ᵗʰᵃˡᵃˢˢᵒᵖʰⁱˡᵉ

🪼⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

[ sailing on red ]

𝐉𝐚𝐜𝐨𝐛 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐞𝐲𝐞. He aligned the sun and the ocean as you  unfolded the map, and he traced his finger from the Dregmorr Sea to Rum Pepper Island. 

"With the right heading, we'll be there in three days," he estimated.

You watched with raised brows as Jacob scaled down Red's face, securing himself with a rope looped around his waist, connecting to the boat. He grunted as he lowered himself down, and Red growled softly, glancing up.

He stopped in front of her yellow eye with a sigh. "Alright, beast. I need you to turn. Okay? Can you turn?" As he spoke, he gestured his arms to the right. "Can you tuuuuuuuuuurn to starboard, yeah? To the right." Red grumbled, not making a move, and Jacob's temper slowly started to rise. "Right, ya dumb beast. Right. Can you turn- turn to the right? That way!" He pulled on the rope, gesturing in the direction with annoyance in his movements. 

"You can scream all day," Maisie called from above, and he looked up, finding the two of you watching him. "She don't understand ya."

"Oh, she understands, alright." He leaned close to her eye with a menacing scowl. "She's just being monstrous."

You began to smirk, pulling back, and Maisie followed you with a confused expression. "You know what one of my greatest joys in life is?" I asked, and she squinted her eyes in response. "Finding a way to be more superior than that man." You jerked your thumb down at him and Maisie giggled.

Soon, you and the girl were strapped to the boat, lowering yourselves down in front of Red's other eye. Maisie was on your back, and you were tied together around the waists.

"I need you to turn to the starboard," Jacob continued from the other side. "Over there, right where I'm pointing? That's starboard. That's the right. More to the right. Look, see? Over there, right!" You stood in front of Red's gorgeous citrine eye, and Maisie waved at her as you grinned. You both glanced over to Jacob, who was having a dramatic outburst. "Turn to the right, you infernal bloody sea beast!"

Red shut her eyelid on him. 

"He's wondering if you might turn a smudge," you softly said to her.

"Like this, see?"

You then turned around, raising your arms out, and Maisie did the same on your back. You tilted to the side, and Red rumbled for her reply. You and Maisie laughed as Red slowly but surely began to turn. "That's it!" you exclaimed. 

"Thanks, girl!" Maisie beamed. You climbed back up, and shook your head at Jacob, who was obviously still annoyed as he tossed his rope to the side. "Not so hard."

"She ain't no pet," he said. "Just don't let your guard down, alright?"

"Do you ever unwind?" you questioned rhetorically as you walked off, Jacob glaring at you. 

"You can relax, captain. She's a friend," Maisie sighed.

"Yeah, right. Till she gets hungry."

"Oh, will you just..." Maisie stopped as she turned, her eyes widening. 

You rounded, wondering why she stopped before a gasp escaped you. You stepped over next to Maisie, looking out to Red's back, which was covered in long spears. "Oh, Red," you mumbled. 

Maisie looked behind you to Jacob, who hadn't even noticed. She then looked up at you, and wordlessly lifted her palm up. You nodded and held her hand as you started your path. You stopped at the first one, and Maisie frowned at it. Together, you gripped the wood and strained. As Maisie groaned, she fell back, landing on her behind. You gasped as Red growled from the relief.  "Hmm," Maisie griped. 

For most of the day, you and Maisie separated as you ripped each spear from Red's hide. With each one free, she rumbled with thanks. The sun slowly fell from the sky, settling at the horizon, leaving it filled with pastel pinks, purples and an array of yellows and oranges. Jacob looked over at you and Maisie from his spot at the boat. He had been fixing it up, setting up a tent roofing for the rain that was soon to hit. 

You beckoned for Maisie, "We'll continue tomorrow, lass. It's time for dinner."

She nodded, and together you walked back to the boat. You hopped into the boat as the rain fell, and Maisie handed Jacob a fruit as he got in. We drank the juice in sync, and you smiled when Blue began hopping about, catching the droplets of rain in his mouth.

The next morning, you and Jacob worked on the boat fixtures. Your hands brushed once or twice, earning an apologetic smile and rosy cheeks. Maisie perfected slicing the fruits, looking at you with an excited smile each time, to which you nodded approvingly. She threw one of the halves up in the air, and Blue caught it, chewing on it gummily. Jacob chuckled at the sight as you patted the creature's head.

Jacob then reached into the boat, grabbing at the sack of food, but your eyes widened when the bag was limp. "Huh?"

Hopping down to Red's tail, Jacob held the long spear across his shoulders, straining as he stretched. Maisie held the sack as you sat on the ground, enjoying the feeling of the sun on your skin.

"Think you're stretched out enough, hun?" you asked, and Maisie giggled as Jacob rolled his eyes with a grunt.

He reared his arm back, throwing the spear into the sea. It swayed in the water, the fish dodging it.  Jacob placed his arms on his hips as he glanced down at you and Maisie. You smirked at him, and he scowled.

He went down on one knee, having a closer target, but it missed again, the fishes evading the long knife. Jacob continued this occurrence for more than a dozen times, and slowly, you sunk more and more until you were lying down, your arm thrown over your eyes to sheild them.

As he yelled out in frustration upon missing yet again, he heard a growl. His gaze snapped to Red's whose eyelids were drooping with judgement. Maisie, who still kept a firm belief that Jacob could retrieve the fish, looked up at him.

"Yeah, well, you know, I'm, uh... I'm used to a bigger target, alright?"

"Bigger target or better aim?"

"Y/N, I swear-." He stopped at the sound of Red snorting, and you leaned back on your elbows, watching as Red slowly veered to the side. She spun in a circle, and the fishes followed her pathway, soon forming in a large loop. "Huh," Jacob smiled.

He sat down beside you, and you laughed as a fish flew in the air, Maisie catching it. But with its slippery scales, it fell from her grasp. She leaped forward, grinning when she caught the tail. "Dinner time!" she giggled.

Dusk approached, and Jacob hammered a nail into the side of the boat, securing a piece of wood. He looked down at Blue, who was groaning, a multitude of fish skeletons surrounding him, one even on his bloated stomach.

With a croak, Blue stumbled until he was on his underside. Dragging himself to the edge of the boat, he heaved himself over. He dropped with a squeak, then slid down Red's back, over to you and Maisie. Jacob watched as the two of you strained to rip one of the long spears out. The person must have been on her hide for it to go so deep.

Maisie stopped, and you paused, glancing over your shoulder to find Jacob. He smiled gently at the two of you, before looping his arms around yours. You felt your cheeks burn, and Maisie looked down with a cheeky grin. You huffed as you finally pulled the lance, and you tilted your head back up at him with a thankful smile, to which he faintly grinned back.

Jacob raised the spear up to his eyeline and twisted it. On the rusting knife, the Hunter emblem was engraved into it. He looked back at Red, before following you and the girl to the next lances.

About an hour later, the moon illuminated the dark blue night and flourishing ocean. You sat in the boat, leaning on your arm as you gazed out to the drifting waters, as Jacob sat in front of you. Maisie was leant up against the boat's side, softly patting Red's back as she smiled at the stars. 

"It says here that during the Dark Times, the beast destroyed a town on the coat of Kra'Zoul," Jacob started. He had been reading Maisie's book for a while, muttering to himself. "But we been up and down that coast, and I ain't never seen no town, destroyed or otherwise."
Maisie tilted her head knowingly. "A-And... And we don't say 'yar' half this much. E-Every other page, we're shouting 'yar'. I mean, this is just nonsense."

"Says you," Maisie said, standing up and placing her palms on the boat's edge. "But the book says otherwise, and it's going to outlast all of us. So, people will believe the beasts destroyed towns that don't exist, and hunters like to say 'yar'."

Jacob looked down at the painting of Captain Crow, then flipping pages back. "But if that ain't true, the how are you supposed to know what is?"

Maisie reached over, turning the papers to the first page. "And how do we know the sea beast's ever plucked ladies out of their veggie patches? That there really were the Dark Times?"

"Maybe they didn't start this war," you softly stated, and the pair looked at you. 

"Maybe, but... why would we?" Jacob wondered faintly.

A distant rumbling caused your attention to snap ahead, where dark, fracturing storm clouds blossomed from the sky, lightning coursing down on the rough sea. Blue whimpered as Jacob closed the book, walking out of the boat and towards Red's head. "Looks like a real ship-wrecker," Maisie observed.

Jacob looked back to the boat, and you held Maisie closer to me, the girl wrapping her hand around your arm. 

Thunder crashed, and lightning split. Slowly, Red descended down into the safety of the sea, the boat stumbling through the wrecking waves. 

You watched with a fascinated smile at the dark abyss. You were safe, sitting comfortably in Red's nose. It was like a light show, the way the lightning from above caused fragments of white light to beam in the darkness of the ocean.

"Nicer down here, I'd say," Maisie soft voice stated, and you grinned, looking down at the girl.

"Aye," Jacob gently agreed with a small smile. "Nicer down here."

You didn't want to blink. Not as Red drifted through a forest of sprouting sea-trees. Bright, bioluminescent jellyfish, with curly tentacles swaying as the aquatic creatures flitted.

But your mood dampened as Red swam above a deep trench. You almost didn't want to look down, but you did. There, at the bottom of the channel, were shipwrecks, and the bones of hundreds of sea beasts. Both humans and beasts paid a price.

You and Jacob gazed down at your wrists, back at the Hunter tattoo. You found yourself regretting this line of work with each passing minute. "I don't know how the war started," Maisie began, causing you and Jacob looked at her, as her eyes wandered back to the alluring view in front of us. "Maybe all that matters is how it ends."