Chapter 7: Fortune Favors the Bold
Ty was standing in the kitchen, sifting through several containers of food on the counter when I got back to the apartment. Both the fridge and freezer doors hung wide open.
“Hey, dude. I wish you’d showed up a few minutes ago. Would have asked you to help me move this thing,” he said, slamming the fridge door shut with a crisp slap.
I had half a mind to punch him right in the beak. He was the source of all of my problems today. That stupid, dopey grin on his face mocked me. I wanted to smack it off him. I took a step forward and bumped into a very full and heavy duffel bag sitting in the middle of the floor, pulling me from my rage-fueled thoughts.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“I just got orders today. There’s some—you alright?” He cocked a brow at me. “You look like you just saw a ghost.”
“Oh, it’s nothing. Just got back from flying. I’m a little tired,” I said, quickly covering my tracks.
Ty clicked his beak. “Huh. Anyway, some stuff is going down and the Eidothea is getting deployed to Greenfin Island. I have to go with it—sad, I know.”
Good. Now he’d be out of my feathers for a while and I could straighten out the whole Silverstream debacle without him hanging over my head. “Well I guess I’ll see ya,” I said, walking toward my ramp on the left side of the room.
“Hang on a sec,” Ty said. I rolled my eyes and stopped in place.
“Yeah?”
“Come here and take a look,” said Ty. “If you want any of this food, it’s yours.”
I came in here bristled and ready to fight him, and he was gonna give me food. Again. “If it’s still good, I’ll take all of it,” I said. “Thanks.”
“Don’t you want to see what’s here?”
I shook my head. “I’m not picky.”
Ty nodded and started loading containers back into the refrigerator. “Might as well let someone eat it, right?” When all of the food was put away, he stretched his wings out and yawned, walking toward the front door. “It’s gonna be a long night prepping the ship. Maybe I’ll get to sleep sometime tomorrow.”
I sighed. Was it right for me to be so pissed at him? He probably didn’t have any idea of the socially awkward beast he’d awoken in me yesterday. “What are you getting deployed for?”
Ty shook his head. “Not supposed to say. All I can tell you is that it’s indefinite. Could be a week, could be months before I’m back.”
Suddenly I felt a little less happy about him leaving. “So this might be the last time I see you?”
He nodded. “Yup, might be.” He slung the duffel bag over his shoulder, but paused before he walked out the door. “I just thought of something. Could you do me a huge favor?”
Considering that the last two things Ty had done for me were drag me to a rave and make me suddenly develop a crush on one of my best friends, I was a little wary. Maybe the third time was the charm? I decided to humor him. “Sure, what’s up?”
“How good are you at taking care of pets?”
I shrugged. “Never had one.”
Ty deflated a bit. “Would you be interested in learning how?”
“I guess.”
“Sweet! Follow me.” Ty led me up the ramp toward his room. As we approached the doorway, I started to pick up a strange smell—earthy, a bit stale, with faint hints of pungent smoke lingering on the air because... of course he did that. I stepped through the threshold and expected complete disarray, given everything I knew about Ty so far. Laid back and spacey, he didn’t seem like the type to run a tight ship.
And yet he did. The floor was clean and free of junk. Several shelves took up space along the outer walls, and his bed made neatly—not a wrinkle on it. Aside from a little bit of clutter from the sheer amount of things he had stashed in the room, it was tidy. The smell, I deduced, was the result of the pet he’d asked me to take care of. The windows were the weirdest thing about the room. All of them were blacked out, completely impervious to the dim twilight glow outside.
An aquarium without any water in it stood on a short cabinet next to his bed, its interior bathed in the red glow of a heat lamp affixed to its top. The floor of the tank was covered in wood shavings, sand, and rocks. Perched atop one of the larger rocks directly under the lamp was a small tan lizard with spines running the length of its back.
“This is Sassafrass,” Ty began, ushering me toward the tank. “She’s a desert spineback lizard I found in the Badlands last year. I think she had a run-in with a predator because she was missing a hind leg and still bleeding when I found her, so I took her in.”
Sassafrass seemed to notice the two giant faces appearing on the other side of the glass and cocked her head to the side, blinking at us with beady eyes.
“How does she feel about living in a glass box if she was wild before? I asked.
“It took her a while to get used to it, but she wouldn’t be alive now if I didn’t save her. She didn’t warm up to me very fast, but she came around. She loves getting scratches now,” said Ty. He flipped the lid off the aquarium and reached in, gently plucking Sassafrass off her rock. She didn’t seem to mind, accepting the ride from what must have looked like the hand of a god to a creature her size. He brought her out of the enclosure and held her up to me on his outstretched palm, gently scratching the little spiky lizard behind her head.
Again, she blinked at me and cocked her head, her little black eyes staring blankly.
“Go on, she doesn’t bite,” Ty encouraged. “Hold out your hand and let her come to you.”
I didn’t have much experience with reptiles. Well, non-sentient ones at least, but conventional wisdom told me that they weren’t very interested in becoming friends with me. Hesitantly, I offered my hand.
She blinked at me again and turned herself to face away from me, clumsily rotating her body around and showing me the stump where her hind leg had been.
“Aw, she’s just shy.” Ty lowered her back into the tank. “You’ll have plenty of time to get to know each other.”
“Are you sure I should be the one to take care of her if she doesn’t like me?” I asked.
“Diamond’s really the only one I would trust to come over and take care of her,” said Ty. “But Di doesn’t like lizards all that much. If you’d rather not, I can ask her to do it, but you’re going to be living here. It’d be a lot more convenient.”
I nodded. “Fair enough. Anything specific I need to know?”
“She needs to eat twice a day, so you can do that before you leave for work and when you get back. Feeding is a little tricky, I’ll show you how to do it.” He opened the door to the cabinet under the tank, pulling out a plastic bin that held several glass jars.
“What are those?”
“Ant farms,” Ty said, “Desert spinebacks eat almost nothing but ants. I used to have to go out and collect them myself, but I found a way to get queen ants a few months ago. Now I have her whole food supply right here.”
He spent a few minutes going over how to collect ants on a small moistened sponge and drop it into the lizard’s cage with a pair of chopsticks. As soon as the unlucky ants were lowered into the cage, Sassafrass went to work, picking the sacrifices off one by one with her long tongue. Upkeeping the ant colonies was another task to worry about, but aside from occasional replenishment of water and sugar, they didn’t require much work.
“If you run into any problems, you can hit Diamond up for help. She knows how to handle everything.” He wrote an address on a slip of paper and handed it to me. “Other than that, I think you’re all set. What time is it? Ten till ten? Yikes, I’m running behind.” Ty offered a handshake, which evolved into a quick hug and slap on the back that I didn’t bargain for. “If I don’t come back before you’re out of here, thanks for helping me out. I’ll see ya.”
“Good luck out there,” I said. He nodded and ducked out of the room. A small pang of finality hit me when I heard the front door click shut, and then I was alone.
He was pretty much the only friend I had here besides Silverstream, and now he was leaving. With a sigh, I turned off the lights in Ty’s room and headed up to mine.
“Swirl!” barked the gravelly voice I’d been so fortunate not to hear all night. The peace and quiet was nice while it lasted.
I set down the crate I was carrying and poked my head over Eidothea’s port side railing, and sure enough, there she was. Clipboard in hand, annoyingly small glasses perched high on the bridge of her beak in front of reddish-brown eyes. I’d recently learned that color was called ‘puce’. 'Puce' perfectly described how unpleasant they were to look at. Her pale brown coat was the color of muddy water. A short crop of purple hair hung out of the bandana tied around her head. Her writing hand held both a pencil and a lit cigarette between her claws.
“Yeah, Moraine?” I asked.
“Has inspection been completed?” She didn’t even take her eyes off her notes as she talked at me.
“Not yet. Oyster said he wanted to check the keel one more time after we bumped that sandbar last week. Once they’re done there, we’re all set.”
“Oh right, that,” she muttered, taking a drag from her dart. The implication was clear. She blamed me for steering the ship through a shallow delta and lightly scraping the bottom. At night. While she was on the navigation desk. “Any chance they’ll find damage that delays us?”
I answered with an eye roll, but she didn’t notice it. “No, the hull is fine.”
“You’d better hope so.” Moraine turned curtly and continued on her way down the dock. She stopped at a stack of crates I had left near the gangway to deal with later and shook her head, scribbling something down on her clipboard, and I felt a little pinch of annoyance in the back of my skull. It was standard procedure to double-check each other’s work, but to have her scrutinizing everything I’d spent all night working on with her well-rested eyes irked me.
I didn’t like Moraine. She liked me less.
I shook my head and turned back toward the crate I had been carrying—another thing she liked to bug me about. As the first mate, it wasn’t technically my job to lug cargo around, but there were only so many administrative duties to do before I wound up standing around and watching everyone else work. I liked pitching in and helping out when I could, and that was “unbecoming” in Moraine’s eyes, so I’d been told.
It was enough to make me grind my beak. I just had to put up with her until I could transfer to a new ship—whenever that happened. I lifted the crate and carried it the rest of the way to the cargo hatch, hopped down through the hole, and dropped it off for the cargo hold crew.
Maybe it wasn't so bad. Moraine was the only griff on the ship that I didn't like. I could deal, but it sucked that I had to deal with her more often than anyone else aside from Captain Virga.
I went back topside, ran through my mental checklist again, and breathed a sigh of relief. Aside from a few more crates that the crew was in the process of handling, we were ready. My brain was buzzing with the numbness of sleep deprivation, and soon I’d get to go below to my quarters and set up my hammock. I was about to go over to the last crates and assist the crew, but a smudge of bluish green in my peripheral vision caught my attention, coming in for a landing on the ship’s handrail. This hippogriff’s colors were much brighter than Moraine’s. More welcoming. But then again, I was biased toward this one.
“Di!” I shouted, running across the deck to meet her.
“Hey, you,” she greeted with a warm smile as she hopped down from the railing and reached out for a hug. Her mane was a little messy. When she pulled me close, she still smelled of that light staleness when you first wake up in the morning, a faint hint of sweat and linen on her fur. “Sorry I’m so late. I was scared I missed you.”
“Well hey, you made it,” I said, breaking the hug. “We’re running late anyway, so it worked out.”
“Good thing,” Diamond said. A sharp whistle called out from somewhere near the bow, signalling that Moraine had finished her check and was giving us the all-clear to get underway. That meant we had a couple of minutes before I'd be needed somewhere.
“I’ve got a surprise for you,” she said, dropping a shoulder bag stuffed with something box-shaped on the ground. She undid the flaps and revealed to me a sight I thought I’d seen the last of for months.
“Cinnamon-Blasted Oat Munch?” I pulled the boxes out of her pouches and clutched them close to my chest. “Oh, you shouldn’t have!”
“You better hide that,” Diamond warned me. “Lots of hungry eyes on this ship.”
“From my cold, dead claws,” I growled through a grin. Di laughed. It made my smile feel fuller.
“Oh and one more thing.” She dug back into her bag again and pulled out a little square of metal I instantly recognized.
“My multi tool?” I took the tool from her and folded it open, revealing the pliers. A little bit of rust hid on the inside of the well-traveled tool. “Where did you find it?”
“Between my dresser and the wall,” Diamond said. “How long ago did you lose that thing?”
“At least a year,” I said, pulling its much newer and shinier replacement out of my uniform's front pocket. The new tool I’d bought had a couple of extra blades hidden in the handles and a better can opener than the old one, but the pliers were looser and the handles were too fat. I swapped the tools out, tucking old reliable into the pocket. “What would I do without you?”
Di snorted, “Not leave your stuff all over my room when you stay.”
“But it gives me an excuse to come back and find it.”
“Not like you needed an excuse.” Di rolled her eyes with a playful smirk.
I shrugged. “I like coming over, what can I say? You’re fun.”
With a quick laugh, Di changed the subject. “So, Greenfin Island, huh? They had to send you back there?”
“Yup,” I confirmed with a shrug.
“You won’t be gone for six months this time, will you?”
I answered with another shrug. “I dunno. They didn’t say how long we’d be deployed.”
Diamond sighed. “Of course they didn’t.”
I didn’t have much I could say to make her feel better, but I still tried. “I have a feeling that we’ll be back in a few weeks. Shouldn’t be too long. The orders seemed pretty straightforward.”
“Anything else you can say about it?”
I shook my head. “Gotta keep it hush-hush for now. There’ll be press releases out sometime soon though.”
“Well, it won’t be dangerous will it?”
I hated lying to her, but I shook my head. Pirate raids weren’t exactly the safest thing to be deployed over. “We’ll be fine,” I said. “Nothing we haven’t done before!”
Diamond smiled, but I could see the weariness in it. She was still worried. “I guess I better let you get back to it. Be careful out there, will you?”
I chuckled and gave her another hug. “I’ve got the best crew sailing to back me up. We’ll be fine.” I relished in her touch for a moment, enjoying her warmth. It was too short, though. When she pulled back, she left me wanting more.
It was a pattern with her.
When we separated, she turned away from me and spread her wings to leave. Watching her go made me sad, but then a thought occurred to me. We were heading out to sea, and the orders sounded like we were in for something more dangerous than usual. I wasn’t scared, but the outside chance of something happening to me spurred me to do something that the rational part of me knew was a bad idea.
“Hey, Diamond?” I said.
She folded her wings and walked back to me. “Yeah?”
Why am I doing this? “Have you, uh… you know.” I scratched the back of my head, the sentences not quite sewing themselves together properly.
“What’s up?” she asked. I searched her face, desperately hoping for a good sign to proceed. She seemed attentive, though I could see from her brow stitching that she probably knew where I was going.
Fortune favors the bold. Screw it. “Have you ever thought about getting serious?”
It wasn’t good. She got coy again. “I’m serious. You’re the goofy one.”
I blew a breath out through my nose. “Come on, you know what I mean. We’ve been doing this for what, going on two years now? I like you, I know you like me. Why aren’t we making it official?”
A faint blush colored her cheeks, and she averted her eyes. “You’re right. I guess... I don’t know why we haven’t. I mean, I’ve thought about it a little.”
“And?”
“Maybe?”
“Maybe?” I parroted.
“It’s just… we have a good thing now, don’t you think? It’s simple. I like it.”
“Why not make it better?” I asked.
Diamond sighed. “I don’t know. I like not being tied down. We can both just do our thing right now, sometimes we do it together, sometimes we don't.” She looked me in the eyes. “I just don’t know if I’m ready for more yet, Ty.”
I closed my eyes and let out a slow breath. It was better than an outright no, but it still didn’t feel great. “I won’t press you about it anymore. Just, think about it while I’m gone? Maybe?” I asked.
Diamond smiled. “I will. I promise.”
“Thanks.” I smiled back and pulled her in for one more quick hug. “I’ll write you when we get there.”
“You better!” Diamond shooed me off and took wing, lifting off the deck to return to the top of Mount Aris.
I started walking the direction I’d been before she showed up, but frowned when I got to the gangway. Several of the crew griffs were giving me stupid grins and snickering. Apparently we’d attracted some attention with our little conversation. “What are you buzzards staring at, get back to work!” One of them whistled at me and a chorus of “oooh!” rose up like we were in the school reef all over again. I was about to go over there and make them regret it, but a sudden gust of wind caught me in the side.
“Think fast!” Diamond shouted as she swooped in and planted a quick smooch on my cheek. Before I could react, she was already off, flitting away with a smirk on her face.
She always left me wanting more.
Greenfin Island wasn’t as pretty as I remembered it.
I was the last one to shuffle down the gangplank once we were moored at the docks. My sleep schedule was all messed up thanks to the all-night prep work before we left, so I got to spend most of the trip by myself, staying busy with chores around the ship while most of the crew slept. Taking inventory of powder magazines and food stores, cleaning cannons, lots of the fun stuff I got to do as an enlisted sailor, but with tons more paperwork to go with it. At least I didn’t have to swab the deck anymore.
The docks at Greenfin Base were longer than the ones at Mount Aris, but that was simply because there was more space available to work with here. Sheer cliffs and jagged rocks back home limited the scope of our base, but here there was a gentle, wide harbor with plenty of room to moor the ship and not have to worry about packing in to conserve space.
The docks all ran toward the back of the harbor, where the small port town of Aeolia welcomed weary sailors to the loving embrace of taverns, real beds, and non-galley cooking. As far as port towns went, it was fairly upscale. Having a navy base on site helped to keep it from turning into a haven for crime like so many others.
At night, long silences on the bridge practically forced me to think about things. Diamond was on my brain more often than she wasn’t, and for the first time in my life, I was starting to think that was a bad thing. When she crossed my mind lately, there was a new pang there that I hadn’t felt before. It made my chest actually hurt.
Our relationship was… what was it? I wanted to call it complicated, but the more I contemplated it, the simpler it sounded. We weren’t dating; we had both agreed that was the case. At the end of the day, we were friends, but sometimes after the day ended, we were a little bit more than that. Kind of.
It was simple and it worked—for me especially. Given that my job often took me away from home for extended periods of time, not having to worry about holding down a steady relationship granted me emotional flexibility that I enjoyed, and the freedom to explore other relationships. We had a great arrangement, but my stupid heart and my brain weren’t on the same page.
I wanted to go exclusive. The idea that we could have that occasional intimacy all the time made me feel all light and fluttery in my chest, but I knew Di would never go for it. She made it clear from the start that she didn’t want to commit to anything. She had her life, I had mine, and she wanted it to stay that way. Our worlds could be adjacent, maybe overlap a bit, but they would stay separate.
Regardless of how she answered my question, I could live with it. But that wouldn’t make it hurt less if she said no.
I took a deep breath of the salty air and let it out through my nose. Now that I was deployed, I was busy with other things that I could occupy my mind with. Like the crowd of crew griffs shuffling back and forth on the shoreline. The naval installation here was small, much less impressive than the labyrinth carved into the base of Mount Aris. A few square, free-standing stone buildings were clustered just off the beach. The Navy didn’t invest a lot in the style of the buildings at the base here. Behind those? That was where the party started.
I was technically off duty, so I kept going past the crew gathered on the beach and the navy buildings, making a beeline for Aeolia’s main square. It was twilight, and I knew that if I wanted to avoid eating at Eidothea’s galley, I needed to get to the markets before they shut down for the night.
As soon as I was in the town itself, the population around me got a lot more varied. A healthy number of zebras and parrots joined the mix in the narrow cobblestone street, the two main groups that lived here in addition to hippogriffs. The buildings lining the street were painted bright colors, housing an equally vibrant population within their walls. Greenfin Island had long been a rest stop along several trade routes through the South Sea. As most things had since being liberated from the Storm King, it had flourished in the last couple of years. Zebricans and Ornithians were the most common visitors, so they made up the largest numbers of permanent residents here aside from hippogriffs.
Everything took on flavors of the various species living here—which, for me, meant that the street food was amazing. It was here that I discovered the magic of Ornithian habanero peppers. And fish tacos. I was cutting it close, but I found my favorite street kitchen just before closing time.
The bright green parrot running the stand perked up when I arrived. “Weren’t you here last week?” he asked me.
“That I was,” I said. “I just couldn’t live without another Caliente taco.” The smell of roasting peppers was enchanting.
“Then you got here just in time,” said the parrot. “How many do you want?” I held up two claws, and he nodded, going to work on the grill, roasting peppers over fire along with the other ingredients in his signature Caliente tacos. Beans, rice, habanero pepper, and grilled salmon topped with a dollop of guacamole.
I paid and left with anticipation building. With these tacos, half of the fun was the flavor, and the other half was the heat. Diamond thought I was crazy when I told her that I was addicted to food that caused me pain, but she was the one missing out on the spice of life.
I took a stroll around the rest of the market square as I ate, admiring the scenery through bleary eyes since the peppers had lit my sinuses on fire. I was almost finished with my food when I heard my name yelled out from behind me.
“Hey, Ty!” said a voice I knew all too well. I turned around and was greeted by a tan griff with a big patch of fur missing from his chest. Powder Keg was the gunner of the Eidothea. “Have you been crying?”
I finished off the last of my taco and threw the wrapper away. “Habanero,” I said through the mouthful of invisible flames.
“We haven’t been here an hour and you already snuck off for tacos, sounds about right.” He laughed, and I joined him. “I still don’t know how you eat that stuff.”
“I’ve got refined taste. You wouldn’t understand,” I said with a shrug, wiping at my nose. “What’s up?”
“I’m heading over to The Mussel for some drinks,” said Powder Keg. “You want to come with? First round’s on me.”
I mulled it over for a moment. Given that this wasn’t entirely a hippogriff town, the ban on alcohol didn’t apply here. Technically, the navy didn’t allow us to drink when we were in town, but The Mussel was practically known as the navy’s watering hole anyway. Even the senior officers could be found there from time to time.
“I can’t turn down free booze,” I said. Powder Keg laughed, and we made our way down the street toward the bar.
The Mussel was large and roomy with a nightclub-style flavor. It wasn’t especially busy until our group arrived, considering that it was a Monday night. A few parrots, zebras, and hippogriffs were scattered around the room, each mostly keeping to themselves. Thumping, uptempo music played over the loudspeakers, but the dance floor in the center of the room was empty under the flashing, colored lights. While we crossed the room, my eyes lingered on a bright orange parrot sitting at a table with several others around her of assorted color. She was pretty, the kind of girl with an effervescence that drew attention to itself. Her eyes met mine for a brief second, and then we both looked away. I kept walking behind Powder Keg, and we settled in at the bar. True to his word, the gunner put bits down for the first round.
“So, what do you think of this whole mission?” Powder asked me as he pounded down a shot.
I followed his example with my own shot. ”Depends,” I said.
“I’m sure they gave you a more detailed briefing than we got,” said Powder. “They don’t just tell us to keep something hush-hush if there isn’t more to the story.”
I shook my head. “No, I’ve seen your orders. You have the exact same copy I got. Unless Captain Virga isn’t telling us something, we’re all just as clueless as each other. Speaking of which, have you seen the captain?” I asked. Powder Keg nodded. “Maybe it’s just the schedule they have me on, but I didn’t run into her the entire way here.”
“She’s been a little scarce,” said Powder Keg. “Mostly stayed in her quarters the whole time.”
I frowned. “That’s odd.” Maybe Powder Keg was onto something after all. Captain Virga rarely stayed in her quarters when we were at sea. If she was cooped up in there, something was important—more important than what the orders they’d given the rest of us said . “I guess we’ll find out what it is tomorrow at the briefing.”
“I’ll drink to that.” Powder Keg downed another shot.
We traded a few more rounds of small talk between shots, the details growing fuzzier the deeper into the shots we got. With each round, I found myself more and more pleasantly distracted by not thinking about Diamond.
I didn’t want to get out of bed. Rays of morning light shone through the window and landed on my face, so I had a dilemma: either lie here and be mildly annoyed by the faint glow through my eyelids, or get up and close the curtains so I could go back to sleep.
Wait. I wasn’t supposed to be in a bed. I was on Greenfin Island. I should have been on my hammock below deck on the Eidothea. We had a briefing this morning! My eyes shot open, and immediately my attention snapped to the bright orange parrot still asleep in the bed next to me.
She was pretty, even asleep and snoring with her tongue lolled out of her beak. Nicely done, drunk Ty. Unfortunately, I had no time for cute parrots. I needed to go. The alarm clock on the nightstand read oh-seven-thirty—half an hour before morning briefing. I could still make it on time. I started shifting myself toward the edge of the bed, but pressure on my chest stopped me. Her wing was draped across my torso. She muttered something in her sleep and pulled herself toward me, wrapping me up tight.
It felt nice, but I didn’t have time to feel nice right now. Her grip wasn’t very good, thankfully, so I tried again. I shimmied a bit to the right, freedom within my grasp, but then she stirred again. This time she picked herself up and flopped on top of my chest, pinning me to the bed.
Fantastic.
“Uh, hey? Good morning,” I said.
I got a snore in response. She was still asleep.
I poked her in the side. “Hey,” I said gently.
She groaned and hid her face from me, so I did it again. Her eyes opened slowly and searched around the room for a moment before they settled on me, our faces a mere inch apart.
“Good morning,” I said.
“Morning,” she muttered.
“Sleep well?”
“Mmmm, not enough,” she said, a goofy little grin crossing her beak.
So it was one of those nights. I racked my brain, trying to remember the details. I was at The Mussel last night. It was too typical for Powder Keg to get me to go on a bender the first night on deployment. I knew that it was difficult to stop me once I started. We did shots, and at some point I wound up on the dance floor. From there, the details got fuzzy, but I recognized her face as the one I’d made eyes at when we first got there. I must have asked her to dance when I was sloshed.
Crap. What was her name again?
Another glance at the clock confirmed that I was losing time. I needed to get this bird off me and get out the door, preferably before she pieced it together that I didn’t know who she was. That was always awkward. It was nice that parrots were so lightweight. Even though she had my arms pinned at an awkward angle, I was able to gently lift her off of myself without much trouble.
“I really need to go,” I said, trying to set her off to the side so I could scramble out of the bed.
She resisted, pushing back against me. “Can’t you stay a few more minutes?”
“I overslept already. I’d love to stay, but duty calls...” I nodded my head to the side a couple of times.
She blew a defeated sigh out her nose and rolled off, allowing me my exit. I hopped up and gave my wings a quick stretch, arching my back to wake my core muscles up. I’d be taking to the air to get there, so the last thing I needed was a wing cramp at altitude.
The bedroom I was in was small and cozy, the walls painted a rich shade of teal—kind of like Diamond, my brain added. I paused in my tracks for a second and looked at Orange Parrot Girl, a small twinge of guilt slicing through my gut. If I wanted to go exclusive with Di so bad, what the hell was I doing here?
I shook my head. There was nothing actually wrong with this, right? Diamond and I could sleep wherever we wanted. We were both technically single, after all, but something about this still felt wrong. All the more reason to get out of here asap.
The bed took up most of the room's floor space, the narrow paths around it barely wide enough for me to walk down. A small bathroom adjoined to it on the wall opposite from the exit. I could afford a minute to splash a little water across my face and freshen up, so I went there first.
A pale yellow wreck of a hippogriff looked back at me from the mirror, my mane in sad disarray. My wings needed a preening, stray feathers sticking out at odd angles. The cool water was a bit of a shock, but it washed some of the grogginess out of my eyes. I ran my talons through my mane, smoothing out some of the bed head. It wasn’t perfect, but I might be able to get away with it. Better than nothing. I raised a wing and started working on the loose feathers, and then was surprised when someone took the other wing.
“Allow me,” said Parrot Girl, plucking some feathers free with her bright red beak. I blinked at her. Sex was one thing, but preening? That was usually not part of the deal with one-night stands. What did I say to her last night?
A big red flag raised in my mind. This girl was clingy and forward. If I wasn’t careful, I’d be in a situation I couldn’t just back out of.
And I didn’t even remember her name. Still, her preening my other wing would save me a minute or two, so I didn’t decline the offer. I finished plucking my left wing at about the time she finished on my right. “Thank you,” I said, giving her a smile. One last check in the mirror confirmed that I wasn’t a slob anymore, so it was time to—
Hold it. I clutched at my neck. My pearl fragment was gone.
“Hey have you seen my shard?”
“Shard?” she asked.
“My necklace,” I clarified.
“Oh, you mean the kind that all of the hippogriffs wear?”
“Yeah. I can’t leave without it.” Not without getting murdered by the captain when I got to the base, at least.
“I might have,” she flashed me a coy smile and reached behind her back, producing my pearl shard in her wingtips.
“Oh good, I thought I lost it,” I said, reaching out, but she had other ideas, pulling the shard out of reach before I could grab it. So it was going to be a game. I didn’t have time to play it. “Alright, what do you want?”
The coy smile got coyer. “Come a little closer.”
I complied. “Are you gonna make me beg?”
“Just a little,” she breathed as she touched a wingtip to my chin and pulled me downward. She was petite, even for a parrot, barely tall enough for her crest feathers to touch my chin when we stood at full height, so we had to meet in the middle. I leaned to the side and locked my beak with hers. She kissed me deeply, and I returned the favor with a passable amount of enthusiasm. In the middle of the kiss, eyes still closed, I reached up and snagged my shard from her wingtip.
She came up for air after a few seconds. “Promise me you’ll come back soon, Hurricane.”
I had to fight the urge to blanch. I didn’t know her name, and she knew the wrong one for me. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing on my part for forgetting hers.
Regardless, I needed to get out of here. Now.
“Sure thing,” I said, dropping the shard over my neck. “We had fun, didn’t we? I’ll see you soon,” I lied. Or at least I hoped it was a lie. I snatched my uniform up off the floor next to the bed and threw it over my head as I left, not slowing down or looking back.
Another crisis averted, and I wouldn’t be late for the briefing after all. I took off once I was out of her house. The air was still cool from the night, but the first warmth of the sun wiggled its way through my fur. As I flew over the town, I ran through my mental checklist, which was quite short for today. I didn’t have anything to do at the briefing but fill a chair and listen, and we’d figure out the rest of the day’s plans after that. My best guess was that we’d load up and get underway to somewhere before the end of the day.
I flew high over the town, admiring the little city as it awoke for the day. The market square griffs were starting to open their stalls for the day, opening their windows and setting out their goods. Fresh fish, greens, apples, oranges—
Clementine! That was her name. Of course! She was small and bright orange, just like the fruit. It should have been obvious. How did I forget it? I was usually great with names, and here I’d just made one of the worst exits of my career.
I glanced back over my shoulder at her house as it shrunk away into the distance. It was probably for the best if we never crossed paths again. Drunken one-night stands where neither of us bothered to learn each other’s names were probably not a good place to start a relationship.
But then again, this wasn’t like the usual hookup where I just left in the morning and that was that. She seemed really into me. Like, scary amounts of interested. I wasn’t super familiar with how parrots approached the dating scene, but preening wasn’t something hippogriffs did unless we really really liked someone.
Did I lead her on last night? The details of the evening were lost to the rum. I couldn't be sure, but there was something wrong. Either she was just super clingy, or I gave her the wrong ideas about where we stood. The guilt hit stronger than before, enough to give me pause. Should I have gone back and made sure everything was cool between us?
I shook my head. I didn’t have the time, not today. I weighed the facts in my head and came to the conclusion that it was probably just her. I’d had enough hookups to know my way around them. Even drunk, I probably hadn’t promised her anything permanent. I resumed my flight toward the navy base, but I didn’t feel totally sound in my reasoning. The guilt remained, but it would just have to stay that way.
I touched down at headquarters in the nick of time. The largest of the cluster of slate-gray buildings with tiny windows held a small amphitheater with a stage in front. The room was packed and alive with chatter when I walked in. All of the crews from the five newly arrived ships were here. I found my crew grouped in the middle of the right edge and took my seat at the front, finding an open chair next to Powder Keg and Moraine. Ugh.
He shot me a sideways glance and smirked. “Have a good night?”
“You could say that,” I said, earning a chuckle from him.
The briefing started a few moments later. The call to stand at attention came, and at once every griff in the room rose in more or less perfect unison. The lights dimmed save for the stage lamps, and the left stage door opened. In stepped a tall, slender hippogriff, her coat bright red and her mane stark white, seasoned by the years.
“At ease,” said Commander Scarlet Waves, taking her position at the podium. Once the quiet commotion of us taking our seats had died down, she began her address. “Good morning, I hope you all have had a good night’s rest, because we are going to hit the ground running today.
“I’m sure you were a bit confused by the orders you received. We usually don’t withhold mission objectives from the crews, but this time things are a bit different. The details of this mission are secret, and what I tell you now will not be given to you in writing, so listen up!” Projectors lit the wall above the commander’s head, displaying a map of the South Sea. “On the evening of Wednesday, May 29th, a merchant vessel named Deliverance was about fifty miles northeast of Greenfin Island, sailing west with a load of grain from Zebrica—destination: Mount Aris. They were due for a midday arrival on Thursday, but never showed.”
Powder Keg nudged me, whispering something about how this was totally irrelevant. ‘Give us our orders and let us go,’ yada yada. I couldn’t quite make it out. Moraine, who was sitting on the other side of him, shushed him.
“A little after noon on Thursday,” Commander Waves continued, “Deliverance’s crew showed up here on Greenfin Island, picked up from lifeboats by a local fishing boat. One of them had a gunshot wound to the chest.” A few murmurs went through the room. “The crew all told the same story. The Deliverance had been sunk.” She paused for dramatic effect, letting the few murmurs in the room quiet down. “Deliberately. By pirates.”
That was the big surprise. From the way she began, I was expecting this to be a search and rescue mission, but now I could guess where the rest of this briefing was going.
This was a search and destroy mission.
The slide on the screen changed, showing two pictures. The first was a grainy, black and white picture of a large galleon with dark sails and a figurehead of a crudely carved eagle. Next to it was an equally grainy, colored portrait of a red parrot, decked out in gold bullion and obscuring part of his face behind a broadsword.
“After an extended hiatus, it appears one of our oldest friends is back in business. Those of you who have been here for a while will remember him, those of you who are newer, listen up. This is Captain Sternclaw, the reason you are all here right now. He’s had a long history of ransoming cargo ships and miraculously escaping justice, but it appears he’s dreaming a little bigger these days. Instead of commandeering ships and kidnapping crews, he’s sinking them. In addition to Deliverance, we have unconfirmed reports of two more merchant vessels that may have been attacked since the first. A threat like this cannot be left alone, so we’re putting a stop to it once and for all.”
Commander Waves took wing and hovered above the podium. “When a dog goes rabid, it’s time to put him down. Our mission is to find Captain Sternclaw and bring him to justice. Whether that means a short drop on a rope or a long drop to the ocean floor, it doesn’t matter. We will be amplifying our efforts to police our waters. In addition to regular patrols, our best ships will be sent on a specific detail to track and capture the pirate.”
I leaned forward in my seat. The best ships were being sent to hunt Sternclaw down, and Eidothea was one of the best ships sailing. Did that mean us? Were we getting sent on the special mission?
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Love the relationship between Ty and Diamond. Also Moraine is an interesting character.
You might want to add a sex tag lol
Wait, what?! That actually WAS a valid excuse Gallus gave?
Eh, I dunno...I'm getting the feeling it might be a lot longer than that until you're back...if at all.
Still, I'm eagerly awaiting to see how Gallus and Silverstream are ultimately going to tie into all of this...
I really hope Ty doesn't end up dying out there.
Also Gallus is really going to regret bailing on Silverstream.
Interesting set of developments.
10207882
That comment’s almost as constructive as a demolition site.
Hmm ... Lone survivor? Or galvanizing death of regrets?
And when will Clementine rear her head again? I have my suspicions ...
10208128
Take a look at the editors
10208155
Well played.
Egg-sellent
This chapter got me like...
f4.bcbits.com/img/a0880926350_10.jpg
Can't imagine what Gallus would think of himself if he was in Ty's shoes and did the same thing.
It looks like Ty and the rest of the crew are in for a rough time. Fate for some reason or another disfavors those most qualified for the job. I wonder how our blue-feathered trash man will end up taking out the pirate trash.
10207974
Was it ever a lie in the first place? Pretty sure Gallus took a few minutes pondering that.
i would die for Sassafrass no cap
so uh
why, exactly, are we focusing on ty
i ain't give a shit about ty, i'm in this for the gallstream
I hope nothing seriously bad happens to Ty; I really like him
Man, I really like Ty and Gallus roommate shenanigans, but I am liking where the story is going. Ty and Di were a treat in this chapter, and I got a feeling Ty’s current mission is gunna make them rethink their relationship.
I have a bad feeling certain events from this chapter will come back to haunt Ty...
10207897
We love the naggy birb :)
10207974
Ah, you caught that joke! It would be easy to miss if you didn't read the chapters back to back.
10207995
Our bird boys really are getting themselves into predicaments, aren't they?
10208152
She lurks in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to strike...
For real though, Clementine turned out like 10x cuter than I expected her to. I really hope an opening to include her again comes up in the future!
10208272
Yes it was a lie! It just turned out to be a lucky guess in the end.
10208276
We love her and she loves us :)
10208468
I hate to break it to you, but the Gallstream plot is only a part of the larger story. This has been the intent from day one. If you came here looking for a quick fix to get your shipping rocks off, then you came to the wrong place. I suggest you look elsewhere.
10208539
I am very glad you appreciate Ty, unlike the comment before yours. It's been a lot of fun seeing him develop from a one-off stoner character into one of the central figures of this story, and I'm very excited about the places he's going :)
10208843
Ty and Di's relationship was probably the most fun part of this chapter to write (though Ty's fling with Clementine was a close second). I decided that since we're getting a fairly straightforward beginning-of-relationship story with Gallus and Silverstream, I wanted to do something a little less conventional with Ty and Di. I don't think I've seen a lot of friend-with-benefits relationships portrayed positively in media, and it was a fun challenge trying to figure out that somewhat unconventional dynamic for them. I've got some fun ideas for them in the future.
10209587
He best be careful where he sticks that beak of his
Typhoon "Ty" Swirl is TOTALLY gonna die!!!
I kept expecting him to get stabbed in the back or knocked out by the female parrot, and the pirate parrot step out from around the corner.
When he was rushing back to the docks for the briefing, i was also expecting him to come up to his ship burning with a lot of his crew dead.
Clemente the parrot is going to get Ty captured or killed.
Am I expecting too much death and blood from this fic?
EDIT: Had to rotate my phone to see all of the pony reaction icons.
I'm liking how good you are at naming things.
10208152
Me, having to restart reading the fic because it updated 6 times since I last checked on it, but still remember some details from a later scene:
media.tenor.com/ymmh3iT4ZYkAAAAC/friends-joey-tribbiani.gif
10214336
What does Captain Sternclaw look like again?
11857511
He's based off of a Red Lory
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Eos_bornea_-Taronga_Zoo%2C_Sydney%2C_Australia-8a_%281%29.jpg
But there is a drawing of him in the works that will appear in a blog post soon!