The events of the previous day had been more than enough to thoroughly tire Z out. He didn't wake on his own, instead jerking awake to realise Blue had been pulling on his foot. As he propped himself up on his elbows to get a good look at her, he decided that she was either very tired or had been trying to rouse him for a while and become annoyed. Perhaps it was both. Either way, he got the message.
"All right, I'm up."
She returned custody of his foot to him and stepped away. With his toes free, Z sat up properly and shuffled to the end of the bed, retrieving his pegleg from underneath it. Just as he got it settled on, Blue reappeared beside him. She stepped around to his other side and kicked her boots off before curling up in the bed where he had just been. In the heat of the Devil's Roar, he was surprised that she still insisted on pulling a single blanket over herself.
But for some reason, Z found the entire sight a little funny. He snickered, asking, "What's with you?"
She grunted, then said a moment later, "You slept all day."
"Ah." That explained why he felt so well-rested and why she was so impatient. Another chuckle, then: "Just couldn't wait t' take my spot, huh?"
All Z received in response was a grunt in response. When he voiced his amusement with another chuckle, Blue said, "The earthquakes were relentless and the southern volcano erupted shortly after you went to sleep. It is still erupting. It has been a long day."
"Sounds like a normal day in the Roar."
"Hmm."
"Hey, did any other volcanoes go off? I'm won—"
He was surprised when Blue sat up to put her hands on either side of his jaw and made him look at her.
"Z, if you don't stop talking, I am going to rip every single hair out of your head."
Three things crossed his mind: the first was that this was the only time he could remember her saying his name; the second was that this was one of the few times she had ever touched him, and never quite this much; the third was that such a threat was strange but its validity stood — the idea was not a pleasant one. All of this amounted to a general feeling of confusion that left him speechless long enough for Blue to smile at him, pat his cheek and curl back up on her side, apparently satisfied with his silence.
Should he respond to her again, even a mere acknowledgement, Z didn't doubt that he would find her making good on her threat. Besides, the silence between them was comfortable and Blue looked even more so — best to not mess that up, he decided.
Leg secured, shipmate nestled into bed, Z made his way out onto the deck to find that they were still sitting at Ashen Reaches. The Roar was just as it always was: hot and dark with a constant sooty taste and look to the air. The region was not a pleasant one, but its familiarity was.
An earthquake pulled him from his thoughts, the ship wiggling in response. Between that and the knowledge that Blue could sleep through the rocking motions of a moving ship, it seemed as good a time as any to leave this island. Shortly after doing just that, a loud booming noise caught Z's attention. He turned away from the helm for a moment to confirm that yes, it was the island's volcano erupting and not cannon fire. Good timing indeed.
When Z had lowered the sail to get the ship moving, it hadn't been with much purpose and so he spent quite some time considering his course options. They could backtrack some to the small island of Roaring Sands or head northeast to The Devil's Thirst, another large island with a volcano feature. He chose the latter. There, a skeleton welcomed their arrival with a cannonball. This was typical, but the aim of such skeletons was always up in the air. This one's was not so good and so Z was able to avoid damage to the ship and allotted plenty of time to traverse the island and personally put the skelly down.
As far as he knew, Blue had slept the entire way to The Devil's Thirst. When he returned to the ship, he checked to see if the commotion had changed that. From what he could see of her underneath the light blanket, she was tense, and he doubted she would totally ignore such noises.
With the ship to himself, it was time to decide what to do with all his free time. Supplies were in short supply in the Roar thanks to its destructive nature — which also made many pirates shy away entirely — and they had stocked up plenty before entering it, so scavenging was out of the question. Exploring the island was out of the question for him — there was nothing to explore. The islands in the Roar were fairly barren and he had been here plenty of times before.
In the end, Z ended up doing a whole lot of nothing. He would never admit to having napped in the chair out of sheer boredom. Besides, the slightest of earthquakes had awoken him so by his reasoning, the ship was never in any danger. He doubted that Blue would see his side of that story, though, so when she got up, he made no mention of it despite being sat in the chair yet again.
The two of them shared a coconut shortly after that when she decided she wanted to eat; this consisted of him eating what she didn't. After that, they took a tour of the island just like before. Ashen Reaches was a larger island than The Devil's Thirst was so they spent less time aimlessly walking around. Blue still took the time to stop and look at any points of interest that she found especially intriguing. Part of a ship that had been hauled out of the water and up onto a hill to be made a shelter had fascinated her especially.
"Well, y' can't really build stuff out of a few burnt palm trees," Z had explained.
"No, no, you cannot. I suppose it makes sense to recycle ships like this."
Just as before, Blue lingered at paintings on the rocks, too. She seemed to find those especially interesting this time, stopping at the second one they came across. Just like most of the others, this one seemed to depict people dying to something in the environment.
"Does it not strike you as odd that there are only three paintings on this island?"
Z was annoyed that he had been right to expect a question of that nature from her, yet not as much as he was to be following her around. "That's all they needed, I guess."
Blue wrinkled her nose.
They spent a little while longer on land. It seemed that Blue wasn't as totally fascinated with this place as she had been with Ashen Reaches, but they did linger a good amount of time at the peak where the rock formation may have once come together. Perhaps, he decided, she had been considering luring him into a position where she could push him off, but there was enough water down below for him to survive the fall. No, she would not find any relief from his presence right now. It was that or she just liked the view of the horizon even more than he did.
When they finally got back to the ship, Blue immediately made her way to the map table. Curious, he followed close behind.
"How long have we been here?"
"Not long. I left Ashen Reaches jus' after y' went t' bed."
"I spied nothing around us from up there…"
"Y' could always fire yerself out of the cannon t' look 'round better."
Blue looked up from the table to stare at him.
"… what?" It was a valid tactic. With the cannon aimed as far upward as it would go, a pirate could shoot themselves higher than just about any island in the Sea of Thieves was tall. Surely she understood this; he only stared back, unable to fathom that she didn't.
She sighed and shook her head. "My point is that there is nothing around us here, correct?"
"Correct."
"Then we should move on."
"Sure." Sailing with two was easier than one anyway. "Where to?"
"Any arguments concerning this island?" she inquired, pointing to Magma's Tide.
"None."
There was nothing interesting about that island. The sole outpost of the region was closer, but he thought it might be a good idea to steer clear of it to avoid spooking any nearby ships they were yet to discover. Besides, from Magma's Tide, they might be able to spot someone hiding behind Ruby's Fall…
"And, I think the volcano is too far t' hit it. It'd be a good place to relax."
"It sounds like an ideal place to journey to and rest well at."
Z nodded his head.
The waves of the Devil's Roar were tall and fierce, just like in the Wilds. Here, however, the presence of volcanoes explained its condition, why everything was grey and dull. The Roar even had more valuable treasure to be discovered within its reach. the Wilds had no such pleasantries or explanation — it was dreary for no good reason at all.
Unlike the previous two islands they had stayed at, Magma's Tide was a little thing. To the north was a sea volcano and to the west was The Devil's Thirst; both of these volcanoes were too far away to pose any threat to the little island that lacked its own. They would erupt during their time spent at Magma's Tide to prove this point, sparing the Forlorn Phoenix of any damage sans a little dusting of ash.
Further still to the north were two small islands that were a tad closer to the sea volcano. Slightly to the northwest of that was Brimstone Rock; Z had been there a few times before, always on good business. Slightly to the east was Glowstone Cay, a tiny thing so close to the Red Sea that he was certain that it was occasionally inaccessible due to its wavering nature. Z had visited that island on the way to more good business many times before, so it too was a welcome sight. On the contrary, Magma's Tide was an island he could barely remember even existed.
Despite the plainness of the island, Blue still felt the need to disembark and explore it. She climbed up to the top of its rocky peak and sat there for quite some time; he wasn't sure what to make of that. He was learning that Blue seemed to have a penchant for climbing things, and he decided that he didn't mind. At her position, she could keep an eye out for anything of interest, and it meant they got some proper time away from each other; that was nice when cooped up on a little ship like this one.
From there, they went to Glowstone Cay. Blue found the island's name to be interesting and Z hadn't said anything bad about it. Apparently, that was all that was required for her to take them that way over.
Their time there was initially one of nervousness for the nearby sea volcano had erupted just as they arrived. Ash fell from the sky and some chunks of brimstone seemed to taunt them, landing close enough to alter the air around them. When it was done, they gave the island a good once over. Despite the comments made towards it, the island was of simple nature and held nothing of interest to it but its name. The best thing they found was a single bounty skull in water just deep enough to hide it from less keen eyes.
Some time was spent debating where to go from there. To the west and slightly north was the one outpost of the region: Morrow's Peak. More directly north of them was Ruby's Fall, an island known for erupting in the presence of incoming ships. When questioned about his desire to avoid the outpost, Z explained that it was in their favour to stay away from it to avoid spooking any nearby ships into becoming more skittish; the more desirable loot found in this region could make even the most stoic of crews nervous. When questioned about Ruby's Fall, he could offer no explanation for its volcano's behaviour except that it was just like that and everyone knew it. She seemed dissatisfied with this but didn't push the subject.
Despite the danger, Ruby's Fall was exactly where they ended up. Just as he had said it would, the volcano erupted when they were close enough to be in danger. Blue turned the ship around and they waited for it to quiet from outside of its range. Z thought this was quite boring.
Like other islands, the volcanic peak of Ruby's Fall was tall enough to shelter a ship from the prying eyes of another crew. Z was fairly certain that they were alone, though not entirely. When he spotted Blue disembarking to explore this island as well, he decided she could ascertain the certainty of his gut before changing his mind a little while later and joining her.
Upon this island was more of the same: paintings of things wreathed in fire or underneath volcanoes that were erupting. On the highest part of the island were minimalistic structures that had perhaps provided some basic shelter for pirates at another time, some basic supplies left behind as well. They were of no use now, however, withered by time.
Only two things of interest were on this island: one was the brazier that had been set up years ago for the Festival of the Damned. Blue accepted a simple explanation regarding it and lit it with her lantern, the pink flame exploding into life within it. Nearby was a sheer drop; directly below was the skeleton of a pirate who had somehow fallen long ago, their remaining articles quite curious. Z took great amusement in Blue's expression when she noticed it below them, as though she were making sure that he hadn't gotten any silly ideas. Then she climbed down the way to the beach below and he had to follow her.
"Odd necklace on this one," Blue had pointed out. It was a simple black chain the pirate had worn, a molten red glyph that was loosely shaped like a flame attached.
"Yeah, I guess so." Z had passed this skeleton so many times in his travels that he barely recalled that this one was someone of note. Their name and what that noteworthy thing might have been, however, eluded him at the moment.
He stood nearby while Blue examined the corpse and its belongings. While the matter was of little interest to him, but Blue had the talent to make the most simple things take as long as possible. And besides, what else were they going to do all day?
All of the paintings in this region were rather similar to each other, and that bored Z. Blue, however, wasn't satisfied and seemed to want to commit them to memory. He was just glad that she didn't take even more time to draw copies of them or try to involve him in some sort of discussion again. In fact, this time around he didn't even stay with her to inspect any of the island's points of interest after doing a thorough once-over and pointing out the corpse of Ruby — that was their name, right? The island was named after their death, after all. It made sense in his head, though he didn't voice it.
Once Blue had satisfied her curiosity sometime later and discovered a gilded chalice in the sand, they rested for a time. Ruby's Fall was a good place to sit and observe a good portion of the Devil's Roar. At any time, a number of volcanoes could be seen erupting so a ship — or two, if you were lucky — could be spotted moving from island to island or stopped out in the open ocean. Even with this location, finding ships was proving difficult for the crew of the Forlorn Phoenix. A fog bank rolling in from the north was not helping matters.
After they had both napped, Z had reasoned, "We should get goin'. Everythin' else is blowin' up and Ruby's is due any time now and we can't see past that fog anyway."
Blue had agreed with him. The island offered nothing more for them and even she was itching to move again. As he had predicted and pointed out, Ruby's Fall had erupted upon their arrival and its next imminent eruption had the both of them slowly becoming more and more on edge.
They skipped past Flintlock Peninsula entirely and went north to Cursewater Shores. It was a tiny island with a shallow crater in the middle where freshwater collected and was warmed by the Roar. Blue decided that this was particularly strange, but neither of them found it intolerable. Cleaning off all the ash residue that the volcanoes spewed was a welcome thought to Z, though they both agreed to save the bathing until just before they were ready to move on again.
With that in mind, Z considered their options from the crow's nest. As useful a vantage point as it was, a sloop wasn't nearly as tall as a galleon and he couldn't see much further through the fog than he could on the deck of the ship. Their position was perfect to see the rest of the Roar that they had yet to scour, but the fog was making that very difficult. Instead, he decided after becoming thoroughly frustrated, he would take a look from the highest point he could manage by shooting himself out of a cannon.
As he did that, Blue watched with a weary eye, spyglass in hand. He only paid a little bit of attention to her, silently finding her expression funny as he pointed the cannon as far up as it would go. She'd figure it out when he launched himself.
Even in the Devil's Roar, the wind nipped at one's face when flying out of a cannon. Years of flights made it a mere minor discomfort for Z. As he reached the peak of his arc, he brought his spyglass up to his face, scanning from north to west. It was distant and the fog still managed to impede his vision quite a lot, but he was damned certain that he saw the masts of a brigantine in the direction of Fetcher's Rest.
When the mer brought him back to the ship and threw him aboard, Blue was waiting with only a slightly concerned — disapproving? — expression, her arms crossed.
"Brigantine that-a-way," he said with a finger pointed in said direction. "I think." He swore he heard her snort when he launched himself again.
This time he spent the entirety of his hang time looking in that one direction. He paid more attention to all that was to be seen there, realising that it was the volcano of Fetcher's Rest that was erupting, explaining why the brigantine was further to the north than it ought to be if visiting the island. Approaching the ship with any amount of cover beside the fog would be impossible, and a brig was taller than a sloop was. The nearest sea volcano was also spewing smoke; sloop and brigantine alike would be hunkering down for a while longer still.
Blue looked quite exasperated when the same mer brought him back to the ship again. "Are you done?"
He couldn't fathom what about this behaviour was annoying her. "What's the matter?"
"It is loud and you are dripping water and dirt everywhere on the deck."
"Right. Whatever. There's a brig over there at Fetcher's for sure. No way we can approach 'em without 'em seein' us, though."
It seemed she was considering her response, a thoughtful expression crossing her face. Before she could speak, an explosion sounded nearby. Both of them looked to the sea volcano to observe its beginning eruption.
"I think we are not going anywhere anytime soon."
And right she was. Even Z wasn't interested in dealing with two volcanoes one after another, brash as he was. After deciding with confidence that the ship was sitting outside of the volcano's range, the duration of their eruptions was spent relaxing as much as they could. During this time the two of them got their separate baths. Blue even cleaned a good amount of clothes and bedding with the time that they had on their hands. She also insisted on shaving his face again and Z could come up with no good excuse against this.
It was late into the night when the last volcano finally went quiet again and Z thought it was a good idea that they get going. The only problem with that was Blue sleeping in her usual spot. Waking her up would no doubt annoy her, but the idea of picking her up and moving her to the bed didn't strike him as a very good one; he was certain that she always kept that dagger somewhere on her person and she might take more offence than usual to his presence… Ultimately, he decided on waking her up similarly to how she had done to him not so long ago, careful to not give her any reason to snap at him. A few minutes were allotted to her to wake up, and then to listen to his plan; when she was agreeable to this, he decided that it must have been early, not late.
With that settled, the two of them set out. The fog had not lifted at all in the time they spent waiting on the volcanoes; if anything, it had gotten worse. Navigating was a pain. A quick conversation led to Z climbing up into the crow's nest to keep an eye out for any obstacles that they might sail into. The mast of a sloop wasn't very tall, but it was just enough for a good set of eyes to keep the ship safe if they moved slowly.
He really hated how slow they went. It was a necessity, but it didn't help his moodiness. By the time they reached Fetcher's Rest, the brigantine was long gone. With a fresh launch from the cannon, he spied the ship heading northerly and cursed himself for not occasionally doing that to take in their surroundings. Then again, such repetition might have attracted an obnoxious school of mer, or they might have alerted the brig to their presence. It would have helped their time, though.
With nothing going on yet again, Blue had reasoned that they should rest, exhausted by sailing through the fog. Z was having none of it so she took to the bed downstairs and he kept them moving forward. The closest charted island out of the Devil's Roar was Liar's Backbone so that was where Z aimed the ship. He was especially glad for this when the volcano of Fetcher's Rest erupted once more.
He paid no mind to it until a sizzling noise caught his attention to the side: ember-fall. A moment later, a chunk of brimstone landed in the water nearby with a mighty splash. He paused to consider this, too. Then he decided that there wasn't much to consider about this: his only option was to keep the ship moving and hope nothing worse than hot ash landed on it.
Sailing through the rain of a volcano was a tense situation for anyone. Where most pirates would panic, Z was rather calm. At a point, he leaned against the wheel to brush an ember off the railing. His head was already turned and a feeling in his gut compelled him to look further to the side until he was looking behind himself.
There was only a moment to wonder if the brimstone would kill him or not, and then there was nothing at all.
