100th of Gnielm, 345 EA
Tetherstraits, Athal
The ship could only move one way, so strong were the currents. It was the Springbank, a proud vessel and well kept, and at it’s prow Davide was fixed.
“Ye’d best be careful, boyo.” The voice came from out of the dark of the misty night, from one lithely sloven. “Ain’t nothing off that side that one such as you would want.”
“Celisci, what in all hells is that supposed to mean?” Davide looked down on the quartermaster from his perch. “What the hell do you want, you drunk, coming by this way saying ‘one such as me’?”
“One such as you, a right laced up child.” Celisci spoke out of the left side of his mouth, pulling off the bottle from the other. “Ain’t never done anything you weren’t supposed to do. It’s supposed to mean you’re yella, out here for hours on end staring out the side of the ship like you’d ever have the guts to move off the lane.”
Davide stood to their full height and felt the heat flush up into them, that specific fire of spending long weeks in close quarters that had a tendency to burn down ships. “The fuck you just say to me?”
Celisci backed off from the man who was now yelling, but was split with a sharp smile all the way down.
“Like you’ve ever been off the current, you fucking twat. You wouldn’t know your asscheek from an island, drunk son of a bitch.” Davide continued, sitting back down. “I could go over the side right now, and fare bloody well better than your sorry ass.”
Davide looked away from the man he had deemed pissant, his first mistake of the night.
His body registered the impact before he truly felt it, and in a bare moment of panic he had been shoved off the stable prow and was plummeting into the swiftness of the depths.
The Etra Anthology 