Journal Four
After the other half of the Beautiful's crew discovered the what had happened to the first mate and the others, another search was immediately made.
I even helped them look for me. Needless to say they were not successful. But the captain� The captain was close. Several times. But for him, I could elude the crew until another port, where this ungrateful stowaway could make a fantastic getaway. But within days, I was indeed caught and brought unhappily before the captain. He demanded an explanation and I gave him a general outline of the truth. But about the rune and the casket, I said nothing, steering the conversation toward how I escaped them so often. The captain eyes glinted a bit, and as he did when he was searching for me, I evaded as well as I could. But I wasn't convinced of my own efforts. I couldn't stop glancing at the main mast, imagining the few fatalistic last moments of my life. The bosun and the first mate got into another scuffle about my fate. The possibility of just letting me go did come up, but wasn't generally supported. And I wasn't entirely hopeful of that anyway. The captain was young. Odd, I never noticed before, but his features had always been in shadow� But his eyes were old, and his frame was bent like that of a man many years older. But he watched me constantly. His gaze was uncomfortable and piercing. And not entirely sane. But the little details of his person were not anymore convincing of a competent man. The dirty clothes, the bitten bloodied nails, his sallow complexion. Finally the choice was given to the captain. I was either to be hung or shot. My thought that the crew was decent abandoned me when they thought it would be more sporting for them if they were to shoot me. But the captain stared at me more intently, and when the first mate asked him again, he told them to get the maps. The maps they used for steering the ship. The first mate obliged quickly. But I understood. Their cartographer was still in Eisen. The captain placed the maps before me, rocking on his hunches. When he gestured to me it was clear that he was offering me a choice. If I could figure out the maps, I had a job, if I couldn't, my future was dim and full of bloody painful holes. So. I figured out the maps.Return to Uncommon Valor