~Cat Beast Saga Book 1 (Parts 1-3)~
Ashsib is a coward, and weak, and whiny, he gives up easily, is socially awkward, and feels just like waste of a person in general. He's a member of a small crew running a merchant ship who sometimes doesn't ask w...
Ashsib, at a loss, takes a corner into yet another cobbled alleyway. He was hoping for a real street.
The whole island is cobbled alleyways. Ashsib thinks.
Stumbling to a stop, Ashsib's eyes go wide and his breath catches. This is not just another alley. Laying before him are a dozen men beaten senseless by the monster crouching in the center of the passage. He wants to run, yet the fearsome glare of the monster freezes him in terror. His knees go watery, his heart skips a beat under that gaze.
The monster blinks first, and rises. Becomes a tall woman instead of a hunched shadow.
"You look lost." The woman smiles so amicably as she steps over her fallen prey, as if to erase the visage she once wore. Ashsib is not placated. "Where are you headed?"
"Y-yeah, uh," Ashsib stutters, "The- the harbor. I'm, ah, separated from my crewmates."
"This city is a maze." She answers him with an understanding nod, "But I would leave before night falls. Visitors tend to to go missing overnight."
~~~
"Then her subordinates showed up. Turns out she was Special Forces!" Ashsib recounted his harrowing tale, "She told me several teams of P.O. have gone missing here and so they sent her to investigate. Creepy, right?"
"People don't just go missing." Bretta scoffed, looking up with a scowl.
"You're trying to say we should heed the woman's advice, aren't you?" Calder asked, "Not that you're afraid of one Special Forces officer, right?"
"Can't it be both?" Ashsib worried his hands. Sweat was dripping from his face and down his back. He'd run all the way to merchant's row, desperate to share his information. To tell his mates the newest trouble to find him.
The group groaned.
"We have a full hull of products, Ashsib. We've got to drop some merchandise or we'll sink. Especially if we hit another storm like last time." Bretta scolded, "Captain Quinn is out negotiating right now."
"I realize that, but that woman said something very scary." Ashsib's knees knocked, "She recognized me!"
The woman gives Ashsib a long look, her eyes appraising.
"You docked yesterday, yes? A merchant ship. I've seen your boat on the rolls, you've had a few run-ins with us over the years. Now, don't look scared. I'm the type to sit and chat instead of hauling people off on suspicion."
Ashsib looks around her at the group being carted off by the lower staff, all of them beaten purple.
"They did not want to talk." She informs him, noting his hesitation.
Ashsib nearly pees his pants.
"She knows the Mermaid and she knows our crew on sight!" Ashsib exclaimed, "What if one of us do go missing? We won't be able to go to the P.O. without a whole interrogation."
"You tell stories in the weirdest way." Vel quipped.
"Was the woman pretty or what? I can't imagine her at all from your description." Calder badgered.
"Stay on the ship if you're scared." Bretta said, returning to the bundle of permits and contracts in her hands.
"What if we anchor off shore for the night?" Ashsib suggested.
"No point." Bretta ended the conversation.
Ashsib pleaded through his eyes with the crew, but they all shared Bretta's opinion. His perpetual fear meant nothing, even in face of actual proof that he wasn't just coddling his weak will. Fear had kept him alive so many times Ashsib didn't have the others' derision to it, he wasn't going to risk it not being real. That P.O. woman had put the quaking in his belly that meant he never wanted to see or hear about her again. He turned his back on his crewmates, sure what he'd do.
Ashsib made way to the ship, his home, his safe space on the world's ocean. The P.O. woman's directions had gotten him to the docks as promised, and he knew the way from there. It wasn't a busy port, the island of Sedlily wasn't big enough to draw many visitors and it's rocky soil didn't promote agriculture for export. If they hadn't needed to stop after the hurricane they weathered, the Captain would have sailed right past it.
The cobble gave way to weather worn planks under Ashsib's feet and the slapping of water grew louder. Both were a comfort on his thin nerves.
Out waiting in the waves, her sail newly washed and the rigging repaired, was the Triand Mermaid. The ship wasn't remarkable in any way, especially amid the three larger ships docked around it, but Ashsib had stayed with her for nearly eight years now and he held a lot of affection for the tub. The crew, too. Maybe they didn't take him seriously when he shared his many fears, but they were a second family he hadn't expected to find. He trusted them and they trusted him in everything but his perpetual fear of the unknown. He never held it against them, either, as it usually was unfounded.
Rushing past other sailors at work on the dock, Ashsib hurried aboard the Mermaid. The creak of the boards a hello from her, his touch on the railing his. Their merchant flag snapped loudly in a heavy breeze, but otherwise the ship was still. Everyone was enjoying their shore leave. Come night, Ashsib would be the only one left aboard. He was going to do exactly as Bretta said, stay on the ship as long as he was afraid. And Ashsib was always afraid.
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Hello! This is book one of at least four that I've written of Ashsib. He's a good guy, I hope you like him. Any feedback is welcome!
