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Splintered Light Ch 0: Prelude

The feel of the sea breeze on his face was a welcome relief to the stifling limbo of being stuck in port. Rolf had remained patient for the sake of their captain; Alistair was not normally the kind of Tiger who stayed in one place for any length of time but the loss of his father was an understandable cause for a break from the mobile lifestyle of a sailor. Nevertheless, one week in one place had started to grate on the Prong Horn and he was relieved when the captain gave the order to be off.

The Wave Rider was not Rolf's first vessel; he had spent all of his adult life aboard one ship or another and it just happened to be his most recent commission... and probably the best. His friend and mentor Reverend Gustave Fischer had dragged him east to west and north to south across four different seas and an ocean but the Wave Rider was the first ship that really felt like a home. Rolf had taken a liking to most of the crew and, most importantly, his two commanding officers.

Rolf's direct supervisor was the ship's First Mate, a dark furred Jackal from Lehsunia's tribe lands. Despite the fact that Ash-Moon gave most of the crew the 'heebie jeebies', the Bosun had little problem working beside the tribesman and thought enough of him to avoid making any gestures of holy warding; Rolf was fairly certain that god wasn't about to stop the Jackal from whatever it was he planned to do aboard the ship and it really didn't do anything more than provide a visual slight to the First Mate... not that Ash-Moon seemed to care whenever he saw someone do it.

The Prong Horn watched the deck beneath him where the Jackal was directing two of the crew men and the ship's cabin boy in cleaning up a long stretch of wood that had taken on an unpleasant color; vomit did that on occasion and the ship's non seaworthy passengers usually had it bad for the first few days out of port. Once his will was suitably imposed on his subordinates Ash-Moon headed up to the ship's poop deck, using the small staircase that elevated it above the stern castle. There, he spoke calmly with the ship's Captain.

Captain Alistair Jacksoni was an outgoing, amiable man who had a head for logistics and a heart for taking care of his people. The Tiger ran the ship like a mix between a business and a family, which was a hell of a lot better than the Prong Horn had experienced aboard military vessels, ministry barges, and (he shuddered at the thought), Ilysean Merchant Guild transports. Despite the fact that the tiger was the youngest captain he'd ever met he didn't let Alistair's youth get in the way of their association.

Captain Jacksoni, as it turned out was just a few years his brother's junior, which was the very same argument he'd used on the Tiger when convincing him to let Tobias join the crew as the ship's scientist. Technically The Wave Rider wasn't an enlisted scouting vessel so there was no adamant reason to HAVE a scientist but when it came to the crew accompaniment Alistair was usually lax enough that Rolf would get his way. The Bosun glanced back to the discoloration on the deck; unfortunately that was the latest of several 'marks' his younger brother had left aboard the ship.

Despite not being accustomed to the life of a sailor, Tobias had already made great inroads toward proving his presence worthwhile onboard. In addition to maintaining a watch for signs of spoilage on the food and monitoring water stores for any indication of souring, many herbs the younger Prong Horn had brought had worked wonders in keeping rats off of the ship whenever it was in port; considering how long the Wave Rider had been docked recently that alone should have proven him worthwhile to the rest of the crew... well... except for the three scrubbing up the remnants of Tobias' breakfast.

Then again, and probably just as important as Tobias' scientific know-how was the fact that he was part of a package deal; his ever-so-alluring companion, the esteemed Dr. Chris was a trained doctor and so, after nearly two years without one, The Wave Rider had finally obtained a surgeon. Rolf knew he was more than happy enough to have one and even if some of the men belly ached about having a lady looking after them he had only to remind them that if they ever ended up wed they'd be thankful for the practice. That, and if one of them ended up with an extra hole in their body somewhere there shouldn't have been one it didn't matter who sealed it up just so long as they were good at doing it.

Rolf's attention was pulled out of his own thoughts by the sound of commotion on deck; one the two crewmen working on cleaning the bile off the forecastle was in a verbal altercation with the ship's cabin boy. Archie Lews or "Lews" as most of the crew called him was a hot headed Great Dane from northern Ilyse; he wasn't the most sensible man and tended to keep to other Ilyseans. Considering the Cabin Boy was a Raccoon Dog from Jiuyan it only made sense that the Dog would be causing problems. The Prong Horn quickly descended from his place in the rigging, watching the events and readying to interject.

Lews took great pride in his heritage and showed it in his clothing. He made a point of wearing a red and blue kilt and loose vest and sash of the same color. Rolf had seen the Dog in a few fights during his time aboard the Wave Rider and the Dane seemed almost as harsh with his fellow crewmen as he was with real opponents; the fact that the Dog had a wooden gaff hook handle in his clenched paw for use as a spacer didn't bode well for the poor Cabin Boy... or so Lews would have thought. He started by giving the Raccoon Dog a push. "Why don'ya watch where you're workin', Lad? Ya got puke-water on ma foot!"

The Cabin Boy, Lee Sento, was a young runaway from Jiuyan. The Captain let him tag along the last time they had stopped by the island nation. Despite only being in his mid teens the Raccoon Dog (or 'Tanuki' as they were called in Jiuyan) had a strong work ethic and never hesitated to do anything and everything asked of him. He was also incredibly respectful-- a trait that didn't help him much with Lews. Lee set down his scrubber and put his paws to his side, offering a stiff bow at his hip to the Dog. "I am sorry, sir."

The Great Dane grunted, slamming his packed paw into the palm of his other one as he took an intimidating step toward the Tanuki. "Yeah... sure ya are, Jiuyan-whelp... but not as sorry as ya SHOULD be."

Rolf inserted himself into the gathering. "Is something wrong, Mr. Lews?"

The Dog glanced between the Tanuki and the Prong Horn and did away with his aggressive posture. "No problem, Sir. None at all, Mr. Severna, Sir. I was just lettin' the captain's pet know that he needs ta be more careful."

The Bosun nodded. "Good... then back to work, all of you."

Lews and the other crewman nodded while Lee offered Rolf a deep bow. "Yes, Master Rolf."

The Prong Horn's eye twitched; he never did much care for that honorific. "MISTER Rolf, Lee... not Master."

Despite the two crewmen snickering at him the Tanuki offered another bow to Rolf. "Yes, Sir. I am sorry."

Rolf nodded his head to Lee then shot the two crewmen a glance; they stopped laughing and went straight back to work. With little more to be said, Rolf headed to the poop deck to join the Captain and First Mate, who were watching the exchange. Alistair didn't comment until the Bosun was close but Ash-Moon didn't bother waiting to greet him. "Oani, Rolf-Hama."

The Prong Horn wasn't as good with the tribal tongue as his brother but he'd learned enough over the years to get by. "Oani, Lumacrah-Hama."

The name Lumacrah meant literally 'Moon of Ash', with 'Lum' meaning 'Moon', 'a' being the conjuction 'of', and 'crah' meaning 'Ash'. All in all there were more difficult languages out there but Tribal was one that Rolf simply didn't use on a regular basis. Still, it didn't stop Ash-Moon from keeping him in practice. Captain Jacksoni didn't particularly share their linguistic activities. "Mehnzilian, please."

The Bosun nodded. "Right, sir. Mehnzilian it is."

Ash-Moon was his usual pleasant self. He crossed his arms and scowled. "The Stone Tribe has too many tongues."

Alistair waved away the comment. "But everyone on board the Wave Rider speaks Mehnzilian, and so that is the language we shall use."

Rolf glanced back toward the work detail cleaning the deck, scowling when he saw that Lews was back to picking on Lee. "Speaking of national differences, I think we might need to separate those two."

The Captain shrugged. "Let them work it out. You can't keep men apart for long on a ship. Better it's settled now."

The First Mate snorted. "And one of them won't be able to work while he heals."

The Bosun couldn't avoid smirking, already realizing what Alistair was getting at. "The loser gets a break from duties and the winner has to clean up the blood too."

The Tiger glanced out of the corner of his eye at the Prong Horn and Rolf could see the faint twitch of a smirk on his muzzle. "Perhaps."

The sound of water splashing followed by a loud expletive pulled their attention to the stern castle where Lews was standing on one foot with the other extended out; Lee's bucket had been knocked over, completely soaking the Tanuki's sandaled feet in its contents. Rolf straightened up, "Sir, I can--"

Alistair held up a paw. "No."

The Cabin Boy stood up and walked over to where his scrub brush had surfed upon the tide of upended water. Lee picked it up and brought it back over to his bucket then picked up both. He addressed the Great Dane "I go to get more water, Sir."

Apparently little pup-like bullying wasn't enough for Lews and he reached out to latch a paw onto Lee's shirt. "Like hell you will. You're cleanin' up the mess you just made."

The Tanuki was hefted upward so that his sandals were barely scraping the deck. "You just made the mess, Sir. I did not."

The Great Dane brought his muzzle closer, growling in the cabin boy's face. Rolf took a step to intercede but the Captain's paw took hold of his arm. "Do not worry yourself, my friend... Lee promised me he would not hurt any of my sailors."

The Bosun glanced at the Captain, having wondered if he misheard the Tiger's statement; he missed the first flurry of movement. At the sound of two quick, fleshy thuds, Rolf looked back toward the altercation. Lee was out of his tunic, which was still held by Lews. The Dog was hunched over in apparent pain with one paw holding his gut, the other gripping the Tanuki's shirt. The Cabin Boy was off to the side, standing passively with his arms at his side. The Prong Horn wasn't sure what he missed; he'd only looked away for a moment-- how could the the pudgy little Raccoon Dog be capable of moving so quickly?

It took a moment for the Dog to recover, apparently as much from surprise as from blows to the stomach. "Oh... you're just diggin' the hole deeper now, whelp."

Rolf saw the wooden fist pack come back out and the Great Dane took a step closer, his fist coming in with a strong left hook. Rather than duck or backpedal, Lee instead stepped in closer. The Tanuki's right arm came up and the blow was deflected like rain falling off of a slanted roof while his left elbow came to rest gently against the Dog's sternum. Lee stepped forward again, his solid stance overbearing Lews, who was off-balance from the failed strike; the big Dog toppled over.

The altercation was quickly drawing a crowd and the extra sets of eyes watching him getting bowled over by a Cabin Boy 2/3rds his size was not sitting well with the Great Dane. Climbing back up to his feet Lews let out a mighty roar and rushed Lee once again, telegraphing with his left paw before quickly changing it up and lunging forward with a right jab. Lee spread his legs slightly, sinking down so the attack slid right across the top of his head, and he straightened his legs, following up the move with a one-two punch at the crewman's exposed ribs; Lews stumbled back, apparently more surprised than harmed.

Once there was more than an arm's distance between the two of them Lee returned to a casual standing posture. "If you apologize I will forgive you, Sir."

The comment actually got the Great Dane to freeze in place.. for all of three seconds. A long litany of curse words hurtled forth from Lews' muzzle once he had regained the wherewithal to speak again and he grabbed a spare oar off of one of the equipment racks. He charged the young Tanuki with the weapon held high, but never had a chance to bring it to bear. Lee hooked the edge of his sandal on a metal pulley that had been laying on the deck; with a quick flip of his leg the pulley launched up into the air and hit the Dog in his jaw.

Lews stumbled back but Lee didn't let him get very far; three strides took him to where the Great Dane backpedaled and the Tanuki launched two strikes to the middle of the Dog's body and then pulled the oar out of his stunned grasp. The Cabin Boy struck at the Great Dane's foot and then brought the paddle up to connect with Lews' jaw, knocking the Dog completely off his feet. Lews landed with a loud thump, and a groan, and didn't get back up. Lee raised the oar, aiming the paddle right at the Great Dane's exposed neck and tensed to strike.

A shout in Jiuyani from the side halted the decisive strike. "TEI!"

Rolf turned toward the origin of the shout and saw Mr. Chen standing at the doorway of the forecastle. The Cat said a quick series of staccato words from the language he and the Tanuki shared and Lee responded by tossing the oar to the other crewman with whom he'd been working. The other sailor caught it and made no other movement. The Cabin Boy turned toward the fallen Great Dane and gave a curt bow and looked up to where Rolf stood with the Captain and First Mate. Lee addressed Alistair. "I am sorry, Lordship."

The Captain's whiskers gave the hint that he was attempting to suppress a smile; if there was one thing Rolf knew about Alistair it was that the Tiger hated bullies. "Do not apologize, Lee... just return to work."

The Tanuki bowed deeply. "Yes, Lordship."

As directed, Lee returned to cleaning the deck. Rolf didn't miss the fact that the remaining crewman who still held the oar gave him a wide berth. Once the chaos on deck quieted Alistair pulled Rolf's attention back to the task at hand. "I suppose it's about time I fill everyone in on our destination."

Ash-Moon, as usual, deferred completely to the Captain. "That is up to you, Rohn. I will follow no matter where you go."

Rolf was much more pragmatic. "Shall I gather the officers, Sir??

Alistair nodded to the Prong Horn. "We'll need the officers, yes, Rolf... but I'll have Ash-Moon handle that."

The Jackal nodded and without another word headed out to find Willem, Jacques, and Karl-- the Wave Rider's Foreman, Master-at-Arms, and Gunner rounded out the officer list. Once they were alone the Tiger turned to regard the Prong Horn. Rolf knew that a question was coming and pointed it out. "You're getting 'that look', Alistair."

The Tiger nodded. "Right. Tell me, Mr. Severna... you speak Tribal, right?"

Rolf shrugged. "Not as well as my brother, but some, yeah."

Alistair leveled his gaze. "Ash-Moon has this nickname for me..."

The Prong Horn knew the one-- he'd heard it often enough. "You mean 'Rohn'?"

The Captain gave a quick nod in confirmation. "It's nothing unseemly, is it? He is not referring to me as a god or a deity or some kind of master, or a--"

Rolf laughed. "No, Captain-- nothing like that."

Although there was humor in the following exclamation, the Bosun could tell there was also the faintest hint of frustration in it too. "Then what the bloody hell does it mean, man?!?"

Having spent over a decade aboard seagoing vessels and several years specifically with The Wave Rider, Rolf knew when he was able to push the limits and toy with the idea of playful insubordination. "I'll tell you after the meeting."