The crew of the Belle worked non-stop day and night, staying awake in shifts to avoid being targeted by pirates or any creature roaming the seas. Being the newest addition to the roster, despite having been a crewmember in the past, Maya often got stuck with the unfortunate task of keeping watch in the crow’s nest during the cold nights.

  It had been ten days since waking up inside Belle’s cabin, lost and confused, and the adaptation hadn’t been easy. Since most of the crew remained the same from the early days, most knew and remembered the times when Maya was one of them, just another reckless adventurer braving the open seas in search of treasure. But after leaving her companions when they needed her the most, both sides had a difficult time being around each other.

  “Another night of fun?” - looking barely awake, Yuri strolled into the deck coming from the bowels of the ship, his flying companion coming to meet him.

  “The best spot on the ship, you know it!” - the woman replied smiling, finally finished with her watch duty as the sun began to rise in the horizon.

  Since their encounter in the city, and the quick confrontation about their past, both her and the boy seemed to have made peace with each other. Despite Belle’s attempt to intervene on her behalf, many other members of the crew still avoided dealing with her if possible, or were openly hostile when she was nearby.

  “How’s it being?” - gently patting Gardenia’s head, who eagerly rubbed herself on his hand, the boy leaned on the mast - “Being back on board after all this time?”

  “Nostalgic… And scary…” - Maya responded, remembering the heated reactions when she first joined the others onboard after waking up, and the fear of not being able to go back home.

  “You’re thinking about your family, right?” - letting go of the bird, Yuri walked closer to the woman.

  “They’re not really my family,” - Maya did what she could to keep herself busy, both to try not to think too much about Solo and Luna, and to improve her situation onboard - “but yes…”

  “Family doesn’t come only from blood, you know?” - gently holding the woman’s hand, the boy gave her a simple smile, trying to be sympathetic - “Everybody on the crew is my family, including you!”

  “You’re still too soft for a seaman!” - laughing at the boy’s innocence, both of them began walking to the lower deck, where the galley was located.

  Located on the top floor of the ship’s bowels, closer to the back of the vessel, the galley was considered by most the living hearth of the ship. Be it rather those coming out of their duties starving, or trying to eat something before facing a long day’s work, most of the crew would flock there at the times of shift change.

  On the inside of the galley, sitting on small benches or standing on the hallway, a mixture of tired and sleepy crewmen eagerly ate their food. All the way on the back of the narrow room, standing on a crate beside a large smoking iron pot, a burly bearded D’wadir shouted orders to the men eating.

  “Y’all looking like dying men!” - swinging a wooden ladle around like a weapon, the D’wadir’s booming voice was loud enough - “Eat, there’s a lot more where that came from!”

  “As full of energy as ever…” - seeing the man’s voice startling awake some men who were dozing off in front of their plates, Maya couldn’t help but reminisce of the times she had been in that place in the past - “Makes me tired just by watching him…”

  “Tell me about it,” - holding on to the woman’s clothes, as Galdernia wasn’t allowed below decks, Yuri could tell what was going on simply by the sounds around him - “and I can’t even see it!”

  “Oi, you two!” - stopping as he saw the two standing on the galley’s door, the man pointed his ladle directly at Maya’s face - “Either grab a plate or scram, I got people to feed!”

  “Yes sir!” - pushing Yuri ahead of her, Maya entered the crowded space, going straight to a pile of plates and bowls on the corner.

  As the two started crossing the narrow space, plenty of eyes went straight after the woman, watching cautiously as she moved. An uncomfortable silence took place in the previously loud and chaotic galley, almost as If a shadow had been cast over them.

  “What y’all looking for, eh?” - hitting a nearby man in the head with the ladle, the loud man stepped down from his crate, his footsteps heavy as he walked towards the woman - “Never seen a woman before? Missing ya mamma already?”

  “What’s for breakfast today Cook?” - grabbing herself a bowl before turning to face the D’wadir, the smell of fresh food made Maya’s stomach rumble.

  “Got some hot oat porridge if your stomach is still bugging ya…” - hitting the bubbling iron pot with his ladle, Cook smiled proudly while talking about his cooking - “Or some smoked haddock and flatbread if ya want something stronger!”

  If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  “I’ll have the porridge, and the haddock!” - giving the man her bowl, she watched happily as he began filling it up, before picking a large piece of dried fish from a basket nearby - “The gods know how I missed your smoked haddock.”

  “Maybe you shouldn’t have left them…” - said an angry low voice from one of the men sitting behind them.

  “Hey…” - Yuri began trying to turn around towards the voice, recognizing the man who spoke, before being stopped by Maya.

  “Forget it!” - picking up her food, she grabbed a spoon nearby and sat in the empty stool near the fire.

  “You boy, come here!” - holding another bowl full of porridge and fish, the Cook handed it carefully to Yuri, who wasn’t expecting it - “Ya gotta eat plenty, otherwise you ain’t gonna grow!”

  “But I…” - holding the food in his hands, Yuri began trying to protest about his lack of choice, being completely ignored by the Cook.

  “And you lot…”

  While Yuri relented and began searching for a seat, while receiving some help from Maya, the Cook began shouting at the man who spoke before about respecting people while inside his galley. Despite being shorter than most of the crew because of his race, the size of his muscles and the tales of his feats of strength in battle made it so that no one dared to face him in combat.

  The smell of Cook’s food helped to calm Maya’s mind, the memories of waking up starving as a young girl on the crew, running to the galley flooding her mind. She was not much younger than Yuri when she first came onboard the Belle, naive and skinny as many of the street rats living in the streets of Port Vordo at the time. If not for the patient tutoring of the Captain, and the hearty food of the Cook, the woman couldn’t even begin to imagine where her life could have taken her.

  “You can’t let them keep treating you like this!” - sounding way more upset than the woman, Yuri ripped a piece of fish with his teeth, sulking in the stoll like an upset child - “It’s a total lack of respect!”

  “But they ain’t wrong.” - smiling awkwardly, Maya stirred her porridge as she thinked, feeling grateful for the boy being upset in her stead - “I did leave before, I have no right acting entitled to a place in the crew now.”

  “But it’s not fair to treat you like this… Especially after everything you did in the past…”

  “Nobody cares about what you did for them in the past, only about what you can do for them now!”

  Thinking about Maya’s words probably more deeply than he should, Yuri stayed quiet as he ate his porridge, finishing all his food despite the attempts to complain before. Finishing up quickly herself, a bad habit acquired from the years eating while keeping watch on the road, the woman observed as more and more people left the galley to return to their duties.

  “Well well, I knew I had heard some noises coming from here…” - casually walking into the galley, her grey hair as messy as always, Altha picked a bowl before walking towards the fire - “Having a quiet snack?”

  “Trying to.” - Maya said casually, throwing the last piece of fish in her mouth.

  “How’s the arm?” - the woman asked while casually holding the bowl for Cook to fill, not even bothering to speak to the man.

  “Still the same,” - lifting her left arm as best as she could, the lifeless member still having no sensation or response to her commands, Maya tried to sound unbothered by it - “pretty much useless.”

  “Give it time, I’ll try to grab some herbs on the Iron Islands, make a tonic to help you regain your strength.”

  In the initial days after walking up, Altha came after Maya daily with new treatments and remedies to try and fix her arm. After almost one week being drugged and doused with strange liquids, the woman began accepting the thought reality that her arm would never be the same again.

  “Sure…” - trying not to extend the topic more than she had to, she agreed in order to appease the old woman, getting up from her own seat - “We’ll think about it once we arrive!”

  “Wait…” - called out Yuri, sensing the woman moving from his side. Having grown up on the ship, even without his sight he still could manage to walk comfortably without hitting anything.

  “‘I'll take a short rest now, my next shift starts in a few hours…” - without turning around to look at the boy, Maya continued to walk towards the deck, aiming to have some peace and quiet.

  Despite her initial rejection, Belle had her stay in one of the empty officer rooms on the upper part of the ship. While Maya rejected what she saw as preferential treatment, Belle assured her that was merely a step to prevent any sort of trouble brewing in the common sleeping quarters. An advantage of this was now having a safe space to go to, whenever the ship’s atmosphere became too much, or whenever she began missing her family.

  When she first began explaining to Belle, Alta, Mahna and Cook, the current officers aboard the ship, about her travels and life on land, the topic of family became a delicate one. Not wanting to delve into Solo’s complicated past, she decided to cut him off altogether, claiming to be raising Luna all by herself after rescuing her from a bandit attack.

  Mahna in particular seemed quite impressed by her for her bravery, probably due to having been raised by Orcs herself as a child. The others seemed to understand that this was a delicate topic for her and tried not to pry, except for admonishing her for leaving a child alone and going on such a long journey as a guard.

  Reaching her barely furnished room, Maya threw herself in the simple straw bed, her now full stomach making her body feel heavy. As her eyes began to close, her mind wandered to the grassy open plains where she and Solo first began teaching Luna how to handle a blade.

  Before taking up the duty of caring for a child, she had never even thought about having children of her own, or even cared for the children of the caravan. And yet, she now dreaded the feeling of being away from her children, of seeing her sick or hurt, but now with every passing day the distance between them grew larger.

  “Mother Koynassi, please guard my child…” - Maya prayed, her right hand clutching her chest anxiously, a single tear streaming down her face.