Quick Note/Warning: There is a vaguely mature scene of death in this chapter. There will be a warning when it begins. Doesn't go much into details but there is a lot of implications.
Soon, they drifted far enough that the island wasn't within view anymore. Akira lay on the too-cold ice, feeling overheated and in pain as her body prepared itself for her cubs. An hour or more had passed of Manny and Diego moving around her, Sid laying limp beside her murmuring nonsense every now and then as he slowly regained feeling in his body. Her eyes were closed, one against her will as it was covered by a patch, a cooling salve soothing the pain that had begun to flare around it earlier. It bled sluggishly still, painting her silver fur red but there was always a hyrax there to wipe it away before it dried and crusted.
"Hey," She shifted minutely in response to Diego's warmth pressing against her too-hot flank, "Manny and I made a place for you and the cubs. Come on, let's get you settled in there." A part of her didn't wish to move. She simply wished to lay there, feeling too hot and too cold, letting the numbness seep into her body as she stared at the evening sky before them. The remaining half understood that as empty as she felt inside, however, getting to her feet as her mate urged was in no way for herself. Not at the very moment.
It would take her some time to get to where she had been even a day prior but right now, her cubs were the only reason she avoided the path of self-destruction she so badly wanted to trot down. Akira leaned much of her weight into Diego as they stumbled along to the small cubby in the back of the ship, shallow but sectioned off by a curtain of leaves threaded through grooves in the ice. An absent thought of the hyraxes helping crossed her mind as she remembered that very curtain on one of the tree hollows they slept in before she came along.
Sid stood next to it, recovered from the berries, anxiously twiddling his claws. For once, he was quiet, only meeting her gaze a moment with glistening eyes before he glanced away. The sabress' heart ached as she realized the sloth blamed himself for how their escape went. Her eyes flashed with her disagreement and sadness but her tongue felt heavy in her mouth and her jaw was locked, refusing to open. Still, she stopped Diego for a moment to reach over, nuzzling Sid for the brief time she could stand unsupported before she leaned back into her mate.
It broke her heart that Sid could only sniffle, nodding quietly before he held aside the curtains for her to slip inside. Through the exhaustion and the pain, Akira made a promise to herself to reassure him when she was in a better state of mind but until then. . . she settled down on the warm furs with a heavy exhale, burying her face in them as the contractions grew in intensity. Diego laid down behind her, laying his head atop her shoulders, breathing slowly to coax her breathing to deepen as well. A change Akira hadn't even noticed.
"You can do this, Kira," Diego murmured, a deep and slow purr beginning in his throat as she squeezed her eyes shut, claws flexing as she started to push.
A deadly silence had fallen over the crew, even from those who still had Gutt's loyalty, as they watched the ape from below, bloody, beaten and furious rip apart a large iceberg of nothing but rough and sharpened edges. There was no sail, no sturdy enough tree trunk to string one up much less any time but as Gutt whistled sharply, calling the beasts he had miraculously tamed, enslaving on a debt, the mammals saw there was no need for one.
One by one, they ambled onto the ship as the ape stood at the helm, his back to them as his silence spoke volumes. Shira and Jace were the last ones to step onto the ship, their paws feeling like lead and their heads hung low as the inevitable neared. "Twenty years." Jace's ears pressed back as the iceberg floated away from the ledge, pulling him further and further from escape. "Twenty years I have had your loyalty and you," a deep growl echoed in Gutt's chest, "you betrayed me. You took our debt, our friendship, and your title and you threw it back in my face."
The ape was murderous as he turned to face his crew, a crazed glint in his eyes as he grinned bloodily at the crew and the sabres, an obvious divide between them. "Now, tell me first mate, what punishment is satisfactory enough for ripping me open? For denying me my kill? For giving that damn mammoth power over my crew? For ruining everything good we had going?" With each inquiry, Gutt neared, his black fur a reddish brown as his wounds wept red.
Jace met Gutt's gaze unflinchingly, standing his ground even as Shira stumbled back in fear. His muscles trembled under the strain of locking them in place and his eyes burned as the beast breathed on his face, heavy and hot and with violent, violent promise. "I'd say walk the plank but uh," he made a show of looking around, resignation coursing through his very being, "wrong ship."
**STARTS HERE**
Gutt's eyes blazed with fury as he struck the sabre, Jace roaring as he was knocked to the ground, muzzle burning as four long but shallow claw marks marred previously unscarred flesh. "You know what I've f-finally realized?" The sabre staggered to his feet as blood dripped into his mouth, the coppery taste heavy on his tongue as he swallowed heavily. "You're a coward."
The captain snarled thunderously, swinging again. Shira muffled a cry, sinking low to the ground as Jace collapsed, another set of bleeding grooves along his right shoulder. "Y-you," Jace gasped through the pain as he stumbled to his feet, "you are nothing without us." Gutt bared his teeth in anger and disbelief as the sabre stood upright once more. "You have nothing."
Flint watched with wide eyes, flippers clutching his blubbery body, as the resulting blow cut deeper than the others. It severed something of importance as the big cat roared in agony, taking longer to get back to his feet but he managed, the crew observing with the same awed and pitying disbelief. If it had been one of them. . . they would have chosen the icy depths below than receive blow after blow from the hands that had taken so many lives.
Shira lay low on the ground, meeting Jace's eyes for a moment. Silently, she pleaded with him. Stay down, she begged. Every time the tiger got to his feet each time Gutt knocked him down was a defiance that only served to further infuriate the ape. To submit would, at the very least, guarantee him time. It would give them time to find a way to escape the pirate and his cruelty once and for all. All they had now, after everything they had sacrificed and taken from others, was time.
Much to her dismay, however, it was never that easy. He had never been that easy and that was what she loved most about him. It was only right that it grew to be something she hated.
"Y-you rule thr-ugh fe-r." Jace choked on his blood, shaking his head in an effort to see through the blood and black spots in his vision. His body ached and his stomach felt cold. It felt so so cold and heavy, like it hung low, pressed to the ice even as he stood on his feet. "This cr-w—this f-forc-d loy-alty? I-s noth-ing co-pared t-to what th-t mam-oth h-s." The sabre understood that his last was fast approaching, a fact he had long since accepted the moment he chose Akira. "He h-has ever-thi-g -ou thou-ght y-you di-d."
It was a small mercy how little the final blow hurt. Jace felt a sense of peace as he lay down on the ice, breathing heavily as he watched a puddle of red spread from his body, his vision blurring gradually as his nerves grew numb. Gutt towered above him, his face twisted into a scowl. The sabre offered him a weak, bloody grin as he exhaled for the last time. "Pathetic."
**ENDS HERE**
The ape surged towards him just as his eyes closed, his mind fading away and it pained him only minimally for he heard Shira's horrified cry. It sounded so much like Akira's, a gut-wrenching sound he had hoped never to hear again. Now, he hoped they both would find peace after him. That his death wouldn't burden them. He hoped Shira would escape now that he had given her the chance. He hoped she would find Akira and that his nieces and nephews would be with her. He hoped Shira would love them as much as he would have. He hoped she would find the family she had been looking for in their sorry excuse for a crew.
He hoped.
"How is she doing?" Manny glanced away from where the sabres were tucked away, the mother in labour's cries finally ceasing after hours of agony. Sid sat dejectedly by his side, unusually miserable in a way the sloth was often too aloof and scatterbrained to be. "She lost her brother, nearly lost her cubs and went into labour on top of it? Not good, Sid."
The sloth peered up at him with a frown before shooting the den of sabres an uneasy look. "Do you. . . you think Captain Gutt. . ?" Sid didn't have to finish, Manny looking at him with a sad expression. "Yeah, Sid. I know he did." The mammoth didn't have it in him to protest as the other mammal leaned into his side, sniffling and getting tears and snot all over his fur. "Aw, Manny, she just found him. Kira was so happy to see him—like, like he was her rainbow around the corner and she just," Sid clung to his leg, wailing, "she lost him as f-fast as she got him back."
Manny sighed as he glanced at the horizon and the setting sun. "You know. . . my mom used to tell me that there were two worlds?" Sid sniffled, peering up at him in bewilderment as he swiped an arm under his runny nose. "Like my mom and rainbows?" The mammoth huffed, nodding. "Yeah. She used to say that there was our world and another one where our loved ones would go when they die," his eyes flickered to the sky of oranges and reds and pinks, "and every time the sun set, it was their world reaching down to us."
The sloth leaned heavily against him, watching the sunset as he had been. "Oh. . . I don't get it." Manny rolled his eyes with a put-upon sigh. "It means he's here, Sid, and I think he'll always be here, watching over Kira, but the sunset is just when we see him. When. . . when we see everyone we've lost."
"Hey, boys, where's Peaches?" Percy paused, glancing back at Louis who was dozing on his back before looking around. He narrowly spotted the back of the mammoth in question as she disappeared with the other unruly teen mammoths in the area, the sabre frowning briefly before he turned back to Ellie. "Making friends, I guess." Knowing Peaches had been vying for the approval of the so-called popular mammoths for the past year or so had grated on his nerves as Percy didn't see any redeeming qualities about them.
They were stuck-up, preppy and entitled and obnoxious in a way his best friend wasn't but she was all too eager to pretend to be one of them just for them to notice her. For Ethan to notice her. "Can you let her know not to go too far? Or do too much? The rate this wall is going, we'll have to travel through the night to get to the bridge on time." Percy sighed as Louis sat up with a yawn, the molehog stretching languidly as he nodded. "Sure thing, Ellie!" As if he were the one walking to do so.
Percy huffed, muttering to himself as he trailed after the group of mammoths, following their tracks and Ellie's scent to a cave that followed along the path the crowd of mammals walked through, serving not really as a shortcut but an alternative path and a more scenic route. "So, like, are you really friends with that. . . that molehog? And the sabre? Cause I mean, it would d be totally uncool since, well, he's a sabre. They're, like, supposed to eat us and whatever and that is so not cool."
Percy stopped short, exchanging a look with Louis before the molehog was hopping off his back and burrowing into the ground. Quietly, much like when he was hunting, the sabre padded after the dirt trail he left behind as he moved towards where Peaches was with the mammoths, their back to them. "Oh, uh, Louis and Percy?" He slowed, watching her tuck her hair behind her ear, a nervous tick of hers. "They're not, we're not, no. They're not my friends or anything. Percy's just around cause our parents are, like, lifetime friends but I don't really like him. He's just, he's just around."
The sabre halted entirely, staring at Peaches' back in disbelief, the mammoth soaking in the approving noises of the other mammals around her until Louis' voice alerted her to their presence. "What?" Peaches' whipped around, gasping in horror as she first saw the molehog and then Percy, her eyes widening with guilt and shame as she took an aborted step toward them. "Oh no, Louis, Perce—" All her 'friends' had to say in sympathy was a whispered, "busted," behind her back, the four snickering at the scene as it unfolded.
"Guys, no, I didn't, I don't—" Percy's gaze hardened as Louis backtracked to him, sprouting up from the ground to then scramble up his leg. "Then don't, Peaches. It's not like we're friends, right?" Or family, either. He shook his head, genuinely disappointed in her as the molehog on his back curled up between his shoulder blades, sniffling quietly. "Not like we're anything at all cause I'm just. . . around."
He was just around when she'd been born, nothing but a small ball of copper fluff and green eyes, calling him Snow in her first years and refusing to call him Percy. He was just around when the adults weren't, tasked to look after her because he was a big cub and a big brother so he had to look out for her. He was around when she was being teased by other kids, he was around when they'd trekked to the North Pole, he was around when Manny was too overprotective and Peaches needed someone to vent to. He had only ever just been around it seemed.
"I. . . Percy, wait, I was just—" He didn't wait. He didn't care to hear the half-hearted protests and excuses Peaches had to offer because they wouldn't be genuine because she was sorry, only because she had been caught. The sabre couldn't be sure that she would say sorry to their faces before turning back to the others in his and Louis' absences and reiterating that they were nothing.
"Whoa, Peaches, don't stress. You're with us now." Percy scoffed under his breath as he disappeared from their sight but remained within earshot with his sensitive hearing. "Yeah, girl, and be-tee-dubs, we are soo much better than a predator."
Peaches frowned to herself at how they spat the word as if it left a bad taste in their mouth. Her eyes lingered on the cave entrance where Percy and Louis had disappeared through, the mammoth itching to follow after them as the other mammoths ushered her along as if they hadn't just ruined two of the most important friendships she'd ever had. Two worth more than even half of theirs.