Across the Northern Seas (closed)

[Alea Davenport]

The 8th of Summer

The next day, Alea politely declined the Vantha's invitation to a card game; the ambiguous emotions of the previous evening left her feeling drained, and she missed Yuros more than ever. When she felt like this, she usually avoided human company, and so to comfort herself, she went down to the cargo hold to visit Beast and Tom.

The animal were unperturbed at being cooped up. For the Gilding, it was not yet all that much different from normal stables, since Alea usually only took him out every couple of days or so. The cat, for once not snoozing contentedly on Beast's back, meowed loudly when Alea entered the hold.

"What are you complaining about?" Alea grumbled back. "It's not like you've never been on a boat before." Never mind that the first thing he'd done upon reaching land again had been to run off. Alea leaned down to pet tbe cat, but she must have reached out too suddenly, because Tom flinched and scampered back a few steps. Despite her mood, Alea tried to calm down. She really did want to pet Tom, and he wasn't going to get near her unless she stopped scaring him.

She knelt down as lose to the ground as possible, and held out her hand. Tom watched her, looking at the hand disdainfully for a moment before nonchalantly washing his leg. Alea inched forward, but when she got to within about a foot, Tom froze and looked up at her. Alea froze at the same moment, suspecting that he was about to run off if she got any closer. After another few tense ticks, Tom stood up and sauntered back into the stall where Beast's bright glow dispelled the gloom of the cargo hold.

With a sigh, Alea stood up and followed him, thinking that, even if she couldn't pet Tom, at least Beast wouldn't run away. She entered the stall in time to see Tom perform an elaborate jump, first onto the edge of the feeding trough, then onto the edge of the stall, and finally onto Beast's back.

Alea walked lethargically into the stall, putting her hand on Beast's side to let him know she was there. He stopped chewing hay long enough to toss his nose in her direction, and she hugged his neck, closing her eyes and pretending that she was hugging a much smaller version of Yuros.

Suddenly, she felt a tug at her head, which abruptly turned painful as a small chunk of her hair was torn out. "Ow!" she cried, reeling back in time to see Beast thoughtfully chewing the prize he'd been after for so long. Mildly, horrified at her horse's cannibal tendencies, she was relieved when he finally spat out her hair, apparently deciding that the stuff growing out of Alea's head was NOT in fact a mysteriously delicious sort of hay.

Alea couldn't help laughing at the absurdity of what had just happened. She patted Beast's luminescent nose, and decided to spend a while longer in here with her animals. Tom even stayed still long enough for her to pet him, now that he was safely on his favorite perch.

Later, her new Vantha friends found her, and they insisted on taking Beast out of the stall to play with him. Alea reluctantly agreed, but she was rewarded by the impressed expressions of the three. Natania spoke first, "You know, he really does brighten up the place. A glowing horse makes this place feel almost cheery, and much less cramped."

Lirael seemed afraid of Beast at first, and Kodak suggested that riding him would make him seem much less scary. When Kodak turned to ask Alea's permission for the scheme, Beast stepped forward and shoved Kodak with his nose, throwing the poor boy into Natania. Kodak stumbled over apoloigies, and both were blushing furiously. Alea was just giggling that it had happened to someone besides her. While the two older Vantha were still sorting themselves out, Alea moved forward to help Lirael.

"First thing's first; when you want to ride Beast, make sure the cat is out of the way." Alea grabbed Tom off of Beast's back, eliciting angry growls from the cat. She tried to hold onto him, but he wriggled and scratched so much that she finally just dropped him before he could do too much damage.

"Beast also has a tendency to want to throw people off; I can't count how many times I've ended up in a snow drift because of him. So you want to make sure you hang on pretty tight. Now, he's a bit tall for you, but I can give you a boost up." After a bit of consideration, she added dubiously, "Usually you'd ride him with a saddle, but since it's just around the cargo hold, it probbaly doesn't matter too much."

By this time, Lirael was quite sure he did not want to ride the horse after all, even after Alea explained that she didn't mind at all, even though it was her horse. Even Kodak couldn't convince him, and so they decided instead to play cards by the light of the Gilding's coat.

OOCI slipped into first person towards the end and had to go back and fix it. x.x Apologies if I missed anything.

[Alea Davenport]

The 9th of Summer

Alea was tossed out of bed and landed with a thump, waking her up abruptly. At first she thought they were under attack, and she struggled to get to her feet and find an enemy. It was so dark, she couldn't see a thing. The sound of sleet banging the porthole almost drowned out the groans of passengers who were already losing their breakfast.

After a few steps outside her room, she was tossed against a wall by the rolling ship. After that, she made sure she had a surface to cling to as she mad her way down the cabins, searching for her friends in all this hectic mess. Most of the passengers were throwing up, and those few who hadn't had breakfast yet were trying their best to get buckets to those who had, and finds ways to dispose of the mess before it spilled everywhere. This was, of course, nearly impossible with the storm tossing them sideways.

She passed Kodak just as she was beginning to gag on the stench. He was helping tend to the many, many sick people, but he stopped long enough to tell Alea where the others were. Soon Alea arrived at Lirael's room, panting at the effort it had taken to struggle along the corridor with the ship tossing her in every direction, including into other passengers. She'd been buried under several people at one point, but with a bit of shoving and wriggling, coupled with a convenient roll of the ship which sent people tumbling in the opposite direction, she had managed to slip out.

Natania was sitting on the floor with Lirael, hugging him tightly while the boy cried. Alea could only catch a few snatches over the roaring of the storm and the shouting of the passengers. And there was this awful banging, from a passenger who had taken it upon himself to decide that they should be allowed up on deck. Alea secretly hoped he would succeed; rain or no, anything had to be better than this.

"I want to go home..." Lirael sniffled, and Natania tried her best to comfort him, but Alea could see her face from where she was, and Natania was having almost as much trouble holding it together as Lirael. The boy sobbed again and managed to add, "It wasn't supposed to be like this."

Alea had to do something. She quickly ran through a list of options in her head. Sympathy obviously wasn't working. Intimidation would probably make the boy feel worse before it knocked any sense into him. She decided to try for bravado. "Hah! This? This is nothing! Last time I was on a ship- whoa!" The ship lurched suddenly, knocking Alea back through the door. She crawled back into the room, clutching the door frame in case the ship decided to turn sideways while she was trying to move across the floor. She grinned, "See? Nothing to be worried about. It's even sort of fun! Like a game! See how long you can stand up without falling over!" To demonstrate, Alea scrambled to her feet, only to immediately tumble down again as the ship took another lurch. "Haha, I guess I'm not very good at it..."

Her distraction sort of worked; they didn't look happy, exactly, but at least they didn't look like they were about to fall apart either. By that time, the noises in the rest of the cabin had gone nearly still. Everyone had vomited everything in their stomachs, and while several were still dry-heaving, there wasn't such a need for a bucket brigade. Alea took a peek out the door (and had to cover her mouth and nose to stop from gagging on the stench of vomit) and saw that most had gone silent because they were watching the man shouting himself hoarse and pounding on the door that sealed them in.

When she realized the man was leaving bloody hand prints, she felt sick in a way that a storm-addled boat could never cause. She felt a brief moment of hope when the door was opened, but it turned to horror when she realized that the man was not coming back. The sailors were serious about keeping them below decks, and were apparently willing to sacrifice anyone who caused trouble.

Then she saw an even more terrifying sight: Kodak, stumbling toward the top deck with a determined look on his face. He couldn't be intending to take that man's place, could he? She couldn't take that chance. A nameless passenger was one thing, but this was her friend. Losing one man was already going to be hard on all of them, and Alea did not want it to get any harder. She scrambled after Kodak, making faster progress since she stayed close to the ground and so did not get tossed around as much. Just as he reached the stairs, she grabbed one of his ankles. He lost his balance and came tumbling down on top of her.

Having already been at the bottom of a pile of people that day and having no desire to repeat the experience, she tried to shove herself toward a wall, so that Kodak would be less likely to prevent her movement. She lost her hold on his foot in the process, but was able to move between him and the door.

When he recovered his feet, he glared angrily at Alea, and she might have been nervous, except she had the same look in her own eye (and besides, she was pretty sure she could take him if it came down to a fight). "Get out of the way, Alea," he growled. "I'm not going to let these people suffer down here."

Alea put a hand on each wall, effectively blocking the stairway. She responded angrily, and her voice carried throughout the cabin. "You think it'll be any better up there? At least down here we're relatively dry and warm. If the captain locked us down here it's because here is the safest place we can be right now. I don't know what you signed up for, but this isn't just a casual boat ride. We're here for more than just a taste of glory; we're here for Denval!"

She spoke with a conviction that evidently reached neither Kodak nor the other passengers. In fact, some of them began to look even more depressed as they wondered why they had come on the voyage in the first place. Kodak's voice was almost spiteful as he said, "Speak for yourself, Tikita."

Alea wasn't sure at first what he'd said. But she did have vague memory of hearing that word before. Where had she hear that? Oh right, Coren had called her the same thing, once. Well, there was only one way she generally responded to Coren, and in this situation it might be the only thing that worked. She punched Kodak hard in the face.

In the scuffle that ensued, Kodak had the advantage of size and strength, but Alea match that with her good bit of experience beating up Vantha. She got her knee to collide with his stomach enough times that he started having difficulty breathing, but not before he got in a few bruise-inducing strikes to her head. He was weakening, but he still wasn't down yet. Alea rolled on top of him and delivered blow after blow until Natania's voice shouted, "Stop it!"

Alea froze with her arm half-way to it's next target--Kodak's rib--and her brain had time to catch up with what she was doing. The expression of betrayal on Natania's face as she pulled Kodak away from Alea was almost too painful to bear. As Alea scuttled back to her room, no one would look her in the eye. She wasn't sure if it was because she had fought one of their own, or due to how far she had gone to stop him... She knew she was right; if anyone tried to go above deck it would be bad news. But once she got into a fight, she was so focused on making sure her opponent stayed down that she sometimes forgot that they were supposed to be a friend...

Alea spent to rest of the day in her room, trying to avoid the accusing stares and the horrible smell of vomit and despair.

OOCI may have gotten carried away. That's what you get for letting me respond with multiple posts. XD
If anything I write is too over-the-top or inaccurate, let me know...

[Alea Davenport]

The next couple days were unbearable, made worse by the fact that Alea had managed to alienate her friends. The stench of vomit made Alea gag, to the point where she didn't think she could eat, especially if the only meal was fish. The darkness made it almost impossible to keep track of time, and it wasn't long before people forgot how long they'd been stuck down there. Upon each waking, she went straight to the stables, where the more familiar aroma of horse-dung blocked out the odor of sickness, misery, and despair. Beast's glow was also the brightest light in all the darkness of the storm-tossed ship, and some who weren't feeling too sick to leave their rooms were gathered where they could see him.

Her intention had been to be alone, to hide away with her animals and shun human contact, as she had done all spring. But looking at the despair on the Vantha faces, she could not bring herself to be so selfish as to hoard the glowing Gilding all to herself. She brought him out of his stall, hoping to lift the pall of despair that covered the hold. People were huddled in groups, idly looking around or staring into space. A few looked up at the shimmering Gilding, but everyone was so lethargic, it was like they had all lost the will to move. Alea wasn't feeling much better; she felt more than inclined to curl into a ball and lay there all day. But the mere thought was so mind-numbing, she knew it would drive her mad. There really was only one thing to do. Only one way to break this paradigm of nothingness. She would have to do something stupid.

She glanced uneasily at Beast, wary of the gleam she fancied she saw in his eye. Rousing the other passengers from their stupor was going to require her to suffer, if she was any judge of Beast's character. Still, anything was better than what was going on now. With a gulp of apprehension, she approached Beast's side. She hadn't bothered to saddle him, which was going to make this harder than ever, but since she did not expect to succeed regardless, it made little difference. She leaped for his back just as the ship lurched sharply to the side.

Beast was a sure-footed animal; he put a foot out to catch his balance, but otherwise remained unmoved. Alea, on the other hand, tried to adjust in mid-air, which had no effect but to land her in a crumpled heap at Beast's feet. The horse snorted nonchalantly, but she knew, she just knew he was laughing at her.

She and Beast continued to caper about, attracting the attention of some of the other passengers. The exercise was getting Alea's energy up, and with all her jumping around, she almost got used to the violent rolling around of the ship. She could hear quiet, musical giggling every time she was knocked off her feet. She ignored it, pretending to focus on getting Beast to stand still, but she was secretly glad that at least someone was feeling better. After a couple bells, she tired of her horse's antics, and she led him back into his stall.

By this time, she was thoroughly hungry, and not at all inclined to throw up at the mere thought of fish. Rather, such thoughts inspired a rumbling in her stomach. There was a thin sheen of sweat on her forehead, and her legs were feeling a bit like jelly, but she felt better than she had in days. Before she could leave the hold, she was stopped by Lirael, who was still giggling. "Now I know for sure that I do not wish to ride your horse, Alea."

~ The 13th (Not that Alea remembers what day it is)~

Alea awoke feeling rather uncertain about where she was. Her bed was relatively still, absent the wild rocking that she had grown used to falling asleep to. Further, there was a bright light streaming through the porthole to warm her face. Part of her tried to ignore it and go back to sleep, but when that proved futile, the rest of her jerked awake.

She stumbled out of her hammock and over to the tiny window. It was not a dream; there Syna was, peeping through the scattered clouds.

[Valkyrie]

13th of Summer

As Syna slowly mounted the sky the passengers roused themselves from their lethargy. Many were hopeful that perhaps the trip would get better from here on out. It was difficult to imagine how it could get much worse. It was almost midday when they heard what seemed to be the most miraculous and beautiful sound they had ever heard. The door opened. Sunlight came spilling down the stairs and revealed just how disgustingly rank the cabin level had become. Vomit was drying on the floor and even smeared on the walls, waste seemed to be everywhere.

A female sailor came down and visibly gagged as the wafting odor of mingled wastes assaulted her nostrils. She held an arm over her nose in an attempt to block the scent and her eyes appeared watery to those nearby.

“The storm has passed everyone! You can feel free to come up on the deck and get some sun for the rest of today. We will see about getting this place cleaned up. Anyone interested in helping would be appreciated and can count on an extra ration at dinner.” The woman said, her words sounded choked by her revulsion of the place.

The passengers cheered and began to move en masse to get upstairs and away from the revolting cabins. Only a few who had been especially sick during the trip and looked much skinnier stayed below decks to help clean up in hopes of that extra ration. Large barrels of briny seawater were hauled up and splashed down the stairs as sailors mopped up the hallway and cabins. Once the cabin level was seen to they set about cleaning up and neatening the hold.

Passengers sprawled out across the deck to soak in the warm rays of the sun. The air was still rather chilly, apparently they were not as far south as some had hoped they would be. However the coast that they could see certainly looked different from Avanthal. The coast around Avanthal had been flat and partially white still from the Great Melt, hardly a bit of life to be seen. The coast around their present location was rocky with lots of coniferous trees, even a few bushes and weeds interspersed through the area.

The day passed quietly, everyone seemed much improved from the exposure to sunlight and fresh air. Most looked as though the previous few days hadn’t even happened apart from a few hollow cheeked and dark eyed individuals who had lost weight from the severity of their sea sickness.
OOCWe can speed through this day and get to the next or have a conversation with a sailor. What would you like?

[Alea Davenport]

OOCI think Alea is interested in...erm... "conversing" with a sailor. Though I should warn you that if she's allowed to interact with one she will probably get into a fight. Can she get into a fight?

Alea's relief was overwhelmed by an uncontrollable sense of injustice. Despite logically believing there was probably a good reason the sailors had kept them all below deck, she just couldn't get past the misery and filth the passengers had suffered down here. What had the sailors suffered, she wanted to know, that justified this? What had happened to the man who went above deck? Had she been right to keep Kodak from following suit?

These answerless questions only made her more irritable; so much so that she stubbornly refused the peace offering of sunshine and fresh air that the sailor woman had offered. She threw all of her rage-energy into cleaning, not realizing until Natania and Lirael went above deck that there might be a little guilt mixed in as well. She resolved then to give the extra helping she would earn by cleaning to her friends, since as far as Alea could tell, they had suffered more and therefore deserved more.

She grabbed a mop and scrubbed with a fury, her seasons of shoveling manure leaving her well equipped with enough elbow grease to do the job. Of course in the small passages, it was difficult not to get in each other's way. When one sailor got in her way, she shot him a look of such hatred that he felt compelled to ask what was wrong. Alea couldn't even speak; the tension of the past few days had all collected in her throat, and all she could muster was a low growl.

[Valkyrie]

OOCOh, alright

A bell passed as Alea scrubbed furiously, pouring her pent up emotional frustrations into the physical act of cleaning. It didn’t resolve the problem but it sapped some of the energy fueling the anger until the burning rage faded into a dull thud. The rage did not go away but merely waited beneath the surface for an opportune time to strike again. Each time someone bumped into her or even grunted a polite hello the anger flared up hot and sharp again until a few chimes of time passed and it cooled.

A thick female sailor came down the stairs, her heavy boots clopping noisily as they struck the wooden steps. Once she reached the bottom of the stairs she stopped and placed her hands on her hips, surveying the hallway and open cabin doors. She spotted Alea and headed over to her direction, a smile that could pass for a smirk tugged at her lips as she watched the scrawny young girl scrub diligently at a green stain on the floor.

“You sure take this cleaning business seriously. You ought to head up for some air otherwise you are going to scrub a hole through the floor. I don’t want to have to patch up any holes you make!” the woman’s voice was hoarse and gravelly, her eyes a little bloodshot and her light brown hair seemed unwashed. Like most of the other sailors, she looked as though she hadn’t slept in several days, if ever. She reached out and gave Alea a half serious – half joking smack on the shoulder to get her attention and emphasize her joke.

[Alea Davenport]

Alea tried to control herself. Really, she did. Throughout the woman's jokes which sounded like taunts to Alea's fed-up ears, she merely gripped her mop tighter, gritting her teeth. Though the sailor's unintentional implication that there was something wrong with what Alea was doing pushed her right to the edge. The blow to the shoulder was all it took for Alea to snap.

A rage-filled yell erupted from Alea's throat as she swung her dirty mop at the sailor. "What do you know?!" she screamed, making no effort to modulate her tone. There were a thousand things she wanted to say to this sailor, to all the sailors, about the past few days, about how she felt. But she was so angry, she couldn't find the words. And so she translated everything into violence.

The mop handle was too long to be effective in such close quarters, so she dropped it in favor of her fists. She targeted the sailors face, since that had the most soft parts, and Alea wanted to cause damage. She wanted to make this woman hurt as much as she did on the inside. Alea scratched and clawed, jabbed and struck at anything in reach, not inclined to discriminate. Because selecting specific targets meant thinking, and thinking hindered Alea from releasing everything she felt onto a non-Alea target.

OOCSorry if this gets a tad dark ^^; or emo... >.> Feel free to take disciplinary action against Alea if you feel it necessary...

[Valkyrie]

OOCSorry for the long wait! And this is a perfect segue into my next planned event . Also, I was in a weird/busy mood when I wrote this so I'm sorry if my writer's voice is a little off right now.

The sailor inhaled sharply in surprise as Alea’s flurried assault bit at her face. The woman was driven a step back from the ferocity of the attack. It took a moment for the sailor to collect herself and respond to the attack. In that moment’s time she collected several scratches that dripped blood down her cheek and several other soft spots that would undoubtedly turn into bruises. The woman’s arm snaked out and her fist jabbed viciously at Alea’s cheek. Alea may have had guts and frenzied energy, but the sailor had strength from hours working aboard the boat as well as plenty of pent up frustration of her own.

The punch connected solidly with Alea’s face and the power behind the fist spun her around on her feet. Alea turned with her arms up, shielding herself from the expected continued attack. In the instant that Alea’s back had been turned, another passenger who had been standing in a cabin had heard the commotion had come up behind the sailor and grasped her arms firmly. As Alea moved to continue her own attack she felt firm arms wrap around her slender body.

“That’s enough miss. There’s enough tension and turmoil aboard this vessel without you two going at it like dogs and making things worse.” The voice of the person holding Alea was whispered gently in her ears. The heavy clop, clop of boots coming down the stairs told Alea that the fight had been louder than she realized.

“What’s going on down there?” Kreuger’s shout echoed through the cabin and announced him as owner of the approaching boots. The sailor who had attacked Alea had a grim look come over her face as she realized who was the owner of the voice.

“Just a scuffle, sir.” The female sailor sounded wary as she answered Kreuger. Kreuger slowly walked towards the two restrained combatants and placed himself directly in between them.

“There’s no scuffling aboard my ship, you know that Tamus. And what do you have to say about all this?” Kreuger turned toward Alea expectantly. The look on his face made her feel as though he probably didn’t care a fig what she had to say about all this.

[Alea Davenport]

Luckily, the brief scuffle had relieved some of Alea's stress. There was still plenty left, but not enough to fight too hard against being restrained. She tried to turn her head to see who was holding her back, but before she could make out anything, the captain arrived.

Alea went quiet when the Captain began shouting. No matter how much she had resisted Denval's marshal law, being raised there had still ingrained in her that the Captain's word was law. If she was in trouble with the Captain, she was in deep trouble.

When he directed his query to her, she looked away and said clearly, "Nothing, sir." She was still angry, and resentful toward the Kreuger for the order that had kept them trapped in madness for several days. She resented his absolute authority, the authority that allowed him to make a man disappear and not one person would say anything about it?

No. No, there was something Alea had to say. She would not keep silent about this. She looked back toward the Captain, and though inwardly she was reeling in terror, she met his eyes with a steady gaze. "I was just wondering what happened to that man who went above deck during the storm." She had to know. She had to know if she'd attacked Kodak to save him, or if she was just a foolish bully after all.

[Valkyrie]

Kreuger nodded at her answer and opened his mouth when Alea blurted out her question. His jaws closed with an audible clack and Kreuger silently looked at the girl with half-hooded eyes. His gaze was thoughtful and carefully unemotional.

“I can assure you that not a single passenger set foot on the deck during the entirety of the storm.” Kreuger spoke quietly and his cryptic answer hung in the air for a moment before he turned to the people who were holding Alea and Tamus to relay instructions.

“I think both of these two need some time to cool their heels. Bring them to the brig. We can release them in the morning when hopefully they will have given their current outlook and choices some thought.” Kreuger nodded his dismissal and handed a key to the sailor holding Alea before striding along the cabin hallway and up the stairs to see to his duties above deck.

“Well, I suppose we better take you two down. No use disobeying Kreuger.” The man holding Alea mumbled. He and the passenger holding Tamus kept firm grips on their captives while walking them down into the hold despite any protests the two might issue.

Alea and Tamus were brought back to a far corner of the hold where two poorly constructed holding cells stood. The cells were simply made up of long metal bars that had been solidly attached to the floor and ceiling of the ship’s hold. A small wooden door on the front of the holding cell was chained to the bars around it to keep it securely closed. One of the cells was filled with barrels and crates giving both the appearance of storage lockers more than a brig. The passenger holding onto Tamus expressed his surprise to find that this was where rule breakers were kept.

“I didn’t even know you had a brig in here. I always thought these things were meant to keep things secure during storms. This one is all full of stuff, maybe we shouldn’t use it. Could we put them both in one cell?” asked the passenger holding Tamus.

“No. The two will just claw each other to bits. Kreuger doesn’t usually have to resort to the brig so sometimes we use it to store things. No sane person would intentionally disobey him. The girl is small enough to fit around the barrels and crates so we can put her in that one.” The sailor holding Alea replied and used the key Kreuger gave him to unlock the chains around the door of each holding cell. Alea was given a firm push to enter the holding cell and would have to climb over a few crates to find sufficient room at the back to stand or sit in. Tamus was shoved into the cell beside her and both doors were chained and locked again.

“Don’t worry, we will let people know that they shouldn’t come down here so no one should bother you while you do your thinking. At most someone should just be down to feed the animals. Have a good night!” The animal stalls were situated against the opposite wall as Alea’s tiny cell and she could hear Horse nicker when the sailor mentioned food. The sailor and passenger meandered through the hold looking at things before eventually leaving Alea and Tamus to themselves.

OOCMy next post will take place shortly before dawn so feel free to use the rest of the day and night however you wish. You can feel free to control Tamus as well though she will likely be close mouthed and ignore Alea. If Alea goes through the barrels and crates inside her cell she will mostly find rope, salted fish, and extra sailcloth, nothing too interesting.