And the Sea is My Mother by Vyktoria Howard

Heat Rating: Warm

Content Warnings: GLBT- lesbian (f/f)

A rescue earns a pleasurable reward.

"Ferals off the stern, Captain! A great huge lot of them!"

Great huge lot? I found myself repeating in consternation. How many would constitute a ‘great huge lot'? More, I'd wager than I'd want to see in a life time, much less all at once.

Though good at what they did, my crew's education was somewhat remiss in the counting and writing skills needed by the people in charge.

My first mate, Chayr, who'd been steering the course, gestured to another man who immediately took the wheel. Wasting no time, he climbed into the rigging to have a look himself. Once he'd been a shodai—responsible for the delivery of mail and packages—so he could both read and count passably well. He was an excellent seaman where he'd been, at best, a lousy horseman.

Worried about the number of Ferals that might be following in our wake, I turned to run back to the read deck for a look myself, the Windmage and my question for her forgotten.

From the stern deck there was little for me to see. Just the gently rolling water, accented by a bit of drifting seaweed. If the Ferals were out there, they were still too far away to be seen from my lower vantage point.

I turned my gaze upward, watching the first mate's progress as he climbed higher into the rigging. The late afternoon sun made the skin on his muscular back shine like darkwood. At the lookout's post he paused. Shading his eyes against the glare of the sun he scanned the rolling sea in our wake.

It took him only a moment to discern that we were indeed being followed. His cry rang out across the ship. "They're Ferals, Captain."