Rub-a-dub-dub, two pirates in a tub! [Hemogloblin!]

[Rhindeer]

It was some time before Kota came to again.

Cracking his eyes open, he found himself squinting into a blue, cloudless sky, the sun beating down on him and crusting the salt on his eyelashes. Blinking blearily, he rubbed his eyes free of the stuff and, with a groan, sat up stiffly and rolled his shoulders. Welp. He was alive, apparently. It was just going to be a while before he felt it, and no wonder; the last thing he remembered was the water hitting him like a ton of bricks after a wave knocked him overboard, then swimming frantically as the waves battered him and tried to roll him under and drag him into the black. It was a good thing he was a strong swimmer, but in those waters, he wouldn't have lasted much longer if that rowboat hadn't been closer. Through sheer determination and budding panic, he'd managed to haul himself up into it, using up the last of his strength before he collapsed from exhaustion.

Now, here he was, and who knew how much time had passed. It could have been a couple hours or even days with the fast, unpredictable way the weather could change out here.

The queasy feeling in his belly and the sour taste of salt and bile in his mouth, remnants of the seawater he'd thrown up, suggested it was more like hours.

The boat rocked as he shifted his weight to try and get comfortable, and that was when he noticed that he wasn't alone. It should have been obvious right from the start, but he was still awfully disoriented.

"Oh."

He froze in place, blinked again to clear his vision. Huh. It was a woman, too. And obviously so. Did he recognize her? Hard to say; at the moment, he couldn't recall much beyond surprise--and relief that he wasn't alone.

Still feeling rather like a drowned, crusty cat, Kota lifted a hand limply and managed a tired wave and a crooked grin. "Have we met?"

[GoblinFae]

They say the night before the dawn is always the darkest and Morgan was inclined to agree. A tempest of a storm had raged across the seas, battering the ship she had called home for the past six months to pieces. She had hoped the events of the night before would fade, yet as the morning sun rose in all its splendor upon the horizon she knew they would not.

It was too soon to forget how she cowardly obeyed the captain's orders and fled. She knew that she was not well received aboard the vessel. As a woman and a young one at that she had been seen as useless by some of the ship. It did not help matters that she was a stowaway and had only been discovered long after they had left port.

Morgan obeyed every order placed to her in hopes of earning their respect but was still better off out of sight than anything else, a fact she quickly learned. As such, she had taken to keeping away from the others. Most of her time had been spent below deck or on night watches, away from the others and their disgusted expressions.

Therefore, when the captain ordered her into a rowboat, she was quick to lower one and climb in, awaiting more to come. The winds however broke the rigging that kept the little boat tethered to the ship though and sent her plummeting towards the water and drifting far out to sea. No matter how hard she rowed she could seem to make no headway in returning to the ship. Eventually she lost sight of it though in the dark as more and more waves sought to drown her.

A solid thunk against the side had her worried about rocks until she saw a head pop up to the surface from beneath a wave. Morgan had watched, stunned as the man dragged himself into her rowboat and collapsed with exhaustion. Then, she had not time to consider things much as she struggled to keep them from capsizing. Now though, with the waters calmer and still she had been able to spend hours observing him in silence.

'Another of the crew. I wonder what happened to the rest. Did the ship sink? How far are we from them? Where are we? Is he ever going to wake up? Is he dead? What a mess! This is not what I signed up for. Then again, I never did sign up anyway,' she chuckled privately at the thought.

The sudden movement of the boat drew her from her thoughts as her companion sat up. Holding her chin in the palm of her hand she stared ahead at him dispassionately. "Perhaps. How much do you remember, sleeping beauty?"

[Rhindeer]

[...fml. I apparently forgot to bookmark this, and when it's not bookmarked, it doesn't exist. ;__; I'm sorry! IT IS BOOKMARKED NOW. *FAILS*]

Kota fixed the girl with a bleary look, smile turning wry. "Do I look like I remember much of anything?" he said, and gave a dry laugh--because his mouth was literally dry and his throat parched. He licked his lips and tried to work moisture back in.

"Ugh. I dunno. I remember the storm, and hitting the water. After that..." He gave a light shrug and rubbed at his temples. "Well, after that, I guess I remember waking up and finding myself in the company of a lovely lady! There are far worse fates than that, no? All things considered, I'm just happy to wake up at all. A pretty face to wake up to is just a happy bonus." He draped an arm along the side of the boat. "What about you?"

And right now, he was deciding to focus on the positive. There were other questions in his mind that kept wanting to break through the surface and pour out of his mouth, but he held it back for now. At least until he stopped feeling like shit, at least until he stopped feeling so nauseous. One thing at a time.

But what he really wanted to ask was were there other survivors, and where were they?

[GoblinFae]

(It's fine. Happens to the best of us. I was just concerned you hated it. I was getting ready to ask what I needed to change. XD)

"Worse fates indeed, if one considers having to stare at your sorry face all night. As for the other matter, I don't see any ladies here. Are you sure you didn't bash your brains on a rock last night?" Morgan smirked darkly, already irritated with this sailor.

'Of course I end up with the supposed charmer. Spend a couple of months aboard a ship and you would think he would remember who I am. How many woman sailors are there anyway? NONE! Men, always thinking they're better. A pretty face? Ha! I'm anything but a lady, just you wait and see.'

"Well nothing for it I suppose. Now that you're awake you can row us to shore." She thrust the oars at him and leaned back on her bench. "As far as I can tell we're the only ones out here. The others could have made it to land by now."

Morgan refrained from adding that she had no idea if land was close by. Better to have false hope than none at all in her book. Besides, any chance to make her companion do all the work was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

[Rhindeer]

Kota stared at the woman, then at the oars she'd thrust at him, then back at her. Then he turned and looked out at the sea around them, stretching out endlessly with no land in sight--oh, wait, maybe that was land, but it was still waaaay out there, and when you were at sea, things were always farther away than they looked. It could be miles away!

And here he was, just waking up, still groggy, still a little sick, and she expected him to do the rowing. He blinked slowly, registering her words. The others could have made it to shore by now, by her calculations? Then...

"...Are you saying you've just been sitting here all night?" he said, and could feel a muscle in his face wanting to twitch. "That you were waiting for me to wake up all this time so I could--" He rubbed at his face. "That we could have been on land already?"

He kept his incredulous look fixed on her a moment longer, the charm of waking up to company already wearing thin. With an irritated huff, he snatched the oars from her. "Inima be damned!"

[GoblinFae]

Her eyes narrowed into thin slits as she allowed her tongue to loose its venom upon her companion. "Of course because as a woman I have perfect night vision that allows me to navigate treacherous waters with a tiny rowboat in total darkness!"

Morgan growled viciously as she muttered curses under her breath before suddenly falling silent and allowing her ire to once more come to rest on her unwanted companion. "You should be thanking me mutt. I could have left you to drown or thrown you back overboard in your precious beauty sleep. Instead I let you endanger me by allowing you aboard as the boat threatened capsize under your gargantuan weight. If I had done as you have just suggested I could have steered us further from shore or worse yet into the very rocks that we were trying to avoid to begin with. Congratulations, you're an idiot!"

She rolled her eyes and once more retreated to her end of the rowboat still cursing his family line up and down for bringing such a useless man into existence and then allowing him to cross her path. It was taking a great deal of effort on her part to not knock his scrawny rear back into the water and leave him to find his own way to shore. 'After all,' she reasoned, 'if he really was that desperate to live, then he could swim back to the shore from here.'

[Rhindeer]

Mutt? MUTT?

Ooh, now those were fighting words! Few things actually offended Kota but once a Thanati, always a Thanati, and Inima help him but he had his pride!

He stiffened, shoulders jerking, and straightened his spine. By the standards of these mainland giants he may have been average, even short, but back home he was huge. While he'd had poor posture for a large chunk of his life, used to hunching to make himself smaller so as not to be such a freak, as he'd gotten older, he started to use it to his advantage for maximum intimidation purposes--and it worked, made the bullies back off fast. He found himself doing it now, though the effect was somewhat lost; this woman was nearly as tall as he was.

"Excuse you?" Kota said. "Just for that, I oughta make you row! In fact, since I'm such an idiotic mutt, well, golly, I just don't know what to do with these! How do they work again? Are these like giant spoons?"

He slapped the oars against the water, feigning helplessness. "How do I make it go?"

[GoblinFae]

Morgan looked on unamused as the child continued to throw his little temper tantrum, for what else could she view him as if not a child? Wiping seawater that had splashed her in the face, away she stared at the boy in front of her patronizingly.

"Are you quite done now? I would have thought for a sailor you would have a thicker skin than that. Hell, if my feathers were as easily ruffled as yours I would have been off that dock before I ever stepped foot on a boat. You're worse than a woman, boy. If I had known you were that soft-bellied would have cast you back into the sea last night as soon as you had arrived."

Her hands reached out, gripping both sides of the boat as she rose up some to hover over her unwanted companion and glare down at him. The little rowboat rocked under her shifting weight, splashing a little bit of water into the vessel and onto their legs.

"You listen and you listen good featherweight. You help, or you leave. I don't care how you get back to shore, if you even get there at all. If you're going to pull your own weight, you're not welcome in my boat. I was here first and I have been gracious enough to share. So either you man up and grow a pair, or you leave. Understood?"

[Rhindeer]

Kota's eyebrow lifted and he gave her a genuinely puzzled look; that odd statement, and her lack of any satisfying reaction, had diffused his 'tantrum' pretty quickly. "Wait. What's wrong with women?"

After all, she was a woman. But not only that, Kota was, in general, rather confused when people threw around the word "woman" like it was an insult--as these mainlanders often did. Clearly, they had never been to Thanatos. For to him, to be called womanly was a positive thing: women were strong, brave, and tough, capable of bearing children and bleeding for a week and surviving both. There was nothing soft-bellied about that. And that was just the average woman! That wasn't even getting into the warriors, the leaders, the necromancers...

Mainlanders were odd.

Perhaps that was why, in the end, Kota let out a long sigh, rolled his stiff shoulders, and started to row. Things were different out here. He just had to accept that. Though how or why a woman would disparage other women was beyond him.

"Yeah, yeah. Aye aye, captain," he said, and gave an awkward salute--or the best salute he could manage without taking his hands off the oars. Ugh, he wasn't normally so combative, but that 'mutt' comment, and the disparaging one about women, had made him a little prickly. And he still felt ill and irritable. "So, do you hate other women or something?"

[GoblinFae]

"Women are weak little songbirds left in gilded cages to appease their owners at whim. They have no minds of their own and only demurely follow the tyrannical rule of their male counterparts until death and replacement. That's what's wrong with them. Enough questions, twerp. You've reached your limit of annoying for the day."

Morgan's attitude was as bitter as her tone implied. Having chosen the sea as her calling from a young age, she had always found rebellion in the proper ways of doings things for young girls. She would not sit quietly and do her sewing with bows in her hair like all the other girls who dreamed of marriage and crying babies.

Looking out towards the horizon and the morning sun, she felt a sense of homesickness. Land ahead did not mean home to her. It was the ship she had left behind that dampened her spirits. Morgan loved the sea and had reveled in every moment aboard the vessel, flaws and all. It was more of a home than her real home had been.

"Where do you figure we are?" She finally spoke, her eyes still staring off distantly ahead of them. "Do you recognize the land?"

[Rhindeer]

Kota's eyebrows continued to climb. "Aren't you a woman?" he asked, perplexed.

Her description...did not sound like any woman he knew of, and any Thanati woman would laugh in her face if she said that to them! Must be a foreigner thing or something, because he sure couldn't imagine any Thanati letting some man boss her around! Tyrannical? Replacement? Inima's mercy, the way this woman talked about her own people was dreadful.

And completely in line with some of the things he'd heard and seen.

With a roll of his eyes, he bit his tongue to keep from commenting further. It also helped that he was currently focusing all his effort and strength into rowing their little boat and had to concentrate on breathing, his sore muscles aching with each movement. Land seemed so far away; he might not be able to make it in one go, which he was sure would just delight his pleasant lady friend here!

"Well," he said in response to her question, fixing her with a dry look. "Right now, it looks kinda like a line of trees and dirt! And I've seen a lot of things that look like lines of trees and dirt! So right now that's a no. If you wanna ask again when we're closer, though, I might be able to give a better answer."

He paused and chuckled. "Oh, but that's right. I'm the useless one here, just me and my oars and rowing. Maybe you should do the lookin' and then you tell me, being more competent than me and everything."

[GoblinFae]

A noncommittal grunt was her unhappy response as to what she was. It was a sore point with her that she did not wish to expand upon, especially with the annoying runt that she had the miserable misfortune to share her ship-boat-whatever with.

But, his snarky attitude made her slide her gaze back to him, slowly and deliberately to stare angrily at him. Her breath came in deeply and sharply, making a whistling sound as it did so but it did not make a return journey out as she held it tight, counting as she did so. She did it twice more just to be safe, but even then her teeth gnashed together so tightly it was a wonder none of them cracked.

Morgan clenched and unclenched her fists before letting her hands come to rest on the edges of the boat. She did not know what to do about Kota. She certainly had ideas about what she wanted to do but none of them were healthy for him and as much as it bereaved her to admit it, his presence could prove useful in the future.

Sighing in exasperation, she finally dropped her gaze and shifted her weight just to have something to do, feeling the boat rock beneath her. 'Now there's a thought. Why not make his life a little more irritating...it's something to do after all.'

A devilish smirk curled the corner of her lips as her eyes sparkled knowingly. "Thirsty Kota?" Gripping the edges of the boat tightly, Morgan threw her weight to one side, pulling up sharply on the other, intent on dumping them both.

[Rhindeer]

For a few blessed moments, Kota felt a small sense of victory. With a grunt as her only response, it seemed he'd shut her up, which was fine by him! Meant he could do his goddess-damned rowing in peace while miss Maharani over there just...relaxed. Kind of. She looked too tense to be relaxed, was glaring holes into him actually, but whatever. Someone had to take the lead here, and it looked like that was him.

For a few blessed minutes, Kota felt like they'd made some sort of silent progress.

Then she opened her mouth, and his heart sank.

Before he could react, before he could get his bearings, Morgan threw her weight to the side. With his arms full of oar, Kota had no chance to pitch his body to the other side to counter it. He had only a split second to think, The bloody oars, you fool! before he tipped over the side and got a very cold awakening.

"Why would you DO that?!" Kota yelled when his head popped above the surface, splashing and spluttering more than was dignified. But the spill had been unexpected and he'd taken in a good mouthful of water, and it was very difficult to swim when you were focused on holding onto a pair of oars like your lie depended on it--and in this case, it probably did.

He kicked for the side of the boat which, thank the spirits, had not capsized, and struggled to get one of the oars back in. "Why? Why would you think that's a good idea? What was even going through your head that'd make you be all, 'let's maybe capsize our only boat out here in the middle of shark ocean'? Let's dump out the guy with the oars! Nothing could possibly--bluh!"

A larger wave rocked the boat then, splashing water into Kota's face and tilting the boat out of reach right as he tried to push one of the oars in. It slipped out of his hand and into the water, and another wave carried it just out of reach.

[GoblinFae]

Morgan came up laughing, rising with the waves as they bobbed her up and down. As much of a drag as it was to be soaked once again, she had to admit that it was well worth it after seeing Kota's impression of a drowned rat, and a rather indignant one at that.

She made no effort to assist him, preferring to tread water and watch instead. Innocently, the young woman gave her unwanted companion a look of shock and surprise. "But, Kota dearest you look simply parched. I was only trying to help, honest!"

The act was ruined though as a third wave dunked her underwater before dragging her further from their little boat. Growling, the piratess struggled to swim her way back to the boat. The waves were getting stronger and more frequent causing Morgan to question whether or not the tempest their ship had run into in the night was really over.

[Rhindeer]

Kota fixed Morgan with a piercing glower. He was not buying what she was selling!

"This is the exact opposite of help!" he said, spitting out another mouthful of water as a wave came up over his chin.

With a grunt, he tossed the remaining oar into the boat and then pushed off of it and began to swim for the other oar, which was being carried away by the waves. His gift of magic wasn't a strong one, but it was enough to reach out and start to draw the oar back toward him, fighting against the waves, as a little magic helped propel him toward it quicker than he could have swam on his own. He grabbed the oar, turned, and headed back toward the boat awkwardly, since it was difficult to swim with a large oar gripped in his hands and the waves wanting to drag him in the opposite direction.

But another boost of magic pushed him onward and, breathless, he grabbed onto the side of the boat as it rocked in the surf. Morgan wasn't the only one noticing the stronger waves, waves that made the boat rise over his head, and with another final burst of magic, Kota felt the water grip him and push him up and over the side of the boat.

He landed with a thud, the oar clattering into the boat, and then he raised up onto his knees and peered over the side at Morgan.

He flashed her a lazy smile.

"Having trouble?"

[GoblinFae]

Unlike Kota, Morgan did not have any magic of her own. Instead she was forced into fighting the growing waves with her own physical strength. Yet, despite her best efforts the waves were dragging her further and further away from the little boat that had been her deliverance during the storm.

She might have even asked her fellow sailor for help had it not been his mocking question. Instead the young woman glared furiously at him before pushing herself to not only fight the waves but swim away from the boat in the direction they had been heading before she dumped them both overboard. Right now she would rather drown than ask the twerp for help. If only her body did not feel so tired already from the effort of swimming and staying afloat.

[Rhindeer]

Kota watched her for a moment as she swam stubbornly along, then gave a little shrug. "Suit yourself. I'll just be up here. Out of the water. Away from the sharks and jellies. Resting and not laboring. Sort of."

And with that said, he adjusted the oars and began to row, easily overtaking and then passing her. But he made sure not to go too fast, and was careful not to leave her behind, keeping an eye on her. Just because she was being stubborn at the moment didn't mean he planned on ditching her or letting her injure herself. He just wanted to prove a point--namely, that she shouldn't pull stunts like she'd just done because it would bite them all in the ass!

[GoblinFae]

Her pride forbade her from admitting fault or weakness. She had fought too hard after stowing away aboard the ship and getting caught to prove herself. Morgan just could not stand the idea of having to start all over again. She was a strong woman in body and soul. She had run away from home and boarded the first ship set for the high seas. While it had not been as glamorous and exciting in the beginning as she had believed it would be, the young woman had come to learn that it still was rewarding.

Now everything was gone. Her home, her friends, everything she had worked so hard to earn was swiped away. Of course the fates had decided to be extra cruel and gave her as the only other surviving member of the crew, an immature dimwit that was already driving her insane.

Her mental-rantings against Kota though were brought short abruptly short as another icy wave dragged her underwater. She came up angry and sputtering yet, too weak to continue to push onward. Morgan dared not ask for help. However, the sinking feeling in her belly told her she was going to have to or drown. Her body could not suffer any more of a beating from the elements. It was pointless.

An angry huff sounded from her moments before another wave pushed her under. Tiredly she kicked back up to the surface and tried to find her bearing. She had been turned around and came to find Kota behind her instead of in front as he had been. Righting herself she glared through the darkness at him.

"What are you even going to do if you never find land?" Morgan bit out, letting her sour mood seep out with her words.

[Rhindeer]

"If we never find land, well..." Kota frowned and chewed his bottom lip in thought. Then he laughed and shrugged. "Well, then I guess we'll die! For lack of food or water or maybe even sharks, but I'll guess lack of water is what'll kill us at last. Food won't be an issue, because there's fish and, failing that, cannibalism."

He tossed a look at her from over his shoulder and gave her his most serene smile.

Though it was hard to tell with the waves rocking the boat, he'd slowed down to allow her a chance to catch up. She seemed to be struggling, judging by her heavy breaths, and it was hard enough swimming in turbulent waters at the best of times. When you were already worn out from surviving a shipwreck, that made it that much worse.

"So, as you can see, miss, we have no choice but to find land, before one of us wakes up with our neck in the other's mouth."

[GoblinFae]

Morgan shivered in the face of that smile but chalked it up to the cold of the water tossing her about so violently. "Oh something will happen to your neck but it won't be in my mouth that's for sure," she growled hoarsely.

She was bone-weary. Her every effort to stay afloat made her limbs feel more and more like limp vegetables that had been left out in the pantry too long. Already she was beginning to doubt the point of continuing onward given that it meant having to put up with her fellow sailor's incessant talking and in her mind, taunting.

Part of her whispered for her to stop, to sink, to give up while the stubborn mule in her told her to press forward but without the fool's help. Reality told her though her stubbornness was going to get her killed and she would be damned if she let the little brat sitting smugly in her boat win.

"But if you are so willing to resort to cannibalism as an option why don't you come a little closer so you can be within bite-range," she hissed through chattering teeth.