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Internet Message Format | 1995-04-04 | 11KB

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From: Marshall Ryan Maresca <[e-mail]>
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.archives
Subject: STORY: Voyage of the Spirit of Fire, Part Two
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Date: 3 Apr 1995 10:28:40 -0400
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    "After four weeks of sailing east, we were still surrounded by
nothing but ocean.  We still had enough supplies for another eight
weeks, so I wasn't worried just yet.  At least, I wouldn't have
been, if it weren't for the clouds.  They had been getting darker
for the past three days, and the build up of the impending storm
was... incredible.  It was the kind of storm you could feel coming
in your bones.  We made every attempt to prepare for it, but there
are some storms that no ship can take.
    "The storm finally hit at night, and hard.  The wind, rain and
hail battered the ship like...   I can't even think of comparison.
 It was an awe-inspiring storm, though.  Most of the crew had
taken shelter below decks, and while the rest of us tried to do
the same, we didn't have that luxury.  Neel refused to go under,
tying himself to the deck with three ropes and keeping his hands
on the helm.  Now, I've been on a lot of ships during storms,
but this was one of the bravest things I've seen done by a captain.
 Too many just order the bo'sun up there and be short a bo'sun
when the weather cleared.  Not Neel, though.  I had the good sense
to put myself below deck, at least when the storm started.
    "I was making the attempt to rest when the bo'sun came into my
quarters, out of breath, gasping, 'Master Solrhat!  The mast...
it's not going to take this!'  I'll admit, I was a little annoyed
by the intrusion, but I did my best to stay calm.  'What can we
do about it?'  I almost had to shout to be heard over the roar
of the wind and rain outside.  The bo'sun got all wide eyed at
this point, saying, 'Master Jolsan... he climbed out on deck to
help the cap'n.'.
    "Now I was upset.  Jolsan wasn't fully recovered from the wound
the Turjin had given him, and even in full health he shouldn't
be going out in weather like this.  As foolish as it was, I of
course, had a responsibility towards him.  I told the him to get
me a rope, and he was so shocked that I had to tell him again
before he moved.
    "I met the bo'sun again at the hatchway, and tied the rope around
my waist twice.  As I climbed up I told the him to pull me back
in five minutes, regardless.  He nodded and I went out.
    "Like I said, it was a horrible storm.  It seemed I couldn't see
more that three inches away, and when I shouted out to Jolsan
and Neel, I couldn't even hear myself.  I started to crawl to
where the helm was.  It seemed to take an eternity, and I was
afraid that the bo'sun would start to pull me back before I even
reached the helm.  But I guess it just seemed longer than it actually
was.  I found Neel by grabbing on to him by accident.   He wasn't
dead, but that was a miracle of the Elements.  One of the three
ropes holding him had broken, and he was tossed by the winds all
over the deck and battered senseless.  As near as I could figure,
he held onto the helm with every ounce of power he possesed, because
both hands were still clutched tight around the pegs of the wheel,
which had broken off.  The wheel itself was spinning out of control,
and I could tell we were starting to tip.  Pulling a knife from
Neel's boot, I cut the rope that had already broken from his body
and tied that to the wheel, which helped keep it in place.
    "The next issue was the mastpole.  The bo'sun was right-- I could
feel it was cracked about halfway through already.  It wouldn't
be long before the whole thing fell.  I tried looking up at it
to think of a way to keep that from happening when lightning flashed
overhead, and for that instant I could see Jolsan shimmying up
the mastpole with a rope in his teeth.  I'm not sure what exactly
he was trying to do, but it was the craziest thing I had ever
seen anyone do.  I tried to shout up to him, but at that moment
an enormous wave crashed over the deck and I was knocked off to
the side, my mouth filled with saltwater.  I tried to regain my
balance, but the wind pushed me further over the railing.
    "I fell for about fifteen feet when the rope went taught and I
dangled over the ocean.  The waves kept smashing up against me,
knocking me against the side of the ship.  I wasn't able to get
my bearings too well, and I really thought that I was going to
be killed by either the water or smashing against the hull..
Then I began to note a definite sensation of moving upwards.
The bo'sun, bless his soul, was pulling!  I scrambled to grab
onto the side railing and pull myself onto the relative safety
of the deck.
    "The rope broke.
    "I started to fall again, but luckily I had a grip on the railing
this time.  I can imagine that the bo'sun was probably in full
panic at this point when the frayed end of the rope came through
the hatch.  But I wasn't concerned about him, to be quite honest.

    "I had managed to climb back over onto the deck and was clutching
onto the railing when the mastpole made a horrendous noise as
the whole thing fell over onto the foredeck.  It broke through
a number of levels, into the cargo hold, and made a good hole
in the side of the ship.  I scrambled best I could over to it,
hoping that it hadn't killed the captain, Jolsan or anyone else.
 When I got over there I could see that wasn't the case; several
crewmen had been smashed by the falling pole, or fallen out the
hole in the side, which thankfully was higher than the water outside.
 I climbed  down to the cargo hold to find Jolsan.  He was dead,
crushed by the pole.  Despite the wind and rain and hail, I bowed
my head and said a prayer for my brother's soul.  There was the
touch of a hand on my shoulder, and I turned to see the last person
I would have expected.
    "It was a Turjin woman.
    "I found this particularly hard to fathom, since I had never seen
a Turjin woman before.  I don't think anyone has since the Turjin
keep them locked away indoors all the time.  Strange people, the
Turjin.  But I've said that.  Anyway, the only way I could tell
she was Turjin was because her skin was that same dark brown color
that theirs are, and she didn't have clothes.  It was odd, I recall,
that despite the fact that I was in the most powerful storm I
have ever seen, my life was probably in danger, and my brother
had just been killed that this piece of trivia about the Turjin
disgust in clothed women would cross my mind in that instant.
 But the brain works in strange manners.  Either way, since my
command of the Turjin language was limited to 'Hello', 'Thank
you' and 'Pay me now', I spoke to her in Fuergan, which was by
all rights a silly thing to do.
    "'What are you doing here?' I shouted over the storm.  She responded
by cowering back behind some of the barrels.  I wasn't sure exactly
what to make of this, but my brain was definitely not working
straight at this point.  However, some amount of gallantry must
have took me over, because I removed my own tunic and offered
it to her.  It was as drenched as I was, so it wasn't much of
an offer, but I did it just the same.  I don't think she knew
what to make of it, since she just stared at it without moving
from her hiding spot.  Again I made the offer, which was rather
silly since it was likely she didn't understand a word I was saying.
 But maybe she did, since this time she took it.
    "The bo'sun came in at this point, staring at the mastpole in
horror, and then he saw the Turjin and looked at her in horror.
 I'm not sure which scared him more, but either way he was frozen
by shock.  I yelled back to him, 'We've got to get the captain
under!'  He snapped away from his staring and his eyes widened,
asking, 'Cap'n's still alive?'.
    "'Last I checked,' I yelled, 'But that was before the mastpole
fell!'
    "'What about her?' he asked.  I just shook my head, 'We'll deal
with that later.'  We climbed back out onto the deck until we
reached Neel.  He was still alive, how I have no idea, but still
alive anyway.  We dragged him under deck, closed every port and
door we could, and holed up.
    "That evening was the worst for the storm, but it didn't break
entirely for three or four days.
    "Now, the Spirit was a good solid ship, but that storm, well--
I've already told you.  When we finally got a chance to survey
the damage, it was a miracle any of us survived.  There were seventeen
of us still alive, including the Turjin woman, whom no one could
talk to anyway, since Jolsan was the only one who spoke much Turjin.
 As for the ship itself, she was seaworthy, in the strictest sense
of the word, in that she was still staying above water.  Beyond
that she was in terrible shape.  With no main mastpole, we couldn't
sail properly, and she was so ripped apart that the hull wouldn't
have taken the strain, anyway.
    "And of course, worst of all, we were terribly off course."
    "So," said Honifet, "The sea does not reach Druthal."  He stood
up and dusted himself off.
    "I think, Jorchal, there is much more to this story than that,"
said the Magistrate.
     "That may be, Jertin, but I have little interest in hearing it."
    "Uncle!" shouted Solrhat in a voice of command that he did not
earlier possess, "You are witness to me and you will hear this
out!"  Giowen ab Honifet, strangely humbled and mesmerized, sat
back down.  The magistrate turned back to Solrhat.
    "You were off course," he said, "Where were you?"
    "As far as we could tell, we were quite south as well as east.
 Or so I recall Neel telling me.  I was still somewhat in the
Sorrow over Jolsan at the time."
    "Understandable."
     "Now, I thought at the time it would be best to turn around and
limp our way back home.  When I told Neel this, he disagreed.
 He thought that we were so far east that Druthal was actually
closer.  I figured he was right, but he may have been delirious.
 He was still all splinted up from the storm, but he'd be out
on the deck every day, shouting orders.
    "We continued east, then.  The Turjin girl, whose name, as far
as I could tell, was Lovatska, had taken up the occupation of
being my shadow.  I'm not entirely sure why, but she was not a
nuisance or anything, so I did not mind.  In fact, she seemed
quite talented with her hands-- she had taken some of the silk
silk from the stores below deck (which had, mind you, been through
quite a lot of abuse from the storm-- little retained its original
value) and created herself some sort of complicated wrap to wear.
She seemed quite happy with it, in fact I think it was the first
time she had ever gotten to wear anything, besides my rainsoaked
shirt.
    "We had five more days of this, and it was not easy.  Water and
food was rationed thinly, since much of our supplies were damaged nPin the
storm.  At the end of that time, I had had enough.