The Nature of the Serpent

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Musetta wasn't sure what Aias was apologizing for, unless it was because he had distracted her from the food. Before he could get too far away however she gave him a quick kiss. After all, this morning was much more pleasent then the previous and she wanted to keep it that way and because she could.

"That sounds like a good idea," she said as she tested the cooking flesh. It wasn't burnt, which was the important thing. After a few moments she finally took the pieces off the fire and laid them down on some leaves. Even though she knew it would be too hot still she plucked a pieces off with her fingers and stuck it in her mouth.
 
He was distracted with his inner thoughts again but followed her hand to her mouth and then looked out to sea before she noticed, then looked at their shelter. Things were still to complicated for his liking but he knew it would get simpler soon. In about a month she would try to leave again, he would have to go with her to make sure she stayed alright. And now he was in the mood to just flop down and not do anything again. Maybe food would help.

He reached over and picked up a morsel and started nibbling halfheartedly on one end. She was going to leave him, there was no other way this could end, and he would be happy to have her return to where she wanted to be. Or so he told himself. "I must seem mad to you."
 
"Not as much as when I first got here," she said grinning in a teasing manner. It was slightly true. He seemed very much the reclusive hermit at first, but in a short matter of time he seemed to open up to her. Except for him disappearing from time to time, there wasn't much else that was strange. No, that was a lie. So much was strange, so very very much, but it wasn't going to do her any good to follow those thoughts, she knew that!

They continued eating for a time. For her part, Musetta tried not to be ravenous as she ate. "Things will be better when we get off the island, but until then we shouldn't try to fret too much, right? We have what we need to keep us going here for a time still, and..." Musetta glanced out to the ocean. So calm looking. Despite its hidden terrors, despite the storms it brought, she still was found of it.
 
"I don't fret at all about what will happen." he said truthfully enough. "I know well enough what will happen and when. It's logic." he tried to sound sure of himself. "What I fret over is what people who can't see what I see will do, but I'm here and I'll look after you." he smiled and then continued nibbling. He hadn't eaten much and it was becoming habit. as good as her coked food tasted it just wasn't the same. He was happy with her and could so easily keep her deceived forever, but he knew this wasn't right. He wanted her to be happy with him too. All of him. And that was never going to happen.

"I don't think I've said how different having someone else here is." he said. "Before I had no fire, no one to talk to, I would spend more time in the water that out of it. There are only fish, and sharks, and the..." he stopped. "I'll look after you, so you don't need to fret."
 
Musetta found herself smiling at Aias. It wasn't just because he was smiling of course, but what he was telling her. "It's been a very long time since, well, since someone said that to me, and even then it was different. It was family." There was something strangely comforting about being told someone was looking out for you.

"And while I would have been happier not to have lost my ship, if it had to happen, I'm glad it was here." Reaching over she placed her hand on his. "And I'm very glad I've gotten to meet you." She gave his hand a gentle squeeze before she started to remove it, after all she should have been eating. Tough really the only hurry was her own self motivated timeline. It was important, but it wasn't going to kill her to linger over breakfast with him.
 
He looked down at her hand as she touched him, a simple gesture and yet so powerful. "Everyone needs someone to look out for them." he said before taking a larger bite of fish and looking around for something to wash it down with. He didn't like to drink from the trees, he didn't know if he was really allowed to but there was rainwater collected from the storm and he scooped some of that from the water pot with a bowl and drank it. She belonged among her own kind, that was clear.

"How about I help you more this time?" he asked. "I can't get much more from the wreck and you'll finish faster, right?" Time was an issue, he didn't eant them to be out at sea when her crew arrived, that would just lead to them leaving again.
 
"No, there isn't much left from the wreckage after that storm," she sighed, then looked at him and gave a small smile. "Though we got just about all the useful stuff we could use anyways I'm sure."

Taking a few more bites of her food she stood up. "Alright, if we are going to get started, we best find a good spot to work on the boat, and then bring over the timber. It's going to be a long few days." Musetta knew it was going to be more then a few days. The hardest part would be e tedious work, like making and applying the calking, but the end result would make it all worth while.

More then a few days later, Musetta was frowning at the tedious work. Aias and her had been working together to put the boat back together, but it felt like they were not getting any progress at all. "Hard work is NOT its own reward," she complained bitterly as she moved a few steps away from the boat and leaned against the tree, glaring at their one source of getting off the island. "This is why Father always told me to hire skilled laborers, not just those wanting to sign on for adventure. Every man has a job on the boat, but always try to get the best man for any one job and the reward will be in the results." The scowl began to lessen.
 
He wasn't the best man for anything, his hands bad been though torture over the course of the repair and more than once he had had to have Musetta help him with a splinter or cut. Even though Aias' approach of soaking it in seawater seemed to work wonders on him, but mow after a long day where he didn't have much to do other than watch Musetta try to work things out and when she finally spoke up he tilted his head to the side.

"I'm good with fish. I don't do anything else." it seemed to be an apology. "You father sounds like a wise man..." He had seen this man once, on the night he had died, but Musetta would never know that. "He must have been proud of you."
 
"You're good at more then that," she said, looking at him and losing the scowl, though she didn't seem happy still. Her gave left him and she looked up at the palm leaves of the tree, or what she assumed was. "And I'd like to believe he was. I don't think he expected me to follow in his footsteps, but he never tried to discourage me. He just, I think he wanted to show me there were other options."

Looking at Aias, there was a bit of a smirk. "Neither of us, my brother nor I, liked the options, most Father's ideas put us on land. Now don't get me wrong, I don't mind port and we use to have some fun when we were on land, but after a while it was time to go, and I was always ready to be on the waves once more." Musetta half closed her eyes. "I always felt sorry for the people that lived in the port towns. So close to the ocean, yet very few ever got in them. Some of the more secluded places were different, they knew how to live on land and with the sea."

"Sorry, I'm blathering," she looked at Aias feeling a bit embarrassed.
 
He put a hand on her shoulder. "It's alright. I think it's better to focus on the good parts of a person's life, more than their death. What we live for is more important than what we die for. I think it's too easy for some people to find something to die for and too hard to find something to live for. Live for happily I mean, something that makes them happy and gives them purpose, not a duty they think they have to do that makes them lonely and sad."

He was talking about himself, but he had little choice in the matter. Without him the last hope for his people would die and him with it. But he wanted to help her he happier, she had hope, she was sweet and kind and wonderful and didn't deserve to live for unhappy reasons. "Are you carrying on his life's work?"
 
"More then duty?" She sighed, "I suppose, I suppose he would want that. I want to, I don't know. I just want to sail I think. There's so much out there. For Father piracy was exacting revenge against those that wronged him. I don't mind give some good payback to them if it means I can keep doing what I love."

Musetta turned a bit pale. It had been a long time since she admitted to herself, let alone another how much she enjoyed being out to sea. Ever since her father died her mind had been turned to one goal and one goal only, to rid the seas of the serpent, but that wasn't what she longed to do, it was a dreadful duty, one that was more dangerous then getting caught by the Royal Navy someday.
 
"I love the sea too." he said. "I love swimming in it, I love the fish, I love the corrals, I love the funny creatures. That is my favorite things about this island. I get to do that every day, it's like my own little world. I can go deeper too, to where there is no light and see the things there there make their own light, I could catch one for you if you want to taste."

That was a good idea, show her all the different flavors, id would take him close of two hours underwater to get one and get back to the surface. Two hours underwater, that wouldn't not be noticed. "Or I would if I had my things." he hoped that was a good enough explanation. "But I think your father fought for more than revenge, I think he fought for you, and your brother, and your mother too. How could he not? Any decent man would. It must be nice having a good family."
 
"My mother.... I don't know what ever happen to her," Musetta looked down at her hands. She had been listening to Aias' words, though she was unsure how she felt about being so far below that one couldn't see. After all the deep held many mysteries, but now a mystery much closer to her heart was brought to the surface. "I know she's dead, I just, Father never talked about why she never came back and it's worse. The not knowing, you know? I couldn't believe the news when word reached us about Father, but when the same fate befell my brother..."

Musetta shook her head, she wasn't going to cry, but it all still hurt. "But you wanted to hear about their life, right?" Her voice was weak, as though she was scared Aias would deny her now, which of course was not likely, but Musetta's weaker side was exposed and now she feared she would be hurt more., even if she could not have expressed the feeling in words.
 
He placed a hand on her shoulder and pulled her head down into his lap and smoothed her hair with his fingers. "I just want you to think about his life, and not about his death, that is the important part." he slowly stroked her hair and sighed. "I will think about when you did in your life if you go. And I hope you will do the same if I do not see you again."

He sighed again and started to hum. "I've always said this since you arrived, living for something is more important that dying for something."
 
It felt nice as he stroked her hair, and she closed her eyes trying to think of those happy times. Learning to tie knots. The first time she climbed both up and down from the crow's nest, the antics her brother and her would pull running around a ship with all the rough looking men, being tucked in at night by her mother. "He was a good man. Honest with his men and fair. He tried to hold on to his principles, to respect others and the sea...."

Musetta's voice trailed off. She looked out at the sand on the beach, trying to relax and just be in the moment, but her emotions were all over the place. As nice as Aias's care was, it only took the edge off. She wanted to think more about the good times and not let all her thoughts of the past drag back to how she lost everyone. "I've been angry too long."
 
"You don't need to be angry, just live you life how you want to." he said before going back to humming. "The sea gives you freedom, so use that freedom to do what you want to do." he hummed more and looked out over the waves. His people were musical and he wondered if it might ease her mind if he sung, even if he couldn't king in her language. Glancing down he smiled and looked around. "We'll sleep here tonight." he said "There will be no storm and I want to look at the sea."

then he started humming again and this time didn't stop, slowly increasing in volume until his lips parted and he gave it voice, softly at first but slowly getting louder. She was more tortured than she knew, and any way he could help, he would.
 
Musetta had no objection to staying there, she was already comfortable and if Aias didn't mind, then she was content to stay that way for a time. As he went from humming to singing, it seemed almost familiar in some small way but she had no time to try to figure out as she felt her body relax and her mind settle.

Just live her life how she wanted to? Musetta lifted her head from Aias' lap and looked at him. As much as she was enjoying him singing, there was something else she much rather have enjoyed. She leaned in and kissed him, she knew he hadn't expected it, but the surprise was half the fun for her. As she kissed him, she wrapped one arm around his neck, while the other laid on his bare chest. His habit of using it as a net meant she got to look at the well formed muscles more often then not. Nice as that was, touching his skin was better, as was his strong arms going across her back. She wanted to know every inch of his skin and it seemed she was going to get to do just that. It was like a dream.
 
Morning, the sun beginning to rise in the different direction as yesterday and Aias stretched in the sand, Musetta next to him and yawned. He knew nothing about her dream, only that she had fallen asleep very quickly after he had started singing. Now he was sitting up and smelling the sea air as the wind began, slowly to blow inland. Moving his jaw he realized they didn't have dinner and was soon standing to strip off his pants and run out onto the surf. He felt like eel and would get them a bog one so they could have double portions.

The cold water was bracing and he swam along the bottom to the reef. Eel and muscles, and maybe a little seaweed.
 
Musetta awoke slowly, feeling good just laying there on the warm sand. Her mind started working, and she recalled why she was not between blankets, for Aias had declared they should sleep on the beach. Yet that wasn't all they did, right? Musetta found herself confused on that issue, despite how content and rested she felt. Opening her eyes she sat up and looked around.

Aias was no where to be seen, but he left something beside her, his pants. The pirates eyes went a little wide as she looked down at the article of clothing. She was having a hard time remembering details, though the general feeling of things she recalled. Had she been drunk? No. She remembered very well talking to Aias after she got fed up with working on the boat. She remembered lying her head on his lap. She remembered him singing. Then, then things got fuzzy. How coud she not remember? It had been incredible after all, or at least she thought so.

She then started to fret, she couldn't ask him for details after all to trigger her memory. That would be horrible! We couldn't get the touch of his skin out of her mind, and yet the precious details were eluding her! Frustrated she flopped back down on the sand and crossed an arm over her head. After a moment she frowned and moved her arm away. Why was she clothed?
 
He had been in the sea for more than an hour. Sitting on the bottom to get everything just right. Raw fish sliced up underwater and wrapped into bundles with crab and shellfish in seaweed. And he had an armful now, all prepared underwater as his head broke the surface and he saw her sitting up. "Musetta." He called out walking up the sand and carefully balancing his load.

"Food fro home, different fish, different weeds but still hand made underwater and I tried one, they're good." he was proud of his cooking, if cooking it could be called. "If you want you could try putting some on the fire, or just eat them like this." He walked up to his shit where it lay on the beach and dumped them down to lift them in it before he started towards the camp completely forgetting about pants. "I want to try one after it's been on the fire."
 
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