Before the group was a gigantic room that sprawled out in all directions. All over the floor were piles of gold coins and trinkets and jewellery, piles upon piles. In the middle of the room, there was what once might have been an elevated walkway overhead, but now it simply looked like a broken bridge. There was scaffolding all over the room, on the walls and around the four massive pillars that held the ceiling up. Blue couldn't tell if it was a result of more recent construction or if all those planks were slowly decaying over time. Most striking, directly in front of them on the other side of the room was a throne so ornate that it had a few steps surrounding it, and sitting upon it was the Gold Hoarder. Blue still thought that the Skeleton Lord looked to be in pain, but that thought disappeared when he lifted his head from his hand, now aware of the intrusion. Briefly, she wondered the possibility of employing diplomacy, but what would be the point?
What was the point of any of this?
Before she could consider her thoughts any further, the Gold Hoarder was on his feet with a mighty growl. The shovel that he held in his right hand was held out in front of him, then used to scrape the gold away before he dove into the pile.
There was a moment of near silence as the group paused to understand what they had seen, then drew their weapons.
"Spread out!" Captain Montagne shouted.
A moment later the Gold Hoarder emerged from a different pile of gold. Blue backed away, though not before she got a better look at him, of his ragged green and gold clothing, the jewellery and gold that adorned his skeletal form. The title was more than fitting.
"Thieves… intruders…"
Or perhaps 'the Gold Hoarder' was all that was left of what was once a person. Judging by the incredibly raspy voice and simple words, Blue wondered if she was giving this one too much credit.
Kata nearly lost her sword to a single block of a swing of his shovel and Blue was left second-guessing herself.
Forcing her mind to stop wandering so she could focus on staying alive, Blue backed up until she felt she was safe enough to pull her gun into her hands. Kata had been eager to meet the Skeleton Lord directly in the fight and stepped forward when all others had more or less taken Madeleine's command to heart. Now, with the battle truly begun in earnest, the crew of the Octavia wordlessly coordinated an attack on the Gold Hoarder. Garrett provided nearby support by firing his pistol at their opponent. Z, she noticed, stayed near her. They exchanged glances before she motioned for him to join the others, which he hesitantly did. She didn't blame him, then wondered if it was not fear of the Skeleton Lord that made him keep his distance at first.
Her mind was wandering way too much. Even as her next shot landed on its intended target, Blue found herself becoming frustrated by how easily distracted she was.
The Gold Hoarder, she supposed, simply did not compare to Graymarrow, what with the latter's constant harassment and marooning of souls. No, this time it truly felt as though they were the ones intruding, the Skeleton Lord on the defence. Why they intruded…
Blue reminded herself of the innate evilness of skeletons, Lords or no, and the blight that they were upon the Sea of Thieves. The place would be a little nicer if one didn't have to worry about having their ankles sliced open by corpses hiding in the dirt.
Or in the gold. He had said something that Blue didn't quite process and lesser skeletons rose from the gold piles. That was annoying, but at least they knew that fishing through the gold piles after they were done with the fight would be dangerous.
All this for some gold. Granted, it was enough gold that, even had it been split among the original twelve pirates that were meant to come here, it would have been an incredible haul.
All of this trouble for… gold.
Something about the situation churned Blue's stomach, and it wasn't because the Gold Hoarder's attention had just snapped to her after she landed another shot on him. That was problematic in itself, more so than her wandering thoughts. As Blue turned to put distance between them, someone stepped in front of him. She didn't see who, instead sprinting towards the nearest wall of the room and around a pillar. From her now slightly elevated position, she had a much better shot at all of the skeletons on the main floor. Shooting over her shipmates was still risky, but with the Gold Hoarder towering over all of them, she could still pester him while the others cleared out his friends.
With the Lord's minions cleared out, that meant the four were able to advance with their swords. She and Garrett continued to offer support with their guns, the onslaught appearing rather effective. That is until she heard a sound that she had heard during the fight with Graymarrow, though she had not seen it in action. This time she got to witness the Skeleton Lord blasting everyone away. So surrounding a Skeleton Lord was out of the question.
Having been launched into the air, Captain Montagne hit a pillar in mid-air and landed hard on the ground. Only Blue was able to see the Gold Hoarder set his sights on her, marching toward her. Shots from her musket did nothing to dissuade his approach and by the time she felt the need to call out, everyone was well aware of the Skeleton Lord towering over Madeleine.
Blue flinched when the shovel plunged into her chest, its edge cutting as sharply as any sword.
Whether or not she and Garrett were delivering any meaningful aid now weighed heavily on her mind. She fired another shot before throwing her gun onto her back so she could run over to the stairs that led up to the broken structure. Perhaps a more downward angle would help…?
With a normal target, there were obvious weak points for her to aim at if not outright kill with one shot. Against something like this, however… well, if it weren't for the smallest of flinches and the hissing, she would never have thought she was making a difference. Now, from her higher position, she was sure she was helping somewhat with her last shot. With a vicious backhanded strike, the Gold Hoarder knocked Rezin away from him before turning to Blue with a snarl. That made her feel a little better, for a moment, until she realised she was his new focus.
The platform she stood upon was probably the safest place she could be right now — it was a long way to get to her. It seemed everyone understood this as the Gold Hoarder paused to call forth a new group of underlings to help get the pirates off of him before continuing his forward march. Blue considered her positioning and decided that her next order of business would be to jump the gap between the bridge sides when the Gold Hoarder eventually got too close. It was a manageable jump if she were careful and got a running start.
She shouldn't have looked at her pouch to grab another handful of ammunition. Lifting her head, the approaching Skeleton Lord closed the distance far sooner than she had anticipated, already coming up the ramp after her. It had worked before, she reasoned as she cocked her gun back in her grip, and it had been a smaller gun, so surely hitting him with the butt of her musket would buy her the time she needed. It only occurred to her that he had laughed at her after she turned her back to him.
The strike knocked her off balance and she realised she wasn't going to be able to make the jump, even if she hadn't staggered forward. Blue was vaguely aware of the pain in the back of her head and that she had tumbled off the platform, and then everything went dark.
Consciousness made itself known in the form of intense throbbing pain emanating from the back of her head. Dying might have been preferable. Blue wasn't a big fan of her current state of being, the pain impossible to ignore. She was leaning her left side on something and after forcing her eyes open, she realised that she was sitting against the forecastle of the Octavia, if only because of the light from the lantern above her. They still hadn't moved since… well, she wasn't sure when that might have been.
One long moment later Blue realised the warm thing against her back was Z, equal amounts of him leaning against her and she leaning against him. The inequality was his arm around her waist, just tight enough to keep her steady. She had moved her hands onto the gauntlet of his glove to understand this, an action that was enough to rouse him. They both twisted around to get a look at each other and assess the moment. He didn't move and she didn't feel like moving.
"How y' feel?" he asked.
"Slow and fat, like a pregnant cow," she said. She tried to reach for the back of her head and Z grabbed her wrist. "… And whatever that is."
"Y' got hit pretty hard," he explained, releasing her hand.
"Ah." Blue took a moment to bring her hand back to her lap, focusing her attention there. That was right, she… she had tried something stupid. "Right." She could feel Z's gaze on her.
"You remember, right?"
"Now I do," she admitted with a sigh.
"Now…?"
As annoying and embarrassing as it was, Blue didn't see much use in hiding her memory lapse from him. That could prove problematic and she really wanted to know how much time had passed. "How long—"
"We got out of there last night," he said.
It was still dark, so it must have been early morning at the latest, assuming she understood him correctly. She made a thoughtful noise and nodded to him. "What happened exactly?"
"Y' really don't remember?" Z asked with the raising of a brow. When she shook her head, he scratched at his. "Well, after y' fell off the thing, Garrett caught y' and y' both fell on yer asses. I guess the Gold Hoarder didn't like that the two'a y' were shootin' at him 'cause he jumped after ya."
Blue made a face; she didn't remember that at all. What happened after, though… "And Kata…"
"Yea, Kata jumped after."
The memory was fuzzy, but it was slowly coming back to her. She briefly recalled hearing a scream, though she didn't see what happened before Kata had been thrown. "Did she—"
He shook his head. "No, she's alive… unfortunately. I don't think she's too appreciative'a that."
Blue gave him a look and he made a face back at her.
"Kata jumped on him and he, uh… he jus'… grabbed her by the arm an' leg, threw her down an' then cut her side open."
Right. That was right. The Gold Hoarder had crushed her limbs on one side and then failed to put his shovel into her chest as he had with the captain. Kata was in rough shape and must have been one of the people in the cabin that she could indistinctly hear and see shadows of occasionally. Her expression must have exuded the curiosity she felt, as Z spoke without prompting.
"I guess Garrett's not bad at patchin' people up. Better than Rez, at least."
Blue grunted. "You think she will survive?"
He shrugged. "Maybe. If her side don't get infected." He paused. "They think she's gonna hafta lose her hand and leg below the knee, though."
"That is unfortunate."
"Garrett jus' wanted t' kill her and let the Ferry do its thing. Rez begged him t' fix her up."
Blue side-eyed him. "… in case her hand and leg are salvageable?"
He nodded. Then, "Hey, what else do y' remember?"
Recollection howled in her head…
Blue looked up from the floor that was painted with droplets of her own blood just in time to see the Gold Hoarder die in an explosion of bones and gold. That made twice now that she had encountered a Skeleton Lord and twice now she had come out with her life intact. Twice, too, for Z.
Rezin and Z stood stupefied by what they saw. Z only looked briefly at the glittering skull that sat at their feet, more concerned with… her? Her and Kata? Garrett had abandoned Blue's side at her behest when Kata had been savaged. A cursory glance in their direction and Blue decided that turning her head like that hurt, and that the other woman was in worse shape than her.
Blue passed Rezin as she staggered over to Z. She realised that her left hand was on the back of her head — failing to stifle a steady flow of blood — when she reached down and had to extend a sore, stiff arm to pick up the skull; anything to avoid throwing herself at Z.
A cry came from Kata and they both looked for a moment before their attention went back to each other. Whatever they might have said about the woman's crushed limbs and the pool of blood beneath her was forgotten when the fires in the braziers around the throne roared to life. More strangely was their immediate quieting, turning a ghostly green.
Now what? she had wondered.
A moment later, a gathering of green light came from before the throne and from it came forth the rotund ghost of a man who had once welcomed her to the Sea of Thieves, clapping and laughing like he had just seen a right good show.
"Now this is what I like to see! A grand adventure. A fight to the death! And a great big pile of treasure."
He scanned the room. She was uncertain of his desire to celebrate their victory when it had been so costly, when one's life was still in danger. Perhaps he knew something they didn't. Blue wasn't sure she knew enough about the man to have felt anything other than gratitude that he had given her a round of advice and encouragement when she had needed it most. Now, though…
"You'll have quite the tall tale to tell once you make it home. The trouble with being the Pirate Lord is that everybody tries to follow in your footsteps. Briggsy. Graymarrow. The crew of the Morningstar. Why, I ask you? This place, this Sea of Thieves, is far bigger and stranger than any of us know. I reckon you've learned as much, or you wouldn't be standing here. There'll always be new stories to tell, riches to plunder, and monsters to chill the blood of anyone brave enough to seek them out."
Victory had come at quite a cost, and yet… yet he was not wrong. They and this crew, their alliance, had gone through more than most did, accomplishing greatness. Blue's agitation lessened as she considered this, considered the significance of the Pirate Lord congratulating them. She had never shared a word of her brief meeting with him on that island, certain no one would believe her when they spoke so highly of him, singing song and praise so grand that the subject of it could hardly be human.
Perhaps that was the case.
So enthralling his words had been, Blue was almost certain she could see those and what he spoke of. Perhaps she had been hit harder than she realised.
"As for the Gold Hoarder, I doubt we've seen the last of him. It's never that easy to scrub away the stain greed leaves behind."
Surely he jested.
"Still, I'm sure he'll think twice before picking a fight with you again! For now, I'd leave the treasure be. Its power has claimed the hearts of too many pirates already. That skull should fetch a pretty penny with the Order of Souls however, if you are so inclined."
He said more, but Blue didn't hear anything other than his "door being open to true Pirate Legends". Leave the gold? After everything they had gone through? That was the whole point of this disaster!
"Remember, it's not about the gold… it's about the glory!"
The rage that Blue had felt at that moment came back to her, hard, like being keelhauled against a galleon in a screaming wind. She remembered nothing after that, and considering the throbbing she felt in her head now…
"I remember… the Gold Hoarder dying… and the Pirate Lord… then nothing."
Z snickered as he leaned back against the forecastle, folding his hands behind his back with a haughty grin. "Yea, figures that Ramsey'd show up after a thing like that."
Blue was vaguely curious about the name, what Z might have meant exactly, but it paled in comparison to the new realisation that they might have left with nothing.
"And the gold…?"
"Didn't even touch it. It's all cursed. 'Member?"
Blue blinked, then stared at him for a long moment before looking away.
Hitting the Gold Hoarder with the butt of her gun had been a stupid idea. She had been injured in the process, endangered the rest of the group, and Kata was severely injured as a result of it.
The Shores of Gold — the name alone made a promise of riches beyond one's mere imagination…
Now Z was looking at her like she wasn't of this earth. She blinked and understood immediately, swiftly turning away from him. The hand that came up to her face wasn't merely an attempt to hide the tears, but the physical pain caused by such a movement stunned her, leading to another wave of pain through her form, of shame and embarrassment.
By the time her left hand came up to her face and she had pulled her right arm against her chest, Z was in front of her again. She caught a glimpse of him knelt before her with his hands awkwardly held up before clenching her eyes shut, the tears unimpeded anyway. Something was said that she didn't catch; words eluded her and she could only cry, cried and cried even as he pulled her intact side against his chest. He said nothing and merely held her as weeks of frustrations, wracking pain, and exhaustion came to a head.
The thought to reach out and grab one or two of the pondies at her feet occurred, to punish the school for being so trusting. If she had more energy, Blue might have done that and taken her frustrations out on the poor things. Instead, she adjusted how she sat on the rock and merely flicked a big toe at one that had tickled her just a little too much before pulling her feet out of the cool water.
For once, Z had been the one to suggest that they get cleaned up. She couldn't argue it, not when she was covered in dried blood and all manner of dirt. Everyone on the ship could use a good bath, but when the sun was just peeking out over the Devil's Shroud, they discovered that they were the only ones awake. What a long night it had been for everyone, it seemed.
Kata's state weighed heavily on her mind. With how things had been going, Blue wouldn't be surprised in the least if the other woman would require amputation of both limbs. The deaths of Bean and Madeleine bothered her, too. If the alliance had come here twelve strong, would they still have lost a similar portion of their men? Considering the previous Skeleton Lord encounter, it seemed likely to her.
A voice in her head told her that these things were out of her control, yet Blue couldn't help hearing another that pointed out that she was the common factor in all of these incidents.
She spared a glance over at Z. Unlike her, he was dressed now in the extra set of clothes he had brought. With only two sets of clothes each, he had insisted on cleaning the dirty ones right away. He had finished that, laid them out to dry on a rock, and was now busy cleaning up his beard with her dagger. It was probably for the better that it was in his hands for the time being. He looked completely unperturbed while she was dying for any sort of distraction from her thoughts.
Her life, she supposed, had simply been one disaster after another, right from the start. This should not have surprised her. Graymarrow should not have surprised her. The Pirate Lord's command should not have surprised her. Nothing ever seemed to work out for her.
Stealing that brigantine had been a stupid idea. How dare she think things would get better for her in a place called the Sea of Thieves of all things.
"Y' look like y're thinkin' really hard 'bout somethin'," Z said.
As soon as she turned her head to look at him, he simply dropped a towel over her head. She wasn't sure if she made an indignant noise or not. Whatever the case, he walked away after that.
For someone who had tried so hard to fool around with her when they met, he sure was conscious of giving her space now. She looked terrible, sure, but she never even caught him trying to sneak any peeks at her and that was beginning to sting. She practically had to throw herself at him the other night to get him to touch her.
Blue grumbled about that for the time she spent drying. Before she could get onto her feet, Z was back beside her, handing her an article of clothing and refusing to relent when she glared back at him. He handed her a new piece of clothing when she got that on, and they continued that cycle until she was on her feet and buttoning up her vest, now dressed.
One thought hadn't left her mind, though.
Z produced a curious hum as he watched her poke at the surface of the water with her left hand. When one finally got close enough, she grabbed the pondie by the mouth and lifted it from the water. Z only rose a brow before he followed her back to the galleon.
Eating a fresh fish for the first time in what felt like forever boosted Blue's spirits significantly. Despite being on a dead woman's galleon, it was the most normal thing she had done in quite some time, even if she had shared it with Z. That, which upon a second thought, was fairly normal, too.
A lot had changed. It seemed a lot more would be changing, too, as things had not even remotely gone according to plan or even a guarded hope. Blue considered this idea as she and Z got comfortable in the crow's nest of the Octavia. Like usual, Blue had moved to sit on the railing of the structure, but a cursory glance downward stilled her and she found herself sitting beside Z with her legs through the openings of it instead.
"Would the fall from here to the deck kill you, you think?" she asked after noticing Z following her gaze.
"Nah, it jus' hurts more."
She shuddered after a moment's thought and made sure the railing didn't wobble. Z chuckled but kept his thoughts to himself.
They sat there for a time, watching the sun rise high into the sky. Besides that, there was nothing to look at other than Tribute Peak. Blue decided the island wasn't worth being seen. The silence below them did not go unnoticed, either.
"I take it the… survivors… are all still sleeping?"
"I think so," Z said. "Seems they're all in the cabin still, but it's quiet."
Blue made a thoughtful noise before leaning forward and resting her chin on the railing. "… I am ready to leave this God forsaken island."
He laughed and leaned back against the mast. "Yea, well, sailin' a gally's a bit more difficult than a sloop."
"I am aware." She wriggled her nose some, annoyed, and became even further annoyed by the sensation her scar produced when she did that. Forcing herself to ignore that, she added, "If Kata's condition is as poor as it sounds, then it would behove all of us to move all the sooner."
"Hm. I guess so."
They looked at each other and he shrugged.
"You can move faster than I can," she said after a moment.
Z rolled his eyes but still grinned just a tad so he couldn't have been too annoyed by that statement. "Yeah, yeah," he said as he got up. Rather than slide down the ladder, he vaulted the railing onto the mast's uppermost yard, then the middle, then the lowest, and then leapt the rest of the way.
Blue wasn't sure what to make of that when she considered his dislike of climbing, contrasted by his tendencies to go up to high points. The thought was pushed from her mind a moment later as she found her footing and began the cumbersome climb down.
"You cook pretty well."
Most of the day had been quiet. There hadn't been a need for Blue and Z to say anything to one another as she fried a pondie for each of them for lunch. Plenty of them had been collected so when Rezin came down to the galley while she ate alone, she was able to prepare one for him as well. She handed it to him without a word, grunted in response to his thanks, and thought that was that. Apparently not.
"Thanks?" she blurted out. A moment later and she hurriedly added, "It is only a fried fish."
"You'd be surprised how easy it is to mess that up," he said.
Blue paused for a moment before forcing out a small, "Huh," and continuing to fix up the organisation on the shelves above the stove with only the one hand. She knew that statement could have been used to further the conversation, but she wasn't interested and kept her back to him.
"Bean's always worried 'bout makin' sure everybody eats well, but she could burn water."
Blue leaned against the lowest shelf, closed her eyes and forced herself to not laugh. She didn't really want company or a conversation, but that had been greatly amusing until she recalled the little lady's failure to navigate the spikes. That put a damper on her mood.
"Can you not talk to Garrett anymore?" she asked as politely as she could muster.
"Uhh… Uh, well, he's still takin' care of Kata."
Blue wondered if he had already been shooed away from them. Why he couldn't bother Z instead, she wasn't sure. The way Z spoke about him now, it seemed that something she could not recall had happened and they were on better terms.
"Well," Blue started, deciding that she simply didn't have the energy to deal with someone; "I insist that you go find anyone else to talk to. I am not great company at the moment."
"Your head still hurt?"
His response was so quick that Blue nearly spun around to whack him. She only halfway resisted and now that she faced him, he seemed far more coy, sputtering nervously.
"What do you want, Rezin?"
Some people did not appreciate when Blue would cut through the pleasantries of conversation. Z seemed appreciative, but he was a strange one. This was a moment where she could detect that she might have offended the other.
"I-I don't want anythin', I— Kata's— well, an-and Bean and the cap'n— erm…"
Blue stared at him, unimpressed. Another reminder of those they had lost during the voyage was not appreciated, but she held herself together. She wondered briefly if he was intimidated by the opposite sex, but that seemed silly when she considered that his shipmates were all women.
He probably wasn't as interested in them as he was her, she realised. Blue looked him up and down and now she thought she understood. She glared momentarily at him before trudging up the stairs onto the main-deck, too tired for the shenanigans of men. For a fleeting moment, she thought it fiercely ironic that of anyone, it was Z's company she sought out. He had just stepped away from Garrett and made his way up to the quarter-deck — which she followed him up onto — and then they were sat on the back railing on either side of the top stern lamp.
"So what's eatin' at ya?"
She shot him a look that she expected him to shy away from, but he only shrugged.
"Y' were fine when we ate."
She half-scoffed-half-sighed and looked further away from him. "Rezin," she said simply.
"Oh?" Curiosity entwined itself with his voice. Blue looked at him with a tired expression and he held her gaze, obviously thinking. Then, more seriously: "Wha'd he do?"
She groaned lightly. "He is not normally very talkative, is he?" When Z shook his head, she nodded hers. "Yes, so, his chattiness and concern and compliments are quite unusual. I am not appreciative."
Blue stared out to the nothingness of the ocean for a long moment before she realised that Z hadn't responded and was simply staring at her expectantly.
"What?"
"Wh-what?"
They went back and forth a little more before Blue's irritation grew and she huffed, dragging her nails into the wood she sat on. She took a deep breath and counted backwards from one hundred down to ninety-one before feeling better.
"He has expressed an interest in me."
Z was silent, then suddenly, "Oh!"
Right, he could be… slow and awkward. Blue still wasn't sure how someone in his occupation could afford to not be able to read people very well, but she supposed that mattered little if the end goal was simply to kill everyone.
Z seemed somewhat amused. "Ah, well, don't be so hard on him; he's pretty young by the look of it."
"That is precisely the problem, isn't it?" Blue said after a moment's thought. "After all… this… Well, his timing was rather poor. His age and experience are obvious." Z snickered rather hard and she gave him a look. "What?"
"Y' say that like y' ain't right just out of the cradle yerself!"
She rolled her eyes. "My point still stands, old man," she jested, though it wasn't as though Z were greying. She allowed herself a small grin, but her tone was still serious enough. Z didn't seem quite as amused as she was but recovered a moment later.
"Yea, and? Y're prob'ly the prettiest girl he's seen in ages."
Blue recoiled, both because of how earnest he sounded and how wrong he was. Her expression must have drastically changed because his did so she looked away, quickly saying, "You might have been right about that in another lifetime." How glad she was to not be sitting with her scarred side towards him.
"Wh— huh?" He didn't understand, and then he looked downright annoyed. "Are you still on about yer face?"
Blue blinked, shook her head and then looked back at him. What in the world could he have possibly meant by that? And, of course she was? She got the feeling she was about to get a talking to…
"Yer face is fine. Yer arm's gonna be fine. The people that ain't gonna be fine with it all's are the people that ain't worth yer time. They don't make y' any less'a person."
… and she'd be right. She narrowed her eyes at him. Perhaps he did not understand. She turned around and slid off the wall. "That is not true outside—"
"Well, it is here!" He raised his voice more than she expected him to. He followed her movements, coming to stand before her. "Scars are stories and people love stories. Y' know that. That, and, an'…" He looked down at his hands, apparently needing time to think about his words. Blue let him. "And who cares what people outside the Shroud think? No one here hardly cares about a thing. Y-You can be anything y' want t' be here!"
She gave him a sideways look. "Not quite," she said lowly, looking away. Her scars were itching lightly. "… Not that that is what I wanted, anyway."
He made a noise, a whining noise that was almost a whimper. "Yeah, well, plans change sometimes, don't they?"
That was the smartest thing Z had said all morning. He wasn't wrong and Blue hated that especially. She already knew that — if not in so many words — but acknowledging the new truth…
She slowly looked back to him, more than a little annoyed, but also tired and frustrated, too much to cry again. He looked back and then his expression changed, as though he regretted his words.
"Why don't you go bother the others?" Blue suggested as she turned her back to him so she could lean on the railing. "See if we can't get out of here today? Even if Garrett insists on staying with Kata, you, Rezin, and I should be able to handle a galleon in a stress-free environment, yes?"
It took a moment for Z to grunt an acknowledgement to her before turning and heading away.
Getting the hell out of there had sounded good to everyone. As Garrett said, even Kata was annoyed they were still sitting at the island. Who knew how long it would be until Bean or Madeleine made their return from the Sea of the Damned? Waiting wasn't something they needed to do with so many (mostly) able bodies still aboard.
Sailing a galleon was nothing like a sloop; a sloop had all of its controls on the quarter-deck while they were spread out on a gally. There was the helm and one mast on the larger ship's quarter-deck, yet Z insisted on managing the sails for her. Rezin, who thankfully made no attempts to approach her, managed the fore-mast. Both of them would angle the mid-mast's sails together when needed. Garrett would occasionally step away from Kata and out of the cabin to check their trip's progress.
Blue stood to the side of the helm, holding it with her good arm's hand. As much as she wanted to help manage sails, that was quite a task on this ship, especially with her injury, so she forced herself to simply appreciate the men's work. Besides, with the way the ship flew in the crosswind and rolled over the waves, the wheel demanded quite a lot of attention with minor adjustments here and there. Perhaps if she were more experienced with it she would know where to leave the wheel turned in order to step away for a few moments, just as she did on the sloop. Perhaps, in time, she would gain that experience; she hoped so as she realised she quite liked the feeling of being stood upon its quarter-deck, so high up above the waves and the rest of the ship. Helming a galleon was something that Blue could have very easily gotten used to. So good did she feel there that she was able to push away the thoughts that such a thing would never happen.
On the approach to Galleon's Grave, Blue called for all three men to raise sails so they went in slowly. Even then, she ended up stopping the galleon a little too far away from the dock to simply hop from it to the dock so she was thankful when Rezin returned from the lower decks with a suitable gangplank; he stayed aboard the ship while she and Z swiftly disembarked. Garrett followed them, which she found unsurprising.
"Need supplies?" Z ended up asking, though she was certain that he knew they didn't.
"Not for the ship," he explained, "but I may as well take a few minutes to see if anybody here might be of some help to Kata."
She and Z looked at each other as the other man stepped past them. Blue doubted that he would find any useful aid at the outpost, what with how extreme her injuries were.
Wordlessly agreeing to wait for Garrett's return, they stayed on the dock. Blue leaned back against a post, weary; Z paced slowly at her side, just enough to make her wonder, but by the time she felt the need to open her mouth, Garrett was coming down the dock to them. He looked disappointed and she was unsurprised.
"No luck?" she asked.
He came to stop before her, hands on his hips as he shook his head. "None at all."
"That is unfortunate." But not unsurprising at all. "I am afraid I have no helpful advice for you."
Z shook his head thoughtfully. "'Fraid I don't have any ideas, neither."
Garrett held his hands up and gave a chuckle. "You two have done more than enough. I'll not ask you to do anything more, either. You deserve your rest after everything, and helping these guys out is the least I can do after… well, you know how it went. I'm sorry 'bout that."
The apology ultimately didn't help anything, though she appreciated it. Awful as that situation had been, Blue found that she wasn't terribly upset with him. What could she have expected him to do, anyway? He wasn't a fighter and his crewmates were too far gone to debate what they were going to do. No… Blue could let that go.
"It's no trouble really," she said.
She was vaguely aware of Z staring at her past Garrett, realising that he had been waiting for her to respond before his expression shifted, mirroring hers. Garrett seemed somewhat surprised but only smiled, took his hat into his hand and lowered his head in a polite bow.
"I'll take my leave."
Z made an amused noise. "Yeah. Y' should get those kids outta here."
Garrett allowed himself a small chuckle. "Aye, that I should." He started up the gangplank and Rezin came by to pull it back onto the ship once he was aboard. "You two take care of each other now."
Z responded before she could. "Always do!"
She gave him a quick look before they politely waved the remaining crew of the Octavia away.
They stood there for a while, longer than was necessary to see the galleon off. It was only when a distant rumble of thunder caught her attention that she pulled her focus back to reality, her thoughts having started wandering once more. Z was still beside her, rocking gently on his one foot. He stopped when she looked more directly at him. Then she sighed and turned towards the Forlorn Phoenix, the sloop exactly where they had left it, and started for it.
"Come on, then."
The footstep and pegleg tapping behind her sounded just a little more excited than she expected.