Anchors Away
This piece was part of a role play
It was the sound of waves crashing that eventually woke Zander from his deep sleep, and as he peeled his eyes open only to be temporarily blinded by the sun, he frowned as he realized that he had no idea why he was hearing waves in the first place. He sat up slowly, his head pounding as he tried to recognize where he was. After a minute or two with no progress made, Zander decided the best option for him was to try and remember what had happened before he fell asleep.
The last thing he remembered was being chased on horseback through the forest, and suddenly, he gasped. He remembered falling from his horse off of the edge of a cliff that overlooked the ocean, and he remembered blacking out as soon as he had collided with the water.
He glanced around, unsure of what that meant for him. He gathered that he was on a ship due to the swaying of the room around him and the sounds of waves and gulls cawing. He looked down, noting that he was in a bed, and a very fancy bed at that. He looked around the room some more, seeing a large desk that was covered in what looked like maps. The rest of the room was relatively empty, or so Zander thought until his eyes landed on the other thing in the room.
It looked almost like a glass box full of murky water, an odd fish tank of some sort. But, Zander figured if he was truly on a boat, what was the use for a fish tank? He slowly got out of his small bed, and he approached the mysterious tank apprehensively. As he got closer, he noticed a human-like shadow in the water, and he frowned. What in the world was he looking at?
He finally got close enough to the tank that he was able to reach out and tap on the glass, trying to see if the figure would move. Sure enough, the shadow shifted, moving closer to him until a face appeared through the murkiness. Zander stepped back a few feet in surprise but quickly recovered when he saw that the face was that of a very attractive man who looked to be about the same age as himself.
Zander grinned, stepping forward and tapping the glass next to where the creature’s head was. He watched in wonder as the monster followed him, gliding through the water to position itself right in front of where he had tapped. The runaway prince tapped the glass once more, but this time the creature lurched forward, its face contorting into a terrifying scowl. Zander jumped back, stumbling over his own feet and landing with a thump on his ass on the floor. He watched as the creature swam up to the top, and he realized that it was some sort of mermaid that he was witnessing.
“Jorlais! Oh my God, you should’ve seen the look on his face!” the creature cackled as it breached the surface, and Zander frowned. Who was Jorlais?
He heard footsteps from behind him, and he turned to see the most attractive man he had ever seen in his life looming over him. The man had intense blue eyes that stared holes into his soul, and he was dressed in an assortment that made Zander realize who - or rather, what - he was immediately. He was on a pirate ship.
“Ansel, quit scaring our guest,” the pirate said in a low, gravelly voice, though he didn’t look up at the creature as he spoke.
The creature behind Zander whined, and Zander looked over to see it swimming around with an agitated look. “You never let me have any fun!” it whined, and it leered at the prince. “Just look at how stupid it looks!”
Jorlais cleared his throat, capturing Zander’s attention once more. “You’re the prince, right? Prince Zander?” He waited for Zander to numbly nod before continuing. “Why did I fish you out of the water, barely alive?”
Zander spluttered at the direct nature of the pirate’s question. He knew better, after hearing so many stories in his childhood, that it was his best bet to not cross the dangerous man, so he quickly came up with a response. “I was running. M-my family was murdered. I barely escaped alive, and when I did, the murderers chased me. I ran off a cliff in my flight, and I landed in the ocean.”
Ansel scoffed, and Zander shot him a glare. “This kid was going to rule the country? Yikes,” he said, and he rolled his eyes. Jorlais grunted, moving over to the tank. Ansel swam over to rest his head on the pirate’s shoulder, who didn’t seem to care that his shoulder was getting soaked.
“I am Captain Jorlais, the leader of this, my ship: The Night Raider. This is my siren, Ansel, who I keep in a tank in my office, which is the room that I healed you in. Due to this, you are in my debt, and you will be forced to stay aboard my ship until that debt is paid. Understood, Prince?” he asked, spitting out the last word.
Zander clenched his jaw, standing up. He knew better than to fight with the pirate captain, but he still couldn’t stop the rage that burned in his heart at the fact that he, the prince, was being treated so poorly. What do you expect from a pirate? his conscience pointed out.
“Fine,” Zander spat. “I’ll work off my debt for you saving my life. It’s a deal.”
Jorlais grinned - mirrored by Ansel - a dazzling, bright smile. “It’s a deal.”
~Two days later~
Jorlais was tired. He turned to his partner, who was swimming freely in the tank that Jorlais had built for him. "Come on, Ansel," he barked. "Shift. Now." He didn't wait for his command to be carried out; he walked out onto the deck of his ship, spotting the messy mop of white hair struggling to make sense of the well-oiled machine that was The Night Raider. He rolled his crystal blue eyes, making his way over to the clueless prince, his crew members parting like the Red Sea as he passed. "Prince," he called, his voice booming. "Follow me." He walked up to the wheel of the ship, where Ansel had been waiting for him. He smirked as he saw Zander's bewildered expression, but he was quickly back to his stoic nature. "Listen up. Starting right now, you are to be my personal assistant. No excuses. Understood?"
Zander was almost too busy gawking at Ansel's human form to form a coherent response to Jorlais. "Yes," he said with a nod, and suddenly, a lash struck him across the cheek, knocking him to the ground. He lifted his hand to his face, and when he pulled his fingers back, there was crimson staining them. He looked up at Jorlais, enraged, but he decided against yelling at the pirate when he saw the whip in his hands. "That's 'yes, sir' to you. I don't care if you were born with a silver spoon up your ass or if you were born in a dumpster. This is my ship, and you will respect me as the captain." Zander swallowed thickly, too scared to look away from the intimidating man. "Yes, sir," he corrected, and when Jorlais nodded his approval, Zander let his gaze slip back over to Ansel. Why was he so enticingly beautiful? Memories of the conversation that he had shared with the two men (if Ansel could be considered a man) in the cabin raced through his mind, and he suddenly remembered Jorlais calling Ansel a siren. Well, that explains it, Zander thought bitterly.
-
The siren snickered at the spoiled boy's reaction. He'd probably never so much as lifted a finger in his lifetime much less threatened with a whip. His hands were folded behind his back, watching the whole scenario unfold. And of course noticing the prince's wandering gaze over him. He turned his attention to his captain. "Our personal assistant, right captain?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. "Id so enjoy to watch him try to clean my tank." He smirked, watching the pampered prince for his reaction. "Say, Jorlais, what do you plan on doing with this boy? He doesn't look like he's good for much." He smirked, licking his lips and letting a fang show for a moment.
-
With a hard glare, Jorlais kept his gaze focused on the prince kneeling in front of him. "I'd say he simply does chores until he earns my trust to do more daunting tasks. What do you say, prince?" he asked rhetorically, nudging Zander on the cheek with the toe of his boot. He watched with a raised eyebrow Zander's reaction to everything. "I would say that cleaning your tank would be a great first task," he agreed after the prince was silent.
Zander clenched his jaw, pushing himself to his feet. "That's ridiculous. I don't even know my way around the ship yet, let alone know enough to work directly for you. Why don't you just have me be a janitor or something along that line?" Immediately, Zander knew he had said the wrong thing. Fire lit in Jorlais' eyes, and Zander took an involuntary step backwards. "How dare you speak to me in that tone of voice and question me on my own ship?" Jorlais demanded, his voice dangerously calm. It was, somehow, worse to Zander than if the pirate had lost his temper and screamed. "To the whipping post with him. Now."
-
Ansel let out a shrill laugh, stepping forward and grabbing the prince roughly by the arm. "You pompous like twat." He shook his head, smirking all the while. "Not even I speak to Captain Jorlais that way. There's no way in hell you’re going to get away with it." He shoved him down the stairs from the wheel to the whipping post. "Tie him up." Ansel barked to a few of the crew members milling around. "And let this be a lesson to all of you as well." He announced, stepping back to the Captain's side.
-
Jorlais unraveled his whip, cracking his knuckles with anticipation. "I don't care if you're the prince," he growled. "You're not home now. You follow my rules." He brought his arm up and snapped the whip down with a precision that had mastered with years of practice, and he landed a crack along the prince's spine. A sadistic grin spread across his face as the boy cried out, and he lashed him once more. "What do you say, Ansel? A lash for every year his father ruined the country? Or a lash for every time I've already regretting pulling him out of the drink?" He whipped the prince once more, the sight of blood beginning to run down his back only causing Jorlais more glee.
Zander was seeing stars. He clenched his hands around each other tightly, though the punishment was made exponentially worse by the fact that Jorlais' whips were sporadic and he had no way of anticipating the blows. He awaited the siren's judgement, all the while enduring lash after lash. Still, Zander was the prince, and he had an ego rivaling Jorlais', so he simply stared straight ahead, only flinching when the whip opened up another gash in his back. It was between ten and twenty lashes before Ansel finally decided to respond. He could already feel the ropes on his wrists rubbing the skin raw from every time that he pulled on them, but he bit his tongue, determined not to show the sadistic captain or his crew mates any weakness.
-
The devilish siren pondered the question, letting his captain continue to enjoy himself with lash after lash. "It's not his fault his father is shit." He pointed out. "Sorry was." He corrected. He was almost as sadistic as Jorlais himself, as came with the nature of being a siren. He paced along behind him watching the show. "Perhaps one for every word he's spoken out of line?" He suggested with a grin. "After all he will come in handy. So I wouldn't think you regret it too much." He stepped close to him so he was next to his ear. "Not to mention the bounty that must be on his head." He whispers to him with a grin.
-
It was no secret that the famed pirate Jorlais Finch had a penchant for gold. At the mention of Zander's bounty, his eyes gleamed, and he brought his whip down particularly hard. "So, boy, let's think. 'That's ridiculous.' There's two lashes. 'I don't even know my way around the ship yet': there's ten. 'Let alone know enough to work directly for you': there's nine more. We're at a total of 21 whips. 'Why don't you just have me be a janitor or something along that line?' Which gives us a grand total of... 35 lashes!" he cried with manic glee. He grinned over at his siren. "Would you do the honors of counting?"
Zander's vision was beginning to fade, the pain on his back causing his consciousness to waver. He barely registered when Jorlais ordered one of the crew mates to put a rancid belt in his mouth to silence him completely. Zander bit down on the leather despite its filth, and he counted silently in his head all the way to the 23rd lash, and then his world turned black.
-
"Yessir." Ansel grinned as he began to count aloud at every crack of the whip. At the 23rd though he paused, grabbing Jorlais' wrist to keep him from continuing. "He's out." He said. "Continue and you're likely to kill him. And we can't have that." He motioned to the crew members to bring him down and take him back to the captain's chambers. "Now your temper has cost as a servant for the day." He pouted at his captain. "Now who will clean my tank?"