As it turned out, the manacles did chafe, but those were the least of Ben's problems at the moment. He was sitting on the deck, on a little chair, looking across a little table at the ship's gunner, who was not every little. Quite the opposite.

The hulking man smiled at him through broken teeth. Ben nodded back in return, tried a smile right back, which, in turn, caused the giant to stop smiling and frown deeply.

"What'd I do?" Ben asked Harry. The fisherman was standing nearby, looking back at his little fishing vessel as it was being dragged behind the warship.

"Ya know sonny, that's what I've been wondering ever since they put us in chains and confiscated my life's purpose," Harry said through gritted teeth. His whole being seemed to buzz with the effort he put forward to contain his rage.

"Ah, come on. It's only a boat, after all. You can get another one." Ben said cheerily. The old fisherman turned and his eyes became pinpricks. Ben wondered if he could even see him anymore through the rage.

Before Harry could do anything though, the soldier standing next to him, put the barrel of his pistol against the old sailor's head. "Now hold it right there, sir. I can't allow you to harm Mr. Everett."

Harry spat out his response. "He keeps trying to get a rise out of me."

"That may be true, but I can't let you harm him or vice versa." said the soldier. "Mr. Everett, please stop antagonizing Mr. Harry."

Ben showed his palms in contrition. He smiled to prove his good nature and then continued, "My mouth runs ahead of me when I'm nervous. Old family quirk. No harm intended." The last bit was a complete lie. Ever since they had been brought aboard the warship he was trying to get Harry to be on the brink of violence, waiting for the right moment.

Ben would have shared his plan with the fisherman, but the old man was busy doing his own talking. It consisted of mostly complaining about how it was all Ben's fault, even as the man pointed out that they would've been fishing upriver anyway and thus been captured.

On the subject of their capture, their captain did not illuminate much in the 10 seconds he allowed to inspect his prisoners. Ben gathered they were some military outfit, perhaps related to the explosions in the town and the little earthquake that followed.

Ben tried to get them going towards the town, figuring they would help the injured people and that it would afford him an easier route of escape than swimming. Everybody would win. That was when the giant, currently sitting across the table, gave him a good smack. So Ben kept his ideas to himself. Well, except the incessant yapping.

He turned and waved at Harry's nephews that were still on the boat, along with a few soldiers to keep them company. Steve or Andrew waved back at him, Ben could not yet differentiate between the two.

The helmsman came down and started to talk with Harry. They kept him on account of his knowledge of the waterways around Livingston. Ben had no idea where they were headed, and even if he did understand the names of the rivers or any of the nautical terms, it was all gobbledygook to him. He had no dog in the fight, except some test from a half-forgotten dream that he was thinking of filing away in his mind as a short and acute psychotic break. Either way, Ben was tired of waiting for signs or tests or giant trees. He decided, once he was free of his bondage, he would run into the wild forests surrounding them, and live out as well he could.

Ben asked the giant, "You guys have cabins, right? Like, made of logs, no?" The giant stared back in response. "But there are rabbits, no? Not like wolf-rabbits or wolf-squirrels that try and gnaw on my jugular. Are those a thing here?"

Silence.

"Well, if you're not going to talk but just sit there, can we at least take off the manacles?"

Some more silence.

"Fine then. Let's sail around the river, or go around the river, or let's go back to the sea and hold hands and jump in. You don't want to do that with me, since we're such good friends?" said Ben.

The deck creaked as the first mate walked towards them. She gave Ben's chair a light kick. "Stop giving Jiro a hard time, " she said.

"So your name's Jiro? I'm Ben." he tried to extend his right hand but was stopped because of the cuffs, so he began wrapping the chains around both of his arms and making as much noise as possible.

"Oh, gods." said the first mate. "Come on, enough slapstick, the captain wants to talk to you."

Ben smiled. "Oh, not me. Not little old incredibly smart and handsome me?"

"I'm sure he'll regret it for the rest of his life." replied the first mate. "Get up and I swear, one more word or noise, you're going for a swim."

The ship was quite high and the fact that he was in irons, kept Ben from commenting further. He was taken into the guts of the ship, passing Harry who was still in conversation with the helmsman. He tried waving at the old fisherman who pointedly ignored him. Ben pushed out his bottom lip and squinted his eyes in fake sadness. Then the first mate elbowed him in the stomach. "Slapstick." She shook her head.

Stolen novel; please report.

In the hold, the Captain sat on an overturned barrel, rolling a little with the waves, using his boots to keep his place. Grey in hair and eyes, immaculately groomed and dressed, he was staring through the grate out towards the sky.

"Thank you, Roz. I will handle him from here," he said to the first mate, who in return raised her shoulders and said, "Make sure to kick him if he misbehaves. He can be very grating if he wants to, as Jiro can testify."

"I know. I've been watching him from here. I wondered if he was trying to get himself thrown off the ship or strangled by Jiro."

Ben shrugged his shoulders in response.

"You can talk now, actually," said Roz as she brought a small chair for Ben and pushed him down.

"Noted." said Ben, smiling awkwardly and continuing once the first mate left, "So, err, nice boat."

"It's a ship actually, but let's leave that until after the introductions. It's only polite, as my mother would tell me." The captain grabbed Ben's hands and shook them vigorously. "Admiral Ross van Bahn, please to meet you."

"Ben Everett."

"See, we would have reached this point much faster if you did not vanish your identification papers." said the Admiral. Ben had quickly shoved in his mouth any papers he had on him when they had been arrested, just as a precaution.

"I regret that a bit," said Ben. "They were hard to gulp down with no drink."

"You should've just tossed them in the water. It would have made them unreadable."

"Well, next time I'll consult you," said Ben.

"I appreciate that, but now I have to go through this interview process. I have to find out what you're hiding and all that, find out your real name."

"Let me save you the trouble. It's Ben Everett."

"I just figured you were lying, no offense."

"I'm a little offended, but I recover fast. But no, that's the name, as far as I can remember, but I'm a little loopy, so excuse me if we find a different name tattooed to the back of my neck or something," said Ben.

"That'll be no problem as I've never met anybody who tattooed their own name on themselves. Soon to fail relationships, sure, but not themselves." replied the Admiral. He pulled a bottle of something brown from his pocket and began pouring it into two small glasses, handing one to Ben.

"So, Captain-- Is it Captain or Admiral?" asked Ben.

"Captain of the ship, Admiral overall, but you can just call me Ross. Not like we're fighting for the same country, and I've never stood on ceremony."

Ben took the drink and threw it down, take a bit aback by its bite. "Oof, been a while."

"Your uniform looks pretty tattered and I was never good at geography, but I don't remember those colors belonging to any country's military. I was thinking you might enlighten me." said the Admiral.

"Believe me, I would like nothing more, but it would sound like nonsense."

"Just indulge me."

"The Ashcroft Dutchy, it's a protectorate of the Empire," said Ben.

"And which Empire is that?"

"Are there more than one here?"

"You'd be surprised," said Ross. He now held a little notepad he studiously wrote in with a worn-out pencil. "Would you be able to point to the location of your dutchy on a map?" he asked.

Ben groaned. "I wouldn't be able to point where we are right now on a map. This isn't exactly my world."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, a woman and a tree in a vast and bright desert dropped me through a portal and plopped me here," said Ben, trying to ignore how completely ridiculous he sounded. "That or you know, completely lost my marbles. Whichever sounds more plausible."

The Admiral snapped the notebook closed and grimaced, gritting his teeth. "I guess you switched from running your mouth to just spouting nonsense."

Ben smiled sadly. "I guess so."

The Admiral stood up and shook his greatcoat to get the dust off. Standing up, Ben was uncomfortable with how large and imposing the man was since he had to keep in mind a future fight with him. Ben did not like his chances in a melee.

"Are you ever going to let me go or at least tell me something of where we're going, maybe who you are? I guess you're not on the same side as the town, since you put the fishermen in chains as well."

"Sure," said the Admiral, "We're underground mole men, here on a mission from our world, oh and there's also a talking tree there, and a portal."

"That's really funny, but you basically just copied mine."

"Come on," he replied, dragging Ben up by his chains. "We're going back up. We must be at the bridge by now."

"There we go, some information," replied Ben as he was being pushed up the stairs.

"Can't even answer regular questions," Ross muttered to himself, "Didn't even get to my questions about the weird shit around his arms."

"You know I can hear you," said Ben.

"Yes, that's why my words were out loud."

"You are surprising immature for someone so high up the command chain."

"Not you, you're an object of seriousness." said the Admiral.

Ben stepped into the sun and tried to shield his eyes as they got used to being back in the light. "Great, we made it all the way to sarcasm."

The first mate came over and had words with the Admiral. The man turned and slapped Ben on the back. "Nearly at the bridge."

"Good for us."

"I'm setting up an advance party when we get there, get the lay of the land." Ross was now smiling knowingly at Ben, which made the latter very uncomfortable.

"You're coming down with me," said Ross. "Going to get you out of those manacles, have a few rifles pointed at you at all times, but I'm a big proponent in second chances."

"When did I get to needing second chances?" Ben asked but received no answer.

He could see the bridge now, and the column of smoke reaching up the skies coming from it. It must not have been a very large or imposing structure, and its still burning image made it less so.

The first mate came over with a key, and unlocked his manacles, sneering at him the whole time. "One mistake, and pow," she said.

"Good to know," replied Ben.

"It just occurred to me," said Ross. "That eating your identification papers was an exceedingly stupid thing to do."

Ben guffawed, "You just realized that eating paper's stupid? Your mouth must be littered with papercuts."

"Stupid since they would've held up your story, or at least make it more convincing that such a place as the Ashford Dutchy exists. At least would show that you put in an effort into appearing like a complete lunatic."

"Yeah," said Ben. "But at the time, I just figured I would lie to you."

"What stopped you?"

"I don't know enough about this world to lie convincingly," said Ben.

The ship came to a halt, the anchor dropped over the side. Ben climbed into the small boat, followed by the Admiral and the rest of the advance party.

He looked at the still smoking bridge, as they were being lowered down. Ben spied the figures of a boy and his horse lying broken on the shore, near the ruin of the bridge.