I updated the playlist just fyi!
Can't sleep, so why not hit y'all with another upload lol
I'll edit later today
Enjoy, lovelies!
xoxo

Run A Shot Across The Bow: To send off a warning shot

Caspian

Alistair didn't grant me any time to change. Instead, he made quick strides out of his quarters, forcing me onto the top deck behind him, where Cael was already overlooking the main deck down below.

The ship was clear, but the air around us was thick with fog now. So thick in fact, I couldn't see anything past the very front of the vessel.

Something had made the hair on my arms stand to attention again, and it wasn't Alistair's presence this time, though his demeanor tonight was more terrifying than it was during dinner mere hours ago. Something had happened since then... or was about to. I could feel it.

The men below were scurrying, but there was order to their movements. It was the farthest from directionless, every man knew exactly what was expected of them right now. Snips was pouring something over the knots on the ropes, which reminded me of what he said earlier in the day— about how the binding wax came right before a battle.

"Who was hit?" Alistair asked Cael.

"Coop."

Alistair inhaled sharply, sending my uneasiness further off course.

"Don't worry, he'll live."

"Can he work?"

Cael turned his head, giving Alistair a look. "At least give the man a few days. Right now, your rum supply is the least of our concern. Whoever it is, is trying to board us."

Alistair's brows raised slightly at that. "Interesting. They must not know which ship they're trying to board."

"Something tells me they do." Cael returned with. If Alistair had heard that, he chose to ignore it. Instead, he took a step forward to the wooden rail of the top deck, overlooking his busy crew.

"Men!" His voice bellowed out to the men, halting all preparation efforts down below quite suddenly. "How long has it been since this vessel has been boarded?" A long silence fell amongst the crew. I found myself taking a few steps more to the right to get a better view of the Captain. I didn't understand how his voice could carry like this, it practically rattled the ship.

When I could finally see his face, a smile was starting to form on those lips of his.

"Exactly." Some of the men had started to share that same sinister smile now, I could see them clearly from up here. "That merchant ship was a bit too simple, was it not?"

"Aye!" Snips was the first to agree, before the rest of the men followed suit. That smile was now a grin, shared amongst all the men like a sickness spreading through a camp.

"And I've never been one for simple... Savvy?" Alistair himself was grinning, and I suddenly felt it. The slight shift in the winds, the change in their direction. Something was coming. "So men, what say ye?"

Praise erupted from the give or take thirty terrifying men. "Aye!" Every single one agreed, no hesitation in that response to their Captain. I turned to Cael, and yet the only expression I could clearly read on his face was irritation. He didn't look to agree with Alistair's decision at all. But the men down there... they surely did.

Alistair turned back to us now, still grinning wide. "A captain is nothing without his crew." He gestured to himself, then down below to the men who had started continuing the preparations for battle again. I noticed they were moving with even more energy, like they all managed a nights rest right before this.

I felt like I could lay down and find sleep right here on the top deck if I tried. My body felt like I had been stoned all day.

But it was something about Alistair and his words that cut through to his men like a kept sword. The longer I spent on this ship, the less I understood how.

"What about the floorboards?" Cael questioned.

"I'll make an exception tonight for my men." Alistair replied with, to which Cael surprisingly nodded. I wasn't sure what either of them meant about the floorboards.

"I'm not fighting, regardless of how complicated the night gets. Remember that this was your decision." Cael added.

Alistair smiled again. "I would never ask you to, my friend."

Cael gave him a look, one I couldn't decipher. Then he passed between us, leaning against the right side of the top deck's rail near the stairs leading down. It gave him a better view of the men, to which I found to be imperative very soon.

I heard the loud snap of wood above us, as another large wooden beam connected with one of ours. It emerged from the fog out of thin air, as did the first rope carrying a man across to our ship.

He didn't get very far however, something flew from a post on another tall wooden pole above us. Way up there, I noticed there was a pirate bound with an anchoring rope. He had thrown a dagger, slicing the rope the man was attached to, causing him to fall right onto the edge of the ship and snapping his body in half. He died instantly, however only the bottom half of his body actually made it into the water.

His top part still remained on the edge of the ship.

And the very next thing to follow that otherwise gratuitous splat we all just heard, was the sound of Alistair's laughter. It pierced through the otherwise quiet night. "Let's see how many make it."

It took twelve dead men before the enemy's crew finally boarded. They seemed to have given up on the rope theory entirely, instead managing to latch on on our left side. The first board that hit the edge of this ship made my body jump slightly. It was the sound of wood snapping against wood.

Sure, the combative skills of these men interested me. But rest interested me so much more right now. I didn't want to experience combat for the first time in this almost deliriously tired state. When I looked to Alistair, he didn't seem like he was planning on fighting either, he was watching from the front of the top deck with that smile spread ear to ear.

This felt like a game for these men. Nothing more than nightly entertainment. And that made a shiver run down my spine.

When the first man finally touched the floorboards of the main deck, he was immediately cut down. The men that followed proved to at least put forth more of a fight, engaging in actual combat with Alistair's men who lived up to the aura of death they all seemed to produce. They were absolutely ruthless with their swords, none following any code as metal started to clash against metal.

I could feel my heartbeat quicken while the sounds grew louder. The screams of death soon filled the night, drowning out the raging sea below us. The clear air on this ship was something this enemy blatantly hadn't been prepared for. Though the ship they were boarding from was masked by fog, delivering a swift amount of secrecy and protection, the battle here could be seen as clear as daylight itself.

Snips was the one who led most of the brutality with his sword, I watched as he pierced through the two opposing pirates with ease, their blood coating his white linen shirt. He too must've been awoken suddenly for this fight judging by what he was fighting in, yet the look on his face told me he was completely ready for it. He was enjoying it, as were the rest of the men.

They weren't just killing, they were slaughtering. Even if a pirate's neck was open for a quick death, these men plunged their swords into their stomach, yanking up to spill their insides onto the open deck. There was no mercy bestowed on this vessel, and I felt its men feed off that chaos like a starving man over a feast.

Another round of pirates boarded the ship soon after, to which Cael's eyebrows furrowed some. "This is starting to get a bit excessive."

Alistair nodded in agreement. "An ambush? Interesting. If there was ever a night to, this would be a good one."

I shifted just a little closer to Cael, trying to get a better view down below. And he was right, more men continued to board, to which Alistair glanced at Cael.

"Absolutely not." Cael replied. "What did we literally just agree on?"

Alistair turned back to his men again. "I didn't think I'd actually have to fight." He more or less muttered, yet somehow his voice always managed to carry through the ship regardless of where he stood.

"I'm sure you didn't. Think, that is." Cael responded with. Alistair sighed heavily, like this whole ordeal was suddenly one great inconvenience for him. I watched as he took a few steps towards the stairs before turning back to me slightly.

"Come on then." Alistair ordered, not waiting to see if I'd follow as he started his descent down the steps. I followed hesitantly, unsure what I could do to get out of this now. Surely Alistair didn't expect me to fi- "if you can't hold your own on this ship, you're as good as dead to me." Alistair was wrapping something on each of his wrists but I couldn't see very well with his back to me, and face towards the raging battle in front of us.

He then did something that would soon change the entire trajectory of this fight. The entire trajectory of this night.

He unsheathed his sword.

I could hear the metal as it was unsheathed, before I actually saw it. My ears perked up at the sound. I knew this metal. When I finally saw the sword itself, my eyeballs almost dislodged themselves fully from their sockets.
I knew that curved sword— well, knew of it. But the most important questions were first: how did it still exist? and second: how did Alistair find his way to it?

At least, those were what I thought the immediate questions should've been. But then I felt it. The shift in the winds again. The breeze pushing through the blood red sails. "So I've been called to the fight, is that right?" He asked the enemy pirates who were just climbing off the extended wooden boards, setting foot on this ship for the first time. They made us officially outnumbered, but that didn't stop Alistair's men.

In fact, as soon as they caught sight of the Captain down here below with them, something shifted in them all once again. Snips especially, he was now grinning so wide it was starting to frighten the pirates who had made the horrible decision to board this ship.

"I won't ask if any of you lot want to live..." the grip Alistair had on that sword tightened as he drew that massive balanced blade in front of him. I didn't recognize the stance he took, but then again, I never faired well with my sword training. "Because if you've boarded my ship," Alistair continued, "you've already set a time with Death. And I have no plans on delaying you."

Then I saw something that made my eyes blink repeatedly. Alistair charged forward towards the group of maybe five or six pirates, with speeds that almost took my heightened vision to see. I can't use that here, I thought to myself, forcing my natural eyes to keep up with Alistair's animal like fighting style. The first pirate tried to block Alistair's strike with his own sword, but that sword Alistair possessed... it cut through the smaller pirates thinner blade easily, before slicing his body completely in half.

I watched as each half of him fell to either side of Alistair, but the Captain didn't wait to launch his second attack. I watched as Alistair managed to dodge the edge of the second pirates sword, leaning back before his arm came forward with that very word to slice the man's head clean off. Alistair's sword had a reach that no other pirate's had, making this fight immediately one sided.

There was no one out there that was matching his build, his speed, regardless of how many men boarded. And the look in the third and fourth pirates eyes as Alistair immediately cut them down, further confirmed that. Even from his one position, it was like he could see the entirety of the fight. Where every man was positioned. I watched him pull out a dagger with his free hand, before he launched it across the main deck, striking a pirate who had crept up behind Snips, trying to catch the shorter man off guard.

The look Snips gave Alistair once he noticed what had happened, was surprisingly genuine. This was the happiest I had seen the man in all honesty, granted it had only been two days with me on this ship. All Alistair did was nod once before he went back to fighting.

If you could even call this that.

I should've known his men's fighting styles must've come from somewhere. Watching Alistair split a man down in half from his head down to his groin, made me realize that I was wrong about my initial assessment.

This man was absolutely a fucking monster.

That smile that stretched across his face as blood splattered all over him and the main deck, it was a smile that quickly struck fear into the remaining men surrounding him. His aura had shifted drastically now, the heat of the fight changing him once more on this bloody deck. I felt a shiver run through my own body, because whatever was striking these pirates down with this degree of ferociousness could not simply be a man.

He flung himself easily up over the next two pirates, positioning himself behind them before realization settled in for them, to whisper something in each their ears. Whatever he whispered made their eyes grow large in fear, before his sword slit both their necks with one swift strike from the sharp curve.

I'd been so focused on watching Alistair fight, I had failed to notice a group of pirates advancing me on my right side now. They were charging towards me, more than likely hoping to get past me to the broadside. If they could reach the steering, the ship would be theirs. At least that's what Lemont once explained when he was trying to discuss the vicious acts of piracy against us merchants.

He'd really fallen into the whole merchant lifestyle, even though it was just a job for now, as was most of the work we took. I thought about how he was killed up on that deck. He may not have deserved to die that way, but at least it was more merciful than the other merchants's deaths.

The old man, I believe his name was Fergal. He had had his knees shattered by Snips before any of the final slaughtering had even begun. So the way I saw it, Lemont got off with a lighter sentencing.

This all wouldn't matter if I didn't think quickly now, though.

"Pick up that sword."

I heard a voice cut through my thoughts— Alistair's. When I looked over to my left, he was still engaged in the heat of combat, moving through pirate after pirate like their lives were nothing more than wild livestock for him. Some pirates had chosen to jump from the ship, deducing that the water would show them more mercy than Alistair ever would.

And they were probably correct with those assumptions. Alistair had just pierced his sword straight through another pirates skull, shattering the bone. His blood curdling screams joined the others, and that's all I could hear now. The screams coming from men who weren't Alistair's.

"Pick up that fucking sword."

Okay, I thought to myself. It was definitely Alistair.

I wasn't sure how his voice was reaching me, but given the severity of our current situation, I did as I was told. I reached the sword easily before the pirates made it to me, but as soon as I lifted the discarded weapon, my face scrunched up in immediate disgust. I hated swords.

"If you die on me," the voice whispered, "I will retrieve your soul from the depths of fucking hell itself and yank it back into the land of the living with my own bare fucking hands."

My body froze entirely at those particular words. Such a preposterous claim shouldn't have been taken seriously, but the way Alistair said it... I wasn't sure why there was a part of me, a small part nonetheless, that genuinely believed him. He clearly walked that line with Death so closely, maybe he could actually cross over it.

Yet still...

I glanced down at the sword, feeling my time to decide what to do, slowly slipping away from me.

I could let myself die here, regardless of how real a threat Alistair's words held. It would take some time, sure. My body was still close to indestructible, but with enough stabs and slashes I'm sure they could cut my lifeline down before my body could heal.

How long would it take, I wondered. And would the fight even last that long? Not at the pace the Captain was going.

I glanced back down at the sword, taking just one more stolen moment before I made my almost insane decision.

The blade made a ringing sound when it fell back to the ground, striking the floorboards.

And Alistair's wrath was felt not a moment too soon after.

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