My second Thursday Prompt submission. I decided to make this a continuation of "The Ship" because that is such an interesting start to what will be a very interesting story.

In this part, we see that Peters is becoming wary of the Captain's motives and is becoming curious about his obsession as well as what might have taken hold over the Ship's captain. Hope you like it.

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“The captain’s gone mad, Peters!” said the Master-at-Arms.


As it was, they only stopped to port whenever their food was desperately low. If they could stand to skip a port or two, the Captain made them do so. All of them had lost weight, skipped meals if they could, anything to make sure they didn’t run out of food and starve. None protested allowed for fear of retribution or punishment from him.


Peters, the helmsmen, was the only one who would approach the Captain from his right side, where his scarred muzzle bore the permanent sneer, as if eternally enraged over a wrong that had been done to him. Some felt more comfort seeing his “softer” side where his muzzle wasn’t disfigured because they wanted to believe his true personality was shown there. But that side was a fairy tale, a children’s story the men refused to let go of. Peters knew his disfigurement was given to him to show his many instabilities.
“Sir, a word?”


“What is it Peters?” spoke the Captain softly.


Peters paused a moment, as the Captain turned his head towards him. His green eyes locked with the Captain’s golden amber orbs fearlessly. “We need to dock. We’ve nearly run out of food and supplies, if we forgo the next port we’ll all starve.”


The Captain’s eyes narrowed, his mind searching for a reason to deny and continue their pursuit of “The Ship”. However, he knew Peters was right.
“Damn these distractions, Peters! When we dock, you are to make sure that we’ve enough to last! We have to catch up to him!”
“Aye, sir.”


He turned and left. Peters knew better than to try and argue. Though he didn’t know it, the crew had begun to speak of a change in him as well. Peters now was the only one brave enough to stand beside the Captain and speak with him regularly. Not even the Captain’s own First Officer would approach him in such a manner. Some believed that Peters was just as mad as the Captain.


The image of the sneer was always present in his mind. What the rest of the crew believed was madness, Peters believed to be something much worse. He had begun to suspect that whatever had corrupted the crew on board The Ship had taken hold of the Captain. It was his duty to ensure the safety of the crew, even if he had to kill the Captain. Peters pondered this as he sharpened his saber, alone in his quarters.


Was this madness or truly something supernatural? Peters had an almost obsessive curiosity about it and he wanted to find out the truth. Were both the captains in the grasp of something evil? Perhaps both had seen something that their minds simply could not comprehend. What could be so horrible that it would shatter one’s sanity? These were the questions that Skepticism brought forth.


Whatever it was that had taken hold of the two furs, Peters wanted to find out. A more noble reason would be to put an end to it, but Peters knew that he simply wanted to know. It was the question of a lifetime and worth finding the answer to. Even if the answer rendered Peters…Quite mad.