Origins

Origins X

 Swimming was easy and not nearly as tiring as I thought. I guess having a tail and gills help with that. We kept on swimming until the water became bright around us, meaning that it was daytime or that we'd gone far enough that it was daytime somewhere in the world. Nico and I were frolicking near the surface when I spotted a large ship in the distance.

"Down!" I hissed to Nico. We jumped in the air and dove down. I heard a muffled shout from the ship. So they'd seen us. We could try to trick them, but...then again it might at this point suit us to get caught by a ship. Even if they were pirates. After all, I was so charming that they would listen to me. The ship stopped right above us. I pointed up. Nico nodded, and we swam up.

"Aaaaaahhhhhrrrrr! You boys have tails I see, bring them up!" a man said. Ropes were thrown down. Nico and I grabbed hold and got slowly hoisted up. As soon as we were out of the water, our tails turned back into our legs and we were once again clad in naught but shorts. We looked at the man in the captain's hat. He was ugly. And that's saying something. Mr. Brooks was ugly, but this guy made Mr. Brooks look like the world's sexiest man compared to the guy who was currently face to face with us. He had greasy, stringy black hair that stuck to his head with teeth that were nearly black with little eyes that looked black.

"Smee, I thought you said you saw boys with tails!" he said far too clearly for someone with teeth as bad as his.

"Aye, cap'n. Least, Smee thinks me say some tails. Smee may have imagined it. Smee thinks these are the same boys, yes, yes, Smee does," the man who was most likely Smee said. But Christ Almighty he was annoying, speaking in third person like that. Nico sometimes did it to make me mad, but he did it deliberately. I thought that Smee thought that was the right way to speak.

"Can Smee stop speaking in Smee person?" I said with plenty of snark. There were chuckles all around the ship. Nico was smirking next to me. Smee looked startled and kind of hurt that I called out his way of speaking. I felt only a little bad. Hurting him was a small price to pay for ending my annoyance. The captain came to stand in front of me. He was quite tall and towered over me.

"Boy," he said. I didn't move. I didn't want to look at his face if I didn't have to. "Boy! Look at me when I'm talking to you!" he yelled.

"I would. But I really don't like looking at people as ugly as you are," I said. No sooner did that leave my mouth then I felt a leather glove slap against my cheek.

"You have a smart mouth. But you'd better use it right. You will address me as Captain Blackbeard and you will answer to boy."
"I'll address you however I damn well please, and you will address me as Peter," I said back, not missing a beat. I waited for the inevitable slap against my other cheek, but it never came. Instead, Blackbeard started laughing. So did the rest of the crew. So was Nico. I had a feeling he'd missed my smart mouth. Nico was laughing so hard he had to put his arm around my shoulders to keep from falling over. I put my arm around his shoulders, not because I was laughing, but because I felt like it.

"Boy, do you want to be a pirate? You'd annoy our enemies so much they'd give up what we want," Blackbeard said.

"Depends. Will I end up as ugly as you, Blackie?" I asked.

"Smee, put them to work. And make sure the blonde on doesn't make any smart comments. We'll beat that out of him if we have to," Blackbeard growled.

I hated the work we had to do. It was hot, even though we were mostly naked, I'm sure Nico was getting badly sunburned, and the work was hard labor. We were given a little bit to eat, but it was enough. At least we were given water by Smee.

But we had to sleep on the deck, which was uncomfortable. Once everyone had gone to bed, I told Nico my plan for escape.

"What's your idea?" he whispered. I didn't answer. I instead looked up. Nico's eyes got wide.

"No! No no no no! You know I'm scared of heights!" he said.

"It's either that or getting killed by the pirates. So, Neeks...do you trust me?" I asked. He turned red at my name for him, as usual.

"Yes. I trust you," he said. I offered my hand. He accepted it. And with a thought, we were lifted off the ground, just the two of us, flying through the nighttime sky.