Chapter 3 - Setting Sail for England
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Both Melody and Eric spent over an hour falling asleep, as a long trip was always an exciting deal. But they both awoke fresh and full of energy the morning after. Even before their awakening, The crews were already loading Eric's vessel for the week-long voyage west to England. They would sail along the coasts of Holland and Belgium.
By the time Melody awoke, Her father was already having a filling breakfast.
"Morning, Melody, did you sleep well?" he asked
"I tried. Took me forever to get to sleep." Said Melody, grabbing a few pieces of fruit from the fruit bowl.
"I know the feeling." Eric replied
Melody snacked on grapes for a few moments, while the sounds of outside came in.
"You sure that's all you want? It's a long way to lunch." Eric asked
"You're right, i'll have a bowl of porridge."
One of the palace's maids went to prepare Melody's breakfast, meanwhile, she sat, continuing to wake up. To get more blood flow to her head, she went to the window and looked outside at the men loading up the ship, a few metres away. She saw that one dock worker, Douglas. He was only 19, but already showing the responsibility of a family man. Melody fell in love with his curly dark brown hair, his paper thin goatee and blue eyes and tall figure, which she had a great view of because Douglas always worked with his shirt off. Melody cupped her ear and tried to listen in on him as he worked.
"Come on guys, we gotta get loaded up before Eric comes back!" Douglas told his co-loaders, who were as young as he was.
"We're going, we're going." They replied
Douglas continued to run back and forth between the storehouse and the ship, while his younger and older co-workers went slower, and took smaller loads. Sometimes, when the youngest workers took very small loads, Douglas would scold them. While Melody saw that as the trait of a leader, she wondered if he would be a laid back guy when the time was right.
"Come Melody, your breakfast is ready!" The maid informed the young princess.
"I'm coming." Melody left the window and went back to the dinner table. The smell of hot porridge awaited her.
"Careful, it's hot." The maid told her.
"Thank you." Melody thanked the maid, and began to slowly consume the hot breakfast.
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After a filling breakfast, Eric and Melody left for the dock. Eric was all ready to go, as was Melody. They had said their goodbyes to Ariel, as they would not see her for a week or so. Going across the dock, Melody crossed pathes with her crush, Douglas.
"Good morning, Doug!" Melody smiled at him
"Good morning, Princess Melody." He replied back
"Ah, just Melody, or Mel, that's ok too!" Melody told the dock worker
"Ah, I can't do that! You're royalty!" Douglas replied
Melody giggled. Sometimes it was just cute to hear that from boys.
"Aw, but you can. I don't mind." Melody smiled really cutely. Douglas smiled right back with his eyes connecting with Melody's.
Melody didn't know for sure if Douglas liked her, but it wouldn't be a long shot, for Melody had matured into a very beautiful 18 year old, old enough to find a prince and beautiful enough for one. But of all the princes in the land, she just couldn't find anything in them she liked. None of them were as outgoing or determined to win as she was, and she certainly never saw a prince that was willing to work as hard as Douglas did.
"I gotta get going, Melody. Take care for your voyage for England." Douglas did a slight bow and went back to working. Melody took a few extra moments to check out her crush as he worked. Then she caught up to her father, who was doing some last minute work to make sure the ship was ready for it's trip to England.
"Are we all packed?" Eric asked the leader of the deck hands.
"All 50 tonnes of goods are packed. We're showing green across the board."
"Green across the board?" Eric was confused
"I heard it somewhere. It just means you're good to go." The leader corrected his hip talk.
"Alright! All hands on deck!" Eric shouted as loud as he could.
All the deck hands who were going on the trip ran aboard.
"Crew of the S.S. Seasparrow, reporting for duty, King Eric!" The leader spoke.
"Ok, let's shove off!" Eric ordered
"At your command, sir!" The deck hands went to their stations.
Eric smiled as his crew worked for him.
"Man, that never gets old." he said to himself
The workers did everything necessary to detach the ship from the dock, and in seconds, the ship detached from it's dock, and was free to sail into the North Sea towards England, along the coasts of the Netherlands and Belgium.
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