(Day 19 - 1116 Words)
They had moved to the front of the ship, the bow, and then down one deck. Everything seemed a little more cramped here, the halls, the doors, and smaller as well as none of the calcite crystals in the ceiling. Instead there were only a couple of lanterns, staggered down the hall with a small light in each one. The pools of light not quite touching at the edges.
But there was no smell of wax or tallow or whale oil either, so he paused when he got close to the first one to see what was burning. He was surprised to see that it was a small teardrop shaped crystal, with flame shapes carved down the length of it, resembling a flame. It didn’t burn, but it was glowing with a steady light. A polished metal curve behind it helped to expand the light further, just like it would with a normal lantern.
Dalleth looked on down the hall where the bosun was waiting, not so patiently for him.
“Sorry, I’ve never seen anything like these before.”
“Well you can come out and stare at them later, but now you have work to do.” Samuel managed to sound both annoyed and amused at the same time.
Dalleth hurried down to where Samuel was standing in a doorway and followed Samuel into the small cabin. It was very neat and tidy and the bed was rather spacious.
Samuel strode 3 steps across the room and open a small door. Inside was stacked crates and trunks and bundles of cloth.
“There,” Samuel said. “Your new room. You can take the crates and boxes down the hall to the end, I’ll leave it unlocked for you. The cloth you can sort through to see what you need for bedding and such. There’s a hammock hanging against the side wall. I’ll come back and get you at dinnertime.”
Dalleth looked in dismay for a moment. I’m going to be staying in the closet?
“Yes, Samuel.”
“You can call me bosun, now, you are officially a part of the crew.”
“Yes, bosun.” Dalleth didn’t think this was going so well, any more. He watched as Samuel strode out, leaving the door open behind him.
Dalleth set his things down against the wall and put his fists on his hips for a moment. He saw a curtain over the bed and started with opening it. It let in a lot more light, enough that he could see clearly into the stacked closet now. He decided that dinner would be a good thing, as he was starting to get hungry again, so he set to, clearing out the boxes, trunks and sorting the cloth. There was actually a lot more in there than he first thought, so it took quite a while, along with hauling it down to the end room, which just seemed to be storage.
When he finally got it cleaned out and did a quick sweep with a broom, he found hanging in the storage room, he realized that this wasn’t a closet, but rather likely used to be an office.
There were small built-in shelves and drawers up along the ceiling with small locks to hold them shut. There was another smaller window in here with shutters that were built with little slats that could open and close to let lesser amounts of light in, or you could open them to let the full light in. There was watered glass set in a ring that could also be opened and secured back to let the breezes in, as well.
He saved a set of velvet curtains to put up over the window should he need even more darkness. The hammock hung on the wall, secured at one end and the other end could then be stretched to hand on a sturdy hook. There was a small build in bench under where the hammock hung that Dalleth put some silk sheets and folded duvets for making the hammock up for bed time.
There was a fold down writing desk, with a fold up chair and lots of drawers and shelves within that. And it had a padded leather writing surface with rim, which could hold an open book for reading, as well.
He had found an exquisite woven rug that he was going to use as a tapestry on the wall until he found an even more gorgeous silken tapestry to hang instead. So the rug went on the floor, but not in front of the door, so that it wouldn’t get stepped on with muddy shoes.
All in all, while a bit narrow, it was quite a cozy and private place.
He had just stored the last of the boxes and hung up the broom when Samuel returned.
“Done?”
“Yes, bosun.”
“Good. It’s time for dinner, let’s go.”
Dalleth obediently followed the big guy out, his stomach registering its agreement that it was time for dinner.
They didn’t come back out onto the deck, but bypassed the stairs and headed the lengthways of the ship to the stern. While there was still activity going on, there was less below the decks, though Dalleth could hear the steps moving above moving and wood sliding again wood. The ship was shifting more and more he could feel, making footing a bit trickier at times.
They entered into an eating hall of sorts. Benches fastened to the floor and tables like-wise secured, along with a small rim around them. Probably to keep things from sliding off like the writing desk and shelves in his room, Dalleth surmised.
The smells from the kitchen, galley it was called, he remembered, were delicious and his stomach loudly rumbled again, bringing a snort from Samuel.
“Have a seat there, I don’t want you to spill things everywhere, and the footing is going to become more treacherous as the sun begins to set. The Lady is in a hurry to take to the skies.” Samuel pointed to a small bench that was attached to a wall and had a small shelf-like table in front of it that could raise up and down like the writing desk in his room.
Samuel stepped through a set of swinging doors into the galley and soon returned with a big bowl of stew and a plate of dinner rolls and sat them on the table in front of Dalleth. There was a wooden spoon in the wooden bowl and after a quick thanks to Samuel, and a quick prayer, Dalleth dug in. Tearing off hunks of bread to sop up the thick gravy in the stew and spooning in chunks of potato, beef, carrot, parsnip, mushroom and onion. It was divine.