The Sea of Two Suns: Time and Tide

Back in March, I introduced you to the Sea of Two Suns! Time and Tide is the first full-length story in that series. It was inspired by our ongoing anthology competition (open until the end of this month, so there’s still time to submit – see submission guidelines here), which is seeking stories based on the theme “love against the odds.” Melody and Felicity, our heroines, sail the Sea of Two Suns and could have easily been friends. Unfortunately, one sails with a crew of pirates and the other sails with a crew of pirate hunters.

-Rhiannon

Time and Tide

“The waves were at least twenty feet high, thunder cracking and lightning blinding us! And if that wasn’t bad enough, we drifted off course and were sailing into waters where Rolioth Shipbreaker was known to wander beneath the surface. There was absolutely nothing I could do to steer us back on course, what with everyone doing their damnedest just to stay on the ship.”

Felicity gazed, rapt, at her storytelling companion affixed to the ship across the dock. The sea rolled and bobbed beneath her and the honeyed sun warmed her wooden face. A raven croaked in the distance. It had been years since she had had a good conversation with anyone; mostly, her crew ignored her. She was just a figurehead, after all. 

Today was shaping up to be a wonderful day. 

“The storm raged for nearly twelve straight hours and I could feel the very deck shuddering beneath me,” Felicity’s companion continued. “But finally the winds died down and the swells eased up and we were able to take control of the wheel again. In the distance, we saw an island that had a natural harbour and we sailed right for it, and not a moment too soon. Just as we sailed over the reef that made a barrier between the open ocean and the island waters, I glanced back and saw an enormous, shadowy hand pass under the water, stretching for us before snatching back at the last moment.”

“Rolioth!” Felicity gasped and covered her mouth.

The other figurehead nodded. “We stayed anchored by that island for well over a week, too afraid to be snatched under the waves or squeezed in his fist. I’ve never felt fear like that since I left my home in Spain.”

“Oh, you grew in Spain? I did, too,” Felicity exclaimed, thrilled. She placed a hand on her chest. “Red oak!” Although Felicity knew that other ships in the Sea of Two Suns sailed with enchanted figureheads, she hadn’t ever met any. With their gifts that allowed them to steer their ships without a wheel, sail faster than other vessels, navigate without maps and stars, and whatever other magics had been carved into them, figureheads like Felicity and the stranger across from her–who already felt like a friend–were expensive and therefore rare.

“How about that?” her companion said with a warm smile. “Me too. We could have been neighbours and never even known it.”

“Perhaps it’s fate that brings us together,” Felicity suggested, and received an enigmatic smile in return.

“I don’t know much about fate, but that’s a nice idea.”

Bootsteps tramped on the deck behind Felicity, and she sighed. Her crew was returning and, from the sounds of it, were hustling which meant they would be setting sail soon. She tried her best to ignore that thought, focusing instead on her new friend across the way.

“So, what is it that you and your crew do?” she asked, hoping to keep the conversation going as long as possible.

“We’re cargo inspectors, of a sort. Mostly we check to see if ships are sitting too low in the water and, if they are, we work with them to redistribute their cargo.”

“That really takes you all over the Sea of Two Suns?” Felicity asked, incredulous. A small spark of jealousy flared in her chest. The other figurehead was full of verve and a lust for life; Felicity didn’t know if she felt the same about her lonely life. “I would have thought you’d be based in one of the big port cities, not some backwater supply town like Île de Flam.”

“We often patrol the shipping lanes to find non-compliant crews.” 

“I never knew cargo inspecting could be so exciting. It’s probably less dangerous than what we do.” Felicity glanced around discretely and lowered her voice to a whisper. “Can I tell you a secret? My crew and I are pirate hunters.”

Again, that enigmatic smile and her companion repeated, “How about that?”

“I’m Felicity, by the way. What’s your–” Movement out of the corner of Felicity’s eye caught her attention and she broke off. A pair of crewmen laboriously climbed the gangplank of the ship on the other side of the dock, pushing a cannon in front of them, while two others atop the gangplank helped pull it up by heaving on a thick rope. Aboard the ship, more crew members stowed barrels and chests of supplies–food, water, weapons–in the hold or lashed them to the deck. Others hastily made ready to depart–sails dropped and the heavy chain that anchored the ship dripped water and seaweed as it was reeled up. 

One member of the crew, turning the massive spokes of the anchor windlass, wore a navy blue coat several sizes too big for him and had a pearl-handled pistol tucked into his belt. Felicity recognized both–they belonged to her captain, who was ashore at this very moment.

“Wait just a second!” she cried, whipping her head to her storytelling companion just as wind snapped the sails taut and the ship began to glide out of the harbour, sped along by the figurehead’s magic. “That’s my cargo!”

The boots she had heard behind her weren’t from her crew after all. 

“Sorry, sugar,” the other figurehead said with a shrug and a roguish smile. “Your ship was too low in the water. We’re just redistributing your cargo.”

Felicity felt as though she had been dealt a physical blow. She had been enjoying their chat immensely and it was just a ruse all along. She opened her mouth and sounded the alarm. “Pirates! Pirates in the harbour!” 

“Too late for that, sugar. I hope I’ll see you again, though. It was nice talking to you!” the other figurehead called back as her ship picked up speed and manoeuvred expertly out of the harbour. As it pulled away, Felicity caught the name painted onto the stern. 

The Melody.

#

Cannons roared and water erupted. Sea spray misted Melody’s face and she roared with laughter.

“You’ll have to do better than that to sink us,” she shouted to the enemy crew, tacking on a colourful insult for good measure. She raised the pistols her crew had given her when they’d realized they were being tracked through the waves but, just as she lined up her shot, the figurehead of the other ship–surprisingly familiar–caught her eye. Distracted, Melody’s shot went wide. She cursed, though a delighted grin split her mouth and she called out to The Felicity.

“I was wondering when you’d catch up to us, sugar. It took you long enough!” 

Melody waved and threw Felicity a saucy wink. Felicity scowled, and her brown eyes flashed with something remarkably like hatred. Melody’s smile dimmed.

Although she recognized the other figurehead from the flowing wooden locks, carved into intricate curls, and the crown atop her head, Felicity had changed much in the months since they had first met. Instead of pristine bark skin, waxed and practically gleaming in the sunlight, she was covered in barnacles and slime. Saltwater had eaten through her skin and her carved body had swollen somewhat from the damp. The earnest, carefree smile and warm gaze she had fixed on Melody during their afternoon spent talking on Île de Flam had vanished.

Across the waves and through the smoke of gunshot and cannonfire, Melody was only just able to make out the vindictive sneer that curled Felicity’s lip.

“Don’t pat yourself on the back too hard,” Felicity yelled back, her voice nearly drowned out by the thunder of weaponry on both ships. “You wouldn’t have made it a week if your vermin crew hadn’t slashed our sails like cowards!” 

She lifted her own pistol, pinning one of the pirates on Melody’s deck in her sights and squeezing the trigger. Strike. The man screamed and toppled into the turquoise sea, staining it scarlet.

Melody jerked as if the bullet had eaten into her body instead, guilt flushing through her. She had been with her crew for years now, ever since they had chopped her down at the root and taken her from her forest in Spain, hiring a witch to carve her into the beautiful statue that would grace their ship and lend it superiority over the waves. She was a good pirate and excellent sailor, obeying her captain, fighting alongside her crew, steering them out of tight situations, and doing anything necessary–after all, they were the only reason she existed–to make sure they came out on top. Including distracting Felicity so her crew could plunder the other ship.

But she had genuinely enjoyed their conversation and had forgotten, in her joy at seeing the other figurehead, that Felicity didn’t know that. All she, a pirate hunter, saw was a pirate to be hunted.

A frightful crack splintered the air and Melody watched with dismay as chain shot, launched from one of the cannons below her deck, wrapped around Felicity’s mast, and snapped it like a twig. A lucky shot, but Melody’s crew roared with victory.

“Melody, get us out of here!” her captain bellowed. “Leave those dogs behind; they’re as good as marooned on that scrap of wood, now.”

Melody opened her mouth; her first instinct was to argue, to see if Felicity was okay. But why? Felicity and her crew were pirate hunters. If Melody dared get closer, Felicity’s crew–a much bigger one–would simply leap over the railings and take The Melody by force rather than by cannon. They’d sail it back to whatever port was closest and hang any crew members who had survived, before putting the ship itself–Melody included–to the torch, in an effort to burn out the scourge of piracy. From the deepening storm on her face, Felicity might even be the one to strike the match.

Melody closed her mouth, threw out her awareness towards the body of the ship she had been carved for, and poured the magic flowing through her wooden veins into speeding her crew away from the pirate hunters and their cannons, ensuring they lived to sail and plunder another day.

#

Melody’s crew had made fools of Felicity and her shipmates twice now, and Felicity’s crew bayed for blood.

It took months to repair the mast and make the ship seaworthy again; they had only just managed to limp to port thanks to Felicity’s ability to move the ship without sails or oars, though the going was slow and the water supply had run dry. But as soon as the repairs were done, the captain ordered the crew out to sea to hunt for The Melody. No other pirate crew would sate the fury of the hunters.

Whispers of The Melody’s whereabouts were few and far between but finally, after weeks of hunting, they saw white sails in the distance. As wind filled the sails and Felicity poured her energy into speeding the ship along, she strained her eyes, even as she readied her guns.

Was she mistaken last time, when Melody’s face had briefly filled with joy upon seeing Felicity?

Despite herself, Felicity had felt a jolt of excitement too, though the sting of betrayal was still potent enough that she kept her face stony.

The sharp report of a pistol split the air as they drew closer to the pirate ship from the starboard side. Battle cries drowned out the sound of the waves, and bootsteps thundered along both decks as the crews readied for war. 

The Melody turned slowly in the water, trying to make the hull a smaller target for cannons while they readied their own guns. Felicity finally caught a glimpse of Melody.

“Did you think you’d seen the last of us?” she yelled. Melody’s head whipped around and their eyes locked. Melody’s eyes widened and the corners of her mouth began lifting into a grin before her expression shuttered and she scowled. Although they were still far from one another, Felicity couldn’t help but wonder…was that a sparkle still in Melody’s eye?

“No, I knew I’d see you in hell one day,” Melody called back. “I just assumed we had already sent you there!”

“No such luck, I’m afraid!”

The roar of cannons drowned out any further attempts to banter, however, as both crews furiously engaged one another. 

The battle raged for an hour but The Melody, with its shallow draft, finally slipped over some shoals that Felicity and her crew couldn’t follow over without ripping a hole in the hull. 

“No matter,” the captain said, when enraged curses peppered the air. “We can wait them out. They have nowhere to escape. We’ll send those pirates to the bottom of the ocean if it’s the last thing we do.”

In the distance, thunder rumbled, but the vengeful crew didn’t notice.

#

“Ugh!” Melody cringed, disgusted, as she pulled at a ribbon of cold, slimy seaweed from where it had wrapped around her torso. It caught on a splinter of damaged wood behind her and tore in two. The remaining strand slapped wetly against her back and she stretched and strained, trying futilely to reach it.

“Here, let me.” Water sloshed and gentle hands reached for the seaweed that had been pitched over Melody by the ferocious storm that had whipped up seemingly out of nowhere.

“Thanks,” Melody said, wiggling when the seaweed tickled. She glanced over and smiled at Felicity, closer than she had been since their very first meeting.

Melody’s crew had been plotting their escape from the shoals, despite the crew of The Felicity circling them, shark-like, when the storm had blown in. Suddenly, both crews were fighting for their lives again, but against the same enemy this time, their animosity towards one another momentarily forgotten. Mother Nature seemed determined to swallow both ships with the churning waves, or splinter them apart with forked lightning.

“Melody! Move!” her captain had screamed, unable to grapple with the ship’s wheel when the deck pitched him away from it every time he got close. 

So she had, finding a secluded lagoon that offered just enough shelter from the gales and driving rain. Felicity sailed into the same lagoon, which was barely big enough for them both, moments later. Their crews–waterlogged and exhausted–eyed the opposing ships with hatred in their eyes but a single jerk of the chin from each captain signalled a temporary truce, at least until the storm–now mostly trickling rain–was over.

There would be a reckoning come clear skies.

Felicity offered Melody a tight-lipped smile and lapsed into silence that immediately made Melody squirm.

“I–” Melody closed her mouth and frowned, unsure what to say. Felicity turned her head away, surveying the spit of rocky land that rimmed the lagoon. She abruptly whipped her head back to Melody.

“Was it all just a distraction?”

Melody didn’t insult her by pretending not to understand. She thought for a moment. “Striking up our conversation to distract you was my purpose. But would you accept that actually talking to you was my pleasure?” In just a few minutes of conversation, Melody had felt like she could have made a friend–her first, since she was taken from her home.

Felicity thought for a moment then inclined her head towards Melody, with what seemed like acceptance, although she didn’t say anything further. Fumbling for something to say, feeling unexpectedly off-kilter, Melody continued. “You look better than the last time I saw you.” In fact, she looked downright beautiful. The witch who had carved her certainly knew her trade well.

Felicity glanced down at herself, her brow creasing, before she understood what Melody meant. “Oh, you mean the barnacles.” Her bark skin had been smoothed and polished, the barnacles and seaweed grime cleared away recently. “They were my punishment. For letting your crew steal from us.”

Melody winced. She should have guessed. It was a common punishment among figureheads. You couldn’t exactly keelhaul or whip something attached to your ship. 

She spread her palms and said earnestly, “I’m sorry.” She paused, then tentatively asked the question that had haunted her since their second meeting, when Felicity’s expression had been so cold towards her. Life as a figurehead could be lonely, but Melody had never felt moreso with that ice-like gaze upon her. “Do you hate me for it?” 

She held her breath, bracing for the blow.

Felicity, careful with her words in a way Melody never had been, considered for a moment. “I want to. You are a pirate, and I’m a pirate hunter, after all.”

Warmth spread through Melody. The answer wasn’t yes. 

Felicity continued. “Do you hate me?”

Baffled, Melody stared at the other figurehead, wondering how she could think so. But their first meeting had been built on a lie, and their second ended with Melody’s crew crippling The Felicity, so perhaps it wasn’t so hard to misinterpret her actions as hatred.

“I should,” Melody said. The corner of her mouth quirked up. “You’re a pirate hunter, and I’m a pirate, after all.”

Felicity’s smile was quiet but then she let out a low chuckle, and Melody’s smile broadened.

“I think it would be easy to be your friend, if things had turned out differently,” Felicity said. Sadness tinged her voice. “It’s a shame our crews are hellbent on sinking each other.”

Her meaning was clear. In the morning, when the skies were blue, one crew would destroy the other and, with it, the figurehead gracing the losing ship. Any friendship they struck up now died at dawn.

“Can I tell you a secret?” Felicity asked, harkening back to their very first meeting. “Our powder is wet. When your crew aims their guns at us in the morning, we won’t have anything to aim back.”

Melody’s throat suddenly felt as though it was thick with sand. 

“No,” she said. She shook her head. “No.”

“It’s okay,” Felicity said. “This was only ever going to end one way and I’d rather it was me. I see how much you love your life, even if it was chosen for you. Me, I never fell in love with this life. I miss Spain. Maybe part of me will wash up on Spanish shores one day.”

“Absolutely not,” Melody said, firmer this time. This wasn’t how their story would end, in a one-sided battle. Felicity at least deserved a chance. She raised her voice above the lingering wind and gently pattering rain. “Hugh!”

“Huh? What?” Footsteps approached on the deck behind her and she twisted to see the man who had come to the prow of the ship. “What do you want?”

“You look like shit,” Melody told him, raising an eyebrow. “Go get some rest and I’ll take over your watch. Just make sure you get your ass back to your post before whoever’s next comes to replace you, or we’ll both be in trouble.”

“Oh. Uh. Okay,” Hugh said, rubbing the back of his neck and blinking with confusion. Felicity watched, curious. It was clear that Melody’s crew didn’t talk to her much, like her own didn’t, but Hugh didn’t seem suspicious of Melody’s offer or indignant that she dared speak to him. He staggered off to find somewhere dry for a nap.

Melody watched him go. When he was out of earshot, she turned back to Felicity. “As soon as the waves calm down enough for you to sail safely, go. I’ll make sure you have time to get away.”

“Melody…” Felicity said. The name was sweet on her tongue. “Won’t you get in trouble?”

“I’ll probably look like you did for a little bit,” Melody said. “That’s okay with me. Call it my apology.”

“Thank you,” Felicity said. The prow of her ship shifted slightly in the water, bobbing closer to Melody. She leaned across the distance between them and took Melody’s hand in her own, giving it a quick squeeze before settling into comfortable silence to watch the skies and wait for the seas to calm.

When dawn broke the following morning, the crew of The Melody awoke and discovered they were alone.

#

Felicity’s eyes were permanently fixed to the horizon for the next eight months, searching for The Melody and her crew. Searching for the figurehead she had hated–or wanted to hate–simply because she had been permanently bound to a crew of pirates, while Felicity had been permanently bound to a crew of pirate hunters, without being given a choice. Felicity’s own crew remained just as vigilant, though for different reasons.

Finally, they picked up a rumour when they returned briefly to Île de Flam that the pirates were hunting for the famed Cornish Trove.

“They’re insane!” one crewman exclaimed when the captain relayed the news to the gathered pirate hunters. “Those waters belong to Rolioth Shipbreaker!”

“I say good riddance,” another sailor piped up. “Let the Shipbreaker take care of them and have done with it.”

Someone else scoffed. “What, and lose our chance to bring the scum to justice personally? We should go after them. They’ll never expect us.”

“Then we’ll be at Rolioth’s mercy, you moron!”

“The giant’s territory is enormous. The odds that he’ll even be near us are so low that I say it’s worth it!”

The entire crew burst into a fervent argument, their voices swelling with each word volleyed until the roar devolved into unintelligible shouting.

A sharp whistle cut through the air and the captain stepped into the fray, seizing control of the conversation.

“We will not enter Rolioth Shipbreaker’s territory,” he announced. When a few of the men stirred in protest, the captain raised his hand to halt them. “We know where his territory ends. If the crew of The Melody really did sail into it, they’ll have to sail out again, assuming they survive. We’ll simply patrol the boundary and engage them when they return. There are plenty of small islands in that area that we can use to conceal ourselves and launch a surprise attack.”

The roar began again, but this time it was one of hearty approval. One way or another, the crew was determined to end this.

No one bothered to ask Felicity for her thoughts.

Three days later, they were concealed in the waters near Rolioth Shipbreaker’s territory, having just spied The Melody’s sails as she rode the waves towards them, unaware that a trap had been set. Cliffs from two islands rose up on either side of them; despite the narrow passage, it was the deepest and least rocky, making it the easiest way to return to the safer waters of the Sea of Two Suns. Felicity’s captain had chosen their position well.

Behind her, Felicity listened to the crew readying. 

“There’s a shelf under the water here,” the captain narrated as he pointed to different spots on a map they had unrolled. “Rolioth stays in the deep, under the water on the other side of the shelf, and won’t enter the shallows. We hold the line here and force The Melody to stay over the deeper water. They can’t advance on us without advancing into our guns and if they flee, they’ll be fleeing back into dangerous waters.”

“Captain! The Melody is approaching faster than we anticipated!” the crewman posted in the lookout tower yelled.

The men behind her swore but the captain called out to her. “Felicity! Head them off. Don’t let them out of the deep water!”

Felicity closed her eyes tight. She wanted to disobey, fought to disobey. But the witch magic that had turned her into a figurehead in the first place wouldn’t allow her to ignore a direct order. No captain was fool enough to give another being control over their ship without a guarantee of total obedience. It prevented figureheads from sailing wherever they wanted, whenever they wanted it, and also prevented mutinies–the crew couldn’t depose their captain and expect to maintain control of the ship itself.

Felicity gathered her energy and poured it into the ship, lightening the load of the favourable winds already filling their sails. They skipped over the waves, closing the distance between them and The Melody.

Shouts rose up on the other ship; the crew had finally spotted the pirate hunters.

And if Felicity could hear their alarmed cries…

“It’s a trap! Slow down!” she shouted. Behind her, the captain swore at her, enraged that she would dare warn the enemy. But Felicity didn’t care because she knew Melody could hear her too. “Go back!”

Although still distant, Felicity had surged close enough to see Melody’s face. It was contorted with terror and panic. A bullet cracked through the air from behind Felicity, followed by another, volleying for The Melody’s crew. Both shots hit their mark and blood sprayed.

Felicity frowned. They had both been shot in the back. Despite the hunters bearing down on them, the pirates had their attention fixed to something behind them. She glanced back at Melody and the horror twisting her beautiful face. Melody began to wave her arms frantically.

“Rolioth! It’s Rolioth!”

The captain laughed. “They brought the beast with them! Felicity, your orders stand. Drive them back into the deeper water. Oh, and keep your mouth shut.”

The order hit like a slap and she was powerless against it.

“Felicity, stop!” Melody cried. Tears choked her voice, and Felicity broke.

She clapped one hand over her mouth, willing Melody to understand that she was voiceless and powerless to stop. Melody’s eyes widened with understanding and Felicity cast up thanks to whatever gods ruled this small section of sea.

They had two choices now: Melody could either keep going and the two ships would collide and sink, or she could force her ship to sail backwards and risk Rolioth’s hands snatching them under. In the wider sea, however, there was a chance of manoeuvring around the underwater giant.

Melody lifted a hand to her mouth and blew a kiss to Felicity, her choice made. Her captain seemed to have made the same calculation, as he didn’t order her to do otherwise. The Melody’s forward progress slowed and she began to inch backwards.

Although Felicity couldn’t stop, she was able to slow, to give Melody the time she needed to move backwards and pick up speed. The captain said nothing, obviously uncaring so long as The Melody was sunk one way or another. Felicity kept up an internal stream of pleas that Melody would be able to change course and sail free from the danger behind them. Had they put enough distance between them and Rolioth to set a new course?

But as Melody sped backwards, her panicked crew began clamouring and screaming, pointing at the water. Where the towering cliffs widened and peeled back, revealing open sea and open skies, a whirlpool began to churn, small at first, but rapidly swelling across the waves.

Through the turquoise waters, Felicity caught sight of a chilling slash of red and gaping black hole. A giant mouth–no, a giant’s mouth–had opened under the waves, inhaling the water and anything unlucky enough to plunge into the whirlpool. 

Melody realized what was coming and she squeezed her eyes shut with concentration, now exerting all her force to stop her ship from moving, but the pull of the whirlpool was too strong. It dragged them relentlessly towards it.

Felicity gazed on in mute horror, wholly incapable of screaming or crying out as she watched Melody battle futilely against Rolioth. The Melody’s stern kissed the edge of the whirlpool, seemed to hover in open air for a moment, then tipped forward.

The entire time, The Felicity surged forward as well, albeit as slowly as Felicity could move it while still obeying orders, herding Melody and her crew to their deaths. But when the swirling edges of the whirlpool snatched Melody into their grasp and disappeared below the lip, something in Felicity broke.

She could feel her crew behind her, pressing eagerly against the prow to see The Melody decimated by Rolioth from a safe distance. With each second, they sailed a little closer, but still far enough back to be out of his reach.

No one ordered Felicity to stop.

So she didn’t.

Rather than using her energy to hold the ship’s speed back, she poured her will into making it sail faster. Everyone on the crew was too engrossed in the crunching and grinding of The Melody as the whirlpool tore it to shreds to notice they were now flying towards the same fate.

Everyone, it seemed, but the captain.

“Felicity, stop!” he bellowed. “You traitorous piece of filth. When we return to port, I’ll have you stripped from the prow and burned for your treachery!”

Felicity stopped immediately, but the ship, carried by its momentum, kept sailing forward, slower now, but persistent.

“Somebody drop the anchor!” the captain bellowed.

The ship edged closer to the whirlpool and the crew frantically scattered, racing to drop the anchor or roll up the sails, anything to stop their march forward.

The anchor chain clanked as it dropped into the sea and Felicity cried out silently when she felt the ship lurch, caught on a rock below the surface. The whirlpool slowed and shrank; in its wake, nothing but wood splinters rose to the sea’s surface.

Felicity’s crew cheered.

Then screamed.

An enormous hand, the flesh a slimy mottled grey where it was visible beneath the barnacles and seaweed encasing most of the skin, rose from the water and stretched forward. The giant must not have been able to see the ship, where it was perched just atop the underwater shelf that separated Rolioth’s deep from the safer shallows.

The giant’s fingers plunged into the water in front of them, sending up a huge plume of water and spraying the screaming crew. The hand snatched back, empty, then plunged again, inexorably seeking the ship which was now trapped in place by its own anchor.

A silent laugh bubbled up in Felicity’s chest. Something heavy brushed against the ship’s hull beneath the water. The ship lurched abruptly and the crew staggered as the deck rose beneath them, carrying them to the sky.

Grey fingers protruded like spikes around the ship; they were caught in Rolioth’s palm.

For a moment, the world fell still. The only sound, now that the crew had been frightened into silence, was saltwater dripping back into the sea. Somewhere in the distance, a raven croaked.

And then the ship groaned as Rolioth began to squeeze.

The screaming began again, and The Felicity exploded into a million splinters.

#

Felicity plunged into the warm, turquoise sea which frothed and churned and darkened as Rolioth dragged the mangled remains of The Felicity into the depths toward him. She cried in agony, feeling the ship breaking around her, feeling like she was personally being squeezed to death even though Rolioth’s fingers were wrapped around the larger portion of the hull.

But then the giant squeezed hard enough that the prow, where Felicity was attached, shattered and she just…popped free. The torturous pain of the dying ship released its shackles on her, as did her captain’s last orders. Felicity screamed under the water, actually generating sound.

For the first time since that witch had carved her, she had been freed of The Felicity. 

And the thing about wood is that, well, it floats. 

Felicity’s body rose in the water, slowly at first, then picking up speed. Her head exploded above the surface, alongside other fragments of The Felicity and The Melody.

Using her arms to keep herself steady, Felicity grimly surveyed the destruction. She nodded her head sharply, pleased with herself. 

“Good riddance,” she spat to her drowned crew–bits and pieces of which were starting to pop up in the waves around her. Her cruel crew who had forcefully taken her from her peaceful forest home and conscripted her into their service while never considering that she was as sentient as they were, with thoughts and feelings of her own. Her cruel crew who had forced her to kill the only being in the entire world with whom she had felt a connection.

“Which of these pieces are you, Melody?” Felicity asked the sky, reassuring herself that she did, indeed, have her voice back as much as pleading with the heavens to show her to Melody. “Tell me, and I will forge you whole again.”

“Fortunately, you don’t have to go to the effort,” said a voice behind her.

Felicity whirled in the water but keeping her balance with nothing but her arms–they hadn’t bothered to carve her with functional legs–was tricky and she floundered.

A hand under her elbow steadied her and when she resurfaced and blinked the seawater from her eyes, Melody grinned down at her.

“If I had realized the nails keeping me pinned to that bloody ship were so shoddy, I’d have let my crew be crushed by Rolioth years ago,” she declared. “Though I suppose I’m not totally unscathed.” She held up the arm not holding onto Felicity to reveal a jagged stump, where her hand had snapped off.

Felicity choked on her words, torn between delight that Melody was alive and horror at her injury. Joy and gratitude won out and she laughed.

“You’re alive!” she cried, throwing her arms around Melody. They tumbled awkwardly in the water, plunging below the waves then bobbing back up.

“By now you should have realized how hard I am to kill. You and your crew have been trying for long enough.”

Guilt surged through Felicity. “I’m so sorry! I couldn’t stop. They ordered me–”

“I know,” Melody interrupted, pulling Felicity close. “I know. I saw it in your eyes. It’s okay.” She leaned back again, so she could look right at Felicity. A smile tugged at her lips. “I’m glad you got your revenge for that. How very piratical of you.”

Felicity laughed again, but stopped when she noticed the intensity on Melody’s face. “What?”

“I just realized that this is the first time we’ve been close enough for me to do this.” She leaned forward and pressed her lips against Felicity’s. Although they were made of wood, they still felt soft and supple to Felicity, who froze for a split second before enthusiastically giving into the kiss and knocking them off balance again.

Pulling away, Melody laughed and allowed herself to float on her back, gazing up at the sky. Felicity leaned back in the water next to her and Melody turned her head to gaze at Felicity’s lovely profile.

“Care for a swim?” she asked. “It might take a while to get there, but I hear the beaches of Spain are lovely this time of year. Let’s go home, Felicity.”

Felicity linked her hand with Melody’s remaining one, grinning at the clouds. “Yes. Let’s go home.”