Part 9 --Home--

''The wood creaked, the sails felt small breezes, slowing our ship hard, but at long last, home was minutes away. I heard the crew muttering about the horrible wind. I mean I could swim faster than the ship right now, but I can't do one thing, swim''. ''I saw a couple of sailors climbing the masts and working on the sails, and this happened: A heavy gale blew. And all three of them fell from the masts, 2 of them landed on the ship, and 1 fell in the sea. The ship moved so fast (Like 12 knots) that the sailor that fell in the sea was almost out of contact, the crew rushed and tried to slow the ship down, but the gales where to high to climb up the masts quickly. The crew decided to lower the anchor, but, it was too late. The sailor that fell from the masts was in the high waves, and became food for sharks, probably. The wind was getting dangerously fast, and the ship was getting unstable, and the sighting on the horizon horrifying. A tornado. The entire crew freaked out, and the high waves became too much for the Barquentine. The wind blew to the direction of the tornado, and the helmsman couldn't make the ship turn.''

''A few sailors went on their own, and risked their lives to take care of the sails, and make the ship turn hard to starboard. They where probably experienced, because they didn't fell from the sails, and succeeded. The helmsman turned the ship hard to starboard, and it was successful. And for the first time in a short time, the mistake helped, because the sail that where stuck to the right (stern view) became helpful. And what's better? the wind became quieter, the storm was just a mini-storm. God blessed a Barquentine in the middle of the ocean named "Starlight".''

''30 minutes later of the helmsman maneuvering and me being bored, we saw land. Home it was. The crew cheered. Dad smiled. 12 minutes passed by, and we to the docks, with the Vallish Civil Ensign flying on our mizzenmast, and the Vallish Jack on the other mast. Dad ordered the crew to dock, this was the hardest part, but we managed to dock safely without crashing the ship. A small Valereenan Navy ship painted in Black and Orange came by. The captain of it went on our ship and asked dad a few questions. Dad handed him his passport, and gave 6 shillings and left. "At last, we are finally here" Dad celebrated. "Hurray" the crew cheered. "Arthur" Dad came to me and said. "Yes?" Replied I. "I think 3 or 4 days later I will assign you to the naval youth academy where you'll train till I don't know like midshipman level". Dad said. "Okay" I replied.''

''Our home is on the first row, meaning that we can see the sea (heh) from the window, and I could already see it just 4 houses away. The crew where meanwhile selling some cargo for a bit of time until they finally where off duty and went back to their homes. "How was the journey" Dad asked the family. "Boring" Mom answered. "Good, but mostly boring" Amelia answered. "One of the best days of my life, I mean, The best" I answered. Dad took the keys and at long last, home. Mom ignited the candles and lo!. Everything was dusty. So mom told me and Amelia to clean the house, and she did too. "I'm gonna go buy rice, I'm hungry, haven't had a good meal since the day we left the sea. I heard a week ago that the rice price is very low, bye" Dad announced. "Okay" Mom said. The whole house took an hour to clean, and after long last. Home was sweet, more than the sugar we sold. I went to my room, rested on the couch and took a nap.''

''After I woke up, I went downstairs to the living room and saw dad reading the newspaper. I asked dad what happened in the world during our journey. He replied "The HMS Magnificent sank, the Marcusburg 44 gun frigate Hawk sank one of our country's frigates. Now the Marcusburgan Navy rules the Verilindorean Sea" He then flipped his page and started reading "Oh wait they don't rule the Verilindorean sea, here it says that an Artuvan light frigate of 28 guns somehow managed to hit the magazine and explode the GMS Hawk into flames and every single crew of the ship was burnt to death or drowned" "That's dark" I said. Dad continued reading further "And look who is here in the WORLD newspaper, WE. Saying about the thing that you did in Yorkston, saving the town from Seraphine invasion" I was so happy when I heard that, I cannot describe. like being in the world newspaper is greater than being the Governor of an island. "And also when I went to get the rice, I remembered the pirate captives in the brig of the Starlight. So I handed them to the navy, told the entire story with every minor detail and now I think they are in jail and will probably get hanged by the neck" Dad said. "So are we in the Newspaper again?" I asked with excitement. "No, we will probably be in the district newspaper tomorrow, maybe even province, but not the country" Dad replied. "Oh" I sighed.''

''"Anyways, I feel like tomorrow I will assign you to the youth academy, but it will take at least 2 days to get accepted in, and I think because of you being in the newspaper, you will need no recruit training. You will be assigned the same day as you got accepted and you will probably do some normal training drills everyone else does" Said dad. "Okay, but when is school?" I asked. "Never, unless you fail the academy, if anyone joins the navy youth, they get removed from school and will live alone like in colleges" Dad answered. "Oh" I said.''

''"Dinner time" Mom announced from the kitchen. "What's for dinner?" Amelia asked. "Seagood" Dad joked. If you didn't get the joke, then listen.''

''A few months back when dad was planning to go on another trade run on his old ship. "Mhm" you say. He bought some fish heart-shaped and coloured copper as cargo for the next trade run which was kept at home. Mom found the cargo and thought it where fish hearts, and she has poor eyesight and she has a strange and rare feel disorder where she could not feel things properly, so she cooked the copper and prepared it for dinner, the copper melted in the cooking process but mom didn't really look much into it. She served it with bread, but before anyone could bite into it, dad was checking the sandwich. Like he always does because one time their was a spider that crawled into the sandwich and he bit into the sandwich, luckily the spider immediately crawled out of the sandwich before dad could bite again and dad saw the spider coming out of the sandwich and you know what happened next. So he checked the sandwich and saw copper. And copper was the cargo of the journey, and cargo is often called "goods" or "good", so he joked seagood, instead of seafood. Thankfully mom only cooked 13 copper instead of the whole bag. And every time when mom cooks sea food dad jokes "Sea-good". "Hahah" You say, probably. "Hilarious" You think, probably.''

Amelia chuckled when dad said that.

''The dinner was (read this part slowly and grossly) shrimp without the head cut of and the eyes included (ew), but thankfully the butt and intestines removed, on rice that had way too much black cumin seeds which everyone (except mom) hates. And there where 2 slices of tomato and two slices of orange to probably prevent scurvy. I think because we haven't ate vegetables and fruits for like a week. This was the same for everyones plate. Except for dad, who got something extra, a cigar and a candle. But I think dad would use it as a lighter for his cigar.''

Even though he only smokes once every 2 weeks, Amelia always says that dad is a drug addict.

(Note: Don't do drugs!)

''Tobacco is very expensive in our country, unlike in the island of St. Emmanuel ruled by Seraphine, where most of the world's tobacco is made in. Since 88% of tobacco is made in a colony of Seraphine, 1 cigar with tobacco costs a whopping 3 doubloons. I mean, 3 doubloons could get you like a sword and a sheep and there would still be like a shilling remaining which could get you like 3 kilos of tomatoes. And you may question how on Ansaria would Valereena trade with Seraphine? we don't. Instead our country trades with Artuva, where 6% of the world's tobacco is produced. And we Valereenans can't make our own tobacco. Valereena is responsible for like 0.3% of the world's tobacco production.''

''We had baked a baked potato on the side of the plate which I love. I tried to remove the black cumin seeds from the rice but there was a whole lot of it in the rice. So I gave up and ate my baked potato with the shrimp. I broke the shrimp's head off which was very gross to me. Then placed it on the baked potato and ate it with a spoon. The baked potato and shrimp where very tasty. I ate the 2 slices of tomato and the 2 slices of orange. The orange was very sour and the tomato was like any other normal tomato. At least scurvy wont be a problem.''

''I once saw 2 people in the hospital that had scurvy. The doctors literally cut a lemon in half and smashed it in to their mouths. I think they where better with scurvy than eating a lemon.''

''When the dinner was over, it was time to sleep. And sleep we did. I went upstairs and entered my room and l rested in the bed and shut my eyes off. And finally slept on my comfortable bed at home for the first time in 1 week.''