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| -rw-r--r-- | lbh.txt | 63 |
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@@ -1691,13 +1691,68 @@ Henri's voice broke the silence and interrupted Birdie's train of thought. Birdie smiled. "Okay," she said. -Birdie wanted to do the belly crawl, but Lulu argued that Henri should. He was after all smaller. And he had a natural sneakiness about him. He had a much better chance. In the end Birdie agreed. And so Henri was sent out, worming his way across the sand, taking cover behind clumps of grass, stands of sea oat, until he came to a piece of drift wood which he used to worm is way down to just about even with Captain Jack's log. There was just about two knots of open sand to cross. Henri piled sand on his back and in his hair for camouflage and then he went for it. Slowly, ever so slowly he would move, and then stop and lie still. Birdie was impressed. She understood now why he had become such a good hunter in such a short time. He was patient. And he was good at reading his prey. In this case it helped that his prey was very near drunk, if not completely drunk. Henri would have pulled it off had it not been for Bellamy, who happened at the that moment to turn and look in Ratham's direction and then bend over laughing. He was too far away to be understood, but Ratham clearly saw Bellamy and other men looking in his direction and laughing which made him glance behind him just as Henri laid his hands on the bottle of rum. Realizing the jig was up, Henri snatched the bottle and ran. +Birdie wanted to do the belly crawl, but Lulu argued that Henri should. He was after all smaller. And he had a natural sneakiness about him. He had a much better chance. In the end Birdie agreed. And so Henri was sent out, worming his way across the sand, taking cover behind clumps of grass, stands of sea oat, until he came to a piece of drift wood which he used to worm is way down to just about even with Captain Jack's log. There was just about two knots of open sand to cross. Henri piled sand on his back and in his hair for camouflage and then he went for it. Slowly, ever so slowly, he would move, and then stop and lie still. Birdie was impressed. She understood now why he had become such a good hunter in such a short time. He was patient. And he was good at reading his prey. In this case it helped that his prey was very near drunk, if not completely drunk. Henri would have pulled it off had it not been for Bellamy, who happened at that moment to turn and look in Ratham's direction and then bend over laughing. He was too far away to be understood, but Ratham saw Bellamy and other men looking in his direction and laughing which made him glance behind him just as Henri laid his hands on the bottle of rum. Realizing the jig was up, Henri snatched the bottle and ran. -:TODO: Finish up this anecdote, see if it makes sense. fade into scene below. +Ratham leaped to his feet and roared a half animal yell that made Birdie's hair stand on end. And then there was the sound that made everyone's blood run cold, the long ringing hiss of a sword coming out of its sheath. "Who dares steal my rum?" Thundered Ratham. +Henri instantly dropped the bottle in the sand and kept running full speed back to the Arkhanglesk where he skidded into the sand and tried to hide. + +Ratham shrugged and walked toward the bottle, fitting his sword back into its sheath with considerably less drama and noise than he'd used pulling it out. He bent down in the sand, picked up the bottle and glanced over at the Arkhangelsk. He slowly sauntered over, taking a long pull of rum as he walked. He did not say anything when he got there, he just leaned against the hull below where the children sat on deck and said simple, "You see children. Let this be a lesson to you. If your person strikes sufficient fear into the heart, you don't actually have to hurt anybody. Just the threat of hurting them is plenty." + +He turned and walked back toward the beach. "Take the man you call uncle teach, he's the most feared pirate around and I don't think he's ever so much as messed up another man's hair." + +"But," he spun around to face them with a menacing look on his face. "Never take another man's rum." ## The Tale Black Sam Told +Henri avoided Ratham for several days, heading off into the wood in search of boar, while Birdie helped clean up and organize their camp each morning. A full ship's company could make an impressive mess of their camp. Lulu helped out, but Birdie always went beyond cleaning into organizing, leaving Lulu to her own devices. + +She headed out of camp, along the edge of the marsh, looking for nests she could raid. She hadn't gone far when she heard a hissing whisper, "sister." She looked around, but did not see Henri anywhere. "Sister!" This time it was louder, and she stared hard into the undergrowth until she noticed a pair of eye's starting at her out of the dark shadows and tangled branches. She walked toward him. + +"What are you doing in there?" + +"I am hunting. Or I was until you came along and scared everything away." He glared at her. + +"How was I supposed to know?" She picked her way through the tangle of branches closer to where Henri sat on an old log. Eventually she made her way to him and sat down. She looked out, there was a clear line of fire to the game trail she'd been walking. It was a clever blind she realized. She was impressed. She had always assumed that Owen was the hunter, that Henri was just tagging along, but now she wondered. Maybe Henri was the one who could hunt. "Have you had luck here?" + +Henri glanced at her. "No. Not yet. But I will. Boar use this trail to get from the wallow to the oak grove over there," he gestured toward the trees Lulu had been headed for when he stopped her. + +"You're going to kill a boar with an arrow?" + +"Sure. Why not?" + +"Because you're seven, you weigh what, 4 stone? A boar is what, 20 stone?" + +Henri stared at her. "Why should I care how much a boar weighs? I will get Papa or Tamba to help me carry it." + +"Henri, what if you don't kill it? What if there's just a 20 stone boar with an arrow in it's back charging you? It'll kill you." + +"Oh, I see. That's why I am back here. The undergrowth will protect me." + +Lulu looked more closely at the tangle of dry sticks. "I'm not sure about that" + +"Then I'll climb a tree." + +"Good plan." She chuckled at the thought of Henri treed by a boar, but she stopped when he hit her shoulder, "hey" she brought herself up short when she saw the boar. It was a huge male, followed by a female. They rooted along the edge of the trail, digging at something. She was transfixed. They were not more than 6 knots away. She wasn't even thinking of Henri and his bow until the distinctive twang of the string snapped her back. The arrow hit it in the neck, there was a squeal and it charged into the undergrowth on the opposite side of the trail. Time seemed to slow down. Lulu's heart was beating incredible fast, but she felt like she was moving in water, her actions where slow and sloppy. Her body seemed to move without her telling it what to do. Before she knew what she'd done she and Henri were six feet up sitting on the low limb of a tk tree. The boar was nowhere to be seen. + +"Did you see that? I hit it! I got it. Yes." + +Lulu threw her arms around him. "That was amazing." They sat in the tree straining to see or hear something, but the woods around them where silent. Even the insects seemed to be waiting to see what happened to the boar. Would it come charging back? Was it angrily biding its time, waiting for them to come down so it could launch it's counter attack? + +"Where do you think it is?" Henri climbed up another branch and then came back down. "I can't see in there. I think we should get down and look. I think I killed it." + +Lulu considered this and decided they should wait longer and listen. They sat in silence. After a few minutes a cricket struck up again. Then a cicada. Soon the usual symphony of the forest was back, rasping and singing its way through the afternoon. A squirrel chattered at them from the next tree over and Lulu decided that Henri was right, the boar was either dead or gone, but either way, it was time to get down. + +They climbed out on a limb away from the tangle of undergrowth that served as the blinded and dropped down to the forest floor. They waited, crouched, ready to climb back up if need be. But there was nothing. They walked the trail to where the boar had been rooting. There was a bright red stain spread over the leaves. Henri started to follow the tracks. "Wait," she whispered, but he was already gone, following the blood stains through a tiny tunnel of undergrowth. Lulu had to crouch down and crawl in the thickets section, pushing through blindly until she came out in a little clearing where Henri already stood, staring at the largest boar Lulu had ever seen. A single arrow stuck out of its neck. It was very dead. + +--- + +It took three men and travious to get the boar back to camp. Everyone clapped henri on the back, several sailors even paraded him around on their shoulders, but Lulu noticed that Henri seemed strangely subdued. + +:TODO: finish out story, how Henri feels a little bad about it. He talks to Lulu falling asleep, how he wonders about the other pig, how it feels to have lost its mate. How he feels to have lost owen. Then the next day quickly to the digging up the pig, henri won't eat it. He stops hunting and takes up fishing again. + + + The firelight lit the circle of dunes a rich orange glow like a dying sun still trying to light a world. The crew put away the fiddles and drums and sea shanties and settled into storytelling. Birdie began to fall asleep until she heard someone whisper for Black Sam to tell the ghost ship story. Ghost ship? She was awake. Sam stood up and straightened his hat, rested his hand on his sword theatrically and began. "We'd been in the doldrums for days, maybe weeks, it was hard to know, one brutally hot day after another, no wind, no current, dead stillness. I remember Jack took off his jacket and tried flapping it up and down at the sail to create a bit of wind, but of course that didn't work. He just ended up tired." Sam smiled and the crew looked to Ratham who shrugged. "Worth a try." @@ -1756,9 +1811,9 @@ Several of the crew grunted. "Who would abandon ship?" asked Bellamy. Bellamy looked down. Ratham fairly gasped. "No. We got out there quick as we could. I'm not taking a ghost prize." -"You left a perfectly good ship sailing itself across the Atlantic?" Her father looked incredulous. He seemed uninterested in the spooky aspect of the story, which had already made Birdie wish her Aunt Māra were there so she could crawl in her lap. +"You left a perfectly good ship sailing itself across the Atlantic?" Her father looked incredulous. He seemed uninterested in the spooky aspect of the story, which had already made Lulu wish her Aunt Māra were there so she could crawl in her lap. -Black Sam and Jack glanced at each other. Birdie saw the crew stare away. She noticed her father pick up on it too. He shrugged. "Shame," said her father, "it'd help kill the snails in your hull." +Black Sam and Jack glanced at each other. Lulu saw the crew stare away. She noticed her father pick up on it too. He shrugged. "Shame," said her father, "it'd help kill the snails in your hull." ## Careen |