Tall Tales
  • Home
  • Start Here
  • Store
  • Find on Amazon

Skin and Bones, Part Four

2/22/2021

0 Comments

 

8 October 1683

“I was in with His Majesty’s Royal Navy at that time, you know. I hadn’t yet had my own ship, but I was doing alright for myself. We’d finished cleaning up from that Cromwell mess,” the captain said, spitting at the name of the Lord Protector, “some years earlier, and now we were worrying ourselves with things like pirates and heretics of state. I was one of them, which of course my captain suspected, but I was damn fine at my job and he was willing to let a little papism slide in exchange for an orderly ship. You know the sort, I’m sure.” Benedict and Akshainie did not, in fact, know the sort, but didn’t bother telling him that.

“So we was on shore leave, rounding the north looking for some rest from trouble, and made land at Kirkwall up in Orkney thereabouts. So I was having my fun in the tavern there and met me a beautiful young maiden calling herself Ingrid. Well she could’ve called herself or me damn near anything she wanted, the name would’ve tasted sweet as honey as long as it belonged to her and I’d answer to anything provided it rolled off her tongue. We had us a wild run through the docks that first day, and ended it out a-looking over the sea.

It was there that I looked into her eyes and knew as sure as I knew myself, that she already had a love in her life. As she swayed to the beat of the waves, and the song of the wind, I knew in my best days I’d be second to the sea in her heart. So I spoke to her of the sea, and my own love for her, and how I felt more at home on a ship than I did in the mess the English had made of Eire. And she listened, and told me of the rush of swimming through the waters, and the way the sun looks just as it sets the waves ablaze with light, and how she was cut off from her home, as well. We took comfort in each other and in our shared mistress until well after dark.

​Ah, those were the best days I ever had on land, and I was sore afraid that when we set sail again I’d have to leave her behind with no promise she’d be there if I ever managed to return. The way those grey eyes would light up at the mere sight of the ocean, the way her yellow hair caught the sun, the soft touch of hands that never knew work but had surely known the salty air as she ran her fingers over mine. I tell you, I could have lived a lifetime in those couple days, and it would have been enough. But then it was coming time for me to leave. I knew it was fast approaching, and thanked the Lord for a storm that trapped us ashore for another day. But that storm would do far more than keep me off the ship for a night.

Previous
Beginning
Next

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Author

    I watch.
    I record.
    ​I remember.

    Leave a Tip

    Boost on TopWebFiction


    Tall Tales: Volume Two Now available


    Archives

    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018

    Categories

    All
    Aaboukingon
    Akshainie
    Alethea Bilson
    Babylon
    Back In The Day
    Barzai
    Benediction
    Bob Aronsen
    Born Of Water
    Brandon Myers
    Brood Of Nachash
    Buné
    Cain Abroad
    Charles Whitman
    Crossroads
    Daniel Matteson
    Deadline
    Dr Francesca Harris
    Dr Harold Price
    East Of Eden
    Elizabeth Kline
    Father Benedict De Monte
    Father Josef Klappenger
    Golden Calf
    Hastings
    Hecate
    Henry Matteson
    Horselberg
    Huginn And Muninn
    Inhuman
    Iravati
    Jackie Veracruz
    Jeremiah Matteson
    Joanna Wozniak
    John Matteson
    Kastor
    King And Queen
    Land Of Goshen
    Lore
    Lori Berman
    Magum Imperatoria
    Manfred
    Marilyn Myers
    Mark Hendricks
    Mary Matteson
    Michael Hudson
    Nachash
    Nephilim
    Old Tom
    Power In The Blood
    Ravens
    Red Sprial
    Rev Liam Halzberg
    Rick Fielding
    Road To Perdition
    Robert Norris
    Robert Partridge
    Shadow Of Death
    Skin And Bones
    Story Extras
    Tadzio García
    Tannhauser
    The Devil's Church
    The Prodigal
    The Two
    Toledo
    Unsolved
    Valley Of Dry Bones
    Viktor Wozniak
    Walls Of Jericho

    RSS Feed

Story Blogs

Narrator
Benediction
Matteson: P.I.
Over the Hedge
Wonderland

Resources

Read Order
Weekly Updates
Wiki
Credits
About the Author

Support Tall Tales

Patreon
Ko-fi
Subscribe
Store
© COPYRIGHT 2018. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • Home
  • Start Here
  • Store
  • Find on Amazon