It was the 24th of June, the day was hot, and the humidity was high. Our most recent mission was a resounding failure. Not a single valuable stolen. It's been that way recently. Monstrum says it happens every once in a while, that we just need to work harder, but I think it's more than that. He's been off recently, working into the late hours of the night, hardly yelling at us anymore. It's completely out of character. Usually he doesn't want to see anybody slack off for even a second but recently, you could probably take the whole day off without him noticing-not that I would, but still.
"Jenos!" Rusticus shouts out, "Hey friend, how's it going?" great, he's drunk once again. Rusticus is great and all, but he's a pain when he's drunk.
"Hey Rusty," I say with a sigh, "Did you at least get your jobs done for the day before grabbing the bottle?" Rusty looks at me, dumbfounded. The thick smell of rum is emanating off of him.
"Jobs?" he asks, "What jobs? I don't have to work!" Rusticus yells. I guess I'm going to do Rusticus' work as well. He struggles a bit, but I get him to walk with me to the common room-where we sleep. I lead him to his thin bed, placing a bucket for his inevitable alcohol-induced vomiting, and some water to hopefully clear his system. The door lets out a loud creak as I shut it behind me, and I make a mental note to see if I can fix it later.
I look up to see an unfamiliar person. Instinctively, I pull out my sword and prepare to fight. To my surprise, they don't seem to be a bandit, but a rather average-appearing woman, though she does certainly have enough muscle to harm me if she decided to, but then again, I have a sword.
"Who are you? When did you board our ship?" I demand. To my surprise, she does not even flinch, but laughs.
"You're so tense, calm down. I'm meant to be here, Monstrum hired me." She affirmed.
"Monstrum certainly did not hire you. Monstrum will hardly talk to a woman, much less hire one." I argue, my sword still pointed at her. "Now I ask again, when did you board our ship?"
She lets out a breathy sigh, "I boarded in Forsythia, Divisis. I met Monstrum at the Clover Tavern. We had a drink, and he asked me if I would be interested in joining his crew, and I said yes. He told me all I had to do was duel him. I didn't win, of course, but he said that I impressed him. Said I had 'valuable skills' and now, here I am." She said, casually, as if we were discussing the weather.
"Forsythia? That was four days ago, I highly doubt that you've gone four days without me noticing you, well, unless you were-" Before I can finish, Monstrum comes out of his cabin, his voice bellowing.
"Jenos! Do you have an issue with our new crew member?" He yells, a scowl on his face. The woman says nothing, just gives me a condescending look that makes me want to tear her to shreds.
"I'm Mabilia, nice to meet you." She says smugly.
"I don't understand. How has she been here for four days without me or Rusticus noticing? And why did you hire her? I mean, our crew has done just fine, adding another person just doesn't make sense." I question, bewildered. I had been so sure that Mabilia was a stowaway.
"'Just fine? We barely get any reward from our missions anymore! We put our lives in danger and don't even get the scraps off of the table! You haven't seen Mabilia because she does much of her work in the kitchen, cleaning. Not to mention, you aren't the most observant boy. Now don't question my decisions again, or you can say goodbye to your job."
With a sigh, I move on. I want to stay and talk to her, figure out why Monstrum all of a sudden changed his views on women, but I have work to do. It's already midday, so I can't be found wasting time. Luckily, I don't have much to do as the quartermaster. There's not exactly much to divide between our small crew. So instead, I get to doing Rusticus' chores for the day. I walk up to the high deck of our ship, where we took a hit during a battle a while ago. Monstrum is always yelling at Rusticus for not getting it fixed, so it's my first line of order. We have a stack of planks meant for repairs. The hit we took isn't massive. I'd guess 10-12 inches in diameter. I saw into a piece of wood, the ridges of the saw shaking the plank. It's slow at first, but I pick up the pace. I jump when I feel a tap on my shoulder.
"What are you doing?" I hear Mabilia's voice ask behind me.
I turn around quickly and the side of the saw smacks Mabilia's face with a distinct slap. My eyes widen as a scratch opens on her cheek, bright red blood creeping out.
"Shit, sorry, are you okay?" I sputter, grabbing a piece of scrap cloth and holding it to her face. She slaps my hand away.
"I'm fine" she says, and I'm sure she is, but I'm positive that she's angry at me now.
"It was an accident" I say, tapering off as she leaves. That was rude. I was trying to apologize, but she didn't even give me the chance. Although, As much I would've loved to slap Mabilia earlier today, I feel bad. All I can do is hope that she's not too mad, and even more so that she doesn't say anything to Monstrum. I use the scrap cloth, stained with a few small blotches of blood, to wipe off the blade of my saw and get back to work.
I cut out the pieces I need and search for Rusticus' nails. His tools are in a complete mess. I'd love to organize it, but one, there's no time, and two, Rusticus is insane, and enjoys having his tools like this. I dig through a few odds and ends, and find some nails after about 10 minutes of looking. I nail down the planks, covering the damage almost perfectly. That's one of Rusticus' jobs done. I'm not sure what his current jobs are, but I can at least take a few guesses. For one, the handle on the trapdoor leading to the lower deck has almost broken off.
I have an extra nail from the last task, so this takes hardly five minutes. All I have to do is nail the handle into the door. Rusty'll probably clean up that job a bit tomorrow, but at least Monstrum shouldn't be too angry at him today. Technically, Rusty is supposed to get four different tasks done each day, but with the way Monstrum's been, I'm sure that two will be enough, and if not it should keep Monstrum's temper to a minimum.
I start back to the common room, and Rusticus is still asleep, snoring like a dragon. On the other side of the room, Mabilia sits on a pile of straw, the sleeping arrangement for newcomers. It will be a few months before she gets a mattress, even longer with how Monstrum has been leading recently.
"Why are you here" Mabilia complains. She's still angry, but so am I. She knows I didn't hit her on purpose-or, at least I think she does. I let out a long sigh.
"Look, I'm sorry for earlier, it was an accident, okay?"
"I doubt it. You probably just don't want a woman on board, so you're trying to get me to leave." Mabilia retorts.
"Really? You think that's what this is about? I couldn't care less that you're a woman, but you have been a bit rude, don't you think?" I accuse.
"I've not done anything to you!" Mabilia says, raising her voice.
I don't want to deal with her anymore, so I leave. The worst part about being on a ship is that you can't easily get away from people. Especially on our ship. Our ship is small, just a stolen attack ship.
I walk up to the high deck, sitting at the edge. My legs dangle from between the posts of the railing. The sea is calm today, but still the ocean sprays my worn out pants with a salty mist. I pull out a novel I snagged from a mission. Nothing too fancy, we went through a nice house in Inepta, and they had a small library. Monstrum told us not to take anything too big because this was a family home, and we don't take from families. He's got good morals, or at least for a pirate he does.
I've read the novel twice already, but I decide to start reading again. It's a nice story. One of love and what I can only imagine life to be like for those who live on land.
I read for a while, an hour or so, but I must have fallen asleep, because before I know it, I hear the clang of the bell that Cibus, our cook, rings ever so proudly when dinner is ready. Cibus isn't the most talented cook, but he's qualified. When I walk into the mess room, I see not Cibus bringing food, but Mabilia. Cibus walks out of the kitchen with an ear-to-ear grin on his face.
"Mabilia is a wonderful help in the kitchen" Cibus raves in his big, friendly voice. Cibus is exactly what you'd expect of a cook. He's a kind-hearted, wholesome guy, who also happens to be on the bigger side. Mabilia smiles at him, but when she looks at me her smile fades. Monstrum walks into the room, thanking Cibus and Mabilia. He sit's at the head of the table.
"Jenos!" Monstrum bellows, "where the hell is Rusty"
"eh-not sure, sir" I stutter. I do know, of course, that Rusty is still asleep, but I don't want him to get in trouble for sleeping all day. However, usually he comes when he hears the dinner bell anyways.
"I'll go check on him" I say when I look up to see a stern look on Monstrum's face. Monstrum does seem a bit more back to normal today-a blessing and a curse. I walk into the common room to smell the foul odor of vomit. At some point Rusticus woke up and emptied his stomach, but now he's asleep, rolled over to face the wall. I kneel down and shake him lightly, a thin layer of sweat covering his body. He blinks himself awake, looking up at me.
"Hey Rusty, how are you feeling?" I ask gently, praying that he doesn't throw up on me. He doesn't respond, just grunts.
"It's dinner now, do you want to eat?"
Again, he doesn't respond, just put his arm out with his thumb facing downward. I'm guessing shaking his head is a bit too much motion at the moment.
I leave and head back to the mess room. I sit down and take a bite of our dinner. We have beans and hardtack today. Monstrum looks up at Mabilia and his brow furrows.
"Mabilia, what in the world happened to your face?"
I freeze, my breath catching in my throat. I look at Mabilia, praying that she doesn't say what actually happened.
"Oh, well since you asked," Mabilia says, looking at me with a smirk. "I scraped my face going down to the lower deck. There was a splinter sticking out, but I got rid of it. The scratch isn't bad, shouldn't hardly leave a scar." My breathe releases, and I can feel my heart slowing itself. She had the opportunity. She could've gotten me in a world of trouble, but she didn't. She obviously doesn't like me, so why would she lie?
Monstrum nods and the rest of the dinner is quiet, as all of us are starving. I go to bed that night still wondering what her motive could possibly be to lie for me. I decide that the only plausible reason for her fib is to make me question her, to drive me mad, so I stop questioning. I got out of a punishment, and that's all, it doesn't matter why. That's it.