Boats

The ship tossed and turned and water was being thrown on the deck. The ship's design held the water on board for the crew to deal with as it went below deck. The lower levels were becoming swimming pools at this rate, that's when Jerome woke up. The storm was normal for him, he'd been in enough to be used to it. He rolled over and saw his floor covered in water. He groaned and searched for his boots. After a second he noticed the up turned right boot in the water under his desk, and the other perfectly fine, but quivering. He got up, and walked across the water, making the liquid solid under his feet as he went with a slight grin on his face. He got to his boots and pulled the left boot off the floor and out of the water. Looking inside he noticed a small white snake shuddering in the center of the boot. Jerome's face contorted with wonder and confusion. He reached in the shoe and said softly, "Come on out little guy, It's alright."
  "Easy for you to say! You can swim!" Jerome almost dropped the boot, "And it's 'little girl,' thank you!" She said very snobbishly. "Now remove your hand!" Jerome had never been told off by a snake and stood there gaping and accidentally bumped the slick white body. The snake turned and bit him. He cringed, but grabbed her and pulled her out.
   She had her mouth full of his index finger, but was saying muffled curses about him. "What did I ever do to you?" He dropped his boot and it splashed into the water. And he muttered, "and how can you talk?" She let go of his finger and he began riffling through drawers for a vial to bleed out her venom into. She  squirm so much he simply dropped her into the pool of a floor. She screeched as she fell, and a soft plop and splashes told him she wasn't doing well down there, but he had to bleed her venom out of him. When the vial was full and he was sure he'd be fine, he picked her out of the water and reached for his 'Calling.' The Calling is given to separate tribes to use as dominion over certain elements. His was the Oceans, he was of Ocean's Roar. He pulled the water she swallowed out of her lungs and she writhed back to life. As she coughed and sputtered in a high pitch, he asked her, "Are you going to behave? You are in no position to refuse my help here."
   She slithered around for a second, but then darted into his sleeve and accused him, "You're just going to kill me aren't you?!"
   "I could have just let you drown if I wanted you to die." She didn't respond, "Well if you're going to come with me don't bite me anymore and I'll be fine with it." He put on his boots and she settled down wrapped around his wrist three times over, like a bracelet. He looked himself over in the mirror, his long blond hair was in 'Bed-Head' and he stood five feet ten inches tall. He had his dark green tunic on with a brown, long-sleeved-undershirt and brown pants. He pulled his red fur lined coat off its hanger and the vial of the snake's venom and went to find his Teacher, Creetia. He pulled the water out of his room as he left, and shut the door behind him. "Where's Master Creetia?" Jerome asked himself.
   "I guess I'm sorry.... I shouldn't have bitten you." The snake said quietly.
   "You were scared, don't worry about it." He wanted to show Creetia his find, the snake and the venom. "I was just a little surprised to find a snake on a ship and in my boot of all places. What are you?"
   "Eeta." She poked her head out from his collar, "I'm a Dream Snake."



   "A what?" Jerome asked the snake.
   "A dream snake," Jerome still looked confused as he went up the stairs to the deck. "We thrive on good dreams, as soon as we find one we positively adore. Then we become Symbiotes with the dreamer from the day we meet."
   "Nice," He couldn't remember his last dream, but went on, "So you liked --" He was cut off by the roaring and howling of pirates as he come out of the below deck area. He stepped into a rope trap and got lifted off the ground by his foot. Eeta almost fell, but Jerome caught her before she got too far.
   "Here be my apprentice!" The head pirate was his Professor, but Jerome had never seen his as a Pirate.
   "Creetia?" Jerome asked the Pirate and he laughed, another pirate was pulling on his long blond hair and he tried to push her off of him and talk at the same time. "Wait... are you Ocean Roar or a Pirate?"
   The girl screeched and ripped away from him, and he looked over at her for the first time, she was different, hanging upside down on a rope from the ship, her face was painted white through her eyes and cheek dimples, but a black "X" sectioned off white paint from her pink skin. Her nose wasn't painted, but it was cherry red from the cold, She had black hair with jagged fire red highlights, she wore a green, jagged-edged tunic with patched leather pants and had two pink tattooed rings on each forearm. She had a huge grin on her face as she held Eeta in her hands. "SAVE ME!" Eeta screeched at Jerome. Jerome watched as the girl landed on the deck and almost galloped over to Creetia.
   "Lookie!" The girl exclaimed.
   "Very good Ky!" Creetia patted her dark hair and gave her a fatherly nudge across the chin. "A dream snake? Here? Amazing! The venom grants strength to the lucky soul who drinks it, but rips apart the flesh of their prey in moments after a bite. Thank ya' boy!" He tried to pocket the snake, and Jerome pulled out a knife to cut himself down, His master would never take anything from his own benefit, and his master would have no use for something like this. But Ky, the girl, Tore at his hand screaming that the snake was hers and she wanted it. Jerome cut himself down and landed on his hands, his blond hair touching the floor, and rolled forward, turning the water to ice as he went and encasing the men's feet in it. He jumped out of his roll and landed on the imposter's chest with his feet and the man hit the ground, hard. He froze the man in the water. Ky was playing with Eeta again, and Eeta realized that she was no harm to her, she was slithering all over her like she did to Jerome under his coat. The men began lighting bombs and tossing them far enough to spare themselves and crack the ice, or to get Jerome, and in turn, Ky and Eeta.
   "Eeta! Ky! Jump!" Neither of them liked the water, but they jumped after Jerome and they landed on a platform of Ice. Jerome made a wave propel them away from the ship, and they were cursed at by pirates as they faded behind them. "Let's get to some land..." The other two were petrified, by the fact that they were on a ice block in the ocean, but nodded slowly. Jerome thought to himself, 'What happened to Creetia, that couldn't have been him. It just couldn't.'