I wasn't fired, I'm RETIRED [wandering_giraffe][M]

[Goldie]

"I don't know." He snapped back to Aikios' question, but it lacked energy and any real bite, "She just told me to trust her and then fucking stabbed herself, then seemed all regretful like she expected to not die when becoming a human skewer."

Nik shook his head and closed his eyes, "the thing left right after and I had to get us both up here and hope y'all would be close." Thank Gods they were.

He waved Aikios off, breathing heavily, "I'm healing up just fine. Mix of siren trying to kill me and that wound from the dead pointy-ear captain guy."

[wandering_giraffe]

"She stabbed herself?" He incredulously asked Nik as he practically jogged to the medbay, laying her down in one of the beds.
He pointed to the other one.
"Go on, get in. You're not allowed to get up until your side is completely healed. Savvy?"
He quickly grabbed a thick, leather bound book off of the shelf and flipped through it.
"Can you describe the creature? Do you remember it at all?"

[Goldie]

"She fucking well did." Nik panted with the exertion it took to keep up as Aikios, for good reason, raced across the deck with Elara in his hands, "After touching a magic sword and getting thrown across a cave. Hit her head real good."

They reached his domain and Nik sat on the edge of the bed Aikios pointed to with a groan. His head and his entire torso was hurting, but that was minor compared to how dead Elara looked.

"I don't know. Ugly. Toothy. Creepy. Never seen something like it before!"

[wandering_giraffe]

Aikios was anxiously flipping through his book.
"It wasn't a siren?"
He stopped flipping through the book and read down a page, eyes scanning over the worn script.
"Was it, by any chance, this one?"
And Aikios turned the book, showing Nik a Myklar.

[Goldie]

He shook his head, "No Siren. We took care of her together. This was..." he paused and then stared at the page the horseman produced under his nose.

"That thing. Definitely that thing."

[wandering_giraffe]

"How the hell did she manage to run across a Myklar of all things...it's that fucking map, isn't it? She's got to get rid of it. I don't care what it leads to."
Aikios anxiously threw the book on his desk and rummaged through his desk drawer, getting more stressed by the second.
"Elara, if you die this time..."
He angrily turned away and muttered under his breath.
"She deserves a mutiny at this point."
He grabbed a glass bottle and an old, faded, falling apart leather book, setting them on Elara's chest.
"Myklar fin Myklar fin," he mused, checking a top shelf.
He found one and smiled, carefully grabbing the nail that had it nailed to the wall. The fin was dried and shriveled up, almost being translucent to where you could see the bone.
He grabbed a packet of matches, and walked over to Elara.
"Oh my god...she's dead..."
She was, in fact not dead. But Aikios didn't know that.
Carefully, he struck the match on his hoof, and then put the lit match to the bottom of the bottle, heating it up. He then dropped some pages from the old leather book into the glass bottle. Aikios took the fin and cracked it, taking the bone out of it and then dropping the rest of it into the bottle. He shook the bottle, causing the paper and the fin to burst into flames. After raising Elara's shirt, he pressed the glowing hot end of the bottle to the sword wound. He waited five minutes, and then removed the bottle, stabbing the bone into the sword wound. But instead of causing the wound to bleed, color slowly began to return to Elara's skin.
Aikios seemed more angry and stressed at Elara than normal, declaring to Nik she'll be 'fine', and ran out of the room, saying he needed a drink.

[Goldie]

Nik squeezed his eyes closed when Aikios said Elara was dead and slumped back onto the wall behind the head of his bed. Of course she was dead. What else would have happened once Thaleia decided to sink her claws into his life again? If it hadn't been for his stupid ass self, they never would have been in that cave in the first place and she would have been fine.

Well...mostly fine. That damn haunted map put a wrench in things, but that wasn't his fault it was hers! The Mickey, mickleer, mayklee, mackle thing would never have been able to touch them if they were still on a boat.

"Fucking Captain." Nik rubbed his hand across his eyes to keep the tears that threatened at bay. Nothing he could do about it now. What was done was done. He'd have to get off this boat at the next port and disappear again, just like the last time.

"Wait, what?" His eyes shot open just in time to see Aikios bustle out of the room after declaring she'd be fine, "But you said she was dead!?" He called after him before turning his gaze onto Elara in disbelief.

Was she actually alive?

[wandering_giraffe]

'Alive' was a bit of a strong word...but Elara was not dead.
She, in fact, woke up  gasping and clutching her chest. She had gotten her color back, well at least compared to the deathly grey she was.

"Nik?" She faintly asked, her breathing fast, her eyes darting around the room.
Where was she?
What had happened?
Where was Nik?
Oh...
The Myklar...
"Did I win?" She asked, before somehow managing to throw the covers back and trying to sit up.

[Goldie]

Nik breathed a sigh of relief as Elara spoke and found himself chuckle painfully while letting himself slide down the bed frame and into a heap on his own bed. She was alive. Thank Gods.

Now he could kill her himself.

Tomorrow.

Maybe the next day.

Whenever he was feeling better.

"You bloody well didn't win, El." He used a nickname for her for the first time and knew that it would stick. El was just more familiar. Also took less effort. It made them friends.

"Now lay your ass down and rest. K? I can't go chasing after you right now and we both need sleep."

[wandering_giraffe]

Elara sighed.
"You're right."
She painfully settled back down and looked at the ceiling.
"The myklar didn't get you?"

"Listen...I'm sorry. For everything. For endangering you, endangering my crew—-" she inhaled sharply as a pain went up her side.
"I owe you big time. When we land to grab more supplies, whatever you want, it's yours."
She weakly extended a hand to him, groaning with the effort.
"You're the only friend I have right now. Well, besides Aikios."

[Goldie]

"Then maybe you'll actually listen and destroy that map, eh?" He responded groggily. He slipped down onto the bed even further and felt his eyes droop. "And I just want some candy. Might be a lot of candy...have to make sure I get the good stuff. You can help taste test."

He reached over and gave her hand a gentle squeeze before letting himself drift further into sleep.

"Sleep." He commanded, though it was more of a whisper as he was already on his way out.

[wandering_giraffe]

"The map? I wish I could. Really, Nik, you've got to believe me! Aikios claimed it's impossible."
She sighed, feeling her heart start to race.
"I'll get you all the candy you want. I'll pay for it myself."
Then Nik squeezed her hand, and told her to sleep.
It was almost as if it was magically said, because as soon as he said that, she was out, sleeping the most peaceful she'd done in a while.

———————————————————-

Aikios had snuck into Elara's cabin, and was looking for something. That something being the map. Problem is, Elara still had it.
He searched through her desk. Nothing.
He even looked under her bed, in the bed, in the pillowcases. Nothing there.
"Elara must have it with her," he mused. It was a real shame. He had actually grown to like the eccentric captain.
He made his way back to the med bay, and  snuck in, furtively sneaking a glance at Nik. Aikios snuck over to Elara's bed and quietly took off the covers. Wasn't with her. But then he saw a sliver of black paper peeking out from under the pillow. He quietly got the map out, and turned it over, checking the bottom for something. Sure enough, it had what he was looking for. He put it back under her pillow, and turned around, only to find Nik staring right at him.
"Shhh," Aikios whispered, muttering an incantation under his breath, and going over and placing a hand on Nik's forehead.
"Forget..."
With that done, he slipped out, closing the door behind him.
"It's a real shame. A real shame I'm going to have to kill both," Aikios whispered to himself, walking down to the tavern to grab a drink.