Bookworld Online: Marsh Man

Bokuboy

I woke up in the morning and Ann was almost a different person as she followed me into the bathroom. She was enthusiastic about it and I was scrubbed clean in record time before she performed the after bath ritual. She was getting better with it and I finished quickly for her, which made her moan. Hanna still looked shocked at seeing it.

We left there and went to the galley to make breakfast. The options available were pathetic and we had to do the best we could with what we had. Luckily, Hanna had searched all the cupboards and found a single bag of rough granulated cane sugar.

“This is going to make all the difference.” I praised her and she blushed as she helped us prepare breakfast.

Several slaves had chosen to be servers for the meals and came in when Hanna called for them. The blank looks on their faces as they saw what was in the bowls told me everything I needed to know.

“Trust me.” I said and they looked surprised. “Serve it and see what happens.”

The three slaves, one thin older man and two thin older women, started to ferry the bowls into the dining room. Ann filled the bowls and Hanna put them onto the counter for easy access for the servers. I was almost useless for both tasks, since they required constant movement, and stood to the side to make sure that everyone was served before I went to the dining room with my own bowl, carried by Hanna.

“You're already feeding us gruel?” One of the male slaves asked, his voice a little loud. “I thought you said we would be fed real food twice a day!”

I sat Hanna and Ann down at a table and walked over to him. “If you take more than a glance at it, you'll see that it's not gruel. It's porridge.”

“It's the same thing!” The slave said and picked the bowl up to show me, as if I couldn't see it.

“You can't drink it. It's not watered down. You need a spoon to eat it and...”

“I don't care if I have to use my fingers! I'm not eating this and I demand you make something else!”

Half of the room stood up at his words and the original six crewmen looked murderous.

“I think someone is thinking that they are better than the rest of us.” A slave man at the same table said.

“I just don't want to eat slave food!” The complaining slave exclaimed and dropped the bowl. No one missed that it didn't slosh out or moved much at all.

“I can't force you to eat what everyone else does.” I said and took his bowl. “You'll have to wait until supper tonight for anything else.”

“I knew you would break your word! You're no better than...”

_______________

You have a critical choice to make. Will you make the right one?”

A) Laugh. B) Spit in the food. C) Hit him. D) Kill him. E) Throw the bowl. F) Eat it. G) Choose two.

I'm not messing around, not on a pirate ship where any of them could kill me at any time. I choose D.

_______________

I shot my hand out and jabbed my two fingers into the man's throat. “I have never broken my word.”

The slave man grabbed his throat as he choked. He couldn't breathe, because I had just collapsed his windpipe.

“You insult my honor frivolously and expect no retribution?” I asked and he struggled to breathe. “You'll be dead in three minutes from suffocation.”

No one said anything as the man kept trying to claw at his throat to breathe.

“I provided a meal for you to eat, as I promised. You chose not to eat it.”

His hands slowed down and his face started to turn red from exertion.

“I am not a slave cook that will make you whatever you want. We have limited food stores and we are making due with what we have.” I said as he slumped a little.

His eyes turned slightly red as the blood vessels expanded from blood pressure.

“If you had bothered to taste it, you wouldn't have made the mistake of pissing me off.” I said and stood there and watched as the life slowly left his eyes.

His hands dropped to his sides and the body leaned back in the chair to rest there.

“Could I bother two of the crew to carry him out and toss him over the side? You can split his bowl.”

Two of the men walked by me and grabbed the dead slave's arms and carried the body out of the room.

“I'm sorry about that.” I said and turned to look at everyone in the room. “I've stressed that our food is low, even with the extra provisions from the other ship. If you choose to not eat, that's on you. If you insult someone's honor on this ship, expect to be dealt with appropriately.”

The two crewmen came back into the room and I handed them the bowl.

“Thank you.” I said and they nodded and went back to their table. “We used up the last of the sugar in the lone pot of porridge we could make from the remaining oats, instead of watering them down to make them last longer. I refuse to make food that even slaves shouldn't eat.”

There were a lot of sounds of approval from that.

“There's enough porridge for breakfast tomorrow and then we'll have to find something else for the next two days to keep us fed before we land at port.” I walked over to my table and sat down. “Go ahead and taste it. You'll be surprised at the magic Hanna and Ann can do in the kitchen with my help.”

Everyone picked up their spoons and they all looked shocked and made appreciative sounds.

“He really screwed up.” One of the slaves at the dead slave's table said. “I would be proud to serve this to my fam-HURK!” He yelped and dropped his spoon as he gripped the sides of his head. His body started to shake and tremble, too.

“Think of us as your family! Think of US as FAMILY!” The woman beside him shouted and the man's shaking slowed down before he took several deep breaths. “Good. Good.” She said and rubbed his arm.

“I assume if any of you try to remember your old lives, you're in extreme pain?” I asked and all of the salves nodded. “I don't know how to fix that.”

Several of the slaves laughed.

“We don't expect you to.” One of the slave men said. “You're in the same situation as us and...”

“No, he can remember it all and can talk about it.” Hanna said. “He couldn't be broken and made to adopt a new identity.”

Everyone stared at me, as if I was something they had never seen before.

“I was already broken.” I said as an explanation and nearly all of them nodded.

We all ate breakfast and no one mentioned the dead slave, even when it came to going to work on the ship. Luckily, the slave had been lazy and hadn't been assigned anything to do. He had pretended to be too broken to work independently at a normal job, like Hanna and Ann. They had a hard time functioning properly without being near their master constantly.

I went up onto the deck with most of everyone else, to check things out, and to make sure there was nothing that needed to be fixed or replaced. I didn't find anything and went back down below to do up the supply list we would need. I sincerely hoped that they would have potion ingredients or would know where I could get some.

My hands were twitching in anticipation, because I had seen dozens of places where my number ten potion would make a huge difference. The same could be said for my healing potion and general health potion, too. Some of the slaves were not in good shape and they needed it even more than I did. I looked down at my thinning body from being nearly starved for weeks and sighed.

“It's all right, Master.” Hanna said. “Everyone knows how important food is.”

I nodded and went back to the supplies list. I knew I would need a lot of work to get back into shape and the sooner I made the much needed potions, the better.

_______________

Montage mode engaged. Skipping miscellaneous details. Speeding up time. Done.

_______________

“Now that's a beautiful sight.” One of the slaves said from the crow's nest four days later. “Land HO!”

“Finally! I'm sick of delicious fish!” A crewman exclaimed, which made everyone laugh.

“Just for that comment, we're having fish once a week.” I said and everyone laughed at his shocked expression. “I'm joking. We'll grab as much meat as we can or we'll find somewhere where we can hunt it for ourselves.”

“Oh, thank the father!” The man said and sighed in relief, making the others laugh even more.

“You all know your roles.” I said and everyone nodded, even the newly rescued slaves.

My slave wasn't too happy about me becoming Jensen's slave for the day, even if it was only a ruse. His woman Molly wasn't too happy about it, either. They both had to stay onboard the ship while we completed my assigned tasks.

“Bring us in to the nearest dock and use the trick I taught you for reversing the sails to catch the wind to slow us.”

That made the crewmen grin feral smiles at being able to show off some of the imparted skills I had given them. I would have helped, except for my physical condition. Everyone was happy that I really did know what I was doing, though. We already had people to fill every job and a backup in case the first worker was sick or wanted the day off.

It was much more people than a ship would normally carry, which was why we went through our food stores so quickly. With everyone eating full portions, the normal food for only the crewmen didn't last long and we had to supplement fish to even things out. Some of them were sick of fish, even the slaves, despite it being real food and not the gruel they were used to. They knew not to complain after the last slave that had.

The ship we were on rode on the waves across the large bay, making a few people and a couple of boats, panic. The crew laughed at them and banked the ship as they switched the sails to catch the wind, then the ship changed from accelerating to slowing down at the same rate. The scrambling boats and their passengers stared at us as we coasted by them.

We slowed right down to nearly a standstill and slid right into the closest berth for large ships as the sails furled up and were tied off. Hooked lines were set and the ship was secured, to the people on the dock's surprise.

“Who's the stevedore?” Jensen asked and one of the longshoremen pointed to the stunned man beside him. “What's the docking fee for a week?”

The man shook himself and smiled. “It's a silver a day, no matter how long you stay.”

Jensen glanced at me and I nodded slightly. “I assume we pay daily?”

The stevedore nodded. “We send a runner every morning, in case someone takes off in the middle of the night.”

Jensen barked a laugh and handed him a silver coin. “You get your fee for the day, no matter what.”

“Exactly.” The stevedore said. “If they leave early, we get an empty berth to rent to someone else. It also stops people from staying longer than they are paying for.”

Jensen nodded and looked at the other ships. “I need food and provisions. Ropes and things. And a few miscellaneous items. Since you're the stevedore, you should know where to go.”

“What's your own cargo?” The man asked.

“We already dropped it off at the last port. We hit a calamity out on the water and were delayed reaching here by a week. We're practically wrung dry.”

Both the stevedore and the longshoreman winced.

“Yes, we're lucky to reach here at all for our week off.” Jensen said. “You don't know how relieved we all are to be here finally.”

“YEAH!” The other five crewmen shouted.

“You have a lot of slaves working openly.” The stevedore said and looked at me. “Clean ones.”

Jensen laughed. “Water's free on the open sea, which reminds me. We need a few more large pots to boil off some sea water for drinking.”

The stevedore smiled and started to tell Jensen where to go to get what he needed. Some of it was on ships, some at the market stalls, and a few were in the nearby town.

Jensen pulled out another silver coin and shook the man's hand. “Thanks for your help.”

The stevedore's smile widened as he accepted the handshake and pocketed the coin. “Let the lads know if you need a hand loading up.”

“I may just do that.” Jensen said and stepped off the ship. I did as well and my shoes clacked on the wood of the dock.

The stevedore and the longshoreman looked down at my feet and saw the women's shoes.

“They're better than two peg legs.” Jensen said and both men's eyes widened, especially when we kept walking and I didn't stumble or waver as we went down the dock.

“Nice excuse.” I whispered and he laughed. “You're handling this task well.”

“I better. Most of the ship's company would wring my neck if anything happened to you.” Jensen said.

“Hanna, Ann, and Molly aren't most of the ship's company.” I responded and he laughed some more. “We're going right to the bank to get better spending money for the men.”

“Right. First task in sight.” Jensen said and we stepped off the wooden dock onto the dirt road. We went towards the nicest building in town and the clear sign there that said 'Free Bank of Madripor Island'.

“At least my shoes don't make noise in the dirt.” I commented and we both had smiles on our faces as we entered the bank. It took almost no time to change out the gold coins we had for bags and bags of silver coins. We only got ninety-five silver coins for each gold coin, because of the bank's fee for converting them, and we left with a guard we hired for the day with a silver coin.

We went back to the ship with our bags of money, making nearly everyone in port stare at us, especially the crews of the other ships. Jensen promised them all that we would be visiting to see what they had for sale, which made them all happy.

Little did they realize that we were actually going to scout them out to find out the best cargoes to steal later. We did have two more immolation potions left to use, after all.