Page 25 of Potions & Pints
“Call me when we need to clean up,” Tan whispered to Vir and went above deck.
He climbed the mast quickly and made a small circle to look in all directions. He noticed the storm immediately. It was far off. He looked through the spyglass to check. Then he went back down to the mess hall.
“Storm, Cap, port side,” he said.
“How far?”
“Far. For now.”
“Well, keep an eye on it.”
Tan nodded. Cap reached for another serving of meat. Tan watched, his mouth watering, as the plate was passed around. By his calculations, that probably made three servings of meat for each crew member.
The meat had to be eaten, it spoiled too quickly at sea. Now that it was obvious that there was more than enough to share with everyone on board, Tan was furious. He climbed to the nest again. The storm was still far off, but the sea was noticeably rougher. That could only mean one thing. The storm they approached was huge — dangerously so.
“Get down here,” Pili yelled. Tan climbed down as slow as he could get away with. “You think you can just bail on the dishes?”
When they got down to the galley, Pili shoved a dish towel at Tan. Tan took it, surprised.
“I’m drying tonight?” he asked.
They had not varied their routine at all since the journey had started.
“You got a problem with that?” Pili said.
“Well, if we are switching jobs, maybe Vir doesn’t want to wash anymore,” Tan said.
“He likes it,” Pili said. He turned to Vir and rubbed the orc’s back. “Don’t you?”
“I do,” Vir said, beaming.
Tan stood in the hall, drying the dishes and handing them back to Pili. Pili and Vir kept up a steady dialogue about what they had seen in the last port. Several times Tan attempted to join the conversation, but Pili interrupted him. Eventually Tan gave up. The last straw came when they were finishing up.
“Make sure to latch everything,” Tan said. “The sea is getting rougher.”
“We know that,” Pili snapped.
“Fine,” Tan said and stomped up on deck.
He went up to the nest to check the storm. This time he didn’t need the spyglass. The dark mass was clearly visible on the horizon in the last of the fading light.
“Great,” Tan muttered as he climbed back down.
Not only was the storm aiming directly for them—and from what Tan could see it was too big for them to steer around—they were going to be in the dark as well. He needed to find Cap and tell him.
As it turned out, Cap found him. Or, more precisely, Cap ran by Tan on his way to the side, then leaned over and began retching.
“Cap?” Tan said as he approached.
“Bad…meat,” Cap sputtered out.
A sound made Tan look towards the stern. At least three more men were hanging over the side.
“The storm, it's getting closer and moving in fast,” Tan said urgently.
As if to accentuate the point Tan was trying to make another wave slapped the side of the boat. Tan reached for the captain instinctively, but the old man’s sea legs didn’t fail him.
“I want you at the helm,” Cap said. “Can you do it?’
