Not an Ordinary Day
(so this is my first fic and i apologize if it's bad and i would greatly appreciate constructive criticism)
Saf always looked forward to arriving in Lienid. From where he would sit, tangled in the ships ropes near the top of the mast, he would have the best view of the kingdom. It was his job to call down to the rest of the crew when the island came into his sight. They would rush about making sure everything was in place as Captain Pan barked orders at them, while Saf could sit back and watch the white towers of the kings's city come into detail. Today the ship flew past the ports of Ror city, instead following the coastline north towards the town by Prince Po's castle.
With one elegant motion, Saf untangled himself from his nest, and swung on a single rope down to the deck. As his feet hit the creaking boards he heard laughter behind him, and a large hand came down on his shoulder. He looked up at Kath, his large crew mate, smiling down at him. Her single green eye was crinkled in delight.
"You know," she chuckled "Captain will be damn furious if he sees you swinging around like that, Sapphire." Saf only shrugged his shoulders and raised an eyebrow at the burly first mate. She paused a moment, and then with a wicked grin grabbed the boy by the ear, earning herself a rather loud string of curses. "In fact, I think he'd be so damn pissed at you for nearly flinging yourself into the sea, he'd throw you in himself!" Kath bellowed, giving Saf's ear another tug for good measure.
"At least I swim better than you do, old hag" He replied, rubbing his poor ear.
Kath hooted in laughter, knowing was no real bite behind Saf's words, and shouted across the deck to a young man tying a rope. "Oi Bret! Are we sure this one isn't graced with cheek?"
Bret finished securing his rope. Wiping sweat from his forehead he strode over and ruffled Saf's hair. "Nah, I think that's just what happens when ya raise kids on a ship full of crude-ass sailors."
He laughed when his point was furthered by an argument between two men nearby. One pushed the other's head into a barrel, who then came up spluttering and proceeded to howl bloody murder while he chased the first across the deck. Saf couldn't hold back his laughter as the wrestling match between the two men was ended by Captain Pan, who was now standing on both of their hands and scolding them while they squirmed in pain on the deck. Seeming satisfied, the captain hauled both men up by their shoulders, slapped them on their backs, and happily told the crew they would be pulling into port in just a few minutes.
Bret smiled down at Saf, who was practically bouncing on the balls of his feet. The two though of each other as brothers, being the youngest on the ship they had a certain kind of bond, Bret having practically raised Sapphire as his younger sibling. He had been the once to give Saf both his Lienid name, and it's abbreviation. At 15, he was three years older than Saf but refused to treat the other as his inferior. Perhaps that was because Saf was always the mastermind behind their mischief. Bret had come on board the ship at 8 years old, having lost his parents to a blizzard in the Lienid mountains. Captain Pan was a welcoming, albeit slightly strange, man who saw no problem with another child being raised on his ship, The Whisper. Despite its name life on the boat was anything but quiet, but the two boys would'y have it any other way.
He understood Saf's anticipation, and it was more than the joy that came with pulling into port. They couldn't wait to hear what had happened in the adventure of their prince Po and the lady of the Middlunds, Katsa, since they had last docked. The two searched for the Prince's grandfather, Prince Tealiff, who had be kidnapped sometime back. Bret and Saf had spent their late night watches together, coming up with theories as to who had taken the Prince, and how, and stargazed as they wondered what had happened since Prince Po and the Lady Katsa had decided to go to Monsea, and the court of King Leck. They stood in silence, imagining, as The Whisper creaked into port.
"Do you think King Leck could have stolen Prince Tealiff?" Saf asked Bret as they carried boxes off the gangplank and onto the shore.
"But his wife, Queen Ashen is Prince Tealiff's daughter, and I've head he's such a kind man" Bret replied, humming as he placed his box with the others waiting to be taken into the town.
Saf sat his box next to Bret's and stood, brushing off his hands on his trousers, "Yeah I know, Bret. But don't you think some of the stories are strange? So many cut up animals in his city, so much sickness in his court?" He sighed, sitting on the ground with his back against the crates. "It just seems… off. I don't know how to explain it. Maybe I'm just mad"
Bret had joined him, the two lounging about like the rest of the crew, waiting for instruction as the Captain spoke with a man from the town. "Well I do find it odd that you dislike the King of your own birthplace. But for what it's worth, Saf, I don't think you're mad… I just think you're cynical."Saf looked at his smiling friend, and promptly punched him in the arm. Bret happily punched Saf back, and their conversation quickly dissolved into a friendly brawl.
"Oi! You little rats! Watch the cargo!" Kath shouted from above them, and grabbed the boys by the collars of their shirts. Saf was grinning through the beginning of what was sure to be a nasty black eye, and Bret smiled back despite his badly split lip and bleeding nose.
Kath sighed, dropping the boys back on the ground. She gestured towards her eye patch "One of these days one of you is gonna put the other's eye out." She was glaring at the dusty, scuffed-up boys, but couldn't suppress the smile tugging at her lips.
"Come on ya little fools, grab those red marked boxes" she commanded, hauling one onto her broad shoulder, "these are headed to the Prince's castle." It was impossible for the boys to tell wether she winked at them, or simply blinked. Grinning, they scrambled off the ground, and eagerly grabbed a box each. Together they followed Kath and another crew mate up the steps leading to the Prince's castle.
Saf wasn't sure what he expected from his visit to the castle, but it certainly wasn't what he was met with. The group was greeted by a rather exhausted looking servant, who glanced them over and shared a few quick words with Kath. All Saf managed to overhear was the word "coffin". He shared an alarmed look with Bret as Kath shook her head at the servant. Stiffly, he opened the door for them, and ushered the group inside. They passed through the kitchen, which was rather still, save for one man comforting a crying woman, both of them covered in flour. Saf looked again to Bret who only shrugged his shoulders with an wide eyed look on his face.
The man hurried the group through and asked them to place their boxes in a large closet. The other man from the crew with them, Rane, took the boxes and staked them as the servant watched, twitching. The man suddenly chirped that he wanted Rane to remove the contents of the boxes, something boring like towels, and stack those instead of the crates themselves. As Rane undertook this new charge the servant talked to Kath, asking her to have the Captain take their ship out off the coast of Lienid and receive another crew. Saf overheard the name Captain Faun, and was suddenly curious, for Faun was the name of Captain Pan's sister whom he spoke praise of whenever he could. However Saf was even more curious about the room down the hall. Its large doors had been shut, and Saf swore he had smelled something familiar as they passed it.
He fought his impulse for as long as he could but then, happily, gave in. Saf began to silently slip away from the group, inching towards the doors. Bret noticed his friend slinking away from his side, and turned to see Saf eagerly gesturing to the large closed doors behind them. He frantically shook his head at Saf, mouthing "no" at him and glaring as the other boy continued walking backwards down the hall. Pulling his hair in exasperation as Saf turned around, Bret glanced at the servant, Kath, and Rane to assure himself they were still occupied. Biting his lip in frustration he silently followed Saf, cursing him and his recklessness all the way and cursing himself for being curious as well.
Saf was absolutely delighted to see that Bret had chosen to join him after all. He beamed at Bret who only scowled in response, and gestured at Saf to open the doors. He pulled on the handles as slowly as he could, being careful not to let them creak. When the doors were open enough for the boys to see inside they both stuck their heads inside. Saf immediately wished he hadn't. He realized why the smell was familiar to him. It was blood. The room stank of it. A circle of chairs sat in the room's center. One, much larger, faced the wall. Saf took this in with a quick glance, letting his eyes settle instead on the figure on the floor. It was a man, that much was clear, covered by a sheet. Saf could see a hand, and a foot. He glanced at Bret, who's mouth hung open in shock. They both stared at the sheet where the man's head would be, stunned that it was soaked through with blood. The boys were stuck, staring for what felt like forever. Then Saf heard something, Kath's voice, ending a conversation. He grabbed the back of Bret's head and pulled it out of the room and closed the doors as quickly as he could without making a sound.
Bret turned suddenly, looking Saf straight in the eye. "Not a word," he whispered. Saf nodded as they turned to rejoin their group, forcing a smile back onto his face. He muttered "not one word" out the corner of his mouth as he and Bret stood back behind Kath, seeming as though they had never left at all.
As the group headed back down the steps from the Prince Po's castle, Kath explained the boys and Rane that King Leck of Monsea, was twisted, was graced, and was dead. Saf would have smugly told Bret that he was right to have disliked the "kind" king, but the sight of his body under a bloody sheet had left his heart with too much weight to joke.
As they made their way from the castle Saf paused, staring into one of the gardens. Bret stopped beside him, raising his eyebrow in a silent question. Saf shook his head and Bret placed a hand on his shoulder, continuing down the steps assuming that his friend needed a moment alone after what they had seen. He hadn't noticed the boy, sitting with his head on his knees, sitting on the ground in the garden.
Saf approached the boy silently, curious. He was small, and without a coat, holding himself and shivering against the winter air. Without much though, Saf pulled off his coat, tattered and smelling of sea salt, and placed it over the boy's small shoulders. When the boy looked up Saf was shocked to see he wasn't a boy at all, but a girl. She blinked up at him with big gray eyes, and slowly pulled her small arms through the sleeves.
"Thank you" she smiled softly, as he lowered himself to sit beside her. Saf only nodded to her and fiddled with a small flower he plucked from the ground next to him. He turned his head to ask her what she was doing out in the gardens, alone and without a coat, when he noticed she was crying. He blinked in surprise, and assumed he should say something but had no idea what one was meant to say to a crying girl.
He hoped he could say something comforting and eloquent, but the only thing that tumbled out of his mouth was "O-Oi, why the hell are you crying?" He flinched and inwardly cursed himself when she looked up at him with her big gray eyes. She looked even more upset than before. Saf realized he had probably sounded like a complete ass. He expected the girl to start crying even harder. He did not expect her to smile impossibly softly, and sigh.
"I saw something terrible" she told him. Her voice was so soft he was amazed he could even hear her. "I'm afraid I'll never stop having nightmares." She turned her head away from him, and placed it again on her small knees.
Saf heard feet running back up the steps, and looked over to see Bret gesturing for him to come. "Saf! We need to go! Kath will kick our asses if we keep her waiting!" Saf nodded to Bret, and turned back to the small girl, who had stopped shivering, and had her hands buried in the too long sleeves of his coat. He was certain he couldn't just leave her, even though she had stopped crying it still felt wrong to say nothing.
So Saf stood and as she looked up at him, he placed his hand on her shoulder, and squeezed it in what he hoped was a comforting manner. Again her big gray eyes stared at him, and he wondered how strange he must look to her. A boy who didn't look Lienid at all, yet had gold in his ears and rings on his fingers, who smelled like the sea and had mismatched purple eyes.
He gave her shoulder another light squeeze and said the only thing that came to mind, "I promise that it won't give you nightmares." It was stupid. Beyond stupid. He couldn't promise something like that. But she smiled at him, and her hand gently touched his as he took it from her shoulder. Bret shouted again, calling Saf an ass, and she blinked at him with her big gray eyes.
As Saf turned to go, her voice stopped him again. Even though she spoke so quietly he still heard her whispered "thank you". It followed him down the great stairs and to the ship. It drowned out Bret's cursing of him and his impulses and his mad desire to have them both smacked about by Kath. It followed him as The Whisper left Lienid and it followed him up to his nest up in the ship's high ropes. As he stared into the sky that night, looking at the stars in the way you only could at sea, he thought about the girl's big gray eyes, her soft "thank you"s and he smiled, because maybe he'd done a little bit of good. He wanted to do good.