Chapter 2: The Meal
"What is your name, boy" Shivani asked, making her voice gruff like the Captains.
"Er…John." The lad replied.
"Mine too." Drat! That was the name she was going to use! Now what should she do? "How'd you get a name like John, you're a Nord, aren't you?"
"Well, you're a Khajiit, how did you get a name like that?" He demanded.
"Oh, well, my parents were poor and uneducated." Shivani covered quickly.
"So were mine." John said, his voice taking on a stubborn note.
"Well, my name is John too, so we better work out a way to tell us apart when they call for us. I guess I don't mind being called Jack." Shivani gave up trying to keep the name, John was definitely not going to relent.
"I know, I'll call you Master Jack, and you can call me Evil John!" His eyes lit up.
"So which one of us is going to do the cooking, and which be the helper till the cook gets back?" Shivani asked, thinking he may back down now that she gave in on the name.
"I'll help, I only signed on as a galley slave." John stated, drawing himself up so he was eye to eye with Shivani.
"Well that is all I signed on for too. If you have more experience, then you should cook and I will help you."
"You're older and bigger, you cook and I will help you." John's face was beginning to look belligerent.
"I can see why you picked the name Evil John. Well we can't fight about it. I guess I will cook and you help. The first thing we have to do is cut some onions for frying. You cut them and I will…"
"Why, I hate onions."
"Because if you fry onions, they put out such a good smell that everyone gets hungry, and they will eat salted wood if you serve it."
"Wow, you really are a cook!" Johns eyes shone as he looked at Shivani.
In spite of herself, she preened a bit at that. She had overheard a woman say that in the market when she was stealing something to eat.
*.*
Shivani eyed the large pot of stew, wondering why it seemed to be emptying out before their eyes. "John, come look. The stew is disappearing. It was full before, and look it is almost halfway down now."
"Do you think the ship is haunted?" John's eyes rounded and he darted glances into the dark corners of the galley.
"Don't be ridiculous, even a ghost wouldn't eat that slop. Maybe we should add more water to it."
"Good idea, I'll prime the pump for you." John offered, obviously in a good frame since he had won both arguments.
Blackened water spurted out of the mouth of the pump, filling the air with a foul odor. John began choking.
"We can't put that in the stew." He gagged out.
"I think someone already has by the smell of that stew. I've never seen anything like that, it's disgusting." Shivani and John both stared at the reeking pot on the stove.
"Well we have to do something, there isn't enough stew there for the crew. A ship this size must have another holding tank, that one must be tainted." Shivani found a heavy metal valve and turned it. "Try it now John."
Sure enough the water appeared clear and pure; in fact it glistened slightly. John cupped his hands and tasted it. "This is really good!" He declared.
Shivani put her hand under the tap and caught some. "That really is good! Fill the ewer the rest of the way with that then. We will use that for cooking and the dirty water for cleaning. Maybe that other side is to pump the bilge or something."
Shivani didn't know if it was the headiness of being free for the first time in her life, or the fresh sea air, but suddenly she felt full of energy; to the point she would burst if she didn't do something.
"Come on John, lets clean this place up!" She said, her voice lilting. She turned the valve back over to the bilge water.
"Just what I was thinking!" John said enthusiastically, his eyes like round saucers in his head.
"John, I know this is a pirate ship, right? I mean the Captain…well, how much do you know about them?" Shivani got John talking as they scrubbed the galley down.
*.*
"Captain Dugal, he is Lord Captain of them, he is known as the Cutthroat of Hunding Bay. Some of the crew are his band, hand picked and trained. They are the Red Sabres 'cause their sabres glow red from enchantments. People call them things like…Scourge of the Abecean Sea, Terror of the Gold Coast. They are the best fighters you'll ever see, just wait till we blow alongside another ship." John stopped scrubbing and looked at Shivani, his eyes still unnaturally large in his face.
"The rest of the crew is just like you and me, picked up at ports to do the work. They're the ones you gotta watch out for. They'd kill you as quick as look at you. One of 'em already has you pegged to be thrown over the side because he had to clean your seasickness up."
A shiver went down Shivani's spine. "Uh…where do I bed down nights?"
"When you aren't spending the night repainting the deck with last nights supper you and I sleep in the same cabin with Jak Silver, Scurvy John Hoff, and Zedrick Green. They aren't as bad as the rest. Alacanti, he's not so bad either. They are Red Sabre.
Shivani made a mental note to imitate the way John spoke. He sure was talkative all of a sudden. John interrupted her thoughts.
"You best not try and serve that swill to the Captain or the Sabres, unless you want one of their red sabres in your back."
"Well what do I do then?"
"The cook makes them steaks and serves them after the crew. I saw that yesterday."
Shivani imagined that was to keep the crew from a mutiny when they smelled the steaks cooking and got stew. "You mean you've only been here one day and learned all that?"
"Well I wasn't seasick." John said smugly, indicating where the salted meats were stored. "They smuggle too. Right now they are smuggling a whole load of Skooma to sell, its somewhere down in the hold. They thought I was asleep and were talking about it."
"Skooma? Isn't that a drug of some sort? How many Sabres are there?"
"I don't know, I thought it was some kind of gold or something the way they talked." John pointed to the stacks of steaks. "John Cook just grabbed one of those, and sticks potatoes in that tray there."
"Is everyone on this boat named John?" Shivani wished she had opted to keep the name, it was obviously a good pirate name.
*.*
"Okay, now give me those onions and we will start frying them right before the men line up for the grub." Shivani pulled a large flat pan out and tossed the onions in with a slab of butter.
Sure enough the smell wafted up the passageway to the deck above, and in no time the crew stopped what they were doing to hurry down. Shortly after the crew left carrying their steaming bowls however, curses and shouts of "Kill the cook" could be heard.
Shivani looked at John. "Run!" She shouted, then followed him.
They darted down the passageway to the forward cabins where the Red Sabres bunked.
"In here!" John lifted up a flat mattress on one of the bunks to show a hidden hatch. Shivani indicated he go first and then followed quickly, hoping the mattress would drop back into place and hide the hatch.
"What is th…" Shivani started to ask, but John covered her mouth with his hand, pointing upward. Through the cracks in planks above them Shivani could see they were in a small crawlway underneath the floor, and could easily be heard by anyone above. She and John froze as if turned to statues when the crew pounded over their heads seeking them.
A screaming sounded then, that of a wild animal in fear or pain, maybe both. Shivani and John clung to each other in terror as the sound came closer and intermingled with the sound of something being dragged.
Heavy boot steps echoed in their ears from the other end of the passageway, then the Captain's booming voice.
"Unhand 'im!" He growled. The sound of a sword leaving its sheath followed.
A loud thud over their heads and they could see through the cracks in the planks the face of a man for a second before he scurried away.
"Git back to work 'fore ye taste my sword." The Captain shouted.
"Aye Aye Captain!" The crew members that had been dragging the man scurried out.
Shivani and John both jumped and screamed as a glowing red sword pierced through the crack between the slats over their head.
"Ye can come out now." The Captain's voice echoed eerily down to them.
Scared, but obedient; Shivani and John crawled back through the hidden hatch. The Captain eyed them for a minute and then grunted. "Where's my supper? And my men? D' 'ye think we dinna need to eat?"
"Right away, Captain sir!" Shivani said, trying to imitate his gruff voice. John saluted him.
"Who was that man they were hurting?" Shivani asked, knowing the answer already.
"John Cook." Evil John whispered, his eyes round in fear.
*.*
They were terrified on the walk back to the galley, clinging to each other; their eyes darting around for signs of an ambush. Surprisingly the crew ignored them. They all seemed to be taken over by some renewed energy and good will. Shivani noticed their eyes were overly large pools in their dirty faces.
"I think these men are on drugs, John." She whispered, pushing him into the galley alcove.
Not knowing how to cook a steak, Shivani pulled the pot of stew off the small open fire pit. She lined the steaks up on the blackened grillwork that covered the pit. In one corner she lay the flat pan filled with sliced onions. A wonderful aroma emerged, the combination of the steak and onions. She pulled the tray with the potatoes steaming on it.
"Oh no, look! The steaks have dripped all over them, what should we do?" Shivani asked, then jumped. The Captain and the Red Sabres had entered the galley.
"Somethin' smells good." one of the men said, sniffing the air.
There was no time to change anything. Evil John grabbed plates and they forked the steaks and potatoes onto the plates, slathering the fried onions over the top.
Before they cleaned the dishes and galley that night, Shivani tapped John on the shoulder. She pulled two potatoes out from a under a pot lid.
"These were left over from the Sabre's meal. Come on John, let's eat first." Shivani bit into hers, surprised how good they tasted with the steak juices dripped onto them.
"Mmm, these are really good!" John said, demolishing his.
"Well I wasn't eating that stew, that is for sure." Shivani declared, polishing hers off as well.
The next morning the Captain popped his head into the galley. Shivani and John both stood at attention and Shivani imitated Evil John's salute this time.
"Ye two are the official cooks from now on." The Captain bellowed.
It turned out that it wasn't just the meal that swayed the Captain; although he and the Sabres each whacked Shivani and Evil John hard on the back to show their appreciation of what they called "The best grub we've ever had on this tub!"
It seemed the Captain was also very impressed by the hard work the crew put in after eating what he called "the hearty stew." He said he had never seen the men more eager to put in a day's labor. The fact that the men cleaned the rest of the pot of stew up later and then had the renewed vigor to scrub the ship from top to bottom is what clinched the decision.
