Chapter Text
Circe (Sire-is) felt like he was in a current of a rabid storm, his pure gold hair once well kept in a curtained cut now was whipping in his eyes making him temporarily blind while his hazel eyes searching for an exit in the endless storm. flapping his limbs frantically trying to keep afloat in the gray water while it crashed over him and the sky thundered up above.
He got pushed underwater and heard nothing, complete silence. Circe felt peace for a few seconds simply floating in the cold water giving him false sanctuary from the world before it switched on him making it feel as though freezing black claws were choking him, intruding on his moment of peace.
He felt something detach from his neck and seeing it float away he realized it was his necklace, the only thing that was shining a different color than the black and white in the fog of the water as though it was a beacon of hope.
He tried to grip it but when he got closer it got farther, floating away just out of his grasp. Maybe he wouldn’t need the necklace because he would be reunited with his sister…
His train of thought was interrupted by a voice, reaching into his mind.
Wake up, WAKE UP
***
He was shaken out of his nightmare by ruff hands and an irritated, overly loud voice “Circe wake up you damn blockhead, you slept in.”
He gasps in air and instinctively pulls at his necklace, still there, good. He rubbed the prism shape of the pendant as a source of comfort.
Shoot, how could the rest of the crew let him sleep in? He didn’t have enough time to think about it.
Luke looked down at him, his shaggy blonde hair falling down just below his forehead. But by the expression on his face he was missing something important, one eyebrow raised with his arms crossed. “Are you going to get up or is the captain going to yell at both of us?” He said in a monotone voice
After realizing that he was sitting there like a buffoon he shook his head and jumped out of his hammock almost tipping it over with how fast he got up.
When Circe was still putting on his clothes Luke was walking out of the room already. He hurried to catch up to Luke, patting himself down to make sure he had everything on.
The other opened the door, and oh boy, it was a lot later in the day than Circe thought it was.
The sun was shining down full force making Circe squint, the only shade was the light fog. It was much better than yesterday when you could barely see three feet in front of you though.
Circe looked to the left of the cargo ship, sighing when he saw the navy ship to their side still protecting them, and not something worse. The royal navy flag waving proudly on top of the crows nest. The only thing worrying him was that they were in a narrow passage not giving them much maneuverability and having to stay in a V formation.
He didn’t fully know why they needed protection from the king's royal navy, all he knew was that they had something that could help them win any battle, or maybe finally get rid of those pesky pirates.
Rumors came out that it could heal any soldier, possibly even having them come back from death.
Luke stopped abruptly, Circe running into him and knocking him out of his thoughts. “hey! why did you-“ Luke put a finger to his mouth to keep quiet, he saw Luke’s sky blue eyes searching the crowd in front of them, probably looking for an area to slip in.
They sprinted, Circe following Luke so close he almost tripped on the others heels.
Once they stopped they were mostly in front of everyone being able to hear Captain Cornress better. He was at the head of the helm ready to talk to the crew.
He looked out at everyone before speaking, his brown hair neatly trimmed and out of his face, he stood tall and was wearing his big red coat showing that he served under the king with the emblem pinned to his coat, thank goodness Circe didn’t miss too much.
“As you know we hold special cargo on this ship, and unfortunately we will have to sail farther south to the route of the needle’s eye because of complications happening near the shore of Olios.”
The crowd murmured to themselves in concern. They were already going on a dangerous route, originally being in between the shore of Olios where there are tons of rocks they could run into but now they have to dodge rocks and pirates, there’s a reason they called it the needle's eye.
No wonder they didn’t tell the crew the specific route they were taking, no one with a mind would go if they knew.
The captain silenced everyone, “ it will be a faster route and we have a royal navy ship protecting us, most pirates will steer clear.” Some nodded but others were still hesitant.
He waved his hand and shouted for everyone to hear, “now get back to work, we will be there in two weeks time.”
Circe still felt uneasy but he wasn’t about to argue with the Captain, when Circe turned to walk away to do his normal job of maintaining the ropes he was hit with a random pain on his forehead.
He put his hands to the spot, “ow.” he said under his breath. Looking up he saw Luke in front of him, hands on hips and everything.
He was mad. “Thank whatever god just helped you because you got so lucky that Cornress wasn’t paying attention for once in his life,” he sighed and shook his head.
“I know that you're still pretty new to sailing Circe but you can’t sleep in any more” he sounded less irritated and more like he was talking to a child.
Circe felt anger bubble up inside him, he shouldn’t be treated like a child, he was always more mature than him, even when they were children he was more logical. He was only having trouble with the sleep schedule is all.
He was about to snap back at Luke when he heard someone yell a phrase they were all scared to hear, “ SHIP UP AHEAD.”
Everyone in the crew turned their heads back and sure enough there was a ship, pitch black in the fog being so far away, but it sent an unsettling chill through everyone as it was heading for the port side of them. People were silently panicking now, not being able to see through the fog to fully see who it was.
The Captain came out of his quarters having heard the noise. He yelled up to the crow nest, “Give me a glass.” Someone came hopping down the rigging and quickly gave Cornress the spyglass.
It seemed that everyone was holding in their breath, the air in the ship being too suffocating to take in.
Circe and Luke stood next to the Captain, waiting to hear what his command was. He took the glass away from his eye with a grim look plastered on his face.
He took a sigh, “It's the Grey Finx.”
Everyone knew what this meant. The most famous and notorious pirate ship was now heading straight for them.
It seemed that no one could move, unable to fully absorb the information until the captain started to bark out orders to get the cannons ready.
Circe helped get the cannons, being pretty strong compared to the rest of the crew. He realized that the navy ship couldn’t fully get into a battle formation because of the narrow passage they got stuck in, well that’s great, he thought.
Circe started to scramble to the next cannon to get it ready when he heard a Fwoosh right next to his ear and before he could even register the noise a big splash made water sprinkle on Circe’s. Looking to the side he saw a cannonball sink into the water and leave ripples.
His eyes went wide, warning shot, he thought. He wasn’t ready to fight, let alone possibly killing someone, sure he probably could but he didn’t agree with the ethics of it.
Before he could overthink he started running to get some sort of weapon.
That was when everything went wrong.
While Circe was running to the gundeck a massive trimmer hit the ship making him stumble and fall onto his back, his head hitting hard against the wood of the ship making him dazed for just a few seconds, before recomposing himself and sitting up.
He wished that he stayed down.
The foremast was hit making it topple over being what caused the trimmer. Circe got lucky, the wooden beam being way to close for comfort, looking around the once beautiful ship that was so well keep know had wood splintered everywhere and,
Oh goodness.
There was blood splattered in every part of the ship, apparently some weren’t as lucky as Circe was when dodging the foremast.
Circe hearing started to ring and his breathing quickened, all he could think of was…
Blood splattered on the hard stone walls of the dingy alleyway while he stood there helpless when the people who took her life ran away Scott free.
He shook his head, they wouldn’t get away with it this time, taking a living person's life wasn’t right and he wouldn’t let it be.
He realized how his hands were clenching and making indents in his skin, so he released the grip and looked around. The pirate ship was much much closer now, almost right next to them. He must have been on the ground longer than he thought.
Since he didn’t have any weapon on him he hopped over the foremost trying to keep his gaze away from the corpses, all he could hear now was the shot of cannonballs and men yelling from anger.
Circe looked through the fog and smoke and found some barrels to hide behind, he crouched, finally being able to take a breath to compose himself.
Closing his eyes he tried to get the image of bodies under the mast out of his head, and after that failed he looked around the corner of the barrels and saw the thing he never wanted to see.
Pirates were boarding the ship by a plank they set down and were holding steady, through the fog their ship looked like the black death.
He looked back at the navy ship to see how it was holding up, maybe it could get to us in time to protect us, his thoughts was squished though when a ship he didn’t even realize was there was occupying the royal navy ship having already boarded them.
through the fog he was unable to see who it belonged to. They must have taken the shock of the first ship being attacked and the fog to their advantage.
He looked up to the quarterdeck being the last place to cheek and to his relief he saw Luke hiding on the stairs. Luke seemed to feel him staring at him because he turned his head surprised to see Circe also in the same position he was in.
Circe made the decision to run to Luke, it would be better if they stuck together and he most likely knew what to do, along with him only being a few feet away it felt like the logical option at the time.
though he hated to admit it sometimes Luke did know more than him.
That decision was the worst one he made that day.
Circe was halfway there to the steps when he felt a searing hot pain in his right side, his breath hitched and he immediately dropped to his knees. Circe put his arms out to catch himself right before his face could hit the deck making a loud thump
He took a few ragged breaths that hurt like hell, looking down he realized that there was a massive stab wound in his side bleeding profusely, dripping down and creating a puddle under him.
Circe knew he couldn’t stay in the open like this so he crawled on all fours to the stairs, his whole side felt that it was fire and every twist and turn made it hurt more but he had to get there, he had to keep moving to survive the chaos on the ship.
Once he got to the stairs he felt like he was going to throw up from pain. He collapsed on the wooden wall next to the stairs feeling slight relief he didn’t have to move anymore, but now he could feel the sticky red liquid flow down his side and hit the floor which made him feel even more sick with every drop he heard from the blood..
He took in a few desperate breaths. He knew he had to wrap the wound somehow so Circe ripped his sleeve off carelessly, he made sure his cuff button stayed on the outside so it didn’t go onto the wound.
Wrapping the wound was harder than he thought, the pressure hurt like a bitch and his hands were shaking so much that he could barely get the cloth in the right place.
He saw a figure come into view and he slightly panicked for a second until, to his relief, he realized it was Luke sprinting towards him.
“What were you thinking?!” He whispered yelled more to himself than Circe, but it made Circe’s ears ring, making him hiss weakly from the pain.
Luke silently apologized and having seen Circe’s horrendous try to wrap his wound he took the cloth and started to help him.
Circe was finally allowed to just sit there, it wasn’t as much of a blessing as he hoped though, because now he was able to hear the yells of people either running into the chaos or away from battle trying to save their life.
He wished the fog was thicker so that he couldn’t see how much destruction had happened and all the blood that was splattered everywhere.
He looked at the place he was while crawling to get to safety, and man, there was a lot of blood, he might be more sick than he thought, he never liked blood even though he saw it so much back home.
His hearing started to ring and he saw black splotches on the side of his vision, he looked at Luke to see what he was doing and he seemed to have ripped up the cloth, extra pieces scattering around the floor including one with his cuff button on it
Circe clenched his jaw not to let out a scream when Luke put a little too much pressure on the wound, he gave some quick silent apologies while Circe tried to focus on anything but the pain so he looked up right in time to see a figure standing behind Luke menacingly with a sword raised.
He wanted to warn Luke but his mouth refused to cooperate. The only thing he was able to do was widen his eyes in shock.
Circe’s vision was becoming blurry fast but he saw the hilt of a sword come down and hit Luke on the top of his head, right after he finished tying the cloth on the wound. Luke's hands froze and he fell on his side.
Circe closed his eyes, starting to succumb to the darkness, the last thing he heard was “he's pretty on ain't he?”