Skyrun

Chapter 23; Sword fighting lessons and coming storms.

That night, Liam fell into bed exhausted, only to be kicked awake a few hours later by Tophsy, who stood over him like a sentry.

"Best get a move on," she said, "There's a storm coming and Sinclair wants us in the boiler room fueling the fire."

Growling deep in his throat, Liam hurriedly dressed, his mind going back to that fateful night not long ago when they had encountered a storm in the middle of empty skies.

That in itself had been a catastrophe, and he did not quite feel up to repeating the entire experience. Nevertheless, he quickly dressed and pulled on his goggles-- tightly tying the leather strap around his head-- and followed Tophsy to the decks above.

Already, the ship was buzzing with nervous activity and from the sounds the men made, none of them were very happy to be up there either.

"Blimey, why do these things always have to come at night?" Liam heard Coin grumble. "It's hard enough to get any rest 'round here as it is."

"All right, all right, lads!" Valentine shouted from where she stood by the wheel of the ship, her stance strong, as if there was no doubt that she was captain. "By the gods, I've never heard so much groaning and complaining since I chopped my uncle's hand off. Now then, we're going to try to outrun this storm and, if the gods are good, we'll sail on into next morning." Then, with a wave of her hand, Valentine sent them on their way with Sinclair being the driving force behind the ordering about and such.

Immediately, Liam, Tophsy, and Ezra were sent to the boiler room and along with a pirate called Stiff, they managed to keep the fires going hot well into the early hours of the dawn. 

By then, the ship had managed to stay ahead of the gales and driving rain, yet the aircraft still rocked from side to side precariously and the sky remained dark with a thick blanket of clouds. And as the ship pitched and rolled, Tophsy turned to Liam in the thick of it and said mildly, "Fancy a bit of sword fighting?"

He gave her an incredulous look, "In THIS weather?"

"Why not? Unsteady ground is the best sort of ground a pirate can practice sword fighting on, you know."

"No, I don't know and I don't think I wish to know."

But just when his mind was made up, Ezra butted in lightly with, "You're not scared of fighting in this weather are you, Hawk? What's wrong, afraid you'll fall?"

Well. That quickly settled it.

Gritting his teeth, Liam waited till their shift in the boiler room was finished before agreeing to this madness. Why, he would show HIM-- he would beat Ezra bloody, he would.

All he needed now was a sword.

Unfortunately, while the ship had no lack of swords, daggers, cutlasses, maces, and flails, there was the slight problem of the fact that they all belonged to some bloke or another. And even though Liam asked several pirates if he might borrow their weapons, he was either turned down or given a choice or bartering... most of which offers he turned down on account of them being complete and utter bullocks. 

Some worse than others.

"What's in it for me?" Raven had asked dryly when he inquired if he if he could borrow her rapier.

"I've got a shiny button you could have." Liam offered.

"If you think a button is all it will take to get me to give up a blade, you're stupider than I thought, love."

And that had been when Valentine had strode up and told Raven to leave Liam alone and had turned to him, directly, asking what he needed.

"A sword," Liam replied, glancing at the two she wore at her waist. Besides the cutlass and rapier, the captain also had several daggers belted to her thighs as well as two short swords strapped to her back.