Durand listened to the conversation above the deck, his competitive spirit high. Yel and Lav, too, were extending their necks to the fullest just to get their ears a finger's length closer to the deck above. They had fire in their eyes.
They might kill Durand if he tried to sabotage them by making any noise. He was in the lead, and that was a valid tactic in his opinion, but kids wouldn't get it.
"What?! We won't stop at Rabbitmen Town?! We already passed Catmen Town. The next town is… We have zero connection there so are we going to waste a bunch of money bribing the officials?
"We won't do that either; towns under Kainmatrich rule are hard to bribe, we would need to spend too much, that isn't worth it."
"What is the captain thinking then?! Let's drop by Rabbitmen Town."
"Shhh! Fool, you have no idea what's happening in the world. Did you not see how the beastmen looked at us in the previous trip? Even the farthest beastmen tribes joined the beastmen alliance. The captain just confirmed rabbitmen and catmen joined them too."
"Hey, hey, hey, they can't do that; their whole economy depended on human pirates."
"It doesn't matter now; their sacred golden trees rotted away, all beastmen tribes need habitable land to migrate to. Coin is not food, so they can't sustain themselves with whorehouse money. For them, this war is do or die.
"Fuck it. If they want to migrate, we can take catwomen to our ship."
"...Genius idea."
"Really?"
"Yes, of course, we just need to talk with them. What about coming to our ship? Yes, you can sleep next to our slaves. No, you are not a slave, just our full time whore."
"So... should we suggest it to the captain?"
"..."
The conversation died down with a sigh. Durand reorganized the content of the conversation in his mind.
"I think I hit the mark with 'genius'. A genius is someone naturally foolish."
Yel clicked his tongue at Durand.
"Big brother Durand, check your ears. Your genius definition lost the war long ago; just accept it."
"Yel... And what was your definition of genius then? Just something 'good'? If you're going to surrender, surrender quietly."
"A man can't go down quietly; that genius was carcasm. It means the opposite of foolish. Lav's definition of genius is someone naturally smart, so it confirmed his!"
"It's sarcasm, and why are you already accepting Lav's definition of sarcasm too?!"
Yel clicked his tongue again. This time it was more annoying to Durand. It was clicking like, 'Do better next time' or 'Pitifully childish you are'.
"Big brother..." Yel's tone turned to that of a worrying mother. "Just accept it. Lav is gonna beat yo ass; accepting it is the mature thing to do here. I am worried about your big brother image taking damage."
"Why are you shitting on me when it is Lav beating me? No, not beating; I am still in the lead, goddamn it."
"For now..."
Durand took a few forceful breaths to calm his nerves. He was the one who taught these damn brats how to speak; how could this be?
After two more weeks, the score was:
Durand: 201(+14) Lav: 189(+137) Yel: 7(-2) (Some of his definitions refuted later on.)
"Habitable, Migrate, Sustain. With this conversation, my definition of them confirmed and my definition for full time strengthened. Lav 303 points."
Lav raised his head snubly.
"You guys don't even know how to count! It is 192 points!"
Durand took another forceful breath in and out to calm himself, to let all the humiliation out of his body.
There was a part of him that was proud as Lav beat him in the game. The two kids matured so quickly in this ship, even Durand himself matured to an extent. His thoughts a few months ago felt childish now.
Durand's thoughts were cut by a new conversation, silence descended to below deck and ears were perked.
"...When I first saw them, I thought they were girls anyway. It is no sodomy to play with them, I tell you."
"Do your faggoty outside of the ship, Jake. Don't disturb the crew with man's moans; nobody wants to hear that."
"I am gonna do it tomorrow when I am on the night shift. If you don't want to join, fine by me..."
Two pirates walked away. It was one of those short snippets of conversation they could hear as pirates passed above them.
Durand once again reorganized the words he heard, then focused on the context of the conversation… His face paled upon a certain realization.
"Sodomy, faggoty... Big brother Durand, do you know these words or are we gonna guess? No cheating because you are losing now!"
"I know sodomy..."
Durand stayed silent, unsure whether to share the meaning with them. The two kids weren't innocent now, they had learned a lot of things from the pirates' unfiltered conversations, some things even Durand was unaware of prior. However, if he were to explain Sodomy, they would understand the context of what they heard clearly. He didn't want them to be scared by that.
Durand could handle this on his own. He had already planned something, expecting this kind of situation, but he didn't want kids to be part of it.
"Does sodomy mean manliness?"
Lav said.
"...?"
"I am guessing, the ones that look like girls are us, and he said it is no sodomy to play with us because we look like girls. He meant, it isn't manly to play with us, right?"
"Manly... Sodomy... For man, by man... In a way, you are right."
"How dare they! I am sodomy as it gets!!!"
Yel let out a suppressed shout. Probably nobody above could hear it unless they were pressing their ears to the floor, but it had ferocity to be recognised as a shout. It was a technique he developed this past week to continue being loud in some form.
"..."
Durand didn't respond to Yel's cry; he just hoped he wouldn't put himself in a weird situation with that misunderstanding in the future.
"So if sodomy means manliness, do I get one point for the guess?"
"No!" Durand wouldn't, couldn't allow such a rule. "I already know the word, I won't be able to get the point that's not fair."
Lav clicked his tongue at Durand's response.
"Cheapskate."
"Stop using the words when their meanings are yet to be decided!"
"What a nag."
"Stop!"
The man refused to play with them because it wasn't manly and instead wanted to do something related to men's moans elsewhere; this was the context according to Yel and Lav. They didn't make guesses about what faggoty meant as there wasn't enough context for that, so that round of the game ended early and they focused on other conversations
Time passed and the night descended, Durand prepared himself in heart. And bit down on his own hand. He sank his teeth until he could taste his own flesh. The blood flowed, and he dipped his fingers in the blood.
'The paint is ready.'
Durand got his head closer to his ankles, to the leg irons the pirates put on him. The moonlight was dim, so he got his eyes as close as possible to the drawing. Thankfully, the iron was thick and had enough space to draw something on it.
The blood dripped down from his fingernails to the iron. He made some mistakes here and there, but he wiped them easily with his other fingers.
Finally, the drawing was done. It was a mosquito as big as his fist with a long tail that circled the iron shackle a few times.
'On this day, I grant you existence.'
Drawing rippled, the light shone and rippled moved freely and split into myriad light threads and then all converged on the leg iron.
The iron mosquito appeared from the drawing into reality. It had an iron body, red outlines and a long red tail.
The mosquito, without waiting for a ceremony or celebration of its birthday, took a flight. It passed through a deck window to the deck above.
The drawings would follow the intention of whoever drew them. Yel and Lav had drawn playing partners, so their drawings had played with them. Durand drew an assassin bug, so the drawing went to kill someone.
The iron mosquito would fly through the ship to find the owner of the voice. The man who was talking about them this noon was Durand's target. Durand drew the iron mosquito with the intention of silently strangling the man with its iron tail.
The magic spun his head a little. Even though it was small, it was made from iron so it was harder than the magic he did for Yel and Lav. He was already tired from not sleeping and his thoughts weren't so clear in his head.
The blood was still flowing from his hand. So he thought of doing something with it. He once again dipped his finger in the wound and started drawing on the wooden floor. He wanted something big this time, so he walked to the farthest point his leg chain allowed him to go and started drawing from there. This time, the drawing was of a long snake, with a thick body, as thick as his own body.
He couldn't imagine the length of the snake as he was drawing spirals to get the most length possible.
The blood flowed slowly, and he squeezed his hand to get more blood. His lines were as thin as the tips of his fingernails, so he didn't need to squeeze once more to finish it. Now, he could embrace his well deserved rest. The moment he laid his body on the floor, he passed out.