Between the hollow beat of the waves lapping against the great ship’s hull and the steady rhythm of the southern zephyr tugging at the enveloping canvas of the sails, one would reason these alone would lull two children asleep. 

But not for the girl and her smaller companion. They escaped their mother’s whisking them off to bed by darting to the sterncastle. The girl, a wavy-haired sprite of 7 summers, led a winding path to the upper deck, followed by her comrade, a boy of a little over 5 summers. The cautious one of the two, he took a step back when their mother’s call lifted over the waves lapping and boards groaning under the cooling of the night. 

“Let’s go back-it’s too dark to play anyways, Abi.” the boy reasoned. He fidgeted and spun around on his heel, only to be tugged by his sister.

She huffed vexedly. “Ruvi-we’re not playing. We will study the stars, like Papa does.” She argued back, assuming the gravity only a child, when faced from a doubt from their younger peers, assumes. 

Ruvi, the little brother, scrunched his lips into an objecting frown. “He’ll say the same thing as Mama, ‘We should be in bed’.” Ruvi then tilted his head back and looked up disapprovingly at the massive blue expanse of the early night sky. “Besides, it’s too cloudy to see any real stars.”

But Abi dragged her balking brother up the short steps onto the upper deck, their smaller legs clambering with effort that grown-ups made short work of. 

“Perhaps you should listen to your brother, Abital, he’s right,” came a voice, low yet weighed with a quiet authority. 

Abi startled at the voice, and more so at her proper name being used- a sign of her parents’ reproach. 

She turned her eyes to the side of the deck, and caught sight of her father.

He stood over the deck’s railing, his back turned to them. His dark, wavy locks draped over the back of his brocaded robe like a black cape contrasting against the gilded patterns. 

Judging from the candle, nearly gutted in its spent flame, in the lantern perched overhead, spouting from one of the smaller masts, their father had spent some time studying the skies, no doubt charting their next course by ways of the stars. 

This intrigued Abi, who questioned how staring at the little pinpicks of light could guide you through something so big as the sea. 

As always, her curiosity overrode her fear of reproach from her father, so she made her way, though in a slow respect, to his side. 

Encouraged by his father’s agreement with him, now Ruvi felt inspired to join his father’s side, tailing behind Abi. 

Ruvi liked being right, a trait he might have inherited from his father. 

Not his best trait, but Ruvi was his father’s son. 

But Abi was worse- she liked being right, and doing what she wanted. She was her father’s daughter, too. Too much at times. 

So an emboldened Abi leaned against the railing like her father, though her height prevented her from seeing her father’s work on his board, with his pencils and sextants. 

He did not turn to face them, but remained focused (or so it seemed) on his task at hand. 

“It’s very late-in bed where you two should be.” their father continued, his voice feigning a sort of reproach that seems genuine to younger ones. But a smile tugged at his lips. He welcomed their company in this solitary task.

And he welcomed more their curiosity to learn. 

Turning his gaze aside, he gave Abi a questioning shake of his head, and he then looked over his shoulders and gave an approving nod to Ruvi, the boy still hovering a few paces back, debating whether to return to their chambers.  

“Well, Ruvi has the right idea, Abi- what do you say?”

Abi nudged her way closer, wanting to get under her father’s arms for an upfront look at his board and maps. 

“You can’t expect us to sleep- we were stuck all day in the cabins ‘cause of the storm-the sky’s clear-” and she paused for a moment, calculating her next argument, “And we can learn more tonight if we don’t go to bed.” 

She blinked when saw her father’s brow dip in false scolding, and then quickly added, “Not right now anyways, Papa. Please?”

Abi lacked no persuasion- her wide-eyed gaze, gleaming with pleading, as always, won over her father. 

A sigh slipped through the father’s lips, followed by a low chuckle of approval at having been bested in argument by his daughter.  

“Very well, Abi- you’ll have your lesson, tonight. But you must pay attention, for you’ll be tested tomorrow.” He then looked up and nodded at Ruvi, still lingering, shifting from heel to heel restlessly. 

“Given today’s confinement, I doubt both of you learned much of your lessons, despite your mother’s earnest intentions…” their father remarked, his observation aimed more at their mother, now ascending the step-treadles upon the aftercastle with noiseless, almost floating steps beneath her light skirt. 

She came up behind her son, draping the boy’s own cloak over him, then spinning the lad ‘round and fastening his cloak snugly with her nimble fingers. Draped over her arms she had Abi’s cloak, and with a stern clearing of her throat, their mother beckoned her bold daughter with a wave of her hand. Begrudgingly, Abi relented, obeyed, and let her mother, despite her fidgeting, to fasten her small cloak too. 

“It’s not that cold, Mama…” huffed Abi poutingly, tugging at the stiff collar and scratching her neck to make her point at her discomfort. 

“You’ll thank me when you wake up the next morn and your throat isn’t sore, Abi.” Her mother affirmed in her gentle, firm correction. 

Remembering herself now, the mother, a willowy woman of small but graceful stature, now spun her tasseled shawl, heavy with its own brocade of green silks of various hue and shade, and covered herself. 

“You both should be in bed…” came their mother’s soft chide, her brow raised slightly, her shapely lips pursed into an expectant frown. Her eyes turned onto her husband, waiting for him to second her motion. 

But she found no ally in her mate. Instead, he shrugged his shoulders, and raised his upturned palms in a resigned gesture. “Beloved,” he chuckled softly, motioning with his eyes onto an Abi beaming with a triumphant, toothy grin, “I fear we’ve been beat. Abi has decided the night will be spent in her study of the stars.” He then turned his eyes onto Ruvi with a gentle smirk, knowing well the lad’s answer but asking nonetheless. “Well, Ruvi- what say you? What do you vote?”

Now excited by the family’s congregating at such a novel hour on deck, the young boy found his mind sparked by the novelty of staying up past his bedtime and joining in a “grown-up” pursuit. He nodded. But not too eager. He did not wish to betray his enthusiasm as Abi did. He wanted to assume his father’s gravity. Ruvi prided himself on being, in his childish assumption, the graver of the two. 

Their mother let a “hmm” hum through her lips. “You both haven’t your slippers on, “ she began, eyeing her children’s bare feet, more concerned than displeased with her sigh and shake of her head. “We are no longer in the Southern Straits- it’s colder where we are headed, “observed the mother, “Perhaps we ought to conduct this lesson in the observatory?”

Gathering his board, scrolls, and other instruments, her husband turned from the railing and nodded, as he uneasily eyed how their breaths were forming wisps of mist like incense smoke. It was becoming far too cold, especially for two small children on deck. 

“My intention along, beloved. Lead the way- you have the keys.”