Citizen 784 Ceit

Ceit rested her arms on the taffrail, settling herself down to watch the River Cor trundling around behind the ferry. It always took her a little while to relax while on a boat, after the disaster that was her first foray. She found herself slipping back to that time, reliving the moment and finally making all the ‘correct’ choices. She was so engrossed, she didn't hear Aristoxenus approaching until they started speaking.

“I noticed you're always a little anxious when we have to travel over water. Was your first time on a ship particularly unpleasant?” Aristoxenus asked, snapping Ceit out of her daydream. 

She blinked for a moment, allowing the question to settle in.

“My first time…?” The lake furred rex echoed, taking a moment to pause and recall. “Well, to be fair my first time was actually… When I met Parthanox on that ship headed to the Diving Point.”

Aristoxenus, who went by either Aristo or Xenus as the desire struck them, let out a huff of a chuckle as though her response had brought them an amusing surprise. Their fluffy yellow fall fur frizzed in delight and they pressed on,

“You mean to tell me you spent your entire childhood on the islands and not once did you get on a fishing boat or paddle a row boat across the straits?”

“No…?” Ceit’s ears pinned back as Aristo started laughing “I knew how to swim in those currents just fine- Dont laugh at me! It’s more common than you think!” she replied, lifting her head to glare at the larger rex.

“Did I hear you were talking about the first time we met?,” Parthanox the dusty inky grey rex chimed in, picking his way over to the two amid the cluster of boxes, crates and sacks that littered the back half of the ferry.

“Yeah! Well.. other than when i thiiiink we met as kids at that festival? But I think that ship was the first time we spoke properly, or at least as adults? We were both sentenced to oyster shucking haha!” Ceit giggled.

“You laugh about it now, but I remember you moaning and complaining about doing chores on a ship,” Parthanox pointed out, smirking.

“Thats because- !” She cut herself off as she caught the amusement glittering in Aristo’s’ amber gaze. “Ok, no, before you start laughing at me again, Let me start from the beginning…”

Taking a breath as she prepared herself to monologue. Her two companions clustered in closer to her, eager to hear her tale. Ceit found her eyes wandering down to the foaming waters drifting off the back of the ship, slowly dropping back into the memories.

“Originally I was to meet with a merchant who had accepted my application as inventory manager. The merchant was often at sea going to and from places, so it was arranged that I meet them at sea and transfer ships. The- particular vessel I or… We were on, had a mercantile transaction arranged or so I was told…” She begun, emphasising her words to highlight the irritation she had had at that time.

“Goodness, I was so unaware of the situation I was getting myself into,” sighing in disbelief at her naivety of the time with a smile on her face. She looked at her friends on each side. 

“To board the ship I showed them my letter, the rex nodded, I walked on. And it wasn’t until they were setting sail and leaving port that the First Mate announced:

‘ANCHOR UP, WE’RE HEADED TO THE DIVING POINT!’” She mimicked the First Mate’s booming voice.

“Well of course, my first reaction was to panic.  I had no idea where that was, so I went to the rex that guarded the gangway and asked him:

‘Excuse me, what is the Diving Point?’

‘It’s the point for diving to the Dome lass’, in a tone you would only use with particularly unintelligent children of course. And then, I asked him if that's where they planned on meeting Tatton, but the brute completely brushed me off and walked away! I didn’t want to cause a scene so I let it be, but it really begun to eat me up on the inside not knowing for sure. The letter specifically said I would be transferring ships! And that this was meant to be a trade ship, but I hadn't seen many goods for trade on board!  I remember looking back to the stern as the port got smaller and smaller, and having this dread of not knowing if who I’m meeting even exists, or if I’d even gotten on the right ship. Which- well, Parthanox you know how that story ends.”

Parthanox smiled knowing, but he graciously didn’t spoil the rest of the story.

“For the rest of that day it was basically me pacing around trying to inconspicuously ask the rest of the crew if they knew a Tatton and if they knew if we were meeting another ship at Diving Point. Which they didn’t. That’s where I learned that information like that isn’t shared outside of the Captain and First Mate as security against pirates and the like. Ancients, I was so frustrated that I couldn’t get a straight answer. Finally I made my way into the Captain’s quarters and asked.

‘Tatton? That old fool?’ The Captain said, then he laughed in my face! ‘He doesn’t own no ship or anything, the fool retired to the Dome years ago. He probably hired you to manage his hoard of trinkets down under. How much is he paying you? 

Which I then sheepishly replied ‘ten percent…’ And he laughed and hollered some more. 

I could feel myself shrinking smaller and smaller, with my ears burning with embarrassment. It was so belittling. He called me a naive fool, then he lectured me how I wasn’t going to be paid at all and basically just signed off in servitude. Honestly, I was more worried about surviving the dive to the dome, rather than getting out of my contract, but solving both of those problems came way later. In that moment though I felt like i’d just ruined my life. I held my tongue against the Captain as he told me over and over again how stupid my decisions had been. I didn’t want to be thrown overboard…” She trailed off, recalling the memory, and what happened next.

“And then…?” Aristo nudged her, grounding her fas she began to shake in a mixture of remembered fear, shame and that everpresent feeling of fury that rose as she thought about what happened next.

“And then the Captain asked if I had paid to get on, and I hadn’t… I only had a letter as a voucher, and then he made me pay him 500 dracm, which was more than half of what I had!! It was humiliating!! And then even though I paid him right away, the cook came up and demanded I help them with their chores, threatening me that I’d be thrown overboard under the ‘Captain’s orders’ if I refused. That's how I ended up shucking oysters with you!” Ceit frustratingly gestured at Parthanox.

“It was probably for the best though.. I got so lucky that you were nice and helped me figure out how to get out of my whole Tatton mess.”

“So basically… the first time you were on a ship, you thought you had been kidnapped, and then the Captain extorted you?” Aristo’s massive tail swung back and forth behind her, whipping back and forth as they worked through their aggression. Ceit had no doubts they were struggling not to go haring off to go searching for that ship captain.  .

“Essentially… yes? Going back to my story though, essentially Parthanox and I shucked oysters for a better part of the morning. At least I got to release a lot of my anger? For the rest of the voyage we were both stuck doing menial chores around the ship, including cleaning the hull, which was awful.”

“Oh come now, It was only awful because you dropped your knife and had to use your halo to pry them loose.” Thanox added.

“Listen! My magic was not strong enough to be removing barnacles and algae manually for three hours! My apertures hurt! My hands were cracked for days from hanging off the ropes! And all that saltwater definitely didn't help!.”

“That sounds horrible! Rope burns are awful. I can see why you get a bit anxious now, but… You know we would never let that happen to you again, right?” Aristo’s massive face was pressed into her shoulder, and Ceit found herself melting into that gentle affection.

“Oh, I have no doubts you would raise the dome to keep us safe ‘Risto.” Parthanox’s voice carried gently over her head as the dusky rex captured Aristo’s tail with his own. The three sat seeking comfort in one another until the silence dragged on just a bit too long. 

“Well, you truly were down on your luck on this ship. Knowing what you do now, and where it led you, do you think you would do it again?” Aristo pulled their head back, a forced smile playing across their face as they looked down at Ceit..

“What do you mean? Get on what was probably the wrong ship, get extorted for dracm and labor,  before being chucked into the ocean without any deep diving experience?” Ceit questioned her companion, but he just gave her a look and let her figure it out.

“I think of the options, I'd only be willing to do the dive and labor for the whole voyage IF I’m the one getting paid. I think I'll skip being extorted and the creeping anxiety of not knowing where I am or where I'm going though. ”

“You wouldn’t take another mystery trip? Ive heard stories that the fog has been seen moving around up there- Something about new islands? I’d do hard labor again for a free trip to somewhere like that!”?” Parthanox then asked, this strategy having been his for said voyage that Ceit had been on as a young regal rex.

“Weeelll…. I’d consider it. I suppose taking me somewhere no one living has ever been to would count as payment in my book. And I guess the work  doooeeessss arguably give me something to do….”

“Hypotheticals aside, lets get back to my story! Eventually came the time to dive down into the Dome, which I basically felt like I had no choice. I think…? I’ve already told you how that goes, and Parthanox was there, so. Yeah that’s essentially it… My first sea faring journey was… eventful, to say the least. It taught me the value of chores I guess, well… Especially once Parthanox told me why he was there and got on and such. And also how they were good to pass the time… Ugh that Captain though. Just thinking about his attitude makes me mad. If I ever meet him again and he treats me like a pup I am going to. Give. Him. A Piece. Of. My Mind!!” Ceit clenched a fist towards the sky, directed to the ocean high above.  

Artists:  Ezzybel & BabyKitten