"Whew! Good thing Tigris let us have all these ships and crew, and cages, isn't it?"
Erik had been trying his best to ignore Pavel over the past couple of days. But his persistent annoyance had started to grind his patience close to a breaking point. Like an already-sharpened axe to a whetting stone, he was going to snap and - at the very least - heave him overboard. Taking a deep breath to try steadying himself, and a roll of his eyes, he growled through gritted teeth, "Yes, Pavel."
And he of course didn't take the hint, instead choosing to prattle on, recapping the exact things that Erik was there for. He stood on the deck, as close to the bow of the ship as he could, with Pavel's muffled voice floating through one ear and out the other. He wasn't wrong in his admission, that it was a good thing for Tigris to lend them what he needed for the expedition. Although it took a lot of convincing, after a lot of disappointing, and verbal abuse. It was the kind of thing that almost made him second guess why he was even doing this, in the first place. But when the thought of riches and power and the idea of his immortality being inked in the history books crossed his mind, it solidified that he was doing a good thing.
For him, anyway.
Pavel's gratading voice managed to cut through the head fog he was trying so hard to ignore, "Where are we going, anyway?"
Heavy sigh. "An island."
After a pause, he pushed again, "That's not very specific, sir."
Erik rounded on him, but Pavel shrunk back with his hands up in weak surrender before he could even raise a fist.
Thus, the vicious cycle of violence continues.
"An island none of us has ever been to, before."
And the ship turned to the south. To warmer weather. To a different island.
