SEA TALES:
Three More PIRATE DRABBLES
By ErinRua
Blood and Gold
I have sailed where most men dream. I have seized ships off the coast of African and looted galleons off the shores of Spain. I have poured the riches of great lords into the hands of barefoot pirates and drank rum from a silver chalice. I have seen lizards that swim and birds that can't fly and fire in the rigging that burns cold blue. I have heard the sea moan under an armor of ice and navigated where the stars are strange. But one thing I never forget, mate … all this is paid for in blood and gold.
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A Blacksmith's Hands
A blacksmith's hands …yet these are not what a pirate would expect. Strength and sureness, aye, precise blows of hammer, sure rasp of file, deft movements to temper a keen, bright edge to new steel. That is a craftsman's gift and as it should be. But this - oh this deadly dance of blade on blade and eyes staring back hot as the forge; very interesting. A serpent's grace, an adder's strike, all here in the steel in a blacksmith's hands. A man could learn to love that - if it wasn't trying to kill him.
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A Blacksmith's Hands, Revisited
They are hands that build and forge and form, hands that strike steel and hands quick with a blade. His are hands made for strength and skill, for shaping that which is not into that which will be. These hands, these beloved hands can kill or create with equal sureness and yet … His eyes are darkness warmed with deep lanterns and promise that has no limit, as those same hands … touch. Living silk burns as no steel could. A craftsman's care, a lover's need softly bids hidden fires and she is drowning in the caress of a blacksmith's hands.
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