As an enemy cannon ripped through the staircase above Natasha's head, shattering the wood and showering her and Jack with the pointed shards, she pulled the boy's body against her own, tensing her shoulders as the wreckage rained down around them. The enemy's contact with The Nightingale incited more orders from John as well as Elijah, who Natasha had learned was the new master gunner to replace Rover after he was killed by Easton's men, She caught a glimpse of what they were saying over the bustle of the other men and the wind that had seemed to pick up around them, listening to their commands to reload the cannons and maneuver The Nightingale back into a position to fire upon the Acalian ships again. As the firing seemed to cease for a moment between the two sides, Natasha leaned towards the hole the cannon ball had created, looking through to observe the three other ships, finding one of the three already engulfed in flames. She drew her head back to look at Jack, finding that he too had shifted to try to catch a glimpse of the enemy.
"That must've been a munitions ship, going up in flames like that." Natasha turned her head again, looking through the piece of the railing still intact, watching the massive vessel crumble and decompose underneath the rapidly growing flames, brilliant shades from red to yellow standing out against the blue sky and ocean beyond it. As The Nightingale reverberated once more with the firing of heavy cannons below her, Natasha jumped down from the box she was perched on.
"Tash? What are you doing?"
"Stay here, Jack, okay? Stay out of the way." She looked away from the boy as he retreated further back onto the boxes, pulling his knees up to his chest. The ship vibrated underneath her feet again as the cannons below her fired, and Natasha watched as the ammunitions flew through the air, easily striking their targets. As she watched one of the sails, ripped by one of the firings, billow chaotically through the air, something else about the destruction had caught her eye. The middle ship, the one turned on its side to fire back at them, now engulfed in flames and falling behind the two flanking it, was rapidly deteriorating into the sea, and between the flames, Natasha watched as men jumped from the sides of the ships, disappearing into the ocean's wreckage. They plunged into the water, surrounded by charred and still burning pieces of the wreckage, but no matter how hard Natasha concentrated on the scene, standing at the foot of the stairs, she couldn't tell if those men resurfaced.
"Natasha!" She jumped as the sound of the voice pulled her concentration away from the scene, feeling a hand close forcefully around her shoulder and pull her away from the end of the stairs. "What the hell are you doing?" Even if she had wanted to answer him, she couldn't. She had no reason to be watching the carnage before her, the death and destruction occurring, once again, because of her, but she had been unable to resist the temptation deep inside of her to marvel at the kind of chaos that she never imaged could exist.
If John was interested in an actual answer, he didn't show it. Instead, he simply pulled her back towards where she was out of sight, as if that would have made a difference to the cannons being fired at them from so many yards away, and then his attention was elsewhere.
"Captain! They're turning!" Natasha and John both looked up over Natasha's shoulder to the source of the voice, Maverick, still standing at the ship's helm.
"Bring her around, out of their way! Narrow their target!" John shouted back at Maverick, and yelled out again for the crew to ready The Nightingale to fire on his command before looking back at Natasha, his eyes furious as he pulled his hand away from her arm, looking, for a moment, as if he wanted to say something else, but instead began to step away. Natasha could have guessed what he had wanted to say to her without needing to hear any words, however, as the anger in his eyes gave everything away. He was furious that she hadn't been staying out of the way as she promised. It's why he pulled her backwards behind the cover of the stairs and towards the door to his room, why he was running his hands over his face as he began to walk away from her, his entire body tense and rigid as he moved.
YOU ARE READING
The Nightingale
Adventure[Completed] [Editing/Re-Writing] [10/9/19] For hundreds of years Natasha and the rest of her village have been prisoners within their own town, their own homes, as a punishment for what she believes was a failed revolution attempt against their unju...
