you look like my next mistake
A velvet-black sky unfurled above the Outer Islands, and the Sugar Tide skimmed through it like a half-tamed comet. Stained-glass sails caught slivers of starlight, scattering jewel-bright shards across the deck—and across Flora’s white-knuckled fingers where they clamped around the wheel.
"Okay," she muttered, voice pitched for ship and night both, "let’s keep the dramatic plunges to a minimum." The horizon was nothing but ink; the islands below might as well have been ghosts. Somewhere ahead, a low bank of cloud loomed like an unlit mountain.
Off the port bow a sleek shadow arrowed through the dark, wings beating in fluid silence. Thalassa’s lyvern form—small, obsidian, and sinfully fast—dipped and rolled, matching the ship’s course with lazy confidence. A glint of moonlight slid along her scales as she drew level with the helm.
Flora cleared her throat, trying to ignore the way the deck occasionally lurched when wind hit the sails just wrong. "Thal!" she called, raising her voice over the moan of rigging. "If I’m about to eat dirt, scream, roar, hiss—something loud, okay? I’d like a warning before we redecorate some poor farmer’s turnips."
"Okay," she muttered, voice pitched for ship and night both, "let’s keep the dramatic plunges to a minimum." The horizon was nothing but ink; the islands below might as well have been ghosts. Somewhere ahead, a low bank of cloud loomed like an unlit mountain.
Off the port bow a sleek shadow arrowed through the dark, wings beating in fluid silence. Thalassa’s lyvern form—small, obsidian, and sinfully fast—dipped and rolled, matching the ship’s course with lazy confidence. A glint of moonlight slid along her scales as she drew level with the helm.
Flora cleared her throat, trying to ignore the way the deck occasionally lurched when wind hit the sails just wrong. "Thal!" she called, raising her voice over the moan of rigging. "If I’m about to eat dirt, scream, roar, hiss—something loud, okay? I’d like a warning before we redecorate some poor farmer’s turnips."
