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When Xornoth joined Joe’s crew, they hadn’t expected to get attached. It was survival, nothing more, nothing less. But somehow, impossibly, that silly pirate had broken down their walls like a sledgehammer. It took less near-death experiences than expected for Xornoth to realize that Joe cared. The first time, they begrudgingly began trusting him. By the second, they felt butterflies in their stomach whenever they saw him. By the third, they were a goner.
One thing Xornoth knew about Joe was that no matter how stupid, how risky, how irrational it was, he’d always come back for his crew. Everyone knew it- believing it was as easy as breathing air.
Even now, trapped in Skeletron’s dungeons, the crew believed it.
Mary Grace shivered, snuggling closer beside Xornoth. They could feel how cold her skin was- which would have been concerning even if she wasn’t a netherborn. On her other side, Julian re-wrapped the cloth around her arm stump. Mary Grace’s tail flicked as she hissed in pain, and Julian muttered an apology. There was a makeshift bandage half-heartedly wrapped around his head, a trickle of dried blood running down the side of his face. Xornoth remembered how he’d gotten it, a skeleton slamming the hilt of its sword on his temple. Xornoth themselves had been too busy trying to reload the cannons to help.
As Xornoth wrapped their arm around Mary Grace, hoping their body heat would help her shivers, they couldn’t help but think. We were lucky.
Every other crew who’d been attacked by Skeletron had died- their bodies either burned or their skeletons reused as soldiers. Xornoth couldn’t think of a worse fate. They’d always struggled with the fact Skeletron used to be a pirate too, especially when hearing the stories of the fates that befell the losing crews. The Skeleton King didn’t even have the honour to return the fallen pirates’ bodies to the sea.
We were very lucky. They zoned back in when they felt claws dig into their skin slightly. Julian had finished wrapping Mary Grace’s arm. He’d immediately moved onto another crewmate. The brunette’s face was sunken, from tiredness or grief Xornoth had no idea. He was the only healer left. When Xornoth had told himself they had been lucky, they knew that just meant they’d been luckier than the other crews.
Julian’s partner, Christy, was gone. Most certainly dead. Even Christy, with her steady hands and her warm smile, couldn’t survive a stab through the heart. They knew Julian had been there, because he’d pushed her body overboard. That was the pact everyone had made.
Somehow, Christy was the only death, but not the only one unaccounted for: Pete, Gator, and Sharptooth had never made it to the prison, and Xornoth hoped they never would. They weren’t dead, Xornoth could say for sure. Skeletron would never pass up the opportunity to have leverage over Joe. Marin was also missing, the siren jumping off when the skeletons were taking them all to their ship. They hoped she was alright.
And the only one left that was nowhere to be found was the Captain.
‘...the cannonball came out of nowhere,” Mary Grace had said, guilt covering her face. “Before I knew it- he was overboard.”
Everyone knew Captain Joe wasn’t dead- if anything was going to kill him, it would not be the ocean.
But they hadn’t lasted long after that- they got distracted, and the skeletons took advantage. The crew wasn’t able to turn the tides again, and they were captured.
Days of sailing trapped below deck had ended when they reached one of Skeletron’s prisons, and now they were here. The only good thing about this situation was that the crew were still together.
Cold, injured, and captured by a monster, but together.
But eventually, they’d be free. Joe had never failed them before, and he wasn’t about to start now.
Xornoth’s view was blocked by something. They looked up, seeing Gwen taking off their coat. Gwen’s perpetually humid skin (typical of a nymph) was drying, and despite the clear discomfort, she was still smiling faintly. They placed her coat over Mary Grace, another layer of warmth for the netherborn. Xornoth had given her theirs a while back.
Gwen sat on their other side, and bit by bit, the other crew members started joining them. Eventually, Mary Grace’s shivers subsided.
They could feel their eyes slip closed longer and longer, until eventually Xornoth felt no more.