Abigail broke into a sprint.
"Abby, what? No, don't!"
Lieutenant rushed to his feet and chased after her, grabbing onto her hand to stop her from doing something reckless.
When Abigail turned her head to face him, his eyes widened. It was a face she'd never made at him before. The daggers glaring at him made him uncomfortable; he never imagined there'd be a day when she gave him that look. But he understood, this is who she was.
"Let go, Kae."
His grip slackened. Abigail yanked her arm free and bolted for the main deck.
Kael stood there, watching her go, time slowing like the tides were pushing against it. He stared helplessly, her back diminishing as she ran down the gangway.
Captain Abigail rushed into the wind, splinters of wood raining down, lacerating her body.
The sails above screamed, cords straining to the brink. Waves slammed against the hull, each one deeper, heavier than the last.
Wood groaned. Somewhere below, a guttural moan rippled through the ship, long and slow.
Demetri's scream cut through it all.
Running through the storm of splinters, she closed her eyes, guided by Demetri's cries.
Drawn to the bow-end of the ship, she grabbed one of the tense ropes with one hand and with the other, she drew a dagger. She slashed the rope.
Her body lost all weight, she felt her stomach rise before the rest. The cold winds battered her, trying to keep her down while freezing rain stung her wounds. Opening her eyes, nothing but the icy blue sky greeted her.
Only now that she was high in the sky, alone, did she have time to realise where she was, what she was about to do.
Below, men scattered like ants on a smashed hill, dwarfed by a wall of glistening black flesh. Tentacles writhed from the deep.
Tentacles? No, it was just one, wrapped around The Queen's Resurgence, bringing the galleon back to its main body as a present — as though the large ship were no more than flotsam gift-wrapped for a god.
Dark coils breaching the surface like mountains erupting from the sea, water flung into the air in thunderous arcs.
At the tip of the horizontal spiral, Demitri in his crow's nest.
The blonde youth was no longer screaming, after the monster's arm had taken him in and out of the glacial depths numerous times, he was left teetering on the edge of consciousness.
Abigail felt herself in limbo, caught between the pull of gravity and the force of her momentum. She let go of the rope and completed a single revolution to land on the monstrous tendril.
She slammed down hard on the coiled flesh, the impact sending up a spray of yellow pus from a nearby blister. It splattered her boots, hot and reeking.
Her first thought was not deliberating over how she was going to save Demetri, how she was going to get down, or even what the hell she could do to free her beloved ship.
No, the putrid stench invaded her nose. A rotten fog flooded her nose and throat and clogged behind her eyes like acidic gas. She gagged. Her stomach lurched.
Barnacles split and oozed with every breath the beast took. Fungal growths clung to its hide like tumour-sails, flapping open to reveal veined, fleshy insides. Bacterial colonies shimmered in iridescent slicks across patches of skin. Pale worms uncoiled in and out of open pores, disappearing again like they were shy maidens.
The surface felt less like skin and more like an ecosystem. Abigail swallowed, her mouth filled with the taste of decay. This monster was an undead city, inhabited by nothing but dying organic matter and its predators: worms, bacteria, and the like.
Her senses weren't helped out by the damp rain, it continued to pour on her, and assisted the sulfur smell in its conquest over her.
Abigail stumbled, she cried, she moved forward. Her mind empty of thoughts, only the sounds of the rallying sailors below kept her awake.
Each step released more foul smells into the air. With ragged breaths, she marched onwards.
Thankfully for her, the detached crow's nest was not far from where she'd landed.
Relief took her as she touched wood, that familiar feeling of Queen's Resurgance, she climbed on. Even if detached from the main body, she felt at home, at home in a sea of despair.
Inside lay Demitri. The boy was lying, his chest heaving. His usually vibrant complexion was deathly pale. His headband had fallen off, revealing a terrible scar that she'd never seen before.
"Demetri," she said softly, brushing soaked strands of blonde hair from his forehead. His skin was clammy.
His lips moved.
She leaned closer.
"…Captain…"
The word was barely a whisper, and it pierced her like a harpoon.
"I'm here," she cupped his face with both hands. "I'm here, Demetri. You're going to be fine."
His eyes faintly made her out. The usually boisterous captain, the larger-than-life captain. She was right in front of him, covered in dirt, grime, and all kinds of dirty things unbefitting a beautiful gal like her.
She was here cradling and comforting him like she were his ma, nobody'd believe him even if he said so.
How pathetic must I be right now to bring this side outta Cap'n?
Demetri forced himself upright.
Abigail moved to steady him, slipping an arm under his shoulder. He groaned but didn't resist. His body was a bundle of tremors, yet he stood himself tall, the fire in his eyes surely coming back.
"We have to get out of here. Can you move?"
Demetri nodded.
Maintaining balance was difficult enough, the dragging force of the monster's tendrils drawing them into the main body, scraping the ocean's surface as it pulls them in, they moved steadily, the tremors disturbing them.
The sound of cannon fire and laser bolts erupted, explosions and arrays of distinctly coloured lights lit up the scene beneath them.
The violent tremors turned into an abrupt jerk of the colossal limb, deep, guttural cries of pain from a distance unseeable were heard.
The giant's coiled wrap loosened, briefly leaving room for the ship to catch her breath, gathering her strength as the crew organised under the guidance of its Lieutenant.
Abigail couldn't see them. Her eyes were blurred with tears, the view obscured by the churning duststorm below and the undulating walls of blue flesh around her, but she knew it was him.
More eruptions, more lurching, it repeated several times, symphonies of destruction charring and tearing into flesh. Sometimes the impact would make a searing sound, the sound of flesh being grilled, other times there would be cracks.
Each attack would lead the tip of the tentacle, where they were held in the crow's nest, further and further in the sky, away from the deck.
The pair helplessly stood there, watching the blurs as they were dragged around by the wounded beast, every which way except for the way they wanted to go the most, down.
When the pain was too much though, they eventually got their wish, the beast's clamped grip onto the crow's nest loosened.
No time for hesitation, Abigail blocked out all the revolting stimuli that were slowing her mind down. She scooped Demetri's frail, cold body into a princess carry.
The tall man, now a damsel in distress, was too tired to be self-conscious.
A familiar feeling of weightlessness returned, but this time reversed. Her stomach dropped before the rest of her, at least this time, Demetri, barely conscious as he was, could share her fright.
Closing her eyes, Abigail counted in her head, she took a visual image right before they started falling, she knew the timing.
Calculated eyes and a devilish grin, Demetri caught sight of it, he let himself lose consciousness, he would be alright.
The wind was once again on them, rushing to their faces, Abigail ignored it, continuing her count.
Two steps, with a bang, she mustered all the strength in her calves and leapt.
The warm embrace of black fabric. Despite being dampened by the cold, stormy rains, the foremast flag of The Queen's Resurgance still fully contained the heat of its motherly love, wrapping around its returning children, cushioning their fall.
Tension ran through the flag as it caught their momentum. The cloth split with a violent snap, just enough to drag their fall from lethal to barely survivable.
They dropped the last few meters and hit the deck. Hard.
Abigail landed on her shoulder, curling around Demetri, her breath knocked out of her lungs. Her vision pulsed white at the edges. But the wood was beneath her. The ship. Her ship.
A voice cracked through the air — urgent, delighted. "Captain!"
Kael.
She gasped and clung tighter to Demetri, chest rising and falling, heart hammering like a war drum.
They'd made it.