& if you never bleed you're never gonna grow
The Ark holds steady against the pale throat of the sky, her wings clipped but not cowed, as Murphy scans the cloud-thick horizon with sharp, practiced eyes. A flicker catches his attention—something small, glinting unnaturally in the fractured light. He leans forward, squinting harder. Far off, bucking through the jagged currents of air like a drunken hel, the Sugartide stutters in her descent. Her once-stained glass sails are stiff with ice, crystallised and shimmering like they’ve been dipped in starlight—beautiful, yes, but wholly unfit for flight in this cold-blooded stretch of ocean. The rigging groans audibly, taut with frost, and the hull lists as Flora tries—furiously—to right her course.
Aboard the ship, Flora is all motion and muttered curses, hair pinned back messily as her hands fly across the controls. The wheel bites at her palms, a banked turn slips into a wobble. The Sugartide isn’t meant for this kind of weather—she’s light, sleek, tropical. Built for heat and charm, not for wrestling gales and biting cold.
"Come on, baby, not like this," Flora hisses, knuckles red from the cold. Spice gives a frantic chirp from her perch, wings flared and eyes wide as the wind howls against the hull. Below them, the Eurybia yawns open like a beast with cracked-ice teeth, dark water roiling and gleaming with the kind of danger that doesn’t forgive mistakes.
Aboard the ship, Flora is all motion and muttered curses, hair pinned back messily as her hands fly across the controls. The wheel bites at her palms, a banked turn slips into a wobble. The Sugartide isn’t meant for this kind of weather—she’s light, sleek, tropical. Built for heat and charm, not for wrestling gales and biting cold.
"Come on, baby, not like this," Flora hisses, knuckles red from the cold. Spice gives a frantic chirp from her perch, wings flared and eyes wide as the wind howls against the hull. Below them, the Eurybia yawns open like a beast with cracked-ice teeth, dark water roiling and gleaming with the kind of danger that doesn’t forgive mistakes.
