Skyrun

Chapter 5; Things go very, very wrong very, very quickly.

Before Liam even knew what was happening, a sword was thrust into his hands and he was dragged out on deck before a crowd of pirates, who apparently had stopped all their work to watch him, gawking in amused disbelief as the boy faced off against their leader.

Bloody brilliant.

Looking around nervously, Liam saw the pirate captain standing before him, avaitor coat gone, sword in hand, and a deadly look in her eye. A little to his left, he spotted the curly haired girl from earlier giving him a curious look before she waved at him excitedly as though nothing was amiss. Beside her stood Sinclair, his lips curved into a sinister smile.

"The rules are simple, Oh Strong One." Valentine called out, "Defeat me and you're the new pirate captain."

"What?!" Liam's head spun, his heart pumping wildly in his chest, "But then anyone could be captain."

She cackled. "Ah yes, but no one has defeated me yet." And with that, she lunged.

With a cry, Liam only just managed to block her sword before it could pierce his body. She struck once more, this time aiming for his legs, giving him only seconds to react and sloppily block the blow.

Again and again she swung. Wild, fast, free, and with no mercy. It was like a dance for her-- a dance that Liam did not know the steps to. And it showed. 

Twice she tripped him, making him fall flat on his face before jabbing him in the rear with the tip of her sword. All around them, pirates hooted and howled as Liam continued to make a fool of himself. 

Once or twice, he got in a good hit and he even managed to nearly knock her over once before she sprung nimbly back to her feet. All the while she would taunt him with phrases like, "You're not giving up now are you?" or "What, tired already?"  or "Come on, big boy, put your back into it!"

Soon Liam's arms ached from the effort of trying to block her and hit her at the same time. That was when he let his guard down... and that was when she thrust her blade forward, slicing across his right eye.

Down he went, hands pressed to the wound that was already beginning to bubble with blood. He grit his teeth from the stinging pain, willing himself not to cry out among all these pirates. Vaguely, he could hear Valentine groaning, "Blimey, I never meant to hurt the poor idiot. They're no fun when they start bleeding out, you know." 

Things were a bit blurry after that-- a slew of pain and blood pouring into his eye and down his face-- but Liam remembered Sinclair leading him to what they called the infirmary, prying the boy's fingers away from his eye and looking at the wound. 

"It'll scar." he said. "Though I doubt it shall spoil very much of your pretty face."

The comment made Liam's blood run hot and he fought to keep from lashing out, knowing it would only get him another scar.

 Next, Sinclair cleaned the wound; dabbing at it with a cloth soaked in warm water that made the boy's flesh sting like fire.

"That hurts!" Liam growled.

"Well, if you hadn't been such an idiot then you wouldn't be in this mess." the silver-haired man replied darkly, "What were you thinking, challenging the captain like that? Don't you know anything about being on a ship?"

"Obviously not, seeing as you kidnapped me!"

"I seem to recalled that we found you sneaking around on our boat!"

"I hate you!"

"Just know that the feeling is mutual!" Sinclair then pressed particularly hard on the cut and Liam yelped in pain.