LAVA CAT CRUISE SHIP
Chapter 8
Happy Friday!
I missed last week, I know - I KNOW! But to make it up to you, we’re doing a double drop of Lava Cat Cruise Ship. Chapter eight and nine coming at you in rapid succession.
Happy reading!
Me-OW!
CHAPTER EIGHT
The infirmary was little more than a shoe box.
Celia stood just outside the door of the bustling little office, medics and crew members coming and going in a flurry of activity. The boy called Eidon and his little friend Franklin stood with her, none of them knowing exactly what they should be doing. But he was here. Celia knew that much. The man from the Hydra was somewhere inside the door. That was the reason for all the commotion. Was he awake? Was he speaking? Her heart began to race, wondering what he might say if she could ask him the questions that were on her mind -- what exactly happened on your ship? And most importantly, how did you survive it?
"You shouldn't be here." A stern-faced woman stood behind them, hands on her hips. Her uniform was pristine -- crisp white collared shirt with gold-striped black shoulder patches, the Silver Queen's insignia over the breast -- but her disheveled pony tail betrayed the uncertainty that hummed through the crew. She was frightened. They all were. You could smell it just beneath the stench of sulfur.
Celia felt a tug at her elbow as Eidon pulled her forward. "We've got an injury," he announced, and looked at her.
Celia hesitated, feeling the dull pulse of pain in her palms.
"Go on," said Eidon. "Show her."
Reluctantly, Celia turned open her hands, revealing the gnarled, red lines where the cable had cut in.
The woman frowned, appraising the injury. And then her eyes widened, recognition lighting up her eyes. "You're that circus performer," she said. "You're the one who jumped onto the rescue boat!"
Heads of the other crew members turned in their direction and Celia took a step back. Surely they'd pull out the handcuffs now.
The woman's eyes narrowed. "That was an incredibly stupid stunt you pulled, you know that?"
Celia said nothing. It was plain enough the woman expected Celia to agree with her. And Celia did not agree. She lifted her chin defiantly, staring right back.
It was Eidon who broke the silence. "Are you going to help her or what?"
The woman frowned, trying to decide.
Another crew member, a young medic, appeared in the doorway, nearly bumping into Franklin. "What's all this then?" His eyes darted from one to the other before landing on Celia and her torn up palms. "God, what happened to you?" He waved her forward. "Let's get that taken care of, come on."
Before Celia could say anything, the man ushered her into the tiny office, guiding her around the tightly packed crowd of people milling about a draped curtain.
"I said, stand back!" the stern-faced woman growled behind her.
"No! Wait! Celia!"
Celia turned back to see Eidon and Franklin, the stern-faced woman blocking them from entering the door.
"Those are my friends," Celia told the medic.
He thought a moment before finally waving, "Let them through." He lead Celia, Eidon and Franklin to the back of the small infirmary, where a gurney and two chairs were waiting for them. The draped curtain took up most of the middle of the office, and through a narrow slit Celia caught glimpses of another bed just inside, the blood-crusted head of the man from the Hydra laying on top.
"Take a seat," the medic said, patting the gurney. Celia did as she was told and he went to work cleaning her wounds. Eidon and Franklin stood pressed up against the wall as other people came and went, pulling tools and bandages and God knew what else out of drawers that lined the other side of the room.
From her seat she could see the slight part in the curtain, and she strained her neck, desperate to see the man from the Hydra. Was he moving?
"Is he talking?" A deep booming voice overwhelmed the din of noise in the infirmary, and all other conversations fell quiet as the captain stepped through the door. He was so tall, an imposing figure who nearly had to duck to get through the doorway. His face was grim, the stress of the Silver Queen's circumstances written in the lines and wrinkles. And still, Celia realized, he didn't yet know just how bad it really was.
Celia watched as Eidon straightened, but the captain hadn't noticed them. He was focused on the curtain.
"He's just coming around now, sir," said a man who looked to be the Silver Queen's doctor.
Eidon took a step forward. "Dad."
The captain's head snapped towards them and Celia was struck by the darkness of his eyes- deep brown wells that looked so much like Eidon's. "Son," he said, his voice a deep rumble. "What are you doing here? I told you to go back to go back to the rooms."
Eidon's shoulder's slumped, his mouth opening and closing like a netted fish gasping for breath. He glanced nervously at Celia and his father didn't miss it. The captain's dark eyes landed on her and she felt their burn as sure as she felt the sticky heat of the boiling ocean. "You're the girl who jumped onto the cables," he said.
Celia nodded.
The Captain did too. "That was an impressive feat. You're very brave."
Celia was surprised. She was expecting a lecture. A punishment. But here was praise, from the captain of all people.
"How are your hands?" he asked.
"They'll heal," said the medic, winding gauze around her palms.
The captain pressed his lips together, satisfied, before turning back to his son. "I specifically told you to take Franklin back to his-"
"I tried!" said Eidon. "The Howards aren't there, Dad."
"They're missing," the little boy sniffled.
Eidon's father let that sink in for a minute, and Celia could see his mind working through the different scenarios. "I'm sure they're fine," the captain said at last. "Many of the guest have gone back to rooms that aren't their own. Probably enjoying a drink with friends while we sort out the situation here."
"What is the situation here?" Celia asked.
The captain turned back to her, deciding how best to answer. "We're working to figure that out, Miss...."
"Celia," she said.
"Celia," the captain repeated. "My whole crew, as you can see, is working very hard to get to the bottom of the trouble right now. The unusual weather seems to have caused some problems with the engine but we are working through the issue."
"That's not your only problem," she said.
"Pardon?"
"There's something on board the ship. Some kind of...animal."
"An animal?" the captain repeated.
Celia nodded. "We saw it on the Cloud Deck. The three of us."
The captain turned to one of his crewmen, "Are there any animals being transported on this ship that I don't know about?"
"No," Celia said. "It wasn't-the creature we saw, it didn't come from the ship. It-it crawled its way on."
A new expression crossed the captain's face, a deeper crinkle forming between his eyebrows.
"It's true!" she said quickly. "We saw the claw marks, and--and the wet prints. It came from the water. It climbed onto the ship."
The medic glanced up at her briefly, a dubious look on his face. The other people standing inside the infirmary were casting doubtful glances among themselves, some even smirking. Celia felt her cheeks getting hot.
She looked to Eidon. "Tell him!"
Eidon sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. He was red, bright as a flame. But this was no time to be embarrassed.
"Eidon?" said the Captain.
Eidon cleared his throat. "We uh, we were getting on the elevators when this...I dunno...I mean, I dunno what it was, maybe it was a dog. I--"
"A dog?!" snapped Celia. "That wasn't a dog! You saw it!"
"I don't know what I saw!" he shouted back.
The captain looked from Celia to Eidon, and Celia could feel her cheeks growing warmer by the second. Why wouldn't Eidon just tell his father the truth? Sure, it sounded crazy. But it happened. Was he really worried about what these people thought of him? After what they narrowly escaped?
The captain stepped between them, his gaze turning to little Franklin. "Franklin Howard?" he said. "What did you see, son?"
Franklin wiped his eyes. "It looked like...." the boy sniffed into his sleeve. "It was hard to see but...it was big. Like a bear. Except it wasn't a bear. It looked more like a--"
A long, drawn out sssshhhhhiii-iiing cut Franklin off as the curtain was pulled back, the man from the Hydra laying on his stomach, his stringy stained hair draped over one side of his face.
"-- cat," the man said, finishing Franklin's sentence. "A big cat. Smilodon fatalis specifically."
Everyone stared in silence, mouths gaping as the man from the Hydra propped himself up on his elbows.
"Would you prefer sabre-toothed tiger?"
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