The Seaworthy Scavs of the S.S. Firehead (CH 6) [OOPS]

All Characters and setting were inspired by the Out of Placers webcomic (OOPS) and world created by Valsalia
http://www.valsalia.com/comic/out-of-placers/oops-35-2/
http://www.furaffinity.net/user/valsalia/
https://www.patreon.com/valsalia
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The Seaworthy Scavs of the S.S. Firehead (Out of Placers, smut, romance, violence, femdom, pirates, drugs, fanfiction)
by Teether


Chapter 6


>”ow”
“Sorry”
>”OW”
“Sorry” you say for the hundredth time, brush and knife in hand as you cut away and unknot the bloody matted fur from around Freylah’s back wound
>Freylah sits limply naked in a wash bin in front of you as you sit on a small crate behind her, captain’s quarters lit by flickering candlelight
>Freylah barely says a word through the hour-long ordeal, spacing out into the floor in front of her as you work away at the poor creature
>She flinches as you carefully pour water over her wound
>At first you think she’s just exhausted but you can still see the gears turning in the yinglet’s head, deep in thought
>You become worried, knowing that something is consuming the yinglet
>You lift Freylah out of the wash bin and pat her dry before grabbing a comb to straighten out her fur
>She winces at the occasional combed knot when she’s not staring down at the small pile of discarded bloody yinglet fur beside the wash bin
>You finish the last few strokes of the comb before picking Freylah up under the arms and laying her face down on the bed
>You grab a clean cloth from a side table and use it to soak up the blood still slowly oozing from Freylah’s back wound
>You look the wound over, examining the long thin slash going from the back of her left shoulder and down to the upper base of her tail
*Not deep enough to kill but still nasty, she must have gotten out of the way just in time
>You hear Freylah sigh, her head turns sideways, still looking over at the bloody fur pile
>You walk over and put the pile of fur into your bloody cloth and toss it behind the bin, out Freylah’s line of sight
>At that moment the door opens up as Habbick and four other yinglets come into the room carrying clean bandages
>Habbick walks up to you and motions for you to move away from Freylah’s beside
>You quickly obliged, surprised by the mild manneriness in which he treats your presence
*Maybe I am beginning to grow on the grumpy ass, old salt?
>Habbick instructs the yinglets to lick at the wound in Freylah’s back
>They begin lapping away, quickly sealing the thin wound with saliva as the bleeding comes to a stop
>Freylah remains completely indifferent to the entire ordeal, still spacing out into the spot by the wash bin
*Probably not her first time
>After a while, Habbick instructs the yinglets on how to bandage Freylah
>They quickly wrap the long spool of bandages around Freylah’s chest, stomach, back and finally over her left shoulder
>You grab a small length of extra bandages from the closest yinglet and wrap up the still bleeding cut on your right hand
>After everything’s done, Habbick claps his hands and barks for the four yinglets to leave
>The four hop off the bed and skitter out of the room as the three of you are left alone
>Habbick walks over to the side of Freylah’s bed and begins whispering in her ear
>The only words you hear are the last two
>”Stay strong” Habbick finishes as he braces her hand in his
>Freylah wearily nods back while reciprocating “Stay strong”
>Habbick lets go of her hand, taking one weary glance over to you before leaving the room, shutting the door silently behind him
>You stand awkwardly in the quiet room, wondering whether you should leave as well
>You walk towards the door and reach your hand out for the doorknob
>You take a glance back at Freylah, face down, buried in a pillow
>You turn back and walk next to Freylah before grabbing a chair and sitting down beside her
>You sit there for a couple minutes before Freylah lifts her head up from the pillow
>”You’re still here?” says the exhausted yinglet with stress-ringed eyes
“I wouldn’t be a good cabin boy if I left my captain all alone” you say trying to cheer up the hurt yinglet
>”Yeah…” says Freylah spacing out once again
“I know you’re still weak right now but-“
>”Zhat’s ze problem” says Freylah with a tired growl
“What is?”
>”Weakness...” says Freylah, slaming her tiny fists into her pillow
“Huh? I don’t-”
>”I AM WEAK! A WEAK LITTLE SWAMP RAT!” yelled out Freylah
“But Freylah….you just seized another ship….you’re not weak”
>”I nearly got put down wizh a single cut from a sword, if you hadn’t come along I would have died on zhat ship” said Freylah
“What you just did not many humans could even do”
>Freylah huffs, “I wasn’t even able to hold it togezher as zhat fat fuck laughed away at me. When you’re a yinglet it doesn’t matter how strong you are or what you do, your gonna get laughed out of ze room”
“So you’re afraid of being laughed at?”
“No! Zha-zhat’s not ze point, ze point is your always lesser. Now matter how many ships I take or how polished my crew, I’ll always be lower zhan zhe lowest scum” says Freylah flopping forward onto the pillow
>You take Freylah’s hand hanging off the side of the bed in your own, “Hey now, you can’t go stealing my title like that.”
>Freylah looks over at you and cracks a smile, “What?”
”Didn’t you hear the fat man? I am lower than the lowest scum. You really shouldn’t be hanging around the likes of me, I might end up being a bad influence on you”, you say with a smirk
>Freylah lets out a laugh before wincing from the pain, “You zhink too lowly of yourself for a human”
“And you think too lowly of yourself for a yinglet or a captain” you say giving her hand a little squeeze
>Freylah’s smile grows a little more before falling back to a frown
>She sighs, “You know what Habbick told me?”
>You were going to ask earlier but didn’t feel it right for the time, “What?”
>”He told me zhat we ended up losing over a quarter of our crew…..No “captain” should ever accept zhat”
“But you won…You fought hard-“
>”Zhat doesn’t make it ok. I walk zhis vessel every damn day. I know zhis crew inside and out. And now a quarter of zhem gone. Poof. Just like zhat.”
“Their deaths don’t ride on your shoulders, it’s not your burden to bear”
>”Zhat’s easy to say Fetu, but zhey do weigh on me. I commanded zhem to zheir deazhs, zhey are my responsibility. Just because zhey’re yinglets doesn’t make zheir deazhs insignificant Fetu ”
>You remain silent not knowing what to say
*Nothing…..she’s right…….
>You let go of Freylah’s hand and walk over to her desk
>You pull out her pipe and pack it
>You go back to the chair beside the bed as you light the pipe off a candle on a side table
>You’ve never smoked anything in your entire life
>You inhale, trying to light the pipe for Freylah
>You pull the pipe out of your mouth and cough a giant cloud of smoke out into the room
>You heave and hack wildly as the smoke burns the inside of your throat
>You hand the lit pipe off to Freylah as you continue to try not to throw up
>Freylah takes the pipe and draws a deep pull before blowing a series of rings over to you
>”Zhank you Fetu” you hear her say before drawing another drag
>You thump your chest a couple times, trying to bring your spasming lungs under control
>Freylah’s face visibly relaxes as she stares at you and puffs away
>”Hey Fetu” says Freylah in a smooth tone
”Yeah?” you cough out
>”Sorry for snapping at you earlier zhis morning…..It’s just zhat….I like to keep my personal stuff a secret…understand?” says Freylah
“Yeah….but…..fuck..sorry..….why?” you say still struggling to keep your composure
>”I guess…..I guess I am afraid zhat zhe more people know about me. Zhe less seriously zhey’ll take me. Zhe less zhey’ll see me as a leader. Also, zhe more you put out zhere ze more people can harm you, right? If you keep it all inside, no one gets hurt but yourself” says Freylah nervously as she rolls the corner of her pillow through her fingers
>Your regain your composure as you look at Freylah with renewed worry, “Am I the first person you’ve every talked to about this?”
>Freylah grows visibly uncomfortable
“Not even Habbick?”
>Freylah lets out a sarcastic chuckle, “Habbick’s not really ze emotional type”
“Not even for his own daughter?”
>Freylah gives you a confused look, “Wait? What?”
“So your not his daughter?”
>”I mean…not technically no” says Freylah, “But he did raise me”
“I am all ears” you say leaning forward
>Freylah takes another drag before sighing and continuing, “Well….I guess. Promise to keep our chats just between the two of us?”
“I promise” you say, marking an X over your heart
>”Well…might as well start wizh Habbick. He….he didn’t have a very good life” said Freylah blowing out a spiraling cloud of smoke
>You were about to make a snarky quip about Habbick but quickly feel like the comment would be infinitely tasteless
>”I don’t know his exact origins but what I did manage to get from him was very sparing in details. As far as he told me, he doesn’t know his mother or fazher
“Damn…..how do you not know your own mother or father?”
>“It is common for yinglets”  Said Freylah  with a shrug and a flat look
>“His earliest memories were of him as a little pup fighting for some scrap of food in ze Valsailian markets.  Move forward about a year or so and a wealzhy street merchant took pity on him and brought him in off ze streets.
“So Habbick was a house yinglet? How was that?”
Zhe only zhing Habbick will tell me is zhat ze merchant was abusive and mental.”
“Damn…I am guessing the streets weren’t much better to him. I am guessing he couldn’t just leave?” you say running a hand over your neck already knowing the answer
>”No. He was pretty much skin and bones at zhat point. He’d starve to death or be killed if he got kicked out. Not like he had much of a choice. Zhe merchant soon drank himself to deazh and Habbick moved into anozher two households over the proceeding years, both unstable or abusive.”
“He never saw the end of it. Guess that explains the bitterness towards humans”
>”Yeah, and in some way I feel like he deserves his angry, no one should be treated like zhat, but life’s different when you’re a yinglet. Life makes short work of you if you aren’t willing to fight back.”
“Sounds pretty eat or be eaten……sounds sad” you say looking at the floor
>”Well if it wasn’t for his hardass tenacity I probably wouldn’t be here. One evening while running an errand for his last owners he came upon me”
“What? Just like in the street? Alone?”
>Freylah nods, “I was just a little puff ball at zhat point, left behind in some alleyway as a couple stray dogs were about to make me zheir lunch”
“But…where were your parents?” you say naively
>Freylah shrugs, “Its not uncommon for pups birzhed outside an enclave to be left to fend for zhemselves or for parents to trip up and lose a couple. I don’t blame my parents. How can I blame zhem when I don’t even know who zhey are?”
“That’s still fucked up” you say getting up and grabbing a jug of wine from Freylah’s desk with two cups
>Freylah shrugs again and takes another drag, ”Death is a much more common reality for yinglets zhan humans. Making it to adulthood is practically a miracle bestowed by zhe gods”
“So what did Habbick do? Fight off all the dogs by himself?”  You say filling the cups and giving one to Freylah
>Freylah takes a heavy gulp from her cup while nodding, “Yup, he fought zhem off but not before zhey tore into his flesh and ripped out his eye”
“So that’s what happened to his eye?” you say disappointed, hoping for a more pirate-y backstory to the wound
>”Yeah, he was a bloody mess, but he still managed to scoop me up and bring me home to his families’ household” said Freylah as sadness began to etch into her face
>The room grows silent before you break it with a sip from your cup
>Freylah blinks and finishes off her cup, “His master was furious at him, pissed at missing ze errand and even more so, bringing home a stray yinglet pup.  Despite being a bloody mess, his owners beat him before giving him any treatment. “
“How can they just do that to someone? How can someone just do that to a person?” you say looking down at the reflection of yourself in your wine
>Freylah lets out a short shocked laugh, “’People?’ Fetu? How did a big softy like you make it zhis far? Yinglets are considered a pest, not a ‘people’”
“You don’t find that even the least bit sad?” you huff while glaring at the captain
>Freylah glares back, “I don’t like it… but zhat’s just who we are. Its what ze ozher species have declared us to be”
“I don’t see a pest in front of me, I see a captain”
>Freylah’s eyes grow wide before blushing, looking down into her empty cup “Fetu….”
>You can’t think of a comment, instead you take another swig from your cup
>Freylah pats the large empty space of bed to the right of her
>You walk over and sit down at the foot of Freylah’s bed, taking the final swig from your cup and placing it down on the foot side trunk, “Please continue”
>Freylah sighs before placing her empty cup on the end table while trying to regain her thoughts, ”Habbick’s owners were going to toss me out to the streets but he came to my rescue once again. He ripped me from his owner’s arms and ran from ze household never to return. He spent the next couple years raising me on the streets better zhan if I was his own daughter.”
“How did you two survive?” you say as you lay down on the bed next to Freylah on your right
>”Barely. Spent most of our days fending for scraps and squabbling over territory with ozher yinglets. We had many close calls on a daily basis.”
>You think back to all the times you were begging in the street for coin when fishing was at its lowest side by side with yinglets doing the same right next to you
>Some you fought with, others though…. you could honestly call them friends
>You put your right hand on Freylah’s right shoulder; you can feel her flinch at your touch
>You retract the hand, “I am sorry, that’s insane to have to be brought up in that”
>”It was my drive to get away from zhat anarchy zhat made me who I am today. In one way it was hell, zhe other, a teacher” says Freylah reaching out and putting a hand on your arm
“And what about the ship? What made Freylah become the most feared pirate in all the oceans?” you say playfully
>Freylah spaces out once again, “Zhat’s a story for anozher day….”
“That’s what you said last time” you whine with disappointment
>Freylah knocks the ash from her pipe and lays it on the side table, “One cold night me and Habbick were huddling for warmzh underneazh a dirty old blanket we managed to barely steal from a market stall. We’d gone days since our last meal, shivering as ze temperature plummeted, ze breeze smelling of nothing. We tried begging but no one acknowledged us. Zhat was until zhese six young men walk by. Zhey were handsome, covered head to toe wizh ze finest fur coats and clozh, chatting amongst zhemselves. Zhey carried wizh zhem a bundle with fruits and food. Zhey asked us to preform tricks for zheir entertainment. Neizher of us was in any physical shape to put on much of a performance but we did ze best we could in ze frostbitten weazher. Zhe men didn’t seem impressed and refused to give us any food. We begged and begged until one of ze men agreed to give us an apple. Just as I was reaching my hand out to grab it he zhrew it on zhe ground and crushed it wizh his boot. I still remember ze crunching sound of zhat perfectly ripe apple being smashed to pieces by a dirty boot. Zhey quickly went away laughing while Habbick hungrily scooped up ze apple from ze ground. He tried handing ze pieces off to me as he tried to console me. I don’t remember a single zhing zhat he told me, ze only zhing running zhrough my head was images of revenge. Zhis wasn’t the first time something like zhis had happened but in my mind state I could only see red. Against Habbick’s protests, I left him behind and quickly skittered after ze zhree men. In ze frozen air wizh nozhing but ze rags on my back and a homemade shiv I followed zhem. Zhey continued to laugh a joke all ze way through the dark, cold streets down to the Valsalian ports. Zhey walked aboard a giant military ship dubbed ze S.S. Persuasion . Zhese men had enough money to purchase a military ship and live in it like it was their own personal island. Whoever zhey were, zhey were most likely zhe sons of local merchants or merchants zhemselves. All in all, none of zhat matters anymore. I snuck aboard and hung around in ze rafters. Watching zhem all celebrate around a long table in the hull. Zhey all got rip roaring drunk as zheir table overflowed with food. It was hard to resist jumping down on the middle of zhat table and tearing into ze first thing I got my hands on but I resisted. Stomach growling and muscles aching I watched each man eat his fill and zhen drunkenly pass out one by one. I waited a good while before descending ze rafters. I climbed up onto the first man’s lap and quickly slit his zhroat. I zhought I was real clever, so sneaky. Truzh was I had never killed a man in my life. Ze most I knew of killing was watching ze butchers killing pigs in ze market. Ze man awoke, blood pouring down onto his chest as he tried to scream. I Quickly jumped to ze second and zhird and slit zheir zhroats as well. By zhat time all the men had woken up and tried zheir best to fight me in zheir drunken state. Zhey almost had me a couple times but I was faster and more determined zhen zhem. Eventually, ze ozher zhree men fell, zheir throats cut, stab wounds everywhere else I could reach. Standing among ze six bodies I felt like a goddess among ze world of mortals. I raised my fists up and gave ze most victorious scream I could produce. But even in the large hall my voice came up small and moot. Once my tiny echoes died off and I was left in silence, cold-blooded reality quickly settled back in. Scared at what I had done, I broke down and began sobbing. I sat trembling at ze long table of goods I was willing to kill for a second ago, now unable to eat. I cried and cried for what felt like hours before I felt a hand on my back. It was Habbick. Turns out he had followed me and seen the whole zhing. Overwhelmed with pride at what I had done, He picked a long knife off of ze table and proceeded to cut ze right ears off each of ze men. He laid down the cut right ears of the six men in front of me and told me to take zhem as trophies for what I had done. Very few yinglets have ever been strong enough to take down one human let alone six, even if zhey were incredible drunk. I felt my worries subside, replaced with pride. Overnight, we unhitched the ship, gave it a new name and sailed out into ze night. For a while, it was just ze two of us wizh more food zhen we could ever dream of, but it didn’t take long for us to realize we’d never make it without a crew. Now we routinely sail to the various enclaves to pick up new recruits. It’s amazing how many enclaves have an “excess of males”. All the pirating came later out of necessity to fuel ze crew and one zhing led to anozher and here I am today.”
“So how did the two of you decide who was going to be captain?”
>”Habbick volunteered me and I accepted wizhout really knowing how much more difficult my life was about to become.”
“Do you ever wish you never ‘found’ the Firehead?” you say already knowing full well the answer
>”Hah! And go back to living on ze streets of Valsalia? Never. Zhis life might be hard but at least out here I am somezhing” says Freylah looking down at her hands, “Even if zhat ‘something’ is still some lowly swamp rat”
“Your not a swamp rat….Your Lady Freylah, Captain of the S.S. Firehead. A women amongst women”
>Freylah blushes again as she tries to pull herself up onto your chest
>”You know Fetu, for being a peasant fisherman you sure know what to say to woman. So what am I? A scav or a lady?”
>You grab the struggling yinglet and pull her up onto your chest as you give her a kiss
“Both, and I wouldn’t have it any other way”