Logs:Impatience and Patience
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| RL Date: 1 May, 2015 |
| Who: Drex |
| Involves: High Reaches Hold, Tillek Hold |
| Type: Vignette |
| What: The sailors finally have their ship back, but not all is well. |
| Where: The High Seas |
| When: Day 1, Month 9, Turn 37 (Interval 10) |
| Mentions: Itsy/Mentions, Raum/Mentions, Devaki/Mentions, Vinien/Mentions, Sealene/Mentions, Farideh/Mentions |
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| Drex had never been good at patience. Waiting for rescue, waiting for their ship, waiting at dock, waiting, waiting, waiting. He'd much rather be doing. He was more than glad they had their ship back, no doubt of that. There had been grumblings about Itsy as a Captain, no doubt. He'd heard them in passing in the days after they set sail from High Reaches Hold -- though the others kept those thoughts to a low mutter after the first time he broke another sailor's arm when he heard the things they were saying about Itsy. He knew, in time, they'd come to see what he saw in Itsy: determination, drive, decisiveness. All of which made her the perfect Captain, the perfect pirate. But she was still a woman, to them. In some ways, having Devaki and his family on board helped quell any potential mutiny, though he rather suspected it as as much that red-headed guard's presence that kept the sailor's grumblings at bay as their Lord Holder. They'd arrived at Tillek just shy of three sevens after they set out, and had been there nearly a full seven. For his part, Drex didn't venture further than the bars at the docks. For once, when some of his fellow sailors sought the local whorehouse, he went with them, wondering if he could find a pretty, dark-haired girl... But somewhere along the way, something stopped him, and he quickly and wordlessly retreated back to the dock-side bar. Stupid, he berated himself, while drowning himself in another beer. He didn't explain to the others the sensation of tightness that gripped his heart whenever he ventured too far into Tillek. Didn't explain, because he couldn't, not to Itsy, not even to himself. He was afraid, and he didn't know why. When they finally left Tillek, he was more than relieved. It was like a weight lifted from him, finally able to breathe again. He watched them, now -- the Lord, his sleeves pushed back, lifting the boy up onto his shoulders, hearing him squeal with delight. The girl, trying to coax Lady Annoying from where she was crouched, in the safety under edge of the rowboat, glittering eyes unconvinced by her wheedling. The boy, he knew would come and find Drex later, as he did every day, and ask him for a story, or to climb the rigging, or tie a knot his sister couldn't untie, or to play swords with him. Vinien had an aptitude for the work, and if he were anyone else, Drex might suggest a life at sea for him. But that wasn't his path. Seeing Devaki playing with his kids made him think, for a moment, of Farideh. He wasn't sure why. He wondered how she was doing, at the Weyr, with that queen of hers. Would she even think of him, now that she was one of them? He shook himself. Stupid lardhead. As if a goldrider would want him. Besides, if he ever had children, he'd want them to be brought up on the sea, with him. Soon, they'd reach the Islands, and deposit their passengers. Itsy had said they would have time, then. Time to test out the ship, put her through her paces. Time, also, to shake up the crew, to rectify some mistakes. By the time they returned to the island to pick up the Lord, there would be no dissent, one way or another. Standing on the shifting deck of the Pirate Queen II, feeling the spray of water, the scent of the air, and the flip of his stomach every time the ship's bow dropped abruptly after the crest of a wave, he felt something heat in his gut that took him a moment to identify. Joy. |
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