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The almost-peaceful surroundings were revealed as their true, chaotic selves when the bomb exploded onboard the Nautica. Locke stumbled backward in sheer surprise at the sight. A flash of flame, a bit of dust and smoke, and a loud bang was not a mixture anyone on a ship in the middle of the sea wanted to sample.

As Locke pondered these things, he remembered looking through his mother's book the night before. He was refreshing his memory on the basic elemental spells, working most diligently on two in particular - Fire and Stone. Fire had never been an element Locke could control with ease; Ice was much more appealing. As far as spells of the Earth go, Locke had never really gotten around to studying them. Why he picked those two, in particular, to study that night was very peculiar at this moment, since he had just witnessed both in action (well...sorta).

Smiling at the thought, Locke looked around at the crew, who seemed to be preparing to board the Nautica. Sahlana was heading in his direction with a perplexed look on her face; there was also a hint of irritation, even though she was not angry. He could tell that she was muttering something to herself, and decided that he would see if she knew anything about helping.

As he walked forward to the approaching Sahlana, he could hear orders coming from both sides - Morgan was to his left shouting at everyone to turn the ship and move the cannons, while Sao was on his right gathering people for boarding. He noticed that currently she was in the process of "talking" to Nell, if you can call it that. Locke noticed that Sao was smiling as she gave orders to the perhaps now former First Mate.

Just as he looked away, Sahlana was nearly at his side, and he had only enough time to say her name before she walked by. He turned to face her, and she followed suit. "I'm sorry to bother you, Sahlana, but I was wondering if you knew of anything I could help with? I've been below deck scrubbing, but I thought I'd be more useful up here." Locke hoped with every bit of himself that she or someone else would not send him back belowdecks with Jack and Ennis. He tried not to allow his face to contort at this thought as he waited for her reply.

Pirate ship: Nautica -> Deck

"What are tey doing now? Are they getting ready to board us?"

*Enieffac notices that, across the way on the other ship, it's moving closer and seems to have more activity on the deck than before, especially after that cannonball fired at them. Enieffac then looks to the meyhem that remains of the Nautica: Fires everywhere, holes in the deck, a bomb terrorizing the ship's crew and the few other captives that are still alive, and mutilated and charred dead bodies here and there. The whole ship began to smell like the cargo hold, only with the smell of charred ash added. He then looks back at the Stonefish: Not yet damaged, much lower casualty rate than the Nautica, and it had the added bonus of not being a pirate ship... or at least, as far as he could ******** it."

*He then looks around for anyone potentially worth saving, and finds no one: All of the other captives have decided to join the pirates, whom seemed to be treating said captives as their own. Suits him just fine, however: When he was in the brig with them prior to the pirates giving him 'slave' status the other captives laughed at the metal clasp at the end of his braid, and they stole his portion of food when dinner came about on their first night.Serves 'em right. he thought to himself.*

*He does a quick check to make sure everything he owned was on him: He forgot his hat, his precious hat. He'd had that hat since he waas 16 and it never fialed him when he needed it. So he rushed back into the cargo hold, scanning the room for it. A loud 'Ba-PSHHH!' and 'fwoosh' 'crack, crinkle, splinter' series of sounds echoes out from directly above. He has no clue why, and doesn't care in the slightest, as it wasn't his ship. He sees his hat on the floor underneath a piece of burning wood, and snatches it up. He puts it on, and runs out back onto the deck. He'd save someone but, again, there was no one worth saving. He hopped up onto the edge, looked down to make sure he'd land in water instead of debris, and dives.*

If I die trying to survive this, I'm going to be really pissed off.

*Dunks into the water, and reserfaces. He then proceeds to swim towards the Stonefish...*

Locke tried not to panic as Sahlana's expression changed from calm to frantic in mere seconds. The two searched the deck for something, anything, that floated, as the Nautica loomed into closer view.

This really isn't how I pictured my death...

Locke shook those thoughts from his head; they'd do no good to him now. He finally settled upon an empty water barrel, and motioned Sahlana toward it.

"This might just do it...if we can figure out how to hold on..."

Before Sahlana could even muse a suggestion, there was another explosion, and the two dove to the ground.

She realized that panic situations do weird things to people's sense of civility, so Sahlana tapped down her surge of venom towards the unknown woman before silently righting the barrel and carrying it down into the hold.

But when she got to the powder room, she stopped.

The hole which opened into the side for the ballista had been widened by an explosion; she dully noted that it was far enough above the waterline that, barring high seas, they'd be able to limp into a port well enough. That damage was the least of the scene before her, however.

The remains of the ballista were still on fire. She supposed that was the origin of the explosion. Also on fire were the remains of the clothes on the two individuals who had apparently been standing closest to the explosion; all their hair had been scorched off, and their flesh had flashburned so severely she couldn't immediately identify them. The extreme heat from the explosion had crisped their eyelids, rolled them back up to expose the holes beneath, left empty when the unfortunate souls' eyeballs had burst and run.

Bei she could identify immediately. Though standing rather far back from the blast, apparently, Bei had the misfortune of standing in the path of a metal hinge at the moment of the explosion. Her jaw and upper throat was gone, and though she made no noise the slight rhythm of blood still pumping resolutely from the wounds meant her heart was still ignorantly continuing its vain attempts.

One privateer, his left arm and side badly burned, was screaming a name out the hole towards the water; Sahlana supposed that the owner of the name had been sent flying from the ship when the explosion had occurred.

Then there was Geilen, who lay on the floor, his hair a bit fried. Sahlana couldn't see any major injuries at first glance, but he was semiconscious and moaning and a small trickle of blood emerged from his nose.

And that was how Sahlana, who still stood surveying the scene with her sleeve pressed firmly against her mouth, knew that the two blackened corpses were Ennis and Jack; through a simple process of elimination.

Morgan took stock of the situation.

Point A: The mutineers were off the ship.
Point B: The Nautica refugee had been hauled aboard.
Point C: The lower deck was apparently a miasma of pain.
Point D: A scrawny dude was apparently preparing to toss a few Fire spells down on the Stonefish... plus, they were in a bad position should the Nautica catch them abroad.
Point E: The Nautica was in no position to give chase at the moment.

"Half sail!" Morgan called over the din. She dashed to the helm and grabbed the wheel. "We're fallin' back!"

Sao gave the refugee a hearty slap on the back. "Make yerself useful," she said, grinning, before dashing off to assist with the sails.

Morgan had another sailor, a steady old salt known only as Dar, take the wheel. "Keep us pointed fer Levee, we're ta be makin' fer port."

With those simple directions, she left her post with full confidence and found Sao, who was still working on the rigging. "Brody, take Sao's place. We're ta be takin' full use o' tha' wind now, ye'hear?" Morgan gave Sao a meaningful glance and looked to the door to belowdecks. "Let's be makin' sure tha powderroom is under control or none of this will be worth sheit. I dunno wha's down thar an I'll be needin yer help."

Locke was concentrating so hard on casting his spells that he had forgotten about a certain sensitivity of his. The weakness born unto all the Abscerans that made them gratful of the distance between their island and Gnusi - fire.

By the time Locke remembered this tiny detail, his vision was beginning to blur. I can't stop now...the fire's still blazing, he thought to himself. If only I can put it out before I lose consciousness...

The heat and smoke were slowing down his spellcasting. Not to mention the fact that he'd sent a couple spells in already, and his magic power was slowly draining. He could feel the palms of his hands, closest to the blaze, burning. If he didn't know better, he would have thought the skin was melting off him. At least, that's what he hoped.

He tried his best to clear his mind of worry and the moans of the injured, and concentrate on the task at hand. He had to put out the flames to save the ship, hell, even to save himself. His body convulsed in a cough as smoke began filling his lungs. Anyone else would have found the level of smoke in the room slightly irritating to the throat, but Locke's Absceran blood could hardly take pipe smoke. He coughed again, interrupting a spell he was about to send out.

Dammit.

Tears welled up between the rapid blinking of his eyes. The smoke was killing him, both figuratively and literally. Another cough, this time with a stumble. Locke shook his head and sent another weak ice spell into the flames, which had reduced since he had begun. But Locke's power was fading almost as fast as his consciousness.

Blinking seemed to be making no difference now. He couldn't see a thing. The only feeling Locke could sense was his arms, burning. He only hoped he wasn't really on fire, and it was just his sensitivity. Locke thought he felt something move in his pocket, but put it off as his mind playing tricks on him. He coughed again, and was pushed into a semi-fetal position as it continued into a hacking. As he tried to straighten up, he stumbled and fell sideways. Just before everything went black, he heard the flapping of wings and a blue light from just above him. Then a tinge of cold, then darkness.