Hell Hath No Fury - Book One

A Group Consensus

Ava had woken up in the lower decks for the first time in a long time. She had moved her stuff out of Oceane's room and moved into her corner once again. Oceane had also moved down there but she was not there the night they were in Piril. In fact, only two other people were in the lower decks and they were both asleep when she arrived. She had stayed up late with Theo, chatting amongst other things. The night did not take them where she had originally thought it would be she did not mind. They never actually got around to having slept together but there was definitely much more action than just kissing.

They had kissed, gotten handsy, talked, moved to the bed, talked, grabbed snacks, smoked, ate, cuddled, kissed, gotten handsy. It had been a long night and they needed to get sleep before setting sail in the morning. So, their time together was cut short but Ava left with a skip in her step, quite literally.

She fell asleep fairly quickly, a long sun wearing her out, but she woke up even quicker. It felt like she had blinked before she was being woken up by Navi, probably there to inform her that they were ready to set sail.

"Has anyone ever told you that you look cute when you sleep," Navi commented from above, arms crossed and head tilted slightly, her hand came out to mimic a paw, "like a cat."

"No?" Ava said as she pushed herself up into a sitting position on the hammock.

"Well, you do. Not many people do. It's a good trait to have," Navi elaborated then jerked her head towards the stairs, beckoning Ava to follow.

Ava got up and grabbed her coat then Navi began to walk towards the deck. Ava silently followed, "how is it a good trait to have?"

"I dunno. When there is a midnight raid and you are asleep and they come into the lower decks to kill us all, maybe you would be spared," Navi explained, flawed logic if Ava had ever heard it.

She had pulled on her new warm coat just as the wind from outside began to bite, her cheeks almost immediately going red from the cold. The farther they traveled north the colder it got. Ava had lived in Aubermasse but she never really stayed there during the winter months. Her father would drag the whole family along to The Center when he was due for his five cycle council reunions. Only one year did one of the reunions not occur during the winter months and she was too young to remember it. It had taken some getting used to and she still wasn't fully accustomed to it yet.

She felt pinpricks behind her eyes as she tried to blink away the sleep. Theo was out on deck giving orders and Navi was waiting by the wheel. Xyra and Cooker weren't anywhere, they were the lucky bastards that got the morning off. Xyra had explained the way shifts with the officers worked. Like regular crew members, they took time off and weren't asked to work all the time. If Theo was working sailing shifts, Xyra was not. If Cooker was working sailing shifts, the quartermaster was not. In that case, she was the quartermaster and Cooker was not working so that forced her to be on deck.

She wasn't much help, she just walked the length of the deck over and over and stopped for a quick chat with the working women as they carried on their duties. She and Theo exchanged a few glances, getting caught up in each other's gaze quite a lot of time before their shifts were over. By the time they were far enough that the coast wasn't visible, the sun was high in the air. She was allowed to leave and retreat into the lower decks to prepare for the election. Ava was trying not to think too much about it, the votes were already counted and her fate was sealed.

By the rules, she was allowed to speak at the beginning and then answer questions but she had been told by Xyra that elections were rarely decided on the spot. She had her speech prepared, it had been going through her head on a loop since the first night she had found out about the election. She would appeal to them, draw similarities between her and them, give them a promise that she was the ideal candidate, and then give assurances. She tried to stick as close as she could to the speech template her tutor had taught her lengths before.