Chapter 6 - Going to Sea

They trudged wearily along the frightening road to Yarel for several hours. When they reached the town they were extremely disappointed. It was small and dusty and boring, and smelt strongly of rotting fish. Barney was very puzzled because it didn’t seem to have enough people to supply all the cars on the road. Or maybe the road was so busy because of all the people urgently escaping before they died of boredom. Dock towns were dying out, and Yarel had been slowly fading for years. This would have been unremarkable except that Yarel really was dying. Literally.

It had once been a busy coastal town, full of children in brightly coloured clothes rushing to meet the merchant ships and huge passenger liners that docked there every day. Fish were abundant, and there was always work for a fisherman. The economy had boomed, and Yarel had become prosperous and wealthy. These days, clouds hung low over the town, but never dropped the rain. Plants drooped, and dust rose in sleepy clouds with each footstep. The few people left moved slowly and aimlessly. Some simply lay in the street for a nap and never woke up. No-one knew why this was happening, and it had started so gradually that no-one really knew when it had begun. Now, cars sped past along the coast road, but never stopped in case it happened to them. The only visitors to the town were the people who used the docks for nefarious purposes – smugglers and pirates and people plotting to overthrow the crown.

Our three intrepid journeypeople didn’t know this of course. Celia had never left the farm. Sammy was half god and didn’t have time for things like that. And Barney had been living under a rock for the past four years. So while they were perplexed at the people lying in the street and the strong smell of rot, they marched onwards to the docks to barter a passage to the land across the sea.

Fortuitously, the docks were not empty that day. A rickety ship floated low in the water, ragged black sails tied down, flag hanging limply in the still air. A pair of men played a vigorous game of cards on the deck, with many a shocking exclamatory remark. Celia was introduced to many new and interesting words that day. The captain of the ship sauntered easily across the docks to them, polishing his knife. His black hair was long and oily, and he held it out of his eyes with a dirty red scarf. His complexion was swarthy and his black eyes were beady. A scar ran the length of his left cheek, and a gold tooth glittered his mouth. He spoke gruffly, in a foreign accent.

Now, one does not need to be omniscient to realise that someone like this is not to be trusted, particularly if he is polishing a large and pointy knife. Our heroes were rather naive, though, and none of them had ever encountered a pirate. They needed passage rather badly, because now that they were in this sleepy little town, they were beginning to feel a little sleepy themselves. So they duly traded the friendly, fat little pony for a ride on the ship, and climbed aboard. The captain led the friendly, fat little pony off, and returned an hour later with food for their month at sea.

They left that afternoon, before anyone had a chance to fall asleep and die, and Barney’s day, which had not started well, began to deteriorate.
Barney had never been on a boat – he did not live by the sea and there were no rivers or lakes nearby. He couldn’t swim and kept having horrible visions of being tipped out or somehow falling off the deck. In these visions, the boat sailed off into the distance, black sails billowing, and nobody even looked for him while he sank to the bottom and drowned. While he was doing this, the Captain yelled at him for not doing anything, the first mate yelled at him for getting in the way, and the second mate knocked him over in an attempt to look up Celia’s skirt. Sammy laughed at him. It turned out Sammy liked the sea. The rocking of the deck made his stomach churn, and he threw up on Celia’s shoes; a major setback in his quest to win her heart. And if that wasn’t enough, the entire ship was made of wood. Old, angry wood. Barney crawled through the trapdoor into the cabin. It hit him on the head on the way through. He crawled to his bunk, rubbing his head, and lay curled up, his face green. This was not going to be a good trip.

[Word Count: 4087]