Chapter 17

After another few days of training and not really doing anything else besides cooking, you were able to hold off the most feeble of attackers. Many pirates on the sea had never received any true training, so three or four days with an experienced tutor was definitely doing you some good.

Then, one morning, you'd woken up and gone into the kitchen to begin cooking.

And then you saw them.

You screeched in terror.

The Captain's eyes shot open. Anika.

You fled up above deck, the whole ship awakened and grabbing their cutlasses and weapons.

The Captain was the first to reach you, and had hastily thrown on his captain's cloak over his clothes, and grabbed his blade. "Anika, Anika, are you alright? Has something happened? Are you hurt?"

A few tears rolled down your cheeks and you tried to slow down your panicked breathing enough to be heard clearly. "There's....they're down there....they're in the kitchen...I don't know...but they...how..."

"Anika, calm down." He said. "Hey, take a deep breath."

You started breathing heavier, still panicked.

"Hey, look at me." He said. "Anika, look at me and calm down. Everything's going to be fine, alright?"

You nodded slowly, regaining a little peace.

"You're going to be okay, I'm right here, nothing is going to hurt you. I'm right here with you. Take slow deep breaths and...good, now see, you're alright. Now tell me what happened."

You nodded. "Captain, there's something in the kitchen, they're...I don't even know what, it's just..." You looked around fleetingly.

"Hey, look at me. Anika, look at me. Anika. Look at me," he said soothingly. "You're alright. Just a little scared. So what was in the kitchen?"

You swallowed.

You had to catch your breath for a second.

And then you croaked, "there are bugs in the food!"

The crew, which had just arrived, all sighed or groaned simultaneously, dropping their weapons.

The Captain nodded slowly. "And I can see why that would be scary but..." he began to chuckle, "there's always maggots in the meat, alright?"

Your eyes widened. "What?" You turned pale.

"After so long at sea, the food starts going bad. So that just means you need to add more salt, got it?"

"What?! But there are maggots in the food!!"

"Yes there are. There always are. Now do you need a hug before you go back down and finish preparing the meat?" He was a bit sarcastic.

"Well gosh Captain, I'll need more than that!! It's disgusting to have anything in the meat!!"

"Listen, I know you're not used to spoiled food, so you'd better get used to it now. The first week at sea is great food-wise, but after that, things tend to go downhill. I'm surprised it lasted even this long."

"So you're still making me go salt maggot-infested meat?"

"Yes, because it's the only meat we have, Anika."

"Well then I'll go hungry!"

"But the rest of the crew won't. So you need to go prepare the meat."

"If you want the meat done that badly, then go do it yourself!!" You exclaimed angrily.

He narrowed his eyes.

The crew behind you tensed.

No one ever spoke to the Captain like that.

But he could never get mad at you.

There was a long, scary moment. "Anika, you should watch your tongue," he said slowly. "You're in shock. I was going to offer to assist you in how to figuring out how to fix it up, since it's your first time, but now..."

You looked downwards, shameful.

"...I don't know if I should."

You gave him a nod, not meeting his eye. "I apologize, Captain, sir. I should not have spoken sharply."

"No, you shouldn't have. Now go prepare the food."

"Yes sir, Captain."

As soon as the rest of the crew disappeared, off back to their quarters to sleep until the full sunrise, or to change their things, you were left to prepare the meat alone.

And the Captain joined you anyways.

And you must've thrown up three times through the whole process, each time the Captain laughing, but still holding your hand and helping you find your way through your first battle.

Even if that battle was against some bugs in a slice of meat.

.

~ ~ ~

.

That night, you dragged your feet into the Captain's quarters to get a good night's sleep. When you got there, the Captain was already asleep.

On the floor.

He'd taken your spot on the floor, but left his spare cot open. (His usual cot was lost in the storm, but he had a second.) At first you thought he must've rolled out of bed in one of his night terrors, but noticed he had never gotten into his cot, because his Captain's robe was folded neatly on top of it, untouched. As your blanket. I mean, there were other blankets, because you'd repurposed more womens' clothing into blankets, but the Captain had insisted all the blankets you'd made so far go to the crew.

He'd let you sleep in his nice cot, and use his cloak, that night while he took the hard floor with nothing to cover him but his own clothes.

You weren't about to wake him up, as you knew that the little sleep he got was precious to him, and he was being a serious space hog with the floor there, but didn't think it was very right to sleep in his cot... But if he really wanted to let you sleep there, then...

So you slept in the Captain's cot and cloak that night.

And after more than a week on the cold hard ground, you thought it was the comfiest bed you've ever slept in your whole life.

.

~ ~ ~

.

The next morning, you woke up, and he was gone.

You stumbled outside in the bright sunrise, and saw your Captain barking more orders to his obedient crew. Something about sailing due south.

"What's the hurry for?" you asked him, handing him his cloak, and helping him put it on his shoulders.

"What's a reason not?" he replied with a shrug.

"Huh?"

"Why not hurry?"

"Well, you're changing your course."

"Yes I am."

"Did...did I do something wrong?" you asked fearfully. You'd thought yesterday's meat incident had been cleared up, but maybe not...

"No, of course not. We're just changing the course."

"But why?"

"Because."

"So...where are we going?"

"Somewhere else."

"Where were we going to before?"

"Etholira."

Your heart sank. "Etholira? So you were going..."

"To take you home."

"So where are we going now?"

"We've changed directions."

"But Captain, I...I don't understand, have I...why?"

"Don't worry about it, Anika. We're going to take a...detour."

You swallowed.

So you weren't really going home anymore.

And just when it seemed like... You sighed.

The Captain spoke. "And you've slept in, it'd be much appreciated if you went and made up some food."

"Yeah," you said quietly. "Right." You turned and shuffled below deck to cook maggot-infested meat for a crew of pirates on a ship destined away from your home forever.

And just when you'd thought that maybe, just maybe...

Oh, never mind. You though wistfully. It's not as if that would ever happen anyways.