A Pirates Honor [mxm]

[4] Pull Ya Bastards

I glared sickly at the lumps of brown that were covering my chest and arms. It was odd to feel their wriggly muscled bodies on my body as they were twisting and sucking away whilst slowly digging into my skin. Bile rose up in my throat and for the fifth time I had to look away.

 I heard James annoying chuckle at my side which I had grown accustomed to for the past days. A soft popping sound took my attention and with disgust I saw one of lumps drop of my arm, fat and satisfied. James happily grabbed the leech from the floor and put it in a pot filled with its wriggly friends. I shuddered. 

"I'm worried about the infected wound on your upper arm, you might need to lose the arm if you want to survive the journey." James mumbled as he dipped a dirty piece of cloth in the water basin and softly wrung it out. "I'm not planning on losing any body parts." I croaked out, as I felt the dull throb of a headache return to the back of my skull. James merely nodded solemnly and swapped out the warm piece of cloth laying on my forehead with the newly wrung out cold cloth. 

"Your fever is rising, you a barely able to keep food down and you're losing conscious more and more often. Not to mention the gnarly infection going on in that arm of yours, sorry to tell ya boy but we need to cut it off before the disease spreads further." I coughed and glared up at James. "Contrast to what you might think I don't want ya dead. To be honest I've taken a liking to you, but I'll have to inform the captain of your condition. He will have to make the decision." "Who is he to decide over my body?" I growled out as I felt it hard to breathe as heat flushed my body. Instinct told me to throw the warm blanket of, reason told me to snuggle in deeper. I would sweat the sickness out. "The captain." James merely responded not bothered by my tone.

 "I'll leave Albert here to keep an eye on you while I'll inform the captain." Albert the ship boy in question stared wide eyed up at James from his corner where he was sweeping up my puke. He couldn't be more than ten summers old. He had raggedy red brownish hair and cracked dry lips. "You keep an eye on him Albert, I'll be right back." James commanded as he rose from his chair. 

Exhausted I closed my eyes, I felt the fever gaining a hold of me. Uncomfortable I curled up, pulling the blanket closer in order to drive the cold away. "Stop that, it will remove the leeches." Albert growled out as he dropped his swab. Bothersome kid. "Leave me alone." I spat out. Albert started to tug at my blanket making me growl out in frustration. 

Suddenly the ship started to lean violently to the right making me roll out of the makeshift bed onto the hard floor, dragging Albert down with me as it happened. "Feck." I groaned as I bashed my knee against the opposite wall. However the next moment the ship lurched forward pushing the both of us harshly against the wall. Albert squealed as one of the leeches that had fallen of my body in the violence crawled up his neck.

 Before I could react the ship this time moved violently to the left and the harsh sound of waves crashing against the bow of the ship finally registered through the haze of my fever. A storm. A bloody feckin storm. My stomach swirled and panicked I hunched forward throwing up the rest of my meekly breakfast. Albert made a sound of disgust.

 Exhausted I slumped down in my puke as the ship continued to be thrown around by the violent waves. Shivers continued to rack through my body. Somewhere in the distance a child was heard crying. I could hear a mother trying to calm the boy. "Mother?"

Quintus glanced down in disgust at the puke and leeches covered man sobbing on the floor. James who was standing behind his captain nervously glanced from the captain to the crying pirate. "Mother, please." Isherwood sobbed. James felt a small stab of pity in his heart before discarding it as sentiment. His eyes fell on Albert who was cleaning himself with a wet cloth from puke and blood stains of squashed leeches.