"Rough waters are truer tests of leadership. In calm waters, every ship has a good captain.”
Swedish Proverb
It’s said a smooth sea never made a skilful sailor. This morning’s sail had been smooth and speedy. But as we headed south to Little Wester, the weather turned. Luckily, despite his early start, we had already caught up to my father before the weather turned too wild, and we were not too far behind now. However, the rougher water put an end to some of my speed. Rather than utilising the buoyancy rune, I let the ship sit lower in the water to keep a more even keel on the more giant waves. If we had continued to attempt to bounce off the top of the waves, we would have come a cropper and capsized sooner or later.
“There may be trouble ahead.” Namir pointed at a wall of clouds rushing in from the north and the west, filling the sky. He was not enjoying the smaller, speedier boat. Closer to the water and driven by the rising wind, we rose and fell with the waves far more violently than the large ship pounding through the waves not too far ahead.
“But while there’s moonlight and music . . .” I muttered under my breath, staring worryingly at the sky. We might need to turn east and run from the storm if we didn’t make it to Little Wester in time. The weather had turned incredibly quickly.
“What’s that? There’s no moonlight, and you’re not playing anything.” He argued. Nevertheless, the sky had darkened enough to count as dusk despite it being the middle of the day, and the morning had gone so well.
“Nothing, let’s face the music and dance.” This storm had rolled in unexpectedly quickly and was worryingly drawing closer with every passing minute as we fled south before it. The waves grew in height by the second as we rose and fell higher and deeper with each passing moment.
“That would be far easier to do on dry land.” He grunted, not recognising the lyrics he had started.
It was difficult to tell whether the storm was travelling south or east as it filled both the north and west horizons. The winds that had powered us forward this morning now caused the sea to swell, rise, and fall. The mountains of saltwater grew ever more tempestuous as we attempted to make it to Little Wester. Wester Ponente or even returning to Wester Levante was no longer an option.
Between waves, when we could see the other ship, we could see the sailors striving to power their boat ever forward while we hunkered down and rose every mountain and fell down every valley as the waves grew wilder.
“This is why I hate sailing.” Shouted Namir over the top of the suddenly screaming wind. “It’s not natural to be at the wind and weather's mercy.”
“Most men are.” I countered, holding tight to the lashed wheel as we drove through the approaching wave. The water soaked us to the skin. Nyx was firmly wrapped in my clothing, only her head poking out.
“I haven’t been worried about the rain or the wind since I passed Level 50 decades ago. Only on the open ocean do I have to worry about them.” He added.
I was beginning to grow worried myself. We might not make landfall at Little Wester at all at this rate. The storm had turned, and we were now catching a different edge. The winds were no longer driving us south but had curled to the west, forcing us bit by bit westward with it despite my best efforts to head due south. My father’s ship was better able, with their oars, to continue heading towards Little Wester, but we were slowly but surely being driven further West despite my best efforts to keep us running south across the wind.
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Magic could work wonders, but I needed a way to keep us heading south, and there was no rune on board to do that against the forces of nature driving us before them. It was time to make a difficult decision.
“We . . .” I shouted before being stopped by a crashing wave washing the deck and my words away. “Need to turn west then north!” I finished calling in my difficult and possibly dangerous decision.
“But we are nearly there.” Namir bellowed back as he pointed to the Island, Little Wester, that had only just that second come into sight.
“We won’t make it,” I screamed in frustration. I could read the wind and water well enough to see that we were slowly but surely going to be driven too far west. By the time we reached the island, we would be far too west of it.
I knew of no lands further west or south of little Wester. The closest island I knew of, and our best home, was to attempt to make for home.
My father’s ship still managed to plough forward towards Little Wester. Still, I could imagine my father looking worriedly across the water at us as our position continued to angle further and further, off course. They had accompanied us to protect me from slavers or sea monsters should we have run across them, but there was little they could do against the power of the sea or acts of god, and this is what it felt like.
The sudden change in circumstances, the abrupt shift in the weather and the now wild winds and stormy sea that was threatening to sink us as much as it was driving us wildly off course.
“This is why I hate sailing!” Namir howled to the sky. There might be a story behind his dislike of the sea beyond his nature of a cat-based beastkin or our current circumstance. “Why not keep trying? It’s not much further,” he argued in between waves. But he was clutching at straws, and he knew it.
“We are only going to be driven further west,” I screamed. “Can you run?” I asked hopefully despite the towering mountains of water between us and the island or my father's ship, which had disappeared behind another mountain of water.
No longer happy with only pelting us with water, the heavens started to flicker and crackle with lightning as the storm's centre caught up to our fleeing vessel. It flickered and flashed across the towering black cumulonimbus stacked behind us. At the same time, the arcus clouds had already raced far ahead of us.
“No, it needs to be significantly flatter than that. Can’t you fly there?” He countered. I hadn’t thought that he could. I imagined he could make it up the wave well enough, but he would run out of water to run on at the top, and coming down too hard on the water would break his momentum or bury him in the depths.
“In this wind,” I yelled as the sails strained and creaked in the wind. “No!” The wind would sweep me further out ahead as soon as I launched myself. Despite the shorter distance, there would be no way of controlling my flight to reach Little Wester or even my father's boat. Not that we could see it any longer. I would be driven wherever the wind went without any choice.
“Together then.” Namir finally agreed with my decision, and we turned to flee ahead of the storm, no longer attempting to land on Little Wester and turning our backs on my father as they continued to head to Little Wester and, with a bit of luck, would make it. We though, we were driven west ahead of the thunderstorm. The booming and blasting thunder arrived closer and closer to the lightning-enflamed black sky.
We raced across the wild waves as the savage sea attempted to swallow us whole. Thunder detonated in the sky as the lightning landed nearly on us. I no longer knew how long we had raced ahead of the storm; it could have been only minutes, but it felt like hours. Despite our attempts, the storm swallowed us whole.
. . .
Father’s POV
“You cannot follow them even if you could find them,” Arawn argued with his son-in-law as he held him back from the helm.
Moments earlier, the lookout had noticed the smaller ship abandon, even attempting to land on Little Wester. They were now running ahead of the storm West of the island and, according to the lookout, even attempting to head north.
It was a bold decision.
"Then what are we even here for," Father screamed back into his father-in-law's face. Frantic and frustrated at failing to protect his son from the wind and the waves.
"To save a hundred men relying on us landing at Little Wester." He shouted loudly if calmly. It was still going to be tough pushing through to Little Wester without worrying about tracking Kai down. The rowers continued to pull hard, the task growing harder as the wind shifted and threatened to throw them west of Little Wester.
"Don't count him out just yet." Arawn reassured the man hugging him tight. "He's come back from worse, and he'll come back again. At least this time, he has a boat and company when thrown out to sea."