The Different Ship
22

Azhar managed to crawl his way over to Rune after Arab broke from the heap. She had slumped over on her side and was shivering. He touched her and looked at her in horror; he couldn’t lose her not tonight, not ever.

“Azhar… you need to bite me…” she wheezed out, her eyes cracking and managing to look at him. Cupping the back of her head gently he rolled her onto her back shaking his head. His eyes traveling across her surveying the damage she took. There was a large deep cut diagonally across her chest and her head was bleeding, to his horror both still very heavily.

“No Rune, I don’t.” he said to her, she lifted her hand that was shaking and touched his chest looking up at him and nodding as tears trekked down her paling face. She licked her brittle lips that had become dry and cracked in the blood loss.

You’re… injured… you idiot… I am… f…fine… take… what you need…” she whispered to him breathlessly using the last of her energy to bare her neck to him. He stopped and looked down; he wasn’t going to lie to himself. He indeed needed it but he couldn’t take it from her, she was dying. Arab… Arab he was… the loud snapping of wood snapped Azhar out of his thoughts. He snapped his head over to see Arab tackle Galahad overboard. His eyes widened as he shook his head in disbelief. He scooped Rune up and began to walk over the deck of the ship. While walking he passed so many dead innocent crew members of his mixed with Galahad’s. Blood covered his deck in puddles as he made his way over to the edge to where they have gone over. They were gone and he had lost them, no not them, him, he had lost Arab. One thing he vowed he would never do. His eyes never left the ocean’s surface hoping to see some sort of sigh of Arab. There was nothing but settling waves mixing with bloody run off.

Rune broke his thoughts once again as she let out a weak gasp of air and fell limp in his arms. His body shook with sadness for his crew, but he was so enraged not only at Galahad but at himself he couldn’t protect them. All he could do was tilt his head back and let out a broken scream into the air as he fell to his knees. He knew he couldn’t do anything now besides take the boat and the rest of his crew to get patched up and hope to hell Rune doesn’t die. He looked down at her, she looked deathly pale, but she was still breathing. If anything happened to her he would always remember she tried to take care of him, even if it would have killed her, even if it did. He then stood to his feet and looked around at the handful of men he had left. All ten of them and began walking towards his cabin.

“Just set the said so we go north, we will come up on an island at some point. Hopefully they are willing to help us…” he said trailing off and stopping to look back at them.

“Then go below deck and rest until we hit port.” He said before he began to aimlessly walk to the cabin again dragging his feet.