Uban listened quietly, still rowing only out of force of habit, not because he was paying attention. Not to that.  He couldn’t imagine watching his friends die like that, knowing he only survived by luck or some extra strength or force of will. But mostly luck, he guessed. And he could’t imagine someone thinking that throwing lives away like expendable coin was okay. His own life had been devalued at one point, but that was because he had technically committed a serious crime and it wasn’t like they all wanted him dead. No, he couldn’t quite imagine that. 

He wanted to thank Pieter for not being that way, but he didn’t feel the time was right.

He gave a weak smile. “Those things get sloshed?” He started to laugh, but then he recalled that not everyone was pleasant or amusing when drunk. “Stars above, I hope they aren’t anything like my ol’ Da when he drinks.” But even this was a bit of a joke, so  his smile stayed even after the brief chuckle fizzled out. But then his smile did fade and melted into a more sober expression as he said, “If you think I’m worthy, I’d be honored to take up the helm.” 


—

Rohaan thought he would listen in to gain some insight, and for a while he thought he’d get it even through all the sharp banter. But in the end, he just found himself…angry? Though at what, he couldn’t quite figure out. Some detached part of him that was not mired by exhaustion wanted to jump in and defend one of them but…to be honest, he had no idea which one he felt was to blame, and which one he felt he should defend. 

This just served to confuse him in an uncomfortable, irritating sort of way so he tried to shut it  out and go back to sleep now that he knew he wasn’t going to learn anything about the Barizians and what he would be up against. But…

[I]”Is that what you're going to do to Rohaan after you're done civilizing him?”
“We shoot rabid dogs in Elbar.”[/I]

Rohaan didn’t like the way his stomach twisted. It got tight and uncomfortable and like a wave of strong nausea he just gritted his teeth and waited for it to pass.  Did she mean him, or Wheel..? He didn’t know. And it might have just been his unfamiliarity with her and the kind of automatic fear that feeling brought with it, but it wouldn’t be the first time he’d been called a rabid dog. 

Rohaan physically shook his head, curls bouncing as he tried to shake away the tension in his gut. He didn’t want that right now. He just wanted to relax and forget about it. 

—

The two men returned to find only Berlin on deck. And after giving their Captain their new heading, Uban studied Berlin and asked, “Do you know about this stuff? About what this one does?” He hooked a thumb over his shoulder at Pieter. “And the kinds of things he gets up to? About….” He looked down at his feet as if he could see through the deck and straight down to the ocean floor. “About what’s down there?”
Berlin chuckled drily. “No, lad. Only about half a clue, which is why I have him. Someone’s gotta navigate the dark seas. Anyhow, take a few moments to regroup—We’ll be underway in half an hour.” 
“Aye, Captain.” And Uban disappeared down below. 

Berlin looked at his longtime friend. “So? How’d he do?” He asked when the younger man was out of earshot.

Uban strode down to his own little corner of the ship’s underbelly only to find that his hammock was occupied. He stood over it, looking down at the spray of pale curls that spilled out from under the blanket. “Seems I’ve got a thief!” He gently rattled one of the ropes holding it up, earning a disgruntled moan from Rohaan. “I’ll stitch him up in the canvas and make him walk the plank, that’s what I’ll do!” He playfully gathered the edges of the hammock and folded them in.
“Nooo, dooon’t….” 
It wasn’t the equally playful reaction he expected, so Uban let go of the canvas and instead scooted onto the hammock beside him. “Wheel kick your ass?” He asked more softly, tucking one of his arms under his head and letting the other dangle off the side. 
Rohaan sighed. “Maybe. We started with a sword and a s…h..eild. Shield?”
“Aye, that’s the word. Damn, no wonder you’re in a bad way. Swords are big. How’d you do?”
Rohaan gave a little shrug where he lay. “Bad. I put a dent in the gunnel. Don’t tell Ca-mm.”
Uban couldn’t help laughing. “I won’t. You got bruises, then?”
[I]”Eroa.”[/i]
“What’s that one mean?” Uban asked. He didn’t know vokurian like Berlin did, who could speak it with the boy almost as well as the boy could speak Carisian, but he picked things up from time to time.
“Very many. What did you do?”

Uban took a breath and thought for a moment as he absently pushed the hammock to swing back and forth with a couple fingers pressed against the floor to push against. “We uh, sort of summoned a giant sea turtle, got it drunk and then I very nearly got us killed with sheer stupidity. You know. No big deal. Normal stuff.” Each turned his head to exchange a look with the other; Rohaan poorly concealed his own twisted smile. 
“Was it big?”
“Uh, yeah. Bigger than this ship. I thought for sure it was going to eat us both.”
“Whoa…”

The two continued to lay next to each other in amiable silence, Uban gently pushing off the floor with his fingertips and Rohaan twirling a loose thread from the blanket around his finger.