Chapter Text
Athos, Captain of the pirate ship ‘Garrison’ stared at the creature warily. It was large for a bird, far larger than the little things that had flitted around his childhood garden back in France, red with blue and yellow feathers in its wings and a huge beak that it had no hesitation using on anyone who got too close. It had taken a liking to d’Artagnan though, who walked around the deck of the ship with it perched on his shoulder, feeding it nuts and dried fruit that he had stashed in his pocket. Right now it was sat on a nearby railing, a strip of leather tied around one leg attached to a thin rope to stop it flying off: nothing good would happen if they turned up at New Paris without Pirate King Louis’s new pet.
The man who he had bought it off called it a scarlet macaw. Athos called it a nuisance.
“Trim the topsail!” he shouted to the men.
“TRIM THE TOPSAIL!” shouted the parrot.
Athos sighed as d’Artagnan’s delighted cackle floated towards him on the wind. The boy was finding far more humour in the situation than he was.
“I’m going down below,” he said to Porthos, who was relieving him of the watch. “If the-”
“DOWN BELOW!” shouted the parrot. “GOING DOWN BELOW!”
“I’m going to throttle that bloody thing-”
“BLOODY THING! BLOODY THING!”
Athos gritted his teeth and groaned as Porthos patted him on the back.
“Only a few more days to go,” said Porthos. “Then Louis can enjoy his new pet and we can finally get back to looting the Spanish.”
The parrot said nothing. Athos smiled wearily.
“Thank you, Porthos, you always-”
“PORTHOS! PORTHOS!”
Porthos grimaced, pushing his captain towards the door to down below.
“Go get some sleep. Hopefully at some point it’ll wear its voice out.”
“LOOT THE SPANISH! LOOT THE SPANISH!”