The Forgotten Land

Chapter Nine

Everyone loaded onto the boat. Not all of the occupants went aboard voluntarily; Nite and Bickum were forced on with guns to their heads. The mistreatment of herself on her own boat was enough to fuel Nite's rage into a blazing fire.

The strangers brought onto the boat the two carts, pulled by a total of four horses and filled to the brim with boxes. When Craid caught Nite eyeing them, he asked, "Do you have any storage space on this boat? These supplies are very important."

Nite rolled her eyes and turned to walk away.

Bickum stopped her, placing a hand on her back and gently turning her towards Craid. "We have storage space underneath."

"Where?"

"Follow me." Bickum walked to the front of the boat. There was a trap door in the deck. "Nite, can you lift it please?"

She uncrossed her arms with a sigh. "Fine." She quickly tied up her hair to keep it out of her face.

The door was large, at least six feet long, and incredibly heavy. She gripped the metal handle and heaved it up, revealing the storage area underneath. The space was about five feet deep, and stretched underneath most of the boat. Had the river not been as deep as it were, that amount of storage space would have been impossible because putting too much weight under the boat would weigh in down.

Nite stepped back. She halfheartedly flopped her arm at it. "There you go. You'll have to lower your supplies down into it."

Craid nodded appreciatively at her. "Thank you, ma'am." He barked to the rest of the group. "Killer, Cily, Mantho! Get over here!"

The three made there way over to her. It was Mantho that Nite recognized as the man who had to be forcibly restrained after the fight had been broken up. He didn't look like much, with an average build and a normal face that could easily be lost in a crowd. But, since Craid called him over for supplies, Nite could only assume that he was stronger than he looked.

Together, the three began to work together to lift the boxes out of the carts. Nite heard clinking and rattling from inside and was curious as to what was so precious that they insisted on immediately putting them in the storage area.

Her curiosity was both satisfied and intrigued when one of the lids slipped partially off of a box as it was being lifted. Although no one else seemed to notice, she caught a brief glimpse of a pile of rifles. From what she could tell, they were military-issued weapons. She recognized them from the occasional soldier that would wander into town, get drunk, and proudly show off his gun.

Cily caught her staring at the box of weapons and quickly put the lid back on. She turned to Nite and discreetly pressed her index finger to her lips. It was brief and happened in the blink of an eye, but Nite definitely saw it.

Nite may have hated all of the strangers, but she found Cily the least infuriating of them. She was contempt to obey her and turned away.

"Can we get this boat moving?" Endi yelled in exasperation from the stern. She turned towards Bickum, who was lighting the lanterns on board. "Old man, can't you move any faster?"

Nite stormed across the deck to her. Her anger was boiling over, and she was reaching her tipping point. "We will depart when we are ready for it, you hag!" she screamed, pushing Endi. "I was waiting for your crew to finish up loading your supplies! I don't care how important you think you are- you could be the gods-awful king for all I care- but on my boat, that doesn't matter! We won't be pushing off until all supplies are loaded and everyone is ready!" She finished off her explosive tirade by spitting at Endi's fee.

Endi wasn't fazed by her raised voice. She pulled out her pistol and said calmly back, "You will go when I say you will or else you'll find yourself in some very bad trouble."