The sailors lood closer and closer, their hands eager to grab her and throw her into the dark sea. lina wondered whether she could even reason with these n, their eyes seed blind from fear. But then she noticed Brock standing among the sailors, his expression mixed with confusion.
Perhaps, I could convince Brock to believe . He doesn't strike as an unreasonable man. If he were to vouch for , perhaps others would follow.
"I rely tried to help in any way I knew I could," she said, slowly shuffling closer to the cook. "I didn't want everyone here to die."
Brock's expression hardened and for a mont she feared that she had done herself in. The man walked up to her and gripped her shoulder.
"Do you all really believe that this child could have sent the monster upon us?" he asked the sailors.
"Don't let her looks deceive you. Witches are masters of camouflage. They can change themselves to look innocent," the old sailor bellowed.
"Yeh!"
"He's right!"
What witches? There's no such thing. I'm pretty sure that I used to be the closest thing this world had to a witch before, but I certainly could not shapeshift. Only a few rare monsters can do that.
"If I had wanted you all dead, then why would I co aboard this ship? I would have died along with you," lina argued.
"She's exactly right. Besides I doubt a witch as you call her would put up with all the chores I made this girl do," Brock agreed.
"Enough of this bullshit," the Captain growled, raising one of his arms. The sailors instantly stopped their advance. "This child shares information on how to safely pass by a monster and you want to throw her overboard? Aren't you ashad of yourselves? A bunch of adult n getting scared of so ancient superstitions and ganging up on a little girl. It's disgusting!"
All of the sailors lowered their gazes, except for old man Peter who was first to accuse lina. "But, Captain,we have never encountered a leviathan here before!"
"So that's instantly her fault? You know monsters can travel to other places right? This bay is filled with fish. Is it really that surprising that one of them has wandered in here? Now, enough of this nonsense. If I hear of this from soone again, I'm throwing them overboard. Back to your stations, you cowardly land rats!"
The sailors slumped and then turned to return to their respective workstations. Most of them looked like guilty puppies, except for a rare few who kept glaring at lina before leaving. None of them dared to say anything back at the Captain anymore.
"Sorry about that, lassie. These old sailors and their superstitions. One would think modern people don't believe in such nonsense anymore, but when they need a scapegoat then they're quick to rember them," the Captain said. Brock sighed in relief and released his grip on lina.
"That's why I told you to remain below deck," the chef grumbled, poking lina's forehead with his finger. She touched her forehead and looked at him with a guilty expression.
"If she had remained below deck, then we'd have a fight on our hands. And I'm not sure whether we could have won it. Even if we could have, many would have died and gotten injured," the Captain said, then smiled at lina. "Thank you, lass!"
"You're welco," she mumbled, still a bit shaken from the whole situation.
"Even so you have disobeyed an order from your direct superior. You're going to receive punishnt," Brock said sternly, and the Captain nodded in agreent.
"Alas, that is true. Order on the ship must be maintained!"
"Punishnt?" lina looked at the chef, wondering what kind of punishnt would he even give her. Would they flog her? She has heard of sailors getting flogged for disobeying orders, but would they really enact a physical punishnt? She shuddered at the thought of having the whip hit the fragile skin on her back. It would surely leave scars and could leave her immobile for several days, maybe even a week.
"You'll be in charge of washing dishes from now on. All of them," Brock said sternly and lina blinked at him. It took her a mont to register the enormity of the task, and then she paled, rembering the number of plates she had to put on the dining table.
"But then I'll be doing nothing but wash dishes all day," she protested.
"Then you'll be washing the dishes all day. On ship the word of your superior is absolute. Doesn't matter that you're not part of the crew," Brock said, and lina slumped.
"There, there, lass. It'll just be for two days. You'll be free to go once we reach Sunglow Town," the Captain smiled at her encouragingly.
"Yes, I'm sure you'll manage. You're quite a tough cookie from what I've seen," Brock said. "Now, then—enough prattling. Let's get back to work. The breakfast dishes need a good scrubbing."
lina sighed, already dreading the mountain of plates awaiting her. But on the bright side, she would not be thrown overboard. Brock put his hand on her back and gently guided her towards the stairs while shielding her from the view of other sailors. From the corner of her eye, she saw so angry glances in her direction.
That's what I get for stepping out of line. But at least I managed to prevent any fighting. We'd all be on the bottom of the sea if we attacked the leviathan. Certainly wouldn't be a fun way to start a new life.
With a heavy heart and sullen mood, lina returned to the kitchen where she was promptly put to work washing all the breakfast dishes. To say that the task was arduous would be an understatent. Not only was there a whole mountain of dirty dishes to wash, but the fact that they were on a ship only inhibited her further.
First of all, she had to put any leftovers in a special bucket which would later be either used as bait for fish or food for seagulls. Second, the amount of water she could use was very limited—one pot of boiled water and one pot of cold water for rinsing. Third, the ship didn't have any convenient plate dryer rack so she had to wipe every single plate, utensil, and cup dry with a towel.
I still can't believe that they wanted to throw overboard. I knew sailors were superstitious but is that really all it was? Or could this relate to the skill
User Comments
0 comments from readers