oh noes

Chapter 9

I wake up to the sound of someone banging a pot with a soup ladle. “Uuuuuuugh,” I moan, just as I roll out of my hammock and land on the floor. Ouch…
All around me, the crew members stir. Some sit up while others just put their arm over their eyes. Various grumbles and curses are scattered about as we sleepyheads look at the source of the banging.
“Nooooooooooova,” Lily says.
Daniel sighs. “I really should’ve slept in my library instead…why did I sleep here again?”
“We should’ve tossed that brat off the ship ages ago!” Alicia mutters angrily.
Nova giggles in response. “Wakey wakeyyyyyyy! Cappy wants to see all of you on the deck!”
“Can we, like, get prepared for the day first?” I ask.
“Nope!” Nova chirps. I groan as I shift out of my position.
We crew members filter out of the quarters and make our way to the deck, where the Captain is waiting for us with a big smile on his face.
“I trust Nova woke you all up properly?” he says, his voice bursting at the seams with confidence.
“Might we be able to eject Nova from the ship?” Lowell suggests. Good thinking there, buddy!
The Captain makes a face. “No, why?”
“Shucks,” I mutter under my breath.
No one says anything for a few moments.
“Well, uh…let’s move on, shall we?” the Captain says. “As you all know, we’ve been looking for two jobs to take on. And we found them! Hooray!” The rest of us just stare in dreary silence.
“Our first job just so happens to be aligned with Taylor’s interests! There’s this package that we’ll have to take to Mayrill with us, which means that while we’re on our way, we can drop Taylor off at Vestia. Now, isn’t that nice?” The Captain looks at me. I shrug.
He continues on. “The second job is actually somewhat more of a ‘go where you want when you want’ sort of thing. We’re supposed to be looking for this one woman’s kid with little to no clues as to the child’s appearance. She thinks the kid probably had brown hair, just like she did when she was younger.”
Alicia groans. “Oh, she thinks. For all we know, he could’ve been one of those kids we passed by on the street. Hell, we’d be lucky if he hasn’t gone to another continent by now. Fancy an impossible job, anyone?” She sighs.
“Oh, don’t be like that!” the Captain says. “She said her kid was most likely up north, so we’re going to look around over there. Or, at least, spend a couple of months trying.”
Alicia grumbles. “Couldn’t we have gotten another one while we were at it?”
“Well, about that,” the Captain says, “there wasn’t anything else. I guess it was bad timing for us because of the FTS’ plan and all, but we can make do with our jobs for now. Questions, anyone else?”
“Wheeeen are weeeee settiiiiing saaaaail?” Lily asks.
“Oh, right after this meeting. The city officials are coming around to close off the docks and any exits to the city, so we’ll have to go quick or else we’ll get stuck here. Also, it’ll take about two days to get to Mayrill and I’ll have to look for a few more jobs while we’re there. Any more questions?”
He looks around. Most of us shake our heads. “Then let’s get sailing! Lily, to the helm, please. Marie, I’d like you to lower the sails. Nova, could you make sure everything’s tied down?”
The rest of us head to different places. With nothing much to do, I settle down on a nearby barrel and relax, watching the waves surge as our boat cuts through them.

I spent the next two days practicing my archery and trying to teach myself how to throw some knives. To summarize those days, Lowell softened up a little bit, Marie continued to glare at me with a suspicious look in her eye, and Turner got well enough to jump off the upper decks and yell at any unlucky person who just so happened to be passing by, much to Lily’s annoyance.
Alicia offered me a small bit of advice for my archery (or at least tried to. Half of it didn’t make sense and the other half was just her showing off her skills.) On the bright side, she did teach me how to make a fire with a couple of tree branches.
I saw less and less of Daniel during those days, but when I checked up on him, he was just sleeping behind the door. How much does Daniel sleep, anyway? Does he not get stiff?
Nova took an interest in hiding in random things and randomly jumpscaring anyone whom she heard passing by.While I didn’t experience that myself, I did hear Alicia screeching at Nova for hiding in one of the…small kitchen cabinets. Note to self: Nova is very flexible.
Meanwhile, the Captain was actually getting work done (and I don’t mean this in an offensive way. Well, not offensive to the Captain, but offensive to the other crew members.) He’d compiled a list of looks that the missing kid could potentially have.
When I asked him how he knew the kid would look like anything on the list, he said, “The woman has…brown hair. Just like yours, actually! Abnormally pale skin, greyish-blue eyes…no freckles. Her husband, on the other hand, has fair skin. His hair’s a little bit darker than the woman’s hair. Eyes are dark brown.
“Now, if we take these traits and put them into a gene pool, the chances of this mystery kid having traits from his parents is far more likely than him having traits that weren’t in the gene pool, right?”
“Ohhhhh. I thought we knew nothing about the father.”
“Well, we did. I just didn’t say anything about him. Should I have said something about that?” the Captain asked. I just shrugged.
“So we know the mom is alive, but what about the dad?” I asked.
“She said her husband was missing. I don’t think the guy’s alive, to be honest.”
I nodded. “Well, let me know if you get any more info,” I said. And that’s how that went.