Dolphus could not look away from the gnarled wound. The entire process of restoring what could be of the marine’s body was both equally mesmerizing and mortifying. It was difficult to perceive the reddening of otherwise blackened flesh as anything other than magic, but Mariner had prepared the concoction right in front of him. There were no incantations, no green mists or ominous choirs, just bits and pieces of sea flora and fauna.
Unless they were enchanted beforehand…
Perhaps Mariner noticed the violent shudder which racked Dolphus’ entire frame, his hand wrapped around to touch the opposite ribs, his eyes threatening to light up the entire room with the horror seeped inside them, with only his crinkled brow capable of smothering their intent. That was his shoulder that was mauled, his back that was broken; it was he who was lying unconscious on the cot in Mariner’s cabin, not this unfortunate marine.
And he’ll live… He’s going to spill everything. He’s going to talk about the murder, the little cottage and Devan, the entire episode. He’ll destroy me utterly.
But I can’t kill him. His grip on his side increased in pressure, his frame shrinking to accommodate. Maybe I deserve to be destroyed.
The pause in Ari’s sentence and the casual search told Dolphus exactly who it was she accused of replacing her precious belongings. It was almost sad that this was what Mako’s reputation amongst the crew had been reduced to, but the apathetic and antagonistic attitude of the fisherman had made any other outcome highly unlikely.
Hardtack.
Dolphus suppressed another shudder, albeit only partially. After that snack in Devan’s abode, hardtack is going to taste like dirt in comparison.
Mariner hefted the armour stand right way up as she asked this. Pausing in his work he turned to the Sailor Maya, and spoke a few short words in his Native tongue. The sailor rushed off immediately to the storeroom.
To Ari he said, “I have arranged for food to be brought here, this poor fellow will probably need to eat as well. As for your tools, they’re on the Deck of the ship, tucked beside the port wale.” He began to gather the armour from around the cabin setting it back on the armour stand. “When you have eaten your fill, you’ll find the Carpenters working on the Keel, report to them and they can give you the extent of the damages.”
The sailor came back, accompanied by two more. They had brought with them the open barrel of Hardtack, two jugs of water salt and fresh, a bowl of Tomatoes, and a few oranges.
Mariner selected a piece of Hardtack, dropped it in the Sea water and set about slicing a tomato. “Eat.” He said to the two, “Food is being readied for the rest of the crew as well.”
Mariner stopped, as he noticed Ari’s battered knuckles. He walked back to his medicines and grabbed a jar of the same salve he’d given to Dolphus. “Rub this on the open abrasions. Try and keep them clean until healed.” He nodded out the porthole at the sea. “You’ll find no shortage of water. Clear out any dirt first.”
When Ari heard Mariner’s speech, she was reminded of her childhood once again. The few Halinth that worked on her parents’ shipyard used to speak to each other this way. Her father knew a tiny bit of this language as well, and told her that he would teach her, but that opportunity never came…
Ari perked up at the mention of her toolbox. A wide satisfied smile appeared on her face. She nodded eagerly.
Ari stared hungrily at the food. It wasn’t anything special, as expected from provisions on a ship, but it was significantly better than the strange apples from the orchard in the forest, that only managed to make her even more hungry, and it’s the only thing that mattered to her at that moment.
She reluctantly tore her eyes away from the food, looked at Mariner, then the thing he was handing her, and then, finally, at her injured hand.
“Huh? Oh, right.”
She took the jar, took a bit of its contents with the fingers of her left hand, and rubbed it into the knuckles of her right hand. She completely disregarded Mariner’s request to wash the wounds first. She put down the jar and, without much consideration, ripped a strip of fabric off of her shirt and wrapped it around the hurt portion of her hand. That will do, she thought to herself.
She then looked back at the food. She was so hungry that she simply grabbed a handful of hardtack from the barrel and, not even trying to soak it in water or break it beforehand, showed all of it in her mouth. What followed, was a loud crunching sound.
Of course, it was incredibly bland, stale and had hardly any taste, but to Ari at that moment, it was the tastiest thing she’s ever eaten.
After she was done with the first batch, she grabbed a jug of fresh water and emptied it in one go. She then proceeded to stuff her face with bread once again, grabbed more of it in one hand and a couple tomatoes in the other.
It was almost visible how energy returned to her body with an almost abnormal speed. With her hunger replenished, her face was full of excitement and showed how eager she was to get to work.
Not waiting any longer, Ari stormed up to the entrance of the room, but then suddenly stopped, turned around, looked at Mariner and said with her mouth still full:
“Thank you for everything!”
She bowed, switched her sights to Dolphus, gave him a quick thumbs up and rushed out of the room.
Walking across the deck of the ship, she quickly finished her meal. She found her toolbox, carefully looked through its contents, making sure that nothing was missing, and, with a satisfied nod, stood up and left the ship, returning to the shore.
Approaching the damaged part of the keel, she stretched her arms and cracked her knuckles and neck, her eyes now full of energy and burning with passion.
Dolphus watched as the water and fruits was brought in, recognizing the barrel of hardtack he had acquired so long ago… No you idiot it was like a day or, or two days… What day is it again???
He had his reservations about actually consuming any of the food brought in, what with his stomach in seven different knots and his back broken and his ribs broken and his shoulder torn up and melted and his mind overly projecting outside things onto himself to a mentally unwell degree, but when Mariner commanded him to eat, he had to actively stop his hand from quickly snatching something up.
It wasn’t anything in Mariner’s voice outside of the general weariness and lack of patience in the moment that made him so willing to simply jump to the order. Any real preventative measure that would normally exist was simply depleted beyond comprehension; if Mariner told him to jump off the stern into the sea he would be halfway there before he realized what was going on.
However, more than any possible hunger, his lack of internal fluids due to dehydration suddenly drove itself into a maddening thirst. He had been crying his eyes out all day long, and his tongue felt as dry as the sand. Softly, he reached for the tantalizing jug of water…
There was some hesitation since Ari began wolfing down a square of hardtack and smashing through it with her sharp teeth so quickly that it seemed like she could bite through steel if she tried, but his journey to grasp the handle of the jug resumed…
…Just a moment too late, as he blinked at the area where the jug used to be, head and eyes slowly rotating in disbelief as Ari downed the entire thing in one go. He couldn’t help but let his lips part as his eyes and brow narrowed in annoyance.
Ari’s reply was barely legible due to the sheer quantity of hardtack in her mouth, but the general message got through. Dolphus stared in disbelief at the thumbs up he received, simply incapable of processing all the events that had occurred on top of the sudden and light attitude she was having towards the entire situation.
As she fled from the scene, the air in the room whooshed after her, leaving Dolphus alone with Mariner once again. In spite of the sudden contraction of his gut, he hesitantly picked up an orange, and being unable to pierce the peel clicked just enough of his sword out from its hilt to slice through it instead.
The ships Carpenters were clustered around the keel just behind the Caelin’s deck. They were taking measurements around the broken section completely shielding it from view with their bodies. As they worked they turned to each other and spoke frantically. They knew they only had 2 hours at most before the tide started coming in.
Mariner looked on with distaste at Ari’s display. After she was finished he merely fished his hardtack, now pleasantly spongy, out of the water. He tore the piece in two and laid his tomato on it. He took this food and went to sit, facing the wall. With a slight scraping noise his faceplate split. The plates dragged across his face, freeing his mouth to eat. He began to eat with his back to the room, shielding his face from view.
Mako had exited to somewhere in the hall. Ari had departed entirely, most likely to go repair the keel. Alexis and Karl, if they had followed the procession below, were clearly not in the cabin. It was now just Dolphus, standing alone, his back to the wall, an orange in his hand, watching as Mariner sat turned away from him silently eating waterlogged hardtack and tomato slices.
The body of the marine lay still. Dolphus could hardly keep his eyes off of it, and whenever they did leave they landed directly on Mariner. The sounds of the room seemed to amplify more and more, the inhuman noises of Mariner’s meal being consumed, the almost entirely inaudible sounds of construction on the keel, and the sensation of his heart slowly thumping inside his throat were the predominant attractions of his attention.
There was an extreme pressure seemingly coming from the room itself. The walls radiated with it, as if the ship itself was intent on guilting him into a full confession.
He thought briefly about the doorway, but Mariner had not bid him leave. His eyes finally broke their overly repeated cycle between the atypical Halinth and the wounded marine to stare deeply into the exposed orange, unsure if he could make himself actually take a bite.
Ari walked behind the clearly panicked carpenters. She pulled a ruler of her own, together with a chalk, out of her toolbox. She had already come up with an idea how she was going to approach this repair, but she still needed some clarifications. Her eyes showed determination.
“Hey. I’m Ari Wohlford, a shipwright. This Mariner fellow hired me to make this ship float again. What’s the deal here? How much time do we have?”
Even before any of them answered, Ari already knew that high tide would be coming shortly. The water had already climbed closer to the ship than it was in the morning. Time was of the essence. She immediately continued:
“I’m going to use a wood joinery technique to put the keel back together. It will take longer than putting a brace around the damaged area, but it will hold together much better. We don’t want it to come undone when we’re on water.”
She looked at each of the people in front of her very seriously. When it came to shipbuilding, her usual relaxed and unserious attitude was completely gone, replaced with stern determination.
“Will you help me? Together, we can finish this off in no time.”
(OOC: well, this is where Ari finally gets to work on the keel )
Karl wished he was in the cabin. After all, he seemed to be the only person on board who hadn’t eaten yet, and that soon becomes an all-consuming thought when you’ve missed breakfast and maybe even lunch. But then again, Dolphus and Ari clearly needed a meal more than he did.
He waited outside as everyone else dispersed.
“What do should I do?” he asked Alexis. “Everyone seems to be accounted for now.”
Interrupting Alexis quiet vigil was the voice of the other newcomer Karl. He seemed to be falling into line fairly quickly. once again people turned to her as if she was already captain, if this bodes well for her chances or not remained to be seen.
“Go get some rest, maybe help out where ever you can find someone needing extra hands. I’ll be speaking with Dolphus about our new companion for the time being.” With that Alexis delivered a few short but strong knocks to the cabin door. “Whenever you two are done I wish to discuss something with the kid!”
There was a thud from inside the cabin and a slight splash.
After a pause, the door slowly opened, Dolphus leaning on the handle for support as his eyes initially aimed way above Alexis’ head before settling on her. His moment of vulnerability slowly and difficultly passed, as he mentally pried himself upwards and levered his buckled knees away from each other.
He would have inquired further, but her statement made it quite clear what she wanted. Even as he waited for her response, he had to fight against his head tugging towards the marine, hoping to steal a glance.
Mariner, having finished his meal, was about to tell Alexis Dolphus had left. However as he turned, sealing his faceplate again as he did, he discovered Dolphus was still in the cabin. Mariner had thought the boy would have grabbed some food and departed almost immediately.
Cursing himself for his unintentional rudeness Mariner walked over to the door. “Alright, by all means, enter.” He gestured inwards.
The carpenters looked up in shock at Ari. Taking in everything she said. They simply nodded and parted to allow her access to the keel. The main beam of the keel was snapped clean in two, splintered fragments of wood adorning both sides.
The head carpenter came over to Ari. “If joinery is your goal, I imagine we’ll want to remove the damaged section completely and bring in a new piece to join the separate halves. We’ll bring over the materials”
Dolphus flattened himself against the wall to get out of the way of Mariner, who strode to the door and gestured for Alexis to enter. This was, of course, immensely inconvenient for him, as he had planned to make a clean breast of the entire episode to Mariner, but with Alexis present that seemed fairly impossible.
Her being here means if I talk about anything aside from a blatant lie, one thing will lead to another and… and I’ll have to talk about the murder… And my wing.
The orange had flung out of his hand when Alexis knocked on the door, and now lay rolled into the corner behind the hinge. Had Devan’s fruit not been so large and so delicious he would be utterly starving now, but his thirst was starting to become unavoidable.
The pitcher of water sat in front of him. Yeah right. My arm feels like it’s about to fall off and I’m supposed to lift that whole thing?
Ari’s eyes narrowed. The damage on the keel was somewhat worse than she expected. If not repaired correctly, it would certainly lead to the ship snapping in half even in the tamest of storms.
We’d better not mess this up.
Ari nodded, approaching the damaged area. “That’s right! Sounds like we understand each other!” Not waiting any longer, she started making measurements with her ruler and putting markings with her chalk in the areas where she’d need to cut. She was making quick work of it, all her movements were calculated and precise, without any hesitation, honed by years of practice. It showed that she knew what she was doing, perhaps for the first time since she had left port what seemed like an eternity ago. Ari was clearly in her element now. Her usual careless demeanour was completely absent.
Not many wooden joints would hold under so much stress, so Ari was going to use a special one with a very unusual shape that few carpenters knew about. Ari was sure that if anything was going to work, it was this one.
As soon as she was done with the measurements, she turned towards her toolbox and pulled out a big hand saw. She swiftly cut into the wood, making quick progress, despite the high density of the material. Soon, both damaged ends were sawed off, followed up by Ari using a smaller saw to form the rough shape of the joint. When this was done, she switched to a series of hand chisels of various shapes and sizes, refining and cleaning up her initial cuts. It wasn’t tough work, she had done it many times before, but it was slow by nature, as chisels were designed to gradually remove material little by little. She thought about how she was going to need to do the same exact process on the replacement piece that the carpenters promised to bring.
Still, she knew she was going to finish the job in time. After all, she had the best teachers…
A quick “Thank you.” Finds itself weaseling from her mouth as she strode inside, her hand absentmindedly reaching up to tap the frame of the door as she entered. “How’re you holding up kid? I’m sure the… excitement of the past few days has been quite a lot.” Alexis inquired as she kneeled down and retrieved the bright orange… well orange off the floor. “This belong to anyone?” She said standing back up and offering it to both mariner and Dolphus.
“Fine,” He replied with all the enthusiasm of a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar. The tense silence with Mariner had been quite painful, and the addition of Alexis caused a mixed reaction of both comfort and further discomfort. This was an interrogation - at least, that’s what it felt like to him.
Dolphus could feel his hand stealing towards his collar, breaking eye contact from Alexis as she spotted and immediately retrieved the uneaten orange, now thoroughly rinsed in seawater. While he didn’t verbally respond, it was clear who it belonged to.
Alexis could see the awkward tension behind Dolphus’ eyes taking it as a sign it belonged to him. Retrieving a small knife she pierced the skin of the orange and began to peel it before tossing it back to him. “Eat up, can’t have you getting scurvy can we?” She chuckles before taking in the awkward air currently settling in the room. “Now why don’t you come with me to my quarters and we can discuss our two new friends.” Alexis says her tone dropping to one more urgent, her hand resting on his back practically shoving him out of the room. Hopefully without present company she’ll be able to get the exact details out of him. @Ghid
Dolphus fumbled the orange about next to his chest before finally getting a good grip on it, mortified at the thought of dropping it into the water again. There was a certain concern present in her voice which he wasn’t quite sure of, but perhaps…
Don’t dwell on it. His brow crinkled as he looked down at the orange, bringing it to his mouth to take a bite.
However, he never got to complete the motion, as Alexis suddenly pushed him right out of the room. He barely had time to send a concerned glance to Mariner before he found himself practically outside of Alexis’ cabin door.
Practically pushing Dolphus to her Quarters Alexis expression begins to grow more serious. Upon arriving she throws open the door and finally removes her hand from the small of dophus’ back. Strolling inside she pulls out a chair from her desk and offers it to the kid expectantly. “Make yourself at home.” While most rooms in the caelin’s hand would have most definitely taken upon some personality of their owner Alexis’ room is strangely lacking any. The entire room is neat save for the crumpled bed sheets that had yet be restored to their rightful place after the storm.
The whole situation made his mask flare up, from Alexis’ expression to her sudden and serious tone. Not wanting to have Mariner present was also suspicious; was she trying to get info from him without Mariner being made aware?
But in spite of his better judgement, his shoulders slumped and he went along completely willingly, putting the effort into his tired limbs and aching knees to move as quickly as she wanted him to. Even after she had let go, the rather smothered sensation of her fingertips on the small of his back was still there, and he clung to it.
Dolphus found he was suddenly in the chair despite not making a conscious effort to move there. He clenched his jaw and swallowed; keeping the mask up now after his entire life on the Caelin’s Hand was going to be difficult as is, but a head-on confrontation from Alexis was going to make it nearly impossible to do anything other than truthfully lie.
Taking a seat on the bed across from Dolphus seating, Alexis crosses arms, her hand tapping almost impatiently at their opposites. “So Ari was the one who found you after the storm correct?” She finally speaks after a bout of Awkward silence, she wanted to get to point where she could ask about the soldier they had taken down already, but a bit of tact would most likely be best in this scenario. “She seem trustworthy to you?”
)