• Memory • Song of the Sea

[Ayissi]

Vhalar 15, 710th Arc

The damages were considerable. The crew has lost a few good men, the mizzenmast was badly broken with the spanker torn by the splinters and some of the sails on main mast and foremast also needed repairs. Moreover, no one still knew whether the belly of the ship was alright, but considering they weren't sinking, it was perhaps just the paint that suffered from the mysterious collision.

"Andaris on horizon!" Shouted one of the sailors, sticking his finger to the west. Ayissi extended her spying glass to the point and truly, it was Andaris. At last! She navigated by memory and a map she found in the captain's cabin. She was certain that she probably went of course slightly at some point, but finally, they could all breath a sigh of relief. Help was at least within their reach.

"Change the course! Head west! Haul to the wind!" Ayissi gave out the orders in a moment's notice. Since the storm, her father was lying in his cabin with a head injury, needing a proper healer. Mother's health has not improved either for her to come on the deck and skipper. The boys were still too young to be able to handle a ship. It was on Ayissi to get them to safety and into a dry dock for repairs.

Two seamen climbed the central mast to free the main skysail so that the ship would get as much of the pull from the wind as it could in its pitied state. Ayissi was already turning the wheel gently, hoping the rudder would last just a little longer. It was already beginning to bite and she didn't like that. In the narrow-ish manoeuvre space there was in the canal between the kingdom and eastern coast of East Idalos, Ayissi couldn't really afford a faulty rudder. Especially if she were to lead the boat safely into the bay which wasn't particularly wide either.

"Nair, get away from there!" The woman shouted at her younger brother who probably made a bet with Therris and Jotzah, his other brothers, that he would get close to the mizzenmast and poke the splinters. "Get away from it or I'll put you in the brig for the rest of the journey and until we set sail again!" She could be rather stern if she wanted to be. Her no nonsense voice and the clarity with which it carried over the middle morning breeze, caught the boy off guard, freezing him in place. He appeared guilty even before he turned around to look at her sister with golden pink ashamed eyes, pattering away. Now Ayissi understood why mother was so tired all the time. Or at least, she understood part of the reason. Mother's tiredness was more than trying to raise three boys. Everybody knew it. Everybody tried their best to accommodate to mother, hoping to perhaps find someone who'd know what was the cause of her discomfort.

By a full break, they were pulling into the dock, having to fend off to prevent bumping into other boats or the dock itself. It was a clumsy arrival, but Ayissi was doing all she could. It was her first time skippering. Till then she only watched her father or mother do this, but they had the advantage of a fully functioning ship. By the grace of U'frek, however, Ayissi managed to moor. Her tensed muscles relaxing. This was no easy task, it dawned on her. Being a captain was hard. But as she looked around, over the crew making the arrangements of safe mooring, only then did she see the curious but also the understanding looks on people's faces on other ships but also those walking on the waterfront. It was the first time she felt companionship from strangers. Was this how it felt to be a captain actually? Was this the look a captain would get for managing to bring a ship beaten by a terrible storm to port? Was this a shared understanding? An expression of respect she just saw on some faces? Her chest swelled with sudden pride. It only struck her fully then what she has done, what she just accomplished.

"Oy! Oy! You up there! Stop grinning and get me the captain!" Her bubble burst then. She looked too young for a captain and her arrival wasn't particularly glorious either, but the grin on her face stayed. A chuffed, excited grin that she was entitled to.

[Vakhanor]

Bodies reeked with the cool sweat of labour as they pushed through the markets of Andaris, all too busy wrapped up in their own lives to care about one another's paths as they crossed. Among them, Vakhanor made his way past the crowd toward into the less densely popular areas of the market. Life was hard enough as a single parent raising a child and the inconvenience of having a busy market only made it that little bit harder.

Frustrated Vakh juggled holding the baby and keeping it in his arms with carrying the shopping bags. This had proved to be difficult at first and he'd never feel the end of it if he hurt the child, but he couldn't leave the damn thing on its own. The baby was all the Vakhanor had left of a family and he wasn't about to forsake it. 'Bjorn,' he'd be called. Vakhanor's mother was useless at naming and asked the man what he thought was a good name, he hadn't expected her to pick it of course, but there he was. A man with a baby, named by him that wasn't even his. Vakhanor considered that whatever immortal it was that decided the fate of childbirth was probably trying to bite him in the ass and he even went so far to consider that if an immortal did curse him, maybe it was because he cursed everyone who had committed adultery.

"Buy your milk!" the bellowing voice of a merchant called from one of the many vibrantly silk draped stalls, insistently emphasising the freshness of his goods "As cheap as chips!" Milk it went, was the one thing that Vakhanor had neglected to buy on his journey and would probably need for the formula that he'd been shown how to make by the healers.

"Fresh Milk!" the stranger, drab in dull grey clothing and a blue barrett smiled with sheepish enthusiasm; his wide grin accentuating his wrinkled and tanned skin.

"A bottle please," Vakh requested holding out what little coin he had. Although he did not have much to offer, the smith tried to get by on what he had. Poorer living throughout his life had suited him better, even if the baby made it a little inconvenient.

[Ayissi]

After their landing everything fell on the first mate's shoulders. He was more experienced at dealing with this and Ayissi happily escaped into the lower deck. Her excitement was hardly contained within her bouncy frame and the triplets immediately fed off it. It turned into a commotion of action that Ayissi would come to regret. Yet, it was a feat to somehow get their injured father into the nearest inn along with sick mother, but come afternoon they were all settled with a doctor in the room taking care of the captain and his family. Thankfully, father suffered only mild concussion it seemed. He would need to rest for almost twenty four trials before even considering getting back on the sea. As for mother, the doctor was at loss. As so many before him were too.

"You go now. Take the boys into the city, show them around." The first mate told her before having to use a little more convincing words as Ayissi was reluctant to leave her parents. The weight of the situation, the fact she nearly lost her father, it was all settling into her mind and it frightened her. If she left, what if when she came back...

"No. You will go and take the boys, Ayissi. You can't do much here and the boys are only going to be in the way. I mean look at them..." They were already restless, getting into grouchy arguments with one another. They needed distraction as much as she needed it as well.

"Alright then. But if anything happens. You will send for me. Understood?" She said firmly, looking hard into the first mate's eyes. That was the look of a person who did not take no for an answer. She demanded cooperation and the first mate nodded in agreement, knowing that he could not deny her what she asked for. And so it was that her and the triplets were let out into the streets of Andaris.

At first, the boys kept close to their older sister. She knew the place and they did not. They did not want to get lost. But they were a curious bunch just as well. Soon that nature won over and they were running back and forth. Even more so when they arrived at the market.

"Nair! Therris!" Ayissi called across the crowd which was already loud with all the merchants trying to sell their goods. She saw the two boys teasing their brother, undoubtedly challenging one another.

"You three!" She called again hoping to get them by her side before they'd run off. Unfortunately, the boys were too absorbed in their activity that they darted off without paying much attention to where they were, or that their sister was calling for them. Ayissi now understood how tiring it was to look after the boys. She would never have three kids. Not at the same time. Never.

Unfortunately, as the boys were so focused on their game, they hardly took their surroundings into consideration which resulted in Jotzah trying to cut a corner, beat his brothers to the finish, which only resulted in a collision with a man of fiery hair with a baby in his arm. To make events much worse, Nair saw Jotzah's tactics and decided to follow close behind. With reflexes perhaps quick enough but little maneuver space, he was the second bullet arriving in the collision. Therris...well, he was long gone in the crowd, far ahead of his brothers for him to see what mess they've made. On the other hand, Ayissi saw it way too clearly. Blood drained from her face. Her heart skipped a beat as she raced towards the accident.

"Nair. Jotzah! Boys, be damned! What were you thinking?!" She exclaimed as she arrived at the scene, the boys a tangled mess of limbs on the ground. She could see them trying to punch each other whilst trying to get up, throwing young boy's swears here and there in anger, accusing each other of what's happened. Ayissi exhaled in frustration. She couldn't do much about them, but at least they seemed unhurt. Instead, she quickly turned her gaze to the stranger.

"I am so sorry. The boys are like loose cannon balls sometimes. Badly calibrated ones at that." Shooting the two a reprimanding glance, she saw from the corner of her eye that Therris was making his way towards them as well, with curiosity written on his face. Then she saw the baby in the man's arms. It wasn't happy. It was starting to squirm, its small face contorted. The whining noise it started to produce was unmistakable.

"Oh my god. I'm really sorry for the little one." She spoke honestly stepping a little closer, eyes falling to look at the small, red and upset face. The unequivocal expression of a woman that handled babies before with love and care spreading across her features.

"If you allow, I can try to calm him whilst..." Looking around, she noticed the shopping spilled on the ground. "...whilst the boys do their bit, right?" Her eyes settled on the triplets with resolution in her hues, two of them looking guilty, one outraged at being possibly included in the task.

[Vakhanor]

Darting through he crowd like bullets in a thick blanket of fog a small group of young children raced passed Vakhanor, screaming at one another in excitement. Misfortune however had its own plans, as the smith in his hazed perception of his surroundings with a baby in his arms, gracelessly tripped onto the floor. Dropping like landfall as the groceries scattered across the pathway and the child was jerked from his balanced hold.

There was no time time to think about what happened as the infant slipped from his arms, and within trills he dived forward, sheltering the infant as he whirled around mid air and landed against the ground.

"Fuck!" the half-blood's voice boomed as the impact grazed his pale flesh with white scales of skin and spots of crimson. In his arms the child shrieked from the shock.

"If you allow, I can try to calm him whilst..." he hazed voice of a stranger loomed over him. For but a moment he looked up at the woman it belonged to with wordless agitation, for all her blonde beauty and built frame the woman must have been an idiot to let her children run off like that.

"...whilst the boys do their bit, right?" the blonde continued to say and Vakhanor could only grimace. As much as he hated the situation, the help could be appreciated. Trying to deal with a crying baby while scavenging for left over shopping in the middle of a busy market was a challenge in itself and nel had never grown on trees.

"Alright," Vakh eventually replied, lifting the small human bundle from his chest and into Ayissi's arms, "don't try anything funny." Getting up, the smith dusted himself off and started to gather the things he had dropped, not waiting for the children to respond.

Vakhanor didn't care for any but his own and more often than not people felt the same toward him. More Aukari than human his heritage had offered him nothing more than judgement and mistrust, it was only when they found out he was only half that people usually started to relax.

"Tell your kids to be more careful," he grumbled, retrieving what remained of the fruit he had brought.

[Ayissi]

Ayissi felt horribly sorry for the mess the boys made, but equally as angry with the triplets. Sternly telling them what to do in her broken Rahaki proved to be more effective than trying to tell them in Common. Mainly because in Rahaki the boys had yet to learn how to stand up to her and in Common they knew they could not win. She came to cradle the small upset bundle with an ease of a woman who was yet to be a mother, but who clearly had experience before. Of course, she would try nothing funny, but she couldn't blame the man for warning her anyways. Children were precious. Anywhere. And so she securely placed the babe on her left arm so with her right hand she could caress it's cheeks, making sure it was alright after it nearly fell. If anything would have happened to it, she would have felt incredibly responsible. It all reflected in the care she was now showing the child.

"I really am sorry for this." She told the stranger as she briefly looked up at him from his son, assuming it was his son. Her brothers were already trying their best to help the man who they thought looked angry and would lash out at them at any point. It made them look skittish, a sight Ayissi almost wished their father to witness. He'd surely have a grand laugh.

"Oh and they're not my kids. Just brothers." She clarified, shooting the three a glance as they now stood by her side, staring at the ground at their feet, not appearing quite comfortable.

"They still need to learn that life on a ship is different once it lands." The bundle in her arms, however, seemed to have quietened down slightly. With her hand on its stomach and its tiny hands unhappily flaunting about, Ayissi managed to offer it her finger at which it grabbed fiercely. Here and there, she'd hum a few notes that the boys would know as well. Ayissi couldn't tell what worked - whether the gentle swaying or the melody - but the child was being gradually soothed.

"Shouldn't we get out of here? It's quite loud and I think your child wants to sleep." Ayissi suggested, looking up to the stark blue hues of the stranger. "I can carry the baby if you'd like."