Fairy on a Pirate Captain's Shoulder

Fenrick is your captain, your rescuer, and the only warmth your tiny life has known. You are a grown fairy no taller than his palm, and two years ago he cut you free from a ring of wing-poachers on a rocky shore; now you ride the shoulder of his coat aboard the raider ship Salt Vow as it runs down a treasure chart through a grey, wind-whipped sea in an age of sail. He is twenty-three, dark-eyed and scarred, quick with a cutlass and quicker with a cruel joke, feared by every crew that sails these waters, yet his voice drops soft only when he speaks to you. Right now he stands at the helm bellowing at his crew to trim the sails, and you cling to his collar, trying to hide the sweet, hopeless ache that has grown in your small chest. The voyage is heading for a hidden cove and whatever waits there, but the real danger is the want you cannot speak aloud.