Housekeeping
Terry is finally at sea and on his way to the Easter Empire! I don’t know that this will be a worry free voyage…
The Blowhard
Terry awoke to the rocking of the ocean and the smells and sounds of the sea coming from somewhere. He opened his eyes and he was in a small bed made into the wooden wall of the Blowhard. Sitting there watching him was Lydia.
“Well hello there,” she said, a smile finally replacing a look of worry on her face.
“Uh, hi.” Terry managed to look around. It wasn’t a huge cabin, but it was well furnished and the window, porthole, whatever, was open to let the breeze in.
“I was worried when you didn’t wake up,” Lydia said, face going serious. “I had the ship’s surgeon take a look at you, but he said other than a bruise on your back you were fine. I had them put you in my quarters so you could at least be comfortable.”
Terry looked under the covers and was relieved to find he still wore his shirt and boxers.
“Thank you. I heal pretty quick.”
“I noticed,” she said, leaning forward. “The bruise healed nearly before our eyes as we discussed why you were unconscious.”
He managed to get into a sitting position on the small bunk. “Oh, that. I’m still trying to figure out how this magic thing works. I never had training so it’s still new to me. When I use too much at once I pass out. I really am getting better at it though. How long was I out?”
“Two hours.” She watched him intently, never blinking. “What are you, Terry?”
He laughed. “Apparently I’m a Spell Blade. Or that’s what Arthur calls me.”
“No you’re not,” she said. “Terry, I employed a Spell Blade on this ship for two years. He was fast, strong, graceful, and wonderful in bed but he wasn’t capable of doing what I saw you do this morning.”
He felt cold. This was dangerously close to talk of Paladins again.
“I’m an Errant Apprentice, Mistress Lydia. I just try to help people. I’ve never wondered about how any of this works until recently.”
She nodded, then put a hand on his knee. He shivered.
“Terry, I’m not going to mince words. I’d love for you to join my crew. I know you say you’re looking for your betrothed, but I could certainly use you here.”
He knew his face was as red as a tomato. Lydia made shooing gestures with her other hand.
“Not like that! Well, not just like that. There are dangers in the ocean. You could help me to protect this ship and her crew. I could have the guaranteed safest ship on the Great Sea with you here! We would a fortune, and we make an amazing team. We seem to get along very well.”
“Lydia,” he said, and she colored when he said it, “I’ve had a lot of offers to turn aside on this journey so far.”
“Well aren’t you popular.” She had a devilish grin and he looked away. He was smiling himself.
“I suppose. The point is I’ve, uh, been propositioned by someone in nearly every village and town I’ve stopped in. The daughter of the emperor hinted at a wedding offer.”
Lydia’s expression dipped for a moment into disappointment before she masked it.
“I see. You certainly have better offers.”
Terry cursed his own honesty. “I need you to understand something about me, Lydia. I don’t lie. Ever. So believe when I say that if any offer has tempted me even remotely, it wasn’t a princess’s, and you’re a very lovely woman.”
She arched an eyebrow at that. She looked hopeful.
“BUT,” he said, “I can’t turn aside from what I’m doing.”
“Your Delores must be something,” she said quietly.
“She is. And I made a vow.”
She sat up, a look of concern on her face. “A vow?”
He nodded. “I swore to her, well, ON her that I would try to survive anything that happened to me and to return to her. She was thrown here from the wide world and I’ve come after her. We both went through a lot to be together. I can’t let it end without trying to find her.”
That seemed to finally change something in her. Lydia squeezed his knee and smiled.
“You noble fool. Vows are sacred. I would never have someone break one for me, regardless of what I wanted.” Her face colored again. “I’m sorry, Terry. I’ve been at sea alone for a long time, and you are an extremely attractive young man. You can’t blame a girl for trying.”
He put a hand on hers. “No. I don’t suppose I can. I hope you find someone that makes you happy, Lydia.”
“Can we be friends at least? Or has my wanton lust soured you on my presence?” The smile on her face was a relief.
Terry laughed. “Absolutely we can be friends.”
“Wonderful! Get your clothes on. I’m going to introduce you to the Captain now.”
“This is because I turned you down, isn’t it?”
“You’re smart when you want to be.” She laughed, stood, and walked for the door. “Afterward, I’ll show you your quarters. We didn’t have time to pick up any more travelers so you get the finest we have. Besides mine, of course. But you managed to talk your way out of those.”
Then she left the cabin and Terry sagged where he sat. If anyone could have given Delores a run for her money, it might have been Lydia. When she hadn’t been flirting the last few days, they’d gotten along shockingly well. He was ecstatic that they could be friends, though. Terry rose from the bed feeling happier than he had in days and got dressed. That mood lasted until he got in the hallway and remembered he was going to meet Captain Spalding.
Lydia leaned against the wall beside the door outside with a smile and Terry took a deep breath.
“The Captain’s an ogre, isn’t he. Or an orc. Or some kind of nonhuman, right?” he asked.
“No. Nothing like that. He’s on deck though and waiting for you.”
They climbed the ladder to the upper decks and the first thing Terry saw was Arthur at the rail, watching the ocean. The second thing he saw was Gella crashing into him with a hug.
“Terry! I was so worried! Are you ok now?”
Terry lifted the girl up and engulfed her in a bear-hug.
“I’m fine. Sorry to scare you like that. Just put a little too much ‘oomph’ into that one.”
The girl leaned back and looked at him and the wonder on her face made him uncomfortable.
“That was amazing! When I get older, will I be able to do that?!”
Terry sighed. “I doubt it, but I’ll teach you everything else I can.”
He sat her down on the deck again and she latched onto his hand.
“WELL!” a voice rang out from the quarter deck. “If it isn’t the the man that saved my boat and murdered my insurance claims! Welcome aboard!”
Terry turned and saw Captain Spalding for the first time.
“Oh,” he said quietly. “He’s an idiot.” The small movements of Lydia’s mouth said she was trying not to laugh.
The Captain was dressed in a black formal suit with what Terry called a Colonel Sanders tie. He had a giant bushy mustache and eyebrows, wore glasses and a pith helmet, and he stood there so erect that he was almost bending backward. He had a hand tucked into his shirt like Napoleon. The whole thing looked vaguely familiar to Terry but he couldn’t say why.
“Captain Spalding?” Terry said, climbing the ladder to the quarter deck and holding out a hand. “Terry Lingal, Errant Apprentice. Have I seen you somewhere before?”
“I don’t know,” the Captain said, grabbing Terry’s hand, “I’m not sure I’m seeing you now. You might be something I ate.”
The man started shaking Terry’s hand so violently that he nearly shook out of his duster. As soon as he let go, Captain Spalding reached into his inside coat pocket and pulled something out.
“Cigar?” the man asked.
“I, uh, I don’t smoke.”
“Huh, must not be flammable,” he said, tossing the thing over his shoulder to roll off the deck and into the ocean. “At any rate Mister Lingal, I look forward to having you for dinner tonight in my cabin. Given the size of you I’ll have to skip some meals and there’ll be left overs. Now please excuse me, I have a crew to oversee. Or a sea to over-crew.”
The man turned and did the strangest walk away from him that Terry had ever seen. He leaned forward and seemed to walk as a way to keep from falling on his face. He managed to make it down the ladder and then below decks.
Terry looked around in confusion. Gella was staring after the short Captain. Arthur looked amused. Lydia was openly smiling.
“What do you think of Captain Spalding?”
“He’s not an idiot,” Terry said, coming to a sudden realization. “He’s insane.”
She snapped her fingers and pointed at him.
“THAT is why he’s dangerous, and THAT is why we keep him below decks until we hit open water.”
Terry shook his head. Two months on a ship with that man. He hoped he survived. He hoped Captain Spalding survived. He walked back down to the main deck and sighed. The crew were busy with there tasks but they already seemed more at ease with Spalding back below decks. Terry just found a coil of line next to one of the two masts, and sat on it.
Lydia walked over and leaned down into his face giving him a smirk. She still wasn’t hiding her cleavage. Terry ignored it.
“Welcome aboard, hero.” With that, she patted him on the head and walked away to see to the ship.
“The Captain is weird, Terry,” Gella said, sitting on the deck next to him.
“The man IS more than I expected. He talks like you do, Terrance.”
Terry looked up at Arthur in confusion. “What?”
“Fast talk with nothing I understand.”
“Yeah. Yeah, I get that.” Terry couldn’t shake his initial feeling of the man. “Arthur, can people be reborn in the Everywhen? Like, if someone died in the wide world, could they come back here? Maybe they wouldn’t know they had?”
Arthur leaned against the nearby railing and thought for a long moment.
“That I don’t know. I believe that would require outside observation. Someone familiar with things in both worlds.” He looked at Terry. “We have two months for me to teach you about this world. Maybe you can decide on an answer yourself.”
Terry nodded.
“Do you think you’ll ever go home? When you find Delores, are you going to leave?” Gella asked. Terry watched her try to not show the worry she felt, but Terry knew it was there. He leaned against the mast. It was something he’d been wondering himself lately.
“I don’t know, Gella. I suppose that depends on Delores. I might not have a reason to go back.”
“Would you miss it?”
He had to think on that again. He was surprised at how difficult a question that was for him.
“Yeah. I would.” He looked down at the girl. “If I went back, at least for a visit, would you want to come with me?”
Arthur’s head shot up at that, and Terry turned to him.
“Do humans not leave here?” Terry asked.
“Not that I’ve heard, no,” the old man said. “There’s no law I’m aware of saying we couldn’t. It’s just not something anyone has ever wanted to do. That’s for the creatures you call Fantastics and most of those settlers left during the Awakening. That was many centuries ago.”
Centuries. It was fifty years back home. That time difference meant you had the real possibility of losing everything you knew and loved. He looked back at Gella. She didn’t have anyone besides him now.
“Well, Squirt, would you want to go with me for a visit?”
The girl looked away as if mildly offended by the new nickname.
“That depends, Master Lingal, on what happens in Tir-Na-Nog. Doesn’t it? Perhaps I’ll be too busy training. Or learning. I’m sure they have wonderful facilitates for both there.”
“Oh, certainly better than an old man and a head strong youth,” Arthur said with a rare smile for the girl.
“Still. Be a shame if you missed out on hamburgers,” Terry added in mock concern.
“I… Maybe I could go. For a little while.” Gella said, trying her best to sound decisive.
Terry just chuckled. He leaned back again, closed his eyes, breathed in the ocean air, and tried to relax knowing that below decks was someone that probably shouldn’t exist.