All Aboard! And Up We Go!

[Drunken-Rabbit]

Henry was ready for this journey to take flight. He had been docked at the port for several days now, and he still had not seen sight of the person he was after. He knew he had time to wait, but Henry just wasn't that type of person to wait for long. He enjoyed being out in the open air, steering his airship to wherever it may go. Not be docked at a floating port, waiting for someone he wasn't even sure was still here or not.

He hadn't seen the boy in quite some time, but he was sure that he hadn't moved or disappeared. But one could only tell with waiting, and that just brings him back to square one.

Henry licked his soft pale lips and ran his fingers through his soft pale blonde hair. Everything was pale about him. His hair, his lips, his skin tone, even his eyes. He chuckled at the thought and slowly walked down the ramp that led to his air ship, and out onto the dock. He walked a ways to get into the beginning of the town of Tremilian. It wasn't a very big port town, but he liked it that way. For after all, he was the great and powerful pirate Henry Lockshfurd. Henry's leather boots made a soft "clunk" on the wooden planks of the dock, and he tipped his head to the men and women who did their daily business.

As Henry neared the heart of the town, a warm and enticing scent wafted past his nostrils and he licked his lips and grinned in the direction of the scent. The aroma was coming from a small bakery on the corner. He smiled crookedly and strolled into the bakery. The smell got even stronger, and it made Henry's mouth water. A small and plump woman was working behind the counter and he smiled at her charmingly and picked up a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread. He reached into his frock coat pocket and grabbed a few copper pieces and handed it over to the woman. She smiled gratefully and went back to doing her business. The only time Henry would not steal, was if it was from a woman or child, or if it was in a nice town such as this one. He didn't need his reputation coming out into the open in small ports like this one. The small ports gave him coal and supplies for his ship, and he didn't want to ruin that.

 

[redblood]

Jim Cross, a typical carefree boy from the countryside. Not a care in the world. Took whatever job he could get just to make it through the day, then suddenly leaving town to go out on a new adventure in the next. Or at least that was what others thought about him.

His real name was Eric Granville and he came from a noble family. Two years earlier his father had suddenly told him that he were to marry a woman that he did not love, nor wanted to love. Eric had never been interested in love or families. He was a dreamer, he wanted to travel and see the world. Instead his family brought him up to become a diplomat or general. In the end he got enough of their never ending pushing, and he left. He ran away from his family and started to travel with the name Jim. He didn't have a single penny since he didn't want anything that had belonged to his parents. He wanted to start his own life without their help.

Eric, or Jim as he called himself got so attached to the name so he stopped thinking of himself as Eric. After some time Eric became a stranger and Jim erased his existence. The only reminder of Eric was his family that constantly tried to find him. He never stayed in one place for too long and never got to know people too well, for other people that kind of life might have been tough but Jim enjoyed the free life by himself. He didn't think he needed anyone.



Jim had just finished a job, not a completely legal job but a job, and he had gotten his money for it. "Time to get out of here." He mumbled to himself. He had enjoyed that town a lot, it was so calm and quiet, but he couldn't stay forever and staying as long as he had could become dangerous. But before he left he would need food. Just at that moment he could feel the wonderful scent of newly baked bread coming from a small bakery. He had been going there a lot since he came into town, of all the places he had been in during his two years journey, that shop made the best bread. He would really miss it.

He walked into the shop and slightly noticed the pale, blonde haired man. He was certain that he had seen the man before but didn't know exactly where. Oh well, that didn't matter. The small woman noticed him immediately as he opened the door. "The usual Jim?" She asked him as a reflex.
"Nah, I'll need a bit more today. Four baguettes should be enough." He told her.
"Why so much?" She asked a bit curious. He usually just bought two small breads since he never saved food, he simply bought what he would eat at that time.
"I'm getting out of town tonight, so it will be good to have something if I don't reach another town for some days." He told her. She nodded but he noticed her disappointment. She probably had thought that he would settle down in town since he had stayed so long.
"Take care of yourself then. I hope you will come back someday." She told him before he walked out.

 

[Drunken-Rabbit]

Henry was just about to a take a bite of his bread before he noticed a man walking closer and closer to the bakery. He grinned in excitement, this was the boy he was looking for! He watched as the boy interacted with the baker and noted that his name was Jim.
'Not a very air worthy name, but it'll do.' Henry thought softly to himself, and than raised an interested eyebrow saying that he was "getting out of town" this very evening. Well, the boy would be getting out of town not only tonight, but with Henry as well.

Henry watched Jim leave and he snickered and took the last bite of the cinnamon raisin bread and followed the boy out into the street. Henry didn't really care too much to where the boy was going, but he knew he had to persuade him to get on his ship, or his whole stay here would be futile. He chuckled and very sneakily he pick pocketed a small pocket watch from Jim's pocket and he dropped it on the floor casually. After a second had past he spoke aloud.
"Oh my, what do we have here? A pocket watch? Seems mighty expensive. I wonder who this could belong to? It reads. 'To my dearest Eric, may this be a token of my love. " Henry snickered slightly and waited for the boy to notice the name.
'How curious, it says to Eric, but his name is supposedly Jim? There is a lot hiding with this boy, I like it.' Henry thought eagerly and waggled an eyebrow as the boy turned around.
"Oh dear, is this yours per chance, Jim? I think you have a lot of explaining to do, boy." Henry chuckled and glanced at the ports and saw a wave of a hand. He nodded slightly and turned his gaze back to the boy.
"Op! Time to go!" Henry laughed madly and dashed off towards his air ship, slightly glancing back to see if the boy would follow.

 

[redblood]

Jim had put himself into deep thoughts as he walked out of the store. It felt a bit heavy to leave, maybe he shouldn't have stayed for so long after all. If he only stayed some weeks or a month in the same town then it was easy, then he barely knew anyone. But now he had been staying for three month's already. He liked that old lady, he liked some of the people he had been working for, and now he wouldn't see them anymore. Well, at least he had learned from this mistake, never stay for too long again.

He was so deep in his thoughts that he didn't even noticed that someone took something from his pocket, even though he was very sensitive towards those kinds of things and often cached the best pickpocket thieve. But he woke up when he heard a voice behind him, though he didn't really care about it before he heard some familiar words.

That pocket watch was the only thing that still tied him to his old self, somehow he wasn't able to throw it away. It represented his past life, the life he threw away. He turned his head towards the man as he heard his name. It was the man from the store. Just as Jim were going to tell the man to give it back to him the man dashed away with a laugh.

"What the heck." Jim exclaimed and ran after the man. Jim wasn't the fastest runner, but he were somehow able to keep up with the man. But something told him that the man could run faster, was he toying with him? Probably. He was so out of breath he couldn't even scream to the man to stop, instead he just tried to keep the same tempo as the man. He had to stop at some point, he might even run into a dead end and then Jim could get him to give the watch back.

 

[Drunken-Rabbit]

Henry knew the boy couldn't keep up with him, for he was the fastest pirate in all of the seven air kingdoms. He laughed and held on tight to the pocket watch for it was his bargaining chip. Henry focused in on the ramp to his air ship and knew it was only a hop, skip and a jump to getting aboard, so that's exactly what he did. Henry first hopped, almost falling forward with the speed he was going, and once he got back on track he heaved his legs and did a mighty skip, and for the last part he leaped onto the ramp and climbed aboard his ship. He stopped at the top of the ramp and swung the pocket watch around on it's chain. Henry wasn't even out of breath, and he waited for the boy to come close enough to the ship so he would hear Henry.

"If you want this back, boy, you must come onto my ship and sail away with me!" He laughed a deep and rich laugh and tapped his leather clad foot on the deck of the ship. His crew members were laughing and watching the spectacle, for this had happened in one form or the other to them. You see, this was how Henry got his crew members. It may be a little eccentric way of doing things, but after all, one of things Henry was, was eccentric. He winked at the boy. He was fairly decent in appearance, and he would be a good crew member to come aboard the ship. Henry laughed once more and waited for the boy to speak or say a word.

"Hurry now, boy, my ship is setting sail towards the floating isles!" Henry chuckled and slowly inch by inch started taking in the ramp. He didn't do it too fast so the boy wouldn't fall to his death if he were to climb aboard, but he didn't do it too slow either, so the boy knew he meant business.
"Oh, and I'll make sure that whoever you're hiding from, never finds you again. In good terms of course." Henry added that last part on witha bit of a flourish and waited to see if he would make a new crew member.

 

[redblood]

Jim didn't realize how much he hated to run before he actually had to do it. That was the bad point of growing up in such a rich family, he had no stamina at all. And he hadn't really been running that much after leaving his home. Most jobs he did was either shop work where he lifted things or stuff like that, and other were more illegal jobs that included getting information or stealing. He was very talented in hiding and sneak around people without them noticing. But running was definitely his Achilles heel.

The man ran up on a ship, at that point Jim was far behind. He stopped just a bit away from the ship and looked up at the man that started to speak to him. He could barely believe his ears, and for a second he thought that he had heard wrong at the first sentence. But the second sentence just proved what the man had said. Was he serious? Jim was still trying to catch his breath so he really didn't have any time to think about what he did. All of a sudden he simply found himself having run up at the ship.

"Give it back." He said with his hand outstretched as he glared at the man in front of him. He had never met a person like him before, and he hadn't thought that such a thing would happen in a small town. That was the reason he had only stayed in small villages, because it was safest. But now he had gotten into some kind of trouble anyway. 'Good job Jim' He thought to himself. Maybe he should just have left the watch. On the other hand, he could just jump off in the next harbor. As if that guy would be able to stop him.

 

[Drunken-Rabbit]

Henry watched as Jim climbed onto his ship and he grinned and he also nodded as one of his crew members heaved the ramp up onto the deck of the ship and untied the ropes holding them to the dock. Henry chuckled and clapped his hands, and smiled at his crew.
"Cheers men! We've got ourselves a new crew member! Welcome aboard, Jim! Each sailor has their own room below deck, there is a few open ones, I believe. But after tonight, I think you might find my quarters more comfortable." He chuckled softly and swung the pocket watch around as he left to his chambers, completely disregarding Jim's demand.

Henry turned to his first mate, who was a tall slender female, that looked exactly like him. He gave her a quick peck on the cheek and ruffled her hair.
"Stop it Henryithin! You don't want me to call up mummy do you?" She snapped, but it was in a playful tone, and he just grinned at her and glanced back casually once more and called out to his crew.
"Up we go!" He laughed and the crew joined in a loud chorus.
"UP WE GO!"

Henry entered his chambers and set the poket watch in his music box, and locked the music box. He knew that the boy would come wandering in here eventually, and he hoped that his offer to sleep in his quarters and even so, his bed, seemed good enough to come find him, let alone the pocket watch.

 

[redblood]

"Wha..." Jim looked stunned at the man and couldn't really find any words as the man walked away with the watch. He would probably have hit that man in any other situation, but that didn't seem like such a good idea when there were a crew to back the man up. Plus the way the man had spoken to him had left him so surprise so it was impossible for him to even think about hitting him.

He was left standing with his mouth opened for some seconds before he pulled himself together and decided to follow the man. Both because he was a bit afraid of being alone on a ship with shady people he didn't know, and because he wanted his watch back, and of course some answers too. What the heck was that man thinking, taking his watch then running off and making him follow up to the ship? Did he know about who Jim was? Was he going to take him to his father and get the money? It wasn't like his father was cheap, last time Jim had walked into a big city he had heard rumors about a reward up to a thousand silver coins just for information on where he could be.

But if that was the case, then why had he told him that he would help him hide? He could be lying, but Jim didn't really think that the man was a liar, especially since the way he got Jim on the ship was so radical.

Jim walked in just moments after the man had entered his chambers, his anger had eased a bit but he was still very irritated. "Who do you think you are, taking peoples stuff and making them go after you? I demand an explanation and my watch back." He didn't raise his voice, nor did he stand in any threatening posture. He hadn't really become irritated on anyone since he had lived with his family and at that time he had learnt to never raise his voice even when angry and always keep the posture. He didn't even realize that he used the word demand before they had escaped his lips. That wasn't a word that he liked to use since it showed that a person thought their status was higher than the person they were talking to. It wasn't like he actually thought that, but that was a word that often came to mind when people did things he didn't like.

 

[Drunken-Rabbit]

Henry counted down the seconds before Jim walked into his cabin. He grinned devilishly at the boy and let him blow off a little bit of steam before he spoke, in a quiet and soft voice.
"Darling, you can get your watch back when you leave this ship. I doubt you'll ever get your watch back at this rate." Henry chuckled and winked his pale hues at Jim.
"I'm a very eccentric, but famous air pirate. You might of heard of me? The name is Henry Lockshfurd." He giggled loudly and heaved himself up with tremendous strength, which propelled him forward and right into the mouth of Jim. He took a soft nip of the boy's lower lip and than pulled back and grabbed his wrist and pulled him through the doorway of his cabin and out onto the deck.

He turned to Jim.
"So tell me, boy. Why is there a different name in that little pocket watch of yours? What are you hiding? You don't have to tell me, I already know. There is a heavy price on your head. But, no worries with me, I have no reason to betray you to your parents. High society snobs. I have nothing to do with the likes of them. Come on and enjoy the sky air. It's refreshing, and the higher we get, the more sillier you become!" He winked and twirled about on the open deck.

 

[redblood]

Jim had never heard a man calling him darling before, and he hoped he didn't need to hear it again. It had been enough hearing it from his mother and a couple of times from his fiance. That man really had a weird personality, during normal circumstances Jim might have liked that personality for a little while, but being dragged to a ship and made into a crew member was taking it too far.

The man continued to tell him about himself, he flinched as he heard the word pirate. That man, a pirate? Then he told Jim his name. He had definitely heard that name before, mostly during his journey. It took him by surprise that the man in front of him was that Henry Lockshfurd. He had thought of him as a much older and much more brutal person. Instead he had this weird personality that didn't fit a pirate at all, at least not from the stories Jim had heard of pirates. Jim was just about to tell the man to stop joking around when the man heaved himself up and before he knew it their lips touched. The man softly nipped Jim's lower lip before pulling back and Jim could definitely feel an uncontrollable blush appearing on his cheek.

"What the heck a..." He didn't get further than that before he was dragged out onto the deck. The man then turned to Jim and asked question that he already had the answers too. He knew about the price on his head, he knew about his parents. Jim had preferred if such a man didn't know, he couldn't trust him. Who knew what he was thinking.

Jim pulled his arm backwards to get his wrist out of Henry's hand. "You don't like high society snobs but still you have one on your ship. Why do you think I'm any different from them?" He asked the man. Sometimes people had figured out who he was, some had tried to get the award and some hadn't. Either way they had all changed attitude towards him and thought he had been a snobbish brat, it didn't matter if he acted like one or not. All the times he had been figured out had been in the beginning of his journey, he had another fake name at that time and longer hair. he hadn't dared to stop in any town for weeks and when he finally decided that he needed to get into a town he decided to change his name again since the other one probably had spread.

 

[Drunken-Rabbit]

Henry chuckled and stopped twirling about and stood tall and erect in front of Jim. Henry was about 6'3 or 6'4 on a good day, as well as slender. Even though he ate quite a bit, he never gained anything. Henry placed one hand on each of hip, they were balled into fists, but he wasn't angry in the slightest. He licked his soft pale pink lips and swayed slightly in his stance.
"Well, darling. I see no high society snob before me. I see a rather attractive, and hard working boy, who just wants to get away from the high society and brat-y-ness of his parents and their life. I see a boy who doesn't want to conform to societies rules, and someone who would much rather be up in the air, than anchored to the ground. You are a lot like me, Jim, Eric, whatever you want to be called. Really. Stay a while and you may find that out for yourself."

Henry gave a small, genuine grin and pivoted on his heel, and walked farther out on the deck. The sun was rising high in the sky, and there were a few stray clouds here and there, but nothing really hindering their view of the land below. The land was quickly giving away to a large sea that stretched on for miles and miles. The water was a clear blue, so he could see the various fish and mammals swimming about in the water. He even spotted a pod of Orcas going in for the kill. He loved watching everything from up in the air, it was beautiful, and most of the time the subject in which Henry was viewing had no clue he was viewing them. He chuckled and turned away from the side of the ship to go up to where the helm was and talked briefly to his sister and came back down to Jim.

"So, boy. Would you like to sleep with the crew or in my quarters?" He chuckled and raised and eyebrow while folding his arms over his chest.

 

[redblood]

Jim had no idea how to respond to that, it was the first time someone actually had understood his feelings. Even though the part of wanting to be free in the air should have been more of a metaphor than a reality. He wasn't that found of heights and never dared to put his foot on a flying ship before. It took him that long to actually realize that they were in the sky since he had been too busy fighting with his kidnapper, blackmailer or whatever he was. But Jim couldn't really see him as any of that after the man's speech, maybe he wasn't so bad. Jim shook his head, there was no way a pirate could not be bad. Pirates were bad people, they hurt others, they stole and some killed while doing so.

He wanted to think of Henry as an evil pirate, but it was kind of hard because of his personality. Why did someone like him become a pirate anyway? Maybe he wouldn't have minded the situation if he weren't on a ship with thieves. But who was he to talk? It wasn't like he was completely free from sins like theft.

As he were deep in thoughts he almost jumped when he heard the pirates voice. Jim couldn't help but rise a doubtful eyebrow. "Stop joking around, why would I sleep in your quarters?" It came out a bit ruder than he had intended and he almost were about to apologize since that was what he had been taught since early age, if you know you treated someone wrong even a little bit then apologize. "Just so you know, I am not like you. I would never become like a pirate. I am jumping off in the next harbor and at that time I want my watch back." He tried to not look small but that was hard beside a 6'3 feet tall man when he himself just was 5'7.

 

[Drunken-Rabbit]

Henry laughed out loud. He looked around at his crew and spoke.
"You here that? He's jumping off at the next harbor!" Henry laughed hysterically his crew joining in once they heard the silly news. Henry smirked and rolled his eyes at the boy.
"We won't be going to the next harbor in months time. Tremilian was our last stop before we headed off to The Floating Isles. It takes three months to get to The Floating Isles from Tremilian, and than we plan on staying there and searching for an item, that might take a while. Than the closest port to The Floating Isles is Tremilian so another three months before you can get back home to mommy and daddy. I'm sure they would love to see you, wouldn't they? As we were setting off I managed to find out where they were, they are looking for you in Barintine, that's the port closest to Tremilian. I also heard they had a scout in Tremilian, so I guess you can't really go back, now huh?" Henry let that set in for a few moments, and than sighed and spoke again.
"If you must sleep with the crew, than go ahead. But, I promise you it won't be fun. They like to pick on new comers. It's all in good fun though, but they can be pretty rough. Take Kerin for example.." Henry said pointing to a rather lanky and seedy looking fellow.
"He won't care whether you don't like it or not, he'll try to feel you up faster than you could say 'stop'. He does it while your sleeping though. But if you try to do anything about it, or if you hit on Kerin, than Misjivs will come after you." Henry said pointing to a large and burly male cleaning the deck.
"The offer still stands open to sleep in my quarters. I don't bite..unless you want me too." He chuckled and headed in the direction of his quarters.

 

[redblood]

Jim tried to take in what the man said, but somehow it felt a bit hard to follow. If it weren't for the pause he would definitely not have been able to process the information completely. He had thought about heading towards Barintine, if he had then he might have been found. But month's stuck on that ship? With pirates? He would rather try to sneak past that scout in Tremilian. So stupid, why did he have to get into such a weird situation? All he did was going from town to town, getting some small jobs and trying to live his own life. Now suddenly he were on a pirate ship without any chance of escaping if he didn't want to jump to his death.

He had already understood that a newcomer would be picked on, and he were ready for that. But then he told him about things he really didn't want to know, or maybe he did since that was the only way to get away from it. Jim became a little bit pale. How was such things just in good fun? That was a bit more than a little rough in Jim's mind. Maybe it would be a better idea to just jump off the ship. Of course that was just a seconds thought crossing his mind without much seriousness in it. But if he had to choose between being locked up on a pirate ship for month's with suspicious people or being locked up in his home with his parents telling him what to do then... He would probably still choose the pirate ship.

There was no way he could actually go down and sleep with the crew after that, but there was no way he could swallow his pride and sleep in that man's quarters. He wasn't that afraid of Kerin, he was certain he could hit him off. It was that other dude that scared him. He would prefer to keep all his inner and outer body parts intact until he came to a harbor he could jump off at. If he had a sword he would probably feel much safer, or a gun, or a knife. As a generals son he had learned to use such things early, even though he hadn't had any chance of testing his skills for two years he was certain that he was still over average with them.

He walked around at the deck, almost thinking about just sleeping out there. But even he understood that he would probably get really sick or even freeze to death. The nights wouldn't be warm that high in the air. In the end he just had to choose, the too rough crew or the weird captain.

Maybe it had taken an hour before he had decided, he had unconsciously, and maybe a bit consciously, stayed as far away from the others as possible while walking around. He felt his pride sink to the bottom of the ocean as he walked towards Henry's quarters. He had thought that he had thrown away his pride together with his name and past life, but somehow it had gotten back to the surface when he was face with such an humiliating situation. Would he have thought it as humiliating if he hadn't lived a noble life for so long? Maybe he couldn't get rid of some parts of his past life so easily.

He was standing outside the room for at least a minute before he knocked, even pirates would want people to knock before going into their rooms, right? Maybe not, maybe they were just rough savages that didn't care for privacy. In that case he would become a laughing stock again. This was going to become some long month's.

 

[Drunken-Rabbit]

As Henry entered his quarters he opened up a cabinet built into the wall and grabbed a vial filled with dark red liquid. He popped the cork that was sealing the liquid inside the container, and put the glass container to his lips and hastily swallowed the precious life force. Too Henry, it tasted wonderful, a little bland for being a few days old, but it still filled him up. Yes, Henry was of the chalky white and sharp teethed crew. But, he was unlike other vampires. Being the last of his kind, Henry was a vampire, he had to drink blood to survive, but only a small amount at a time, and it had to be the blood of a mortal that had great potential. He could also walk out in broad daylight for hours at a time, but he would get very weak if he stayed out too long, and if he stayed out in daylight from Dawn to Dusk, he would fry. All of his crew members were this species of vampire, but of course, with each person you bite, the vampirism becomes less noticeable, and then once it is almost not even noticeable than it starts back up again. Henry was gave the task to recreate this unique Vampire species, and he has been doing so in all of his crew members. If you bite someone, depending on how you bite them, whether it was a little nip, or a long drawn out feeding with sex afterwards, than they were either your "child" or you "Lover". Henry's species of Vampire had only one "lover" but many "Children". He had his sights set on Jim.

Henry sighed and raised an eyebrow when there was a knock on the door of his chambers. He grinned, knowing exactly who it was. He opened the door and pulled Jim in by his wrists and slammed the door behind him. Henry wrapped his arms around Jim's waist and stood within inches of his face.
"So, you've decided to keep me company have you?" He giggled softly and waited for a reply.

[OOC: Are you a teen? I couldn't remember if I asked you or not. :o ]

 

[redblood]

Jim got taken by surprise when the man pulled him into the room and wrapped his arms around the teen. 'Haven't he ever heard of personal space?' Jim thought to himself, feeling slightly uncomfortable so close to another human. He had never really been close to other people, not even his fiance got closer than an arm length. He had just never seen any point in a physical relationship and the idea of touching others in any way just didn't come natural for him. It wasn't something he thought about much, it just came natural not to touch others if they didn't want to shake hands with him.

"I'm not keeping you company. I'm only here cause you should take some responsibility for forcing me onto a ship with pirates that might kill me in my sleep if I'm not careful." He said irritated as he tried to back away from Henry's face. Telling a pirate to take responsibility for a kidnapped person seemed like a joke even in Jim's mind, but the man had said that he wouldn't hurt him, or at least not bite. It might have been a bit too naive of him to trust a pirate but it was either the captain or the crew so there were not much of a choice. "Don't you dare do anything funny Mister sexual harasser." He then continued with a warning in his tone. He might be in Henry's room because he trust him more than the crew, but his trust only stretched to one percent if not less.

[OOC: No, I'm in the 18+ group (20 years)]

 

[Drunken-Rabbit]

Henry laughed and pulled away from him and sat on his king bed. It had a canopy, and it had silk black curtains enclosing around the bed. The curtains were drawn at the time, and they were pulled back to stay out of the way of anyone laying down or doing anything on the bed. Henry chuckled at the boy's comment and shrugged.
"Your mind might change." Was all he said to Jim before he got up off the bed and went to the shaded windows. The sky was bright blue, and a few clouds passed by the window before dispersing. He sighed in content and stepped aside and turned to face Jim, one hand pointing out the window.
"That view is what I wake up too every morning I'm in the air. It's so beautiful, it's just a wonderful sight. Just blue sky, maybe indigo or golden and pink from the sunset and sunrise. It's gorgeous. And, the stars are the best part, being way up high, whoever is on the deck can see them as clear as day. We have a certain ritual at night, where we extinguish all the lanterns and lay out on the deck and watch the stars. We sometimes see comets, and shooting stars too. It's beautiful. I do hope you won't be asleep by the time we do the ritual, it really is a sight to behold." He grinned, lost deep in thought. Henry turned back to the window and sighed.

Although he missed his home and family, he loved the open air. He loved going to new places, and the excitement of his adventures. There was something new to do every single time he left a port. He couldn't wait to get to the floating isles. There was a certain item in which he had to get, before the year ended..

 

[redblood]

"I can't deny that it sounds beautiful, but I would prefer watching it from the ground. If humans were meant to fly then we would have been born with wings." Jim told the man with a tone that probably showed his dislike of heights and that he didn't want to look out to be reminded of the height they were at. He loved watching the night sky, especially when he could feel the grass underneath his feet. The smell of plants and flowers calmed him and he never minded sleeping on the ground if the weather was good.

"So, you seem to know about my family situation. But what about you? Why did you become a pirate? What about your family? I don't mean to sound snoopy but I will be here for at least six month's if I can't get you to drop me off at the harbor again, I prefer knowing something about the people around me." Jim continued before he let himself fall down on the bed, his legs on the floor and his upper body lying comfortably while waiting for Henry to reply. He didn't think he would get too much out of the man if anything at all, but at least he could try.

 

[Drunken-Rabbit]

Henry stared out the window for several seconds longer before replying to the boy. He bit his lip and sighed.
"In all honesty, I was just like you. I grew up in a rich high society family, with my sister Marietta. We were tired of our parent's bullshit and so we left. One night. It was a summer night, and it wasn't really cold. We lived on the ground, not in one of the port towns. I hated being on the ground. I needed to be free, and the only way to do that, was to fly. So I did. I took my sister and we stowaway-ed on a fancy airship and that's where I met my mentor. Two Tail Red Tail Marcowitz. He was the best pirate that there ever was, if you ask me." Henry shrugged absentmindedly and grinned at Jim.

He glanced back out the window and noticed it was getting dark. He walked towards the door and opened it up and turned to Jim.
"We best be eatin' now, boy. We don't want you to get any skinnier." Henry chuckled and left the door open as he walked out onto the deck. There was quiet chit-chat from the crew members, nothing to special was going on in the air. It was rather smooth sailings as of now. You never knew though, there was even more bloodthirsty pirates out there, the ones that didn't just drink your blood; like his pirates, but ones who would steal your treasure too.

 

[redblood]

Jim forced himself to hold back a laugh as he heard the pirate telling him that he had been like Jim. But even though he didn't want to admit that the man had been a bit like him once, he still got kind of absorbed into the story. He could understand the man's urge for freedom, but he himself couldn't find his freedom in the sky. As long as he couldn't fly with his own wings then he wouldn't be in control of where he's going and that wasn't freedom to Jim. As long as he could walk on the ground then he could be free to go wherever he wished.

He thought that more would come after Henry paused and look out the window, but instead he walked towards the door. "Wha.." Jim exclaimed a bit embarrassed as he rose fast from the bed. "I'm not that skinny." He said a bit offended as he followed the man. He weren't going to walk around alone on the ship, at least not at the moment. He didn't know any of the other crew members, and he didn't want to get beaten to death or worse. It wasn't like anyone would care to help him if he got into trouble with one of the pirates. For a second he had wondered what had happened with Marietta, if she was on the ship or left a long time ago. But that thought had stayed in the room they had left and worry had replaced the thought.