"Samuel get your ass out here there is a storm brewing" Fredrick shouted from outside on the boat as the winds and rain beat the small craft back and forth.
"Sounds like the exact reason I should be inside."
"Samuel,"
"I am coming out, coming out."
"Kilford, how's the pose?"
"Seems like we're still on course though were certainly fighting it." Kilford replied shakely. Samuel emerged from his cabin looking pale as the night.
"Sorry, but I can't man all the ship by myself; I need you to help steady the rudder." Fredrick yelled barely aught able over the howling winds.
"It's really beating down out here,"
"Just grab the mast, and don't worry about it."
Samuel rushes to oblige and wrestles the mast under his control. Fredrick wrestled with the rigging, and Kilford kept the entire boat on track with the log pose and the ship's wheel. As they venture deeper and deeper into the storm it grows more and more ferocious as waves grew higher and higher and the ship find's itself beset by harsher and harsher conditions as its viciously recoils from each shock, it's small frame absorbing almost no shock and being launched about with each crest and trough. However more importantly as the waves grew more ferocious the crew grew more and more tired, soon even banter stopped as Fredrick, Samuel, and Kilford got too tired to speak, and even if they wanted to the sea spray had all but parched their throat dry. Still they fought hard and long and seemed to be almost out of the worst of it. Of course as soon as they let any slack on the ropes or rudder the ocean swelled up again, and the men's tired bones strained against the new fury. However with each lull the energy required to fight back the subsequent swell became more and more strenuous. The decks grew more and more slick, the small craft's wood coating preventing the wood from soaking water, also just let the water form a thin foam across the top hindering movement and hindering stability. After one particular wave Kilford worn and tired from the constant strain, slipped while trying to wrestle the boat's rudder under control. Evidently in an attempt to gain a mechanical advantage over the swell he had placed his feet off to the side of the wheel and just started to attempt to fall on the wheel using his weight and momentum to fill in the gap left by his weakening arms. However on the now slick wooden boards he slipped falling limp on the deck and the wheel started spinning widely and as he was falling it clocked his chin like a stiff upper cut the wooden wheel connected throwing him back. The blood mixed with the ocean spray but was so underwhelmed it faded into nothingness. Samuel noticed him first.
"Fredrick, get the mast." He screamed his voice rough and scratchy as if sandpaper had been rubbing against his throat. While he screamed he ran straight for the wheel and made a grab for it throwing his weight against it, stopping the wild spin and preventing the capsize.
"What about the rigging?" Fredrick responded voice hysterical, but much against his own better judgment he was already moving over to the steady the mast, too tired to have ancillary thoughts contrary to the commands.
"I got it," He boomed over the ocean swell, planting his feet wooden spirals like stripped tree branches shot out from under his coat, and began to wrap themselves around the riggings pulling and pushing them, he placed his great hands on the wheel and wrestled it back under his control, quickly glancing over at Kilford, who began to stir.
"Damn, Fredrick he's still going" Samuel smiled his voice barely audible over the ocean spray
"What?"
"Kilford, come on get up"
Kilford stirred looking up his eyes glazed over, turning to Samuel's he smiled weakly pushing himself up only to find all his limbs were like jello. Any ounce of pressure applied to them simply caused them to shoot out or crumbled in causing his face to smack harshly back into the floor.
"Sorry, I may have overdone it guys." He said resting face first on the wooden boards.
Samuel could only manage a grunt, Fredrick couldn't even manage that.
And so they continued against the ocean's unrelenting torment until beaten and battered by the storm they began to see the seas calm down, lulls became longer and the swells shrunk before disappearing altogether. At the first calm patch, Fredrick flung the now completely out Kilford in the small bed in the cabin, which was now is disarray everything flung all around due to having been improperly tied down. He grabbed the wooden box he had been working on from the ground, making a mental note to continue his quest to crack it.
He emerged from the cabin exhausted but happy as the sun shown painfully into his eyes. It was morning and the seas were calm. Samuel stood perfectly still like some bizarre tree growing straight out of the deck, strange knots of wood shooting out of him grasping various ropes and other miscellaneous pieces, his hair blew like a patch of fine autumn leaves as the calm sea breeze ran over the ship. Fredrick leaned his back against him, and felt the calm swelling of the man's breath beating a slow rhythm out. Then it hit him; Samuel was asleep. The entire spectacle was enough to make him laugh, a good, hearty, tired, laugh as he felt his legs slip out from under him. Soon he was sitting at the feet of his friend sleeping beneath the shade of his many branches, his hands lazily draped over the wooden box. The boat rocked lazily in no particular direction as the three exhausted souls slept.
"Shit" a shrill screech blasted out of the cabin, as a still punch drunk Kilford busted out of the cabin tripping over his own feet and falling down in a heap. Thrusting is arm out in front of Fredrick's nose. It took Fredrick a second, and then he realized it. The small leather strap across Kilford's arm was empty. Their log post was gone. Sure enough all three of them quickly searched the boat and found a couple shards of glass and the pin which miraculously hadn't fallen over board. Their log post was broken.
"So how is the food?" Fredrick asked slumped sitting on top of the cabin.
"Most of it is good still in the bottom." Kilford replied leaning over the wall of boat.
"So that's what, two week?" Samuel replied leaning against the mast massaging his arms.
"Yeah."
"And the odds of us hitting land are" Fredrick says staring up at the hot sun. "Damn it with that storm I have no idea". Just last night their vision had been obscured by the ocean's angry spray, but it was even worse to know that now the sun illuminated their path they still had no idea where they were going.
"So I saw you messing with a box. Ever find out what was in it?" Kilford asked after a while.
"Oh yeah, I plum forgot about that once you woke me up. I don't know." Fredrick said moving to retrieve it, only to find once he sat down to begin to work it that the box popped open, having seemingly been jarred open by the rough weather. When he looked inside he almost screamed, a large smile crossed his face.
"What is it?"
"Yeah Fredrick, what?"
Fredrick turned to both of them gleaming and hoisted up into the air a smaller wooden box from one side of the larger one. Flipping the top off he reveals a small glass globe set in a cushion with a pin wobbling suspended by a wire. "It's an eternal post"
"To where?"
Fredrick quickly examined the post looking for the tell tale brass plaque only to find nothing. "It doesn't say," He replies his face now showing a more curious expression.
"Well that's worrying." Kilford replied.
"Who cares? Where not stranded." Fredrick interjected not wanting to diminish the happiness of this moment.
"That is true." Samuel responded.
Fredrick looked over the small wooden box one more time, before tossing it to KIlford.
"I guess set course here". He then looked through the second section of the box finding a small velvet bag, rifling through it all he could feel were roots, and leaves, spices maybe. He placed the bag back in the box, and placed the box back in the cabin.
The boat journey continued rather uneventfully for the next couple days. Until one lazy afternoon Fredrick was manning the wheel while Samuel stayed below in the cabin away from a clear view of the sea. The sun was blisteringly hot and Fredrick found himself growing tired. In order to keep himself awake he turned to Kilford attempting his new favorite past time prying about Kilford, for the brush with that assassin was still clear in his eyes.
"What are you reading?"
Kilford lounged on the small bed looking up he haphazardly answered "A book on medicine."
"So you're a man of medicine?"
"I was, long ago."
"Seems like you were a lot a long a time ago, you anything now?"
"Tired," He replied sleepily as he set the book down leaned against the mast closing his eyes. Fredrick could hardly blame him the hot sun was doing a number on him too.. However he wasn't going to give up now.
"No no no, not today Kilford we need to talk."
"Oh" Kilford grumbled back, knowing exactly what was to come.
"You know I still haven't forgotten."
"About what?"
"About the oversized leprechaun we met at the docks."
Kilford sat up at that turning to Fredrick. "Him, oh yes."
"Yes, now I need to know he want you only, right?"
"Yes, well I am pretty sure."
"Pretty sure? How can you be pretty sure? Kilford you're a pretty nice guy but damn it your really bad with specifics."
"His orders concern me alone, but Ashcroft never liked loose ends, so he'll probably wipe you out too."
"And how do you know this?"
"Simple I've met the man."
"Let me guess, a long time ago"
"Precisely, we should probably get Samuel out here so I don't have to explain this to him again" Fredrick obliged, prying Samuel out of the cabin.
"Well to understand that story you probably need to hear the beginning as well."