“So this is how it is”, he said,
holding his paws out in front of him as he stared out over the
endless purple waves. “This is what's been clawing at the back of
my mind.”
“Do you remember now?” The spotted
cat asked him.
“It's fuzzy” he said, rubbing his
head with his paw. “Are you okay?”
“I will be”, she said, twisting her
arm a little bit. The sling they had made for her had vanished when
she turned into a cat, and the bones appeared to have mended
themselves. “I'm so glad we're finally all back together again.”
He looked around the ship. Besides the
ones who had taken him back to the ship, there were other, distantly
familiar faces. They stretched and staggered about, as if awakening
from a long slumber.
“You should go and say hi to
everyone”. she said, gesturing to two of the other cats he had met
earlier with her other paw. “It might help you remember.”
“I'm sorry”, the brown cat said to
the grey one, “I shouldn't have doubted you.”
“I'm sorry too”, he said. “I
know that place meant a lot to you, and we never got to see it
together.”
“In the end, I guess you were right”,
she said, sadly. “Going together in the morning really was
dangerous. We barely made it back from that one. After today, I
can't imagine you'd ever want to do that again.”
“Don't say that”, he said, putting
his paw under her chin and lifting it up. “Even if I had to endure
a thousand days like today, I wouldn't leave you again. And someday,
we'll find that place again. In happier times, I know it.”
“Oh Pack”. She wrapped her paws
around him and squeezed him, a tear running down the side of her
fuzzy face.
“What's wrong?” he asked,
good-naturedly.
She shook her head and smiled slightly.
“...There are still a lot of things I need to tell you about.”
He nuzzled her. “Shall we go to my
cabin this time? Or would you prefer to go back to yours?”
“Surprise me”, she said, burying
her head in his chest, “I'm sure you won't let me down.”
Corsair didn't want to interrupt, so he
waited until they noticed him. It gave him time to try to put his
memories back together.
“You must be... Lapse”, he said,
finally. “And Pack, my old friend.”
“Corsair”, he said, shaking his
paw, “welcome back.”
“I can see a lot has happened while I
was away”, he said, looking at Lapse. “I'm so glad you two
finally found each other again. You're meant to be together, I can
tell.”
“Thanks”, she said, hugging him.
“we never really got to know each other, but I'm glad you came
back. There's a lot of people here who really missed you.”
“He never gave up on you, you know”,
Corsair told her. “All the time you were gone, he kept searching
for a way to bring you back.”
“She never gave up on you, either”,
she said, leaning in and whispering into his ear. He glanced back to
where the spotted cat had been, but she had gone away somewhere.
On the other side of the ship, the
white and black cats stood outlined against the starry sky.
“I was really surprised to learn that
you're one of us”, she said to him. “And even more surprised when
you came to ask for my help.”
“I suppose I realized that there are
some things that I cannot do on my own”, he said, not really
looking at her.
“You should visit more often, you
don't have to be alone all the time.” She put her paw on his face,
and walked in a circle around him, stroking him with her fluffy tail:
“You did a number on Lace, you know, she came dashing in to tell me
that the man of her dreams was back and he needed our help. I'm sure
she'd love to keep you company some time.”
“I'm afraid not,” he said,
unamused. “I still have a lot work to do.”
She wrapped her paws around him and and
kissed him on the cheek. “Well, that's thanks for all the help you
gave us.”
He said nothing, but for a moment, his
eyes betrayed the slightest hint of surprise. She saw it and smiled
at him. “Don't be a stranger, now”, she said, puffing her cheek
and waggling her tail the way she always did.
“Poor guy”, Corsair chuckled as the
black-furred one turned to look out over the sea.
“I heard you came to help us.” he
said, standing beside him. “Thanks for looking out for Sister and
the others while I was gone.”
“I was worried that my words might
have brought about disaster”, he said, still looking out over the
ocean.
“Well, everything turned out all
right in the end. All's well that ends well, right?”
“I wonder... Can things ever truly
go back the way they were?”
“You know something, don't you?”
He looked at him inquisitively. “I'd like to hear your story,
Karma.”
“Perhaps someday, if it becomes a
story worth telling, but there is much to do before then. Besides, I
think you have more important people to speak to tonight.”
“I won't forget”, he said, leaving
Karma to his thoughts.
“Lay...”
She turned to look at him but did not
speak. As he looked into the white cat's green eyes, a mixture of
happy and painful memories overwhelmed him, and he could not speak,
the words caught in his chest.
“About that night”, she started to
say, “it doesn't matter-”, but he took her by surprise, throwing
his arms around her and sealing her lips with a kiss. Her surprise
quickly melted away to contentment as she wrapped her arms around him
and returned it with a fierce desire she thought was gone from her.
“I'm so sorry I misunderstood your
feelings.” he said, after their lips finally parted. “I never
wanted to hurt you, truly, I didn't. I don't know if we can go back
to how things were, but I couldn't bear to leave things like that.”
He leaned in closer, their noses touching, and stared straight into
her eyes, which were as wide as they could go. “I should have told
you I loved you that night, but I didn't understand.”
She shook her head and backed away a
little. “This is wrong. It's Sister you should be with...”
But she was a bad girl, and her
conviction completely broke down as she gazed into his loving eyes.
“Curse my traitorous heart”, she thought as she gave in to her
desires and kissed him again, furious with herself but loving every
second of it.
“Cross!”, he said, spotting an old
friend. “I'm so glad to see you are still here with us.”
“What happened to us?” asked the
black and white-coloured cat, placing a paw to his head.
“Actually, I was going to ask you if
you knew”, he said, a little concerned. “So you don't remember
anything?”
“I feel... as if I have been waiting
for a long time, but for what I couldn't say.”
“That's my fault”, he said, his
head dipped. “I didn't come back to the ship. Perhaps you were
waiting for me all this time.”
“I don't know.” He said, closing
his eyes and trying to concentrate. “Something has changed. For
the first time, I feel... lost. I don't know what I'm supposed to do
now. A fine situation for a navigator to be in, wouldn't you say?”
“What is it that you want to do?”
He thought for a while. “I want to
know more. I realize now that there is more to us than we ever
imagined. I want to find out who I truly am.”
“Then maybe you need to start
following your own path rather than mine.”
He shook his head. “I'm sure that if
we follow you, you'll take us on adventures unlike anything we've
ever known. This time, I will not hesitate to see where they lead.”
“I'll do my best to become a captain
worthy of your trust, but until that day comes, I hope you will not
hesitate to offer your advice when it is needed.”
“Of course” he nodded. “If you
want my advice right now, I think you should see how Sabre is doing.
She was there with you as well, wasn't she?”
“Yes, I believe so, and I haven't
seen her since we came back. I hope she's all right.”
He climbed the stairs to the rear of
the ship, hoping to spot Sabre. Suddenly, something landed on the
ground in front of him with a clacking sound. He looked down to see
a wooden practice sword at his feet.
“We have some unfinished business”,
she said, dropping down from the sail above.
“What are you-” he started, but she
was already charging at him, her sword drawn.
Corsair quickly grabbed for the sword
and thrust it above his head as she leapt at him, but he lost his
balance and fell on his backside. He scrambled to get away as she
swiped at him and just barely missed his back leg. He got back on
his feet just in front of the back railing and turned to see her
charging at him, he quickly swayed to the right to avoid her thrust,
then returned a horizontal slash of his own that was easily blocked.
She pushed his sword arm away and made a quick chopping attack for
his head, but he ducked out of the way and she struck the railing
instead with a loud crack. Seizing his opportunity, he swept his
sword at her legs, but she jumped and landed on the flat of his
sword, pulling it out of his paws. As he struggled to regain his
footing, she chopped downwards with her sword, but he caught her paws
before it reached him, and kicked out her leg while she was caught
off guard. The sword fell from her paws and she tumbled down on top
of him. He reached for the sword but she quickly stamped her paw
down on his arm, pinning it to the deck. He tried to reach for her
with his other paw but she was too quick for him and caught it before
he could reach her.
“I win”, she said, kneeling on top
of him and pinning him to the ground. Beaten, he stopped struggling
against her and waited for her to let him go, but instead, she
brought her face in close so she could look right into his eyes.
“Now, promise you'll never leave me behind again”, she whispered,
in a softer, more vulnerable tone of voice than he had ever heard
from her.
“I promise”, he said, wrapping his
arms around her. “We're a team, you and I.”
Her strong green eyes lit up and a warm
smile graced her lips. She placed her paws on his chest and snuggled
up to him, letting her feelings show just this once. “You'd better
not forget...”
He made a quick trip around the dock to
make sure the rest of his crew was all right. His memories of his
life here and the events leading up to when he went away were
clearing up, and with that came a painful feeling of remorse
surrounding the one person he had yet to speak to. She was standing
there, patiently waiting for him, as she had been for a long time,
and the more he thought about it the more he found himself at a loss
for words.
“Has it all come back to you now?”
she asked kindly, with no trace of bitterness in her voice.
“I don't know what I can say to you”,
he said, stricken with guilt. “You needed me, and I abandoned
you.”
She looked down at her feet. “It's
okay, I understand now that you were just trying to help.”
“But you were right. In the end, it
was up to us to solve our own problems, not the strangers. I should
have listened to you.”
“Maybe not”, she said, shaking her
head and moving closer to him. “Who knows if I ever would have
figured things out if I hadn't gone through that.” She wrapped her
arms around him. “You're safe now, that's all the matters”.
“You really are too kind” he said,
surprised and humbled. “I don't feel right just leaving it at
that.”
She looked up at him with her innocent
blue eyes. “Well, if you really want to make me happy, you could
dance with me.”
“But there's no music.” He said,
returning her gaze.
As soon as he finished speaking, Lapse
stepped forward and everyone fell silent. She closed her eyes for a
moment, then she began to sing a lonely, hopeful melody that fell
over the ship like a spell. He offered her his right paw, she took
it, and all eyes were on the two of them as they danced along with
the words.
“The day is long and hard,
And the night is dark and cold.
Dreaming of another life,
Waking with the one I've got.
Putting on a different face,
Trying not to lose myself.
Precious things drift away,
Standing there I watch them go.
But as long as you stand by my side,
I won't fear the night or day.
Together we can find our light,
And never fear what lies beyond.”
As the song came to a close, he kissed
her gently on the nose and lifted her chin up so her eyes met his.
“I hope that can make up a little of what I owe to you.”
She sighed contentedly. “There's
just one thing I want to know: Was what you found out there better
than what you have here?”
He thought about it for a moment. “To
be honest, I don't know. I'm still not quite sure just what happened
out there, or how I've changed since I came back.” He took a
moment to look over his ship, where the smiling faces of all of his
friends stared back at him. “...But the one thing I do know is
that this is where I belong.”
She snuggled up to him and buried her
head in his chest. “I'm so glad to have you back, Corsair.”
---
And so eventually they said their
farewells and went their separate ways. Karma was anxious to to get
back to whatever it was he was doing, and Pack and Lapse seemed eager
to have some time to themselves. As for Corsair, he set the course
for his ship to whatever came to mind and gave his crew the night
off, then he retired to his cabin to write down whatever hazy details
of his absence remained in his mind. As he leafed through the pages
to find the next blank one, he read over some of his previous entries
laughed at how clueless he had been back then. He came to the entry
he had made about Steven and smiled, remembering how happy they had
been to find him. The entries after that were filled with wild
theories and plans, and he felt a little sad as he glanced over them,
thinking about how things had turned out. He finally came to the
last page and nearly dropped the book on the floor:
“Corsair,
I found Steven again.
He found Michelle, she made it back,
and they forgave each other. He had changed a lot, but they were
still together, and they seemed very happy. More than anything,
though, they both wanted to thank you. They never forgot what you
did for them, so I thought I'd write this down for you so you'd never
forget:
Thank you for everything, Corsair.
You were right, we really did do
something great that night.”
A tear rolled down his cheek and onto
the page. He looked at the blank page, then put the book away, no
longer having anything to write. He leaned back in his chair and
closed his eyes, feeling at peace with everything.
Then there was a soft knocking at his
door. “Come in”, he said, barely lifting his head.
“I thought you'd come”, he said,
gazing warmly at the figure who entered his cabin.
“Shhhh”, she nodded, raising a paw
to her mouth. She walked over to his desk, blew out his lantern,
wrapped her paws around him, and climbed onto his lap, and they said
nothing more for the rest of the night.



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