Pirate Nannies 1

Ch. 1

"Okay, let me get this straight. There is a mother sphinx in the storage bay nesting her cubs in our sails." Riddle calmly stated.

"Yes." Leelu replied nervously.

"And all the bedding?"

"Uh-huh."

"And trying to retrieve the sails will result in a maternally enraged sphinx attacking us."

"Pretty much."

Lady Riddle rubbed her head, being careful to avoid smudging her facepaint. "And how long will she be nesting and keeping our sails occupied?" She asked.

"No more than a week until the cubs are strong enough to leave the nest, then they'll just need the pillows and blankets until I can send them all back." Leelu reassured meekly.
"Alright then...how are we still moving without sails?" The captain had to ask.

Leelu didn't answer immediately, walking to the banister around the back of the ship. She carefully extracted what looked like a roll from her sleeve before holding it out over the edge. Within seconds the boat ceased its movement and a large purple serpentine form shot out of the water and snapped its jaws shut around the treat, barely missing Leelu's fingers. She gently stroked the dragon's head while it chewed, then he dove back under the water and the ship began moving once more.

"He needed some exercise, so I had him take up swimming." Leelu explained to the baffled captain and crew.
"How did you summon a dragon? He doesn't have fur for you to spin!" Sarah Grace demanded in startled curiosity..
"Well I don't need wool or fur specifically, the scales he sheds makes good dye and I can summon him that way. And his name is Maris, not dragon." Leelu explained matter-of-factly, wiping her hand off.
"So, a dragon is pushing our ship along." Captain Riddle clarified. Leelu nodded.

"He's pushing it until I can finish quilting a backup sail. I would have finished before the kittens came, but I ran out of scrapped fabric." Leelu apologized meekly.
"Alright....why didn't you tell us we were gonna be hosting a mother and her kittens? Furthermore, how did Sasha get pregnant to begin with?" Angel asked, curiosity clear. As far as any of the crew knew, sphinxes were all female after all.
"Well...Sasha won't give me details, but apparently there was this smoking hot manticore-"
"Okay, forget the how, why didn't you tell us before? Were you afraid to?" Riddle asked cutting Leelu off. The seamstress looked down in shame.
"Well....I was gonna say something sooner, but then her water broke, and the kittens were coming, and I just....reacted, I guess. I didn't know how you all would take it, so I guess I thought that if the kittens were already born that you couldn't say no and make Sasha deliver them elsewhere..." Leelu mumbled.
"Lee, do you really think we'd do something like that?" Angel asked incredulously. "We wouldn't have pushed her off the ship, heck we might even have helped you with building a proper nest!"

Leelu remained silent, staring down at her feet.

"Angel's right, we wouldn't do something that heartless. We can all manage without bedding, and I can help quilt the replacement sail until the main ones are free again." Claire agreed, blinking her ghostly eyes.
"...so...they can stay?" Leelu asked, sounding remarkably like a little girl that brought home puppies.
"Yes, they can stay." Riddle answered. Seconds later she found herself unable to breathe and feeling her ribs start to cave in from the force of Leelu's hug. "Lee...can't...breathe...!!"
"Thank you thank you THANK YOU!!" Leelu squealed, abandoning the death hug to race below deck to the sphinxes in question. Angel caught Riddle and acted as a support while the captain attempted to catch her breath and stop seeing spots.
"Think this will go well?" Sarah Grace muttered.
"This feels like the start of another chaotic misadventure." Reaper replied, shaking his head.

---3 days later...---

Reaper carefully maneuvered his way through the storage bay. The cats had started wandering out of the nest, and one wrong encounter could-

"Why is a raven like a writing desk?"

Oh god.

Reaper tried to run from the expectant tiny fur ball, but a large shape tackled him to the ground. He rolled his eyes at Sasha, the latter now crouched on his back while the tiny kitten rubbed her face against his ear. The second kitten soon wandered up and curled up against one of his sprawled arms.

"Sorry Reaper, they've been hearing new words and playing with their first riddles!" Leelu called out from the nearby nest, her and Claire working on a giant quilt sail that looked like a quilting enthusiast's project that got carried away.
"They kept trying to jump me too until they got used to me, if it makes you feel any better." Claire added, sewing on a teddy bear patterned square. Reaper merely grumbled in reply. Though he decided he should feel grateful; Angel still couldn't come down here without the mother sphinx throwing a hissy fit about her lupine companions, and the little fur balls still kept trying to climb on Borris when they saw him...

"So, how long until they get bored with the storage bay?" Claire had to ask.
"Eh, as long as we keep telling them stories or bringing them snacks, they should be fine with this place until I can safely move them to my area." Leelu answered, pinning a crimson patch on. "I just wish we hadn't run out of actual sail cloth, the others might hate this..." She muttered, holding up the vividly patterned replacement sail.
"Well, when you send the kittens and Sasha back, we can recycle it into quilts for the crew or something. Have you named them, by any chance?" Claire wondered aloud.
"Well, little miss Writing Desk Raven I'm thinking of naming Alice," Leelu began, gesturing to the dark haired sphinxlet pouncing on Reaper's arm, "and the little red haired one I haven't decided yet. Though I might go with an M name, she seems to have a bit more manticore in her..." She finished, the red headed sphinx in question climbing onto Reaper's head to lick and nibble his hair. Sasha then stood up and picked the rambunctious kitten up by the scruff of her neck, the darker one following after as the mother made her way back to the nest. Reaper stood back up, cracking his back.

"Name them what you like, just don't let them keep up pouncing on the crew members, Alexander is still miffed about them playing with his watch." He stated, rubbing the back of his head where the kitten had been clambering.
"Hey, I warned him not to take it out, the kittens think anything like that is a toy at this age? And how can you tell, he always acts all gentlemanly..." Leelu muttered.
"Quit hiding in your room, and maybe you'll catch onto him." Reaper stated, having to duck to avoid getting hit with a thrown yarn ball courtesy of Claire. Apparently that was enough weirdness for him, as he took his leave before either girl could snap at him.

"That was harsh..." Claire stated, looking at the seamstress. Leelu said nothing, merely continuing to quilt with a tired, withdrawn look on her face. The red haired sphinx crawling into and curling up on her lap wasn't even enough to change her expression, though she did pet her head affectionately, eliciting a happy purr and nibble from the hyper kitten.

---

"Hey Riddle?"

Lady Riddle looked up from her cards to see who was addressing her. Her co captain Angel was looking rather nervous, and kept fidgeting with the map in her hands.
"What be troubling you, Angel?" Riddle inquired, knocking away her Solitaire game so Angel wouldn't realize she wasn't working. Angel didn't reply at first, choosing to walk over and lay the maps out for the trickster to see. The maps looked like something dug out of a Viking burial site; the paper was yellowed and rough, the ink dark against the page despite its age. Sprawled across it was pictures of land masses, and waves with serpents painted in the water. Except....

Riddle frowned, looking closely at the upper corner of the map. Nothing was drawn there, apart from what looked like a wall of fog. She looked up at Angel, taking note of the concerned look.
"Something on this map we should look out for?" She asked, taking her eyes away long enough to look at the fog area of the map.
"We don't know. We can't find anything on it in the archives, just that map. And..."
"And Lee's dragon is pushing us right into it?" Riddle guessed. Angel hesitated, but at length nodded.
"We can't be sure, but it looks to be that way. And none of us can figure out how to make him change course. Not even Leelu can convince him." She explained.
Riddle hummed in thought, looking at the archaic map. Her fingers brushed lightly over the fogged anomaly, then over the serpents painted in the water.
"Well, it looks like we'll just have to prepare for it and hope whatever is there doesn't try to carry us all off and eat our livers." Riddle concluded, gathering her cards back into her deck.
"Very...graphic." Was all Angel could muster up to reply with.

To be continued...