the Boy in the Book

Chapter 5 ~Transportation?~

So this is the chapter when things start to get a little strange... (:

Chapter 5

Arisa hefted a large satchel on to her shoulder as they walked down the obviously unused dirt path. They made for the bay, and the large trade ship floating in it. With luck, someone one the ship might know the whereabouts of Yakov’s missing father.

The sun shone dimly in the sky and a biting breeze lifted the salty and clear scent of the sea. The path was over grown with snow and weeds of all kinds and led down the side of a steep frosty cliff.

Yakov seemed strangely quiet for some reason. Arisa wondered if he was thinking about the village. Arisa felt a pang in her heart. She had never really cared about anyone in the village… now that she thought about it she had never really cared for anyone at all, except Yakov. Maybe she had loved her parents, but she couldn’t really remember them. She couldn’t even remember the fire that had taken them away from her. She had been very young though… it was only natural.

Arisa knew Yakov was much the same. Even if his father was the esteemed head watchmen, Yakov had always been ostracized for his appearance. He was the only one in the village with red hair. Presumably he had inherited it from his dead mother, for his father had dark brown hair, just as everyone else did.

“Yakov, are you okay?” Arisa asked quietly, looking up at her oddly silent companion.

“What? Oh, I’m fine.” Yakov replied. “Just thinking of my father…”

‘So he isn’t thinking of the village after all…’ Arisa thought to herself.

She clutched Ezio’s book to her chest under her blood red cloak.

“Maybe the owners of that ship will know.” Arisa replied, giving him a hopeful smile.

By now they were just coming up to the bay where the ship was anchored.

“I’ve just had a thought…” Arisa said suddenly, stopping. “How do we know that ship is… you know… friendly?”

Her timing could not have been better.

There was a whoosh and a series of thunks and all of a sudden they were surrounded on all sides by armed men.

They were a rather strange assortment of folk, all carrying knives or swords or bows. They were all shapes and sizes and colors and were dressed rather poorly. All of them had some kind of hat or bandana tied around their heads.

“What’s your business ‘ere?” said a small mouse like boy with choppy brown hair and a pair of knives. He appeared to be no more than 15 years old. He had a scarf tied half hazard around his head.

“We mean no harm.” Yakov replied, holding his hands up slightly as a sign of peace. Even so Arisa couldn’t help but notice how he stood just a little bit closer to her, and just a tad in front. “We’re looking for someone.”

“Information comes at a price, yee know…” said a taller and rather scary looking man with a large build and his fair share of jagged scars. However; Arisa had a hard time taking him seriously with the large sombrero perched on his head.

‘what strange people…’ she thought to herself.

“I can pay you, then. I’m looking for my father. A man named Argon Trithe.” Yakov replied, crossing his arms over his chest and shifting his weight from foot to foot.

“Never ‘eard of him.” The sombrero man replied.

“Pippin Trithe, aye?” said a scraggly looking bearded man with a red bandana. He scratched his chin in thought. “Name rings a bell… An that bell might ring a bit louder if someone was to polish it…”

He grinned at Yakov, rubbing his fingers together. Yakov rolled his eyes and tossed him a pretty silver piece. The man caught it easily and sent it twirling across his fingers before he tossed it into his pocket.

“Isn’t he that ‘ol scrap of a man who requested passage from us a few months ago?” The scraggly bandana man said.

“Where is he?!” Yakov said suddenly, his face looking rather stern.

“Last I ‘eard of him he was on the Mainland.” Bandana man replied.

Yakov looked thoroughly confused by this.

“This… IS the main land.” Yakov replied.

This statement got the whole bunch looking at him like he was moon-brain crazy.

“Uh… Nope… pretty sure this is an island…” The kid with the scarf replied. “We’ve sailed around it enough times to know.”

At this point both respected groups thought of each other as absolutely insane. Arisa was the one to break the awkward silence that followed.

“Well… uh… could you give us a lift, anyway?” she asked, giving them a hopeful smile. “If you could just drop us off as close to where you’ve last seen Yakov’s father as possible, that would be great. We’ll pay, of course.”

Yakov turned to Arisa suddenly.

“NO.” He said sharply. “Uh… I mean… Arisa…” he gave her a meaningful look and nodded his head at the sailors. “Don’t you think we should find someone a bit less… uh… Busy?”

Busy did not seem like his most preferred term of description for the ratty bunch of sailors who very obviously were not what Arisa thought they were.

“Well as long as yee can pay yee’re welcome on our ship…” grumbled the sombreroed sailor. The whole group seemed to give one resounding grumble of agreement, and suddenly both Yakov and Arisa were being whisked away to the shore in a crowd of bickering sailors. It happened too fast for Yakov to protest.

Water lapped gently against 3 medium sized row boats that sat looking rather depressed and well used on the sand. A few men grunted as they shoved the boats off of the beach and into the water, hopping in as they did so.

Arisa didn’t hesitate to hike up her skirts and wade through the water to the boats just like the rest of them. She had shoved the journal in the satchel and was holding it up above the water to keep it from getting wet. Yakov watched her in open mouthed surprise as she scrambled up into the boat in a very unladylike fashion, though he knew he shouldn’t be too surprised, as she’d done such things before in the village. She chose a seat next to the scarf-headed boy and shifted her satchel on to her lap, clutching it to her chest and grinning with anticipation. Yakov closed his mouth and hesitated for a moment, giving Arisa a look.

How could she be so naïve? These sailors had just ambushed them, and now they were perfectly okay with giving them a lift? They obviously did not have good intentions. Sure they could be doing it for some coin, but Yakov had a bad feeling that they wanted a bit more than that.

“Arisa… We don’t have to cross oceans, you know… we could just stay here, where it’s safe…” Yakov said. “Maybe my father will just come to us. He’s bound to come looking for me at some point, I’m his son after all…”

Arisa pondered this for a moment. And in that moment, as she sat wedged between two smelly and salty sailors with bad breath but good manor, she made up her mind. There was no turning back, and she intended to keep it that way.

“It’s time I got out of that village anyway.” She said. “You want to see your father, don’t you? Well he’s gone missing, you idiot. He could be in a bad situation and we’re the only ones who can help him.”

Yakov was again reminded of the fact that he barely knew this girl. She may be small and slim and quiet on first glance… but he was beginning to realize just how stubborn she could be when she wanted to.

“Fine.” He said, and with that he jumped into the boat.

A sailor slapped him hard on the back and chuckled slightly, flashing a few gold teeth. In a moment Yakov had an ore in his hand.

“Yee’ll row with the rest of us.” He said.