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Alright so I already bitched about this on my page but I cannot for the life of me get these stories edited without Wattpad crashing tf out, so I'm sorry if there's some errors and images not loading. I just wanted to give yall something. I'm trying to edit the next one as we speak (I had 3 chapters lined up for today before this bullshit) but man do I hate this goddamn website and app.
Anyways that's it, that's all lol
love yall!

Clipper: Fast-Moving boat or ship

Caspian

I had barely pulled myself both up off the ground and against the nearest wall before I heard Alistair tell Cael to enter.

Somehow he had managed to compose himself during the moments I was still figuring out what had just happened and how I had managed to find myself on the floor, and yet none of that mattered once Cael entered. He turned immediately towards I, the one growing incredibly flustered at what partook moments earlier, and said "you let Caspian agree to yet another expansion for Finn?"

All I could do was stare up at the now menacing man, my eyes damn near quaking in regards to his own as my body worked desperately to control itself.

I didn't... I hadn't meant to... right?

Not even my mind could conjure up a single clear thought, and every disjointed one now surrounded the moments that took place shortly before Cael called Alistair's name.

"I- I'm not-" I started, doing my best to explain, however it was Alistair's far more together demeanor that pulled our attention back towards where he sat at the edge of his bed.

"We've since switched back." Alistair explained, to which Cael first looked over at him surprised... then that initial surprise slowly morphed into the clearest of confusion.

"What... what do you mean you've since switched back?"

It was difficult to discern exactly what Cael was thinking, however his pure disbelief wasn't anything near comforting.

"Shortly before you approached. It looks like this magic sorted itself out."

Alistair was too collected for my thoughts. I didn't understand his ability to switch so quickly, like a snap of a finger, and it left me even further perplexed when my mind travelled back to how it felt to be in that body to begin with.

How did he have that much control? How could anyone, putting it simply?

"Yes well... that's not exactly how that works." Cael responded with. "And you should know that."

I was far too distracted to notice at first, but when Cael raised his hand, he presented a book that he was supposedly holding in it all along.

"According to this text, this should last at least a moon. I came here to inform you of the horrid news, but..." hearing Cael's voice trail off in such bewilderment was something I'd never experienced quite like this before. "What exactly do you mean you've switched back?"

"Well," Alistair sighed, irritation dripping from his voice now with such familiarity in tone, it only further solidified that this was him. "One minute I was in that pathetic body, and the next I found myself back in mine." He explained.

I would think we could all agree the word pathetic was unnecessary, however judging by how jarring it must've been for him to enter my own death defiant self, I let the anger that quickly built, go.

"Well you sure sound like your ol' jolly good self." Cael more or less muttered with his own irritation trickling through. He had his pointer finger bookmarking a page in the book he was holding, to which he flipped the book open to that page again to read it once more to himself. Judging by how his eyes managed to dart across through each sentence, he was rereading this with impressive speed. "Have you two... well, did you do something accelerate it?"

"No!" I shot out quickly, too quickly, clarifying with a level of urgency I hadn't thought through quite yet. My eyes caught a glimmer of Alistair as his lips tugged up into a slight smile, before they refocused themselves on Cael.

The tall, richly dark skinned pirate was looking at me with another expression of bewilderment, before he turned back to Alistair.... Then he glanced back in my direction another moment, however his eyes soon dipped past mine towards my neck.

My left hand immediately shot up to the places Alistair had done more than I cared to admit right now. The places I could still feel his lips... the ridged edges of his teeth... the warm softness of his tongue...

Cael's right eyebrow arched slightly before turning back to Alistair.

Alistair retained the most stoic, stone cold expression. Something I clearly couldn't mimic, to which Cael turned to me once more. I watched as his mouth opened slightly as if he was going to say something, but he closed it a moment later. The silence was deafening.

My hand had tried to push as much of my hair forward as I could in an effort to hide whatever marks Alistair left, but I had just drawn more attention from Cael there.

Once his gaze left mine, and he turned to Alistair the final time, all he said was "So are we getting this ship sailing at her usual speeds again?"

Alistair gave Cael a firm nod. He was at least able to hold that judging gaze when he responded with "the men will come to hate me as I readjust our speed to resume our chase. It will be nauseating, however I want to reached Gaelick before three days time. You and I have much to discuss about our approach."

Cael nodded to his Captain before agreeing with "aye. Then let us head for the study before the men gather for supper. Caspian, we'll see you then."

That was the last thing Cael said, turning to me as he directed his goodbye my way, before taking leave. The lingering of his gaze as it cast down to my now covered neck, did not go unnoticed.

It was something both men had realized, for before Alistair left his private room along with me in it, his feet froze a moment near both myself and the doorway. He turned to me briefly as Cael had, that familiar smirk making its way back onto his lips when he left me with his own last sounding advice. It was "I'd recommend a high collar coat for tonight."

Supper went about as well as no one could've predicted... besides Alistair and Cael of course.

I watched next to Alistair as every man that occupied the dining room, struggled with each spoon they filled with food from their bowl. Even I was finding it difficult to think of stomaching anything with how harshly Alistair's ship was cutting through these rough waters. This man had not trailed far from the truth when he said his ambitious goals of regaining the time we lost, and at all accounts.

I just wondered at what cost as my stomach churned for the umpteenth time. This was the most difficult supper I had seen anyone, let alone this many men get through, however sitting next to Alistair had done wonders to calm a bit of the speed the boat had quickly taken. He had not told a single lie about his presence being able to steady the floorboards of his ship.

The only issue with that was I absolutely refused to engage past what was necessary, as I sat beside him.

I didn't want to talk about anything that occurred while we had managed to switch bodies. And I definitely didn't want to discuss what happened once we switched back, or why we did for that matter.

If Alistair threatened eternal damnation, I just might take it over having to put any of that into words.

He had turned to me at one point during supper, and luckily it was one of the very few times considering he and Snips were in a deep discussion on why the ship had slowed in the first place, but when he did finally redirect his attention my way, he asked if we could take dinner privately the following evening.

I looked back out at the men who were only held up by the tables their heads were laid down against. There was music, but even the musicians kept a tune that just barely kept them from throwing up their insides.

And so, the look Alistair gave me when I told him I'd like to join his men again, did not go unnoticed. It was a look he gave me often, which questioned my mental state and capabilities... but I insisted, to which he eventually agreed.

I even got a few spoonful's of the soup Finn had cooked, down to further convince him. The soup was fantastic actually, potato and chowder, it was perhaps just a bit too heavy on the now delicate stomachs of these pirates.

I had eventually excused myself to our quarters for the remainder of the night while Alistair remained with his men. I think he partially agreed to my request of another night with them, to share a meal with them out of guilt, for technically the ship slowing was not part of any plan he was now trying to convince his crew of.

The difficulty came when I finally took to my bed, attempting something I knew would be close to impossible...

Sleep.

This ship would toss and turn my already exhausted bones, only adding to the growing nauseation, and yet I forced myself to remain in my private room. There was no way I was to join Alistair again, not after...

Well, my best assumptions after that first night was that Alistair may not have made it to his own quarters. When I awoke for work after the very little sleep I seemed to manage, got dressed, and met the crew down on the main deck, I caught just the last moment when Alistair and Cael had slipped below towards their study.

"Mornin, Cas." Snips nodded, his face wearing the wear and tear of his own restless night as I noticed deep dark marks under his eyes, and creases of exhaustion across his forehead. "After your exemplary work the day before, I expected to work you like a dog, yet even I lack the strength nor comprehension to care... so just try and make rounds. At least look busy."

I couldn't even argue with the shorter man, for even his work shirt wasn't correctly buttoned on this morning, so all I did was nod.

And Snips was not alone, I did my best to assist the crew that took most of this day to adjust to the speed. Snips had called this ship a Clipper, which he explained as a term for one of the fastest ships on these seas. Once the sun had finally risen enough to see the waters below us, it was only then did I realize just how fast this ship was. As Snips would say, clipping through them.

Alistair was not taking any chances with letting this other captain port Azul before he reached him. Everyone knew that would make things far more complicated, especially with no way of knowing how long the other captain, Gaelick, how long he planned to make port.

By the time supper had come to reach its time again, I did notice that there were more men willing to eat. I also noticed that Finn had prepared a light chicken soup in light of the potato's and chowder.

Everyone was quite grateful for that, including myself who managed to actually finish my own bowl.

A predicament did not fall against these exhausted shoulders of mine from supper itself. The men even managed a few heartier tunes to which no man had a stomach settled enough for dancing, but they kept the rhythm strong with the stomping of a foot, or their clapping of hands.

What made this night a complicated one, was when I excused myself early from supper as I usually had, and Alistair joined.

I had no oppositions I could propose. No good excuse to say to this Captain he wasn't allowed to leave so soon. He had told his men before he saw us out, that this would be the final night before Ol' Bess would reach her target, and he recommended they all retire early, not just he and I, to which they agreed.

So I helplessly allowed Alistair to lead us to our chambers, making this the first time privacy had found us since we had finally thwarted whatever magic switched our minds around.

I had been hoping to slip past him towards my room, but the sound of my name falling past Alistair's lips before I could make it, made my feet slow to a halt. I slowly turned around, my gaze meeting Alistair's as the light from his own open room illuminated his features. We now stood in the corridor connecting our rooms.

"Aye?" I answered him, yet I had to force to keep my gaze on his eye, and not the tongue that slid out to moisten his lips before he spoke again.

"Go change, then join me in my room."

I could already feel my heartbeat quicken in pace. A request that I knew was not a request.

"You've barely slept, and I can see it. Lest you've forgotten I've since been inside you-" Alistair cut himself off before correcting himself "I mean, inside that body- vessel-"

I was doing my best to maintain my stature, but I could feel my face starting to warm. Something that completely contradicted the surprisingly cold chill that ran through the ship this night.

"Sleep is once again all you'll find." He assured me, to which I responded in the only way I could. The only way that would realistically make the most sense if Alistair expected me to pick up any sort of weapon tomorrow.

I found myself nodding before I turned back to my room, my sights now set on finding undergarments to sleep in.

I settled on a loose fitting low cut shirt, and loose trousers that bunched just below the knee before they cut off. The temperatures had continued to drop, yet I wouldn't realize to what extent until later in the night. For now, Alistair's room somehow felt slightly warmer than my own, much like he himself was.

He was already in his bed once I entered, before the door closed behind me. It closed on its own accord yet I knew that was something of his doing.

He favored the right side of his bed, and so I took to the left. There was a book in his hand, which I noticed he only glanced up from once in acknowledgment towards me, before he continued with reading.

Once I looked a little closer, the candle on Alistair's side helping me see, I noticed it was the same book that was in Cael's hands before. The book he had used to educate himself on what exactly had happened between his Captain and I.

I hadn't had time to ask Alistair or Cael what it was that we were dowsed in on Jirah's ship, however tonight would not be that night.

Instead, I found myself settling in the same spot I had before, right at the edge of his soft mattress, before the steadiness of his presence eventually brought with it the most sound sleep I had had in ages.

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