Gradually, he became aware that he was lying in a sittingposition amongst the smoldering wreckage of the pirate ship.In front of him,there was a small river of shifted sand, which he guessed was where his bodyhad been dragged.He felt rope cutting into his wrists, and he came to theimmediate realization that his arms had been tied through a cannon hole alongthe broken edge of the hull.His wrists were bound together with what appearedto be the rigging of the ship.
He pulled again.The rope was rough and gnarled, chafing hisskin.His hands and legs were blistered from the sand.His head throbbed with alatent concussion.Most of all, he was thirsty.He was completely, utterlythirsty.When he tried to swallow, his throat began to split and bleed.
He kept yanking on his restraints.They did not give way.Isaac gritted his teeth, almost snarling through the pain.
“Well, well!”a voice called.“My hero awakes!”
Above him, at the edge of the burned top deck, the samehyena that had slaughtered a dozen pirates was now peering down at him.He wasonly barely able to twist enough to see her.After a moment of silence, shetossed two packs down into the sand.Isaac had time to note that one of thepacks was smaller than the other before the hyena jumped into the sand herself,landing with a heavy thump that he felt through his legs.
She turned to him, her mohawk of hair fluttering gently inthe breeze.
Sitting down as he was, Isaac thought she was impossiblytall.He doubted his head would even reach her shoulder.Currently, she hadtraded the tattered rags of a prisoner for the sleeveless vest and knee-lengthtrousers of a pirate’s garments, which had likely been all she could scavengefrom the ship.There was a motley assortment of leather armor scattered acrossher form, consisting of a leather plackart, a single pauldron, a set ofvambraces, a poleyn on the knee, and a belt slung heavily with pouches.
Despite now being dressed far more like a human, her handsand digitigrade feet were visibly tipped with claws, each of them wrapped inoverlapping lines of cloth.There was still blood on her fur.
“So,” she said, walking toward him, “how we feeling, then?”
Isaac swallowed what little saliva he had left.
The hyena stopped at the edge of his boots and squattedherself down to his level, which left her still more than a head above him.Atthis distance, he could see a deep scar running up the tip of her black nose,along with a more jagged line etched beside her eye.
“How’s it feel,” she asked, “smashing the finest pirate shipof the desert?”
Isaac did not answer.
She gestured out to the burnt pieces of hull, most of which weresinking into the sand.“Terror of the dunes, the scourge of every merchant, thebane of many lords.Oh, she thought herself the tooth biting at the teat of allcivilized society, and you just bloody well snuffed her with a flick of yourwrist.Like some candle on a cake.”
Isaac blinked.
“I ain’t mad,” the hyena said, casually wiping blood off herthigh, like some food had spilled at dinner.“Quite the opposite, actually.”
Isaac attempted to speak.His throat was very raw, and thewords pained him as they emerged.“It—was not my—intention.”
Her ears perked up.“That so?”
He shook his head.
“From what I heard,” she continued, “you fired first.Myjailers were quite surprised.”
“I thought—your ship was a wyrm.”
She straightened.“The giant sand dragons?Them that fly from the ground in a flurry of teeth andscales?You thought one of them was on the prowl, and your first thought was tolob a ball of fire in its direction?”
“Yes,” Isaac said.
“Truly?”the hyena asked.
He nodded.
“And you would consider this a wise decision?”
He shrugged against the rope.
The hyena sat back on her animal-like feet, staring at him.All at once, she laughed, exposing the teeth along her snout.“You just gotthat right blend of naïve and foolhardy about you, huh?”She leaned in again.“What’s your name, love?”
“...Isaac.”
She placed a hand to her chest, resting it on a patch of furabove her breasts.“Zaria.Pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
