The Long Way Home: Chapter 8 - The ship

It was just a dot on the clear blue horizon when Samber first spotted it. For a moment she let herself hope it was land but as she drew closer she could see it was moving with the slow swell of the waves and it was too small. Slowly the dark dot grew bigger until it became a ship. It bobbed on the ocean surface, rolling gently with the waves that pushed it this way and that way. Ragged sails and lose ropes flapped in the light breeze. 

 

Samber had seen ships before. The small fishing boats the islanders had used as well as large merchant vessels like this one. But there was something odd about this ship. Circling it slowly a few times she couldn't quite work out what it was. It was the same shape and height as other ships she had seen before. The sails were a little beaten up with holes and ripped edges but that wasn't what bothered her. Circling the ships slowly it dawned on her what was wrong. No humans. There wasn't a single human on the deck. Every ship she had ever seen on the water bit and small had had human in. They should have been scurrying about, climbing the rigging and doing whatever it was that humans did. But the ship below her was still and silent. 

 

Comeing to hover above the drifting vessel the little colourful corva opened her beak wide and made three calls. If the humans where asleep that would surely wake them up. When she didn't get any kind of response from the ship below she gave anther three booming crys. But Nothing. No one came to see what the noise was. Not a single voice called back to her. Tilting her wings to fly circles of the ship once more she tried a third time. The result was the same. There was no movement, no sound but the creaking of timbers and slap of the sails in the wind. 

 

After a few more laps of the ship, Samber carefully came in for a landing. The loose rigging gave her just enough room to flare her wings and landed lightly on the deck of the ship. Despite her smooth landing the timbers under her claws creeks and groaned. She felt them sag a little as they bore her full weight. The movement of the ship under her claws a little disconcerting. It wasn't like a tree swaying in the breeze but a strange wobbling in all directions, but she could put up with it for a chance to rest her wings. She didn't know how much of her long journey home she had left to make. Besides curiosity, as it always did had got the better of her. There might not have been humans on the ship but there might be food or water the humans had left behind or other trinkets that might take her fancy. 

 

Now on the deck, it was plain to see the ship had been abandoned for quite some time. The smell of decaying wood was all around her and taking a few steps towards the helm of the ship she could feel the rotten planks bending underneath her. It wouldn't take much for her to rip some up to get at whatever was in the ship's belly but first, she wanted to look at the opening in front of her. There had clearly once been a door into this cabin but wherever it was now Samber didn't know. The door frame was sagging and rotten. Sticking her head into the dark opening there wasn't much to see. Not much daylight made it threw the grime coated windows but as she eyes adjusted the dimness she could make out a collapsed table and something that used to be a scroll rack leant drunkenly against the wall. There were a few other scattered items. Piles of mush that used to be papers and map, A metal goblet that rolled around the floor with the sway of the ship, a handful of rusted lanterns swinging on a wall hook. There wasn't anything that piqued Samber's interest so carefully she backed her head out of the opening and turned her attention to the deck under her feet. 

 

The rotten planks were thick but easy to rip up. The wood just fell apart under her beak and claws. Pulling chunks up at a time she threw them aside and in no time and with very little effort she had made a hole big enough to stick her head threw. When she did the smell of damp rotten wood mixed with stagnant water was almost choking. The hope of finding any food or good water faded. She had to wait a moment of her eyes to adjust again but in the dim light cast threw grimy portholes, she could just about make out rows of hammocks. Some had rotted threw and fallen from there handings but a handful still swayed with the motion of the ship. Here and there sea chests were scattered about haphazardly. Some of them tired down with thick ropes, others were free to slide about. More rusted lanterns were hung from walls and support pillars. There was nothing that looked edible and the smell alone told her any water in the bilge of the ship had already stagnated and gone bad. Pulling her head back out the hole Samber clicked her beak a few times in annoyance. Well, at least she had somewhere to roost for the night. The day hadn't given in to dusk yet but the sun was low in the sky and flying all night long wasn't something Samber wanted to attempt. There was no telling how much further she had to fly to reach home. Maybe it would be an hour more maybe a day more. Either way, she'd rather do it in the light of day, she'd just have to put up with the hunger and thirst in the meantime. 

 

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Words 1003 - 5AP