Bang. Bang. Bang.

Elwin woke suddenly to being shot at by a cannon. And surely at least one cannonball had hit its mark, based on the way he was feeling. He sat up suddenly.

Prin, who had been laying half on top of him, received an even harsher wake up call by falling to the floor.

“Are you okay?” Elwin looked over the edge of the bed, and at first he thought that the prince had stayed asleep or even been knocked out by the fall. But no, his wide eyes blinked silently up at Elwin like a blue-eyed owl. “I’m so sorry!” Elwin said. He reached down and helped him back up onto the bed. Fortunately, it had not been much distance to fall.

“Get up you two! Get to work!” The voice hollered from outside their door.

“Just a minute!” Elwin called back. “We’re up!”

Heavy footsteps walked away without a further word or knock.

Prin rubbed his eyes. His hands were red and swollen, and he was pale with deep shadows under both eyes. “What happened?” he wondered. “Where am I?”

As Elwin had feared, this was too much too soon for the delicate prince. However, now that they were in the thick of it, there was really nothing for it but to go through it and out the other end.

“You’re on a boat.” Elwin said gently, he pulled Prin into his arms. It was then that he realized his own hands were bright red and covered in blisters. They were a fine pair, the two of them.

“A boat!?” Prin pulled away quickly and then relaxed against Elwin. “Oh right, a boat.”

Elwin disentangled himself from the prince and stood up, groaning as every muscle and bone in his body protested. “I’ll bring you some breakfast and something to drink, you just stay here and rest.”

“Don’t we have to work?” Prin asked. He shuffled his feet against the wooden planks of the floor. “My feet hurt.”

“Mine too.” Elwin agreed. He stretched, as best he could in the cramped space. “This is awful.” It was even worse than he had imagined it, and he had imagined it to be pretty bad. “You aren’t going anywhere though, I think you have had too much work already. I know you really tried. . .”

Prin frowned up at him and grabbed one of his boots. “The hell you say, if you’re working, I’m working too.”

“That’s not – That’s not a good idea!” Elwin protested. “You look terrible, I mean, you look like you feel terrible. I’m worried about you.” He could tell that he was using the completely wrong approach, that any chance of getting his own way was slipping by him, and not only that but he was pissing the prince off to boot. Not his intention at all. He sighed. “I’m sorry.”

“You too.” Prin said, still frowning. His dark eyebrows knitting together in consternation. “You look like a mess, and your hands are all blistered. I think I’m in better shape then you are. Maybe you should be the one to stay here and rest.” He pulled on his boot defiantly.

On the wrong foot, but with grand defiance.

Prin winced, trying to hide it.

Elwin bent down and pulled off the offending boot, replacing it on the correct foot. “There’s a left and a right to these things.”

“I know!” Prin said.

“You’re not wrong. You’re seldom wrong about anything.” Elwin said.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Prin nodded, agreeing but not appeased.

“But it doesn’t really matter if I’m tired or sore or my hands are messed up. I did promise to work for our passage.” Elwin said. “And I intend to keep the promise.” He sat down and put his own shoes on, although they barely liked to go over his swollen feet.

“I feel the same way.” Prin put on his other boot, the guess work taken out of it now that there was only one left. “At least as long as I can . . .”

“That’s all you can do!” Elwin said, hoping he would decide that he had reached his limit sooner rather then later.

“There’s no use arriving on the other side dead.” Prin said, wrinkling his nose and making an exaggerated expression of disgust that was actually pretty cute.

“That’s right. I promise I will know when to quit, and make myself do it. I promise if you will.” Elwin said. He couldn’t help but smile, even though he didn’t know where it came from.

“I promise.” Prin said solemnly.

“Can I kiss you?” Elwin asked suddenly. He hadn’t expected himself to ask it, or even to want to, but he did.

Prin met his eyes, with his own, wide and startled. “You don’t have to ask me.”

Elwin leaned close, at the last second veering from his lips and letting the kiss come in for a landing on Prin’s forehead decorated with sweat plastered curls.

“I’ll hold you to that.” He said softly.

After a brief breakfast in the galley, the two of them parted ways.

Prin settled back in, across the table from Squeaks. With a huge barrel of potatoes between them.

“Are there not any left from yesterday?” the prince wondered, with a, mostly, involuntary grimace.

“Nar.” Said Squeaks. “They be eating anything what’s cooked.”

“It wasn’t really a serious question.” Prin sighed. “Don’t the men ever get tired of potatoes?”

This time Squeaks just stared at him silently. It was remarkable how he never brushed aside the hair that fell over his face, just peered through it while it hung there. Hiding.

The prince wondered what his face looked like. He picked up a potato and got to work. “You must think I’m a brat, I’ll bet.”

Squeaks shook his head. “Everyone struggles wiff it at first. That’s life innit? One big struggle after another, on and on.”

“And then you die. I got it.” Prin said. “Let’s talk about something nice. What kind of books do you like to read? I like fantasy mostly, and adventure, romance is all right too if it’s not too cheesy. But really I’ll read anything if I get a chance.”

“Oh you like to read, do ya?” Squeaks said, the beginnings of a smile at the corner of his mouth. “There really aint much books on the ship. I’ll tell ya what’s good reading, letters.” The grin spread across his face and he leaned forward, sharing a little secret over an ungodly mass of potatoes. “Some ‘em writes some real juicy ones back home. It’s a little harder to get ahold of the mail that answers back, could be waiting at any port innit? It’s doable though, if you got determination.”

The prince leaned back, horrified by the invasion of privacy but at the same time intrigued, as much by what this revelation said about his new friend as by the potential content of the letters.

“I-How would you like it if someone read your letters?” Prin asked. He didn’t know what else to say.

Squeaks shrugged. “I never did have any.”

“How do you even do it?” The prince wondered. Now that he had expressed, however mildly, his disapproval, he felt free to move on to the real questions.

“I usually just sneaks. I’m the one that collects the mail and takes it to the post master at port.” Squeaks said. “So it aint hard. Now, another way you could do it, is offer to read letters or write them down for someone. ‘cause a lot o them don’t even know their alphabets. But, that lets ‘em know you can read.” He tapped the side of his head. “Which maybe you don’t wants ‘em knowing.”

Prin nodded, mulling over the apparent wisdom in pretending stupid. “You want to be underestimated.”

“That’s right.” Squeaks said. “Learning don’t impress no one here anyway. It’s not like it would make ‘em respect ya.”

The prince nodded. “I’m still not so sure it’s right to read other people’s private correspondence but tell me, what is the craziest thing you’ve read?” It occurred to him that all of this might be great fodder for future stories of his own, and he didn’t want to waste the opportunity.

“Whale, that depends on what flavor a crazy you’re talkin’ about.” Squeaks teased. “This one fellar was writin’ letters to his wife and also the lady he was a cheatin’ on her wiff. And the lady he was cheatin’ wiff was pregnant.”

“That’s scandalous, but not so unusual I would think. I mean, it’s bound to happen sometimes.” Prin said.

“The lady was his wife’s . . . . mother!” Squeaks told it like a natural born storyteller, drawing out the suspense.

“No! How is that possible?” The prince wondered.

“It’s possible.” Squeaks said. “It’s possible. And it happen.” He gave a little self-satisfied smirk. “That’s just the tip of the iceberg on the stories I got.”

“Seems in poor taste to mention ice bergs while on a large boat.” Prin looked around superstitiously, as though an iceberg were spying on them right that very moment.

“Eh, this one aint so big.” Squeaks said. “Wait till I tell you about this other sailor who kilt his –”

Before Prin could hear the scintillating details of who was killed, the galley door swung open.