The Voyage West RP

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Kala glanced breifly up from her book and nodded towards Norin.

"That will change with time, good sir. That will change with time. Once civilization starts approching on these lands, peasents will have no option but to learn to read and write."

 

As he arived on deck, Max dismaly noted that the ship was now to far from land for him to swim. He was about to aproched the Captain, a huge man of obvious adventuring experience, when a man in a dark shirt and a hood brushed past him. Max froze, there was something about that man, but he pushed that thought aside. He had bigger worries.

"I'm sorry if this causes you any problems, but I was in your cargo hold when we departed. Would you mind if I stayed onbord? My name is Max Spellman by the way."

 

Berethain pulled his oar his muscles groaned. But he felt better, the hard work pulled the mead ache out of his body. Climbing back up to the deck he grinned at the sight of the water moving past them.

"Greetings to all. I am Berethain."

 

The cat watched as the ship moved away from land. The sun glinting off the water was always so fascinating. The sea smell of the wind up here on a crossbeam was refreshing too. Many two-leggers were walking around on the deck, but unfortunately, none of them were fishing yet.

After awhile, he climbed down the mast and went below. This ship was still full of new smells to him, and many places he hadn't yet discovered, though it was similar in look and smell to the other ship that he'd been on. Many of the two-leggers had brought lots of interesting things on board for him to investigate, and the day was yet young.

 

It was getting a bit crowded up on deck for Corth's liking. It wasn't that Corth didn't like people - well, that too - it was just that, at this particular point in time, he didn't really want to be noticed. Really, there weren't all that many things he could do. He could stand up in the prow of the ship and stare out to sea. But, given the amount of people up on deck now that the ship was out to sea, it was only a matter of time before someone started to talk to him.
Or, he could go belowdecks and row the oars. There wasn't too much talking down there, and people were generally doing too much work to care to talk to people. But, Corth wasn't all that strong. He wasn't weak by any stretch of the imagination. But, there were better people suited to rowing, and Corth would probably only get in the way.

So, Corth instead, went into the hold. There weren't too many people down here. And, if they were, they probably didn't want to talk to Corth. Strangely enough, Corth spied a cat. Maybe it was the Ship's Cat, they were common enough, or maybe it was just a stray that happened on board. Did it matter?

Corth smiled - one of the first in many weeks - as he reached into his small satchel and pulled out a smoked fish. He wasn't sure if cats liked smoked fish. Corth made a bet with himself that to a cat; Fish was fish. Corth - as a theif - knew that everything had a value, but only to the right people.
Corth put the fish on the ground, and slowly backed away from it, and sat down with his back against one of the crates that contained supplies for the journey.

Corth drew his amulet out of his shirt again. The amulet with the Sigil of Vailorath. The people who gave him the amulet said he was Blessed. Corth himself thought the amulet was cursed. Either way, he couldn't get rid of it. And, all that was left to do was to keep running. Fast.

Corth could smell the fish. He could bet that the cat did too. It was only a matter of time before the cat's nose got the better of it.
Corth liked cats. They always seemed to know more than they let on. And, normally, the only question they ever asked was Is there more?

Corth looked at his amulet. And thought to himself;
They can't catch me. Not this time.

 

Trailen at last felt in control, he stood up to leave when he suddenly he caught the smell of fish...not a strange smell on a ship, but it reminded him how hungry he was, he looked around and spying some already open crates went to investigate.

As he approached he began to hear a quiet muttering, there was someone else down here. He slowed his pace, and as he rounded the corner he caught sight of the source of the murmuring, it was a rather scruffy man gazing intently at an amulet...at first Trailen thought he was a beggar who had snuck aboard to shelter, but then he noticed the shortsword at the mans side. Not the usual beggar attire.

"Hello there, I'm Trailen, too noisey up on deck for you too eh?" Trailen risked a smile and felt only a fraction of the previous pressure, his new found safety had lightened his heart a bit obviously. Trailen proceeded to reach into a near by crate and take out a loaf of bread, then sit down to eat...

 

Corth's head snapped up and his head swiveled to face Trailen. Without even thinking about it, he raised his arm, and quick-as-a-blink, a dagger had appeared in Corth's hand. A twin to his shortsword, only the dagger was, well, shorter. Still, it was in the same good condition as the sword at Corth's waist.
Seeing Trailen to be no threat, sitting with his back to a crate and eating bread. Corth said "Sorry." and then looked down as he proceeded to put the dagger into his cloak-sleeve. After a series of metallic sounds, a click was heard, and Corth drew his hand out of his sleeve, without the dagger.

Looking up at Trailen, Corth managed a sad smile. "My name is Corth Redfeather. But that doesn't matter. I could be the Archmage Gryndel. But, my name doesn't mean a damned-thing. All's that matters is who I am."

Breaking eye-contact, Corth began to wring his hands together. He seemed to stare at them for a few seconds. Then he continued;
"I...I am a...bad man. I did something...Wrong. And now I've been cursed. Or blessed. Depends on who you talk to I guess." Corth laughed nervously.

 

The cat had checked out many of the new bundles of things the two-leggers had put in various places down below. There were a lot of the usual smells: leather and linen and sweat and oiled metal, and some unusual ones that he had never smelled before, but they were all inside of the packs and bags.

Then he suddenly smelled fish, not fresh, maybe a little burned, but fish it was. He bounded on top of a crate to get a better whiff. There was a two-legger not far away, and fish on the floor!

He cautiously approached. A good thing, too, because another two-legger appeared and the first one drew a shiny pointed stick. The cat knew that those things meant death.

It haunched down, ears forward, ready to pounce in any direction.

But then the two-legger put the shiny-pointy away, and the other one took out some food.

The cat jumped to the floor and approached the fish. Neither of the two-leggers made any threatening moves, so it quickly gulped down the fish.

Then it approached to a good leap distance of the two two-leggers and sat down. Looking up at them with a questioning glance he asked, "Meow?"

 

"I learned to read and write at Barsel's Grammer School for Boys. Where did you learn? There aren't a lot of schools that teach much reading or any writing for that matter to girls." Norin asked Kala.

 

Half elf followed the giants eye.They were rowlers giving life to giant oars .A human then left his post and entered the deck introducing himself as Berethian.Silandris slowly noded towards the big human and calmly said in half voice
''I m Silandris ''
Then he turned towards the captain and said
''That sounds fair ''
He swiftly entered the lower reaches and took humans oar,earning his place among the others.

 

Kala nodded. "Indeed. It is ashame. Many are nearly as capable of reading as most men. I guess I was lucky - I was taught to read by the Order in Lyonesse." She chuckled quietly. "They will take even some girls in for the right price. And what brings an educated man like yourself aboard the Sea Giant, sir? Surely not a common place to end up after attending such a school."

 

Trailen felt uneasy at the mans quiet laughter, it was the laughter of the resigned, someone who laughs simply because they can do nothing else. He couldn't hold the mans gaze, nor could he find any words to break the silence. Instead he shuffled over and reached out slowly to stroke the cat that had settled down near by. At last he settled on some small words of comfort for the man.

"I too am cursed in a way."

 

"Two stowaways have I? Well it must because some so desire to adventure with the modern day Algar Wolfkin that they adventurous means to come with me." Urgeld grinned, "Anyway, whatever your reasons for being aboard are, you're welcome to stay so long as you're a brave adventurer. I have no use for cravens I tell you, they've never done much for me when it comes to capturing glory."

 

Norin's eyes went wide with respect after hearing that Kala was a member of the Order.

"Your ladyship... I am out here because I, well, I was the shipwright who designed this boat, well, designed partially. Urgeld Bearpaw was the one who wanted something like this, I told him that a caravel would be be more sea worthy, but you know Northmen, they're so stubborn, not to mention they think they know everything there is to know about sailing. Anyway, my name as a shipwright is of absolute importance to me, trying to sell ships with a bad name is near impossible. Urgeld offered me a position to come a long and take care of this ship, I had to come along, I couldn't risk this ship breaking up in the middle of the Ocean." Norin was taking quickly and somewhat nervously, as if he felt he had to say everything he could before Kala could respond, "I normally would undertake a project like this, but my master's business is suffering somewhat, he's not as good as he use to be and if I built the boat the carried someone like Urgeld Bearpaw to this legendary island of his, business would boom again."

 

"Thank you sir. I shall try not to disapoint you."

Now that he was officaly a member of the expidition, Max thought he had better get to know just who he was travling with. He had seen five humans and one half-elf so far, but all of them were obviously more then first apperances showed.
He walked up to the stern and wondered about the man who brushed past him on his way down to the cargo hold. He still couldn't shake the fealing that he was more then he seemed.

He smiled at that thought, realising that he had become distrustful of everyone over the years.
He needed to relax.

 

A smile slowly emerged on Kala's face as she watched the shipwright spit out his words. "Well, we are still floating so you must have done something right. So what name should I mention when I tell people of this great sea gaint that carried Urgeld Bearpaw and I to Loex Grovisv Isle itself?"

 

"Norin of Elmport, Norin Shipwright.", the way Norin spoke made it clear he didn't like his last name, which was a peasant's last name, "My master is Loric of Elmport, an old man whose shop I stand to inherit."

 

Hearing voices behind him, Max turned around and saw a lady holding a staff in conversation with a man with blond hair and glasses. From what he was able to overhear they were talking about the ship, which, the man had helped build. He was obviously the shipwright for the voyage then, but who was the Lady? She was one of the Adventures, that much was clear, and the staff indicated that she might be a mage. That and the symbol of the "All Knowing" around her neck. Sighing, he relised just how alown he had become over the years, and turned back around to watch the waves.

 

"Well Trailen, if there's one thing I've learned on my road to...Well, on my way to...Away. I've found that everyone is cursed. Not that anyone notices. Some people are too angry, some people get too sad too easily. Some people are cursed with eternal happiness." Corth smiled a wicked grin "Trust me, it's a curse. Not a blessing. But, even so, curses and blessings that are magical or divine vary from person to person. And solutions to those curses may be easy to obtain, such as a simple spell, or a feat must be performed to break it."

Corth seemed to fall back onto his old habit of not looking at who he was talking to, and instead, he looked at his hands again. "In any case, my curse isn't the kind of thing that just goes away. And I'm most definately not 'cursed' with eternal happiness." Corth had another small fit of his eerie laughter.

"If you are also similarly cursed, then that is your business. Not mine. If you choose to tell me, feel free, but, I wont ask. I have no wish to tell you of mine anyway, so don't ask. But, if you stick with me, you might find out sooner or later. Probably sooner."

Corth reached into his bag and pulled out a slice of cheese. He broke off a corner and threw it on the floor a few paces away. Corth knew cats liked cheese. He kept the rest for himself.

 

Everyone seemed caught up in conversations with others. Berethain decided it would be rude to intrude so he looked for work. He found plenty on the ship and with his size and strength it was probably a good thing that he was more willing to help sail for now, then talk and mill about like the others. Besides it was his first time sailing and what better time than now to learn.