Guang Hong sat near the bow of the ship, back against the railing, legs spread out straight in front of him. He worked his fingers carefully over the sore muscles of his thighs, wincing now and again when he hit a sensitive spot. He had spent the entire day scrubbing rust off cannons. His neck and spine were stiff from laying on the wooden floor, under the cannons as he cleaned their wheels and bellies. Emil had told him the pain and exhaustion would fade as he grew used to the work. So far it was only getting worse. He had not been able to climb out of his hammock that morning. The boy called Yurio had flipped him out of it.
He had wanted to catch the last bit of sunlight before the night fell, having spent far too many hours inside the dim of the hull. The sky had been clear and blue after the storm, but Guang Hong had not had the privilege of savoring much of it.
Minami stomped onto the deck from the crew quarters, normally cheerful face crumpled into a scowl. He turned from side to side, eyes holding out a spot of hope as he searched.
“What’s wrong?”
“I can’t find my sketchbook!” Minami plopped down next to Guang Hong, kicking out his legs in frustration. “I’ve looked everywhere! One of the triplets was preening a chicken, it was so cute, I wanted to draw it but it’s nowhere.”
“Did you leave it somewhere?” Guang Hong asked, trying to remember if he had seen a sketchbook anywhere on board. “What about yesterday? Up there?” he pointed to the crow’s nest.
“No, I couldn’t find it yesterday either,” Minami replied, huffing heavily. “I just borrowed some paper from Victor, I thought maybe there’d be some harpies with the storm and I’ve been trying to get a better record of their wings. They’re really different from a siren’s, I tried to ask Yuuri if he knew why but he left for a hunt so… Guess I gotta wait till the next storm.”
Guang Hong was still trying to get to know everyone on board the ship. The encounter with a mermaid had been a surprise. So much for the novels being an exaggeration… They had just failed to describe the amount of labor that went into maintaining a ship. “Hey, can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“What… what happened to… Cao Bin?”
“Oh.” Minami’s eyes went wide and he reached up to rub at his neck. “Uhhh, yeah, we don’t talk about Cao Bin because, ummm… Yuuri ate him?”
Guang Hong snapped his head around so fast that the kink in his neck corrected itself. “What?!”
“Well, like, it was when he first got here, you know! You can’t really blame him, that’s his thing! Bin didn’t like having him on board and fought with Victor about it, so Yuuri… ate him.” Minami defended, waving his hands in attempted reassurance. “He doesn’t anymore, not the crew, I mean! That’s why he goes off on hunts, when he has that urge, he–” Minami paused, taking in Guang Hong’s terrified expression. “You haven’t met him yet, have you?”
Guang Hong shook his head. No, no he had not met the member of the crew that was apparently a cannibal that hunted humans.
“Oh!” Minami brightened up instantly, frown flipping upside down. “You’re gonna love him, Yuuri’s amazing! He’s not scary at all, I promise! You’ve gotta hear him when he sings, it’s the most beautiful thing in the world. Do you play any instruments, cause he adores music and if you play something for him, he’ll usually come out to sing and dance. I mean, I’d let him eat me if he really wanted to, but he’s really super nice, he rescued Victor from the Queen all by himself. They’re mates. You should have seen how incredible it was when he flew off the ship to go save him, I wish I had a siren mate, how cool would that be?”
Minami only stopped when he ran out of breath, smiling happily, his prior mood at having misplaced his sketchbook entirely dissipated. He gazed out across the deck, toward the horizon, and his joy doubled. “Look, there!”
From inside low hanging clouds, Guang Hong glimpsed the shape of a bird emerging. Dark and flying fast toward the ship, growing larger and larger by the second. Wings spanning broader than the bow of the ship cut through the sunset sky, casting a shadow that enshrouded Minami and Guang Hong.
“Yuuri! Welcome home!” Minami waved.
A huge wing, torn off at the shoulder and warped out of shape, dropped with a dull thud at their feet. Guang Hong tried to swallow his scream, he really did, cementing himself back against the railing. Brown feathers the length of his forearm were splattered in blood, the wing ripped from a creature that Guang Hong could not even begin to imagine.
The wood beneath Guang Hong shook when another creature landed heavily before them. A whimper died in Guang Hong’s throat.
Blood dripped off claws wrapped in pitch black feathers. Guang Hong watched, unable to look away, as talons melted into human feet. The wings at his back furled in, sweeping the deck. His beautiful face was contorted into a glower.
There were feathers along the side of his face, but they were ruffled, bent. He threaded the tips of black fingers through them, lifting out one that was broken. A hiss came from him, quiet but somehow it wove into Guang Hong, sending fear around his heart, squeezing air from his lungs. Guang Hong could not break himself out of it. The sound rooted inside him, as mesmerizing as it was terrifying.
The broken feather was released, floating to the ground. Eyes flinted with red glared straight at the two of them, and then the man stormed off, leaving a trail of bloody footprints, the drag of his wings smearing them as he went.
Squeaking in a way that was nothing close to the horror that Guang Hong felt, Minami dived for the wing left in front of them, clutching it to his chest in utter joy.
Guang Hong stared after the footprints that spanned the deck and disappeared down the stairs which led to Victor’s cabin, a stunned breath escaping him, “… Oh my god, an evil siren lover.”
THE EVIL SIREN LOVER GH doesn’t understand the beauty of the muderbirb yet XD
The Archery Range 