Chapter 215: Hammocks and Carpet Tacks

Chapter 215: Hammocks and Carpet Tacks

Woodrat made the decision to head back to their little pile of wreckage and load up the ship's boat. A camp on the salad was too exposed a place at night and it bothered him. A group of charred sailors could attack, or a beastie from the smoke could find them, or the salad might get frisky. After a life at sea, he wasn’t comfortable without a deck under him. They made it back to the whaler as the light was starting to dim. It took very little work to rig chain to hoist up the ship’s boat above the deck. Then the two of them retired to what had been the captain's quarters. It was at least as comfortable as the decking they had been sleeping on and Woodrat intended to show his mate some things you could do with chains.

After a meal of cold shark and crunchy salad, Woodrat began a class on constructing a hammock out of chain. "There’s nothing more comfortable aboard a ship to sleep in, and using them makes it easy to fit several sailors one above the other to save space. There are endless ways to do it. Beginners tend to make a web of long strands with cross strands between them. Only the two outer chains need to be strong. The rest can be a light weave. You can tell an old hand by his hammock. Some will have a fine diamond weave where you couldn't fit a finger between the strands, and the best of us can make a weave so light and tight it looks like black broad cloth."This essence is securely nested within the heart of Nøv€lß¡n★

Woodrat produced a hammock that showed that he himself was an old hand, handling several strands of smoke at once, and quickly weaving them with his fingers like a loom, ending up with a comfortable looking bed that made Ozzy a bit jealous. He took the beginners method, making two stout chains and then many more spaced out between them with horizontal cross pieces. It didn't look like a hammock, more like something that was going to strangle him in the middle of the night. But it held him, and was a softer bed than the deck.

Woodrat woke him up in the morning with loud laughing. Ozzy's hammock had half dissolved and he woke tangled in his own ruined hammock, face down on the floor. He'd slept well at least. Ozzy dissolved the hammock, and had a question about the floor, which he had gotten a good look at when he awoke. "Why would they tack down an old rug to the floor?"

Woodrat was gnawing on a piece of shark and checking the windows that gave him a good view of the outside. Nothing was moving on the sargasso, but he saw movement around them in the smoke. He looked at where Ozzy was pointing at a worn piece of cloth that covered the floor. "Can't have a lose carpet on a ship, it would slide back and forth as the ship moved, especially in a storm, god forbid. Everything gets put down solid. A rug is for show, or to keep splinters out of a captain's toes. Some aren't as tough as you'd expect."

Woodrat lined up the three items. "I propose this: You take an item; I take an item. Then the third and the shells go into our chest to be split in port or used for things we both decide are needed for the ship."

Ozzy agreed. "Sounds fair. I'll take the heart. I could use some help with throwing a harpoon. You say I have to eat it?"

"Yep, eat it all. I'd suggest warming it with some heat and smoke first. It might make it less tough. And I'd do it when you have a bit of time to relax and rest. Most folk get some fierce muscle cramps after making a meal of a good whale heart."

Ozzy took him at his word on that and put the heart into his belt pouch. Woodrat cleaned out the hole of the shellcoins and made a makeshift satchel out of carpet and chain to hold it all. He handed it to Ozzy to pack. "Time to get to work. We have so many more ships to visit and loot, and maybe even find a proper boat to call our own."

Woodrat stepped out onto the deck of the whaler thinking of loot, and was totally surprised as the Kraken's tentacle wrapped around him and hoisted him into the air.