziggly calmed down enough to respond.
"He's an elf. I don't know how you fools age. I guess he looks younger
than you, Wolf. He's part of the crew now." Alaia grew curious about this
and a little excited about meeting someone new. She remained quiet as they talked,
carefully listening.
Cris grimaced and shook his head.
"If he fails, we'll have to kill him." He calmly continued to help
Alaia with their things and with the tent.
Alaia cringed at the mention of
killing; it was said so flippantly, so easily. She set her mind then not to
keep them from killing the kid, but to see that he succeeds. "Where did
you find him?" she asks absently, not wanting to seem too interested.
The little fucker
tried to rob me!" Ziggly laughed and snapped his fingers, rushing them to
hurry. "Come on!"
Cris grabbed the
bags and looked to see if Alaia was ready. "Sounds like how I met
Laer." He smiled and shook his head. "And so you thought it best to
bring him along?"
Ziggly waved Cris
off. "I needed help with the ship until we got Gerty. Besides, it was
either that or he would die on the spot. No one's stealing from me."
Cris smiled as he threw the bags over
his shoulder. "So you did get yourself a Laerchel, eh?"
Ziggly stared at Cris and grinned.
"Aye, but I won't fuck this kid." There was a moment of tension
between the two as they stared in silence Alaia smiled and shook her head and
Ziggly's tale and Cris' response. She was well aware of the tension, but she
wasn't entirely certain why it was there and though she was curious, for now,
she was just going to ignore it.
Ziggly shrugged and snapped his
fingers once again. "Come on! I'm fucking bored."
Cris turned to Alaia and asked,
"Need help?"
She rolled her eyes at them both,
hefted her pack, which probably weighed more than Ziggly and headed off.
"Nope." She flashed a grin over her shoulder.
Ziggly followed, but not without a
comment. "Nice to see you trying to prove your worth, hot ass." Cris
smacked Ziggly over the head with one of the heavy bags and chuckled as he
moved along.
It wasn't a difficult climb down to
the ship since Ziggly managed to station the ship near the cliffs. Cris made
sure to keep his eye on Alaia, while Ziggly, who was carrying nothing, zipped
right on down, getting to the ship first. Alaia made her way down as if she
were carrying nothing almost. There was a smile on her face the whole way. She bounced
around for a moment when they were down though she managed to subdue herself
quickly and did not spin her way onto the ship as she might have done had it
been just she and Cris.
Sitting in the middle of the deck was
an elf with black hair and a red cloth covering his eyes. All was quiet for a
moment when Alaia's eyes fell upon the blindfolded elf. A subtle frown creased
her brow. "Couldn't you have just put him somewhere without a view of the
outside?"
Ziggly shook his head and walked to a
wheel with a large rope tied to it. "Nope. Gerty threatened to chop him up
if he entered the galley. Right kid?" He began to move the wheel with a
struggle as he tried to raise the anchor.
The elf moved his head in the
direction of the voices and nodded. He quietly said, "Yeah."
Cris jumped onto the ship, looked at
the elf, and dropped his bags onto the deck. "This is the kid?"
"Aye!" shouted Ziggly and
laughed.
Alaia couldn't help but wonder if the
kid was scared. She put down the things she was carrying and took a few steps
toward him. Even though he couldn't see her she knelt down to his level.
"He doesn't look like such a kid to me." But she was talking more to
him than anyone else. "What's your name?"
The elf turned to her voice and said
"Kyl." He didn't look too much younger than Alaia and Cris, but there
were hints that he was. "Who are you?"
Cris smiled and walked toward Alaia,
gently petting her head. "You're too nice, lovely." He noticed Ziggly
walking toward Alaia's belongings.
"There's nothing wrong with
nice," she said quietly, her tone was nothing but warm. Very tentatively,
she slid a finger beneath the boys chin, being careful not to startle him, and
tipped his head a little so she could see him better. "It's nice to meet
you Kyl, I'm Alaia. And I promise we'll get that blindfold off of you as soon
as we can." As if it was her place to say such things, but today she was
making it so. She caught sight of Ziggly out of the corner of her eye and she
grinned. "Be careful, green man, you never know spells I might put on my
things." She was teasing. Sort of. But for a moment, that smile was
oh-so-wicked.
Ziggly stopped before touching her
bag and sighed dramatically. "See, Wolf? You give a wench a ring and they
think they own the fucking ship!"
Cris looked at Ziggly and lifted an
eyebrow. "What were you going to do with her things?"
"Take them down stairs."
Cris shook his head. "The cabin,
idiot."
Ziggly threw his hands up and walked
to the stairs leading below deck. "Whatever. Get us away from this rock so
Gert can come up and see you."
Kyl was startled at first with Alaia’s
touch, but as soon as he heard her voice he calmed down. "Are...are you
the captain?"
While Alaia rolled her eyes at the
conversation between Ziggly and Cris, again, her focus was still the boy, and
she smiled so warmly at him. "No, sweetheart, but he's standing right here
with me." She touched the boy's cheek so gently and then withdrew her
hand.
Ziggly shouted once more before he
went below deck, "SHE"S GOING TO RUIN HIM!"
"Better me than you!" Alaia
shouted back at Ziggly. With the smile still in place, she asked Kyl, "How
long have you been here?"
Cris knelt beside Alaia and watched
her and then stared at the elf. Kyl turned to her voice once more. "Dunno.
Since we left Stormwind? That's what they said it was. We picked up a dwarf.
They said the rest of the trip was a secret. Can I get up now?" Cris
couldn't help but chuckle at what he had just said.
Still she smiled and turned her
attention back to Cris and the boy. She was sliding a hand under Kyl's elbow to
help him up, giving Cris a questioning look; it was still his ship and still
his rules after all. "I don't think a little walk will hurt anything, you
only have to trust me enough to lead you around." But she was looking at
Cris to make sure that was alright.
Cris simply looked at her and
couldn't help but smile. "Take him below deck. I'm gonna get this ship
going and then I'll head down there. I need to know who this kid is."
Kyle turned to Cris' voice. "I
ain't a kid!" He stumbled a little as he was helped up and his hand
instinctively held on to Alaia's elbow. Cris chuckled again and kissed Alaia's
forehead as he walked on his way to the wheel. Alaia leaned into his kiss, her eyes
closing at the moment of contact even as her smile both grew and softened. An
agreeing nod and she pulled her arm from the boy to place her hand in his back.
She held onto his arm gently with the other hand so she could steer him better,
so that he might feel a little more confident walking this way.
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