Kheiro was awake but still groggy at this point. Still, it was a step up from an unsconscious form of groggy. Whatever the alchemist had been pumping into the Tauren, he must have injected a large volume to keep Liam’s massive comrade that sedated. At the moment, Liam was ill concerned with that matter. Part of it was due to the fact Kheiro was (relatively) awake. More importantly to the fact, Liam was waiting for the alchemist to revert whatever he had done to Drake.
When the crewmates had brought him before Liam, the alchemist uttered something about paralysis and such. Liam was having no part of it. While his rage did expire, there certainly wasn’t patience to be found in its place. Instead, with the captain’s blood still wet on his jaw, Liam merely told the alchemist to fix it or else. Some muttering crewmen said more than enough to make it clear to the alchemist just what “or else” meant.
So, shaking in his robe, this man had vials and herbs in a small box and was doing his best to put all the ingredients together. “Even a Bronzebeard dwarf couldn’t work under this pressure!” he said out loud.
“A dwarf wouldn’t have done this in the first place.” Liam answered. “Dwarves are noble, brutally honest, and stubborn to a fault. They are not tormentors. Save for the Dark Irons, but that is not the discussion we are having right now.”
The alchemist hung his head and given his situation may very well have been praying for a miracle, or a quicker death than he was likely facing. Taking one slightly larger vial, he mixed the contents of three more in it, capped it and shook it vigorously. When the purple substance had settled in the vial he looked down at the dog and reached for him to deliver the concoction.
“No. I will do it,” Liam stepped forward. “You are still responsible for this, but you have a greater chance of living if Drake sees me before he sees you.” With that, he took the vial and swallowing all the pain of seeing his friend hanging above the deck, he poured the contents into the dog’s mouth. Drake’s head fell limp once more and all waited silently.
Nothing.
Liam remained on his knees, holding his friend. His emotions began to swell once more; sadness, grief, anger, rage. Revenge. He set the dog down, sprung to his feet, and turned to face the alchemist again. “You have failed. You have lied.”
“N-n-n-no,” he stuttered. “This is not something that can be fixed in mere minutes! It will take much longer for the potion to run its course and remove the Paralytic Poison that remains in his bloodstream! Honest!”
Liam sat in skepticism. His emotions were swelling and he wanted nothing more than to unleash them upon the man responsible for the current fate of his friend. He stepped forward when a voice to his right interrupted him.
“Um, beggin’ your pardon…but…well…I think he’s being honest.”
Liam turned towards the voice. He found a man about the same height as himself. He had a black ponytail and a sea beard of several months. Liam cocked his head and stared. The man, surprisingly, held his footing.
“I saw a thief shiv a powder monkey once and…um…took a day for it to wear off once they settled the poor bastard.”
Liam looked at the man for a moment before turning to the alchemist. “Fair enough. You may sit in a cell until this time tomorrow. Do what you will until that time.” Two crewmen took the hint and escorted the willing alchemist to a cell.
“Erm…not to push what little luck I might have…”
Liam dropped his head for a second. “What…?”
The crewman stepped forward a bit at this point. “Well, um, we’re just wondering what the plan is, captain?”
“CAPTAIN?!?!” Dead or not, seems Liam could not have possibly heard that correctly.
A slow, heavy laughter began to drown out the confusion. Kheiro was awake. And surprisingly amused. That tone of his once again settled Liam, like it seemed to do every time. “I see much has happened during my slumber. In the dream and out.”
Liam stopped for a moment and collected himself. “What do you mean by in your dream Kheiro? And more importantly, let’s get back to this whole CAPTAIN thing!”
The sailor looked at his mates before continuing. “Well, sir, there’s a code of the sea, as it were. You become a captain one of two ways. The first is kinda obvious. Sumthin’ happens to the captain and a vote replaces him. Or…well, someone kills the captain. Then the wheel is theirs. I reckon’ you kinda took care of both today, so…”
Liam couldn’t imagine his life after death becoming any more outrageous than this moment. His rock of a comrade was nearly laughing, his best friend still wasn’t moving, and he appeared to be the captain of a ship.
arcanewordsmith.wordpress.com 