Holy hell on Earth, ow.

"Ah, bout' time yer awake. Been shakin' ya for ten minutes already." 

Alexandre took a few moments to process the man's words, but couldn't find ones of his own to respond with. 

"Ah, right! You walked past the capt'n without bein' dismissed, so he taught ya a lesson."

He tried to slowly get himself up and orientated as the man kept speaking, but a surge of pain came over his right shoulder, forcing his vision to swim as he fell back into the grass.

Wait a minute... grass? 

"Judgin' from the look on yer face, you finally figured it out. Yer not on the ship anymore, pretty man, but you are far from free. If you try to alert anyone that we are off the coast, you shall be knocked out and we will leave. However, that would entail that we return with no food."

Blinking his tired eyes a few times to finish clearing them, Alexandre looked up at the man staring down at him and could see his smile growing a little wider than should be normal.

"If we don't get food, then you humans will jus' have t' eat each other."

He wouldn't do such a thing, would he? 

He wouldn't put it past the man to simply murder his crew, but to watch them waste away or force them to eat each other? 

"If yer thinking capt'n wouldn't feed ya to each other, ya definitely be wrong. He's done it plenty o' times before, but I doubt you'd be on the menu."

Alexandre's brows furrowed as his stomach churned at just the thought of human flesh between his teeth.

"Don't ye worry, he'd hide it some way. Usually by slicin' it up to look like every other meat you humans eat."

That really wasn't what he was worried about. However, as Alexandre looked past the man kneeling beside him, he quickly realized that they were on the outskirts of the town he'd intended to deliver his previous cargo to. 

Sad that I'm now here just to get food so that my crew can be fed on by blood pirates.

"Now now, don't look so down. Capt'n isn't all that bad."

Alexandre scoffed and finally managed to get himself into a mostly-sitting position. He had to lean back on his hands, but at least he was up.

"I do not believe that bad quite describes any kind of pirate, let alone the devil's breed."

The man's teeth flashed in another disturbing smile before he leaned closer, no doubt wanting Alexandre to lean back. Well, while the man was a blood pirate, Alexandre knew he wasn't allowed to harm him, or at least badly, so he had no reason to back down from his obvious challenge.

"Hmm... no wonder the capt'n likes you outta all the humans. Spunky, tough, and nice t' the eyes, definitely."

 Alexandre's lips pursed at that last part. He didn't consider himself much to look at, even though he did try to manage his appearance in accordance of the military's dress code. Now though, he must look a sight. Just the thought of it actually brought a faint bit of laughter from his lips as he carefully got himself to his feet.

"What's so funny, boy?"

Alexandre instantly glared at him with a slight growl.

"I am no boy. You look much more-so than I."

The man laughed and waived his hand as if to emphasize that he thought Alexandre was jesting, which only made him more annoyed.

"I be far older than you, young Alexandre, but enough about trivial matters. We were given a job to do, so let's be off before capt'n comes huntin' us down himself. I would much like to avoid that from happenin'."

As would I. 

Even after the hours he had been asleep, he could still feel every single place the captain's teeth had sunk into his skin. Most of the injuries were healed already, but the memory definitely didn't dissipate so quickly.

"Alright."

He made sure to fix his appearance  again as they headed into town. He didn't want to alert anyone that anything was off. They walked in tense silence, neither really looking at the other. Once they got into the crowds, he was sure that the man would keep to his side like glue, though. The place was packed, so he knew that it would be wise for him to keep an eye on the captain's personal human.

After a few minutes he realized that the man had no idea which vendors to go to, though, and quickly took the lead. If they were going to get enough food for his entire crew by sunrise the next day, he needed to work fast.

Considering that what they were buying would need to last, he had to, unfortunately, pass up the fresh meats for salted dried ones. They picked up one-hundred pounds of wrapped salted beef, as well as several pounds of salted, flayed fish. Thankfully, the man had rented a large cart, so all they had to do was load everything up. Once the meat was taken care of they dropped it off at the port and paid a young man to be sure it remained where they left it. Then the rest of the day was spent finding vegetables and fruit that wouldn't spoil right away. Oranges and lemons were definitely important, as well as apples and some dried berries. For the vegetables he got mainly squash, potatoes, and ginger root.

"Why'd ya get that smelly stuff? Capt'n never had nobody buy that."

Alexandre sat their stuff down at the spot they were using on the port docks before turning to address the man's question.

"It works well on upset stomachs or illnesses in general. Ari often has to take it in the morning or he becomes sea sick."

Alexandre grinned and shook his head at that thought. Only god knows why the recruiters thought it would be a good idea to enlist such a young boy who did not even have one sea leg, let alone two.

"....he's been feeling unwell since this morning," the man commented, seemingly realizing that his words might hold some truth. 

With a faint smile Alexandre handed him a big piece of ginger root.

"Shave off a tiny piece and add it to some water for him. It should help settle his stomach after an hour or so."

Desden looked down at the root with a smile, but as he began to lift his head and address him again, Alexandre did the one thing he was hopefully not expecting. He shoved him as hard as he possibly could and was rewarded when the man fell off the dock and splashed into the churning ocean below.

While he might have felt slightly bad about doing such a thing when he was being nice, he knew that he could easily swim in the current since he had come aboard with his captain when they had been miles away. There was no chance he would drown right next to the peer, either. If that were even possible for his kind. 

Before giving his decision any further thought, Alexandre turned and ran as fast as he could back into the crowd of people milling about the market. It had gotten much busier throughout the day but that was perfect for him. He slipped into the mass of people until he came across a large storehouse with tons of fish stocked up from the local fishery, waiting to be sold outside. 

 That's where he stayed for the better half of five hours. He knew that Desden would come looking for him so he didn't dare move. The captain would likely punish the man for losing him, but he doubted that he would hold up his other threat against his crew. If he never found him, then the punishment towards them because of him would be irrelevant and a waste of food.

When the sun finally began to set Alexandre slowly stood up and stretched out his sore muscles. Crouching in a warehouse for hours was not the best idea, but he was still finally free. With a self-satisfied smile he gave a sigh of relief and began walking towards the back exit... only to stop dead in his tracks at the sight of a solemn-looking Desden. 

Wait a second. Why isn't he trying to catch me? 

He just stood there looking upset...

Well, considering that he wasn't moving yet, Alexandre began backing up, intending to try for the front entrance instead. After a moment, he turned and ran for that door, but before he was even halfway there a figure stepped into the doorway, backlit by the faint glow of candlelight outside. The person effectively blocked the entire entryway with ease. Alexandre didn't need to see their face to know exactly who it was... and to know that he was in deep, deep trouble.

Instinct was now taking over as he turned and ran toward the stairwell leading up to the storage rafters. One set of nearly-silent, slow footsteps began to echo above his own pounding ones, strengthening his determination to get away. He knew that the man could catch him easily and that he should stop before he made things worse, but he didn't want to go back to that ship and live as a slave to a blood pirate. 

He quickly realized that the other man would make it to the stairs just before himself, since they were closest to him, so he redirected his attention to one of the ropes hanging down from the ceiling. In fact, there was one just close enough to give him a chance! 

As his heart hammered against his ribs, he began to scale it, easily getting above the other captain's head within seconds thanks to his previous training to be a sailor. Climbing was an extremely important skill when ropes or sails got messed up in storms. 

His complete attention was focused on getting to the wooden walkway above, so when he finally managed to pull himself up onto it and look down...

"H-he's gone?" he panted in confusion. 

No...

Alexandre whipped his head to the side as the sound of familiar footsteps met his ears. His heart felt as if he had just thrown it into the ocean when his eyes landed upon the blood captain who was now on the same rafter as himself, still calmly walking toward him as if he had been doing so the entire time and hadn't somehow just teleported. 

It was frustrating and disheartening to realize that getting away wasn't a possible option. He knew that he should have run toward the forest, but he'd thought that staying in the fish house would mask his scent enough to hinder their ability to find him.

With narrowed eyes, he shrugged off his dirty peacoat and threw it towards the captain as hard as he could manage to hopefully distract him for at least one mere moment... then jumped.