#leech tfv

Hello Cap'n and happy STS! My week's been ... weird? But okay? Hoping yours was good!

Tagged by @winterandwords ❄️

Saving Something Wicked for NaNo and throwing myself into The Friendly Visitors this month so here's the last seven lines of that:

Leech rolled over, ignoring the sting of iron nails still scattered on the floor. He clenched his fist and felt it then. It was no wonder the air was so damp, being so close. Slowly, as the ceiling drip-dripped, water pooled from under the wall. He turned his head and drank. He sucked cool water through his many rows of teeth, his gill openings, down his throat and felt it start to heal. He tasted remnants of the old slaughterhouse the water had passed through, but even stronger was the taste of lakebed minerals and algae, the traces of fish and other creatures charting routes along the currents, and — it hurt him to admit — at least one Fae creature who’d lived there.

The pistol fired again.

“Buzzy, you won’t believe it, I shot off his hat!”

Buzz released the still-gasping man’s throat and glanced at Leech. Overalls Two was on the floor, crawling backward from Leech.

~

“You’re Russian?”

Leech was fully awake now.

Buzz nodded. Leech frowned.

“Why didn’t ya tell me?”

“Didn’t think it was important,” he said. He really didn’t.

Leech stared at his knees like they had personally wronged him.

“Well I could, I don’t know, get you — tea, or somethin’,” he said. “What do Russians like?”

“Don’t drink tea much, anymore,” he said, because he really didn’t.