tirgesfu

Tides of Dusk: A Piratical Tale of Fantasy

He liked the feel of her trying to squeeze out. Truth is Jax made it as hard as possible without letting on he was awake. At least he didn’t grab Nicki. There was that. He played dead with a broad grin on his face. But that was better than putting his hands where they really wanted to go. She would never understand his gentleman restraints.

Then she was gone. Jax laid still for a while. Slowly like the crawl of a starfish he opened his eyes. He glanced ahead and saw an empty bottle and some book opened right by it. Fitting. When his eyes cleared more he realized it was a sketch book more than a book. Mother of warms water it was a drawing of him! How the hell could she manage a straight line when he fell the fuck over, was his first thought. He looked at it blinking the hangover haze away some. It did him favors that picture. He rather liked it. He almost reached for it to take a better look but somehow the idea that if he touched it would fade ran through him. No, he should keep a distance. Still, he liked the picture and the idea.

Nicki had put his image down. What does that mean? First it means the gorgeous gal has too many talents. What can’t she do? Damn her! Jax almost wanted her to fuck up something big time like….like….oh he was too fuzzy to even think of anything. She was a hot mess with too many damn fine pieces.

That’s it. She was a nut case. One he had to admit he was dreaming about cracking. Well, not as in going crazy but more in shedding that hard shell and letting him inside. Damn Jax felt his body swirl at the idea of inside Nicki. He must still be drunk. No way Ms First Mate, Smart Doctor, Book Saver, Smooth Voice, Grand Drinker, Sexy Body, Talented Drawer would let him anywhere close.

But she did draw him.

And she called his name.

Did he hear right? Was that her? He pushed himself off the bed sure he left his brain behind and went to the door. It was her. He could almost feel her on the other side. He smiled and in a tease answered back softly, “Who’s there?” He cuckled at his own joke but paid the price with a rush of heavy pounding between his ears.

Jax cracked the door almost ready to tell her he wasn’t accepting visitors when he saw two cups in her hand. One for him? He opened the door and took a step back. He should slip out maybe. As she went in he could slid out. He could stretch right outside her door and let them all think what they wanted. Could be good for him. Well, that would depend what he really wanted, the fleeting adiration of sailors or another chance to spend time with Nicki.

He stood by the slightly opened door to let her in and managed to stay on his feet even though his body wanted to fall down. “For me?” He reached for one. “You are beginning to like me, admit it.” He teased. “I can wear on you.”

“I would slip out a window and down the ivy wall but.” He shrugged and looked out the door. “Should I just walk out?” He glanced out to the sunshine and winced sure he would turn to ashes if he had to step out there. He looked back to her and for the first time saw some evidence that the morning after was not so easy for her either. Still, that Nicki was a nice thing to look at.

He tried to shake his head and pull his eyes away but everything sort of squished around including a bit of the tea slipping over the cup in his hands.

“I better go.” Jax sort of stumbled toward the door but hit the wall. “I might be……”

With that oh so familiar sound of a leftover party, a night overdone, one hundred drinks too many Jax turned to the corner and left loose that digested disgusting smelling rot of vomit in the corner of Nicki’s cabin.

He didn’t even try to cover his mouth. He let it all out in one big hurl and then stood and took a drink of the tea.

Jax felt so much better.

Pieces of 8: Bones of the North

Ok, ok, use logic and pleas, Max could take both. Sort of. It wasn’t like he really was going to snap her neck, was it? He knew she was some pink freak gatekeeper and no sence closing anything just yet. Not when he was on this fucking side again. He and the dead guy who knew the same with his request.

So in a easy to see fowl mood, curses slipping out, he sloshed over to stand beside Semyon. He growled at the guy. Then let his fury find some creepy grasping ghoul trying to pull him under. No fucking way. Max used more force than needed to punch the thing back into the marsh. Bring ‘em on you rotting corpse.

Through the splashes he found it hard not to direct some hate toward that friend of Veti’s who must want to pull him back here. Never did trust her. But then, Max never felt much of anything for anyone but Siya and Veti. Thad was a different story. Why wasn’t he the fuck down here and Max up there with wolf god? It was his turn damn it.

Max felt another strange slimy attack and found some release in the over needed display of revenge. But as he stood back up he felt something different. Cold. Not from anything around him but from deep inside, the core of his own body. Something was beginning to freeze inside him. Or that’s how it felt.

It grew and in someway it told him he was back. He was here to stay this time. What had let him out before would not do so again. And since he was here, that dead flower’s fault, he should pay his debt. Maybe make a trade?

What? Max tried to shake the bone chilling feel in punches . A trade. He felt more than heard an answer. Something was crawling around inside him. Something ice cold and spreading. Max didn’t understand how he was hearing or feeling this and what trade it was talking about.

Then inside the frigid feel he cracked the answer. They wanted her, Daisy. They were as pissed at the fucking pink girl scout as he was.

Slowly Max looked around a glared at Daisy.

Tides of Dusk: A Piratical Tale of Fantasy

Jax felt cotton in his mouth and dryness through his whole body. He could be awake. But why suffer that. He kept his eyes closed and his head immobile. That was the best way to face the not waking up, waking up. No one was kicking him or yelling so, wind spit, he wasn’t going to even open his eyes. Nope. He could lay here longer.

He let the scent fill his memory; booze, books, and oh the so wonderful smell of Nicki’s cabin. Now he was sure he wouldn’t open his eyes until someone made him. He would just smell the glorious place and think …. Nicki, Nicki, Nicki, Nicki, Nicki. She gave him her name, read to him, and let him sleep in her cabin.

This was the best goddamn hangover ever! He let his lips smile being the only part of his head he moved.

But as still as the outside of his head was his thoughts tumbled. She could drink. That wondrous woman. She was a sexy sea fish and so much more. How deep was the hard-handed, healer? Who would she ever let know? Not him. No. He best stay away. He should think of something really stupid to say, really offensive to make it easier for her to kick him out, regret the night, keep him at arms distance. Then he would spend all day, again trying to get close. How stupid was that? Yet in some way it made sense to Jax. He shouldn’t feel this way about her. He wanted her friendship and that was like holding a gun to her head as well as his. Friends? Men and woman can not be friends. Crewmates can not be real close either, in Jax’s mind. Keep the love to the ship, not the people. Men and women, crewmates, not good friends. He could prove that to her. The next time they shared a reading he would jump her, take her down and kiss every inch of her unfairly sexy body. As he let his lips slide over her he would call her First Mate. Oh yea, that’s a way to end a friendship.

So it would be best to just be his stupid self and make sure he hurt her quick . Like pulling the bandage off or spinning a hangover all around. He would wish for her, repeat her name inside himself, but let her go before they both were just plain stupid. Sure Jax, his mind swirled. As if you can let go what you never had.

Still, he knew he was on this string that winds up wanting to spend time with her and then yanks and spins away thinking it best only to be pulled back. He was already caught. Already spinning.

Well, not really. Right now he was going to just lie still. Right here. In her cabin. Smelling her books and their booze. Thinking her name. Thinking what he could do or say to spin her away from him again.

Tides of Dusk: A Piratical Tale of Fantasy

There was a foggy haze settling warmly over Jax, sweeping into his center, making things pleasantly swirl around him as his eyes got heavy and his tongue thick. He had not slurred yet and thank the stars it was her smooth sound washing over him. She spoke better than any treat given at that fancy garden party. When she put the book down Jax tried harder to focus.

Cats? This was a story of pussy? No, no Jax pulled himself from the blurs. Kittens. She was giving him something here and he could tell it was important. He was drunk enough he wasn’t sure what she was really talking about. A story of a kitten who wished to fly. No, no, Jax felt the realization hit him. It was a story of a love once so strong the ability for those wings were given. Then when they were ripped away, when needed most, that love was tossed aside.

Jax knew something about that. Well, not kittens really. But as a boy he had more than once latched onto a man he pretended was his father. He shadowed a few. Pretended a lot. Took all he could from each, reading, navigating, and more, only to be tossed aside. They were not his father, he had heard a few times. Why couldn’t they pretend? The beginning of Jax’s love for stories.

Jax turned to Nicki as she slurred and he smiled. He lifted yet another bottle, how many had they emptied? “To cats who fly. A sight to see.” He grinned. “A true sight to see.” His blurry eyes slipped in his real appreciation of that view. He took another swing. He leaned his head toward her and licked his lips, “I have learned not to trust any man..opps.” He drunkenly chuckled, “..person, woman or man, who has not longed to fly. Small mind, “ He tapped his head with one finger, or at least attempted to. “that does not wish to leave the ground, for sea or air.” He paused. “But it takes balls to really do it.” He smiled realizing beautiful smart wondrous sounding Nicki had shown him her balls.

Stumbling Jax pushed himself up. He wanted to stand. He lifted his chin and loud and clear, no slur at all he almost sang his words.

"To booze and books and balls!
I raise my glass to all.
Through all the melodies of sweet sweet lines
Through slurs of drunken grasping rhythms
Through stories filled with painful signs
Through company so very fine
I do not remember a better time
Than the challenge of that wondrous call
Of booze and books and balls!"

As soon as he finished Jas stood tall for a second like a sail that had caught the wind. Then as in those rare cases where the sea quickly settles calm, his sail emptied and was pulled to the rail, as Jax just fell over. He hadn’t slurred. He just passed right out.

Pieces of 8: Bones of the North

Whoa......nice posts. Yes, this story is just fun when it rolls.

Tides of Dusk: A Piratical Tale of Fantasy

She was right of course. Nicki was right, and Jax smiled at the thought of her name and the fact she judged things better than he. Still the smart doctor, the in charge first mate, but now also Nicki. He would have to return to the travels of the giant some other time. It did not work for a contest.

She had to tug on his soul even more this Nicki. She wanted poetry. If only he could give her some. Instead he would read and drink and let all of this wash over them in a night of booze, books, and balls.

Jax took a swig. He gulped it down and held the bottle up for her to see what a generous amount he had taken. He took a breath and read.

“I stood upon our western shore
And heard the ocean's billows roar,
And saw them toss and tumble o'er
Each other in their glee;
And fret and foam and froth and dash,
Right on, and on, as if they'd smash
The rugged rocks, and play and splash--
These children of the sea!”*

He closed his eyes leaned his head back and repeated the last line. “These children of the sea.”

He licked his lips and chuckled at that. Keeping his eyes closed he waved his hand making sure she knew it was her turn. He had looked at her enough to see her with his eyes shut and the warmth of her voice, the drink, the way her name Nicki wander through his mind, let him begin to drift. Slower breaths, heavier eyes, roll of the waves cradled in a ship he loved let Jax begin to feel sleep overcoming him. He had not slurred yet and if she managed another maybe he would too. But he if got a few peaceful winks inside Nicki’s, oh how he would repeat her name in his mind, cabin, he knew he won. He won, this child of the sea.

*Old Ocean by William Wendell Riley

Pieces of 8: Bones of the North

Thad threw bolts of green balls toward the ass end of the wolf god. It wasn’t lost on him where he was ending up. At the rear, behind it all, unable to see much of anything. He lost sight of everyone he cared about. Where was Veti? Oh well, once you’re the rear man, you are the rear man.

As if to answer his self thoughts a bright flash of some other powerful color filled the sky above. Red lightning. Thad felt the energy crackle all around him in bolts. All his hair stood on end, his body quivered, electric pulses sizzled through him. Thad could not move. He felt the slip of everything as the red sucked all of him right from his body. From dusk to dusk. From ashes to ashes. From asshole to asshole. Thad didn’t fall to the ground. His eyes were wide open but he was not there.

Max snapped back to form quicker than he expected. But he wasn’t behind the mutt monster. What the fuck? No he was in the swamp stinking foggy sponge of the shit hole he had been stuck in before. No! He could not be back in that place. No, no, no. Max graded his own head and scream his deep frustration. He would not do this again.

When the feel of this real shit hole seeped into him, Max took his hands from his face and looked around. And who was right there? Fuck. Little pink girl scout and her puppy dog too. That already dead guy was right with her. Max was pissed. He marched, stomped, tramped right over to that little shit reaper girl.

“You get me the fuck out of here or I’m gona snap your fucking neck!”

Tides of Dusk: A Piratical Tale of Fantasy

Jax got sort of lost in the story. But then suddenly his throat was dry and he stopped. That was when her voice melted into his ear like a wave of warm sweetness. He almost started at that and the touch of her hand on his shoulder. Almost. He turned his head and smiled at her. Putting the book down he took her hand. Jax kissed the tops of her hard worn worked yet still soft to his touch knuckles.

“Thank you, Nicki. I will treasure your name and will not to misuse it. No regrets, I promise.” He snickered. He let her hand go after his thumb ran over her palm. “At least not where the name is concerned. Now, in the bets we wager, there might be a few. On both ends I presume.”

He lowered his head and let his hand that had held hers run over the page of the book. “I think my chapter is longer than yours. Or my throat drier. Or my reading not as smooth and flowing as yours.” He turned his head again to look at her. “You have an amazing voice, you know that don’t you? Tell you the truth,” He grinned, “It is a surprise to me. You hide it well in those snappy commands.”

As if he might have said something wrong his eyes showed his panic at his choice of words. “That’s a good thing.” He back peddled quickly not willing to taste his own foot after that lovely skin of hers brushed his lips. “Your voice is like a musical instruments, you can crescendo to grab attention. You can command respect. And yet, “ He smiled and looked away for her. She must know what he means. She is not a school girl. She must know of the honey that drips from her lips when she wants it to. Of course she does. That’s why she can find that face and chill the air because she knows the difference.

He took a breath and handed her the book, “Anyways. Would you read some more?” He was asking to listen to her again. But he didn’t want her to see his own longings. How much was he falling apart right there in her cabin with the music of her all around him? Who was broken?

“I mean before I slur my words.” Jax was quick to cover anything he might be drunkingly showing.

Tides of Dusk: A Piratical Tale of Fantasy

Jax listened. He watched her most of the time, but he did close his eyes during a few parts too loving the feeling of getting lost in the sound, the words, and the story. She was beyond good at reading out loud. She was spectacular. He could listen to her for hours.

He had never read the story Gulliver’s Travels but he knew he would beg, burrow, and steal now to finish it. It was a dream. It was a paradise. This collection and her.

Jax didn’t own any books. He traveled light bought a few, then left them for someone else. As a young boy he was lucky to attached himself to navigators who knew the value of reading maps, so from that reading in general. They had fed his hunger for words and he now tried to do the same. But he was sure he was not as gifted as the First Mate was.

First Mate, he thought as he looked to her when she paused. He smiled in a dreamy way and rooted through the bottle to find what they had admitted hours ago one of their favorites. He uncorked it and handed it to her.

“You read splendidly.” He smiled to her. “And I might not do it the justice you do, but I am willing to take a turn and let you sit back and close your eyes and listen. But first, I need to ask you something. A huge favor I am sure. Might I call you by your name? “ He had scooted closer to give her the bottle and now he felt the need to stand up, closer to her bed and ask her, with more than just his words but with his eyes. Jax had asked her more times than he remember and still she had not given him permission.

He began to ramble, “I know there must be a risk, you thinking I will misuse the trust you give and tease you in front of other or call your name when not appropriate. I am guessing you know I think there is power in words, in names, in meanings.” He should shut up. He should take the book and read. Even though his mind told him that he didn’t stop. “I find myself wanting to be privileged to call you something more than First Mate.”

He took a breath and shook the bottle for her with one hand and offered to take the book with the other. “I shouldn’t pressure you. That is not like me. I’ll read. “

Jax did not wait for her answer sure he might have misstepped again and he tried to cover it up quickly by taking the book. Then he flopped on the floor. “Beside how will you if I slur first if I don’t read?” He grinned and cleared his throat. He sat closer to the bed on the floor leaning against it and he started.

His voice was rich and yet not as smooth or polished as hers. Where the sound of her words held mystery and promises of things, his was more direct at frist. He added pauses and changes in his volume and tone at different parts but they were subtle at first. He accented words that might not have normally been highlighted because, just like in life, Jax saw thing differently. His voice said so. But he read with a rhythm that matched the roll of the ship. It matched his thrill of the story and being right where he was.

Tides of Dusk: A Piratical Tale of Fantasy

She smiled. In the safety of her cabin she could show that face and he matched it easily smiling back. He tried to push away that uneasy feeling of being somewhere he didn't belong. Earlier he had no problems being inside her closed quarters. That was before he had much any concern for her at all. A woman where she shouldn’t be. But things changed. Now he wanted her on board. And more than that. He watched her drink seeing the liquid disappear from the bottle and down her throat. So she was good at that. She would read first.

Jax spun around and looked at the books. How had she found and kept so many? Jax knew few people who owned their own books and her collections was worth the gasp he released. She had information all over the place about so many things, plants, stars, theories of natural processes, healing studies from around the world and….there Jax found the book he wanted. He looked back to her and grinned.

“You have a prize here that I am going to swoon over while you read.” Jax pulled a book down and he held it in his hands. He looked at the cover and put his fingers over the name Jonathan Swift. Of course Jax leaned toward fiction, or poetry, or things light at heart. Oh he would read anything but those hours lost in someone elses world were the most precious times to him.

“It fits.” He laughed and handed her the book Gulliver’s Travels. He took a bottle and slid down onto the floor looking up at her just like a hungry child waiting for her to read. He was going to tease her about his swoons, or tell her she had to do different voices, or suggest she take another gulp before she began.

Jax didn't have to speak. No, he was ready, more than ready, to listen. His eager face, anticipated smile and eyes that glowed in excitement said more than his words could. He was just going to sit on the floor and listen to her read about adventures and things that were different than they seemed.