"Well..." Hawk eyed the other spear. Then, he started securing the end of its rope to the bow of the boat. "Nothing's saying we can't eatthat."
Silverfin opened his mouth, before closing it again in shock. Eat ashark?Disgusting!
Then again... "There would be a certain satisfaction in eating the thing that ate part of me."
Hawk let out a low and throaty laugh. "Exactly. Now, when it makes the next pass..."
But before Hawk could finish, there was a mighty splash. Yards away the shark's dorsal fin broke the surface, glinting black against the sea-bright waves. Silverfin's hand gripped the spear tighter, but he forced himself to hold back. Even his best throw couldn't reach that distance.
What are you waiting for, so-called Prince of the Sea?The shark's taunt made Silverfin's blood boil. He tried to follow its shape as it disappeared beneath the waves.
Pretty little MerSir all afright
Grabbed a spear ready to fight
You won’t save your biped love
From below or from above
Can’t escape my mighty bite!
"Fucking asshole," Silverfin snarled, wishing he dared yell back but acutely aware that Hawk couldn't hear what shrimp-for-brains was saying. And yet... “Your poetry sucks, too!”
“What did you say?”
Crap. “I said this spear sucks, too.”
"Well, we're going to have to make do."
"I'll do more than make do."
Hearing the shark break the surface behind them, Silverfin whirled - and none too soon. With a mighty jump the shark rushed towards them, jaws gaping. But Silverfin hadn't spent his childhood mastering the great triton hunts to miss his mark now. He drove the spear forward, into the shark's open mouth and up into its skull, its powerful jaws of daggers snappingclosed just shy of Silverfin's hand, splintering the shaft of the spear into pieces.
For a second, elation overwhelmed him, but he remembered that they were supposed to be eating the damn thing. Fortunately, Hawk was at his side before the thrashing shark could sink beneath the waves again, driving his spear deep into the back of the would-be-assassin’s neck. Finally, as the churning water calmed, they carefully drew it back up to the surface and hauled its slippery carcass into the boat with them.
Before Hawk could start for shore, however, Silverfin drew his belt knife. Grabbing hold of the scarred black dorsal fin, he drove his blade deep into the cartilage, sawing until the fin broke free. Then, he sliced the blade across the surface of the fin, deftly carving the glyph that formed his name.
"What on earth are you doing? You can make soup out of that, you know."
"I'm sending a message," Silverfin shot back. "Some things are more important than soup." Shoving his knife in his belt, he drew back his arm and threw the fin out as far into the waves as he could.
Next to him, Hawk shook his head. “Thank God you’re pretty.”
The sun was setting over the water, when Silverfin caught Hank Thompson approaching him out of the corner of his eye. He gave the towering giant a cautious look and was greeted with a sheepish one of Hank’s own, as he lowered himself upon the sand.
“So,” the man spoke.
“So?” Silverfin fidgeted where he sat, wishing his hair was suddenly longer so that he could use it to obscure his eyes better.
“It appears I owe you an apology.”
Now, Silverfin may not have been living among pirates for that long, but he had watched them from afar long enough to know that they didn’t throw these “apologies” around like so many grains of sand.
“I thought you were pretty useless,” Hank continued and Silverfin opened his mouth to point out that he was pretty sure that wasn’t how apologies were supposed to go. “I thought you’d just beguiled the captain with your pert little arse and uncanny set of teeth.” Silverfin closed his mouth, silently bemoaning the lack of advances in biped dentistry. “But you’re more than meets the eye, Silver, I’ll give you that. And I haven’t forgotten that I owe you a great debt of gratitude.”
“Um...” Silverfin supposed this was the time he was expected to accept this bizarre apology. “So, you thought I beguiled the captain?” he asked weakly, instead.
Hank laughed and shrugged his wide shoulders. “Evidently. He’s pretty gone on you.”
