Flipp
Two weeks into our trip, I was growing weary of the ship. I had never been on a boat that long, and although I had developed sea legs, I was looking forward to being on land once again. Things on the ship were somewhat better since that fateful night. The Sirens still hated me, but they walked around me with a wide berth, or tried to avoid me as much as possible. They still believed that I was a curse on them, but they were too afraid of Xagon to do anything about it.
That night I had fallen asleep beside Jesye’s cage, because I was too scared to return to the bunks. Xagon had ordered me out of the cargo hold the next day, and I had eventually returned to the hammock to sleep, but it had taken me awhile before I could fall asleep peacefully. I still continued to bring food to Jesye, regardless of what both he and Xagon thought about it. No one was going to starve on my watch.
I was lying on that very hammock when I heard Xagon call for me.
“Holy shit. What now?” I jumped from the hammock and grabbed my dagger, sliding it into the sheath. I ran to the stairwell that took me up to the upper deck. I stared up, wondering what I was getting myself into.
I went up the stairs and found Xagon standing on the deck.
“Come here, Flipp. I’m going to teach you how to fight.”
I rolled my eyes. “I know how to fight.”
“Well, then, let me teach you a different form of fighting.”
“Why? No one has bothered me in weeks.”
“That means nothing. I wouldn’t drop your guard quite yet. Plus, this might not be the last time you have to deal with Sirens.”
I looked around at the crew working around us. They were staring at me with a mixture of disgust and disbelief. They could not understand why a Siren would teach a monster how to fight against them. Death is all they wished for me, and they held it against Xagon for keeping me safe. He was right, things between me and the crew were probably not over yet.
I walked over to him and prepared. He wanted to do more practice with my tail, and I felt like I was getting better at using it.
We did practice rounds where he would come at me and I would only be allowed to use my tail. I couldn’t use my dagger, or my hands, or anything else. At first it felt awkward because I wasn’t used to only using my tail, and it felt uncomfortable. But, the more we practiced, the better I felt with my tail. It started to feel like second nature to use it, which seemed silly since it was attached to my body. I had always thought of my tail as just part of my body, like a nose. Just something that either made you attractive or it didn’t. I had never thought of it as something that could save my life.
“Go again!”
I placed myself in the fighter’s stance and waited. He took the spear off his back and came at me with it. I switched my stance and allowed for my tail to swing around my body and grab the spear. Xagon looked shocked as I tossed his spear across the deck.
The sound of clapping came from behind me, and I turned to see Azil on the balcony of his cabin watching us practice. He was clapping with a wide grin on his face.
“Well done, Flipp. You are becoming quite skilled with your tail.”
I pursed my lips and said, “Thank you.”
“Maybe we’ll have to take you with us from now on.”
I felt a rage build up in me. “That’s not going to happen. I would kill you before I decided to become part of your crew.”
Azil started laughing, and it just made me angrier. I felt my blood boiling and my eyes turned a bright red as I held my fingers out, sending flames towards him. The flames demolished part of his balcony, to the left of where he stood. He stepped a few paces back.
“I will never be one of you.”
He started to chuckle. Not a bit fazed by the fact I blew up part of his balcony.
“Flipp,” Xagon warned. “That’s enough.”
“No need to caution her, Xagon. Her feistiness is rather arousing. She is a force, and I like that. She could be useful. You don’t have to hate us, Flipp. We could be quite a team.”
“I’m not interested in being on the type of team that has Hirpy's in a cage, starving to death.”
Azil opened his mouth to retort when an arrow flew by us and embedded in the wood of a sail. We all turned to see a massive pirate ship, close to the same size as the Siren ship, moving up alongside our ship. An opposing Siren pirate ship was never a good thing. I knew exactly what that meant. They would take whatever they wanted, including the creatures on the ship. I started to back away, unsure of where to go. There were Sirens running all over the boat. They weren’t running away from the danger, they were running towards it.
“Xagon!” Azil yelled, and he pointed to where he wanted his soldier. I pulled out my dagger, unsure of what to expect from the Sirens. I had only heard stories. I had no idea what they would think of a monster onboard.
Once the ship anchored right beside us, suddenly the deck was filled with Sirens and Serpents. Sirens had that tricky ability to be able to shapeshift into Serpents, and I found the idea highly creepy.