Austin Ryan > Recent Status Updates

Will’s words are a warning, but I know it already. I feel it in my bones. Destiny asks for no man’s approval, and she’s coming for my ship.

Hand over hand on coarse rope, I make my way back to the quarter deck and my first mate.
A deathly quiet sinks over the ship. Then another crack of thunder. A flash of lightning.
“— now and at the hour of our death.”
“You know you’re in poor shape when you hear prayers aboard a pirate vessel!” Will shouts the words in the brief stillness between crashes overhead. He's not wrong.

But the guilt choked me.
The nap I’d longed for could wait. If I wanted to keep my sisters from a fate like our mother’s, I’d use this last hour of daylight to search for the cat.
I shoveled a few bites of food into my mouth, knowing my sister would eat whatever I left behind, and shrugged a coat over my ripped shirt.
Mending it could wait. Everything could wait— I needed to find that cat yesterday.

"I shove Seafaring Through the Ages into its spot on the shelf.
I close my eyes, and I can almost taste the salt on my lips.
I open my eyes and follow the sound of breaking waves, creaking wood, and faint... singing?
A crash cracks the air in the still room, and the noise of rushing water drowns out any other sound.
I take the corner at a run,
Piercing eyes meet mine, and I stop dead."

" "What in the blazes do you think you're doing?"
She clutched her dressing gown closed and whirled on me. Her eyes sparked with anger as her curses filled the room.
Raised among the rougher-edged ranks of society, you'd think I'd heard worse, but this toff's daughter made my ears burn."