A sailor joins the crew

A Sailor Joins the Crew

I’ve been up and down this coast so often in the last six months. Boring boring boring. I signed on to see the world and all I see is the same bit of sea and the same damp towns.
So when the strangers came on board it piqued my interest a bit. Krel said we weren’t to talk to them, or even look at them, they weren’t here. So that was the usual disappointment. But then we heard we were heading north! North! Into the frozen wastes. Some adventure at last, some fresh coast. We sailed out of Porthaven and then of course turned south. Those passengers had some argument with Captain D’Vor and of course he lost and they convinced him to go south.

Well that was the last straw. I told him I wanted off. Told him he could stick his dumb ship where the sun don’t shine. Of course he begged me to stay. Offered to double my pay. Promote me. But it was too late. The cowardly bilge rat will just have to try to run his ship without me. Then he begged me to go ashore with the passengers in Greenwold, keep them out of trouble. But trouble and bad smells follow the same people and these guys stank. So I told him no, they just slow me down. He whined. Offered me money. Offered me more money. I took it.

We sailed south and the sky started turning dark. I told D’Var there was a real blow coming, but he was sulking and wouldn’t listen. I told him that leaky bucket couldn’t take what was coming and he was too dumb to see it. Then one of those passengers came along, the one who said to call him Lieutenant Dan. Well he said what I had said and suddenly D’Var was all ears. We were passing Greystones and he put in at Rocky Cove and put us ashore. There was me and that Lt Dan guy, some fella named Rimmer, a couple of elves named Listoir and Vascillis, a priest named Garrick and some sick guy name of Bonesaw. Turns out he’s some sort of doctor, which is ironic, cause he was sick as a salty dog.

Anyway those guys just stood there on the beach looking at old horse tracks and getting all excited. So I took the lead. None of them could lead the way out of an empty barn. We went up to the headland and followed a path towards this fishing village I knew of called Kethford. Well the rain came down and they all complained ever step of the way. Then when we got there they were afraid to go down to the inn. Claimed they were the most wanted men in Nordren. Yeah sure. Wanted by their mammies maybe. So I tell this Lt Dan to come with me and we headed on down to make sure the coast was clear. And they just stood there in the rain, all dangerous and shit.

The inn was okay, but that Dan fella was staring at me the whole way down and asking me all sorts of personal questions. So I made sure we got separate rooms. He’s not my type, way too needy. We dumped our kit in our rooms and when we came down we found a shady lady had come in. I could see she had the hots for me, but she’ll have to wait her turn.

Then the rest of them slithered in out of the rain, like a bunch of wet snakes. Vascillis immediately started mooning over the woman. He was way too obvious about it.

Before long that Lt Dan guy started complaining about the fall he had on the way over and how he needed to get to bed. Big cry baby. He gave me the eye and went up, so I decided to stay down a while. I didn’t want him to get ideas about me.

Vascillis started chatting the strange lady up. Called herself Mira. She was boasting about being able to teleport us all to Renega. Vascillis was getting so over-excited. It was sad. They were headed to Renga to deliver the doctor guy, or something the doctor guy has. So they voted about going by road and the river or by teleporting, well I talked them all round to the teleport idea and I talked Mira into doing it for free. Like I said, she had a thing for me.

I decided that we should get out first thing. They all grumbled about breakfast, but if I let them have breakfast we’ll waste half the day. I told them to shut it and hit their hammocks. I shrugged Mira off with a goodnight and told her she better be up first thing.

I went to my room and slept like a baby. After last night, I feel like I won’t need to sleep again ever. But that Lt Dan fellow woke up dead in his bed this morning. Guess that’s the difference between us.

And me? You can call me Rolen. Rolen Silverford.