Chapter 87: Worse Than The Garden Shed
Eilownia leaned over and investigated Whimble’s invention as he sat on the floor, his legs crisscrossed and explained each piece to her.
"When we put the ssssea water into...slrrrrp...here, this will help heat it up, the sssssalt...slrrrrp....collects here, the water below isss...slrrrp...drinkable."
She tilted her head for a better view each time he pointed to a different piece.
"Wow! We can really drink it?"
Whimble nodded and poured some into a cup, handing it to her.
Eilownia swirled the water around in the cup for a moment before going to take a sip.
Just as she held the cup to her lips, hand grabbed the cup, pulling it away from her.
She and Whimble both looked at the person who had to taken the cup.
Marix stood there, sipping it, his eyes slowly shifting between the two of them.
"Marix!" Eilownia threw her arms around him and buried her face in his chest. He wrapped his arm around her, hugging her tight as he handed the cup back to Whimble.
"You did a fine job, Whimble. Excellent work, now we’ll never have to worry about our water supply. That’s the most important thing out here."
Whimble’s crooked smile spread from ear to ear.
"Thank you General...slrrrp.....I followed your oderssss.....slrrrp...."
"I can see that. You did well."
Whimble got to his feet and hobbled away as tears pricked his eyes. Memories of his youth flooded in his mind.
He had been born with a jaw deformity, causing his saliva to drip out of his mouth, making his words slur and giving him his signature crooked smile.
His parents made sure he was aware of this imperfection and Whimble became obsessed with finding a ’fix’ for it.
From then on, he worked tirelessly ’inventing’ new ways to fix his jaw. Naturally, most of his first inventions failed.
As he got older, his fascination for inventing and creating items became his outlet in life. He wasn’t sociable with others, his parents had turned their backs on him, all he had was his projects.
One day, as he was sure he’d come close to the fix for his jaw, a group of boys came over to see what he was up to.
They laughed and gawked that the freak show would try to be like one of them. They tore up his plans and destroyed what he’d made.
Whimble tried to get away, heartbroken that his life’s work had been destroyed right before his very eyes, but they wouldn’t let that happen.
They beat him, severely, using pieces of his own work to aid them in their inflicted suffering, when another boy approached.
He had dark purple hair tied up into a bun and wore the most expensive clothing Whimble had ever seen.
"You there! What do you think you’re doing!" He shouted, standing tall, head held high, his arms crossed over his chest.
The boys stopped their beating and looked over at him, their eyes widening.
"It’s L’adore! Let’s get out of here!"
L’adore? He knew that name. It was the royal family!
Whimble believed he was in trouble and tried to get away like the other boys had done, but they’d beaten him so terribly he couldn’t get up.
Marix crouched next to him and picked up the torn up paper, holding the pieces together before glancing at the debris.
"You made this?"
Whimble nodded, his face already swelling.
"Come with me I have use for you."
Marix had him healed by the royal doctor although his jaw could never be fixed and the boys had crippled him for life, giving him a horrid limp.
From then on, he served the royal family, making inventions and when Marix became general, making torture devices.
Although, Marix’s annoyance at his constant slurping was always evident, Whimble knew Marix was the only one to ever appreciate his genius.
Later that night, Eilownia and Marix lay in the bed of their cabin on one of the Izka ships, the blanket drawn over them.
She rested her head on his chest with her arm flung over him. He held her tight, his eyes closed as he breathed in the scent of her hair.
"I’m so happy you’re awake. I was so worried about you. I was scared you’d never wake up." She whispered quietly, nuzzling him as she closed her eyes.
He took a deep breath and reached his hand up to gently scrunch up her hair, scratching her scalp lightly with his fingers as he kissed the top of her head.
"I’m really proud of you, Whin. You were brilliant. I’m impressed by your quick thinking."
Eilownia let out a soft sigh as she hugged him tighter.
"It was the only thing I could think of to offer them."
Marix chuckled, "If I knew you were going to offer up your father’s estate, I would’ve surrendered from the get-go."
"Gecko? What do you mean? What gecko?"
Furrowing her eyebrows, she shifted her head so her chin was rested on his chest as she stared at him.
He leaned down and pressed his lips against hers before letting out a laugh.
"It means ’from the beginning.’ If I had known from the beginning I would’ve surrendered much, much earlier. Saved us all that trouble."
She gently smacked his chest with the palm of her hand.
"You’re full of it! The entire time we were doing things you told me not to worry and that you would handle it all!"
He smirked and raised an eyebrow, holding his hands up in mock surrender.
"Forgive me."
"Maybe if you HAD let me worry from the gecko, I could’ve thought of it sooner."
He let out a soft laugh as she turned her head again, pressing her cheek against his chest as she looked away from him.
"Get-go. Not Gecko. But, you’re right. I should’ve had more faith in you. I suppose we can consider it a learning experience."
Marix rubbed her arm firmly as she snuggled closer to him.
"Yes I am. Although, speaking of learning experiences. I’m really thankful that I’m learning so many things. Whimble has taught me a lot, and you’ve been teaching me so many new words like rancid and expired. I hope that our baby will learn many things too."
Marix slid his hand down to place it firmly, but gently, against her lower abdomen.
"They will. You and I will teach them many new things."
"Eilownia looked up at him and he leaned down to press his lips against hers as he cupped her face. He carefully rolled her over as he deepened the kiss, causing her to grab onto his forearms as an anchor.
Two months passed. Everyone but the ship crew and the Izka pirates were tired of being at sea. They missed the land, their families, their homes. Many of them were beginning to go sea crazy.
A few of the Izka pirates approached Captain Deka.
"Captain, we are moving so slow. We should’ve arrived at Norain by now. The soldiers over there are going crazy! Can’t we speed it up a bit?"
"Yeah, Capp’n those guys are makin’ me nervous."
Captain Deka shook his head. "We have to go at this pace. Their ship doesn’t have our speed capabilities and Norain is far away. That old thing moves at a snail’s pace. It’s not meant for this kind of travel."
The group let out sighs and groans of frustration.
"Why did we agree to help these guys anyways?"
"Yeah! We don’t need them! What happened to him being on the crew and her being your bride?!"
Captain Deka smiled, "A better offer came along. One that’s best for our island and one that can get us a little more power."
The group nodded, "If the offer is really that good...I suppose we really can’t do anything about it....."
Eilownia sat on the bed, her bump much more prominent now, as Dr. Lein gave her a check up. She was about 6 months along now.
"When will we reach land again? I’m so tired of being in this ship and the ocean. I miss the trees and plants and something that’s not constantly swaying!"
Her eyebrows were furrowed, her eyes closed.
The sea sickness she’d suffered had mostly gone away a while ago although she still suffered some effects of it.
She also discovered that she did NOT like fish, which had earned a chuckle from Marix who relentlessly teased her over finally finding something she thought tasted bad.
"We still have a ways to go, but we should arrive in Norain before our baby comes."
Eilownia let out a groan, "That could still mean months!"
Marix shot her a sympathetic look as he squeezed her hand, "Yes, but you don’t need to worry, we’ll be there before you know it!"
Dr. Lein completed his check-up and nodded with satisfaction.
"Everything looks good!"
Eilownia fell back on the bed and huffed, "I never thought anywhere could be more boring or worse than being in that garden shed."
