Skyrun

Chapter 12; Saying goodbye.

Dawn had never before been such a welcome sight and as Liam, Tophsy, and Coin attended to the dead and dying, Liam was grateful for the warmth of the sun to chase away the chill of the night.

Among the dead were pirates who Liam had long forgotten the names of, and the actively dying consisted of a few who stood at the brink of death's gateway, too far gone to save.

Slim was one of those pirates.

Liam knelt next to the man as he wheezed his last few breaths, agony filled eyes looking up at a rosy sky. And though the boy would have stayed with him till he breathed his last, it was not long before Coin drew up beside him and quietly slit Slim's throat.

"Come on," the thief growled to Liam, "We haven't got all day. Valentine wants us off the island before nightfall."

Thus the rest of the day was spent in solemn labor; tending to the injuries of the wounded, repairing the ship, and burning the dead.

Valentine herself was badly hurt, and though both Liam and Sinclair attempted to get her to rest, she simply waved them off and knocked back several shots of whisky to numb the pain, carrying on like she usually did.

Albeit with more slurring.

"You there," she said, getting up in Liam's face and taking up more of his personal space than he would have liked. "Hold my s--sword, would you? It's bloody heavy."

"That's your boot, ma'am."

"Looks like a sh-- a sword to me. Don't bloody tell me what's what; it's my bloody ship, by thunder!"

It was only when Sinclair convinced her that the only way she could fly the ship off the island was by going to bed that she finally went below decks.

"I hate that woman sometimes." he said blandly, rubbing his temples.

Liam could only shake his head, smiling grimly as he was sent back to work.

All in all, he did the work of three other pirates combined-- four if you counted the fact that Coin bullied him into doing a portion of his work, which Liam would not have done if Burn hadn't been there to threaten him.

However, once the dead had been burned, the wounded taken aboard, and the ship was fixed, Sinclair began shouting orders to begin for sailing once more.

It was at this point that Liam was sent to the boiler room and made to stoke the furnaces, making sure they were hot as the ship rose into the sky.

It was hot, miserable work and he soon found himself soaked through with sweat. And while removing his shirt helped little, he wasn't willing to take off any more than that.

Especially now that Raven was giving him funny looks.

"Don't mind her," Liam heard Coin say from beside him as they worked before the stifling flames of the boilers. "She'll show interest in you till she figures out that you're just a boy."

"That's not fair!" Liam barked, "I'm eighteen!"

"Could have fooled me."

They worked in terse silence from then on, keeping the boilers gong well until the night as the airship flew. Then, finally, a new batch of men came to relieve them and Liam breathed a sigh of relief as he came above deck into the cool night air.

Coming up to the wheel, Liam was surprised to find Sinclair still at the helm, his face a mask of exhaustion.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Of course. I've only been flying this ships for bloody hours while I slowly bleed from my wounds!" Sinclair snapped. Sighing, his voice softened slightly, "It's simply... Tophsy and I are the only one on the ship who know anything about being a doctor and I told her to care for the others first. I'm just... so tired."