"Pull harder on the sails lads, Princess won't go faster if you don't put your back into it!" Drummen cursed as he pulled on the main sail rope with the rest of the crew. He wiped his brow as he watched the sail unroll and gather the winds pushing Princess faster in the waters. "This wind will take us straight to the capital... Unless a storm hits us before we get to the coast line..."
He walked to the railing and watched the waves as the Princess broke through them in the battery sea. "Hey brother. What are you doing? We are in the battery sea, are you looking for bad weather or something else?" Drummen smiled at Cliffhopper. "Bad weather, the other thing is not my concern... I told you that already, I am more interested in how much coin we can fleece from our candidate below docks."
"Where did you learn to gamble anyway... You are a monk of the dome after all."
"Hahahaha..." Drummen patted the shoulder of Cliffhopper and walked away from the railing. "At the dome you learn many things to pass the time... Cards, dice, women, wine... You name it, they teach it, or you end up teaching yourself."
"Fine... fine. The dome sounds like an interesting place. Why does your face darken whenever you think about it?"
"Time to scrub brothers... Than to the nest for you both."
Drummen turned and looked at him as he was handed a scrubbing brush from the first mate. "The dome may look fun and exciting on the outside, but it isn't. Those things I mentioned, the only way to learn them is to sneak out at night... Everyone pretends to be super holy in the dome... But when night falls you can see them all sneaking out to enjoy the nightlife..."
"I understand what you mean... Same for me. Where I am from, we couldn't really do much, except for meditate and train, however, when they allow us to go outside and explore, than everything looks amazing and perfect. A world of colors, when I only had a world of black and white."
Drummen stopped scrubbing and looked at the horizon, smelling the breeze. "It seems our lives have been quite similar... No wonder we get along so well. Too many people telling us what to do..."
"On this ship you do what I tell you to do, now hurry the blasted hell up and start scrubbing!"
Drummen turned to look at the captain standing next to him and smiled, putting a finger in his ear to clear it from the captains spittle. "Yes captain. Scrubbing is what I do." He looked at the smirking Cliffhopper and focused on the scrubbing on the deck.
"Lads, this deck needs to be scrubbed, if there is bad weather, I don't want anyone falling overboard... Got it."
Drummen nodded, and scrubbed faster. "That's it lad... Now you are getting it. You can't spend all day doing a simple task... People will think you are useless outside of battle, even muscles your brother too."
When they finished scrubbing Drummen stood up and stretched his back and arms letting the sea breeze cool him down. He wiped the sweat off his brow with his arm and took a ladle of water from the water barrel. He smiled to Cliffhopper and pointed to the top. "Do you want to race again?" He frowned as Cliffhopper cursed, "Not with that brother. We already know how fast you can get up there, and that is without them knowing what certain skills you use..."
Drummen winked at him, "well I will see you up there, and jumped onto the rigging. He pulled himself up smiling looking around at the sea into the distance. "Rotation on the nest. Brother's are up."
"That's fine. This guy here was annoying us anyway. Something about can't swim or something. He's your problem now."
He climbed onto the crow's nest and stood staring at the person sitting there. "Hey you are the candidate I saw at the tavern the other day. What are you doing up here?"
"What do you mean what I am doing up here... It is the view. I like the view..." Drummen frowned at him. "You can't see the view if you are sitting like that, you can't see anything."
"Hey brother are you talking to yourself again? Should I tell the captain you are hearing things again, or is it that mouse chasing you around again? Next time, you tell them that I will eat them when I catch them. Need to eat... Ohh... Look brother it's the chicken."
Drummen looked at Cliffhopper. "He's here to look at the view... It's nice don't you think?"
"Oh, yes the view and the breeze is marvelous."
He watched as Cliffhopper leaned closer to him whispering. "What is he really doing up here?" Drummen shrugged and looked at the chicken. "If it isn't the view, than what are you doing up here? You can lose some coin if you want to pass the time."
"Rattle, rattle, rattle"
Drummen pulled out a cup and dice from his pocket and shock it around. "No thanks monk... I don't see how a monk like you, blessed by the creator can go around talking about women, wine and even gambling... What type of monk are you?"
Drummen smiled and lowered himself to be eye to eye to the chicken. "I am not a monk... I told you, I just wear these clothes because they are comfortable, and not too hard to clean... That is unless I get some blood on them." He stood up. "That's when I get pissed." He turned to Cliffhopper. "Do you remember those strange beasts with green blood?"
"Yep. I remember that night. Fire everywhere, and you killing the beasts... Don't forget what you promised next time, that you would let me have a turn." Drummen nodded, waved at Cliffhopper and pointed to a hole in his clothing. "See this hole here? That's from the green blood that got on my clothing, and burnt a hole through it..." He wiggled his finger through the hole exposing his nakedness underneath the robe.
"Monk... please some decency. I didn't need to see that."
Drummen looked down and nodded. "Yes, ahh not sorry about that, but you get my point. When that blood landed on my favorite robe, I got really pissed."
"What's the point of this story monk...?"
Drummen revealed his toothy grin. "Nothing..."
"Really? It sounds like you were trying to make a point?"
Drummen shook his head. "Not at all... Welllll. My point is that I did something about it since I was pissed. I drink... Yes. I spend my coin on women and company. Yes... I do what I want, when I want, because I choose to do it."
"You choose to do what you want, when you want to do it?" Drummen nodded. He pointed at Cliffhopper and himself. "That is what we both do... The brothers who do whatever they want, whenever they want."
"That's right"
"Than why are you on the Princess heading to the capital? Is it because you want to take part in the guard ritual?" Drummen shook his head. "Nope. I want nothing to do with the guard or whatever blasted thing that is. We are going to the Capital for the wine and women..."
"Also to seek some coin as well." Drummen nodded in agreement with Cliffhopper.
"That too."
Drummen leaned on the crows nest and looked around him. "It's nice. I follow my rules, when I want to follow them, and if I don't than I change the rules... That's it."
"I wish I could live like you brothers... I have too many rules to follow back home. I don't even want to be in the ritual... How can I a measly person who ran when a town was under attack, going to have the ability to become a guard?"
Drummen shrugged his shoulders, turned and looked at him. "If you don't want to be in the guard, than why are you on the Princess? What do you really want to do?"
"Me?"
Drummen nodded. "Yes you... If you want to call me a monk than, think of this as spiritual council..."
"Hahahahaha"
Drummen punched Cliffhopper in the arm. "Stop it you blasted idiot. I will send you flying through the sky... You know how much metal I am carrying on me."
"Sorry brother... Still... Spiritual council... Hahaha..."
"Ignore him he can be a bit of an ass at times... It seems today is one of those mannnnnny times.... So are you going to tell me what you want to do?"
"Hmmm... no one has asked me that question before... I have always been following the family, and doing what the family thinks best." Chicken raised his arm. "For the glory of the family, and all that shit."
Drummen nodded. "Sounds like your family controls your strings. Maybe you should be free of them, and cut the strings connecting you to them?"
"Cut them?"
"Yes... Just like that. Be free of the family, and than you can live your life the way you want to live it... Still... You haven't answered the question. What do you want to do?"
"I want... I want to be... I want to be a sailor, a future captain of my own ship... To go with the tides, and seas. To be free from functions, parties and all the political back stabbing my family does."
Drummen slapped chicken's knee. "Than that's great. The Princess is in need or more crew. Just ask the captain, I am sure he will take you on."
"Are you sure?"
"Very sure. Captain took us both on only temporarily, but that was because of brother's heart."
Drummen looked at Cliffhopper with an annoyed look. "It is just as the hairy oaf said. Go see him and he will take of you. If you tell him what you want to do, I am sure he will turn you into the best sailor Athlos has ever seen."
"Hey chicken... what family are you from anyway?"
"Me... I am from the Lyoni family."
"Cough... cough... cough... you mean the same family the current Supreme is from?"
"That's the one... He's my older brother..." Drummen watched him pull something out of his pocket and play with it in his hands.
"If I am going to be a sailor, than I don't need this anymore." He watched him stand up and looked to throw it into the sea. "Chicken... wait. What is that?"
"Ohh, this silly thing, is my entrance token to enter the ritual... Since I am not going to be a Lyoni anymore, I don't need it." Drummen looked at Cliffhopper and stood up staring at the solid gold token.
"How about we take that off your hands?"
"You want this? I thought you said you didn't want to take part in the ritual?" Drummen nodded.
"Yes, we aren't interested in the ritual at all, but that token... That is another story."
"Ohh, is it because it is made of solid gold?"
Drummen shook his head. "Not just that. There seems to be some sort of energy coming from the gold token."
"Energy?"
He nodded. "It is like a pulse that sends out a signal every few seconds..." Drummen looked at it. "Who gave it to you?"
"Some drunk old sailor a while ago mumbling about an all female crew. He told me this would help me get to the trials faster, or if I saw someone who would have the ability to take the ritual, than give it to them."
Drummen looked at Cliffhopper and cursed. "You know what that is don't you?"
"But they're stuck for the moment, there is no way they can move anytime soon. You saw it yourself."
"Do you still want it monk?" Drummen turned to Cliffhopper. "Would she come looking for me if I had this on me?"
"It was a dunk sailor... but there are many drunk sailors... Especially old ones that talk of an all female crew. How do you know it was him?"
Drummen shrugged his shoulders. "No idea."
"I thought you were over her, and wanted nothing to do with her."
Drummen nodded. "Yes, you're right... I went through hell because of that bitch... Yet she is trying to keep tabs on me again... the Creator can go and stand on her and piss all over her for all I care."
He turned to chicken. "Throw it. We don't need it. We make our own luck and fortune, and don't want anything to do with it."
"Fine... Well see you token of solid gold."
"Plunk..."
Drummen and Cliffhopper watched as it sunk into the sea. He looked at Cliffhopper with a smile. "I thought watching that happen would be harder than this... I feel good. What about you? Don't you miss her crew?"
"Not at all. I can get whoever I want, whenever I want... Soo, now that's over. What do we do now?"
"We wait until we dock up, and than leave the Princess..." He turned to chicken. "What are you still doing here sailor? Your watch has finished. You should go see the captain and report in!"
"Hahaha... thanks... Immoral monk."