“Whatever You Need”
MTG Flash Fan Fic: Protean Raider
"Who are you?" Captain Decker asked, crossing her arms.
"I'm whoever you need me to be, Captain," I said with a smile. The statement was true, but the captain stared at me with a steely blue eye.
"Whoever I need you to be?" She walked over to a logbook on her desk and sat down behind it. "Is that why you filled in as our navigator when Missy Brayburn got sick last week?"
"Yes," I said.
"And is that why you told my first mate that you could be our lookout while Stubbs was recovering from his broken leg?" she asked.
"Yes, Captain."
"And our quartermaster? And boatswain? And our cook?" Captain Decker raised the eyebrow above her eye patch higher with each question. "In fact, after asking around the crew, it appears the only job you haven't taken on at some point, is my own. Is that correct?"
"Absolutely, Captain."
"And yet," the captain went on, "despite your flexibility in assisting the crew, it has recently come to my attention that you do not appear anywhere in my crew roster!" She punctuated her last point by stabbing a finger down at the logbook in front of her.
"The penalty for stowaways is clear," Captain Decker said in an ominous tone. Then she took a deep breath. "And yet there's no denying how useful you've been the past few months. That's why I'm giving you a chance to explain."
"So I'll ask this one more time," she said. "Who are you?"
"I told you, Captain," I said. "I'm whoever you need me to be."
Captain Decker sighed with exasperation. "If you don't want to die, then who you need to be right now is the most honest pirate who ever lived."
I looked Captain Decker directly in her good eye. "Then that's who I am."
She leaned back in her chair and regarded me skeptically. "Fine, then tell me how you got on my ship."
"I jumped on board when Jimmy the cabin boy was about to fall overboard," I said. "Somebody needed to catch him."
"When was this?" she asked.
"Exactly three months ago yesterday," I said.
Captain Decker checked her logbook for the date. "We were in the middle of the sea that day," she said. "Are you telling me you're a River Herald or something?"
"Not unless you need me to be," I replied. "I'm no merfolk, but I was born in the water."
"Explain," said the captain, a look of interest briefly crossing her stern face.
"You know Willy?" I asked. "The siren who tells stories to the crew?"
"Hired him myself," said the captain. "What about him?"
"Willy once told a story about how The Wind gave the sirens their voices so they could promise mortals what they most desire," I said. "But then The Wind laughed because while he made all the promises, it was up to The Sea to fulfill them."
"What does that have to do with anything?" Captain Decker asked, looking frustrated again.
"I think my kind come about when The Sea tries to fulfill some of those promises," I said. "To find a crew on the sea, and be what they truly need."
Captain Decker looked at me, closed her logbook, and then stood up to pace her cabin. After a few minutes, she turned and spoke.
"I'll tell you who I think you are," she said. "I think you're a loony who's been stuck at sea so long your brain's been scrambled."
"I also think you're a capable crew member and a damn fine pirate," she continued. "There's no rule against being a little loony on this ship, or we'd all be tossed overboard. You just keep serving this ship and her crew as well as you have been, and we'll gladly count you as one of our own. Dismissed."
And since the captain didn't need me to say anything else, I stood up and walked out of her office.
Two weeks later, word had gotten out to the Brazen Coalition that Orazca had been found and that there was a power struggle to see who would control the city. Captain Decker said she couldn't care less about controlling some old ruins, but if there was loot to be found, we'd better get in there before all the good stuff was gone.
That's how we found ourselves in the middle of Orazca during the biggest battle anyone in the crew had ever seen. It's also how we ended up cornered and trapped between two groups of Sun Empire troops with raptors and frillhorns.
Stubbs was frantically trying to hide between the captain's legs. "If only I had my canon!" shrieked the goblin.
"We don't need canons right now!" Captain Decker shouted. "What we need is our own damn dinosaur big enough to bite its way through these lizard lovers!"
"Well why didn't you say so?" I replied with a smile.
The other members of the crew backed away as my toothy grin became a row of daggers in my mouth. My skin was replaced by tough scales and bright feathers, as my legs and neck stretched impossibly until I was towering above everyone else on the battlefield.
"Whatever you need, Captain."
“Whatever You Need” is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.