Tides

Chapter 6- Praxis

The few days before we got to Isington Harbour were spent sorting good’s we wanted to sell there and those we didn’t. We were keeping the good stuff for our next stop, Gillie because we knew we’d get a much better price for things there but we needed some essential things now.

Blair tended to watch over the Kid during the day while I watched him at night. He’d pretty much taken my bed now and I didn’t have the heart to throw him out of it despite his daily offer to move in with the rest of the crew.

As we got closer to Isington he grew more anxious, more restless. I noticed how he fiddled with his long hair a lot. When the harbor finally came into view he looked as if he was about to pull it out he was fiddling with it so much. “Do you want it cut?” I asked him as he gave me a fierce glance. “No offense or anything but it does make you stand out.”

For a moment he frowned, just looking at me as if he were considering it before nodding. “But only to just above my shoulders.” He said.

“Promise, now come on. Blair’s got proper scissors in her cabin we can use.” I said as we walked to her room. The only reason Blair even had her own cabin was because she was the only woman in the crew. On the few occasions we’d had other women come with us they’d bunked with Blair and she didn’t mind it, it was just that men were men. In my mind that translated to men on board a boat for god knows how long get lonely.

When I’d become captain god knows a few brutes had tried it on with her only to have her kick there asses off the ship in the middle of the ocean. No one went near her after that and though it put my mind to rest that she would always be ok if anything ever happened to me it also made me worry that she’d never have a life off this ship.

Personally I wasn’t particularly fond of going to shore only to end up in a whore house, I’m not gona lie and to say it’s never happened but that one time I woke up and was so horrified I left through a window. Without any clothes on…. Yere, that wasn’t a good day for me.

Finding the scissors on Blair’s bedside table I got him to look in her mirror. “Do you want to do it or shall I?” He asked pulling one long strand of hair over his shoulder.

“I’ll do it and don’t worry it’ll look fine.” I smiled getting him to sit on a stool before I began cutting his hair off. By the time we were done it he’d gone pale. His face showed more now. I was about to comment to say how nice he looked when…

“Praxis we’re ready to dock!” Blair yelled from up top causing us both to jump out of our skins. Without even a glance at the mirror we both ran out the door and up to the deck. Looking out ahead of us we could see the harbor, ready and waiting our arrival.  Anxiously I looked over at the kid. With his hair cut he could obviously see better and actually held his head a little higher as well. "What the hell's he done to you!" Blair cried rushing over to him and threading her hand through his now shoulder length hair.

"He just cut it a little," the kid replied shrugging her off before forcibly removing her hand.

"A little? You call that a little? Praxis you call that a little!" Her voice rose as she turned her comment’s into accusations.

"What?" I asked her. “it looks good."

She just gaped at him a second before shaking her head in utter disperse. "I'll have words with you later." She told me before walking off to go give orders.

~~~

Arriving at Isington Harbor we did not find what we had expected.

The last time I'd been here had been a few years ago when the fish was good and produce plentiful yet as we pulled in the place looked like it had been ransacked.