Writing Prompts Archive/7/Kieo Exodin

Kieo never feared storms. The sea was a wild yet beautiful thing and she had never sent them far off course before. If anything, the pirate had revelled in each storm as if it was some divine gift from The Navigator herself.

But everyone knew this was different.

As war waged elsewhere, the Exodins had only mind for the sea and their next trip. A regular uneventful day for them was all it was supposed to be. And it was, at first, but Kieo couldn’t go below deck. As they had set off, he watched the sky. Something about the looming presence seemed worse. All the whispers had left doubts in the minds of many, but it looked dormant. Yet something was wrong.

And then everything changed in moments.

A brilliant blue and then gold, almost beautiful in the way it danced along the red.

“What’s happenin to the moon?”

The words left his lips, and a small number of the crew followed his gaze. But no one answered his question. They didn’t need to. Not when it was answering it for him in moments.

Wings. Brilliant, stunning, enormous wings.

It felt like a dream. It was too surreal, the way the sky opened up and set alight. A storm unlike anything he had ever known. Even from where they were sailing away, the unholy rain of flames began to fall, gigantic pieces of debris slamming into the water. The crew moved like they always did in storms, orders being yelled back and forth as the fire fell around them. But Kieo couldn’t draw his eyes away.

He couldn’t even hear his own usual orders being barked his way. He could hardly move. Not until the water around them that had lurched the ship itself finally moved him. He didn’t even know when the water had started to wrestle them, but he was snapped partway to consciousness when his back hit the wood of the opposite side of the boat than where he had been standing. He gripped it til his knuckles turned white behind him, fear rooting him to the spot.

And then he tried to move, tried to grab onto a loosening rope beside him. And the chaotic sea punished him for it.

He was in the air before he knew it, the air hot as debris scorched past the boat. He heard his name, screamed, before he was swallowed by the unusually warm waves.

He had always been a good swimmer but his bones were locked in place. He couldn’t move a muscle. Only sink further into the dark, away from the refractions of golden light above the water’s surface.

He was going to drown. All that fire above and he would drown.

A shadow broke through the bright of the waves above. Swimming, down and down with ease despite exhaustion. A dark hand grabbed him under the arm and pulled him up and out of his stupor. With an arm around him, he finally fought back, kicking up again with the other. Kieo finally took a laboured breath as they breached the surface, gripping onto the offered rope and both being hoisted back aboard.

It was only when he laid on the deck that he looked to his Captain, scorched and drenched and exhausted but still standing, unlike the young man he had saved from the depths. His voice broke above the chaos, commanding his crew like a man possessed.

*“Veer left and get us away from this Twelve-forsaken place! Qadan, get the boy below deck, both of you prepare for any damage to the hull!”*

Kieo dragged himself to his feet and, with a last glance to the exploding red sky, hurried below deck.

It felt like forever, especially without a view of their progress, but after many more close calls with the ship almost turning too far, they finally had made it from the thick of the chaos. To calmer waters, where the captain finally came down. Kieo stood only to be wrapped in old strong arms, the captain’s face pressed into his shoulder when they both collapsed to their knees on the floor. They held each other for almost an hour, shaking, before the man finally released him and wiped his own eyes.

*“Don’t you dare fly off my ship again!”*

“I would never, Captain. Thank you.”

The older man barked a weak laugh as he carefully wrung some water out of his tail fur.

*“Said I'd protect you. But you gotta check the external damage when we get to port, got it?”*

“O’ course, Captain.”

He slapped his soggy hat on the young man's head before returning to his duties.

Kieo took the brilliant black hat from one of the drawers in his apartment, smoothing out the fabric carefully. Remembering that day felt almost worse, having known how another saw it happen so closely. It felt wrong to fear that day when so many others had been affected much deeper than he had. But it had left its scars on everyone. Everyone had suffered or lost someone amidst that haze of fire.

Kieo held the hat tight for a moment before putting it away again.

*I should really pay the captain a visit.*