Hey! We Made a Deal!! // Dreadnought #3

Birds chirped softly on the ships’ masts, speeding over the town with the breeze in their feathers and a gleam in their eyes. They revelled in the way the wind let them glide in the air, the people below just a tiny reflection in the ocean. Their enthusiasm for the comfortingly warm sunlight and cool gale is truly unmatched.

Truly.

‘Ugh, damn birds.’ Keto grumbled, pulling his pillow down over his ears. He had hoped that with his crew over in The Cat and Canoe, he would get a lazy morning, with a nice bit of rain to settle down to - but instead, he was struggling to sleep with the never-ending ‘melody’ of a songbird.

Running a hand through his curly brown-and-white hair, Keto sat up with a grumble and glared out of the thick window. He was on one of the lowest decks, and he could see a couple of inquisitive fish lingering outside of the ship. When the captain swung his legs over the side of the bed and wandered over, hands on his knees as he leant down to be at eye-level with the fish, they turned tail and swam off into the deep blue. Huffing, Keto began to get dressed in various fabrics, his signature cloak, a leather corset, and some golden jewlerry with it - including the golden chain adorned with suns that a little sooty cob had tried (and very nearly succeeded) to steal the day before.

The doors groaned, the stairs creaked, the whole ship rocked in the sea as usual, but it seemed to constantly complain. It was old, and it was probably due some repairs at some point, but… maybe that can be tomorrow’s issue. The current issue? Breakfast. There was nothing on the ship. No bread in the cupboards, no fruit in the baskets, nothing. But there were some suspiciously new scratch marks in the floor - the table had been moved recently, and a vase had tumbled to the floor in a sharp mess.

‘What the..?’ Keto muttered, crouching down to look at it. It wasn’t a vase he’d particularly liked, luckily, but the flowers strewn on the ground were new. Soil and dribbles of water laid on the floor, a pathetic heap of porcelain and petals. ‘I’ll get someone to clean that up later… weird.’

He stood up and brushed off the dust from his knees, grabbing a pair of fingerless gloves, pulling them on before beginning to walk down the road. He blinked quietly as his eyes adjusted to the bright sunlight, covering them with his hand slightly before making his way down the cobblestone path. There was a poster on the side of a building that seemed to be a shop, with various pictures of ponies and their faces. Keto stood by them and dragged his finger down it, looking at the names and matching them all up. He spotted the sooty bay gelding from the night before, tapping on the little image of his muzzle, thinking.

‘Dreadnought.
Standing at 12-hands-high (or 120cm), this little gelding and his sooty bay coat have been spotted in every town his herd has neared. Collecting trinkets and snacks to leave lying around in the fields they settle in, Dreadnought has been seen with everything from silver to salad. Keep an eye out for this little minx, because though he brings chaos, he has a heart of gold - you’re bound to love him!’

‘Pfft. You can add gold to that, too,’ Keto muttered, glancing over some of the other ponies. ‘Stingray’ is cute… ‘Anchovy’ seems like a sweetheart… ‘Snapper’.

Snapper? Well, that’s one to keep an eye out for sure. Keto glanced about before grabbing the leaflet, ripping out two rectangles - Dreadnought’s information, and then Snapper’s - before pocketing it and sticking the paper back up on the wall. He had nothing better to do today, so maybe bedazzling a little pony with a cool name would be fun.

On that note, he should go and—

Crash.

‘What was that-?’ Keto thought to himself, spinning around and watching as a little bay cob kicked away from a market stall that had come falling down.

‘Hey, hey, hey! Dreadnought, what’s up with you?’ Keto called, wandering over as the cob stood staring at the table on the floor, delicious-looking apples rolling on the floor in front of him. The Captain swiftly snatched one of the apples from on the ground, dusting it off on his cloak and throwing a couple of coins at the merchant - narrowly avoiding the man shouting - a before offering it out to Dreadnought. ‘You like apples? I got apples. Hey- where’d ya bell go? We made a deal, sneaky beast.’

The gelding snorted and shook his head quietly, tilting his head and snickering. Dreadnought reached forwards, half expecting Keto to try and pull the apple away when he went to bite it like some of the nervous children do, but the man just stood there. The sooty bay bit into the apple, chewing it quietly and nodding his head appreciatively.

‘That nice? Yeah? That’s good. That’s good.’ The gelding lapped up the last of the apple before turning around and glancing at Keto, wandering off.

‘Hey! I need to put that bell back.’ The captain jogged after him, only encouraging Dreadnought to trot off with a whinny. ‘No- please, we are not doing this again.’

At his dismissive tone, the gelding slowed to a halt and sniffed at the ground, pawing the stones with a disappointed snort. His fluffy mane was curly where the rain had set the braid, but the ribbon of the bell had evidently come tumbling out. He shoved his nose into Keto’s pockets as the man re-braided it, puffy tail wiggling as he distracted himself from the jingling. When Keto started to pet the muscular pony’s furred neck, Dreadnought pulled his nose out of the deep pockets and reached around to nudge him closer, almost in a hug. Or a demand for constant attention.

‘You’re so greedy. First it’s gold chains, then it’s multiple bells, and now it’s all the attention I can offer. You’re so rude,’ Keto hummed, scratching at the pony’s withers as said beast leant into him, nodding his head up and down to get the best of scritches. ‘Very big, too, I’m kind of impressed. Do wild ponies often have such an impressive work-out routine, or is it just all of your crimes, hm? Too friendly and inquisitive for your own good; kids love it, parents hate it. You’d be real fun to keep around on the Orca’s.’

The pony’s mane jingled and jangled constantly as he moved, and eventually, it drove one of the merchants nearby so insane that he started yelling at them to get lost.

‘Hey, move it, kid! Yer in the way! Ain’t no fisherman gonna be coming here if they can’t see me! Get out the way!’

With a slightly irritated but sheepish expression, Keto shuffled away from Dreadnought and whispered softly for him to follow, almost as though you would with a cat. ‘Pspspsps, come on Dread, let’s go. Cmon. Let’s go down by the water, hm? It’s nice and cool there, nice and pretty. Lots of fish, lots of birds, lots of.. uh, shells. You like shiny stuff? You’d love the sea glass, and the coral.’

Eventually, they made it down to the sand, and Keto sat down on a large rock that spread out enough for him to sit comfortably cross-legged over it. Dreadnought snuffled and stamped at the water and sneezed slightly when it went up his nose, like a little bug had crawled up and not the water he had kicked at himself. He kicked about in the water a little more, before trotting and bucking up to the sand - promptly dropped to his knees and rolling in it, squishing the bell he wore in his mane slightly. When he stood up and shook the damp sand off, some of it clung to his dappled coat, covering him in a beige pattern. Dreadnought sneezed again, shaking his mane out of his eyes, right before he leapt in the air in fright as a sea otter leapt out in front of him, chittering and rolling about in the sand. It grabbed a shell and shuffled off, floating back into the water on its back.

‘Well- okay, then.’ Keto laughed quietly, as Dreadnought snorted, irritated.