just dialogue
1,441 words
It felt as if his body had been turned to coal and was slowly being burned away. He tried to open his eyes, but his sight seemed to have gone permanently unfocused.
"Coe?"
"His eyes are open."
"I'm going to get Darkmoon."
Two voices, both familiar, floated above him in a haze of light and color, but he could place neither of them.
Footsteps receded and a door creaked on its hinges.
"Can you see me, Coe?"
He squinted, trying to bring the face into a recognizable form. A few features became clear, the shape of the face, the eyes, the nose, and the hat.
"Captain?"
There was a breathy sigh and the features rearranged into a pained smile.
"Hey, Coe. How're you feeling?"
The fire was still crawling around beneath his fur, like a swarm of insects flowing through his blood "I.... Don't know. I don't know what happened."
"Uh, it got you. The phoenix worm, it bit you on the paw."
That explained the raging heat pumping through his body. But it also presented a stark reality that even through the haze he could grasp.
"I'm dying, then?"
Before Martin could answer, the door opened again and familiar heels clicked on the floor.
"He's awake?"
His cousin's voice asked quietly.
"Yeah."
Two suns floating in darkness, overshadowed by a red crescent moon, came into his gaze and it took a moment for him to realize that the suns where her eyes, the darkness her fur, and the red moon the scar.
"Hey, stuffed shirt."
"Darkmoon," he acknowledged breathlessly "You're here."
"Yeah, I'm here. I'm here Stepstone."
"I'd better go."
"Captain," Coe struggled to lift his head as he heard the heavy steps retreating "Wait."
The steps stopped "What is it Coe?"
"The crew. Was anyone else...?
"Everyone else is fine," there was a slight crack in Martin's voice "Thanks to you."
Coe sank back into the pillows with a sigh of relief "Good."
Martin passed through the door, leaving the cousins alone.
"Have my parents been told?"
"I sent a letter soon as I could. You've been keeping us busy." There was a false cheerfulness in her voice. She'd never been good at falsifying untrue hope, despite her flair for lying.
"I'm dying."
She sighed heavily "Coe..."
"I got bitten by one of the most venomous creatures ever known. I shouldn't even be able to speak right now."
"I know."
Though he couldn't see her face clearly, he could make out the grimace that contorted it while she swallowed back her emotions.
"But we're not sure."
"How can you not be sure?" he wanted to shake his head at her stubbornness, he could feel his body burning away beneath the slow venom.
"Do you remember anything after you got bit?"
"I barely remember getting bitten."
"Think about it for a minute."
His eyes slipped close once more as he dug through fire and darkness back to the final moments before his world went hazy with smoke and pain.
"I was standing on the deck. Close to the railing. We thought we were out of danger. Then I saw smoke in the water... I know I'm in the wrong place, but I cannot move quick enough. Its head rises up, its coming towards me, but I might as well be made of wood. It bits me. On the paw. It drags me into the water. It hurts. So much. I'm drowning, but I'm on fire. I can't breath. I see its eyes. It means to eat me. Means to slowly suck the life from my veins. Its all going dark. Slowly. Like I'm losing myself, piece by piece. I'm gone," he began to pant, his chest heaving as he relived the horrible few seconds before he passed through a barrier that held back the pain through oblivion.
"Easy, stuffed shirt. After that. Is there anything after that?" Darkmoon pressed harder, her gloved fingers coming down in a tight grip on his shoulder.
His eyelids pressed together harder and his breathing turned to short gasps.
"I... I'm out of the water.... I can see the sky. And my hand.... Ohhh," he pulled the heavily bandaged appendage to his chest "There is blood everywhere and... and..."
Darkmoon forced her gaze away from the injured paw "And what?"
"The selkie. She's there. Bending over me in human form. I don't... I don't know what she's done. It's so cold," he whispered the last words with a weak finality.
"The selkie..."
Darkmoon had other words, but they spun off like burning pinwheels in his mind as he slipped back into the deep folds of cool darkness.
Later. He didn't know how long, only that some of the fire had abated, he opened his eyes again. This time his sight was clearer.
"I'm alive?"
"Son?"
He moved his eyes towards the side and found his father's face.
"You're here?"
"Yes, yes Stepstone, I'm here."
The eagerness in his parent's voice brought bile to Coe's mouth. He knew what came next.
"You're here. You're going to say it, aren't you?"
The silver tabby's face turned confused "What do you mean, son?"
"The I told you so," Coe said through weak breaths "That I never should've joined the Navy. That this was bound to happen, what an idiot I am."
"No. I'm not. I'm not going to say it," there was a weariness in his parent's tone "You acted like an adult and chose your own path. How can I blame you for it?"
Coe stared up at his father, brow working downwards into a knot.
"So this is what it takes? I have to die before I can have reconciliation? You waited until it was too late," his breathing increased to rapid gasps "I don't want an apology now. I want... I want..."
"Stepstone, calm down," Alarmed his father stood up "Please, you're going to hurt yourself."
"I'm dying!" Coe shrieked, his back arching against the wild pain that shot through his body at the sudden exertion of sound "I can't possible hurt myself any further!"
"Son-"
"In fact, it seems the only time I ever get to see you is if I've sustained a serious injury!"
"Coe!"
Footsteps pounded in the hall and the door slammed, letting in a flood of voices sweeping away his father's protests and forcing Stepstone back into darkness by sheer presence.
Hours and days wheeled past on meaningless wings, voices and faces fluttered overhead in senseless circles. Nothing to anchor him to reality, nothing to bring him back. Just pain.
"I'm really dying," a tiny part of his conscious mind whispered "Do I regret it?"
"No," he answered himself "Not in the least. But I'm afraid."
"I'm afraid of dying."
The words formed in the physical world as sounds, movement on his lips.
"It's ok. Coe. It's ok."
Martin's voice, cracked but steady answered him.
"You'll pull through, mate. It'll be ok."
Slowly Stepstone pried his eyes open, forced him mind back to reality, and found that the agony had ebbed away from his chest and left all of his body save his paw.
"Captain?"
"Yeah, I'm here Coe."
The world around him had returned to its normal clarity and he could see Martin sitting beside him, his hat on his knee.
"How am I...?"
"Not dead?" Martin asked with a slight laugh "It was thanks to the selkie."
"How do you mean?"
Martin lowered his head "You... you uh, haven't noticed?"
Slowly Coe raised his injured paw before him, his jaw locking as he took it in.
"The bitten fingers..."
"Yeah," the otter's voice went slightly choked "We think that she cut them off before the poison could spread to the rest of your system."
It was the two furthest away from his thumb on his right paw.
"So, I'm not going to die?"
"Probably not," Martin offered him a watery smile "Apparently you're as tough as you look."
Coe did not return the smile, instead keeping his gaze fixed on where his missing fingers had been.
"I did not realize... That she'd..."
Martin nodded a little, trying to be sympathetic all the while trying to not be sick.
"Do you want a minute by yourself?"
"No." He'd spent far than a good amount of time chained alone in pain and fear.
"Are you hungry? You really haven't eaten anything since... well."
"Before?"
"Yeah, since then."
"No, not right now."
"Should I get Darkmoon or your dad?"
"No... Captain I would appreciate it if you... simply kept me company. If you don't mind?"
"Not at all," Martin leaned back in his chair, donning the hat "It'll be my pleasure."