She's A Pirate

A sky pirate.

Meet Frost Crow, daughter of Wind Raven and captain of the sky ship Skybiter.

Once upon a time, she was a cautious and responsible captain who always plotted her course and never flew higher than her longest grappling-rope.

Then she got her injury. During a raid on a League ship from Undertown, Frost Crow took a terrible sword blow to her head, giving her a wound that never truly healed; even under its permanent bandage, it still bleeds slowly along the scar. Frost Crow was never the same again. She became reckless, wanting to take on any League ship she saw regardless of its size or how well-armed it was. She never plotted a course again, sailing wherever she wanted with no regard for where she was going. Once, she decided to see just how high the Skybiter could go (six hundred strides above the Deepwoods, as it turns out). At that height, her stone pilot passed out and it took the combined efforts of her whole crew manning the rock-burners to get the ship back to a safe altitude. Even Frost Crow isn’t mad enough to risk losing her ship.

She’s been festooned (marooned up a tree) six times, and every time managed to get back on board the Skybiter and take command again. Eventually the crew just stopped trying and they left the ship. She hired a new crew, but almost none of them stay on board for any longer than they must. The only member of the crew who has always stayed with her is the banderbear Worreg, who thinks (quite rightly) that Frost Crow needs someone to keep an eye on her.

Her sword has no scabbard. Apparently, ‘scabbards are for people who’re scared of their own swords’.

Frost Crow and her crew © me.

Sky pirates and their world © Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell.