Drift Away Together

The sound of Artorias shifting around forced Bowen's gaze to fall back upon him, only to find that he had readjusted and was staring right at her. The young woman swallowed hard, her green eyes meeting his golden. She was the first one to look away, not trusting herself enough to keep from acting upon her baser desires. Having been bedded so regularly, Bowen had become quite a nymphomaniac. She wanted sex all of the time. In fact, she'd been soliciting strangers just to scratch that itch within herself. Now here she was, thinking of doing the same thing to her brother. Ugh, he would be so disgusted with her. She was disgusted with herself, though it was hardly something unnatural.

Orange ears perked as Art began to tell her of his girlfriend, Briar. Ah yes, that was her name. Bramble... Internally, Bowen shook her head. As he suspected, Bo didn't remember meeting Briar. She didn't remember a lot from before. The small woman continued to listen as he spoke of this Fatalis Princess. Titles were such stupid things. Anyone could call themselves anything and in the end it meant nothing. Her blue brother seemed to really like this princess though. His face lit up as he spoke of her. For some reason... that made Bowen feel like trash. She wasn't some princess. She was just a former slave. A former pirate. A no one, really. How could she compete with a princess?

Wait, wait. Why was she thinking that she could even compete with Briar? Once more, Bowen reminded herself that Artorias was her brother. Their relationship was that of family and that's all that there was to it. She just felt this way because the slavers and pirates had turned her into a whore, right? It wasn't because he was her favorite sibling, or because he went out of his way to try and find her long after the others ceased their searches. It wasn't because he was sweet and kind and looked so damn good soaked in sea water. Fuck. Bowen couldn't hide a grimace, her lips pulling back for a moment and her eyes squeezing shut. Flicking her ears backwards, she gave her brother a sheepish look. "Bit of a headache," she lied before looking away.

Then Art asked about everything that had taken place while she was gone. Bowen cast him a side-eye and decided to look out into the bay instead of at Artorias. "After the slavers took me, I was delivered to the pirates. They thought that I could fetch a better price elsewhere as I would be seen as a foreign beauty or some garbage. The captain came to like me. Called me his Little Bird." That had been her name on the ship. The name that others called out when they were using her, spilling inside of her.

"I enjoyed working on the ship; being part of the crew. I think it was that eagerness that prompted the captain to make me the offer of buying my flesh price." Bowen turned to look at Art, explaining, "He let me work to pay off the price that they would have been able to sell me for. It was a rather large sum, but the captain was adamant that he was speaking truthfully." She'd doubted at first that she would fetch such a price, but saw later what other fae's were selling for. The prettier the fae, the higher the price.

Bowen began to lose herself in the story as she recanted memories. "The captain was surprisingly sweet. The main captain, anyway. The secondary captain didn't like me as much." Bo gave her head a shake. "The captains were brothers; lovers; and I don't think the second captain liked that his lover was also loving me." The girl's pink nose wrinkled slightly. "And yet he slept with me too, but he always made it a punishment." Again she shook her head as though doing so would throw the memories right out of her ears. "I liked being a pirate. I didn't like hurting others to pay my price though. As for my favorite place, there was an island where the sand was white as snow. The trees, plants, everything what pure white. It was like walking in a dream. And then the white started falling from the sky like snow. It was ash from a volcano, blanketing the entire island." She remembered the place fondly. It had taken all of them by surprise and they'd all ended up white by the time they left the island as well.

After that, Bowen went silent. She placed her chin upon one bent foreleg and looked out over the bay. The girl had returned home, but she'd left a large part of herself out at sea. Would she ever feel complete again?

"Speech"