A/n: I am evil; I accept that. I am also deeply apologetic. 3/5/2012
The Prince picked out the soft chimes of her voice and the silver tinkle of her laugh. She turned and her eyes gleamed up at him, taunting him, like emeralds at the bottom of the ocean. How dare they steal her from him! How dare they steal something so rightfully his!
Anger roiled through him, agitating his fragile soul with the force of his ire, like hot coals tossed in the winds of hell. He watched as one of the thieves forced her onto his lap, trapping her hands, forcing her to look up at him...
Insolent cur.
Remorseless, he lifted his arms and brought his wrath down on the tiny ship.
The seawater burned Lynn's lungs as she breathed in more liquid than air. Water swirled around her knees and still more crashed down on them.
"Fire!" roared Marcus.
Lynn felt the roar of lit gunpowder shuddered through her as cannon balls sailed into the sky with a trail of smoke. The salt stung her eyes and her vision blurred with tears but she looked up to see if they would hit their mark: the iron balls arced into the sky- but were swallowed by another monstrous wave.
She fought down her rising panic. None of their attacks were working.
"Move those crates!"
"-Gunpowder, man! We need gunpowder!"
John held Michael tight and scooted them back on the bed so their feet wouldn't dangle in the knee-deep water flooding the hold.
"Oi! Lad!" John's head whipped around at the call. "Give us a hand here!"
John avoided Michael's pale, pleading face as he reluctantly unwound the small arms wrapped around his waist. "I have to go-"
"No!" cried little Michael, clinging all the harder. "You promised you'd stay with me!"
The boards in the ceiling shook as the boat took another beating. John swayed as he stood up and Michael began to cry.
"The lad's injured!" yelled Hank. "Leave him be!" He pushed John back down on the bed and stormed past him. "Seamus! Get off yer arse an' help!"
John scooted backwards quickly pulling Michael into his lap with his good arm; he would not risk Michael being roped in to help too.
The storm clouds stirred behind him as the winds howled their remorse but the Prince knew nought but deathly silence. Winds whipped around his slender form yet he remained untouched.
He did not blink as he deflected their flimsy nets and too-small cannon balls, raising his hands to make the winds pick up speed and tossing their already out-of-control boat into a greater frenzy. A bolt of lightning struck the topmast, setting it alight, and the thieves scurried on their tiny deck like drowned rats.
Pests needed to be exterminated, especially ones as insolent as these. His eyes flashed and his expression was blacker than any darkness.
It was time to end this.
"Hold on, Lynn!" cried Tom.
Everywhere he turned there was another wave waiting to try and drown them. He hobbled towards where he thought the hold was but between the murderous seawater and his semi-lame leg, walking had never been a more impossible task.
Choking more than breathing, he hauled Lynn up as best he could and lurched forward. All around them men clung to their lifelines, swarming across the mast and deck, tying down the sails and firing cannons. He could feel her small arms grasping at his waist but he could barely keep himself up, let alone her.
Tom staggered as another barrage of water slammed into to him. He gasped, his already fractured ribs making contact with the guardrail behind him, giving entry to the seawater so eagerly trying to drown him. He felt the grip on his side falter. The water subsided and Tom swiped the water out of his eyes.
No-
Lynn was gone.
"LYNN!" He roared, his voice raw with panic. He whipped his head from side to side scanning the deck for her. "LYNN! LY-"
He fell backwards and tripped. Hands grabbed him from behind, dragging him towards the safer confines below deck. "Get down!"
"NO!" He roared.
He tore free and stumbled forwards.
"Have you seen, Lynn?" He asked. The man turned without hearing and his voice came out in gasps. "Lynn? Lynn!" But the thunder too loud in anyone's ears to hear his desperate pleas for a single girl.
Tom managed one last look across the deck before his legs gave way under him and he slid to the ground, his injuries finally outriding the wave of adrenaline that had kept him upright. One of the men eventually came over and hauled him to his feet. Tom's ribs felt so broken he wouldn't have been surprised if he saw his heart falling out. Wind whipped his hair and he closed his eyes in regret as he limped towards the hold. So much for being a hero...
He lifted his head. "What was that?"
"I didn't hear nothing."
An inhuman scream tore through the air, freezing them in their tracks. Tom looked up with the sound still ringing in his eardrums.
The demon, perfectly silhouetted against the full moon, was arched backwards emitting a ghostly wail that echoed into the night. The crew watched, transfixed, even as the sea erupted into waves around them and lightning sliced the sky. Dark clouds drifted across the moon and the demon disappeared into the shadows.
"Hold your fire," Marcus said lowly, breaking the spell.
The men shook their heads as though clearing water and scanned the skies, others hurrying to restock their cannons. Something was coming…they just didn't know what.
Tick-
Tick-
TickTickTick-
SLAM!
The boat heaved violently to the side, knocking them off balance and sending Tom sprawling.
"What was that?"
SLAM!
"Aargh!"
Tom's fingers scrabbled for purchase before he managed to wrap his arm around one of the railings to keep from being thrown overboard. The ship pitched dangerously. He looked over the side and saw something huge- something directly under the ship- throwing itself against the side of the ship.
SLAM!
It was trying to break through the hull.
"Aaahh-!
"Secure the barrels- they're the last of our firepower!"
The men were beginning to panic, firing at will. "We can't fight against something we can't see!"
"What' is it?"
"Did we hit it?"
"We need to turn around!"
But the winds were against them and they battered against their loose sails, forcing them back towards the beach. The captain swore. "Tie up those sails!"
The creature rammed itself against the side of the ship and the men cried out as a bolt of lightning zipped through the air, striking it in the same spot it had before. Tom looked up from the shelter of his arms.
"Cap'n! The mast-!"
"Watch out!"
The blazing skeleton of the ship's mast crashed down onto the deck, taking with it all four of their sails and their only means of escaping.
Then, the monster erupted out of the ocean and sending the little ship spinning out of control in it's wake. Rain and wind slashed at Tom's sight but the sky was alive with electricity and fear and there was nothing he could not see.
Two huge, scaled feet with curved talons as long as his arm settled itself on the side of the deck, nearly capsizing the ship with its weight. The men fired at it but their lead and iron slid off the armoured skin like silk. An eye, as yellow as the sun and as wide as three men, peered over the edge of the deck. A distant rumble, a roar, came from deep within the bowels of the beast as its great reptilian eye perused the ship. Tom had long forgotten how to breathe. Almost lazily, the saurian eye scanned them, landing on each of them briefly before moving on. Then the horizontal slit of pupil froze, widened, and the rumble intensified, and the ticking got so loud it felt like a bomb was set to go off in their heads.
Marcus gripped the helm with both hands, the serpentine eye never leaving his face. He opened his mouth, whether to issue a command or utter a prayer, the crew would never know, because at that moment the monster decided its move.
And their world went to hell.
-.-.-.-
Teeth, Tom would realise later as he clung to the fragmented remains of the ship. Claws and clicking teeth- that was what the ticking noise was. He tried to pull himself up onto the charred plank, to get himself more secure but his measly strength was fading fast- he felt like he was fading.
His fingers faltered as his mind slipped, managing one last coherent thought before the darkness of unconsciousness claimed him.
Well, at least Lynn didn't have to go through that...
A/N: A thousand apologies, my poor (probably non-existent) readers. I will try to make the final chapter less awful. I spent ages trying to write this part and was getting nowhere. So I put some dramatic music on- and still didn't get anywhere, but I figured a short, crappy update was better than no update at all. Right? MOVING ON NOW.