Adventures On The Abecean Sea, Sometimes It Doesn't Pay To Stowaway Options

[mALX]

My current Fanfic is too long to cart over here, so I'd like to offer up this much shorter one. I was inspired to do this story by an RP idea I saw floated a month ago on the BGSF. I got extremely excited about the concept, but never having been in an RP I hesitated to join. Still, the possibilities loomed and taunted till I knew I would write this. It won't be a long one, I promise! I hope everyone enjoys it.

Shivani

Adventures On The Abecean Sea

Chapter 1: The Stowaway


The pounding of the waves on the bow of the ship created a huge spray across the deck that seeped down into the anchor storage, raining steady rivulets of icy cold water onto the hard chains where Shivani huddled, struggling to retain the contents of her stomach.

At the time it had seemed a good idea, stowing away in the hold of the nearest ship at the Anvil port. The guards had spotted her, and it would have been no time at all before they connected her with the reports of a runaway slave.

Maybe she had meant to do this for years, but not at this time nor place; yet here she was. Her tail was kinking from the hard chains pressed against it, and whatever protection her thin fur gave her against the cold had lost its use against the elements that now assailed it.

Somehow she had not foreseen that, the ship putting out to sea; well, not while she was on board. Exhausted from the night spent walking in the cold air, it had been only natural to nap there in the dark of the hold. The quiet shushing of the boat as it slipped over the calm waters had not woken her from the tired slumber; nor did the gentle rolling as it set out across the Abecean Sea.

When the storm caused the ship to slam into the breaking seas, throwing the icy tentacles of itself down into the pitch dark hold…and roll violently, sometimes heeling over till she was sure the sails and mast would be washed under in one of the crashing waves; only then had she awakened to realize her circumstance.

It didn’t take long to determine the type of boat she had stowed away on either. It wasn’t the curses and coarse language spoken in guttural tones that told her, but the “Aye Aye Captain” that followed them. A pirate ship! Oh dear.

It was a well known fact that pirates considered a female on board to be bad luck, no matter the age…would they kill her? Or worse?

Thinking fast, Shivani pulled her worn leather helmet off and twisted her hair into a tight knot on her head, replacing the helmet which now sat at an odd angle. She pulled the straps tight around it, forcing it to smash the bun down flat.

Shivani pulled the rusty iron dagger she had found earlier out of her waistband and cut a length of the furled spinnaker sail that rested in the hold. She stripped off the wet leather cuirass and bound her breasts across with the length of sail. There wasn’t much to flatten yet, but there was no sense taking chances.

Tugging the wet cuirass back on proved to be a chore in the tight hull of the ship as it rocked and pounded, throwing her off balance with its violent contortions. Still, she must get out of here, or would be sitting in her own vomit shortly. Even without benefit of a looking glass she was sure her pale skin had taken on a greenish hue, for the nausea had awakened her with a stomach that rolled to match the ships movements.

Crawling out the hatch, she was instantly knocked down from her position on her hands and knees to rolling across the deck by the next lurch of the ship and ended up slammed into the gunwale where she finally gave up the contents of her stomach.

The waves crashing over the bow washed it down the deck toward the stern of the boat. Leaning back and letting the next spray wash over her felt good, in spite of the cold and wet, for the seasickness had left her woozy and faint; and the icy waters revived if naught else.

She closed her eyes, trying to fight off the next wave of nausea when a voice too close for comfort reached her ears.

“Here be the culprit.” The coarse voice was followed by a hand grabbing her up by the cuirass and dragging her toward the stern.

Shivani struggled and beat ineffectually at the massive hand that hauled her up and deposited her before a lowbrow man in the tattered blue coat of a Naval Officer. It was obviously stolen, as it didn’t fit him. The armpits and shoulders were torn, and although unbuttoned it squeezed against his bulk.

She promptly ‘shot the cat’ across the top of his boots, vomiting helplessly and unable to stop.

“Ye’ll pay for that lad, ye will!” The Captain snarled, grabbing Shivani by the back of the neck and shoving her down. “Ye’ll lick them clean then, weakling.”

The words along with the smell of what already rested on his boots caused a fresh wave of nausea and instead of cleaning, She retched some more across the toes of them. Kicking her out of the way the Captain demanded satisfaction from the one that brought Shivani before him.

"Wad ye bring the lad before me 'fore he were done emptying his load? Ye caused this, now ye clean it. An' ye can swab the cockpit as well. Git the lad's head over the side 'fore he fills the ship wi' his swill." The Captain roared at the crewman.

Grumbling and cursing under his breath, the crewman glared at Shivani. Aye, he would have his revenge, but when the Captain wasn’t standing there to see.

Shivani’s still heaving carcass was dragged back to the gunwale and deposited with her head hanging over the side so there would be no more clean-up required.

***

She woke in that position, the seas were calm now and the crew was busy hoisting the sails and swabbing the deck. Before she pulled her head up she ran her fingers around the black film that clung to the gunwale and rubbed it on her face to hide its delicate features.

Pulling herself across the deck toward the cockpit, she was stopped by a pair of Naval Officer’s boots that were too small for the feet and legs jammed into them. The Captain’s voice boomed above her.

“So, yer joinin’ the living I see. Are you gonna git to work or do we have to toss you in the briny an wake you up? This ain’t no pleasure cruise. Ye mind telling me what ye were hired to do on this ship?”

She thought quickly. She had seen kitchen work done before. Trying to deepen her voice and make it sound as uneducated and coarse as those around her, she answered.

“The galley…Sir.”

“Well git your weak carcass to it then. An' be quick about it.”

With a hurried, "Aye Aye Captain," she hoped was a good imitation of the one she had heard the night before, she scurried down the main hatch into the nether regions below decks. She tried not to draw attention as she glanced around, trying to see anything that looked like it might be a kitchen. A horrible smell assailed her nose, and she followed it to what could only be the galley.

It was filthy. A malodorous scent billowed out of a pot tied onto a grate over the small fire pit with lengths of steel wire. She couldn’t bring herself to taste the vile concoction, but upon glancing behind her saw the Captain standing in the passageway watching her. She better do something quickly.

Grabbing a measure of salt, she pulled her dagger out and began scraping the salt block into the soup. Crusts of debris filtered off the blade and into the vile brew below. Her nerves on edge by his scrutiny caused her hands to tremble, dropping a large portion of the salt block into the soup.

Her eyes fell on an overly large wooden ladle. Scooping it up, she pretended to be stirring the reeking mixture in the pot while she searched for the block of salt. Glancing back she saw the hulking form of the Captain no longer filled the passageway.

With a sigh of relief she fished the much diminished slab of salt out and dropped it back on the shelf. She would have to wait for the cook’s orders, never having cooked before.

***

A young Nord boy wandered in and stopped, surprised to see her. “Who are you? I thought I was the galley slave.” He spouted, then flushed.

Shivani felt much better about her disguise after that; the boy could not be more than ten years old and looked much more feminine than she did. His voice had a high pitch as well. Should the crew suspect a woman on board, this young lad would be picked over herself as the culprit, and could prove he was not a girl, so would not be harmed.

She lowered the pitch of her voice and tried to sound uneducated. “Uh, I’m your help.”

His eyes brightened. “Oh good, because I’m not really sure…”

Drat! She was hoping he knew more than her. “Where’s the cook?” She asked, her voice cracking from trying to lower it deeper than she was able.

“He near got killed last night in the storm. Got cut real bad, bled into that stew.”

Shivani almost gagged, thanking her stars she had not tasted of the concoction.

“You mean its just us?” Shivani nearly squeaked. The lad nodded.

This post has been edited by mALX: Nov 25 2012, 09:32 PM

[mALX]

Thank you so much ya'all, and Remko - Welcome aboard!!! Yeah !!!



Chapter 5: Fishing For Trouble


The sound of the Red Sabres crashing onto the deck with their swords humming to life broke up the fight in more ways than one. Bodies on fire flew over John and Shivani’s heads as they hugged the transom. The screams of the burning crew members cut across the dark cove and echoed back eerily to them. Bodies laden with arrows floated by as the tide began to ebb out of the small basin they had sheltered the night in, a cave like structure off the channel.

When it was finally quiet they started to creep back up on deck, but were frozen in their tracks by Captain Dugal’s words to the Sabres. “Find them cooks and fry ‘em!” His laugh afterward sent chills down Shivani’s spine.

“Aye Aye Captain!” They said in unison.

The rest of the crew was ordered back to work. The planks were hauled in and the lines untied. Soon the large oars could be seen making a pattern in the water as the ships made their way back down the channel.

When the sails were raised and the ships broke out of the mouth of the cove and into the open sea, John and Shivani became terrified they would slip off the transom. The water churned by them with what seemed tremendous speed. It became hypnotizing to watch, and Shivani feared she would get dizzy and fall in.

The wind was stout, and coming from the direction they needed to head. The Black Flag was tacking across it at a great rate of speed, nine knots at least.

When the wind caught in the sails the ship heeled at a severe angle to the port side and they were sure they would slide in. They huddled on the starboard side of the transom, but knew when the boat was turned for the tack back towards land they could be pitched off.

Surely the Red Sabres had gone below by now, Shivani had to chance it. She would rather be back in the anchor hold again.

“Don’t leave me here by myself!” John cried.

It must be getting to him too, Shivani thought. She climbed up the ladder and peeked, but could see no one moving. The decks were covered in blood and entrails. Arrows were everywhere, sticking out of the sides of the main cabin, the dinghy. No one was swabbing the deck, where was everyone?

Shivani went to the starboard side. She had never liked walking on the side the boat was heeling on before, but was even more averse to it after being that close to the moving water sitting on that transom. They began creeping toward the bow when the sound of red sabres leaving their sheaths gave their distinctive hums.

“There ye’ be ye’ dirty scums. Cap’n says yer troublemakers. An we’re trouble enders.”

The mainsail had been secured low to garner the most wind. The Red Sabres with their swords out were having trouble ducking under the low boom, so instead began running along it towards the stern of the ship.

“Run John!” Shivani yelled pushing him. She ran behind him, darting looks back to see where the Red Sabres were.

An arrow sticking up out of a line tripped Shivani. She stumbled forward, tripping on the handle of the winch and breaking the line wedged in it free. It made a whining sound as it was jerked quickly out, spinning the metal wheel of the winch around rapidly. The boom swung outward across the water, knocking the Red Sabres that were running behind it into the water.

The ship tottered for a second, off balance and the loss of wind. Thinking fast, Shivani began jerking the line back up through the winch and tightening the boom back up. The mainsail caught the wind again and the Black Flag began moving sleekly across the water. She kept tightening till they were moving at a good clip away from the bobbing heads in the sea.

“Look John. If we are caught and thrown overboard out here, we will drown. I say we tack back now to be heading into shore, and just hide. When we get close to shore we can climb out of the hold and jump in and swim to shore.”

“How will we know when we are close enough?”

“Listen for the gulls. They stick to the shore. Now look, they‘ve tied off the helm We just need to untie it and turn the boat around. Aim it up that way, that will be close to Daggerfall.”

Shivani picked up the sextant. “Do you know how to use this John?” He shook his head no. “Okay, well then we will just have to make a guess. The sun is over there, and we know it’s morning so that must be east. Oh look, here is the helmsman’s log.”

Shivani picked up the quill and read the last entry in the log, then found the place on the charts. “Look John, there is no entry for today. The last entry is for the cove last night. Here, here it is on the charts, now put your finger right there and don’t move it.”

She looked at the sun and then the large compass encased in a glass globe. “Okay, look John. We are going at an angle like this. Now I don’t know how far we would be on the charts, but to get to Daggerfall we need to be going at an angle like…this…I think.” Shivani marked it on the chart and then logged it in the journal, trying to imitate the rough lettering of the previous entry.

“I’ll turn the helm, you tie it off. Okay, ready about.” Shivani said.

“Aye” John said, and tightened up the line to the main sail. “Ready.”

“Coming about.” Shivani made a wide circle as she had seen the Coxswain do, keeping the stern of the boat away from the wind.

John loosened the lines on the sail a little too far, then tightened them in just until they were close-hauled. The ship began surging forward at a rapid pace. “I’ll bet we are going ten knots!” He said in awe-struck tones.

Shivani smiled at his enthusiasm as she set her course and then checked the compass. “Okay John, I’ve logged the compass setting in the journal, tie the helm so it stays within five degrees either way of that setting. See here on the compass? That should get us to the mouth of the Iliac Bay where we can jump off.” She glanced up at John to see if he was understanding her directions. His eyes were shining, his face a radiant glow.

“What is it John?”

“Us…handling the ship…Master Jack, it was smooth as glass the way you came about. We worked like a team, like Captain and First Mates. The feel of the helm in my hands, its as if I was always meant to be standing behind the helm, the wood warms to my hand and the feel and sound of the water rushing against the hull…”

“I know, it felt good to me too. We did make a good team. We better get down in the anchor hold before someone comes up on deck and spots us.”

“But…I’m hungry.”

“We can’t cook anything now, we’ll be killed. And we have poisoned that stew with drugs, if there is any left that is. Let us just go get a drink of clean water and we will have to live on that.”

Sneaking down below was not as hard as they thought, it was like a morgue below decks. Not a soul moving, only a low moaning sound coming from the forward cabins.

“Hurry John, this is giving me the creeps. Something is strange about all this. No one is about above or below decks.”

John primed the pump. When the blackened bilge water cleared and the glistening pure water flowed Shivani cupped her hands under the tap several times and then pumped for John to do the same.

“Have you had enough?” Shivani asked.

John looked up, round eyed. “Yes, yes! That is fine Master Jack! I sure could use some exercise, how about you? Did I ever tell you about…”

“Shh! You need to be quiet! We will be caught and killed! I feel kind of energetic too though. I remember one time…”

“Let’s go clean the decks above, they were disgusting.” John said enthusiastically, his eyes almost bulging in his head.

“Great idea! Come on, let’s go!” Shivani reached down and turned the valve back for the bilge water to flow from the pumps.

They hurried up on deck and swabbed the ship from bow to stern till it gleamed in the sunlight and the lines were all coiled into alternating patterns of circles or figure eights below each cleat.

“What should we do now?” John could not stand still and was shifting his weight back and forth.

“Stop weaving, you will make me seasick. What…what was that?”

“It’s fish! Look at them! Why are they acting so strange? I’ve never seen a fish act like that before!” Evil John said, wide eyed.

“Neither have I. What is wrong with them? They…watch out John, they are jumping into the boat! What is that floating in the water?”

“Those are the bottles from the drugs, remember we threw them overboard. We must be getting close to where we turned back around the other day. Look, there are hundreds of bottles floating. Do you think that is what is making the fish act so strange?”

“It has to be. Look, the deck is filling with them. I just scrubbed that deck! They are dirtying it up! Quick John, open up that hold in the stern and start shoving the fish down in there.”

The hold was filled to capacity quickly. Shivani rolled the dinghy up and pulled a tarp out. “Here John, fill this up. I‘ve never seen so many fish in my life!”

“Me neither. It will make one huge fish fry.”

“These can’t be eaten, they are drugged.”

“Well what will we do with them then?”

“Nothing, we are getting off, remember? Look, there are the gulls, we must be getting close to land. Climb up into the crow‘s nest and see if you spot land ahead..”

John shimmied up the mast, eschewing the use of most of the wedges nailed up for climbing. He raised the spyglass. When he saw no land sightings ahead he trained it around to the sides, calling out silly things like, “Thar she blows!”

Shivani smiled. At least he was safe up there, and enjoying himself like a child his age should be, but it was beginning to make her nervous that he kept calling. Someone would hear and come up on deck. Finally he called out the one she was waiting for.

“Land ho!”

Shivani shaded her eyes and looked up at the crow’s nest. Why was he pointing to the port side of the ship instead of ahead? She ran to the charts. It must be Cespar Island…she hoped. She waved John down. “Hurry!”

“We’ve got to change course and fast!” She called to him as he hurried up to her. “Prepare to gybe.”

“Ready.” John called.

Shivani pulled John down into the cockpit so the swinging boom wouldn’t knock him out. “Remember, when we are gybing you have to watch the boom. Gybe oh!”

The main boom swung hard across the beam of the ship, the lines slamming hard against the locking winch. “Good thing I locked ‘em down.” John muttered.

“Okay John, this is important. You need to look for another island to the port side and any land ahead of us. I just hope we are where I think we are.”





Bodies of the dead crew members floating by us that morning:

http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images0...50437da504f.jpg




Deck of the Black Flag after clean-up by Shivani and John:

http://www.solarnavigator.net/images/rope_...coiled_deck.jpg




Spyglass in the crow’s nest:

http://www.gnexttechnology.com/londonlight...elescope-lg.jpg




The ships compass after clean-up by Shivani and John:

http://i23.ebayimg.com/03/i/001/0b/6f/4e50_12.JPG






Map of Tamriel showing the Abecean Sea:

http://tamrielchronicles.com/assets/maproadslore.jpg



Map of the Iliac Bay region:

http://tamrielchronicles.com/assets/iliacbay.jpg


*

This post has been edited by mALX: Mar 30 2010, 10:02 PM