Skip to main content
OF GODS AND MEN
Chapter 13: A Respite and A Warning

             Time passed very quickly on the Defiance.  Tarsus, Cecily and Finnian were growing accustomed to life on the high seas.  They had grown so much a part of the crew, in fact, that they were given the traditional black and gold uniforms of Defiance sailors.
            “Thank you all,” Tarsus said.  “I feel very welcome, and we haven’t been on this ship long.”
            “Sailors have to learn to be a crew very quickly,” Maurice, the sailor who had handed the three of them their new clothes, said.  “We stop so frequently and change out crew so often, that we have to be open to working with all sorts of folk.  This isn’t the life for someone who can’t be comfortable around other people.”
            “It’s funny, I am never comfortable around other people,” Cecily said.  “But it’s very easy being around all of you.”
            “Many thanks,” Maurice said with a smile.  “Especially since not all of us will be going on with you to the Under Isle.”
            “What?” Finnian exclaimed.
            “Tomorrow, we arrive at the last port our map shows, before venturing into uncharted open waters.  Some of us, including myself, will be taking our leave of the Defiance.  But don’t you worry, new crew will be brought on,” Maurice finished.
            “If this port is the last marked haven.  Then after tomorrow we must be heading straight for the Under Isle,” Cecily concluded.
            “Cassius says he knows the way,” Maurice agreed.
            “What are you leaving for?” Finnian asked of Maurice.
            “My wife,” Maurice answered.  “She gave birth to our first child.  She needs me.”
            “That’s fair enough, I suppose,” Finnian said as he surveyed Maurice up and down, as though reading the man’s answer on the man himself.
            “If you three didn’t have a quest of your own, I’d try to convince you to come with me.  But I know you would not.  Truth be told, I don’t think you’d be allowed to.”
            Maurice’s smile receded.  He turned his gaze on Cecily, giving her a heavy look and a small nod.  She nodded back. 
“Take care of yourselves,” Maurice continued, shaking hands with all three of them.  “Especially around Cassius.  I have sailed on this ship long enough to know that he can’t be trusted.”
The next day passed as Maurice said it would.  The Defiance dropped anchor in the morning.  Many sailors, including Maurice, left the ship as a batch of new ones came onboard. 
            Tarsus shook hands and talked pleasantly with the new men and women as they boarded.  He enjoyed it.  It occurred to him that he had been a crew member of the Defiance longer than any of them had.  They looked at him as though he belonged on the ship; like he was part of the original crew.  He realized how comfortable that felt, and for the first time since leaving, he was reminded of Briarden.
            A few days on, that feeling of perfection turned to one of pure bliss.  The sun was beginning to set on yet another perfectly clear day.  The ocean, living up to its namesake, was so reflective that it looked to Tarsus as though they were sailing on a mirror.  The blue sky and the yellow sun were perfectly recreated in the face of the Crystal Sea.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

OF GODS AND MEN Chapter 41: Pleasing to the Eye Adulatio sat in his golden throne, looking out in all directions at the isle that extended out from beneath the high hill on which his holy seat rested.   Supple palm and fir trees shone green in the golden sunlight.   As his eyes passed over them, they came to clear, grass-laden fields where lambs, dragons, and everything in between, sat beside each other on perfect harmony.   And further still; the white sands of the coast that gave way to the most opulent blue waters the world of men would never see. “For it is mine,” Adulatio said, in answer to his own thought.   “It is all mine.” The old god closed his eyes, reveling in this land: his land.   The power emanated from him, and the island responded.   The trees bent low, as if in bow, toward the seat on the high hill.   The animals in the fields sent up their voices in what should have been a cacophony, but was instead a beautiful harmony of unifi
1 comment
Read more

Aid

              The stalwart knight quickly rolled out of the way as two gargantuan masses of vines, branches and bare earth came crashing down upon him.   The creature they belonged to was comprised of little else, and it used these appendages as arms.             In frustration, the monster grew to its full height and threw back its head, as if to roar.   Instead of noise, however, the earth underneath it shook.   The young knight had been dodging the giant’s attacks for some time now, but this new development caught him off guard.   He fell on his face, still clutching his sword, and as he looked up at the beast before him he was finally able to see it in all of its horror.                It stood ten feet tall; a giant borne of the earth with a torso as wide as a tree trunk and legs that did not end in feet, but instead were grown out from the ground.   The tangle of vines and foliage that made it up did not fully cover its innards, and deep within the chest and
Post a Comment
Read more

Vagrant - Part V

        The rain was falling hard in the coliseum; a small circular arena with no ceiling located down the road from the main barracks.   This is where Thrace’s battalion had spent most of the last year training.   It was just large enough to sit one hundred men.   In the arena, two soldiers were facing one another, the fog of their breath visible in the cold, grey drizzle.   On the dais, overlooking them all, sat the captain.   Thrace was watching.   Thrace was judging. Van held his sword as still as he could, but his arms were on fire.   Over the last year, he had made several strides toward a more controlled method of swordsmanship.   He had grown tremendously, impressing others and himself along the way.   But now he was finally facing off against his brother in arms, Finnian Pell, in mortal combat.   The training was over.   Van had to prove he could hold his own against the recklessness and cruelty of real war, and that meant sparring without holding back.   Finni
Post a Comment
Read more