#sand pirate

[spanishshipper]

I really love making aus

[glossy20]

Adventuredome rides

[gaigewrites]

Skyelark Sample

A little section of my current work in progress! Hopefully in a few months I’ll be submitting it to publishers!

Wind whipped her dark red dreadlocks around her face, occasionally pelting her cheeks. She inhaled deeply, drinking in the slight salt tang of a long dried ocean and the smell of hot sand. She could smell the oil of her skiff and very faintly, the tin scent of her own prosthetic. Skyelark opened the throttle, guiding her skiff closer to the cargo hold of the Second Wind. Rust colored sand whipped below the small hovercraft’s thrusters, stirring up tiny dust devils.

The Second Wind loomed closer, the cargo hold’s main door slowly sliding open at her approach. The dark metal was sandblasted, obscuring the name on the hull. The bow bore battle scars from run ins with rock formations, rival ships, and errant cacti. As worn as she was, the Second Wind was home. Skyelark slowed until she was able to coast up the ramp. The door slid shut behind her with a solid bang. Overhead lights slowly flickered into life.

Skyelark leaned back, stretching out her spine as she surveyed the cargo hold. Four skiffs were moored in their docks, which left one spot open for her craft. Electromagnets guided the hovercraft into place, locking it into dock. She disembarked, throwing over cargo ties as she crossed the walkway. She was a little taken aback when no one came to greet her. That no one came to fuss over her cargo delivery. Normally there would be a small swarm of women desperate for their cut of the medicines and foods she’d bring back from port.

She tapped the communicator in her ear. There was no response. Skyelark leaned over a control panel, dialing in a command for a helper ‘bot to carry the supplies to a cooler room. The small helper bot, caught halfway between an oblong and a rectangle weaved its way up the ramp. At some point it had blown its axle and as much as she tried to fix it, the bot would power back on and run away. Jerking her chin, she pointed to the supplies in the back of her skiff.

“Take that to the kitchen. There’s another box that needs to go to the infirmary.”

The robot’s single glowing optic was focused on the pile of scrap. The dull green light reflected off of a particularly shiny panel.

“No, you don’t get new parts unless you do your bloody job.”

The robot made a little grumbling noise, its best approximation to human speech. Skyelark shifted stances, holding up her boot menacingly.

“Hurry up. If I come back and find out you didn’t do a thing I will disengage your sensors. And before you ask, yes, those sensors.”

The tiny robot engaged its energy arms, attaching magnetic like grips on the steel cargo boxes. Skyelark didn’t bother watching it. She had her pistol in hand as she made her way into the bowels of the ship. She took the corners at a good clip after a brief survey of the hallways. The monitor she kept with her at all times showed that most of the activity was on deck. She didn’t recognize a handful of biosignatures listed among the crew. Skyelark redoubled her pace, her grip deathly tight on the butt of her pistol. She took the last flight of stairs leading to the deck two at a time.

A loud bang echoed into the open air as Skyelark slammed her hand on the latch. The door smashed into the side of the wall, leaving a dent in old metal. She kept her gun level, ready to fire. A low gurgle of pain caught her attention, she spun, training her pistol on the source of the noise. Blood spattered across the deck, splashing her cheek. She cringed at the sight of a freshly gutted man hanging from the rigging. Her cringe only got worse when she made eye contact with her captain.

“It’s about bloody time you got back.”

“Erm, things going alright here, Cap’n?”

The captain turned, her lips drawn in a tight scowl. Normally the sight of her would send Skyelark’s heart fluttering, this time it just filled her gut with dread, particularly when her eyes landed on the wicked blade her captain held aloft. Skyelark quickly holstered her gun, offering up placating palms. She took a half-step back for good measure.

Skyelark risked a look at the deck. There were a few black-clad bodies littering the deck. Joanna, the quartermaster was busily pitching corpses off the side of the ship. She turned back to her captain, feeling a tight pang of guilt.

“I’m assuming there’s a reason why Yanno’s men decided to attack us today?”

“You mean aside from the obvious, right?”

“Skyelark! There had best be a damn good reason why I just had to kill a few men myself.”

Skyelark opened her mouth to reply only to have her captain gesture toward the helm. She groaned softly. The crew members on deck all stared at her, a few making snide comments. Joanna looked up from her grim duty, offering a wan smile. Skyelark envied the big woman; she never got the tail end of one of the captain’s tirades.

Lucky bitch.

The door to the bridge slammed shut in her face. Skyelark grunted in annoyance as she took her seat on a rickety metal chair. The chair was scorchingly hot; it burned her through her thick cargo pants. She had heard stories of people waiting outside headmasters’ offices and she could say she had a good idea of what it felt like. Every now and then she’d hear the soft ‘oooh’ of one of her crewmates as she waited. She told a few to piss off. At one point even Joanna came up to her. A large hand settled on her shoulder.

“If it helps, she only does this because she likes you.”

“Your idea of liking is very bizarre, Joanna.”

Joanna flashed a megawatt smile. Skyelark rolled her eyes as she idly fanned herself.

“Eh, cheer up, love. I doubt you’ll get anything worse than a stern talking-to.”

“The whole Yanno business wasn’t my fault.”

Joanna’s features darkened. Her nose wrinkled at the mention of Yanno’s name. “I know that, she knows that. Honestly, she’s probably just concerned, that’s all.”

The door opened. Skyelark uttered a soft prayer in her native tongue; it was a sailor’s prayer for safe passage. Joanna snorted, waving listlessly as she returned to her duties. Skyelark rose from her chair, hands dangling in front of her. She let out a soft sigh as she entered the bridge.

The helm was not a very large room. It held a display of wafer-thin monitors, a large wood and steel desk covered in maps, and two chairs. The wheel stood on its solemn pedestal, its surface bedecked in brass tones. The captain sat at the table, legs primly crossed. She had changed shirts and washed the blood off of her hands and face. Skyelark dropped into the chair across from her, her palms resting along her inner thighs in a very unladylike slouch.

“Before you start, can we just cut to the chase? I’d like to get some rest before my watch.”

At that point the cabin girl appeared, holding a tray. There were two cups and a teapot. She gave them both a curt nod as she set the tray on the table. The cabin girl was called Lily mostly due to her pale skin. Skyelark had long since forgotten the girl’s actual name. The captain poured them both a cup, hers in delicate china, while Skyelark was given a heavy copper mug. There were small dents from where her metal fingers warped the mug. The captain took a sip of tea. Skyelark waited for the other boot to drop.

“I would ask you what you were bloody well thinking, but I believe that is out of the question judging by the report I got from Joanna. However, I would very much like to know why in the world they decided that now was an opportune time to attack.”

“Yanno probably got real cocky again. He picked a fight with me in the bar. I shot him. He’s dead, Cap’n.”

“I’ll send someone to scour his ship later. I managed to capture some of their tech. Perhaps he had another lead?”

“Doubtful. I think he just had a burr up his--”

The captain cleared her throat. Skyelark sipped at her tea, momentarily chided. She took a moment to sneak a peek at her captain. The captain had a girlish face and thick, curly black hair. A jagged scar ran across her right cheek, but it gave her face a little more character. Skyelark refused to admit that she was quite smitten.

“So he just wanted revenge?”

“My best guess, Cap’n.”

“You can stop calling me captain all the time. You’ve known me five years now, you may as well call me Amelia.”

“I don’t want the other girls thinkin’ I’m gettin’ too familiar with you.”

Amelia rolled her eyes. She brushed her jet black bangs out of her eyes, squinting as she surveyed Skyelark’s face.

“As if they don’t already talk about how many times I’ve had to pull you aside for your nonsense.”

“Err…” Skyelark broke eye contact, smiling guiltily. She could feel the blood rushing to her cheeks.

“Exactly. Now fill me in on what happened in town. Were you able to gather everything I sent you for?”

“Got all the supplies, ca-- Amelia. Picked Yanno’s hopper dry. I might finally be able to get the spare up to snuff.”

“Any news from the town?”

“Nothing to really report. The apothecarist thought I was a man, the old bastard. Beer’s piss water. And there is neither a brothel nor a scrapyard.”

“How did he mistake you of all people for a man?”

Skyelark glanced down at her leather vest. It concealed her chest a little, but not enough to hide the rather obvious fact that she was a woman.

“Guess he never saw a real woman before.”

“What is it that you say? ‘A good handful is more than enough’?”

Skyelark snorted. She wasn’t entirely sure where Amelia heard her say that, but it was obvious she had at some point. She held up her palms, frowning down at her chest.

“Well, for you they’d be a good fit.”

Amelia snorted into her teacup. She fumbled on her desk until she got her hands on handkerchief. She mopped up the mess with a few precise swipes. Once she was content with her work, she held up her hand, gesturing for Skyelark to do the same. Skyelark let Amelia press their hands together. Despite their mere three inch height gap, Skyelark could almost wrap the tips of her fingers over her captain’s.

“Well it’s because you have such bloody big man hands.”

“You didn’t deny that they’d be a good fit.”

Amelia pulled her palm away. Skyelark had a hard time not smiling when she rolled her eyes.

“You’re only fiesty because two of your favourite hobbies were out.”

“I have other hobbies.”

“The last time I loaned you a book, you threw it on my desk complaining that the best character died and you sulked for a week.”

“It was only two days.”

“Honestly, I don’t know what I’m going to do with you.”

[magicbyhalves]

It felt like they’d been burrowing for hours, and it wasn’t until a fairly unhealthy amount of sand and dirt had been kicked into Shantae’s face that her opponent showed any sign of slowing down.

“Let.... go!” the pirate growled, and cracked her tail like a whip in an attempt to dislodge the naga clinging to it.

Instead, Shantae’s current form handled the motion smoothly, and it simply ran its course down her body. “Why do you keep going after Oasissss Town?!”

“That’s none of your -”

Half-genie and pirate alike were suddenly falling though a hole, right into an underground cavern. Shantae coiled up around the other girl without thinking as they plummeted - she could better handle a fall, or at least she assumed so. The pair landed with a hard, echoing thud, and a shared groan of pain.

The pirate tried to reach for her sword, for anything, but she was wrapped up tight. She let out a defiant growl, kicking her legs and lashing her tail.

“H-hey! Stop wiggling!”

“Make me!”

Shantae snarled, baring her fangs.

“That’s not gonna work, idiot! I’m half-scorpionfolk! Your dumb fangs can’t do anything!”

Shantae was caught off-guard, and it must have shown on her face, because the pirate girl rolled her eyes.

“What? You thought you were the only half-monster running around?”

“I’m not half-monster! I’m half-genie!”

“It’s the same thing! Even if you can pretend you’re human, they still call everything stronger and better than them monsters. Don’t you know anything?”

“You’re not making sensssse...!  ... Seriously, stop squirming! You’re making thissss weird!”

The scorpion-pirate huffed, but finally stopped moving around.

In the long, tense silence that followed, Shantae mulled over the pirate’s words. For whatever reason, the thought of a half-monster had never occurred to her. Considering that the two had almost had a normal conversation outside the town, she supposed there must be others. But she’d never seen any in Oasis Town. Granted, there were full scorpionfolk in the surrounding desert, but...

Oh. Maybe that was why she hated the town so much.

Shantae looked over the pirate she was holding down again. She seemed young - barely older than herself. Maybe there was a chance...

“Um... what’ssss your name?”

“Why should you care? You’re just gonna beat me up the second you let go, anyway.”

“Actually... I’m, uh. Kinda hoping we can talk. ... If that’ssss okay. I won’t fight if you don’t...”

The pirate girl mulled over the idea, and then, very quietly, muttered “... Elmas.”

“Shantae.” And with a quick burst of magic, she was back to her usual self. “So... half-scorpionfolk, huh?”

[magicbyhalves]

DRILL

“IT’SSSS REALLY HARD TO DIG WITH ONE HAND WHILE HOLDING A SCORPION TAIL WITH THE OTHER”

[magicbyhalves]

Git 'er, Shantae!!

“I’m trying…!

She’ssss really fast…!”

[magicbyhalves]

oh gosh

“GET BACK HERE-

-pfhfphtth. Ack, sand in my mouth-

- YA SCURVY SCALLYWAG!”

[magicbyhalves]

How do you think you'll fare against the Sand Pirate this time around, since you're using your Naga form?

“Well, I wassss able to catch up to her pretty easily when she attacked Scuttle Town. If I can get her in the open desert where she can’t slam me into anything, I should be able to win. And if she burrowssss away, I can follow her and find out what she’ssss up to!”