The Seventh Voyage

Chapter 4 Mired

"Cap'n, he refuses t' eat."

On the quarterdeck of The Lonely Whale, the first agenda that Yeo Wol's first mate reported to her, was in fact, about the man that has been on her mind ever since they pulled him out from that bush on the beach.

Gazing into the far distance of the endless open sea, Yeo Wol showed no signs that she had heard her first mate, for her eyes remained fixated on a point beyond the rowdiest of waves, and the finest of the lines where the horizons and seas meet.

Despite that, the Captain did answer, although her words seemed to hold the same qualities of a soft sigh with a hint of thoughts adrift, rather than the usual indifferent harshness that embodied Captain Yeo Wol.

"Is that so?" She spoke.

"Do we force it down his throat?" Her first mate suggested.

"Now now, there's no need for such churlishness. He hasn't done anything wrong...yet. Let him be." Yeo Wol dismissed him with one wave of her hand, as she turned to face her first mate, eyeing him with that same look of iciness they were all used to.

"Aye, Captain." The man bowed before he left to conduct his duties again.

Alone once again, Yeo Wol pulled out the map she had been holding, rolling it out against the fluttering wind as she began to study the map intensely.

Her wavy raven locks danced with the wind as the Captain traced the route they were currently on with her eyes.

It only took the Captain a minute to make her decision.

It took another minute for her to count their supplies mentally in her head.

And with that, she let the map roll back on itself and left to conduct her business.

☠☠☠

It turns out her business was the man currently sprawled against the floor of their dungeon.

Just as before, the man laid unmoving, as if he had been confined to a mere square foot of the sufficiently spacious cell.

With his eyes closed, he looked as though he was resting, or perhaps that wound painting his torso a darker shade of red had sucked the life out of him.

Regardless, that did nothing to stop the Captain from slamming the door shut, causing the metal to rattle angrily at the weight of her palms.

An inaudible groan could be heard then, as the man shifted slightly, peeling his eyes open ever so slowly as she came into his vision.

"I see you haven't eaten anything we gave you." Yeo Wol stated, noting down the plate that was merely sitting by his left hand, left to crumble into nothingness.

Unsurprisingly, all was silent in the cell as their prisoner made no move to answer her.

If his eyes hadn't been opened, Yeo Wol would have assumed that he hadn't heard her enter.

Shaking her head slightly, the Captain found herself doing something that was rather out of character for her as she pushed the cup into his hands, using her boots to nudge it as close as possible such that he could easily drink from it if he wished.

"At least drink some water. You wouldn't want to risk kidney failure, would you?" Yeo Wol added coldly.

For a minute, there were no movements from either of them until finally, Yeo Wol saw his hand tighten around the cup from the corner of her eye. Using the cup as leverage, the man sat up slowly, barely containing the moans threatening to escape his lips.