It was with Rainbow's help that Caleb became more familiar with the Big Ocean. There were map explanations, there were information dumps, and there were times when his companion let him steer their humble vessel. Caleb was far from an accomplished sea-captain, however, and that much was seen over the next few days. Sleep deprivation likely contributed to his lack of seafaring legs though inexperience was another matter in of itself. Even still, he learned the processes alongside tricks for better managing his supplies and fishing. It was, overall, a successful voyage.

[i]So far.[/i]

Downtime came far and few between with Rainbow doing his absolute best to keep Caleb going. The more time spent actively was less time that the younger boy spent brooding. Nightmares still lurked behind every closed eyelid and sleeping was difficult to say the least. If it wasn't heads rolling across a temple floor, then there were visions of the disease. Violent imagery taunted him with the possible deaths of Miss Aradia, his fellow orphans, and every other member of Eagletown. Sometimes it would be the disease that turned their eyes black and other times it would be the blade of his sword that ended them. That was the very same sword that he was having difficulty holding on to. It felt unnecessarily heavy and tainted these days. The blood itself was easy enough to clean off, but not the sin. He had stared into the wistful waters on several occasions while resisting the urge to toss either the sword or himself overboard. Most of the time, he had simply walked away without a word or further thought. Today, though, there there was hesitation in his eyes.

"Don't even think about it." 

They had entered a rainstorm at some point during the night. It wasn't too bad at least. There was neither thunder nor lightning and Caleb had someone else with him this time. Three others, in fact. Ribbon had become a regular source of comfort while Rainbow acted as their voice of reason, captain, and navigator. Flower had finally made his allegiance clear and remained somewhere atop the boat at all times. It was a miracle that he hadn't flown off yet, but Caleb didn't question it. "I wasn't going to--"

"Throwing your sword overboard won't change anything about the situation. What is done is done. If you ever want to become a knight, then you'll need to learn to live with it. Sometimes knights kill evil people to protect the innocent and sometimes they do it out of self-defense. What we did was out of self-defense. It was us or them and you saw the way that they came at us. Now stop beating yourself up over it and help me with steering." 

". . It wasn't out of self-defense, it was out of revenge." Caleb's reply was a mutter as he pulled his hand away from his sheathed blade. He agreed with the prospect that he needed a new one. Not because this one was bad or anything, but because it was sinful. It was sinful and evil and he hated carrying it around. He hated remembering what he did with it and he hated how those dwarves forced them into that situation. He hated thinking about how they murdered Rainbow's friends and Ribbon's owner. He hated thinking about how powerless they almost were and he hated how strong the rain was now. He didn't hate the Big Ocean though. There was something about that, at least, that comforted him. "I'm sorry. I won't consider it again."

"Good." Rainbow could only sigh as an expression of relief fell on his features. "Now help me navigate this thing out of the rain."