Zeus 25 - Praxis

9 - Homecoming

After a bit, he and Spyro stopped their frantic work at the gearbox wheel and considered the sail. Fortunately there was only a light breeze, so the strange sail wouldn't overturn them if they made a mistake.

When Praxis lowered the boom, the silk sail billowed out with the wind. His sea legs told him they were moving again, but soon the sail blew over the bow and the ship stopped. A rope from the end of the boom stretched out over the ocean and would have gone overboard if a knot in the end hadn't stopped it from running through a wooden pulley near the rudder at the stern.

Pulling the rope back through the pulley hauled the boom backwards too, and the ship started moving. Praxis quickly saw the relationship between the wind and the sail and noticed a convenient cleat on the rail that he could tie the boom line to. From that moment on, the ship made rapid progress east.

Eudora kept the tiller and became the helmsman while Praxis worked the boom, teaching Spyro everything he learned. They decided to angle out to sea reasoning that the further they were from land the harder they would be to spot and the further an Airman or Punisher would have to fly to intercept them.

As the hours passed, Praxis thought again about Izador saying they could sail against the wind. "What happens when a helmsman on a galley steers too far off the wind?" Praxis asked, thinking out loud.

"The sail looses the wind, and the galley stops making way," Eudora said. "And that's when the captain yells at the helmsman."

And a sense of humor, Praxis thought, staring at Eudora's long black hair flying in the wind. "But what happens if you try that here?"

Eudora steered the ship suddenly to the right and the sail luffed.

"Do that again slowly," Praxis said, after she had straightened them out again.

This time Praxis pulled the boom in as they turned, and they continued to make way. Now they were sailing almost south back toward Atlantis. "The wind's still going east, but we're going south. If we could turn a bit further, we'd be headed back to Argos against the wind. Maybe that's what Izador meant."

Eudora turned the ship to point slightly southeast as Praxis continued to pull in the boom. Now their sail was lined up with the hull and they were, in fact, making progress back toward Argos.

"But you'll run into the shore if you kept on this heading," Spyro complained.

"We could let the big part of the sail go off the other side of the ship and angle out to sea to fix that. By going back and forth, I think we'd eventually get back to Argos," Eudora said, picking up Praxis's enthusiasm.

"I don't think we want to be going back anytime soon," Spyro said.

Eventually, they took Spyro's advice and ended the experiment, but for hours Praxis's brain kept spinning with the amazing new knowledge of how to thwart the wind. Who would have thought that this quest to advance to Rockman would teach him something about using the Northern Ocean's winds?

Spyro brought up bread and cheese from the satchels in the cabin. As they ate, Spyro inventoried the other supplies Izador had given them. "Besides apples, and more bread and cheese, there are several small amphorae of water, and one of the bags has a rope with a grapple. That'll be handy if the island mountains are steep. There's a fire-starter kit too."

"We don't need fire-starters with a Hot Block," Eudora said.

"We might, if we find Delos," Praxis said. "although I'm a Clayman, I wouldn't like to try lugging a Hot Block up a mountainside."

"Fair point," Eudora admitted. The sun was low to the horizon now, painting the fluffy clouds behind with beautiful shades of orange. "What's the plan when it gets dark?"