Dark waters

5. Revealed

The deck needed some scrubbing after the storm. Cole had heard that sailors would scrub the deck often on a ship but he never got an explanation to why. Now he was told the deck got salty from the ocean waves and the water might cause a growth of algae. Both could make the deck slippery and that was a death sentence in rough weather, so it made sense.

Ezur threw a bucket of water on the deck next to Cole before he took a mop and started swabbing. The troll looked very concentrated on his task, which made Cole hold back a smile. He kept scrubbing with the brush attached to a handle, grateful he didn't have to crawl on his knees to clean the deck. He just made sure to steer clear of Ezur and his wild mop-flopping.

Cole was almost done when he saw Tan coming up from the kitchen with a piece of bread in his hand. Tan immediately noticed Cole and came over to him.
"Did I fail to bring you your dinner?" Cole asked, glancing at the bread in Tan's hand.
Tan gave him a smile.
"It's okay. I felt like talking to Vock for a moment while eating. How are things?"
Tan looked around.
"It's good. Almost done."
Tan nodded and gave Cole a smile again.
"Should I give you a tour with a lesson in seamanship?"
"Is it okay for me to leave the work unfinished?"
"Sure. It's not really your job anyway. Ezur and Vu take care of the ship. You've helped them enough to earn some time off."
Cole left the brush leaning against the railing and followed Tan to the front of the ship.

"Do you know any words for the parts on the ship?"
Cole shook his head.
"Not really. I know it's a ship and not a boat, and that those white things are sails."
Tan gave him a crooked smile.
"That's a start I guess."
Cole shrugged.
"Do you know what the front of the ship is called?"
"The pointy end?"
Tan laughed.
"Not that far from the truth, but mostly as a joke. More seriously it's the bow. The widest part of the ship is the beam, or waist and the flat back in the stern of the ship is called the transom. Right now we are aboard, which means we are on the ship. Would you climb in the rig you would be aloft, which means on the ship but above it. Everything in front of the ship is ahead and everything behind the ship is astern."
Cole nodded.
"This half-wall going around the ship is a gunwale and the gunwale has holes in it to let water out if it rains or if the waves splash over, and those holes are called scuppers."
"So it is not a railing?"
"Not really, no."
Cole nodded again.
"Right."
"On the outside of the ship you have two parts of the hull. The part above the waterline is called topsides and the part underwater is called the trim."
"I think this is getting advanced enough for me for one day."
Tan smiled again.
"You just want the words considering the hull today?"
"Yeah. That's plenty enough. Won't remember half of it any way."
"Well. I can finish with the foremast and main mast. The mast looking like a spear in the bow is called a jib-boom. This set of masts and sails is mainly what makes the Valkyrie a Storm-brig."
"Right ... I'll try to remember at least some of it."
Tan had a faint smile on his face while looking quite sincerely at him. Cole couldn't help but take in Tan's features himself. The setting sun gave his eyes a quite intriguing sparkle.

Tan broke eye contact first and cleared his throat.
"You should probably go down below. The sun will go down soon, and I would rather not see you up here when it does."
Cole nodded.
"Yeah. Sure. I'll go down to the kitchen and get some dinner."
Tan met his gaze with a teasing smile.
"There aren't any kitchens' on a ship, dear."
Cole raised his eyebrows.
"All right... I assume you're going to tell me what it's called, then?"
Tan smiled a bit wider.
"Nah. Not gonna tire you out with too many words. But you can go down to the galley and ask Vock about it if you'd like to."
With that, Tan turned and walked away.

Cole stood for a moment with a sheepish smile on his face before he hurried to get down below deck. The quickened thumping of his heart did not go unnoticed. There was definitely something that made his heart flutter when Tan said or did some things. Those intense looks and the warmly spoken pet names got to him the most. In the moment he mostly just stood there, but thinking back he felt his face get warmer. Even though he had little experience when it came to love he could sense it was something there. He wondered how he could find out more about it without rushing in to something too fast.