Shmeed's face continues to contort into an even deeper shade of anger. "You little-" He's cut off by a low booming laughter coming from behind me.
"My boy, I thought that you might need my help but it looks like you are doing alright." Isum says as I turned to look at him standing on the top of the stairs behind me, with his arms crossed on his chest. Then the hand still on my arm tightens even more, I bite my bottom lip, not wanting tears to escape.
"We're not done talking." I hear Schmeed say through a clenched jaw. Isum's face loses its amusement instantaneously.
"You are." Is all Isum has to say for Schmeed to let go, not that he looks happy about it though. I cradle my forearm in my hand as soon as he does. God, can't I stop getting hurt? At least long enough for my other wounds to heal?
Schmeed walks past me, and then Isum before going somewhere on deck. I sit down on the stairs to collect myself. I take in a deep breath, after having unknowingly held it for so long. Isum takes a seat next to me and pats my back a few times before speaking.
"My boy, you are going to be stuck on this ship for a while. I suggest you keep that spirit of yours." I almost let out a bitter laugh but nothing comes out as I find myself just feeling shitty about how week that just made me feel. My hand that's still cradling my throbbing arm grips the sleeve of my shirt a bit as I feel angry at myself for being the way I am. I close my eyes for a second thought, stopping myself for a moment. Just feeling sorry for myself isn't going to get me anywhere. I open my eyes again and find myself with new found determination.
"Can you teach me how to fight?" I ask, looking towards him with a serious tone, a questioning frown appearing on me. Isum looks at me a bit surprised. "I just want to be able to defend myself, on this boat I feel like that's something that I need to be able to do." I say thinking back to a few moments ago. Isum takes in a deep breath.
"You are not wrong my boy, everyone on this ship are here because they are the best of the best at what they do, and the one thing they all must know how to do is fight very well."He thinks for a moment before speaking again, a frown designates that he is deep in thought. "Well, I suppose I can help you out with the physical fighting but the captain is much better with technique than I am, I often win with brute strength more." Damn, I really don't want to see the captain right now, I just can't get that blood thirsty look out of my head. I push that thought out of my mind before talking again.
"Well can you at least help me get stronger and teach me the basics?" I see him hold back a laugh.
"My boy, you are very scrawny, I'll try to put some meat on those bones of yours but it won't be easy I'm afraid, and I suppose I could teach you the base of it all however if you want to get very good I suggest that after I help you, you talk to the captain." I just looked at him for a moment, not really wanting to answer just yet. For those bread seconds it felt like we were in a staring contest of sorts, and he was winning.
"Yea, alright." I say a little defeatedly. I mean that should allow me to steer clear of him for a few weeks at the very least.
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Most of the crew members are all in this area sleeping within the rows of hammocks underneath the deck. I'm currently in the one hanging above isums which made me feel safer than if i was sleeping over another crew member. I still remember how half of them were looking at me earlier today.
I have never slept in a hammock before so i'm having a hard time falling asleep. I always slept in a bed, and for the past nine years i've been sleeping in a bead fit for a king, or I guess in my cais, fit for a prince. Being exhausted is the least of my worries though. The result of not being able to sleep is that thoughts come flooding in and you have not way to shut them out.
I end up thinking back to a few days ago, when i was waking up in my bed and heading to a some ceremony in town with my mother. Those people, those god damn people. My mother's face, fear, so much fear. She covered me, protected me when the carriage was knocked over. It's still all a blur. I don't know whether my mother is alive or dead and I don't know how I got far enough from the people after me to run so far as the docks. I feel tears start to swell up in my eyes once again and my heart feels like it's being torn apart at the thought.
I hope she's ok.
The next morning I wake up to someone yelling at the top of their lungs for everyone to get up and get to work. Isum ends up giving me work that he thought would help with my strength, like moving boxes and moping for hours. When it's time for food I end up helping peal the ingredients and other odd jobs around the kitchen. I overhear a few of the crew members talking about the ship that had now been following us for a few days. Apparently we're helping them out or something.
About a week and a half passed with things staying relatively the same. I fell exhausted often from the lack of sleep every night and the insane amount of work i do around the ship every day. I manage to steer clear of the captain fairly well, but I could see that as the days go on he seems to get more and more agitated. Thought I don't know if that has anything to do with me or the ship behind us.
"Ah, Sebastian, perfect, I need you to do me a favour." I look around to see Alen coming towards me hastily. I stop moping the dec for a moment when he comes close. He's holding a package of papers in his hands with a death grip as the strong winds try there best to blow them away. It seemed as if it might rain soon. The grey sky made that very clear. "I need you to give these to the captain, i have to take care of something quickly before it becomes a mess." He gives me the papers before i have a chance to answer and starts walk off and yells back a thank you as he does. I just stand there with the papers in hand.
Well fuck. It hadn't even been two weeks yet and I was already being forced to see him again. I take a deep breath before going over to the middle mast and leaning the mop on it. I take a moment before walking towards to captain's quarters to try and calm myself. Ok, it's ok, just go in, give him the papers, and walk out, that's all, you're ok, you are ok. At first I walk slow but my nerves get to me and all I want to do is get this over with as soon as possible. Just before i knock on the door, I take in a deep breath of the salty sea air, a shiver runs up my spine from the chilly winds. Ok, here we go, just in and out, that's all. I knock and hear the captain's voice from the other side of the doar.
"Come in." I don't say anything and just open the doar. I hadn't been in this room befor now. This one was attached to his bedroom but is used as an office. A huge working table was in the middle of the room with large windows lining the back of it. Hundreds of books lined the walls, some with titles in languages i do not recognize. The captain sits at the dark brown desk that seems to have hand carved designs of mermaids on it, I find myself sporting a short smile as I see it. How pretty.
The captain didn't even look up when I walk in, he just continued to write something in a book while glancing at the papers next to him every once in awhile. He seems to be extremely concentrated on what he's working on. Maybe i can just leave the papers and he won't even notice it was me? Feeling a little better about being in the room I walk up to the desk and put the papers on it. As he looks up at the papers he stops when he sees my hand.
Oh fuck.
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