User blog:Leea/The Tale of Voronwe, Chapter 97

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4th Era 171, 7th of Second Seed, Abecean Sea
He heard a rattling sound behind him. It sounded like a chain sliding up against wood. Now wondering what was going on, he turned and looked.

The First Mate was beginning to haul up the anchor. He rushed up and halted him, grabbing his wrists forcefully.

"What in the gods' names are you doing?" he cried as the ship began starting to drift, the anchor apparently tugged out of the seabed enough to allow movement. They were drifting away from Summerset, but still in that little protection bubble. The First Mate let go of the chain, and with a rattle, it sunk back to the bottom. The ship stopped drifting.

"I'm getting us outta here," he gritted back. "He's got you and the rest of the crew brainwashed, thinking you're doing work for Auriel. Ha!"

he chuffed a laugh, so empty of humor it was as colorless as blankets in a prison cell. "The only way I see us coming out of this intact and with our lives and belongings is to leave now, while he's on business for his 'King'."

"And you think he's not going to find us again?" Kael asked, incredulous, torn between shock and anger. "He found us in the middle of nowhere. No one knew where we were, yet he found us. You think that he couldn't do it again?"

The First Mate barred his teeth. "All I know is that I'm not going ot let him rob this ship of everything we've worked so hard for. You noticed he talked about the Moon Sugar, yes?" He made another attempt at the anchor's chain, but Kael planted his hands on the man's shoulders and shoved him back. He stumbled backward a few paces with the force of the shove.

"That man has taken nothing since he came aboard." he insisted, and then: "The Moon Sugar would have gotten us a hefty profit, yet you seem more than interested in protecting it. Is there something you wish to confess to me?" His voice turned harder. "Have you been sampling the cargo?"

The dark-eye Altmer sneered. "In your dreams. I think you've been tasting it, by the way you've been acting ever since he talked about your gut." He stood straighter, lightning from outside the bubble around the ship lighting his red hair a nightmare purplish orange. "I'd bet that he appraised everything on this ship already. He's just waiting for his comrades to some and fetch the spoils. This whole 'rescue' is just a sham; he's waiting for the rest of his buddies to come and get our stuff."

"Would you listen to yourself!" Kael shouted over the din outside. It might have been calm in this warded bubble around the ship, but it was by no means quiet. It protected them from the power of the storm, but not the sounds. "There's practically nothing for him to steal, and the cargo is definitely not worth the trouble of this kind of ruse!"

"Be that as it may," he stated firmly, striding purposefully closer, "I'm still not letting our ancient enemies take control of this ship. We've worked too hard over the years just to let creatures like him come and take it in the 'name' of Auriel!" He planted his feet on the wood of the deck like he'd been nailed there. "I won't stand for it!"

Captain Kael drew his scimitar, holding its point to his Mate, halting any progress to the anchor's chain. "That Maormer is in no way in control here. This is still my ship. I control where she goes, where she stays, and right now she's staying here, because I want her to." he glared, ready to press the edge of his sword up against his First Mate's shirt to prove his point. "He may have asked us to steer towards Summerset and dock here off the shoreline nearly in the middle of it, but it was I that gave to orders that led us here." Captain Kael's mouth was a thin, agitated line above his beard. "He has saved us from the storm's fury and its tidal waves, and this is how you're going to repay him? And what of the person that's going to be saved? You would leave, letting whoever that is meet this horrible fate?"

Kael felt compelled - perhaps by his gut; these feelings seemed to originate from there - to defend the Maormer's honor. Also, he'd meant what he said, in more ways than one: he was still Captain of this ship, the Seagull's Catch, and no matter what, this was his desire to help Auriel and his messenger. He'd not been spelled into helping. He was also more than grateful to the man for saving his vessel: there was a lot of years on her, and though he could commission any ship building yard to build an exact copy of her, no one could ever replace his girl; the original Seagull's Catch. The memories (both good and bad and somewhere in between) were soaked into the wood like decorative stain: permanent and highly colorful.

His speech apparently moved the rest of the crew, as he saw them out of the corner of his eye nodding and murmuring, but not his First Mate. He made a sound like the chuff of a horse.

"He saved himself," he replied, dismissing Kael's entire arguement. "He could care less about the rest of us. We just happened to be on the boat he wanted."

Kael shook his head. "No." He then shot a searing glare at the Mate, who glared back. "Now, stop this foolishness and get back to your duties, or get your feet wet. Last warning."

Disbelief and indignation flooded through him at his First Mate's next words of choice: "If anyone's going to get their feet wet, it will be you, traitor!" he shouted over the thunderclaps, drawing his own saber and attacking.