The Song of the Sea

35. Soaring High

A/N Good luck Everyone!!! 

Raephier stood rooted to the spot as Jacob crept closer with a predatory look in his eye. Under any other circumstance, the look would have had Raephier going weak at the knees in longing, but today his knees trembled with fear.

Just as Jacob reached out his hand to gently touch Raephier's cheek, there were suddenly bodies pushing their way in between the two of them, making Raephier stumble backwards in surprise.

He craned his neck around Lyle to see Pete grabbing hold of Jacob and shaking him roughly.

"Jacob! Hey! Jacob! Look at me!" shouted Pete.

But it was like Jacob couldn't even see him. He was still smiling as though nothing was wrong.

Pete shook Jacob so hard that his head rattled about rather alarmingly. Raephier tried to step towards them, but Lyle held him back.

"Jacob! Jacob!" Pete shouted, his voice getting more and more desperate and angry.

Raephier couldn't help but be worried for Jacob, given the level of Pete's anger, and all he wanted to do was go over there and take Jacob away from him. Which was ridiculous when he thought about it, because no matter how angry Pete was, Jacob was much safer with him that he was near Raephier.

Then suddenly Pete swung round to face Raephier, his face the picture of anguish and rage.

"What the fuck have you done to him?!" he shouted, lunging at Raephier.

Lyle let go of the Siren just in time to swing round and take hold of Pete instead.

"GET OFF ME!!!" screamed Pete, his face bright red, and the veins pulsing in his neck.

Raephier slowly walked backwards with his shaking hands held up in front of him, like he was trying to calm down an angry pitbull.

More people came running over, some going to Jacob, and others helping Lyle keep hold of Pete.

Everyone was yelling at each other, but of course none of them could hear, so it was just a cacophony of noise, with everyone shouting at once.

A loud clanging noise made Raephier jump in fright and the shouting suddenly stopped.

Raephier turned to the source of the noise to see Tyler stood with a large piece of Iron which he had slammed down onto the metal anchor that was lying on the ship. The force of the collision had sent vibrations round the ship, drawing the attention of even those who couldn't hear.

If Raephier wasn't still in full blown panic, he'd have been impressed with Tyler's ingenuity.

"Listen to me!" Tyler shouted, over articulating the words and holding his hands to cup his ears at the word 'listen', and then pointing himself firmly in the chest on 'me'.

There followed an almost mesmerising display of hand gestures and mimes accompanied by slow broken English.

"This" (pointing from Jacob to Raephier and back again) "is not" (shaking of head) "Raephier's" (more pointing) "fault" (slight pause as unable to think of a gesture).

"But Raephier sang to Jacob," Pete replied with more gestures.

Lyle tapped Pete on his shoulder to get his attention. "Jacob asked him to," he mouthed clearly. "If he didn't, Jacob would have been shot."

"No! No! No!" Pete said, shaking his head wildly, but despite his words of disagreement, Raephier saw a shift in his body language as the anger ebbed out of him to be replaced by anguish.