The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (Season 2+)

Hostile Negotiations

"I don't like how still the ship is," one of her cellmates said. "I'm used to it rocking and heaving, but the waters are too still here. Wherever we are."

"We're in Sog," Onica said, turning from the bars. "Can't you tell by the smell? And the sounds?"

"Plus the trip down the river," another Sifa sailor said.

"How did you know we went down a river?" the first cellmate asked.

"You call yourself a sailor?" the second asked. "You couldn't tell when our main propulsion became a current, and then when the sails went down? They also ran out some oars at times when the current became too weak."

The brig of a Sifa warship was like any brig. Cold, damp, dark, and in the deepest bowels of the hull. The salty smell of the sea had steadily been replaced by the muddy, mossy smell of the swamp. The fresh water was allowing the ship to sink a little bit deeper than it would on the ocean, and water was finding its way in through the tiniest of unsealed pores in the wood. And the heat of the marshes was turning up the humidity in the hull, making it a bit harder to breathe and a degree hotter.

"Do you plan to eventually break down the door by leaning on it all day?" the first gelfling asked.

"No," Onica answered. "No Belrig. I just don't like sitting in water."

"Shame," Rendent said. "It can be relaxing. And a little helpful in beating the heat."

The gelfling leaned back, dipping her back and head in the little inch of water before sitting up again in her place on the floor. She wrung out her hair before tossing it back over her shoulder.

"What time do you think it is?" Belrig asked.

"Noon?" Onica guessed. "It's too dark in here and I can't see the sun. your guess is as good as mine."

Onica was too distracted for any further small talk. She had been watching the guard intently. There was one of Fenth's pirates standing guard at the stairs leading up to the higher decks. Her head had been bobbing up and down for the past few minutes and she had heard the occasional snort or snore. She was dozing off and Onica was waiting for the snoring to be continuous, and for her head to be completely hanging from her shoulders in a deep sleep. And it looked like she was reaching that point soon. Minus the snore.

She took off one of her earrings and reached out of the cage. She tossed the jewelry towards the guard. It hit their boot before plopping into the water. The gelfling didn't make a sound.

"What are you doing?" Belrig asked.

Onica reached out through the bars and clapped her hands as loud as she could in two quick, consecutive slaps. They stirred slightly, but nothing more than that. She grabbed the iron gate door and hefted the metal, trying to lift it off the frame.

"Help me," she whispered to her two cellmates.

The other two gelfling stood and went to her aid. They pulled up on the door. They hefted and strained but nothing. The iron pins were too rusted to the hinges to come undone.

"Damn it," Onica grit through her teeth.

"A good try," Rendent said. "Any other ideas?"

She shook her head.

"If it worked on ours it definitely would not have worked on the other cells," Belrig said. "At the very least it would have greatly reduced the chance of it happening again for someone else."

"I was going to grab the keys," Onica said. "Just open the doors. The armory is above us. I would have gotten us armed and tried to at least take over this ship."