LakeTown is all noise and life and activity. Despite my desire to go ashore the shadow stops me, pointing to the cargo hold where my new prisoner has taken residence. I slump down, understanding her meaning --I wanted to keep him alive, now it's my job to watch him.
The sun is high in sky making it late afternoon when I finally go down into the hold to find him sitting in a puddle of his own sweat. He looks at me anxiously behind his gag.
"If you promise not to scream, I'll pull down the gag. Nobody will hear you even if you try though." I bluff.
He shakes his head stiffly, agreeing to my terms, clearly with something on his mind. I jiggle the gag out of his mouth and he gasps in a raspy voice, "Water, my god, please water!"
I jump at his sudden intensity, reaching down to the flask at my side. I pop the cap and then bring the container to his lips. He drinks deeply, greedily and then I pull the flask away much lighter than it once was a few moments ago.
He coughs on nothing and then refocusses on me, "Can you please move me into the shade if you're going to keep me locked up down here, I broiled in the afternoon sun."
I cringed realizing he was right and I hadn't taken into account that in trying to keep him alive, I'd also nearly killed the soldier of heat stroke. "That was my mistake" I murmur, brushing hair away from his face, "it probably won't mean much for tonight since the sun will be down soon but I'll move you in the morning. I promise."
"Will you also feed me?" He asks hopefully, trying and failing to give me a smile.
"Yes... but it won't be anything fancy, probably fish. All we ever eat here is fish." I grumble, but he looks okay with that.
"Could I have more water?" He asks again. I again twist the top off my flask and bring it back up to his lips so he can drink. It feels like an oddly intimate gesture to be giving water to a man, even a bound one. I think this is probably the closest I've ever been to a man who wasn't my brother.
He pulls his head back and I screw the stopper back on the flask before putting it back in my pocket.
"So I've had a lot of time to think, tied up down here" he starts, struggling with the words, "did you hit me because you're a smuggler or did you really hit me because you're a royal?"
I pause, not sure if I should answer that. I made a rash mistake before admitting anything to this stranger. In the end I just shrug, "I don't think it really matters."
He tries to smile at me again, "Of course it matters, if you're a royal you hit me because you wanted to but if you're a smuggler then you hit me because you had to."
"What if I both wanted to and had to all at once? What does that make me?" I counter.
He cringes, "A serial killer?"
I sigh dramatically and flip my blonde locks over my shoulder, "How'd you guess my secret?"
"Your killer smile." He finishes and if I wasn't already sitting down, I would've tripped. Is this man.. flirting?
I grab his gag and pull it back up over his mouth, but it doesn't completely stifle his laugh or change how red my face probably looked. Well... I did walk into that one.
Pulling my hair back into a tightly coiled bun, I take steps upstairs onto the main deck to see if there's anything of note. The sun is dipping below the horizon and the wind is taking on a more refreshing chill. I pull my hood up to help hide my face and stave off the sudden cold.
Where was the shadow?
----
A few hours later and she was still not back. Did she abandon me? She told me what I needed to do and then left me, without a word, to fend for myself?
I cursed silently to myself, I knew she hated me but I never really understood fully why. I may be over-reacting though, maybe she just got held up?
I quickly scoot back downstairs and pull out the leftover fish from lunch to split between myself and my prisoner. Anxiety coiling deep in my stomach.
What would I do if she did abandon me? I don't think I can sail the ship alone but if I stay here I'm dead. After too long they'll come board the boat seeking more dock fees, dock fees means speaking to a person which means they'll see me. If they see me there's a chance they might recognize me and haul me in if the Usurper has spread around his influence after the attack.
"What's weighing on you?" A friendly voice asks me from the near darkness of the cargo hold.
He can't see me but I try to smile reassuringly, "Oh nothing, just tired."
He doesn't ask anymore questions before I rebind his gag, walk up the stairs, lock the hold and then come back downstairs to curl up into what would be a fitful sleep.