Waves of Ruin

Chapter 16

I walk up in the morning, the sun creeping in and warming my body. I think back the the day before, Atlas's smile creeps into my head. How genuinely excited he was that he caught a fish for the first time. I smile unable to hold back the thought of his. I throw the covers over the bed and get up.

The sun has made its way past the horizon. I can already feel the chill in the air. The closer north we get the colder it is becoming. I go to my chest full of clothes, grabbing a coat and putting it on. Making sure I am presentable enough to go to the governing body of merchants building. I need to get my directions and shipment orders for The North.

I am about to make my bed when I hear shouting above deck. I run out of my room and dash down the hall, climbing the ladder I am above deck. I look around for the cause of this noise. Then I notice Arthur standing in front of Tyrus and Atlas. He is yelling at one of them, as I get closer I realize it's not Atlas that has made him angry but his son. Atlas is holding a knife, a wooden figurine is in his other hand. The same are in Ty's hands. He must have been teaching Atlas how to whittle.

"You need to stop this nonsense!" Art yells at his son.

"I wanted to do something that wasn't fix this stupid boat for once!" Ty replies.

His father's face is red. "Well this isn't going to get you anywhere, so stop dreaming and start working!"

"This is why I never want to talk to you, I wish mom where here!"

Flinching he says,"Well she's not!" And crosses his arms.

"I don't want to follow in your footsteps, I never have and I never will!"

Before this can get any worse I intervene. "Ty. Rhea is looking for you, how about you go see what she needs help with, Yeah?" I say.

"Fine." He says and storms off.

Before Art can leave I grab his arm. "You need to fix that, I can't have this on my ship."

Then, instead of arguing with me like I expect him to, he crumples to the ground. Sobs shudder through his body, tears streaming down his face. "I know I need to fix things with him, but I don't know how."

I crouch down, Atlas does the same. "How about giving him some freedom to do things he likes." I say.

"I just want him to be something in his life. I grew up poor, I had to fight for everything. My father couldn't have cared less what happened to me and I don't want to be the same as him." He says, tears falling to the deck.

Atlas speaks now, "And just the fact that you want that, makes you nothing like him. Your heart is in the right place. He just wants to enjoy life a little."

"I've never told him this, but his mother was exactly like him, wanting to do things that made her laugh, that gave her joy." He wipes his tears on his dirty sleeve. "Then she went too far and it killed her, so I vowed to just stick to what we needed to do to survive."

I feel bad, Art is a very closed off man so sharing something like this means a lot. "The same thing isn't going to happen to him, you just have to trust him to make his own decisions." I say.

"I want to, but he hates me so much right now I don't even know where to begin."

"I know what it looks like to hate your father, and the way he feels about you isn't that. Trust me." Atlas says. And I can tell that what he shared came from experience.

"How do I fix it?" Art asks.

This time I answer him. "Start with the truth. About your father, his mother, the reasons you have kept him from what he enjoys. All of it. He will be happy to know the reasons and be able to understand your decision. Trusting him enough to share the truth will help you two fix things." This makes me think back to my own family, wishing that they would have loved and trusted me enough to do this. Alas they didn't, I had to find out by myself and wonder why they lied.