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Bilge-Sucking: and insulting expression of disdain

Alistair

I awoke the following morning feeling touched by death.

And though I had been known to be somewhat exaggerant after a night with my men, drinking, I knew that this wasn't that.

I had been sober enough to walk Caspian up to the main deck when he decided he needed to retire himself for the night. He'd spent most of the evening attempting to learn the jig that Snips became more hellbent on teaching him with every drink the shorter man had.

I was about to pull him away from Caspian, but the smile Caspian looked back at me with, stopped me. He was enjoying himself, as were my men, yet I could feel whenever his eyes would find mine. I could hear those questions he so clearly had for what I had done.

I had granted Ol' Bess one wish for her performing so well during this fight, and that was that I allowed her a moment to reveal herself to Caspian. I could feel her affection towards him, yet one would argue Ol' Bess was drawn to any man who's strength was capable of even slightly rivaling my own. The last man with that power and then some, was the one who gave her heart to me. The one who made me who I was. The same mad man that dragged me down to the very bottom of the sea.

Instead of Caspian moving from the main deck, to our chambers, I watched him approach the very front of my ship. I had meant to head back down and continue dinner with my men, but instead I found myself following this man, watching as he approached and leant forward against the ledge. His gaze looked up towards the sky, the stars now visible again.

I found myself turning, leaning my back against the ledge as I glanced up from the sky, to Caspian. He hadn't had a single drink, yet his face was flushed from all the dancing. And it would be a lie not to admit his feet carried him well. Perhaps not with the dance my men were used to, but his body moved with fluidity when he decided to do something he knew. Something I found my own enjoyment following to.

The first words that left his lips were "your ship has a heart."

I couldn't stop the abrupt laugh that broke past my lips, to which Caspian turned his head my way. He bore a more expectant look. "Well, yes. I supposed she does."

"How is that possible?" Caspian continued. His curiosity never seized to amaze me.

"All ships do. They just don't beat like mine does."

Caspian held my gaze, his eyes looking far more alluring, yet I couldn't tell if it was the light reflection of the stars in them. The stars Cael had since revealed once more to the common eye now that our fight had been finished. We no longer needed the coverage of darkness we was able to paint against the sky, then reflect upon our ship.

This was why Jirah nor his men could see us until it was too late. It was something Gaia was teaching him.

"I don't understand you, Alistair." That was more of whisper if anything as it fell past Caspian's lips, and yet I heard it.

"I could say the same about you, Caspian." I replied. His cheeks blushed light crimson at those words, and it was only then that he broke our gaze to cast his back up to the night sky. My sight still remained on him. On those eyes of his.

"I'm simply a merchant." He replied, though there was a slight smile playing on his lips. I found myself smiling at that now hilarious statement.

"You're quite attached to that story, aren't you?" I asked.

He turned to me again when he replied with "that's the safest option." And there was honesty in his eyes. "And it's true. You boarded a merchant ship, did you not?"

I chose to ignore Caspian's question when I then asked "Is death still the safest option for you?"

It took Caspian a while to reply to those words. I watched as he looked out towards the rough seas instead. "The easiest, I suppose."

I gave the slightly shorter man a nod before I shifted my own gaze to the sky again.

"Nothing about the work on my ship has been easy, and yet you seem to be fairing. Enjoying yourself, even." I slid my right hand that was bent back, holding the wooden ledge, further across the ledge until it was touching Caspian's. I expected him to pull away immediately when his eyes snapped to mine, but he didn't. "You say death is the easiest, and perhaps that is the case... however you seem to find the most enjoyment when you don't grant it that wish. You should ask yourself if that is what you truly want... or rather, what you think you deserve."

And this was the last conversation Caspian and I had before he retired to his private room, and I joined my men down below, yet I chose not to take another drink after that.

So yes, it came with great surprise when I awoke the following morning feeling like my body was kissed by death. The room I was in was dark, but as I slowly looked around, adjusting to the darkness, I realized this wasn't my personal room. I was in Caspian's.

What the hell, I thought, turning to my side to see if I had somehow found myself in Caspian's bed with him. When I caught sight of those white long strands, I felt even further confusion...

Until I realized those strands moved as I turned my head again.

My hands immediately shot out to my hair, but they didn't need to. The paler skin reflecting against the smallest light feeding into this room, stilled my whole body completely.

What. The. Bloody hell.

I damn near fell off the mattress scrambling to get myself off this bed, and as soon as I did, I almost fell to the ground from the complete lack of gravity this body had. It felt like I was still drunk as I stumbled from Caspian's room to my own.

And just as I suspected, once I threw my door open, I was looking at none other than myself laying in my bed, partially naked. I was still fast asleep. Or rather, he was.

"Caspian!" I called out to the man I was assuming was in my body, if I had somehow awoken in his. I watched myself stir a moment, my visible eye blinking a few times before it looked over, through the slight darkness, at me. The candle that was burning as I found sleep the previous night, was still lit, illuminated most of this room. I watched a face I knew too well, scrunch slightly in confusion before Caspian whispered "A dream" and nestled back into my tailored pillows.

"Caspian!" I shouted louder, using a volume I had never heard Caspian raise his own voice to before.

That snapped Caspian out of it, his body, or rather mine, springing up into a sitting position as he stared at me... or rather himself.

I had only experienced whatever this was for such a short period of time, and I was already giving myself a headache.

"What..." I heard my voice trail off, yet it was Caspian's words leaving my mouth.

As my body felt to be true, whatever was on Jirah's ship had done something. Something purely awful, and immensely inconvenient.

"You?..." Caspian continued. Sleep was still visible on his, rather my face, and that only irritated me further.

This body of Caspian's felt like he hadn't had a good nights rest since his time in his mother's womb, regardless of the sleep I had supposedly just awoken from.

All we did, all we could do, was stare at each other... well, ourselves... in complete silence.

Then Caspian slowly looked down at the body he was in, and his- my eye, only grew wider.

"What... happened?" He settled on finally, pulling up more of the beds sheet to cover the exposed chest I usually found comfort sleeping like. Now was not the time to worry about modesty when this skin I was now in felt two seconds away from starting to decompose.

"Jirah." Was all I said. There was no other explanation for it.

"Why do I feel... aroused?" Caspian spoke, his mind putting things into words before he spent much time pondering them.

"Forget arousal, why do I feel touched by death?"

We had both gestured to each other's bodies before looking up at each other again.

And perhaps the severity of the situation finally presented itself to Caspian, because he shot up from my bed immediately. "We must fix this. Now." He had already started to look for a shirt to cover himself. And though I felt like mocking his very obvious statement, I didn't have the time to.

I instead heard the familiar steps of a man making his way here. Not as well as I could've heard them had I been in my own body, but I knew Cael too well not to know when he approached.

Once his body appeared down the hall of my chambers, I stepped aside to allow him further into my room.

"Why is Caspian shouting?" Cael asked. He was holding a glass of water, which he approached my body with before setting it on the table near the bed. He was used to doing this after a long night spent with my men. It was his peace offering before spewing responsibilities at my still recovering self, and on any other morning I would've accepted such offering, however this morning I wasn't in the position, nor the body, to do such.

"Cael!" I snapped, forcing his attention towards this body immediately. My, rather Caspian's bony finger pointed towards my own body that was starting to slip a buttoned shirt over my shoulders. "That is not me."

Cael first looked taken back by the sudden tone in this voice, before he glanced over at my body, then the body I was in now.

"Yes... I can see that."

My irritation rose to unprecedented levels.

"No," I attempted to clarify, "That is Caspian."

Cael looked back at my original body, before his brows eventually furrowed completely. His next question was directed at my body. "Alistair, has Caspian finally lost it?"

"No," at this point, we were all hearing strain in Caspian's voice that had simply never presented itself to neither me nor my crew before, and that caught Cael's attention. "That is Caspian in my body."

Whatever Cael had expected for this morning, the look on his face had told me this was the farthest thing from it.

He looked to be genuinely struggling to understand, before he finally gave up. "I know not what you mean." He admitted with every shred of honesty.

"Something happened on Jirah's ship-" I started, however once Cael's eyes suddenly grew wider, I saw the realization quickly spread across his face.

"The pungent magic." He spoke lower, to which I nodded. Caspian was just finishing buttoning his shirt before he too looked over at Cael now from across the room. He had found the shirt in my amour.

"I had told you not to touch anything," Cael immediately scold me, forcing more irritation on my already agitated self.

"I can assure you, my dear Cael, this was not done willingly."

Cael still looked like he was gathering his final bearings on this as a whole.

"Well what exactly did you touch against your will?" Cael pondered with much skepticism laced in his words. Had I been in my own body, my hands would be around his neck by now. Had Caspian's body held any energy at all, I would've done it in this one.

"There was this dust that the pendant was kept in. It fell onto us as we were searching for the bloody thing."

Cael grew silent a moment in thought, more or less trying to understand this. I hadn't heard of this magic before, which left me with little faith that Cael had, and he only confirmed my suspicions moments later.

"I need to do some reading. There's very little reason to believe this is permanent, for that type of magic would take more than just the substance of dust, yet I'll still see what I can learn." Cael's finger rose to his dark lips, tapping lightly on them as he usually had when a serious problem presented itself.

I did my best to choose my next choice of words carefully, however before I could speak, Caspian very openly questioned "then what are we to do in the meantime?"

My eyes snapped from Cael to my own body, before pointing that bony finger in his direction again. "You are to go nowhere." I ordered. "My men cannot know of this."

Caspian left a confused look on my face, however Cael was the one who spoke next.

"Your crew will expect you presence, especially after the destruction of The Chameleon and his crew. We are looking to hunt that captain, remember? And there is not much time before we reach him if we are to hold Finnik's words to the light of truth."

These same bony fingers rose to massage the bridge of Caspian's nose. I couldn't tell if this headache was related to Caspian's body as a whole, or this situation in particular, but it was crippling.

"Just carry on things as they were. This shouldn't last long, and this magic will leave your system well before we find Gaelick. You and Caspian will not be able to use each others magic because you do not know how with the body you've now found yourselves in, meaning this ship will have to travel naturally. I don't believe we will reach Gaelick until the following night at the earliest.

Lovely, I thought to myself. Just fucking lovely.

"I also suggest neither of you find yourself in a position where you die before then. That is the only thing I can think to make this permanent. Granted, you both seem awfully hard to kill, but I thought I should still mention it."

Dying in this body would be one thing, but living in it would drive me to take my own life immediately. I think I was starting to understand just why Caspian wanted to die so desperately. I didn't understand how he lived with this looming feeling each day.

I watched as Caspian started to reach for my eye patch, yet both Cael and I stopped him in unison.

"Keep that on." I ordered with every bit of seriousness in my tone, which Caspian only seemed to react to with confusion. Luckily, Cael was willing to explain.

"You do not know nearly enough of the body you are now in. I suggest that in the interest of the lives of everyone both on this ship, and those at sea, you keep that patch on."

Caspian clearly didn't understand, however he did nod, accepting that one vital piece of advise both Cael and I couldn't stress enough was crucial to follow.

For all I knew, Caspian could accidentally send every single ship on these waters to the bottom of the fucking sea without knowing...

Including my own.

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