Captain orange beard's Arc

Chapter 4 of 5

The beast climbed higher, out of reach. Captain Orange Beard raised his water blade, but the creature stayed above the mast, circling. Its wide wings caught the moonlight. Below, his crew hauled at the sails, arms shaking. He saw the truth plain. The moment they tired, the beast would fold its wings and drop on them like a stone. He could not reach it. The blade was useless against a target in the sky. So he grabbed what he could. A crate of ship's food sat lashed by the hatch. He tore it open and flung a cooked roach upward. The dark little thing spun into the dark and fell short. He threw another. Then a strip of dried meat. The beast ignored all of it and dropped lower, jaws parting. Light burst over the deck. Twinkles Starfall shot up from the rail, her galaxy wings bright. She was the faerie who had guided his ship through the shoals, and she had followed him into these waters for her own reasons. She flew straight at the beast's eyes. "The food won't stop it," she called down. "It wants you dead. Give it something it fears instead." "I have nothing it fears," he shouted. "You have the blade. And I have light. Together." She darted around the beast's head, blinding it with her glow. The creature swiped and missed. It beat its wings and sank lower, confused, snapping at the spark. For one breath it dropped level with the mast. Captain Orange Beard did not wait. He climbed the rigging two ropes at a time. The deck fell away below. The beast turned toward Twinkles, its flank wide open and close. He braced his boots against the mast and leaned out. He drove the water blade into the beast's side. The water of the blade poured through the wound and did not stop. The creature screamed. Its wings locked. It twisted in the air, spraying water from the gash, and plunged past the hull into the black sea. A white splash rose. Then nothing. The water closed over it and went still. Captain Orange Beard hung in the rigging, breathing hard. His crew stared at the spot where the beast had sunk. No wings returned. The enemy that had hunted him across the ocean was gone. Twinkles landed on the rail, her wings dimmer now. She did not look pleased. She looked east, past the bow, at the empty dark. "Your enemy is dead," she said. "But you drew it loud and bright into open water. Things out here answer noise." "What things?" he asked. Her mouth pressed shut. "The gap I follow is close," she said. "And it is not the only thing waking." He climbed down and checked the bone compass. The needle still pulled east, steady. The sky above the mast was clear. For the first time in days, nothing circled it. But the water ahead had begun to glow a faint, sickly green.