After Ice

Pirates

I've always thought that the ocean made a pleasant rushing sound, especially when drawing out after crashing against the town walls. 

On the island portal down to Nemaephis, it was calmer, more like hissing, as the water drew back from the sand as if burned. 

Now, the same sound roars past my ears as they are submerged again before pulling back, leaving wet sand behind. 

I carefully open my eyes, which have been apparently closed for a long time, for they had been sealed shut with salt. Piercing sun beats down on me, my face most definitely burnt once more. I try to lift my arms, and they come loose with some effort, along with a loud sucking sound. My head swims as I sit up, the skin on my arms and stomach also stinging from where my undergarments didn't cover it. Thankfully, my legs seem to be alright, and much better than last time when they were covered in demon remains. 

It's a few seconds later that I shake Rei awake

But it's too late.

"Shai-" The man behind him knocks him in the head with a rock, grinning. I scream, but two more behind me have already grabbed my hands and shoved a starchy bag over my head. Coarse ropes bind my wrists together, cutting into my skin. Struggling, I kick out, but my feet are bare and don't do much good. Laughter floats around as I'm hoisted over someone's shoulder and carted off, with no idea where Rei is. 

Whoever they are, they certainly aren't stupid and have experience with Merpeople. If I were them, knocking Rei out would've been a smart move.

Pouncing on us while we had just been knocked out was kind of unfair.

My breath is extremely hot in the bag, small rays of sunlight glinting through the holes which are conveniently too small to see through. My heart begins to pound faster and faster, my lungs working harder to pull in the little present oxygen. Sand scratches my burns, making them worse and raw. I try to flip around, but the man grabs my waist, pressing me down against his shoulder. The fabric of his shirt is rough beneath my bare skin, and his strides long apart, thumping through my brain. Food, calls my mind. Water. SHOWER. 

Instead, I suck in another lungful of sandy breath, strands of my hair tangling in my face.

*

The sound of the man's footsteps changes. Before, he had been walking over sand, sometimes sliding down a bit with each step. Now, the sand becomes harder. Rock. His boots thump with each step, voices, and shouts rising around me. We rise, his body not even wobbling in the slightest as we thud up a wooden platform. There are sounds of laughter, and I grit my teeth, biting my tongue. 

I'm set down on my feet, my back pressed up against a wooden pillar, more ropes binding my torso. The sack on my head is yanked away, sunlight blinding me as I turn my head towards my shoulder, squinting away from the light. Rei is thrown with an unceremonious thud in the middle of what I can assume is a ship. I crane my head around, processing the surroundings.

The bow extends behind me, along with another post, ropes as ladders strung up everywhere to get to the sails, and a lookout at the top. A cabin is in front of me, the door closed at the moment. Trapdoors probably lead down to below deck, where the 'crew' of whoever these people are, sleep. Rei and I were deposited on the main deck, a large area where many sailors crowd around to see us.

"What are they?"

"They're Mer, you dummy!"

"You don't see the tattoos, hilarious."

"Are we keeping them or selling them?"

A man kicks Rei in the side, rolling him over. I can see blood trickling down the side of his face from where the rock hit him in the head. He kneels, peering at Rei's face and grabbing a fistful of his hair to yank him partly up.