Not long after Cristin had made his way to the ship’s deck. The captain, Julien Hart, gathered the crew to make a few announcements prior to the ship's departure. His blonde hair blowing in the wind, he looked over the crew from atop the forecastle.
“Our previous trek was quite strenuous, we lost many good crewmen. However, you all managed to depart from these hapless occurrences with a great bounty in each of your pockets.”
At this, many of the crew let out cheers of varying enthusiasm. Julien nodded before continuing.
“This journey is expected to be even more profitable than the last. As such, I have brought aboard five new individuals to the crew in order to ensure that things go as smoothly as possible. Although… looking over the lot of you I only count four of said individuals.”
Eyes turned towards the newcomers, causing Cristin to look towards the wooden deck.
“Oh well, I suppose the last one ended up being unable to make it—I believe Ray was their name—we’ll manage regardless. After all, we did before, didn’t we?” Yet more cheers spread throughout the crew. “With that said, I think everything is in place. Ready for departure!”
Like clockwork, the crew divided into their various roles, preparing the ship to leave port. Cristin, not sure of what exactly to do, made his way to the middle deck, where the cannons were held. There, he found the ship’s master gunner, Jessie. Cristin had met Jessie a few days prior, finding them to be mostly agreeable. However, they were astonishingly eccentric, having a peculiar obsession with the applications of black powder. As Cristin stepped onto the deck, Jessie’s head turned, causing the mess of salt-and-pepper colored hair that sat on their head to sway in front of their face. Moving the hair away from their eyes, Jessie pointed to one of the cannons on the opposite end from them and spoke to Cristin in a hastened manner.
“Ah! Cristin! Good, good, I was wondering where you were. Go make sure the cannons are properly secured and in working order, wouldn’t want them sliding around once we depart.”
Cristin nodded, although he was fairly certain the status of the cannons would be the same as it was when the ship first arrived at port. After about fifteen minutes of this kind of work, Cristin felt the wooden floorboards below his feet shift, as the Wind’s Fortune left the docks.
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Seemingly satisfied, Jessie stood and placed a hand that reeked of brimstone on Cristin’s shoulder. “Alright! We should be all good, go inform Renea for me.”
Giving a thumbs-up, Cristin made his way to the upper deck to fulfill Jessie’s request. Upon reaching the deck, he was puzzled to find that seven of the crew were looking over the rails behind them.
His confusion ceased when one of the viewers shouted out, “Someone is swimming behind the boat!”
Cristin joined the others and peered over the side of the railing to see that, yes, there was a figure swimming in the boat's direction, closing distance. The situation was so peculiar, nobody was really sure if there was anything to be done. Eventually, the swimmer managed to catch up to the boat, grabbing onto the side. After a couple of minutes, the figure's shape became more clear, as they began to climb up the side of the boat.. They had a very muscular build, and were quite tall, wearing light clothes that were now soaked with salt water. Eventually, as the figure made it up to the deck, weapons were drawn and the crew approached them with caution. The intruder took a few deep breaths before looking up at the many hostile faces around them. With a nervous smile, they greeted the rest of the crew.
“Hi there! I’m uh— I’m Ray.”
There was a brief pause around the deck, which was soon followed by uproarious laughter. Getting a closer look, Ray had unkempt, dirty-blonde hair and yellow eyes. Their extremities were covered in scars, showing that they had seemingly lived through quite a few battles despite their young age. In addition, despite being drenched in water, they displayed no signs of being cold whatsoever.
With their curiosity sated, the crew returned to their posts, telling Ray to inform the captain of their arrival. Cristin eventually found Renea going over maps in the navigation room with the ship’s navigator, Emery Pryce. Cristin had not yet been introduced to Emery, and the first thing that struck him was her age. While Cristin was fairly young when compared to the majority of the crew, Emery seemed even younger, possibly eighteen or even seventeen. She was slightly below average in height, and had long red hair. As Cristin entered, the two looked towards him, Emery displaying a slight glare. As Jessie had requested, he informed Renea of the cannon’s status, to which he received a lackluster confirmation. Nodding his head, Cristin left the room, making his way to the bottom deck, which served as the sleeping quarters for the majority of the crew. Jessie had already gone to sleep, as had much of the other crew, preparing to rise early the next day.
Stowing away his belongings and setting up his cot, Cristin soon fell asleep, taking in the quarters in which he would spend the next year of his life.