Ocean Blue

Chapter 7

Fire. Fire everywhere. Burning, consuming, destroying. Taking everything it touched in a bonfire of death.

His home, burning, burning, screaming until his throat was hoarse as his father called his name.

Ships in the harbor, with great, black cannons that fired on his childhood home until there was nothing but rubble. Strange men cutting people to pieces, women, children- it didn't matter. Blood, filling the streets.

His father, running into another burning building as a child inside cried. Pushing the frightened child out of a window and into their mother's open arms before the whole house collapsed in a fiery inferno of death.

Screaming as the strange men scooped him up, their faces grotesque, like monsters out of storybooks, growing horns as they went, teeth getting sharper, hands turning to claws as a white hot iron, brighter than the sun it seemed approached the bare skin of his forearm as the claws held him-

Keith woke up with a gasp, sitting bolt upright. His right arm ached, and he held it close to his chest. Just a dream. Not even an accurate one. Pirates were just humans. Horrible humans to be sure, but not monsters with horns and claws. And, he remembered with a twinge of pain, the iron had been red, not white.

Hunk glanced at him. "Are you okay?"

Keith shook himself. "Fine." He glanced around, and bolted upright. "Why are we on the ocean?! And- oh, no, why is the boat moving?!"

Hunk glanced shiftily at Pidge and Allura, who were conversing at the tiller, as if he wished they would save him. "Well. You were dead tired. And we didn't want to wake you. So we started without you. It's only been about a day," he promised, "We haven't even gone far because Lance gets really tired pushing the boat and has to take breaks."

"Who? What? Why did we leave the island?!"

"Well, Lance found Katie's brother, and we had to leave before he moved."

"Who's Lance?"

"Wow, am I really that forgettable?"

Keith whirled around. Behind him, chin and arms resting on the side of his boat, glancing lazily at him, was the mermaid. "You!"

"Me," the mermaid agreed, "Hello."

Keith rubbed his head. "What are you doing here?"

"Taking Pidge to her cousin. What are you doing here?"

"It's my boat!"

Lance shrugged. "In that case, you sail it. I'm tired of pushing it around everywhere."

He disappeared back into the water, splashing his tail and reappearing at the front of the boat. "Are you coming or not?"

Keith took himself back to the tiller, putting the sails up and grabbing the lines. He kept the boat sailing steadily after the blue-and-purple tail. A massive ship loomed in front of them, and Lance yelped, ducking out of sight underwater.

"Lance?!" Keith cursed. "Where are we supposed to go?! He was our guide! Flighty fish!" He glanced up at the massive ship, and shivered. It gave him a nasty feeling.

"Um... guys?" Hunk raised a hand nervously. "I- I think that's a pirate ship."

Keith squinted up at the mast and cursed when he saw black and white on the flag. "We- we're just a fishing boat. Maybe they'll leave us alone."

A shout sounded on deck the ship, and suddenly, the whole deck was a flurry of motion.

"Or maybe not. Hold on tight!"