Author's Note:
And now for the twentieth chapter!
Chapter 20: Welcome Back…
Ariah, Jim, Morph and Silver entered the RLS Legacy's galley. A thick steam of delicious-smelling food humoured the air, as well as the loud buzz of conversation drifting about the crewmembers.
Suddenly, the talking in the galley halted, which caused Ariah to look up at the other sailors curiously. The entire crew was staring quizzically at her.
Ariah folded her arms over her chest. It was either her sudden appearance after so many days of being unconscious or the thick layer of bandages that spanned her right arm and her torso –now revealed by her unlaced vest- that had caught their attention.
"What?" The black-haired teenager demanded irately.
"Scullery Maid." The crew mechanically answered.
Ariah rolled her eyes; apparently word of her pulled rank had travelled quickly. She wordlessly trekked over to the cauldron of stew and served herself a portion of the steaming lunch. Then the recovered sailor sat down at her usual table beside Jim and began eating.
Morph zipped over with an entire mouthful of food. He looked at both teenagers and smiled widely with his already bulging cheeks.
Ariah cocked an eyebrow at the pink gelatinous transformer before silently eating her serving of lunch.
The light pink blob loudly gulped his mouthful of food and then floated to the space between Jim and Ariah's plates. Morph split himself into two pieces and made each form into a tiny mirror image of Jim and Ariah.
The miniature forms of Ariah and Jim stood at the edge of their original form's plate.
The tiny teenagers waved friendlily at each other and then walked out into the thin air between the plates.
The two original teenagers each raised an eyebrow in curiosity.
Mini Jim bowed formally to Mini Ariah. Then the baggy clothes -that Jim usually wore- shimmered slightly and it morphed into a black, formal-looking suit. Mini Ariah curtseyed to Mini Jim. Her sailing attire shimmered identically and then shifted into a lengthy, dark red evening gown.
Ariah blinked, surprised how dashingly handsome Jim looked in the suit; even if it was only a miniature version of him. She could tell by Jim's wide pale blue eyes that he was likely thinking the similar thing about her mirror image.
Mini Jim and Mini Ariah took each other's hands in an appropriate waltz formation and step closer. Mini Ariah placed her left hand on Mini Jim's shoulder and Mini Jim placed his right hand at Mini Ariah's waist, their other hands clasped together gracefully and they looked each other in the eyes. Then they spun around elegantly in a circular dance through the empty air between their original form's plates.
"Not puttin' fantasies into me workers' heads, now are yeh, Morphy?" Silver's chuckling voice broke through the two teenagers' thoughts.
Mini Ariah and Mini Jim shifted back into Morph's original appearance. The transformer giggled jovially, despite being caught, and zoomed over to the older cyborg.
Ariah looked up at John Silver with a confused look, which was mirrored identically on Jim's face. Silver chuckled knowingly and collected some of the abandoned dishes from the crew's emptied tables.
The two teenagers shrugged at each other and then began their assigned work as cabin boy and scullery maid. They filled the appropriate bins with warm sudsy water and grabbed their own towels to wash dishes.
After an hour of taking care of the monotonous task -as Silver's supervision halted any chances of 'testing each other's reflexes' once again- Jim and Ariah had finally finished washing up lunch's dishes.
The afternoon passed by rapidly as the two teenagers worked together on their cleaning duties keeping the RLS Legacy in its consisting top shape.
The two teenagers helped Silver prepare, serve and wash up dinner before they sunk into their own hammocks for a good night's sleep.
Among all of the things that Ariah despised in her life, nightmares were up near the top of her list. The unfamiliar pattern of sleep over the three days she had been unconscious must've caused her normal dream cycle to be thrown off; thus creating a nightmare that she'd distinctly remember.
But why, of all things, did it have to be a nightmare? Usually dreams that were confusing and made no sense, or dreams that triggered possible ideas for future inventions were much more pleasant…
However, tonight's nightmare was one that jarred her awake in cold sweat.
Ariah hated the nightmares where she was getting chased by monsters… Especially when they were the similar leviathans that she had to personally face at some point in her past.
But this was worse, because her friends were with her… and they weren't as fast runners as she was. One by one, as she ran, the dark fiends swallowed up her friends. She tried to stop herself, to turn around and try to help them, but an unknown force kept her running.
Once the force stopped pulling her forwards; Ariah stopped running. Before she could turn around to help her disappearing friends, she felt herself falling.
She fell through the empty air; it was overwhelmingly cold. The bitterly frigid darkness began to suffocate her. She was drowning in the darkness.
Finally the nightmare ended and Ariah opened her copper-brown eyes. She felt her hammock's fabric between her fingers and realized she was holding the material in a death grip. Her entire body was soaked in cold sweat and her breath came out in ragged pants. She looked around, hoping dearly that she hadn't cried out during her nightmare.
The young woman remembered the few times when she was younger and the crew had heard her cry out while having a nightmare… When she had finally woken up, they would all be staring at her oddly, and for a few days following the nightmare they would treat her more gently. She disliked this, as it made her feel weak and vulnerable…
But the crew's quarters remained dark from the night and the crew was still sleeping peacefully, undisturbed. Ariah sighed and smoothed the sweat from her forehead.
She hopped barefoot out of her hammock and walked out of the crew's quarters up onto the main deck.
The sweat along Ariah's bare arms dried off in the chilly breeze on the main deck. She walked to the bow of the RLS Legacy. She knew at least someone had to be on watch while the RLS Legacy was anchored from the night; who would hopefully give her some company.
The RLS Legacy was anchored down during the night for longer periods of time as there were only three people permitted to steer the vessel Mister Turnbuckle, Mister Arrow and Captain Amelia. As Mister Arrow was forever lost the farthest reaches of outer space, these periods of time lengthened, to allow Mister Turnbuckle and Captain Amelia a sufficient amount of time to rest.
The tall ship swayed gently in the Etherium's winds as Ariah made her way to the bow of the ship. Watching the bow of the ship, casually, was John Silver himself. He smoked a short pipe and leaned his cyborg arm against the polished railing.
"Hey Silver…" Ariah stood to the older sailor's left side.
"What are yeh doin' up so late, darling?" Silver asked, looking over Ariah.
Ariah sighed and looked blankly out into space. "I had a nightmare…" She frowned and placed her chin against her forearms miserably.
"Do yeh want teh talk 'bout it?" Silver placed his human hand against Ariah's right shoulder.
"There's not much to talk about." Ariah glanced at Silver's hand and then looked forwards. "I don't really remember much of it." She sighed and bit her bottom lip. "Only that I was drowning… and I was really scared." Ariah gulped and glanced back at Silver.
"I'm sorry teh hear that lass…" Silver patted Ariah's shoulder. "But yeh 'ave no need teh worry." He smiled down at the black-haired girl. "There's nothing out 'ere that yeh 'ave teh be scared of."
Ariah nodded, turned toward Silver and gave him a hug. The rotund cook smiled and patted her gently on the head.
The young girl buried her face into Silver's ivory-shirted chest and she let out a tiny whimper. The old cyborg then realized that Ariah was crying. It must have been quite the nightmare…
"It's alright Ariah." He whispered tenderly. "Yeh don't have teh be scared…" He wrapped his arms around the fragile teenager.
The two strong-willed sailors stood at the bow of the RLS Legacy. Ariah shook slightly from the sobs of fear slipping uncontrollably from her lips. John Silver kept his arms wrapped protectively around the frightened girl.
Ariah sighed finally and looked up at Silver. "I'm sorry." She cleared her throat. "I don't really know what came over me…" There was an uncharacteristic blush across her face.
"It's all right, Ariah." Silver smiled knowingly. He allowed the slightly embarrassed teenager slip out of his arms so she could regain a bit of her dignity.
Ariah turned away and wiped the remaining tears from her copper-brown eyes. She sighed and looked out upon the night sky.
"I don't know. I guess it's not only the nightmare." Ariah stated. She smoothed the back of her hand across her forehead. "When I was out there…" The young sailor looked to the Etherium distantly. "I thought I was going to die, and it scared me." Ariah cleared her throat. "But anyways…" She inhaled slowly and then exhaled. The scullery maid turned to face Silver. "I've got to be strong, right?" Ariah smiled up at Silver.
"That's right, darling…" Silver smiled down at Ariah. "But it's all right, Ariah." He patted her shoulder reassuringly. "Yeh can talk teh me 'bout anythin'…"
"Anything?"
"That's right, darling… anythin'." Silver cleared his throat. "Now on with yeh." He gently guided her back towards the lower decks before she could think of something unpleasant to talk about that was under the category of anything. "Yeh still need some shut-eye." The cyborg stated.
Ariah smiled softly. "Because I haven't already gotten enough hours of sleep over the last three days." She rolled her eyes.
Silver responded with a flat look.
"Fine…" Ariah forced a disappointed sighed. "We can have the talk -you know-about the mechanics of a man and woman's love joining together in the beauty of sexual intercourse, later…" She smirked impishly as she turned away.
The female teenager glanced back at John Silver, who had an utterly stunned look on his face and was completely lost for words.
Ariah cracked up, stifling a laugh. "I'm just kidding, Silver…" She shook her head. "You know I wouldn't do that to you…" The young woman then obeyed the cyborg's previous wishes and walked back down to the crew's quarters while silently giggling at the completely shocked expression on Silver's face. It was definitely worth it.
The morning came soon after Ariah's talk with John Silver, and the aforementioned scullery maid and Jim were allowed the entire morning for some free time before they were sent to work immediately after eating their portions of lunch.
Unfortunately, any thoughts of testing her inventions during the allotted free time had slipped Ariah's mind, up until she was assigned to some work.
They finished up the day's dishes quickly and then Silver wordlessly handed his teenage workers their tools for swabbing the deck; the now famous Mr Mop, Mrs Bucket, another closely-related-to-Mrs-Bucket bucket, and the nameless scrub brush.
The two teenagers then left the galley and mess hall to the upper deck, where warm afternoon starlight shone brightly.
'There's nothing wrong with Ariah being happy.' Scroop pondered to himself as he watched the black-haired scullery maid push sudsy water across the helm of the ship with her scrub brush. 'It's simply wrong when she's happy with him.'
Jim accompanied Ariah at the helm of the ship, pushing his own puddle of bubbly water around with the infamous Mr Mop and stealing glances at Ariah.
When Ariah caught Jim staring, they would both laugh. Sometimes she would flick a bit of water at him and then they would continue their conjoined labour.
Scroop silently crept down the mainmast of the tall ship. He swiftly dodged some swinging solar sail booms and weaved skilfully through the riggings.
He landed lightly on the tips of his eight pointed feet before clicking towards the entrance to the galley. He and Silver needed to talk. Immediately…
"Why Mister Scroop…" Silver greeted the arachnid cheerfully. "What brings yeh down 'ere?" He raised an eyebrow curiously.
"Things are different than usual, Silver." Scroop hissed quietly. "We need to talk." He stated in his most serious voice. "Privately." He added with narrowed golden eyes.
Silver sighed. "The longboats' dock house." He stated to the red and black alien.
Scroop nodded and clicked out of the galley towards the lower decks.
Silver untied his apron from his waist and hung it up on its appropriate hook. Then the cyborg grasped his leather jacket from its hook and pulled it on before leaving the galley to accompany the arachnid.
"Hmm…" Jim leaned against the helm's railing. "I wonder where Silver and Spider Psycho are going…" He thought aloud.
"Huh?" Ariah looked up from her puddle of bubbles and pushed back the sleeves of her ivory peasant top. She glanced up at Jim quizzically.
"Well, they just went below deck." Jim stated. "Think we should check it out?" He raised an eyebrow at Ariah.
"It's probably just a coincidence, Jim." Ariah pushed the scrub brush and spread out her puddle of sudsy water. "Besides, I'm sure that Silver can easily take on Mister Scroop if he tries anything; you've seen that yourself." She shrugged and looked down at her reflection in the puddle. "And any way;" The female worker cleared her throat. "We've got a job to do."
"Yeah…" Jim sighed reluctantly and then continued spreading the edges of his puddle.
Morph sluggishly floated through the summer-warm air, slightly above the surfaces of the two puddles.
Occasionally, he would morph into a smaller scrub brush or mop to help out the teenagers with their work.
However, it was more often that he would morph into the dancing duo of Mini Ariah and Mini Jim, and then waltz across the helm of the ship to entertain the two workers.
"By the way." Jim looked at Ariah. "How come you don't seem so angry at Spider Psycho for getting you in the brig?"
Ariah sighed and looked up at Jim. "You're just full of questions Jim." She rolled her copper-brown eyes and continued her work. "I'm not mad a Scroop for getting me locked into the brig. One: because I am no longer in the brig, two: because he's my best friend, and three: because I would be putting too much energy into being mad at him when there's really no point to it." The young teenager cleared her throat. "Also because it's my fault I got sent to the brig because I neglected to give Silver back his laser pistol after our trip to Gyrogga." She explained.
"But…" Jim looked down at Ariah with concern. "If you didn't have the laser pistol, then Spider Psycho would've killed you."
"Maybe…" Ariah shrugged. "I'm not really sure what Scroop is capable of doing when he gets that angry, now that I think about it." She faced Jim directly. "I guess it's because I've never seen him that angry ever before."
There was an awkward pause between the two workers as they finished up polishing the helm of the RLS Legacy.
"Why was he that angry at you?" Jim demanded.
Ariah stopped scrubbing and thought for a moment. "It was because of us…" She stated plainly. Ariah gripped the scrub brush nervously, remembering the intense fury behind Scroop's golden eyes, and she looked up at Jim. "I think he's jealous of you, Jim…"
"Jealous?" Jim's jaw slackened in shock. "Of me?" He looked around the helm for any sign of the aforementioned arachnid, and then looked back at Ariah. "Why in the Etherium, would he be jealous of me?" The brunette teenager whispered feverishly to the black-haired teenager.
"Jim…" Ariah's serious and collected voice stopped Jim short.
She looked up at the RLS Legacy's cabin boy with eyes that showed that she'd thought this through before.
"I think Scroop cares for me... more than a friend." She stated gravely.
Author's Note:
Thanks a bunch to Whisperwings for editing and to you readers for the lovely reviews!
(A belated Happy Easter to those who celebrate it...)
MG#6