Dancing On Ice

Wars at Sea

"What's this?"

Kazimir glanced up from the golden coin he was examining to see the silvery item Aeralie was holding up, turning it between her fingers. It looked like a miniature trident, but with more prongs.

"A fork," he replied, dropping the coin and reaching for another chest.

"Fooooork," Aeralie said, trying the new word on her tongue. "Ooh, what's it for? A weapon? Decoration? Oh, is it for hair?"

"Hai—What? No, obviously not, it's for eating, like a dining-skewer."

"Oh, yes, I see it now you say it... I suppose," Aeralie said, before tossing it over her shoulder and picking up a gold-edged hand mirror, admiring her reflection, running her hands through her streaming hair.

The pair were sat on the main deck of the recently downed ship, surrounded by mountains of gold.

Jewels and treasures and ornaments of all kinds, littering the deck – and even more below, the crew had clearly be successful – though, judging by the black flag that drifted lazily in the current atop the broken main mast, the pair knew them to be people called pirates. Criminals in the human world.

And their bodies floated through the sea around them.

Some had sunk to the bottom, caught in the ship or under the wreckage, some floated. All with pale faces and flowing clothing, faces empty and eyes distant.

"I wonder why the sea demanded we sink this ship?" Kazimir muttered, looking around him.

"The sea wants what the sea wants," Aeralie said lightly, slipping a tiara onto her hair and picking up the mirror again. "Besides, I thought these people were criminals, does it matter?"

"What about that one?" Kazimir asked, pointing behind her.

Aeralie glanced back, watching the body of a child float, caught in the riggings. Dropping the mirror, Aeralie got up and swam over, catching the boy's sleeves and pulling him loose.

"A – what was it? – cabin boy? How old do you think he was?" she asked, pulling the body upright.

"Eight? Nine?" Kazimir guessed, settling back against a pile of gold. "Who knows, maybe ten. Why?"

"He's the same age as Prince Dalton when he almost drowned," Aeralie replied, swinging the body around like a dance.

"So why didn't you go out of your way to save him?" Kazimir asked, watching her. It was the same question he asked her whenever a child was lost to the sea. And she answered the same as ever.

Just shrugged and shot him a grin. "I don't know," she said brightly, swinging the body around again and dropping him over the side of the ship. Tendrils of the sea drifted up and caught him, pulling him downwards into a deep, dark, watery grave. "It felt right, the sea didn't want him and... we had some kind of connection."

Kazimir rolled his eyes. "Ah yes, the connection," he muttered, linking his fingers and resting them on his toned stomach, fins absently flicking.

"There was a connection!" Aeralie called, her head stuck in a barrel to see what was inside. She pulled out a bright yellow fruit. Though she forgot the name of it she knew she didn't much like them, they were horribly bitter.

"Also, no one was called to sink that ship. It was just caught in a storm," Aeralie reminded him, chucking the lemons all over the deck, knocking the barrel over and finding a hidden book, opening the ruined pages.

Even if they hadn't been waterlogged, she wouldn't have been able to read it anyway so it went the same way as the fruit, soaring through the water and knocking Kazimir on the head, making him jump and glare, rubbing his head.