The Sea Witch's Revenge (ON HOLD)

Chapter Fifteen

Victoria's head spins and her stomach claws painfully. She curls herself into a tight ball and grits her teeth as her insides continue to twist and churn. Sweat coats her skin and her breaths come in heavy pants.

"Vici?" Aurora's worried voice sounds beside her.

"Yes?" Victoria manages to splutter, before gritting her teeth as another wave of pain shoots through her.

"We don't know what to do to help you, what's wrong?"

"I'm... hungry..." Victoria splitters.

"For what?"

Another wave of pain shoots through her and Victoria cries out. Tears sting her eyes and sweat continues to soak her skin and the mattress beneath her.

"Perhaps the food created from magic isn't actually sustaining her," Thessaly says. 

"What do you need to eat, Victoria?" the captain asks, his voice calm. Her eyes flutter open and she sees the captain standing beside her, his figure blurred.

How does she tell them that the things she needs to eat are... well... them? Well, not them. But land mammals of which humans are always the easiest to capture.

The moment he knows what she needs to feed on, he'll kick her off the ship himself to save his crew from being munched on. So, Victoria just shuts her mouth and prays that they stumble on a ship and soon.

"I say the next time we see a ship, we board it and take some of their food for her," Otto says.

"Yes," Victoria whispers. "Yes, a ship."

"No," the captain replies. Victoria glares at him.

"I am not attacking and ransacking another ship just for some mangy scraps and a couple of malnourished chickens. Trust me, if she can't eat the food on here, she definitely won't be well enough to eat the very old, very filthy food that's been stored for goodness knows how long in all sorts of terrible ways."

Victoria groans, not knowing how to answer that. As she's already reasoned, she can't exactly tell the captain that the food she'd be looking for is the crew rather than whatever they have in their stores.

"We should go to land then," Thessaly says.

"Let's just see if it passes first. For all we know, she has some sort of seasickness or illness that none of us are able to catch."

Her stomach twists again and she grits her teeth and tries to breathe through the next wave of pain.

"Plus, we're weeks out from land," he continues.

Victoria nearly breaks down in sobs. It is then that she realises how much she's messed up by coming on this ship. She's going to starve to death.

Before she can think about it much longer, horrible black spots fill her vision and she is consumed by a deep, endless heaviness.

***

When she next wakes, the pain is mostly gone. She sits up slowly, her body still weak and trembling. Her hands touch something soft and she looks down, realising that she's been laying on the captain's bed.

"You're awake," a deep voice says before she can fully process it. She looks at the captain who sits at his desk.

"Just about," she manages to say, her voice hoarse. "How long have I been out?"

"Just over a day," he replies and stands up. Slowly, he walks over to her, his eyes narrowed.

"What's wrong with you, Victoria?" he asks, looking directly into her eyes.