Prince Gyllen Ch. 23.1

Gyllen's bleary eyes awoke to the sight of the unobscured sky, with nary a wisp of cloud to be found anywhere in the perceivable atmosphere above to hide the brilliant blueness of the vault nor curtail the heat of the sun's rays beaming down upon his fair-skinned face. He lay there for a brief moment as it took his drowsy mind a moment to register that he was not in his cabin, and another moment before realising it was not a bed upon which he currently lay, but rather granular ground akin to sand judging by the way it sifted between the fingertips of his open hands resting idly by his sides. Soon thereafter, his ears began detecting a myriad of voices chattering not too far from where he lay, but when the prince attempted to raise himself upright to investigate their source, an aching pain immediately shot across the entire length of his body from the shins upwards, the least of which not being in his bonce, which began to throb as though an iron pot had been dropped directly upon his mazard the night before.

The blond fell backwards with a thud on the gritty terrain, sand kicking up around where his pounding head impacted, no doubt becoming caught in his golden locks though that was currently the least of his concerns right now. A dull groan escaped from Gyllen's lips as he slowly started recollecting the brief flashes of memory from when he was last conscious leading upwards to this set of circumstances. It had been a few days since they had departed from Yanchu, and the main things the prince was able to recall was it being dark, wet, and loud, with only periodic white flares in the black sky providing any sort of substantial illumination for their vessel as it was ceaselessly beset by tremendous waves and monumental gales which swayed its hull, threatening to keel the entire ship. Yes, that was it...the Killer Kraken had found itself in a freak sea-storm, the likes of which catching the entirety of the crew completely unaware as they struggled to combat the squall!

Unfortunately, aside from the abject terror which had stricken him to his very soul throughout the entire ordeal, that was all Gyllen could remember for the life of him. The prince surmised he must have blacked out either from emotional trauma or physical injury at some point during the night before the peril was over. Even now, the ordeal seemed unreal, like a horrible nightmare he was only just now waking up from, and part of him may have even believed such had it not been for his pain as evidence. Before his mind could begin to ponder if he in fact perhaps found himself in some manner of afterlife, a familiar voice approaching him brought him from out of his musings and back to reality.

"Gyl! Yer finally awake!" The feminine voice exclaimed. Weakly, the prince rolled his head over onto its side to where he heard the speech coming from to see the viridescent form of Min approach where he lay, her red half-cropped haircut in disarray and her meagre clothing, already quite raggedy, was tattered in several spots, just barely hanging onto her figure and concealing her modesty. "Ya've been out a' it for a whole day an' a bit! Gotta admit, I was gettin' worried ya were never gonna wake up again!"

"Min..." Gyllen breathed faintly, his throat feeling as dry as a desert. "Are you alright...?"

"Bit bruised in places, but I'm pretty much fine otherwise. Ya got it worse than I did, I can tell ya that much!" The goblin replied, stopping in her tracks once she was standing over the prostrate prince's head, granting Gyllen a generous glimpse of undercleavage in her torn top which somewhat helped ease his mind from his bodily aches, looking off to the side to where the blond was unable to see. "In all me years rovin' about, I don' think I've ever seen a squall quite like the one we went through. It ain't nothin' short a' a miracle nobody onboard snuffed it considerin' the state it left the ship in!"

"The ship?" Gyllen repeated her words, unable to raise his voice a single octave but possessing a hint of alarm nonetheless. "What's happened to the ship?" However, before Min was able to answer the prince's query, their brief conversation was interrupted by a third voice approaching from out the blond's view, far more spirited than either the human boy or the goblin girl's currently were.

"Good tae see ye up an' aboot again, laddie...relatively speakin', o' course." Gyllen and Min both turned their heads at the same time in the direction they heard the coarse timbre come from to see Captain Bonny, the Killer Kraken's skipper, standing not far from their placement, her outfit similarly bedraggled with her naval jacket and tricorne hat completely missing from her ensemble, her right hand holding the neck of a semi-opaque bottle half-filled with the shadow of a liquid.

"Cap!" Min exclaimed with surprise upon seeing the master of the galleon. "Is it alright for ya t' be walkin' about right now?"

"Ach, yer worse than mah furs' husband, Min. Cap'n Bonny's survived far worse than that! Gonnae tak' mair than jes' a wee bit a' wind and thunder tae keep me doon!" The captain claimed with a hearty laugh, though there was a noticeable limp in her gait as she neared the recumbent prince before extending her arm down to him, offering him the bottle. "Here, get this doon yer gullet, lad. It'll dae ye some good." Graciously, the prince reached up and took the container into his own paw without question, raising his neck from off the floor just enough so he could tip the bottle to his lips and take a sip of its contents, swallowing an entire mouthful faster than his tastebuds could register what he had just imbibed. His features grimaced as he quickly wrenched the bottle away from his mouth, recognising the putrid tang of grog from when he had sample the beverage during cabin girl Anne's not-too-distant birthday party. The taste did not agree with his palate, but at least it helped to somewhat quench his thirst in the moment before passing it back to the pirate.

"Best medicine ye can ask fer oot oan th' high seas!" She declared with a wide grin before taking a quick swig from the same bottle herself.

"Captain, tell me, where on Midgard have we ended up?" Gyllen then asked, his voice less raspy now that his throat had been wetted.

"Wish ah knew the answer mahsel', prince." Bonny confessed. "We were blown a helluva way aff course. We were mair than lucky enough jes' tae drift tae this beach! It's a pretty safe bet tae say we've found oorselves marooned on some uncharted land...that, or we've only goan ahead an' fallen off th' edge o' th' bleedin' world!" The captain laughed to herself once more, though Gyllen was less than amused by her response. "We'll try an' get a better read o' the stars come nightfall, see if we cannae make heads or tails on where we are. Still...e'en if we do, we won' be shovin' aff anytime soon."

"What do you mean by that?" The prince further enquired, concern now fuelling his words.

"Eh, it's prolly best if ye see fer yersel'." Bonny responded, facing away from the blond in the direction of where the sound of the tide's sigh against the shore was coming from, her speech now sounding a lot less jovial than before. "Min, help the poor sod up, will ye?"

"Upsy-daisy, Goldie! Try not to be too upset by what ya see, alright?" Min said as she bent over and slid her hand underneath Gyllen's shoulder blades to assist in helping the boy sit himself upright, lessening the strain he needed to place upon his smarting bones in order to do so, but what he next saw would have made his pains seem trifling by comparison. With but a single glance, Gyllen's heart immediately plunged deep down into the pit of his stomach, and complete trepidation inundated his will. Devastation would have been too light a descriptor for what the prince felt the moment he saw the Killer Kraken, a galleon once of grandeur most striking in spite of its lawfully grey ownership, bobbing pathetically in the bay with several holes perforating its framework, planks wrenched completely out of their places, the sails reduced to punctured rags flapping futilely in the breeze, and even one the masts had been fractured close to the deck and was now hanging loose off the starboard beam - itself splintered by the impact of the toppled post - by a few slivers of wood. Although the prince was far from an expert in maritime affairs, it was plain even from his layman point of view to see the Kraken was in no state for setting sail.

"So we're stranded here, is that it?" Gyllen next asked Bonny in a frank manner once the emotional blow had worn itself off without turning his head away from the wreck, feeling as though he was just about ready to break down uncontrollably into tears at the drop of a hat from knowing he was, in all likelihood, now condemned to this unknown land an entire world away from home.

"Noo, laddie, yer aff jumpin' tae conclusions. Ah ne'er said anythin' o' the like." Bonny replied. "There's mair tae me than jes' a gorgeous face, ya know! Fer one, I'm a pretty handy shipwright too, if I may be allowed tae toot mah ain horn! Might tak' a fair fortnight or two, and will be a pretty slapdash joab ah admit, but ah'm pretty sure we can get the Kraken up an' goin' again, 'least 'til we get tae a harbour tae fix her up proper." The captain explained, which alone was enough to rejuvenate a small portion of Gyllen's optimism.

"Truly?" The prince was then prompt to ask her, turning his brightened expression aside and upwards to the pirate's face, seeking further confirmation to keep the flicker of hope within him kindled.

"Aye. Any sea-farer worth their salt should know at least the basics when it comes tae makin' repairs on their ain ships." Bonny was equally quick to respond, as she then turned to looked behind her, with Gyllen following her gaze to see a line of trees with long, curved trunks and splayed crowns of green branches, their leaves resembling ferns, and additional foliage extending deep behind further than his blue eyes could perceive, with high hills rising from the land even beyond that. "The sea gods must smilin' oan us tae have made us land somewhere so near a jungle. We'll have plenty a' lumber tae work with, an' we're bound tae find enough tae eat in there if oor rations end up runnin' low, not tae mention a pond or a river as well fer fresh water. We won' be dyin' o' hunger or thirst if that puts yer pretty wee heid at ease any, princeling!"

With that, Gyllen was able to do little else but gradually recover over the course of the next couple of days and observe Captain Bonny and her crew begin the painstaking process of mending their craft back to a semi-seaworthy status with the limited equipment they had at their disposal. The pirates were forced to rely on axes made for cutting rope to whittle away the trunks of the trees until they toppled over only to then drag the felled timber across the sands without carts or donkeys where they could then chop the wood further into crude planks to fit on the ship with the smattering of spare nails they found in the storage holds while also having to donate their shirts and any other additional scraps of clout they could spare in order for the sails to be patched back up. The mariners did not bother to construct any sort of temporary shelter on the beach, though seeing as there was little chance of rain from the lack of nimbi in the sky and even the nights were plentifully warm enough, they did not see any real urgent need to do so.

Having never gone camping before in his young life, the prince found it quite surreal to be slumbering out in the fresh air underneath the soft luminescence of the moon and the stars, especially when there was little terrestrial light aside from a small, faraway campfire where the crew cooked their meals that could interfere with their natural lustre, unlike in a city where lamps and torches kept every major street lit at the cost of the night sky's vista. Gyllen had often read authors and poets describe both the mysterious beauty and the daunting etherealness of the heavens during the hours when the sun had long since set, but even that could not compare to seeing the celestial panorama for himself in all its unobstructed glory, awestruck beyond words while feeling positively miniscule against the cosmic majesty as if he were more insignificant than an ant was to a titan. The stars - large and small, bright and dim - were far too innumerable and chaotic for him to even know where to begin counting (as well as make him wonder how anybody could possibly ever see any patterns from which constellations could be discerned) with misty nebulae also faintly visible floating and glowing phantom-like amongst them. Still, there was a strange comfort he found in the vast spectacle which made all his personal problems and worries seem completely petty all of a sudden before the uncaring universe, at least for the moment being, even those which related to the current situation at hand, often helping him to easily drift into an untroubled sleep straight unto morning more comfortably than if he had been in his own bed all the way back in the tower of Malmhule Palace.

After a further full day of recuperation, Gyllen had finally recovered to the extent were he was able to once again stand and walk with only minor lingering aches in his joints. His white shirt and cream trousers were in dire need of cleaning but were otherwise intact, and his black boots had lost their sheen, were scuffed at the toes, and the sole of the right had become separated and flopped about wherever he walked. Min had managed to salvage his blue coat in the aftermath of the storm, though its trimming was frayed beyond restoration and one of the sleeves was nearly torn clean from the shoulder and only held in place by but a few thin threads. Even still, he continued to carry around the ruined jacket wherever he tread even if he did not ever wear it again, which Min suspected was a kind of coping mechanism for the prince not even he was aware of considering how attached to the article she knew him to be.

In spite of his restored mobility however, the prince quickly found there was little he could do in the way of assisting with the construction, having never so much as wielded a mallet or a saw before in his existence, nor did he possess any expertise on how to fish for extra provisions. Captain Bonny had claimed there was no need for him to trouble himself with the labour after he had tried his hand at, and subsequently botched quite spectacularly, planing some planks, though he gained the impression it was rather because his lack carpentry experience hindered the reconstruction rather than help it.

During the time which he spent regaining his strength however, Gyllen had grown intensely curious of the jungle which lay just a few metres behind where had lain, seeing as he was only left with his own imagination during the tedious waking hours of inactivity to keep his mind occupied, wondering about all the marvellous secrets which may have been hidden amongst its verdure, and even using these musings as inspirations for miniature adventure tales he played out within his head which he entertained himself with. The daydreams had sparked an interest so great in Gyllen that he now desired to set out on an actual expedition on his own through the the tropical forest if only just to see how accurate his speculations may have been and, seeing as there was literally nothing else more worthwhile he could be doing in the intermittent time as he awaited for the Killer Kraken's restoration, intended to do just that in an atypical display of boldness, feeling as though it would provide a unique - if unplanned - cap to his world-spanning voyage! Though he felt it would be only right if he first informed Ms. Bonny of his intents.

"Absolutely outta the question!" Was the Captain's prompt answer when the prince proposed his wish to trek through the wilderness. "I mean...yer kiddin', aye? We're no even entirely certain where we are, let alone whit kinda beasties could be waitin' fer ye in that bush! Ye could be torn apart by tigers! Or mauled by mandrills!"

"Oh, what would the harm be in just a five minute stroll through its edge? I'm tired to tears of doing naught but watch the monotonous waves lap against the shore day in and day out when you won't allow me to assist your crew in so much as preparing their lunches!" Gyllen argued in response, already vexed from having sand constantly filling his boots further fueled by fatigue brought on by having only meagre minnows to dine on during mealtimes that never could quite fill him up. "You said yourself that you were willing to go in should we need food or fresh water."

"Aye, but as a last resort! Ah've lost good men afore in places ah wis mair familiar wi' than here." Bonny responded. "Lissen tae me, laddie, if yer gonnae hear anythin' ah gote tae say. A wee bit o' boredom is a small price tae pay in exchange fer yer health, believe me. I assured yer maw mahself we'd bring ye back haim in wan piece, and a true pirate ne'er goes back oan her word! And I'm no plannin' on startin' the noo."

"But-" Gyllen started to say, though he was cut off after just barely being able to speak a single syllable.

"I'll hear no buts or ifs aboot it! Ye may be the prince o' Snjórland, but we're a long, long way frae yer kingdom, and while yer mah passenger oan mah boat, mah authority ootstrips yours by a clear mile! Ye understand?" The Captain interrupted, evidently not allowing him to get the final word in edgewise, and speaking to him in a sterner tone than he had ever seen her before in the time he had spent on her ship. Gyllen did not answer, knowing now that nothing he could have said would have done anything to change her mind and Bonny seemingly knew this as she next turned away from him to hail over the sole non-human amongst their number just as she was passing them by on her way carrying additional firewood. "Min! Get o'er here and keep an eye oan the lad, will ye? Make sure he doesnae try anythin' stupid."

Gyllen's short-lived high spirits from being able to freely walk once again were now replaced with even more despondency than was prior present after the swift scolding he had just suffered. Even after everything had seen and done over the course of these many past months of extensive travel, it seemed as though others still continued to perceive him as the same vulnerable young boy who stood uncertain on the ship's stern as it departed from the docks of Snjórland, feeling as though he had developed very little from his initial standing since well before this voyage was even a thought in his mind as he was once again put under supervision by someone who lacked faith in his judgement, not unlike how Queen Helio used to always do back in his homeland until very recently, this time ironically overseen the very same woman who had inspired him to take up this independent tour in the first place.

"I would have been better off keeping my mouth shut..." Gyllen grumbled as he slowly shuffled along the shoreline in the opposite direction of where the Killer Kraken was anchored, barely lifting his boot from off the sand as he kicked up grains wherever he walked. Captain Bonny was at least merciful enough to permit the prince to explore for as far as the beach would stretch, but no further beyond that.

"Oi, I don' like babysittin' yer arse anymore than you do, Prince Pussy, but Cap's orders are orders!" Min sharply retorted, sounding even less pleased than her temporary charge.

The two walked in awkward silence for a while longer, Gyllen looking out to the sea once again, only just now realising how endless the great azure ocean appeared with no ship to punctuate the vast, featureless sight as it stretched far ahead and to either side all the way to the horizons, and the ceaseless ebbing and flowing of its surf against the white sand combined with the gentle breeze brushing against his skin with birds flying silently overhead across the waters to other lands unseen soon eased his mind somewhat once again, enough to put him back into a talkative mood.