Skyrun

Chapter 18; New skies, fresh danger.

Dawn etched the sky with gentle colours that shone in brilliant shades of pink, gold, and soft orange. The air was still frigid from the icy chill of the night, and the deck of the ship was slippery from the moisture from the clouds.

Liam yawned, remembering when his cousin Archer had told him about cloud moisture-- about how they were simply fluffy forms of evaporated water that had sort of frozen or something like that.

"They look like sheep that got stuck up there in the sky." Liam's other cousin, Pip, had retorted. "Pfft. Moisture. Those are sky sheep, if ever I saw them."

Now, as Liam gazed at the clouds which were just now beginning to be streaked with gold from the rising sun, he could not help but think that, yes, they did quite look like sheep.

Very large sheep.

Shaking his head, Liam forced his eyes open once more, trying to stay awake.

In truth, he had not gotten much sleep the previous night, his mind preoccupied with jealous thoughts of Ezra and worry that the captain would end up liking him more than Liam himself.

Eventually, he had drifted off amidst the snoring of the others only to be kicked roughly awake by Sinclair, telling him that he was needed as a lookout in the crow's nest. 

Thus, instead of questioning why keeping a lookout was suddenly his job and not, say, the lookout's job, he quickly dressed and made his way to the crow's nest, where he now slumped against the railing separating him from falling to his death.

Lovely.

Looking out into the morning and hearing the stirrings of the pirates beginning the day's work on deck below him, Liam did not hear Valentine sneak up behind him till she had tapped him on the shoulder and had very nearly sent him tumbling over the edge.

"You scared the cogs and gears out of me!" Liam nearly shouted while the captain only laughed at his expense.

"I'd do it again too. The look on your face was nearly priceless."

He frowned at her, noting the way the dimples on her cheeks stood out when she smiled. And, eventually, he smiled back simply because he could not stand being upset with her for very long.

Nudging him slightly, Valentine handed him a mug of something warm and steaming. "Here. Don't drop that over the edge or it'll be a bad day for you and me both."

"But mostly me."

"You catch on quickly enough."

Smiling slightly, Liam took a sip of the liquid, shivering pleasantly as it warmed the back of his throat with a taste familiar to him. Suddenly, his eyes widened as the realization dawned on him; it was coffee. 

It tasted so similar to what his father had bought him when Liam had worked at the airship docks. Warm and sweet, his filled his mouth with a familiar taste and his mind with forgotten memories.

With a jolt of guilt, he realized he had not really thought of his family till now; where they were or how they were doing. If they missed him. If they looked for him.

"Something the matter?' Valentine asked, breaking him from his thoughts.

"No, it's just... my father used to buy me coffee just like this. Before I was kidnap--" he stopped himself, "Before I snuck aboard this ship." There. Perhaps it was time he admitted to at least being partly responsible for this mess he was in.

Besides, his friends who had dared him to do it were dead, so it wasn't as if he could blame them. Unfortunately.

Valentine gave him a look, her eyes widening. "You were from that town, weren't you? The small-ish one that was in the middle of its summer festival."