Chapter 5
Feathers bristled, rustling the cloak as Ember straightened, a chill running down her spine.
Something stirred in the corners of her mind, unnerved and anxious, grappling with the sense of darkness, like black cobwebs growing with an approaching presence.
Danger.
Ember tensely pulled her hood back over her head, slowly glancing over at the boarding plank and down to the shadowed docks. She slowly rested a hand on her flintlock again, wondering vaguely if the other Harpies could feel the warning too.
Ember, with her superior sixth sense tensed, pulling her hood up around her feathery ears. Vhanya too noticed the change in the dawn air, but she couldn’t place her finger on what.
Curse this lousy sense of mine.
She shook off the prickling feeling as best as she was able; she had other matters to deal with. She looked back to Galen.
”We leave as quickly as we can, but you should be aware that we need nearly triple the amount of people we currently have to properly man this ship,” her voice turned buttery-smooth, “I’d certainly appreciate if your discernment was turned to seeking out more souls for our crew, if you’re so intent on setting sail.“
She set her attention to the other Harpy woman, hoping to distract herself from the uncomfortable feeling crawling up her spine, setting her tail a-twitch and raising the hairs on her nape.
Galen stiffened as the uneasy feeling smothered him like a thick impenetrable fog. His hand tightened around his knife as he slowly slipped it up into one sleeve.
"I'm not intent, I couldn't care less I just...don't like it here."
He backed up slowly towards the edge of the ship and the open water for a fast getaway.
He continued to inch back, franticly scanning the docs, the water, even the ship, what was wrong? Experience had taught him caution.
He froze as his eyes rested on a figure standing on the docs...watching them.
Lichen’s claw-tipped hand slid to her hip to grip the dagger that was strapped there. It was quiet. Too quiet.
The waves lapped at the hull of the ship, the sharp noise making her feel on edge. The air seemed heavy. Dark.
Galen froze, his body going rigid in the corner of Ember's vision and she glanced at him, tracking his gaze toward the edge of the docks.
It was unusually difficult to interpret what her sixth sense was trying to tell her, the mess of alarm and familiarity weaving and twisting her sense.
A mythic- no- a threat. Both? A soldier or pirate maybe? No... Definitely a mythic, but...
Ember slowly reached up and unclipped her cloak, letting the cloth drop to the deck. Long, black wings tensed against her back, prickling warily, the crimson-red tips gracefully brushing the deck boards as they shifted.
Her eyes locked on the dark figure standing at the end of the boarding plank, watching the scene on the Quicksilver silent and motionless.
She paced forward tensely, still gripping her pistol.
"What do you want?"
Her voice cut the dim, misty air, carrying down to the dock.
The third one was interesting, she must be a hybrid. No, pay attention. He'd better make this quick, the male Harpy was about to bolt. Raven shook himself from his thoughts. He'd been around a bit and knew the drill.
Slowly he drew his pistol, dropped it with a thud onto the dock, and kicked it away.
"I want many things," He wished his voice sounded more...perhaps the word was relaxed. there was no hiding the strained rattling that came from his throat when he spoke. "but I won't bore you with a sob story, I want a job aboard this ship of," he glanced at the Aqrabaumelu and pointed, "Yours"
A new stranger sauntered up the gangplank, and something prickled in the back of Vhanya’s mind.
Familiarity.
Not the sense of knowing that came with the presence of another Mythic; but the small twitch that shouted, I have known you before!
She pressed back her braid -it had quickly become a habit since she started braiding her hair.
The cowled Harpy voiced his intentions, and the eager side of her started at the opportunity of recruiting another crew member; but the tenseness of the other Harpies was almost tangible, their sixth senses must’ve been going haywire.
She opened her mouth to speak when-
A shadowy figure peeled away from the night and stood at the edge of the gangplank of the Quicksilver. The small figure wore a long cloak that dragged along the ground and a hood that cast its face into shadow.
Unfortunately, someone was standing at the end of the gangplank.
The cloaked figure gave an exasperated huff and ripped off his cloak. It was indeed a he, a harpy with shoulder-length hair so greasy it looked even more flammable than hair usually was wont to look and massive wings that overwhelmed his spare frame. He was unabashedly shirtless. He gripped the cloak in one clawed hand and jumped into the air, flying up and over with a few powerful beats of his wings and landing in a three-point position next to Ember. There were a few guns being pointed about but he figured he hadn’t done anything to deserve gunpoint yet. Yes, he had just landed on a private boat, but it appeared to be a free-for-all where trespassing was allowed, based on his observations of the numerous Mythics just sauntering onto the boat.
“Emberrrrr, why would you join a pirate crew without me?” Coal asked in a half-mocking voice. His lips curled into a smile, revealing sharp white teeth.
He had been tracking her the whole way there. He was sure that she knew of his presence—her sixth sense was stronger than his—but she couldn’t exactly stop him from following her either. Coal could make himself a terrible nuisance.
Galen nearly jumped out of his skin when the new harpy landed on the ship. He was so focused on the cloaked mythic, human, thing that he hadn't sensed him coming.
That was it, he couldn't stay on this deck any longer and still keep his witts about him. Galen scrambled to the edge and almost tripped out into the air before taking off and flying up to the top of a spar. he clutched the mast and leaned over to watch what was happening below.
Ember flashed her wings out, jumping herself away from the dark figure with a strong pulse of her wings. Her flintlock hammer clicked back menacingly as she leveled it with the other Harpy's forehead, her eyes flaring brighter still, both clawed hands gripping the gun firmly.
"Who are you and how do you know I'm Ember?"
A look of mild disgust and irritation mixed with the fierceness in her expression.
"And what are you talking about?"
What is happening?
She took another step back from the black and red Harpy, glancing at the dark figure still standing on the docks, his venomous eyes glittering with interest. Her gaze flicked back to the new strange arrival.
A flurry of wings and a thump of feet against the deck announced the arrival of another strange Harpy.
“Souls in Hell!” Cried Vhanya, her tail immediately at the ready to strike the new Harpy man, along with her flintlock trained between his black eyes.
He knew Ember’s name, but her demeanor implied she had no clue who he was, there was no use in asking her a thing. The other Harpies seemed just as startled as her, their feathers bristling and stances shifted to the defensive.
Vhanya couldn‘t keep her eyes from dancing Harpy to Harpy, her heart pounded in her ears. Although, if a shootout occurred, she was much more concerned for the welfare of her ship than that of her new crewmates.
At the sight of the gun aimed at his forehead, Coal yipped and jumped two feet in the air. This fearful jump was a great opportunity. A great opportunity to beat his great wings and fly out of harm’s way. As he ascended, he yelled, “YOU’RE MY SISTER!” Coal flew in loops high above the ship, still within earshot, but hopefully out of the range of Ember’s gun. Hopefully. He wasn’t quite sure, but he thought that his dizzying flight patterns might reduce his chance of getting hit.
Her brother?
The stranger’s dizzying launch and shout shook Vhanya out of her thoughts. She turned sharp eyes to the early morning sky and steadied her flintlock.
”Land back on this ship or I’ll have you riddled with lead!”
She left it at that.
She’d felled plenty of flying gulls, and could never miss a shot from the deck of the Quicksilver: To be on one’s own ship offered confidence that was intoxicating.
Coal’s eyes widened, and his glance flashed between his sister’s gun and that of the pirate captain. Who was scarier? Definitely the captain.
And he wasn’t about to chance that he was out of range. He promptly landed on the deck behind Vanya, lacking all of the bravado of his previous landing. Fulfilling the scary lady’s terms might grant him some kind of immunity, and he felt that by standing near her, Ember might balk at shooting him.
"That's impossible," Ember snapped, pinning the wide-eyed Harpy with a sharp, firey stare. A flicker of satisfaction at the Mythic's visible terror twined around the rage and adrenaline pulsing through her body- she kept the flintlock trained on his head, her eyes glaring past the barrel at him.
“Mother said so,” Coal faltered. She really hadn’t stopped training her gun on him. And for what? All he did was a little playful following. Every sibling experienced that. Except she didn’t know he was her sibling. Oh. That would explain why she thought he was creepy. “Do you think every phoenix or harpy on this island has wings like these?” His wings had been folded on his back. Presently, he spread them a little farther, but not too far. The captain seemed a little possessive of her personal space. It was kind of dark, but he hoped she noticed the picoteed pattern that they both had inherited from their mother. No other at Bird’s Point had he seen with that coloration.
"Fool," Ember hissed, her wings flaring.
"Your colors mean nothing. I possess them because my lineage is of both tribes, not because of some special familial trait."
Her wings unfurled slightly, arching behind her head.
"But I am fully Phoenix..." he said quietly. He cupped his hand, sheltering a tiny, delicate flame that was snuffed by the gentlest of night breezes. He didn't really know if half-harpies could make flames. Probably. "And so is our mother."
"Not any mother that I know."
Ember released a hand from the flintlock and raised a clenched fist, bright flames curling over her tense fingers, bouncing light off her gold wristbands and lighting up the eerie deck of the Quicksilver. She could see the Phoenix's face better, cowering behind Vhanya, the red tips of his wings catching the light vividly.
She tossed an irritated glare over her shoulder at the cloaked stranger still watching the scene silently.
"And how should I know that you aren't allied with this sulking pirate?"
She readjusted her stance, moving her flaming hand to see the dark figure better, still holding the gun level with the Phoenix's face.
Raven squinted at the firelight, how rude it was to rob someone of their night vision, but the true offense he took was from being associated with this discombobulating Phoenix. He frowned slightly and reholstered his pistol.
"I can assure you," he turned to get a better look at Coal, "I've never seen this bird in my life, though I'm sure," slowly, He reached up and tugged the hood and face covering from his head, revealing his array of scars and deformities, "That we'll get to know each other very well." a grin danced on the corners of his mouth as he redirected his attention to Ember.
Ember’s show of power ignited Coal’s competitive spirit. She can’t think my fire is weak just because I don’t want the captain thinking I want to burn her! he thought.
Coal stepped away from Vanya and held a globe of fire between his hands. His sharp white teeth gleamed in the light of the fire, but he was grimacing, not smiling. It was hard to maintain a calm and easy smile with a gun trained on his head
Vhanya watched as the varying Harpies bickered, the cowled Mythic revealed his scarred face -where had she seen him before?- and the other male Harpy took flight to the crow’s nest, her annoyance building like waves lapping against a ship hull.
She sidestepped away from the Harpy behind her -scratch that, this soul was a Phoenix. Vhanya noted his race when she felt flames warming her back from where he stood.
“I’m not a Mythic you want to hide behind, boy,” she flicked her tail in his direction as a not-so-subtle reminder of its venomous barbed tip.
She didn’t bother to hear an answer from him, and instead strode to the middle of the deck, lifted her flintlock, and shot a solitary bullet into the sky, the crack of the shot piercing through the predawn air. She wasn’t concerned about unwanted attention, Pirate’s Cove was no stranger to the sound of gunfire.
”Alright! Every soul currently aboard my ship I beseech you, cease your screw-jay squawking lest you find your blood black with venom or lead- your choice, it’s my treat.“
She knew she couldn’t take on all of them on her own, but a well-delivered threat often did the entirety of the work for her.
She turned slowly around to face every Mythic, even Galen, still hulking in the crow’s nest, his wings high up about him like some vulture.
“If you’re looking to join my crew you’d best stop flinging guns and words about like savages. If you’re not, then I’d say it’s best for you to leave this port as soon as possible. I have plenty of friends who’d relish seeking out your end.”
Coal’s flame went out. The shot got his attention. He was half-afraid that it would cause a second shot—this time in his forehead. He sobered, standing at respectful attention; this was someone worthy of respect.
Galen begrudgingly dropped down to the deck and resumed a straight stance, trying not to look flustered. he pulled his knife back out, less for comfort, more for the fact that he might need to use it. His eyes flickered back and forth between Vhanya, Raven, and on occasion, suspiciously towards Coal.
His heart still thrummed in his ears so he took long breaths in an attempt to slow it down as he turned the blade over and over in his hands.
Something stirred in the corners of her mind, unnerved and anxious, grappling with the sense of darkness, like black cobwebs growing with an approaching presence.
Danger.
Ember tensely pulled her hood back over her head, slowly glancing over at the boarding plank and down to the shadowed docks. She slowly rested a hand on her flintlock again, wondering vaguely if the other Harpies could feel the warning too.
Ember, with her superior sixth sense tensed, pulling her hood up around her feathery ears. Vhanya too noticed the change in the dawn air, but she couldn’t place her finger on what.
Curse this lousy sense of mine.
She shook off the prickling feeling as best as she was able; she had other matters to deal with. She looked back to Galen.
”We leave as quickly as we can, but you should be aware that we need nearly triple the amount of people we currently have to properly man this ship,” her voice turned buttery-smooth, “I’d certainly appreciate if your discernment was turned to seeking out more souls for our crew, if you’re so intent on setting sail.“
She set her attention to the other Harpy woman, hoping to distract herself from the uncomfortable feeling crawling up her spine, setting her tail a-twitch and raising the hairs on her nape.
Galen stiffened as the uneasy feeling smothered him like a thick impenetrable fog. His hand tightened around his knife as he slowly slipped it up into one sleeve.
"I'm not intent, I couldn't care less I just...don't like it here."
He backed up slowly towards the edge of the ship and the open water for a fast getaway.
He continued to inch back, franticly scanning the docs, the water, even the ship, what was wrong? Experience had taught him caution.
He froze as his eyes rested on a figure standing on the docs...watching them.
Lichen’s claw-tipped hand slid to her hip to grip the dagger that was strapped there. It was quiet. Too quiet.
The waves lapped at the hull of the ship, the sharp noise making her feel on edge. The air seemed heavy. Dark.
Galen froze, his body going rigid in the corner of Ember's vision and she glanced at him, tracking his gaze toward the edge of the docks.
It was unusually difficult to interpret what her sixth sense was trying to tell her, the mess of alarm and familiarity weaving and twisting her sense.
A mythic- no- a threat. Both? A soldier or pirate maybe? No... Definitely a mythic, but...
Ember slowly reached up and unclipped her cloak, letting the cloth drop to the deck. Long, black wings tensed against her back, prickling warily, the crimson-red tips gracefully brushing the deck boards as they shifted.
Her eyes locked on the dark figure standing at the end of the boarding plank, watching the scene on the Quicksilver silent and motionless.
She paced forward tensely, still gripping her pistol.
"What do you want?"
Her voice cut the dim, misty air, carrying down to the dock.
The third one was interesting, she must be a hybrid. No, pay attention. He'd better make this quick, the male Harpy was about to bolt. Raven shook himself from his thoughts. He'd been around a bit and knew the drill.
Slowly he drew his pistol, dropped it with a thud onto the dock, and kicked it away.
"I want many things," He wished his voice sounded more...perhaps the word was relaxed. there was no hiding the strained rattling that came from his throat when he spoke. "but I won't bore you with a sob story, I want a job aboard this ship of," he glanced at the Aqrabaumelu and pointed, "Yours"
A new stranger sauntered up the gangplank, and something prickled in the back of Vhanya’s mind.
Familiarity.
Not the sense of knowing that came with the presence of another Mythic; but the small twitch that shouted, I have known you before!
She pressed back her braid -it had quickly become a habit since she started braiding her hair.
The cowled Harpy voiced his intentions, and the eager side of her started at the opportunity of recruiting another crew member; but the tenseness of the other Harpies was almost tangible, their sixth senses must’ve been going haywire.
She opened her mouth to speak when-
A shadowy figure peeled away from the night and stood at the edge of the gangplank of the Quicksilver. The small figure wore a long cloak that dragged along the ground and a hood that cast its face into shadow.
Unfortunately, someone was standing at the end of the gangplank.
The cloaked figure gave an exasperated huff and ripped off his cloak. It was indeed a he, a harpy with shoulder-length hair so greasy it looked even more flammable than hair usually was wont to look and massive wings that overwhelmed his spare frame. He was unabashedly shirtless. He gripped the cloak in one clawed hand and jumped into the air, flying up and over with a few powerful beats of his wings and landing in a three-point position next to Ember. There were a few guns being pointed about but he figured he hadn’t done anything to deserve gunpoint yet. Yes, he had just landed on a private boat, but it appeared to be a free-for-all where trespassing was allowed, based on his observations of the numerous Mythics just sauntering onto the boat.
“Emberrrrr, why would you join a pirate crew without me?” Coal asked in a half-mocking voice. His lips curled into a smile, revealing sharp white teeth.
He had been tracking her the whole way there. He was sure that she knew of his presence—her sixth sense was stronger than his—but she couldn’t exactly stop him from following her either. Coal could make himself a terrible nuisance.
Galen nearly jumped out of his skin when the new harpy landed on the ship. He was so focused on the cloaked mythic, human, thing that he hadn't sensed him coming.
That was it, he couldn't stay on this deck any longer and still keep his witts about him. Galen scrambled to the edge and almost tripped out into the air before taking off and flying up to the top of a spar. he clutched the mast and leaned over to watch what was happening below.
Ember flashed her wings out, jumping herself away from the dark figure with a strong pulse of her wings. Her flintlock hammer clicked back menacingly as she leveled it with the other Harpy's forehead, her eyes flaring brighter still, both clawed hands gripping the gun firmly.
"Who are you and how do you know I'm Ember?"
A look of mild disgust and irritation mixed with the fierceness in her expression.
"And what are you talking about?"
What is happening?
She took another step back from the black and red Harpy, glancing at the dark figure still standing on the docks, his venomous eyes glittering with interest. Her gaze flicked back to the new strange arrival.
A flurry of wings and a thump of feet against the deck announced the arrival of another strange Harpy.
“Souls in Hell!” Cried Vhanya, her tail immediately at the ready to strike the new Harpy man, along with her flintlock trained between his black eyes.
He knew Ember’s name, but her demeanor implied she had no clue who he was, there was no use in asking her a thing. The other Harpies seemed just as startled as her, their feathers bristling and stances shifted to the defensive.
Vhanya couldn‘t keep her eyes from dancing Harpy to Harpy, her heart pounded in her ears. Although, if a shootout occurred, she was much more concerned for the welfare of her ship than that of her new crewmates.
At the sight of the gun aimed at his forehead, Coal yipped and jumped two feet in the air. This fearful jump was a great opportunity. A great opportunity to beat his great wings and fly out of harm’s way. As he ascended, he yelled, “YOU’RE MY SISTER!” Coal flew in loops high above the ship, still within earshot, but hopefully out of the range of Ember’s gun. Hopefully. He wasn’t quite sure, but he thought that his dizzying flight patterns might reduce his chance of getting hit.
Her brother?
The stranger’s dizzying launch and shout shook Vhanya out of her thoughts. She turned sharp eyes to the early morning sky and steadied her flintlock.
”Land back on this ship or I’ll have you riddled with lead!”
She left it at that.
She’d felled plenty of flying gulls, and could never miss a shot from the deck of the Quicksilver: To be on one’s own ship offered confidence that was intoxicating.
Coal’s eyes widened, and his glance flashed between his sister’s gun and that of the pirate captain. Who was scarier? Definitely the captain.
And he wasn’t about to chance that he was out of range. He promptly landed on the deck behind Vanya, lacking all of the bravado of his previous landing. Fulfilling the scary lady’s terms might grant him some kind of immunity, and he felt that by standing near her, Ember might balk at shooting him.
"That's impossible," Ember snapped, pinning the wide-eyed Harpy with a sharp, firey stare. A flicker of satisfaction at the Mythic's visible terror twined around the rage and adrenaline pulsing through her body- she kept the flintlock trained on his head, her eyes glaring past the barrel at him.
“Mother said so,” Coal faltered. She really hadn’t stopped training her gun on him. And for what? All he did was a little playful following. Every sibling experienced that. Except she didn’t know he was her sibling. Oh. That would explain why she thought he was creepy. “Do you think every phoenix or harpy on this island has wings like these?” His wings had been folded on his back. Presently, he spread them a little farther, but not too far. The captain seemed a little possessive of her personal space. It was kind of dark, but he hoped she noticed the picoteed pattern that they both had inherited from their mother. No other at Bird’s Point had he seen with that coloration.
"Fool," Ember hissed, her wings flaring.
"Your colors mean nothing. I possess them because my lineage is of both tribes, not because of some special familial trait."
Her wings unfurled slightly, arching behind her head.
"But I am fully Phoenix..." he said quietly. He cupped his hand, sheltering a tiny, delicate flame that was snuffed by the gentlest of night breezes. He didn't really know if half-harpies could make flames. Probably. "And so is our mother."
"Not any mother that I know."
Ember released a hand from the flintlock and raised a clenched fist, bright flames curling over her tense fingers, bouncing light off her gold wristbands and lighting up the eerie deck of the Quicksilver. She could see the Phoenix's face better, cowering behind Vhanya, the red tips of his wings catching the light vividly.
She tossed an irritated glare over her shoulder at the cloaked stranger still watching the scene silently.
"And how should I know that you aren't allied with this sulking pirate?"
She readjusted her stance, moving her flaming hand to see the dark figure better, still holding the gun level with the Phoenix's face.
Raven squinted at the firelight, how rude it was to rob someone of their night vision, but the true offense he took was from being associated with this discombobulating Phoenix. He frowned slightly and reholstered his pistol.
"I can assure you," he turned to get a better look at Coal, "I've never seen this bird in my life, though I'm sure," slowly, He reached up and tugged the hood and face covering from his head, revealing his array of scars and deformities, "That we'll get to know each other very well." a grin danced on the corners of his mouth as he redirected his attention to Ember.
Ember’s show of power ignited Coal’s competitive spirit. She can’t think my fire is weak just because I don’t want the captain thinking I want to burn her! he thought.
Coal stepped away from Vanya and held a globe of fire between his hands. His sharp white teeth gleamed in the light of the fire, but he was grimacing, not smiling. It was hard to maintain a calm and easy smile with a gun trained on his head
Vhanya watched as the varying Harpies bickered, the cowled Mythic revealed his scarred face -where had she seen him before?- and the other male Harpy took flight to the crow’s nest, her annoyance building like waves lapping against a ship hull.
She sidestepped away from the Harpy behind her -scratch that, this soul was a Phoenix. Vhanya noted his race when she felt flames warming her back from where he stood.
“I’m not a Mythic you want to hide behind, boy,” she flicked her tail in his direction as a not-so-subtle reminder of its venomous barbed tip.
She didn’t bother to hear an answer from him, and instead strode to the middle of the deck, lifted her flintlock, and shot a solitary bullet into the sky, the crack of the shot piercing through the predawn air. She wasn’t concerned about unwanted attention, Pirate’s Cove was no stranger to the sound of gunfire.
”Alright! Every soul currently aboard my ship I beseech you, cease your screw-jay squawking lest you find your blood black with venom or lead- your choice, it’s my treat.“
She knew she couldn’t take on all of them on her own, but a well-delivered threat often did the entirety of the work for her.
She turned slowly around to face every Mythic, even Galen, still hulking in the crow’s nest, his wings high up about him like some vulture.
“If you’re looking to join my crew you’d best stop flinging guns and words about like savages. If you’re not, then I’d say it’s best for you to leave this port as soon as possible. I have plenty of friends who’d relish seeking out your end.”
Coal’s flame went out. The shot got his attention. He was half-afraid that it would cause a second shot—this time in his forehead. He sobered, standing at respectful attention; this was someone worthy of respect.
Galen begrudgingly dropped down to the deck and resumed a straight stance, trying not to look flustered. he pulled his knife back out, less for comfort, more for the fact that he might need to use it. His eyes flickered back and forth between Vhanya, Raven, and on occasion, suspiciously towards Coal.
His heart still thrummed in his ears so he took long breaths in an attempt to slow it down as he turned the blade over and over in his hands.
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