Chapter Text
Martyn couldn’t believe his eyes.
He stared down at the tiny creatures in the jars.
They were human like, with bright wings, their feathers reminiscent of a Canary and Parrot.
The Parrot one stared back up at Martyn defiantly, his dirty blond hair kept falling into his face but that didn’t stop him from giving the Human a death glare.
Meanwhile the other one, the Canary - was curled up in a ball his wings wrapped around his body, his bright blond hair dishevelled and unkept.
Martyn’s chest ached at the sight of that one.
Unconsciously he reached for that jar, but the parrot lashed out, and jerked forward in his glass confines.
It was enough to startle Martyn back away from the canary.
“ Feisty little critters, aren’t they-“
Martyn couldn’t help but jump, as he spun around to face his captain.
“Cap’n!! I’m sorry I didn’t mean to be snooping I just-“
“Don’t worry about it Martyn,” his captain said with wicked smile.
“I’m glad to see another take to my instrests also when it comes to catching fairies.”
“Those…. Are fairies Cap’n?? They don’t look like it.”
“They aren’t like what we’ve heard about in children’s tales- no magic, no pixie dust, but these creatures are still valuable.
The fancy folks back on the mainland love em. Call em good luck charms.”
“How do you… em… feed em Cap’n? Without em flying away that is-“
The captain laughed, roughly patting Martyn on the back. “You’re funny, I knew there was a reason we kept you around”
Martyn glanced back at the fairies, his blue eyes scanning every detail he could.
“You-…. You don’t feed them?”
“Not my problem, they last long enough for the voyage. It’s the Rich lands lover’s problem when they get there.”
Martyn’s guts twisted.
“R-right Cap… do you have buyers for these two yet?”
“Not specifically, but they go flying off the shelves once we dock-
Speaking of which.”
The captain pushed a a pair of shears into Martyn’s hands.
“Can’t have them go literally flying off on their new owners, so do me a favour and clip their wings, won’t ya-“
“B-but Cap’n!!”
“Normally I’d do it but, I’m a little tipsy right now, and I don’t want to lop off a whole wing again.
I’ve learnt from my mistakes. So off you go! Chop chop!”
“Cap’n!!”
The captain turned around and left the room back towards the sounds of parting.
Things started to click in Martyn’s brain
Why the Captain wasn’t angry with him
Why he was so openly trusting.
He was more than just a little tipsy
It was surprising that he could still talk so clearly.
Martyn looked back down at the shears then over at the fairies.
The Parrot stood defensively, while the Canary slumped further in defeat.
He couldn’t be apart of this any more.
He set the Shears aside, before reaching back for the jars
The parrot lashed out, but really he was only hurting himself at this points so Martyn didn’t flitch this time.
“Dontcha worry fairies, I’m going to get you out of here- and get you food too.”
Martyn set them both down on the Captain’s desk before cracking the seals on both Jars.
The Parrot, unsurprisingly shoot out of the Jar and flew out of reach.
But the Canary didn’t move all that much.
Martyn’s brow furrowed in worry and he grabbed the glass again,
Only for the parrot make a starting cry and dive bomb the Human.
Martyn ducked and covered his eyes with his hands,
“wait wait! please! I’m just trying to help!”
The parrot didn’t seem to understand and dive bombed him again, until Martyn let go of the jar, the glass container falling to its side and spilling the fairy out to the side.
He just laid there.
And Martyn’s heart strings twisted.
Despite the relentless attacks of the Parrot Fairy Martyn couldn’t just leave the Canary just lying there.
He dropped his hands down and let the Parrot scratch his face and near his eyes,
instead opting to scoop up the canary hybrid carefully in his hands.
The fairy shivered and flinched- but didn’t make any attempts to flee.
His wings twitched and for the first time Martyn noticed the unnatural angle his wings were laying.
He might not know Fairies.
But he knew birds.
“He hurt you- I’m so sorry-“
The Canary let out a string of soft chirps and songs.
It seemed sorrowful and pained. Martyn wished he knew how to help.
As he focused on the Canary- the Parrot dived down once again this time nailing Martyn right in the eye.
He winced and shut that eyes as he felt blood dripped down like tears.
“Fffff-frick!! That stings!-“ Martyn moved the canary into one hand and pressed his other against his wounded eye.
Parrot screeched right in Martyn’s ear only to be immediately countered by Canary’s song.
Honestly Parrot’s expression was pretty funny, but considering the given situation Martyn didn’t let himself laugh.
Both fairies chittered and chirped back and forth at each other until finally Parrot landed on the Captain’s desk.
“I know… that none of this is ideal, and I’m truly sorry…. “ both fairies stared at Martyn blankly
“Not that you can understand me.. but… let me just-“
Martyn pulled the hand pressed against his eye away and wiped the blood off on his. Pants.
Then from his satchel he pulled out an apple he had been saving for later.
“Are you two hungry?”
Again he was met with blank stares
So instead he took a bite of the apple to demonstrate-
Chewed then swallowed
Canary licked his lips as his tiny stomach grumbled.
Parrot eyed him suspiciously.
Martyn took another bite, but spat it out and wiped it off before offering it to canary-
The fairy didn’t seem to mind, as he immediately began to devour the bit of Apple.
The Human repeated the process and offered a peice of Apple over to Parrot.
He seemed more hesitant, but couldn’t resist the food.
Snatching it from Martyn’s fingers and scarfing it down.
This went on for a little while.
Feeding the fairies long enough for the blood dripping from his hurt eye to dry.
Canary finally pushed away a piece of apple, Parrot following close behind.
There was no small part of relief that filled Martyn’s mind.
Right before the door to the Captain’s quarters
Burst open, two men Dragging a very drunk Captain into the room.
Martyn was quick to hide Canary behind his back, and then was surprised when Parrot joined his friend, sitting on Martyn’s palm
“Wat are you d’ing in here Martyn?!” One of the burly guys carrying the Captain demanded-
Ryan was his name, maybe?
“I was just- doing some spring cleaning, Cap’s orders.”
“Well git out- he wants to be alone now.”
“Roger that, I’ll just- get out of your way-“
With that Martyn skirted around the room until he reached the door.
Quickly slipping out and making his way back to his own tiny quarters.
Parrot almost immediately left the Human’s hand, landing in his hammock
Martyn placed Canary next to him before stepping away to find something to splint his wings with.
The two fairies chirped and softly sang songs to each other
And Martyn let himself zone out to music, decided that escape would have to be a tomorrow problem.
With all the partying still happening on deck there would be no way to slip unnoticed.
Besides the fairies at least didn’t seem angry with him anymore so… that was a plus.
His biggest concerns at the moment were splinting Canary’s wings
And getting some clean fabric to cover his eye.
But those were relatively simple-
The real challenge was still yet to come…