Mermay Day 11: Stowaway

Day 11: Stowaway

For @amonthofwhump‘s Water Whump May, where I write a part of this story every day according to the prompt. You know what, I’m gonna tell you guys that I tried to make room for a fluffy comf chapter, okay? But, uh, Llyr just wanted to rebellious and got himself into this mess. It’s not my fault I promise.

Tag list: @spiffythespook, @castielamigos-whump-side-blog, @insanitywishes, and @whumpingonarainyday

Content warnings: mild head injury/nausea. mild spoiler-ish things too so check the tags if you want to be extra careful but they should be fine.

The boat hit ground, skidded up on it, and smashed into a million pieces.

Llyr screamed in terror as he was thrown to the side, spinning and rolling over sand, arms wrapped tightly around himself until he finally skidded to a halt, half buried in the sludge of wet sand. The world spun around him, nothing in its place and a terrible pain shooting through his skull. He was dizzy and disoriented, but he clawed and crawled out from where he’d been flung, knowing he couldn’t stay half buried like that.

His right shoulder throbbed, but somehow hadn’t come back out of place during the whole ordeal. Clutching it, he tried to get to his knees and scan the rest of the area for Hugh and Ray.

By a wall, he could see the splintered remains of the little boat half buried in the sand and scattered throughout the area, sticking out of the ground, but he couldn’t see where either of the other humans had ended up.

Further from them along the same outcropping, he could’ve sworn he spotted some kind of ship, a large structure jutting out against the sand, but it was too dark to tell.

“Hello?!” Llyr called out, “Ray? Are you… did you…?” 

He stumbled as he climbed to his feet, waiting and thinking for a moment. Why was he crying out for help, anyway? Hugh was still with them, which was an immediate danger to him. Ray was… he didn’t want to trust Ray. But it was there too, if neither of them had died in the impact.

Llyr really didn’t need them anymore now that his shoulder was back in place. His cloak may have still been torn, but he could see on the edges of the hole where it was healing and mending itself, even if it was slowly. And it wasn’t like the pirates would help him anymore without the ship. Who knew if the ship would even find them with how off course they’d ended up... He would hide out, find food on his own, and survive. No use trying to trust anyone anymore. 

Unsteady, sore feet carried him across the beach with slow steps, trudging carefully through the puddles and sand at his feet, strong waves washing up further down the beach and surging up to pull at his feet. It was honestly a wonder he hadn’t cut or broken anything. His head was throbbing and it had definitely been hit too hard, but this was far better than it could have been. 

As he stumbled through the rain, he raised his eyes again to that structure he’d spotted to see it looming much higher over him now that he was closer, and it did indeed look like a shipwreck. The front part of it seemed to have broken off and was nowhere to be seen, leaving some of the bottom parts open but intact. Llyr couldn’t tell just how stable it was in the low light, but at that point anything would have been better than standing out in the rain. Cautiously, he stepped into an open portion that may have been a room before it was destroyed. There were wooden planks on the ground, poking up from the sand with sharp cracked ends, but he could see complete floorboards further down in the sand flooded room.

It was hard to maneuver in the dark, and he nearly impaled his foot a number of times, but eventually made it to the floor and to the wall. A door there already swung open to the more intact belly of the ship, but it was pitch black inside. It was relatively warmer within, and the cloak around his shoulders helped a little too, but if he could find leftover resources there might be other dry clothes he could change into.

Feeling his way along the walls, he eventually made it to a flight of stairs and climbed carefully up to another room. It was just as dark in there, except for the light emanating from somewhere down a hallway. That was strange, but perhaps light meant a recently abandoned ship and potentially useful things left behind in a hurry.

Not even pausing to consider the other implications of a random light in this darkness, he padded forward until he started to hear soft noises, almost like voices. And they were voices, he realized, when he heard them speaking words he recognized.

“...one outside?”

“Yeah… creaking out there…”

“How about you… to check it out.”

When a door opened just meters away and light spilled out upon him, Llyr finally realized that he should run. So that’s what he did.

“Hey, get back here!” He didn’t look back to see the residents sprinting after him, heart still pounding in shock that there were even people in there. The ship had looked abandoned; there shouldn’t have been more humans to deal with!

“Take the other side!” someone shouted down the other way, and he just kept running and running, heedless of how far he’d gone back into the darkness until the floor wasn’t there anymore and he’d jumped off the top stair.

Panic came too late as he fell, legs crumpling when he hit the wrong angle, rolling and thumping down them until someone caught him at the bottom of the stairs, scooping up his body from the floor and holding him tight against its chest. Llyr thrashed and screamed but other hands took hold of his legs and arms, pulling outwards and suspending him in the air.

“Let me go! Let- hey!” He couldn’t readjust his weight in midair to stop the incessant tug on his shoulders, nearly screaming with the pressure and fear that both of them would come out this time. Thankfully, he was lowered closer to the ground where the hands held him on this back while someone else stepped around him, the only indicator of where it was being the vibration of floorboards around Llyr’s body.

“Who are you? Who sent you here, huh? And so you know, if you’re another lousy pirate here to steal from the king, you are gonna regret ever messing with me,” it said, a deep, chilling voice in the darkness. 

“I’m not, I promise I’m not I- I just- It looked dry in here and-” “Oh, I got it then. You’re just some poor, desperate, lonely fool trying to stow away on my ship. Is that right?” There was silence except for Llyr’s squirming and fruitless efforts to break free. Someone descended the stairs with a lantern, and he strained to see in the low light. “Right. And that means if I find anyone else remotely near this ship looking for a scraggly, lost whelp like yourself… well, I might just have to kill you for lying to me.”

At that moment, he heard shouting from the other end of the ship, and he knew it had to be Ray’s voice. Llyr closed his eyes and unbidden tears slipped out, hot and frustrated and frightened as they slid down his face.

“Sounds like you have a visitor! Oh, and just in time too; I was so close to believing your little white lie,” it said, but its tone contradicted its words. “Come on, get up and come greet them with me. It’s been too long since I’ve had some proper fun.”

Yes! We’re moving along to number 11 of @amonthofwhump‘s May challenge. We’re gonna get the Captain involved just a bit more now. Here we go.

Content Warning: Just some more manhandling and a good bit of general rough housing I guess.

- - -

“I said look me in the eye, boy.” 

Fish raised his head to look at the captain. 

“What are you?” 

“I’m human.” He stated.

The captain gripped the boy under the chin and turned his head, as if inspecting him, looking for gills, or markings of any kind. He leaned closer into the boys ear, speaking low. 

“No mere human could do what you’ve done. What. Are you?” 

Fish shook his head ever so slightly in the large man’s grasp. He couldn’t say. He wouldn’t, he had to protect them, he knew that. They’d been a secret for far too long. He hissed back a cry as the captain slapped him across the face. 

“Where did you come from?” He barked.

That, the boy could answer. He choked out through tears, “San- Santa Barbara. California.” At least that was the truth.

The captain didn’t look pleased. “Don’t lie to me boy!” 

He pulled Fish from Sweeney’s grasp and threw him to the ground, the boy skittered backwards as the Captain picked up a shorter length of rope.

“I’ll ask you again.” He cracked the rope against the deck like a whip. The sound made the boy recoil further back, bracing his arms against his face. “What are you!?”

“I told you! I’m just a human, I swear!” 

“I said not to lie to me!” The captain’s voice boomed across the open ocean, crackling like thunder from the previous night. He swung the rope back and smacked him across the shins. It stung, causing Fish to cry out. He scooted further backwards until his back was pressed up against the edge of the ship.

 What kind of human is powerful enough to almost sink a ship?” Another crack of the rope. “Definitely not a scraggly, pathetic stowaway!” He yelled. The rope swung down again, hitting his shoulder.

He mumbled under his breath. “I’m- I’m not-”

“Speak up boy, what was that?” The captain stated. He crouched down in front of Fish, inspecting him, the rope still brandished in his hand. “What did you say.”

“I’m- I’m not a stowaway…” His chest shook with every breath he inhaled. He pulled himself onto shaky legs, using the side of the boat for support. The captain rose with him and the two stared each other in the eyes. “I’m not a stowaway. You dragged me onto your boat. I didn’t ask to be here.”

“You dare speak back to me?! I am the captain of this ship!” His arm pressed up against Fish’s throat, pushing him further backwards against the edge of the boat. “I will throw you off of this boat into that open ocean, and leave you to the sharks.”

Fish almost laughed, his courage rising. He choked back through shaky breaths. “Go ahead. I’ll just sink your ship and take you down with me.” 

The Captain’s free hand curled into a fist, landing a harsh blow to his stomach, and Fish groaned out with the impact, doubling over on himself as the arm was removed from his neck, and he sunk to the floor.

“Listen here Fish.” The captain nudged him with his boot, rolling him over onto his back before planting his foot on top of the boy’s chest. “I don’t know what you are. But I am mighty keen to find out.” He slowly pressed down, the air releasing from Fish’s chest as his back was pushed further into the deck. “But while you’re on this boat, I’m your captain. And you will follow my orders.” He removed his foot from his chest, and kicked Fish sharply in the ribs, causing him to cry out and curl in on himself. The captain bent down on his knees, squatting near the boys side. Fish looked up at him with wet eyes. “You will follow my orders, whether you want to or not.” 

The captain stood up and waved over Alik and Sweeney, who had been watching from a distance. They picked the boy up, holding him tight as he struggled and protested, awaiting the Captain’s orders.

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: MacGyver (TV 2016) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016), Jack Dalton (MacGyver TV 2016) Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Sickness, Alternate Universe - Historical, Boats and Ships, ww-no.11, water whump 2020 Series: Part 11 of May whump 2020 Summary: