Please Note: Statements between % something in italics % are game system messages.
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With the arrival of people from the capital, the villagers of Fellon celebrated. Not only had the Queen ordered compensation but also free rebuilding of their boats and houses. For the fishermen that meant a great deal. However, whether the Queen was so generous or rather was just helping her father indirectly, was still in doubt.
In any case, it was certain that not many people knew about the relationship between Guran and Queen Katrina. Otherwise wouldn't he be considered a noble or a person of importance? Rather it would not be unusual for people to call him 'Lord' or something like that. But as far as Raka had seen, there was nothing like that. Ofcourse, he was considering things like it happened in real life history. This was the Ilmentia in the game of Long Island. Who knew how it worked in here!
"Guran, you are the father of the Queen?" Raka still had a few doubts.
"Yes, don't I look like I can have a daughter?" Guran sounded amused.
"Ah no...not that! It's just that...shouldn't you have become a noble or someone of importance? You are the Queen's father you know!" Raka said.
"Hahahahah.....A noble...me! Well, even if I could, I wouldn't want to. I like my free life." Guran smirked.
"What do you mean by if you could?" Raka asked.
"Ah..that was funny. You may not know this but even if you are a relative of the Queen, you cannot become a noble. Oh, she could give me an important post but a noble! Would the noble houses really allow that?! Even now, they don't like commoners as rulers! Those snobby farts only follow because this was a law made by the Oracle and they dare not offend her!" Guran grumbled.
"Oracle? Guran, do you know who or what the Oracle is?" Raka asked immediately.
"Ah I don't. I only ever heard Katrina talk about it when she became Queen. From what I heard, she is a very ancient person...very old...very powerful. Considering that she was the one who made the law, you can guess how old she is. Apart from that, I don't know. Rather, I am not interested. Learn this by heart lad. You do not want to know about people way powerful than you. Otherwise you will never get a good night's sleep." Guran advised.
While Guran went ahead to talk to the leader of the men who came, Raka thought to himself. 'Very old? How can she be this old? Is she even human then?' But then how could she be so old?
'Ah well, some things will become clear in time. No point thinking about it!'
"Raka, come here for a bit." Guran's voice reached his ears.
Raka lifted his head and approached Guran, who was discussing things with the leader, who turned out to be a guard captain.
"Raka, could you show me the designs to your house? If we are going to build everyone's houses, it's better to make them a bit stronger. I am thinkin' we could make it like your house, with some changes." Guran said.
"Sure. Though would the other's agree?"
"I doubt anyone would be foolish enough to not agree. Hahaha..." Guran smirked.
And just like that, with no quests and no money paid, Raka became the chief designer for the village. With some changes.
It was going to be long and hard work, as many houses had been trashed completely and needed to built anew. Even Raka's and Guran's houses, the only two survivors, had been stripped down to their foundations to be checked for damages. They were also being rebuilt. Raka had taken around 2 weeks in game time to build his own house. But with lots of people present, this speed went way up. They were building a house every 2-3 days. In fact, Raka could only work 1 of those 3 days, owing to his real life. But as he was the chief designer, his work was quite limited. Not to mention, most people wanted to customize their houses their own way, so Raka's role got a little more diminished.
But Raka didn't care about that. Honestly, he would have been just as glad, if they didn't give him a house at all. Cause what he was truly interested in were the ships. The shipwrights built the fishing ships according to a standard model it seemed. They did change it according to people's requests but the major part of the ship/boat, that is the hull, was the same.
Raka couldn't have that. He wanted a larger one for himself. And most importantly he wanted a ship to sail the seas. Fishing boats are ocean going vessels. But by its nature, they are not designed for long journeys. For example, their cargo area is smaller so they cannot store much supplies for these journeys. Also it is not covered to protect from rain. Most of their work is catching fish and bringing them home after all. Their operating range does not need to be too big.
Raka decided to request his ship to be built different from the others. But how could life be so simple as that.
'Oh no! It's Salmon! Have all the shipwrights in the capital died and made Salmon their chief or something!' Raka sighed.
"Salmon, long time no see. How have you been?" Raka cheerfully approached.
"Hmmm...who are you?" Salmon asked.
"Ah you kidder...aren't I the one who worked for you before?" Raka said.
"Oh..so you're the pipsqueak who left my employ for bountiful pastures, or what did you call it, better work conditions?" Salmon quipped.
"Well, that was the past and this is the future you know. Anyways you are building ships right? I am willing to help for free, so please build my ship a little different. Please." Raka said.
"Oh...and why do I want a useless person like you working for me, even for free! Hmph! Why don't ya build your own ship, will ya...Now don't bother me. I am overworked as it is."
'Typical Salmon! Oh well, I have other measures too.'
But these measures would have to wait for a bit. Everyone was just too busy. The shipwrights were even more busy. A house could be built in 2-3 days but building ships required people with skill. Just 10 shipwrights could only manage to build a small boat in that time and a fishing ship required almost a week. The villagers were skillful, but they were also few. Most of the guards who came were like unskilled labourers. The could work well under direction and they were strong but building ships was out of their league.
Raka observed the buildings being put up and gave some opinions here and there but most of villagers were too capable. With just the design, they could understand a lot. So he mostly watched the shipwrights work. Even looking is learning as they say.
The work went on for a long time. Almost a week passed in real life, three weeks in game. For Raka, it felt that everything was done too fast. All the houses were ready and people started to move in them. Like it was ordained that it would finish this day, merchants arrived selling all sorts of stuff. In short, the people settled in their new homes quite comfortably.
The storm had almost become a memory.
But the ships were still being built. In the time, only 3 ships had been built alongwith some 4 boats. Oh you may ask, why people kept boats if they had ships? It is because not all fishing ships were moored near the shore. There were two reasons for it. One, it would occupy too much space on the beach. And two, the bottom of the boat would be constantly scratched by the sand and gravel in the low draft. It is made of wood after all. It was a common practice to actually anchor a ship in slightly deep water and then tie it up with ropes. This was also a reason why docks had piers and jetties which extended out to sea. But there was no dock in Fellon village, so this method was in use. The same was also used in real life as Raka had found out.
In fact, except for repairs and loading/unloading, most ships, big or small, were not brought upon the shore if it could be helped. So the boats were needed.
And looking at this slow progress, Raka could only sigh in impatience.
'Oh come on...hurry up!'
Time passed, crawling like a snail. Raka resumed his practice again, in his newly refurbished home. This time he had added a few conveniences like a bath and toilet. Do not ask what happened before! Hopefully it never happens again. Oh, and if he already did that much, there was no point not having a bed either. Or some wardrobes. So he bought those too. Did it add anything?
Wardrobes are storage spaces but they don't add onto the player's 'Bag'. They are independent. Actually, there was no ownership of them either, not that ownership meant security. Raka's house could be infiltrated by just about anyone without his permission. 'How did that banning someone magic work again?' Perhaps he needed to work on making a lock.
'Maybe the banning thing can only be done by npc's?' Though Raka doubted that.
'What kind of magic did Lady Altia use then?' Raka wondered about how she used her house as a storage space. And it seemed to be some sort of magic. An advanced magic even, as normal Fellon villagers did not seem to be able to use it.
The bed which Raka had bought did not have any options. 'Maybe, if I had made it myself...' But he was not really inclined in making such things. He wasn't even going to use them. Rather he spent his time trying to increase his Perception stat.
When he got bored with sitting, he would go to the backyard and work on his basic forms. Raka had also made a dummy, like he saw in the battle school to practice hitting. And some heavy stones became weights for him to exercise. When he got bored with that, he went hunting.
Increasing the Perception stat was slowly becoming difficult. The reason was that he had run out of things to do. How many things can you do in a world full of colors with nothing in it?
'Oh...there is also up and down...' Raka suddenly realized. Perception had range and detail. Raka knew his range would improve before his detail, initially. He could sense everything from the start of the village to almost the beach, with him as the center. But there was also up and down. After all, perception should be a 3 dimensional thing, right?
But how do you go up or down? It was like standing on a road wondering what was above in the sky and below the ground!
'Is it simply based on my imagination? But I use my legs to get from one point to another in this world? Should I imagine stairs? Or should I imagine flying or burrowing?' Various ideas popped into his head. He started trying each of them one by one. At first, he failed. But soon things started working. In fact, all his ideas eventually worked.
'So my movement is also based on my imagination...' Raka delved deep into the ground. Correction, he delved deep into the thick mass of colors below him. As soon as he dived, the mass of colors thickened like blanketing him over. It was so thick that if he lost focus for a second, he wouldn't be able to tell which direction was up. Like the entire world had shifted instead of him. Like that classic movie 'Inception'.
Soon he started feeling fuzzy.
'Not good...' Raka immediately started making his way back up. Soon, the colors thinned down again and he found the now familiar energy forms of the roof and the room.
'That was scary..' Again it was the lack of reference. Without gravity or seeing things standing upright, how do you say which way was up! Like that carton box which does not have the 'this way up' sign. This lack of reference actually plays tricks with the mind. Even if he managed to delve deeper, he wouldn't know if he was going down or just going in circles.
'Next, let's try flying up.' Raka immediately imagined himself flying up like a plane. Soon, he passed above the roof of his house and soared up. Maybe because the air was a rarer energy medium but the colors did not thicken. The perception of nearby objects, probably trees, faded as as he continued to rise higher and higher.
Suddenly, Raka felt ripples. Ripples usually meant that something is disturbing the colors, usually some sort of movement. A vague, colorful figure passed causing ripples to flow in all directions. It was quite some time after that the ripples settled down.
'Birds?' Raka surmised.
Raka opened his eyes and laughed.
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Perception increases by 5.
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'5 whole points!' Raka was excited. It seems his reasoning about the Perception stat was a bit wrong. It was not only due to the things he did. It was also due to the things that he discovered he could do. 'Understanding...that's it! It increases with one's understanding about their energy perception.'
Ah, but even with so many increased stat points, he still could not do free magic. 'Am I doing something wrong? According to my research, this stat should allow me to do free magic.' But so far he had nothing. In fact, he had less than nothing. Right now, he did not even have a clue on how to do free magic! Even if he increased his Perception stat, how will he enter the colorful world without closing his eyes?
'Is it a problem with my imagination again?' Raka suspected. But right now, he did not understand exactly what was the problem, let alone find a solution. He closed his eyes and continued with his practice.
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Lunch break in college. For many days, Swamy has had this blank look as he stared at the skies.
"Hey Swamy, what's up pal? You seem to be lost in thought for some days now...." Manish asked.
"Yeah...even I have to make my own notes now...come on, if you have a problem talk to this brother. I will solve all your problems...then go back and start taking notes or Sneha's going to fail." Rajan quipped.
"Hey! That's you not me!" Sneha yelled.
"Hmm...I know. He must have got his heart broken!" Himali said delightedly.
That got Swamy's attention.
"Haha...nothing like that. It's just like I don't feel like studying much these days." Swamy replied.
"Oh...definite symptoms of being in loo~ve!" Himali said.
"No no...s..seriously..it's nothing like that! Oh yes...I am thinking of building my boat. That's what I was thinking!" Swamy said.
"Boat? Swamy! You wanna build a boat? Thinking of a major change are you?" Sneha asked.
"Not that...he must be talking about Long Island?" Himali replied.
"Yes. I was talking about Long Island." Swamy simply said.
"Oh, and how are you going to do that? It costs so much money to buy a ship. I doubt the materials would be too cheap? Also do you know how to build one?" Himali pointed out.
"Well....somehow I can get the materials. But it's true that I don't know how to make one. This is why I was thinking. Hiring people costs too much money...wondering if I cannot blackmail them.." Swamy said with a sigh.
The people froze.
"Blackmail, Swamy! Awesome!" Sneha chirped.
"Hahahahah.....too good! Swamy, I bless you! You will definitely succeed!" Rajan laughed.
"Hahahahahah....." Manish roared.
"Dark....too dark! I need to be careful of you Swamy!" Himali quipped.
"....."
"Hey, Himali. Did you finally find a way to join the Queen's trip?" Sneha asked.
"Not yet. I have got feelers out though." Himali replied.
"Hmm...actually, even we have started to ask around to see if we can also join in. Our King should also be attending, right!" Sneha added.
Sneha turned around to look at Rajan who was still staring at the cellphone.
"Rajan, what's up?" Sneha asked.
Rajan let the suspense build for a little more and then..
"Raka has posted a video. It's shocked the forums..." Rajan said.
"Oh, is it another quest?" Everyone was interested.
"I don't know. It is too short, like only 15 seconds, and only shows the appearance of single sea monster. There are no descriptions included so people do not know where it is or what." Rajan mysteriously added.
Everyone quickly pulled up their cellphones to look.
"AH! What is this!" Sneha said.
"Is this real? This is not doctored right?" Himali said.
"Well, this is why I like playing the game! Haha...Oh we definitely need to get to the sea asap!" Manish grinned.
Swamy also looked. 'Hmm...half a million views again.' That was like the whole player base and he had just posted it this morning!
"Oh there is one other thing..." Rajan said.
"What is it?" Swamy asked.
"There is this post, but it got buried under Raka's post. This one is about the death penalty. It says that everytime you die, you lose 1 stat point in all stats. If you have more stats, then you lose more as well." Rajan said.
""Oh..."" Himali and Swamy immediately understood.
""What?"" Manish and Sneha asked in confusion.
"Sneha, what stats do you have right now?" Himali asked.
"I have Strength, Agility, Vitality, Focus and Perception...And Endurance and Stamina." Sneha thought.
"You have 7 stats, so when you die you will lose 7 stat points, one in each stat. How much do you have in Endurance?" Himali explained.
"Oh...I understand. I only have 9 points in it cause I died once already." Understanding dawned on everyone's faces as they turned dark. Dying did not only penalize the stat points, rather the more stats you had the more got deducted. Also losing points in stats having low points in the first place, was extremely painful.
"This game does not like death." Rajan's voice loomed for a long time.
*****Authors Note:- I may have made some mistakes in my stat tables. I will correct them eventually, but this is the rule I am going to follow for dying penalties.
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Raka's video of the Sea God gathered a lot of attention, but eventually it contained no information except that it was shot in the sea. Lots of players aimed to head out to the sea by any means possible. It had started a new race. The second to sail the seas. The first had already been taken by Raka. But even he had not travelled to another island or discovered a new race. Many future guilds were now contending for this spot. If they achieved such a feat, many players would join them and in the future they would be one of the major guilds in the game. What was the saying...a small step for man, a giant leap for mankind...or something like that.
But the interest in the video itself passed over. And then the information about the death penalty was highlighted like coming out from a dark cave. Everyone had died once or twice atleast. Most of them had thought little of the stat points they lost. They were sad, but they didn't think much about it. Let alone discuss it with other people. But now, they understood. The more stats they had, the more they had to lose. At this point in time, not many people had extra stats. Most had them had the same general stats as Sneha.
There were still who had. Like Raka. He even had stats with just 1 point in them. Not to mention, no one had found out ways to increase Vitality. If it kept decreasing...people could only shudder.
'Well what happens, happens. If you could not risk it all in a game, where could you!' Raka put the thought out of his mind.
By now, most of the ships had been built. Except for Raka's.
'Time to put my play into action.'
Raka approached Guran's house and knocked on his door. With a grunt, the door was opened.
"Oh..it's you.." Guran gruffly said. Guran had become almost useless nowadays. With no work to do, it was like he was taking a vacation. So it was no surprise to find him drinking this time of day.
"Drinking again?" Raka asked.
"Ah leave me be. I have been sitting on my arse for more than a month. Nothing to do at all. Why can't I drink!" Guran replied.
"Hmm...well I just saw those ships. They are almost done. I am sure you will be back on a boat soon.." Raka said.
"Hmmm..."
"Well Guran, I actually came to ask you something.." Raka started.
"What is it?" Guran said.
"You remember that you promised to help me build my boat? I was hoping that we could start soon." Raka said.
"Oh..hmm? What are you talking about? Aren't the shipwrights building everybody's ship?" Guran asked.
"Yeah..but you know, I wanted to build a larger one. The chief there said that I would have to build mine on my own. Maybe it's not covered in the Queen's help, I am not sure. So I wanted to build one." Raka smiled.
"Like hell! Let me go talk to the guard leader! What is this nonsense about!" And Guran stomped off.
Raka simply smiled and waited.
Soon enough, the guard captain and Guran walked purposefully inside.
"Tell him what happened, lad.." Guran said.
Raka told the truth. How Salmon claimed that he was overworked and hence could not build Raka's larger ship. So Raka thought maybe only standard ships could be built, etc etc. Raka kept the accusation out of his words and his tone level, like it was not a big matter. After all, he had thought for long on the exact words to say.
"So I didn't want to cause trouble, you know. I am but a fisherman. I am sure the other villagers would help me and I can pay the Crown with my service." Raka simply said.
"I understand. Let me go talk to this shipwright." The guard captain nodded.
"I would like to hear his words as well.." Guran also said.
After they left, Raka smiled again. In his good mood, he accidentally took a sip from the tumbler in front of him.
"Urgh!"
A little while later, Guran returned, along with the guard captain and Salmon! Raka looked as they entered.
"Ah, it seems that he has agreed that building your ship is under the orders of the Queen. You are lucky, young lad. Now you don't have to pay for it." The guard captain said smilingly.
"Ah thank you!" He bowed to the captain. "Thank you too!" And Raka also bowed to Salmon.
"Humph..." replied Salmon and got stared at by the other two. He sighed.
"So what kind of ship did you want?" Salmon asked.
Raka's smile grew even brighter.
A couple of hours later, Raka had explained the major points of the ship to Salmon. He wanted a deck and a deck house (a room on a deck). He wanted the lower area to become a storage compartment, just high enough that he can crawl around. The deck would be about 4 feet high from the base of the ship. Raka thought that it would be enough. The deck house will have a trapdoor which allows access to the compartment below. He wanted the bow to rise a bit higher than usual to ease in parting the sea waves. Ofcourse, because he was planning a 6-7 person boat, the boat would become larger. Single mast with a square sail.
Raka had very early decided on a square sail. It was not that lanteen (triangular) sails were unheard of, though still rare. It was because square sails required much less skill to operate. They could only be furled/unfurled. Lanteen sails required someone with skill to manage the direction it faced. With his crew consisting of a monkey and a parrot, he decided the square sail was better. And also, because he was learning on a square sailed ship.
Raka opted for a tiller based system, rather than having a ship's wheel. The wheel was easier, but also cumbersome. Space was limited on his small ship and he wanted to use the deck house for storage as well. 'Where will I store my treasures!'
"Here, these are the main things I want. I guess it will look something like this." Raka showed them a drawing.
"If your ship really looked like that, it would be a ghost ship!" Salmon complained. "But I understand what you want. It will take about a month...maybe half more to build."
"Ah I would like to help as well..." Raka immediately asked.
"Oh sure!" Salmon smiled.
For some reason, Raka felt a cold breeze pass through his soul.
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A month and half in game time is about 15 days in real world time. 15 days of eager anticipation. Swamy wanted to leave the college and work full time in the game. But he did not want to take days off just yet. Once he started his journey, he would have to take a lot of days off then.
"Swamy, what's wrong? Are you alright?" Himali asked.
"Yeah...before you were looking gloomy for many days. Now you are looking creepy." Rajan said.
"He He He He He He" Swamy simply laughed creepily.
"Guy's gone crazy. Someone find him a girlfriend!" Manish said.
"Must be the heat!" Himali said.
"Ah don't worry brother, I got a ton of porn. I will lend you some." Rajan said.
"Asshole!" Sneha said.
"......."
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In the game, a ship slowly came into existence. Raka stuck with the construction all the way, despite Salmon. Nothing he could do would wipe away Raka's smile. He still made time to go fishing with the others. Thankfully, fishing took place really early in the morning, so the two did not clash. By the time he returned, the shipwrights would have just started.
But during this time, Raka paid all his attention on learning his skills fast. How was sailing being done? How do you navigate? What things to consider when turning into the wind? His notes were filling up with every single word he heard being said.
In his spare time, he learned about sailing from the internet. The difference between square sailed ships and lanteen sailed ones, is in its maneuverability. Especially while turning into the wind. The basics of sailing says, if wind is blowing in the direction you want to go, it's all well and good. If not, then you have to make a zig-zag type of path so that you head straight. This motion is more like a sine wave in case of a square sail ship. In case of lanteen sails, it would look more like a triangle wave because they are much more capable when turning. Average speed of the lanteen sail is higher, when taking an entire voyage into consideration. But a square sail will achieve a higher speed with wind on it's back.
Right now, all kinds of nonsense was sounding really interesting. It was just like buying your first car. Or your first bike. Or boat.
"Hey Raka, when you have time, come to my house for a bit." Guran said one day.
"Hmm...alright. In the evening then."
Later that day, Raka knocked on Guran's door.
"Come in, it's open." Guran said.
"Ah hello." Raka stepped in.
"Today, I wanted to show you something." Guran said mysteriously and went to another room for a bit. He then came out with a rolled paper in his hands. He lightly placed the paper on the table and said, "this is my treasure." And then he unrolled it.
Raka stared. In a glance he understood what it was.
"It's a map. Of all four islands...and holy!" Raka exclaimed.
"Yep, these are the dwarvish lands and the land of the elves." Guran smiled.
Raka was dumbfounded. A map such as this would fetch a high price. If the players found this, they would absolutely drool. Raka studied the map thoroughly.
The four human islands were smaller and made a shape of a diamond, almost. The eastern edge of this diamond was Khardoum. Even further east and a bit to the north was the island of the dwarves. The island of the dwarves was huge. Like comparing Sumatra and Australia. The entire island was divided almost in half by a long mountain range and then a river.
To the north of the diamond was Brittanica. Further north and east was the island of the elves. Compared to the human islands, it was just slightly bigger. Far smaller than the dwarvish island.
Raka looked up with great anticipation in his eyes.
"No, I am not giving it to you. This is my treasure. I made this at one time." Guran said.
Raka's balloon of happiness immediately burst.
"But I will allow you to copy it." Guran said smirking.
Raka's bright smile returned again.
"So where do you think you will head towards?" Guran asked.
Raka thought carefully for a bit.
"The island of the elves. It seems closer." Raka immediately replied.
"Ah that's not possible. You cannot enter the elvish island without their permission. In fact, the entire island is guarded by a barrier which stops ships and people from entering. You cannot even enter accidentally." Guran said.
"So how did you get there?" Raka asked.
"I didn't. See, their barrier is transparent. You can look inside. So I simply sailed all around their island away from the barrier and mapped what I saw." Guran explained.
"Oh...I will head to the island of the dwarves then." Raka said.
"Hmm...the island of the dwarves, in their language is called Earth Ring. But it has two kingdoms divided by the natural barrier of the mountains and the river. To the north is Far'men'dur ruled by the Fare dwarves. To the south is Mar'han'bi ruled by the Mare dwarves." Guran said.
"Fare...Mare? There are two dwarf races?" Raka was interested.
"Yes. They look different. Well, you will know when you see them. Most of the humans trade with the south kingdom. However, the north kingdom is the one which trades with the elves." Guran explained.
"Oh!" Raka exclaimed.
"Well that's all I know about it so find your answers yourself. Go ahead then, copy it before I change my mind." Guran smirked looking at Raka's excited face.
The construction of the basic hull of the ship took almost a week in real time. It was after all, the most extensive part of building a ship. Raka's main job was still what he did when he was in employ of Salmon previously. But he often kept notice on what other people were doing. Salmon was a pain in the ass. But the other shipwrights were friendly enough. What's it say, uniting in the face of a common enemy kinda feeling. If someone was truly fond of Salmon, he should have had his head checked.
A few days later, they started putting the deck together. 4 feet sounds nice when you think of it mathematically. But entering into the hold especially without light, was terrifying. 'Kudos to those who like spelunking.'
Then came the fitting of the mast. Putting up the mast is kinda the most difficult part of building the ship. Because it needs to be put very near to a ship's center of gravity. When the wind hits the sails, the ship actually tilts forward. If the mast was not put near the center of gravity, it would keep tilting forward, making it a contest between water and wind. This is true for all single masted ships.
You would think that the problem would become larger in bigger ships. On the contrary, this problem is reduced. The larger the ship, the larger area would become it's centre of gravity and the easier it would be to find a place to put the mast. Ofcourse, the best solution is to have more masts and larger ships would actually have two or three masts.
Shipwrights of Ilmentia were a skilled bunch though. They had already planned where the mast would be placed before the construction even began, leaving spaces in the construction of the deck which would be filled by the mast. Raka marvelled at their skill. It is often said, ship building is not a skill, it is a profession.
With the fitting of the mast, Raka's ship now looked like a ship.
'Ah...I might have tears in my eyes..' But it was still some ways off. What was the saying...waiting for a good thing is the most painful.
Days passed and it was now past a month in game time. In just a few days, the shipwrights had put up the deck house and the sails. 'Just a few more days now...' Raka was impatient. He even took a leave from college to see it's completion.
And the day finally arrived.
"Haiya...haiya...haiya..." With slow rythmic shouts, the ship was pushed into the calm waters of the cove. Raka had hold of one of the ropes, which was being used to keep it upright. After all, it would do no good if the ship tilted and fell over sideways.
"Careful now!" Raka shouted as the tip of the hull floated up. And soon enough the ship was floating on it's own. Now it was only a matter of taking it to it's mooring spot. Right now it was high tide, but eventually it will be low tide. If the ship does not get into deep waters, it would once again get stuck.
As it took it's position alongside the other fishing boats, it immediately stood out. As the largest ship here, it had an aura of prominence.
"Single masted, single deck, no guns..." Okay it didn't sound so impressive and all, but Raka had fallen in love.
"Don't cry, lad...this is supposed to be a happy moment," said Guran.
"I know. These are tears of happiness." Raka replied.
"So what will you name her?" asked Guran.
"Hmm I thought of several names before, but all of them do not seem to fit now." Raka said. "What did you name your ship Guran?"
"Hmm...my last ship was named after my wife, Selena. I have named this one after my daughter Katrina." Guran replied.
"Hmm....then could you suggest a good name for my ship too?" Raka requested.
Guran thought for a bit.
"This ship is your dream, right? Among many dreams, it is often said that the ones you see at dawn, just before you wake up, is the one most likely to come true. How 'bout calling her, the Dawn Dream." Guran said.
"The Dawn Dream....hmm..." Raka felt like it just fit. "It is a good name. Thank you Guran."
Raka smiled as he looked upon his Dawn Dream.
Raka pushed a boat to the water and shouted.
"Monkey! Nobby! Come here!"
Lots of people were shocked at his shout. And then they saw two animals bounding from God knows where, hurrying to the boat. Once they came in, Raka rowed and made his way to his ship.
"Alright, monkey, let's take the ship out to sea. We need to work on our teamwork if we intend to go forth. Nobby, you just keep a lookout." Raka said.
Handing monkey an oar, he took the other as he and monkey rowed the ship past the cove entrance.
'So he does know how to row. I thought he might." The monkey had been to sea already, so technically it should be more experienced than Raka.
"Alright....Unfurl the sails. The wind beckons and adventure calls." Raka shouted.
"Um...Sir Raka..."
"Nobby, from today, you will address me as Captain!"
"Ah...then Captain Raka!"
"Yes, Nobby, what do you want to say?"
"Captain! There is no wind!"
"......"