09; "Lieutenant Messa"

In this chapter we learn a little more (actually a lot more) about Lieutenant Messa. I hope you all enjoy reading about our silent Lieutenant!~

 Autumn, the time which Toube joined the crew of the Gray Riff, was slowly freezing over into winter. The icy nip of the season took no effect on the crew however, for most of them where used to the sting of cold air rolling off the sea, after living in port cities, or being accustomed to the cold air on a ship. Toube walked the stairs up to the main deck after his hour of sleep Captain Ross required each of his crewmates to take turns having during the night. As usual, Toube jumped up and began climbing the criss-crossing cables that lead up to the crow's nest and the ship's flag. He looked out to the sea and took a deep breath of sea air. He loved it. Everything about the sea was just perfect for Toube, the smell, the rocking waves, and the work that was required on-board the vessel that let him live with the sea. Toube waved down to Tania who was sitting on a barrel between Lieutenant Messa, who was steering, and Captain Ross. She waved back. "Mornin' Toube." Ron greeted as Toube climbed a little higher and untied the flag. "Good morning." Toube smiled at Ron as he held the flag to the sun, inspecting it. "Mighty clear weather wer' havin' after that nasty storm last night, wouldn't ya say?" Ron asked, folding in his telescope and leaning one arm over the crow's nest. "Aye." Toube replied, tying the flag back up. "See ya later, Toube." Ron replied calmly and leaned over the crow's nest, looking out at sea. "Later." Toube replied lowly, he could see in Ron's eyes that he was having the same reflection on the sea as he did himself every morning.

 Toube walked alongside the railing of the ship, inspecting the knots that held down the sails as he did every morning. While he was walking he could hear Master Flack come out from the charter cabin. He recognized the unusual hollow click of his boots on the deck. He was being unusually silent this morning. Toube turned to see him trudging up the steps to the quarter deck and taking his place on the other side of Lieutenant Messa from Captain Ross. Tania had said something to Master Flack, which he replied with a semi-smile and a nod. With that Tania hopped off the barrel, moved it to the back of the quarter deck, and left down the stairs to the charter cabin. Toube began to walk to the quarter deck, as he did he could hear Captain Ross talking to Master Flack, "Flack, as ya know, I'm tryin' to take a little more command of me ship. In order ta do so, I'm afraid I'll be askin' ya ta leave the deck for a bit..." With this being said, Toube slowed his walking pace. Master Flack left passing Toube on his way down to the first level of the deck into his quarters. Toube tried not to act fazed by Captain Ross' straightforwardness. Toube continued his way up the steps and eventually found himself standing in front of Captain Ross. "Captain, I have question." Toube asked, not really shy just not sure if now was a good time. "Hm? Aye, boy. What is it ye be wantin' ta ask?" Captain Ross crossed his arms over his chest and cocked his head to one side. Toube noticed his Captain's calm attitude towards him and loosened up, "Well, Captain, I was wondering how you gained ownership of such a fine vessel as the Gray Riff." Toube said, leaning against the railing of the quarter deck. A smile appeared across Captain Ross' face as Toube asked his question, this was obviously going to be an interesting tale. "A lovely question, Toube. Mighty fine. Well, ya see, I got the vessel from Lieutenant Messa." Ross replied, looking over his shoulder at Messa, who nodded. Captain Ross returned his view to his boatswain in front of him, "If ya'd like ta know more, Lieutenant Messa would be happy to tell ye tha' story himself. Ya two haven't spoken to one another yet, so this be an opportune moment." he laughed, and Ross took his leave from the quarter deck to his cabin.

 Upon his Captain's leave, Toube took his advice and moved a step closer to Lieutenant Messa. Looking at him, Messa was tall. His hair had the same frizz to it as Toube's, no doubt from all the sea water in the air. He wore a dusty and slightly blood stained navy blue petticoat trimmed with silver. The jacket looked familiar, then it dawned on Toube; it was a Navy petticoat worn by Navy officials. "So..." Toube began, but Lieutenant Messa already knew what he was going to say. "A long time ago, when you where maybe ten years old, I met Captain Ross on the docks of Port Maybell." Messa began, "He asked me who I was and what I was doing, I told him I was James Messa and I was hiding from the Navy, that I had gotten myself into a horrible predicament and I was trying to escape fate. At the time I had been running and hiding from port guards ordered by the Navy to search for me. Captain Ross fallowed me all over the docks while I hid. Telling me of a brilliant way to escape such fate. He told me that if I where to help him steal a ship and search for a crew, he and that crew would protect me from the Navy for the rest of my life." Messa paused from his tale for a moment to glance down at Toube, who was looking out to sea while listening to his story. "So, I thought for a few minutes while we hid in a small fishing boat tied up in the harbor, and I agreed to help him. I knew of a Navy vessel that was for small celebratory trips that was docked in the harbor there at Maybell. Ross decided to have me take him to inspect the vessel before giving a definite 'ok'. When we got to the ship, he immediately noted that the ship had not been given a name. I told him that because it was such a small, and usually unnecessary vessel we found no need in naming it. Once Captain Ross inspected the inside of the ship and decided he liked it we began to untie it and bring it out of the harbor. We where to steal the Navy vessel. We where never even caught in the act. And I was Ross' first crewman." Lieutenant Messa finished his story with a light and sweet sentence. Toube had no clue that he would come across something like this when he joined Ross' crew. He didn't expect to find that the Lieutenant of the Gray Riff was actually a runaway of the Navy.

 "Th-that's an interesting tale, Lieutenant Messa. Thank you for sharing it with me." Toube looked up at his towering Lieutenant, who only nodded back as he steered the ship, his gaze cast over the sea as usual. As Toube walked down the stairs to the quarter deck he ran through Lieutenant Messa's story in his head. At this moment, Captain Ross sat in his quarters, wondering when a good time to go and talk to Flack about his personal realization yesterday would be. He figured now was as good a time as any other, so he jumped up from his chair in the corner of his cabin and made his way down to the first level, it felt unusually quiet. Master Flack wasn't yelling at anyone, the crewman where happily and quietly at work taking care of the ship, and no one was fighting. Captain Ross finally came upon the door to Master Flack's cabin. He took a deep breath and held up his fist, knocking on the wood door lightly with his knuckles. "Who is it?" Flack called from inside his cabin. "'Tis Ross." Captain Ross called through the door. The first level was quiet for a minute, you couldn't even hear the sound of the crew's boots on the deck. "...Come on in..." Flack finally said and Ross entered his cabin. Flack was laying on his bed looking straight up, his hands resting on his chest. "Flack, I wanted ta make sure that ya where alright." Ross said, closing the door behind him and leaning against the wall. "Why would ya need to do that?" Flack spat, apparently he'd forgotten that it was his Captain he was talking to. It was a good thing that Ross didn't care. "Well, I was afraid that maybe ya'd think that Tonio was here ta steal yer place as Master. Ya know that I'd never take ya outa' me crew, right?" Ross asked, folding his arms across his chest. Master Flack was silent for a moment, you almost couldn't even hear him breath. "Yeah..." Flack replied, "... I know." Ross shifted his feet. He didn't think Flack knew. "Just makin' sure." Ross finally said and left the room. As Captain Ross left Flack's room he raised an eyebrow to himself, 'Now, what was that all about?'

 Back on deck, Tania was getting some fresh air and talking with Toube. "What's it like, so far up there on those ropes?" Tania asked Toube as he landed back on deck. "Hm? Why don't you see for yourself?" Toube asked, "Just jump up and grab onto one of the cables, and when you've got a good grip, start climbing." Toube smiled, he wondered if Tania could actually do it. "Wha-what? I don't know..." Tania blushed, feeling underachieved and a little made fun of. "Come on, I'll be right behind you!" Toube grabbed Tania's waist and tossed her up, when she came up high enough to, she grabbed onto one of the cables and pulled herself up so that she could lock the heels of her boots onto one of the cables under her so she wouldn't fall. "Toube you jerk!" Tania spat at Toube as he jumped up and held onto the cables beside her. "Just climb." Toube laughed and began working his way up the ropes. Tania climbed up after him. Eventually they reached the middle of all the ropes and the mast. "Ok, stop. Now look out to sea." Toube said to Tania, turning around, and hooking his arms around the cables so he could hold on and look at the sea at the same time. Tania did the same. "Woaaah... It's amazing." Tania gasped as they watched the sun hit the middle of the sky. "I know, right? I get to look at this every day." Toube sighed, turning back around and continuing up the cables. "Hey, where are you going?" Tania looked up at Toube as he climbed. "I gotta inspect the flag. Do it three times a day." Toube replied. "Oh." Tania murmured and looked back out at the sea. It really was lovely, there was certainly nothing as beautiful as this anywhere else in the world.

 Toube tied the flag back and came back down to Tania. "It's nice, huh?" "Yeah. Your so lucky." "Hey, you live on this ship, too ya know." Toube laughed and grabbed onto a loose cable, wrapping an arm around Tania's waist. "Hold on!" "Wha~!" Tania shrieked the whole way down to the main deck. "Wasn't that fun?" Toube laughed. "No it was-" Tania began to say but was soon interrupted by Lieutenant Messa hollering, "Land ho!" and pointing a finger opposite the horizon. At that moment everyone looked over their shoulder to see a large harbor keeping about thirteen ships. As Captain Ross proceeded up from first level, Master Flack came after him. "Alright, in line, ya mermaids!" Captain Ross ordered as he walked up onto the quarter deck. Everyone scrambled into a horizontal line facing the quarter deck. "Tonio, get outa' that line an' get up 'ere!" Ross flicked his hand upwards towards him, signaling Tonio up to the quarter deck. "Since an entire pirate crew walkin' through Alabastor would attract too much attention ta ourselves, we're splittin' up inta' two teams. Don't forget Alabastor isn't pirate friendly." Ross told his crew, sounding as manly as he could. "Listen up! Toube, Jason, Toumas, Ian, Ron, and Messa. Ye'll be in Tonio's party. Everyone else, yer comin' with Master Flack an' I." Ross informed, turning to Lieutenant Messa. "Messa, yer tha highest rank o' yer party, if I get any negative word of ya back from anyone, ye'll be facin' tough punishment!" "Aye, Captain." Messa nodded back as he steered the ship into port.  "Everyone! Yer goal be ta find an elderly woman named Bonnie! Ask her fer tha key ta tha Maysla Bell Tower! If she be givin' ya any trouble, just tell 'er ol' Mr. Vasquez sent ya!" Captain Ross ordered his crew, he continued as he walked down the steps to the main deck, "Understand what yer doin'? Then get offa' the vessel an' be on yer way! When ya get tha key, report back to tha ship. By midnight, everyone returns ta tha ship! Got it?" Ross seemed to be well at commanding his crew, it was clear that Flack's bullying was unnecessary. "Aye!" replied the crew and they scattered to their party leaders. 

Author's Note

It was near the end of writing the 8th chapter that I realized I haven't given a good briefing on Lieutenant James Messa. And since I didn't have much planned for this chapter (as with the 8th) I find it useful that I can use this chapter for something important. Yes, I know this chapter is short, as I've said before, the long periods of sailing will usually be in shorter chapters. And this one was short because there just wasn't much to put in it :S

Reviews

[Rae]

OMG!!! You have to write the next chapter soon!!! It is getting to the good part, not that any of the other chaps were bad... -nervous laugh- Anyway, I like the way Tania and Toube interact with each other. P.S. I like Messa. He's cool. :P