Songs of the Reamere: Crew and Ice

“OI!” Captain Wayre’s voice called, sharp and angry. Youji flinched, forced himself to breathe, to focus. The Leviathan vanished beneath the waves, distant bellows announcing just how massive it was. Youji tightened his knees around Nat’s neck, yanked his staff up when his flames hit empty water. In the distance the water parted and fell away from a dark shape. “I didn’t say ta hurt it!”
Well then what were they hunting the beast for? Geckering a string of curses, Youji clicked his heels around Nat. She shrieked a horrible angry sound, somewhere between a dragon’s roar and one of the little red tailed microstryx’s screams if it was played back in reverse through a reverb. Her wings remained stiff, a firm glide across the ocean. “Oh come on--” he scolded. He whistled and chirped, and twisted on Nat’s neck--her eyes were fixed on the Leviathan, wild and angry.
Well, if his heart wasn’t already thundering in his throat--
Violet eyes suddenly Refocused, and Nat jerked back with a flap of her wings, and she shrieked once more. “That’s right, good girl, good girl…” he soothed.
Harpoons flew through the air, whistling below them to bury into the scales on the creature--all pinged off uselessly. With another curse, Youji twisted, Nat moved with him, fluid and beautiful in the moonlight, and they swooped down to snatch one of the weapons from the ocean.
“What are you doing?” Wayre demanded.
“Fixing your men’s aims!” Youji growled back. He and Nat spun, tossed the harpoon--blunted, not sharp?--into the air. Another barrel spin and Youji snatched it out of the sky. Below, the leviathan’s back emerged from water. Nat swooped again, and Youji stood, ran down her back, down her wing, and leaped down to the scaley body. It rose from the water--ten seconds before it vanished back under the waves, he guessed--and he dropped flat to its body. Scales pressed against him through his deerskins and leather. With a hard stab, he planted the blunt harpoon against the creature. It sparked with magic and like a magnet it attached itself to the leviathan and soon held fast. Snapped taut just as the leviathan reached the crest of its arch, and Youji sprang to his feet. Nat swooped back down violet eyes shining brightly in the moonlight. He leaped onto her back and suddenly they were perched, hard, on the railing of the Nullarbor.
His heart was hundering in his ears, Youji clung to Nat’s back. She strained under him, hissing after the distant screams of the leviathan. Sails were once more unfurled at Wayre’s commands, and the man appeared behind them. Nat spun, one wing lifted to Guard Youji, and he forced himself to breath, patted her shoulder. “Easy, easy girl.” he soothed.

“Thought you said this one was mellow?” Wayre’s voice was warm.
“Usually she is, she must be protective--” he swung off of her back and hopped down to join Wayre. “You should’ve said sooner that you didn’t want us to fight the thing.” Nat turned and rested the tip of her beak between his ears. Nibbled gently.

“I’m sorry for not telling you sooner ‘bout wan’in’ ta capture the monster.” Wayre turned. “Didn’t think it’d turn up That fast.”

“Yeah, I hear that. I wasn’t either.” Youji sighed and reached up to pet Nat’s beak. “So what’s our plan now? You really think you can capture that thing?”

Wayre chuckled, picked up his hat, and fanned himself with it. “If we can’t, I’ll eat my hat.” he grinned. “We’re gonna let that beast drag us straight to its den.”

Youji started to speak, to question, when one of the the sailors approached. A tawny-blond man with dark skin, blue eyes sharp and feline.
“Captain, we’ve locked the wheel.” he said, a flash of Fangs in his grin. “Anything else I can do for ya?”
“Ah, thank you Shamira,” Wayre smiled at the man. “Keep the sails in place--ah, right, Youji this is my first mate, Shamira. Shamira--”
“Bird boy, right. Got it.” The way Shamira’s eyes fixed on Youji made him feel small and he backed into the railing. Into Nat’s feathers. “She’s a beautiful stryx, you’ve done well with her. Got one of my own, a cara called Sunset. She don’t really have sea legs though, so I left her with my sister. And that was ballsy, what you did with the harpoon.”

“R-right. Nice to meet you. Thank you.” he flicked his ears back, nerves climbing higher. Nat shifted her beak to his shoulder, her long tail hooked between him and the stranger. If Shamira was offended, he didn’t show it, just ran a hand through his fluffy bangs. This was… not a native of Wyveria, that was obvious.

“Anyways, I’ll get on those sails, Captain. Keep up the good work, bird boy!” Shamira vanished somewhere, a chain of small blue feathers bouncing along his hip.

Nat followed the stranger’s path and huffed against Youji’s neck before straightening herself and taking off, once more gliding over the leviathan. The ship Tilted with the force of the harpoon, and another was fired from the other side of the ship to join the first, to keep the ship stable and steady.

Wayre watched Nat alongside Youji. “Now it’s a waiting game. The beast has to tire eventually. Make yourself comfortable, kid.”

 

==

 

They went North.

Nat perched on the main mast at dusk, slept until dawn, and glided most of the day until meals. Meals were mostly land meats, including Youji’s elk. Wayre and the first mate worked the ship well together.

But they were going north, and it was getting Cold, and Youji’s clothes only kept out so much of the chill. Even with his fire, he was Cold. And there were icebergs. Wayre navigated them well. At some point the sails were closed. The leviathan kept pulling, Nat kept flying, and Youji sat himself on jibboom.

It was a peaceful few days, disrupted mostly by the occasional screams of the leviathan.

The sun burned in the sky. Youji tore strips of his elk meat, and tossed it to Nat, lunch of the seventh day. The crew laughed, Shamira played a lute--there shouldn’t have been any surprises.

Shouldn’t.

Not with Wayre at the helm.

Nat noticed first and screamed. The ship tilted, wood and metal Groaned and Youji sprang to his feet, tail curled for balance. Nat sunk her talons into the deck, flared her wings, and the ship turned, too sharp, too wide, swun around in an arc when the leviathan swerved with a furious growl.

Youji scrambled to help. Shamira alongside him, shouting and echoing orders from Wayre--

Something Cracked.
The ship Jolted. Wayre screamed.

Nat screamed.

Youji and Shamira? They were thrown.

 

Hit the water.

 

One moment there was solid wood, the next there was Pain. Icey needles that stabbed through Youji’s clothes, stabbed into every bit of skin, stole what little of his breath wasn’t taken by impact.

Somewhere distant, he heard the echoing warbling bass of the leviathan.

And then nothing.

 

==

 

Awareness came too suddenly. It came at all.

Youji choked on ice and clawed at icy stone under him. Waves crashed somewhere behind him. Something… warm was on top of him. Warm. Heavy. 

Massive. Darkness surrounded him. A pink darkness.

Yellow legs at either side--

“N-nat?” he rasped. The weight above him shifted, allowed some light through that was rapidly blocked by a harpia’s upside down beak, and the sweetest, tiniest chirp.

“Oh are you alive under there?” Wayre’s voice called. Gruff. No longer jovial. Youji shivered, and crawled forward. Nothing felt broken. Had Nat fished him out?
What even happened? “Your stryx pulled us outta the water. There… were other survivors, but…”

Youji emerged from under Nat’s eggflap, patted the soft feathers of her belly, and shook himself of the water in his Everything. Wayre sat beside a fire, his expression somber. “I’m glad you’re alive, kid. Did… did you see Shamira?”

“He… went down with me, I think?” Youji coughed around the words, resumed his forward crawl, and pondered the merits of keeping a human form. Nat inched forward with him, fussing like a mother hen.

If he didn’t know better, he’d assume she was broody.

Wayre nodded, expression pained. At least he had information now. “We’ll go north after this.”

Youji blinked, blood running cold. “Wait, you want to keep--”

“There’s a village there. Nearest one in a hundred miles. My men will go there. …And the beast was going there, too.”

Youji stared. Nat plopped herself atop him once more, wrapped him in her eggflap with a huff. Stay warm, she seemed to say. He had to admit he agreed with the idea, and shivvered against her, the frozen air hell against his skin.

“We’ll find my men, regroup there. Take care of the beast.”

When he put it that way…

“I… alright. Not like… I really have anywhere else to go.”

 

They waited till the fire was out. Only then did they leave the rocky beach, and continue north. 

Dimly, Youji realized it was dark. A dark, clear night. They should fly.

“We can take Nat. She’ll be faster than us on foot.”

Wayre didn’t take much convincing, and soon they were in the air, gliding north, frozen air biting around them and threatening te tips of their ears and noses. Below, stone turned to ice. To water and ice again, and onwards they flew, as ribbons cut through the sky, a brilliant green and blue and purple that reflected off the ice and water. The ribbons carved a path north. Guided the way.

They’d lost their ship. Their supplies. Sailors were dead. Shamira was likely dead.

All they could do now, was finish what they’d started.