Butter Rum. Ambrosia. (Horizon Tales)
AUTHOR: Shrimp
CHALLENGE: Butter Rum 1. shiver me timbers; Ambrosia 16. "'Excellently observed,' answered Candide; 'but we must cultivate our garden.'"
WORD COUNT: 1424
RATING: PG-13
NOTES: Once Vala leaves Uniss she winds up on the smuggling ship The Merchant's Mirage as, essentially, a cabin boy. It's not totally what she imagined life away from home would be. There's some rough patches.
When Ekvy found her, much to her shame, she was crying. Fat, hot tears rolling down her face into the bucket between her legs. She sniffed and looked up at him both of them frozen in shock. Vala with her hands plunged into the lukewarm soapy water she was currently using to wash clothes. Ekvy with a new load of clothes in his arms and a bucket of “fresh” water being pushed along with one foot. For a moment, from the way he stared wide eyed and disbelieving, she thought he was just going to turn around and leave. She wouldn’t have minded. It would give her a chance to compose herself. The last thing she needed was to appear even more inept than she already was. To her surprise, and maybe to his own, Ekvy tossed the dirty clothes into the never dwindling pile to Vala’s side and hunkered down across from her with the pair of buckets between them.
“C’mon, it doesn’t look so bad.” He smiled at her as he spoke. His mouth was small and gave the impression of being crammed too full of teeth that seemed too sharp. It robbed the gesture of some of its comfort. Vala lifted a hand from the bucket and flicked the soap suds off onto him. She rubbed the scab filled stubble that remained on her head and then used her wrist to wipe around her eyes.
“It isn’t about that,” she argued, a little offended that he would even think her hair was her concern.
“Oh good. Because it looks pretty bad.” The joke did little to lift her mood and she went back to scrubbing the clothes. “What’s the matter?” Ekvy asked earnestly. He reached over and grabbed a shirt from the pile and proceeded to begin washing it in his bucket.
“I don’t belong here,” she confessed. Vala hesitated to continue but the words needed to be said. “I’m getting out the next stop on land we make.”
“What? You get sick and that’s the end to your nautical career? What’re you gonna do? Find a ship headed back to Uniss? You might be waiting awhile.” Ekvy was speaking quickly, his tone defensive. She could tell he didn’t want her to leave. Partly she knew because then the bulk of the work she had taken up would fall right back onto his shoulders. Partly she thought it was because they had become friends. That was what would make leaving the hardest. He was the only friend she had ever had that didn’t know her as Vala Dorsett, that didn’t have a preconceived notion of her in their head.
“I’ll figure it out.” She shrugged and pulled out the pants she had been scrubbing to inspect that the stains were gone. They weren’t. They never were. She sighed and shoved them back into the water. “I thought this was what I wanted but it’s just… not like how I imagined.”
Vala had grown up on tales of her nomadic sailing family. She had been in boats and ships since before she had been on a horse. Every inch of her screamed of sea air and salt water. But there were other things, things she hadn’t expected when she turned her back on dry land and Shore Shine. The food, or lack thereof, as one. How many dry biscuits and salted meat could a person eat? The work was another. She had expected to work. She had been eager for it. But the work that the captain gave her was menial and endless. Washing clothes, scrubbing the deck, carrying lifting dragging things around. She was the newest addition to the crew and the lowest of the low. While Vala could sail and fish and fight her hands had never scoured or soaked. They were red and cracked from the harsh soap and the hot water and the amount of things needing cleaning never wavered. Finally, there was the danger that loomed mundane but ever present, the scathing opinions of her from her crewmates, and the filth and illness that clung to the ship.
“Nothing is ever how you imagine it to be,” Ekvy responded darkly. She looked up, startled by the sound. He was glaring into the soapy water, his arms submerged to his elbows and his sleeves soaking in with what he was washing. He blinked and peered up at her through the gray bangs that had fallen across his eyes. “I didn’t imagine I’d be stuck a boy on a ship forever. Even with you here I’m still treated like new trash. They’ll never let me move up. I never imagined that the world would define and judge me based on things that can’t be helped.”
“It has to do with who your father was, right?” Vala asked. Her words were soft, halting almost as she spoke them. She had heard snippets of conversations, half formed phrases and gossip from the men. She had seen the way they gave him berth while simultaneously keeping him under foot. Ekvy had encouraged the captain to take her on board in an attempt at lessening the harsh treatment he received by offering a second target. It hadn’t worked as well as he would have liked.
“My father,” he began with the closest thing to hesitation she had ever seen on his face, “was a Mer.” Vala could read the shame on his usually well guarded features. He was looking at her like he expected her to spit on him or hit him.
“You’re a Merman?” He nodded. Her mind reeled. She looked at him closely, taking every aspect of his face and body. Ekvy was small, well boned, with large sad eyes the color of a black empty sky. His ears, his nose, his fingers and toes were all long and spindly. His hair was a dirty gray, his skin an ashy brown. She saw nothing on him that bespoke the Mermen she had heard about it stories. “But…” She squinted, thinking maybe there really was something to the strangeness of his teeth.
“What?” Ekvy leaned away from her inquisitive stare. He looked uncomfortable. She leaned back, took her hands from the bucket, and wiped them on the nearest and cleanest looking piece of laundry.
“I don’t think what I think a Merman is is what a Merman actually is,” she admitted. “Mostly because where I come from they’re considered make believe.” He huffed and rolled his eyes. Her ignorance seemed to bolster him slightly.
“Uniss has got to be the most backwards place I’ve ever heard of. Is there anything they think isn’t make believe?” Vala shrugged half heartedly. She missed her home despite it all. She missed her family. “Mers are just people like anyone else. Except no one likes them cause they’re a bit weird looking and like to stay amongst themselves. They live on islands made of stuff other people throw away. They’re good swimmers and can hold their breath longer than most.” He shook his hand free of the soapy water. “My being half of one makes me a pretty easy target for getting hated on.”
“My family doesn’t really raise horses,” Vala blurted. Ekvy looked at her with a pointedly raised eyebrow.
“Do go on,” he encouraged. She bit her lip a little and wondered what she was doing. She had always had a hard time keeping her mouth shut. Keeping her origin a secret had done much except ensure she was treated with the same amount of disdain any runaway teenaged girl might have been treated among smugglers. She was planning on leaving anyway and Ekvy was her friend. He had just shared his secret with her. Telling him the truth about her life was only fair.
“My family…” She struggled with how to begin. “We’re nobles.”
“Nobles?’
“My father is a lord, my mother a lady. We own land, a castle, money. I… ran away.” Ekvy leveled her with a searching, nearly suspicious look. She wondered if he was looking in her face for the hint of nobility the way she had examined him for the hint of Mer blood.
“So what you’re saying is that you’re an idiot.”
“What? No, I’m-“
“It makes sense, really.” He smirked and gripped his chin in his damp hand thoughtfully. Vala calmed the surging need to explain herself. He was joking with her. She had revealed her most carefully guarded secret and it hadn’t changed the way he acted around her. “You’re piss poor at washing clothes.”
CHALLENGE: Butter Rum 1. shiver me timbers; Ambrosia 16. "'Excellently observed,' answered Candide; 'but we must cultivate our garden.'"
WORD COUNT: 1424
RATING: PG-13
NOTES: Once Vala leaves Uniss she winds up on the smuggling ship The Merchant's Mirage as, essentially, a cabin boy. It's not totally what she imagined life away from home would be. There's some rough patches.
When Ekvy found her, much to her shame, she was crying. Fat, hot tears rolling down her face into the bucket between her legs. She sniffed and looked up at him both of them frozen in shock. Vala with her hands plunged into the lukewarm soapy water she was currently using to wash clothes. Ekvy with a new load of clothes in his arms and a bucket of “fresh” water being pushed along with one foot. For a moment, from the way he stared wide eyed and disbelieving, she thought he was just going to turn around and leave. She wouldn’t have minded. It would give her a chance to compose herself. The last thing she needed was to appear even more inept than she already was. To her surprise, and maybe to his own, Ekvy tossed the dirty clothes into the never dwindling pile to Vala’s side and hunkered down across from her with the pair of buckets between them.
“C’mon, it doesn’t look so bad.” He smiled at her as he spoke. His mouth was small and gave the impression of being crammed too full of teeth that seemed too sharp. It robbed the gesture of some of its comfort. Vala lifted a hand from the bucket and flicked the soap suds off onto him. She rubbed the scab filled stubble that remained on her head and then used her wrist to wipe around her eyes.
“It isn’t about that,” she argued, a little offended that he would even think her hair was her concern.
“Oh good. Because it looks pretty bad.” The joke did little to lift her mood and she went back to scrubbing the clothes. “What’s the matter?” Ekvy asked earnestly. He reached over and grabbed a shirt from the pile and proceeded to begin washing it in his bucket.
“I don’t belong here,” she confessed. Vala hesitated to continue but the words needed to be said. “I’m getting out the next stop on land we make.”
“What? You get sick and that’s the end to your nautical career? What’re you gonna do? Find a ship headed back to Uniss? You might be waiting awhile.” Ekvy was speaking quickly, his tone defensive. She could tell he didn’t want her to leave. Partly she knew because then the bulk of the work she had taken up would fall right back onto his shoulders. Partly she thought it was because they had become friends. That was what would make leaving the hardest. He was the only friend she had ever had that didn’t know her as Vala Dorsett, that didn’t have a preconceived notion of her in their head.
“I’ll figure it out.” She shrugged and pulled out the pants she had been scrubbing to inspect that the stains were gone. They weren’t. They never were. She sighed and shoved them back into the water. “I thought this was what I wanted but it’s just… not like how I imagined.”
Vala had grown up on tales of her nomadic sailing family. She had been in boats and ships since before she had been on a horse. Every inch of her screamed of sea air and salt water. But there were other things, things she hadn’t expected when she turned her back on dry land and Shore Shine. The food, or lack thereof, as one. How many dry biscuits and salted meat could a person eat? The work was another. She had expected to work. She had been eager for it. But the work that the captain gave her was menial and endless. Washing clothes, scrubbing the deck, carrying lifting dragging things around. She was the newest addition to the crew and the lowest of the low. While Vala could sail and fish and fight her hands had never scoured or soaked. They were red and cracked from the harsh soap and the hot water and the amount of things needing cleaning never wavered. Finally, there was the danger that loomed mundane but ever present, the scathing opinions of her from her crewmates, and the filth and illness that clung to the ship.
“Nothing is ever how you imagine it to be,” Ekvy responded darkly. She looked up, startled by the sound. He was glaring into the soapy water, his arms submerged to his elbows and his sleeves soaking in with what he was washing. He blinked and peered up at her through the gray bangs that had fallen across his eyes. “I didn’t imagine I’d be stuck a boy on a ship forever. Even with you here I’m still treated like new trash. They’ll never let me move up. I never imagined that the world would define and judge me based on things that can’t be helped.”
“It has to do with who your father was, right?” Vala asked. Her words were soft, halting almost as she spoke them. She had heard snippets of conversations, half formed phrases and gossip from the men. She had seen the way they gave him berth while simultaneously keeping him under foot. Ekvy had encouraged the captain to take her on board in an attempt at lessening the harsh treatment he received by offering a second target. It hadn’t worked as well as he would have liked.
“My father,” he began with the closest thing to hesitation she had ever seen on his face, “was a Mer.” Vala could read the shame on his usually well guarded features. He was looking at her like he expected her to spit on him or hit him.
“You’re a Merman?” He nodded. Her mind reeled. She looked at him closely, taking every aspect of his face and body. Ekvy was small, well boned, with large sad eyes the color of a black empty sky. His ears, his nose, his fingers and toes were all long and spindly. His hair was a dirty gray, his skin an ashy brown. She saw nothing on him that bespoke the Mermen she had heard about it stories. “But…” She squinted, thinking maybe there really was something to the strangeness of his teeth.
“What?” Ekvy leaned away from her inquisitive stare. He looked uncomfortable. She leaned back, took her hands from the bucket, and wiped them on the nearest and cleanest looking piece of laundry.
“I don’t think what I think a Merman is is what a Merman actually is,” she admitted. “Mostly because where I come from they’re considered make believe.” He huffed and rolled his eyes. Her ignorance seemed to bolster him slightly.
“Uniss has got to be the most backwards place I’ve ever heard of. Is there anything they think isn’t make believe?” Vala shrugged half heartedly. She missed her home despite it all. She missed her family. “Mers are just people like anyone else. Except no one likes them cause they’re a bit weird looking and like to stay amongst themselves. They live on islands made of stuff other people throw away. They’re good swimmers and can hold their breath longer than most.” He shook his hand free of the soapy water. “My being half of one makes me a pretty easy target for getting hated on.”
“My family doesn’t really raise horses,” Vala blurted. Ekvy looked at her with a pointedly raised eyebrow.
“Do go on,” he encouraged. She bit her lip a little and wondered what she was doing. She had always had a hard time keeping her mouth shut. Keeping her origin a secret had done much except ensure she was treated with the same amount of disdain any runaway teenaged girl might have been treated among smugglers. She was planning on leaving anyway and Ekvy was her friend. He had just shared his secret with her. Telling him the truth about her life was only fair.
“My family…” She struggled with how to begin. “We’re nobles.”
“Nobles?’
“My father is a lord, my mother a lady. We own land, a castle, money. I… ran away.” Ekvy leveled her with a searching, nearly suspicious look. She wondered if he was looking in her face for the hint of nobility the way she had examined him for the hint of Mer blood.
“So what you’re saying is that you’re an idiot.”
“What? No, I’m-“
“It makes sense, really.” He smirked and gripped his chin in his damp hand thoughtfully. Vala calmed the surging need to explain herself. He was joking with her. She had revealed her most carefully guarded secret and it hadn’t changed the way he acted around her. “You’re piss poor at washing clothes.”