Here is still more Water
Water 24.10.2021
Lalli was startled by a spray of cold water. He felt terrible. He was lying on his face on wooden planks, but the entire world around him was heaving like crazy. The water was weird too, different from the water in his pond. Oh yes, salt. It was seawater.
Closing and opening his eyes, he gauged his surroundings. The planks he was lying on were wide and sturdy and went on in front of his nose. On his right-hand side there was a low wall built of the same timber. On his left were some bulky nondescript items, probably crates or something similar. And yes, the entire area was heaving, up and down, front to back, side to side.
Another serving of salt water drenched Lalli, sloshing in over the wooden wall. Suddenly he realized he was on some sort of a ship, and promptly discovered also why he was right next to the gunwale.
After a short while of gazing directly downwards (quite high up, curving ship wall built entirely of wood, lively waves) he raised his head and looked out. The ship was indeed at sea. Despite the horrible heaving, the weather was otherwise nice. It was sunny, and extremely warm. The water was bright turquoise blue, and sun was dancing on the whitecaps. Farther out, an island sported ridiculously bright greenery above a bright yellow ribbon of… sand? at the waterline. It could have been beautiful, or at least interesting, if he weren’t on a bloody ship!
Just as Lalli had gained some composure, he heard shouting. “Ahoy! To Davy Jones' locker with 'em! Fire!” Quite a familiar voice. Soonish after the order to fire, a very loud crash jolted the planks, and Lalli with them. Picking his way gingerly, Lalli set out to investigate. Following the shouts (followed by two more crashes) he arrived amidships.
On the high bridge at the aft, a formidable figure shouted and waved around with a weird, curved sword. They were sporting a richly decorated jacket of white and black, and an enormous hat with two huge plumes Looks like feathers? But no bird has nearly such enormous feathers!) From under the hat, bright crimson hair was flying in the wind.
Behind this person, another was standing at the ship’s helm. The second one was even taller and muscular, and wore only a pair of trousers tied under the knees, with a sash on the waist (another of the weird swords was hanging on his hip) and a small scarf on covering their head of short hair, just as blonde as their (his?) sideburns.
Suddenly a voice shouted from above “Ho! Incoming!” Thanks to his scout reflexes, Lalli flattened himself on the deck just as an iron ball went over the ship exactly where he was just standing. Whistling loudly, it fell into the sea on the other side, doing no further harm. Looking up, Lalli saw a man high up in the mast. The lookout was also wearing the tied trousers, with a vest of forest green. His hair was grayish pale and messy. “Onni!” suddenly Lalli’s head cleared a bit. Onni appeared not to hear him over the din of cannon fire and wind. Why are we on a weird and stupid ship?
Lalli quickly decided against climbing to the crow's nest (the heaving gets worse the higher you go!) and decided to try and talk to Sigrun first. Easily avoiding a couple of more shots, he got up to the bridge. “Hey, Captain, what is going on?”
“Who dares disturb the Queen in the middle of an epic battle? Oh, it’s you, Twigs. Found your sea legs yet? Laddie, I don’t know who cursed you to become a seaman, with that stomach of yours!”
“Twigs? The Queen?”
“Are you quite all right?” the helmsman asked “Surely you haven’t forgotten that the great Victoria the Red is the current Pirate Queen?”
“Oh. Yes. Sorry for the intrusion!”
The persons were Sigrun and Mikkel, sort of, but Lalli had gotten a good look and saw their somehow indifferent manner. They were just DreamSigrun and DreamMikkel, not really here. Onni was too far up to tell, but before climbing to him Lalli decided to go look for others. Based on the loud crashing and booming, someone was at the cannons belowdecks.
Through a large hatch and down a ladder, Lalli quickly arrived at the gun deck. Two figures were working with a large cannon. A tall one in blue clothes was hauling cannonballs from a bigger storage crate to a smaller holder at the cannon’s base. His long red hair was braided into dozens of small braids fastened with beads (the sound of those must drive him crazy, when there’s no cannonfire to drown it) on top of which he wore a silly white cap, resembling a beanie.
The other one was slightly shorter and dressed in finery. His black jacket had red and gold embroidery, and a white… mesh? adorned his throat and chest. His hat was smaller than the Queen’s, but only slightly, and only had one of those impossibly large feathers. His golden hair was practically sparkling despite the belowdecks being almost dark.
As Reynir was the likeliest one to be lucid, Lalli stepped towards him. “Oh, hello Twigs? Can I help you? Although I must say I’m currently helping the Master of Arms! But when the battle is over, I will be happy to assist…” Oh. DreamReynir. Never mind then.
“No, it’s ok, carry on”.
The “Master of Arms” was flushed with excitement. He was holding a keg smelling of gunpowder and stuffing a hole on top of the cannon. Nearby (a bit too close for Lalli’s comfort) was a burning torch. “Emil, what in the name of Ukko is going on?”
“Ukko? I don’t know what that is? As for the goings on, we are about to beat the infamous Envy of the Seas! Poor Twigs, have you thrown up your memory too? No matter, since you are down here, why don’t you get me another keg or two? I’d rather you carry them than Shorty here - you know how he is, eager to help but sometimes he fumbles. We don’t want that with gunpowder, now do we?”
Emil was chattering happily. He was tangled in the dream, but at least he was there. Now Lalli had to figure out how to snap him into lucidity. That may prove tricky, as he was clearly very happy to be firing cannons. Just as Lalli thought this, Emil yelled “Fire in the hole!” and touched a lightning stick to a rag on top of the cannon’s barrel. Down Lalli went again, this time to evade the backward burst from the cannon. The noise was deafening. Stupid cannon!
After his head stopped ringing, Lalli tried to talk with Emil again. But it was hopeless. Apparently the battle was a historical event. The Grey Cat was about to be the first galleon to ever beat a Man O' War ship, such as the Envy of the Seas. No time to talk! Clearly there was far too much gunpowder around to entice Emil’s attention from any reasonable things. Stupid gunpowder.
“You are looking green again! If you throw up into the powder, I will have you tied to the rigging!” Emil was taking this Master of Arms thing seriously. Stupid Emil.
“Why don’t you go up, we’ll manage here” Shorty prompted in his slightly absent-minded dream way. Stupid not-Reynir!
Lalli climbed up just in time to hear Victoria the Red yelling "Come about! Get her broadside!"
The helmsman took a deep breath, adjusted his huge hands on the helm and shouted: "Down anchor!" A loud clattering sound was accompanied by a violent jerk of the entire ship "Boom about!" somebody shouted, and again Twi… Lalli went down on his face. Stupid boom! I am getting enough of this! "Up anchor!"
"Shiver me timbers! I never seen anybody do an anchor turn with a galleon before!" even Victoria the Red appeared impressed. They were now facing the bigger ship, and the bow guns were happily firing away.
"Twigs! Get ready to grapple!" Victoria had noticed him. She was now waving a blunderbuss in addition to her cutlass. Why do I know these stupid names? Lalli grabbed his own cutlass and held it with his teeth, to be ready to… Don't get sucked into the dream!
Hand to hand combat was imminent. As Lalli had no interest in waking up sore like after a beating, it was time to wrangle Emil away from his precious cannons. Lalli grabbed a bucket of water sitting on the deck (probably in case he needed to clean) and went back down.
"Cor blimey Twigs! Ye look's all agitated!" Reynir - Shorty - commented when Lalli approached them. Lalli upended the bucket on Emil's head, destroying his fine hat but also wrenching him awake.
***
"What the Hel!" Emil spluttered. Lalli was sitting on his chest, fuming.
"This is your only warning! You will stop reading your pirate stories in the evening, or I will sleep outside. No, rather, YOU will be sleep outside. And far enough from the house!"
"What? Why? How? Why is my pillow all wet? And my hair?"
