The kid felt a jolting pain in the jaw as the pirate's knuckle drove into it. Hardly noticing as back slapped into wall letting that lanky body press against it a moment only to slowly slide down, all the child really paid mind to was the sudden throbbing which pounded the punched jaw and engulfed the kid's whole face with pain. Pointed ears folded back under the oversized hat, and needle-sharp teeth grit tasting blood.
The huge black-bearded man chuckled loudly at the kid as did the other sailors gathered round and he shouted to a cabin boy running up the stairs to fetch the dishes, "Ey, lad! Go tell th' Cap'm we found a nother stow-away in 'ere! Ask'm'f we gonna do this kid like we did th' last'n, eh?"
Trying not to slide forward as the floor tilted in the waves, the stowaway slid that skinny bottom across the wooden floor closer to the empty crate and former hiding place while rolling a defiant tongue up in the roof of that bloody mouth, eyes narrowed.
"Now yer gonna git it, you are, yew little--" the pirate didn't have time to finish before he reeled back with his face dripping in blood and spit, "WHY YOU!!"
Those gathered around roared with laughter as they saw the spunky stowaway leap to both bare little feet and snatch hold of the man's black beard and pull up to a stand. The child pushed with long lanky legs and curled up into an acrobatic flip over the man's head only to push off the back of it with all ten toes. Landing upon boney hands, the child proceeded to run as fast as those little hands could with a loud scraping of pointed nails upon wooden slats towards the stairs despite the constant leaning of the floor this way and that.
The pirate then bounded around growling at his fellows laughing at him and reached out to snatch the kid by the shirt, "Git back here!! When I git mah hands on yew!!"
Feeling a hand reaching for the loose tail of the shirt, the kid swung each leg around and into a cartwheel sidestepping the swiping pirate-hand and landing backwards upon the staircase, "Ha-HA! Thought you had me, eh??" a squeaky pre-adolecent tone squawked back just as the stowaway twirled around and accidentally bumped into a cabin boy headed down the stairs with a pile of dishes, "WHOOPS!" Plates and silver rained everywhere, mostly upon the disappointed black-bearded pirate, as well as the cabinboy who toppled over into the crowd of pirates laughing at the whole scenario.
The stowaway took this diversion to make time for two things: a quick bow, and a speedy escape up the stairs onto the deck followed by an army of angry sailors at each heel and a not-so-happy cabin boy bringing up the rear.
"You were told to navigate us to Alexandria quick and safely, not create the fastest most reckless route you could think up! Me and my crew are not fishbait!" Captain One-eyed Sam Dodgers felt a hot throbbing in his temple as he stepped out on deck, his one eye squinting in the hot Mediterranean sun. A hand roosted warningly upon the hilt of the captain's cutlass as the elegant man stepped up next to him, his long blue-gray hair pulled into a tail at the nape of his neck and his body wrapped in fancy long-cloths which nearly dragged upon the floor, "I knew you were not a man of the sea, Lennox, but I had no idea how naive you truly are!"
"I, Captain Dodgers, am a very well read scholar in the science of navigation. The currents of the winds and waters are with us and the stars guide us from loosing our path. You really should not concern yourself with such petty lore as . . . Sea Serpents." Lennox smiled confidently.
The sharp step-clap-step of a peg-legged pirate was heard as the gruff, white-bearded sailor called R approached the captain and opened his mouth to speak, "Arrrr�"
No sooner had the syllable been uttered then the ship felt a great slap from the waters and it bobbed helplessly with the blow.
The two men staggered to keep their sealegs under them as the lookout called from the crows-nest above, "AHOY Cap'm, She's awake! The beast is awake!--'ey, whassat'n th' riggings?" Grinding his teeth, the captain nearly called for all hands upon deck, but it wasn't necessary for in his next glance . . . all hands were already on deck. Black-jack Flint was at the lead darting this way and that and cawing his hairy head off with the rest of them shuffling behind, the group being tailed by a piping mad cabin boy.
The already infuriated captain just watched in fuming silence a moment as an unidentified fleeing object flew about the ship. A lad, it appeared to be, no higher then the captain's own belt and hidden snugly in peasant rags was tangling himself up in the line of the foresail, climbing like a monkey with the greatest of ease escaping the angry mob. But yet, Dodgers squeezed his one eye taking closer notice to the lad darting this way and that, noting some particular detail with great interest. Peeking out from the muddy ragged cape which was tied about the child's back was a tail of fluff which glistened silver in the light. Surely this was either a lucky steal and the boy had swiped a prized pelt from a trader on the mainland, or indeed the kid's high-flying acrobatics were just as they appeared: superhuman.
With both hands tangled up in the ropes, the kid felt a yank at the extension of the spine called "my poor precious little fluffy tail!" With a hallering yelp the stowaway kicked both bare little feet at the black-beared pirate's grasping hand, "OW Ow ow ow ow! Lemme GO! You big dufus! I'll bite off your beard if you don't let me go!"
Black-jack Flint was his name, and taking care of stowaways was his game so with his free hand the man proceeded to grasp one of the child's feeble little kicking feet.
"WHY YOU!!" a loud squawk was heard before the stowaway finally let go of the ropes and flew back towards the man's face. That nimble child's body twisting un-humanly, since the man had hold of tail and foot, but the kid managed to sink needle-sharp teeth into a good piece of black beard and tug backwards, snarling the whole way.
Flint yelped in agony, both hands flying off of the child and grasping his chin as the man reeled back.
The kid swung around in the air while falling back, after loosing the support of the grasping hand, and landed on an elbow and knee. But the kid snapped around and back into the ropes as a dog-pile of pirates immediately formed at the spot the child landed upon--one very angry cabin boy topping the mess.
"Yew'll pay fer that'n, laddy, yew will," a strong grasp closed upon the child's torso and a firm no-noncence tone came from Flint's mouth and a cutlass was drawn pointed to the back of the kid's chest.
Still grasping into the ropes, the kid began feebly struggling and snarling like a tiny beast spitting hair, "I Said I'd do it! And I'm a Man of my Word! You rat-fink, you really gonna stab me in the back? eh? Go ahead!"
But as soon as the stowaway screamed out, the ship tilted back with a juttering suddenness and the dog-pile of pirates went skidding across the deck leaving Flint who was still grasping the stowaway latched onto the ropes. The waters over the side of the deck began to part in a loud gurgling groan announcing a great mass beginning to surface from the depths.
The kid grit and squeezed both eyes shut, wrapping all four limbs into those ropes and hanging on with all of the might the child could, feeling the pirate's huge fingers wrapped nearly all the way around that tiny torso.
Then a great mound broke the waters as the ship was pushed away from it by the waves scattering at the beast's awakening. Dark scale covered in an array of sea-floor coral, kelp, and small sea-life was seen until one massive eye opened, red as blood and angered as hell itself. A mad panic overwhelmed the ship's crew as the sailors raced this way and that. The captain's clear sharp orders were heard being thrown about, but the two nearest the beast were, so far, left to their own.
Flint and the kid both slowly lifted their heads simultaneously staring dumbfounded at the great blood-red eye gazeing back at them barely a dozen feet from their faces. Then the creature lifted it's long neck from the sea until it was towering well above the deck's level. The boat bobbed in the waves slowly away from the thing, but it followed keeping that one eye upon the stowaway and the black-bearded pirate.
"Leaping little limey lepers! I'm out of here!" the stowaway squealed and tried to climb up the ropes to the sails, but the pirate still had hold. The kid tried pulling upwards wanting out of the man's slimy fingers as that watching eye came closer and closer. A salty breeze began to drift up into the hat against the child's sweaty scalp. The ship moved in the water being pushed away from the oncoming beast like a stick repelled by the splashes of a child chasing it in the deep of a creek. Wide, shocked yellow eyes watched as a large gaping hole suddenly appeared on the head of the monster opening wider and wider revealing sword-sized spikes, teeth no doubt, "Le'me go!"
At last, the pirate's sweaty palm was separated from the kid's tummy just in time to yanked upon rope after rope skillfully pulling upwards. A loud crash was heard coming from below, and bare toes felt the tips of slimy fins as the beast chomped at the spot the two had been occupying just a moment before.
But Flint had seen it coming and lunged back slashing at the creature's face with his cutlass sending splinters of coral and calcium flying about. But it was to no avail. The blade just wasn't enough to break the stone-hard scale or even the coating of thick sea-gunk that had formed over the centuries.
The monster pulled its head back a bit and found that a rope or two was caught in its teeth. Unfortunately, the stowaway noticed the same thing as the bottom of the rope the child was shimeying up suddenly lifted and was streached until the desperate kid was left crawling along it. With a squeak, the kid hung down from the line and proceeded to race along twards an other, grasping the twine one hand at a time and feeling the burn as the splinters rubbed against tiny clentched fists moving faster and faster and faster yet. From the height, that bright yellow gaze could see the sailors and the kid soon realized that they had no real defense against the creature as they scurried around in mad panic, most raising weapons and running to join the black-bearded one. Then, seeing an other loose rope nearby, the child pulled with thin little arms into a chin-up then swung over letting go of the rope and narrowly grasping hold of the next. But the tiny weight pulled the rope down and the kid went sailing towards the deck only for it to yank to a halt sending the acrobat swinging over the heads of those on deck. The swing of the rope then began its arc upwards and the child flew past a tall man with a patch over his eye and a sissy looking rich guy with long blue hair, makeing sure to give them both a toothy grin while passing before their faces.
But with a yank, the kid went skutteling backwards and twirled 'round only to zoom back past the two again, over everybody's heads again and up twards the monster's face . . . again. With a giant swat, the beast pushed itself against the ship once more as its head closed in on a sailor takeing the body up in those spike-like-teeth.
The kid tried to find the breaks on this swing as the monster lifted its mouth level to the oncomeing stowaway, the poor sailor's limbs helplessly flapping about. With a smack, the two bodies collided and the dying man's arms clasped around the child tightly.
"DAAAAHHHH! Nooooo!" the stowaway screeched trying to struggle free of the man and pull on the rope once more. The creature lifted its head higher, tilting back and the rope began to slip from the kid's clawed fingers being pulled away from the ship. Then the serpent simply opened its jaw and the man slid ferther into its mouth pulling the child along with him. Wresteling with the dying pirate's arms, the kid saw the brown spikes closeing in, one knee already hideing inbetween two on the lower jaw. So there was no where eles to hide and no way to lose the grasp and the child suddenly squirmed between the man and the creature's hot tongue. Pressed between a rock and a hardplace--or rather, a tongue and a soft-place--the stowaway grit again, listening to not only the kid's own heartbeating in those triangular ears, but the man's heart raceing behind his bloodspurting ribcage. The opening to the outside closed and the man was snaped in half with one last croak of agony before half of him began sliding downwards into the thing's throat.
Not quite ready to go down that far, the kid spread all four limbs out as far as they'd reach, fingers and toes tipped with short, sharp claws clinging to the scratchy nooks between each tooth until one hand fumbled across a cold peice of metal jammed inbetween the bone and the gum. Eyes shut tight and trying to hold in a breath from the acidic stench flowing up from the thing's throat, the kid felt up the metal discovering that it was a basket-hilt. Finding this to be a last resort, the child squeezed a boney hand into the hilt and yanked, half stumbling into what part of the man was still caught in the beast's jaw. The kid's body then was pressed against the bottom of the monster's mouth, then against the side of its teeth, the thing felt the blade's removal and was swinging its head around. Ha! Felt that, didja? You deserve every bit of it you slimy overgrown seaslug! The kid thought, that is until suddenly being pressed up against the roof of the mouth for a good deal of time. The creature must be plummetting back down into the sea! There has to be a way out! But yet again the kid's train of thought was interupted as the stowaway was suddenly pressed upon the bottom of the thing's mouth one more time until the jaws flung open and the kid flew into the air. The bright sun and rush of sea-wind swept all around as the kid waved all four limbs--and a sword--in the air trying to fly. The ocean and the beast were hanging over head as the terrified child flung through the air and the sun and clouds were at those claw-tipped toes until the decent began, seeing that open mouth awaiting the return while the rest of the pirate was already sliding down into the creature's throat.
This time, the beast did a perfect job and the kid landed smack ontop of the pirate carcus sending them both squeezing down the soft throat of the monster. One hand reached up, fingers desperately trying to find hold on the huge buds of the tongue, but the mass of saliva prevented any such thing, and the kid watched as the last bits of sunlight disapeared forever between the shutting teeth.
