Inter Mundos (Between Worlds)

Three: The Space Port

I grumbled as I scrubbed another pot for the one hundredth time and I still had another pot half way full of hot soup left to clean up. Scrapper had left me to do the cleaning myself and it was taking me all afternoon to do it. I swore I would get him back for it someday...somehow. It had been a full week now since I'd been here; Scrapper was taking more breaks than usual, leaving me to do the dirty work. I knew what he was doing and it didn't matter if I complained, Silver would hit me in the back of the head again and tell me to shut up. I mumbled to myself with something Silver would probably say and I grabbed the next pot. I started to pour it into a large bowl, saving it for later. I was about half done with pouring when a loud bang boomed and rattled the ship. I went deft and felt the ship rock to one side. I leaned forward and then slipped to the side, the hot soup pouring on to me, burning and ruining my clothes. I screamed but I could hardly hear myself from the next booming wave that went by, making me roll across the floor as the ship rocked to the other side. I hit my head on the corner of the counter and cursed as bad a sailor and as luck would have it, pots, bowls, and plates pans came falling down on me. Even the silverware seemed to be against me and fell as well, a long, sharp knife rocketing at my left hand. SLICE! The knife stuck fast through the top of my hand and I screamed. I held my breath and quickly pulled the knife out, screaming again and crying a bit. There was now a ringing sound in my ears and my nose started to bleed. I tried to pick myself up but fell to my side and darkness overcame me.

"Briar..."
Yeah?
"Wake up, darling. There is still so many things for you to do."
What? Mom, is that you?
"Get up."
I awoke to the ringing in my ear still. My head was banging with pain and my hand felt completely numb, but only if I didn't bump it; that was proving difficult to do. I felt someone pick me up from the back of my sweater and put me back on my feet. I could still feel the ship rocking back and forth and I forced my eyes open and saw a blurry Silver. He was shouting at me but I couldn't hear anything coming from his mouth and he eventually gave up and pulled me along with him. I stumbled up the stairs once or twice but somehow managed to make my way to the top deck. What I saw took my breath away. A bright light...no...a fight was taking place with two other ships and we happened pass it. It was my best guess at least. We were sailing away from the fight but some of the firing had reached us, making this all happen. Silver put a rope around my waist and tightened it. From the looks of it I was hooked up to a life line and so was the rest of the crew. I stayed next to the life lines, holding on to my rope and watched as others ran around like crazy trying to flee from the scene. Once I stopped being deft I wish I hadn't and realized just how loud everything was now. The crew cursed as they worked together. I had never seen so much team work, even from a boys catholic basket-ball team playing finals. I remembered going to a game suddenly and thought how stupid of me to be thinking of that now. I was in a life or death situation and I was thinking about sweaty boys playing basket-ball. I felt my stomach roll and I barfed on my boots. I was a complete mess now and the slice in my hand was starting to throb. The numbness was finally fading away and I could feel every inch of pain shoot up my arm; my head was another problem.

"It's Stickler's ship! I see it!" Yelled one of the lizard men. Stickler's ship was black with red sails and an icy blue flag with a gun and sword on it. I spat trying to get rid of the taste of barf out of my mouth.

"Keep moving forward!" Yelled Silver. He was trying his best to get away. Stickler was obviously after us. "Light 'em up!" He yelled again. I felt a rumbled deep inside the ship and that was when I heard Silver cry, "Hold on to somethin'!" BAM! We shot off like lighting and I fell flat on my back, knocking the air out me. I coughed and felt my bloody nose drying up.

The next day I sat in the council room at a small table letting Silver take a good look at my hand. I winced in pain as he took a wash cloth and started to clean my wound. The blood was dry and it took some effort to clean it properly. Silver took some torn up cloth and placed it around my hand and tide it into a knot. "That will leave a scar won't it?"
Silver nodded. "Be glad yer alive." He told me. "The kitchen is not the best place to be when somethin' like this happens. Where was ol' Scrapper?"