[Durelin]

The swaying, rocking rhythm was finally realized as a separate and real motion. It was now apart from the dream that Adeline had known for what seemed now only to have been minutes. She wished it could have felt like eternity, as all the bad dreams did. The hard, cold wood pressed against her face was dry and the splashing of the waves against the side of the ship seemed distant, so she knew she now lay below deck. Obviously the Rapscallion had been victorious, or Adeline expected she would never have waken from that dream. She shivered, thinking of how much she would desire to actually remain in that dream for eternity. At this point, with her head pounding, her stomach pained with hunger, her throat dry, and her mind slogged down by these days at sea.

"I thought the cap'n had said we weren't a target, or some such nonsense..." A gruff voice muttered angrily from somewhere near Adeline. A rather nasty, squeaky voice replied, speaking in a arrogant tone, proud of itself for knowing the answer to the previous voice's question. "We weren't, least ways not to the main forces. Our problem was the ships from the coastal villages." There was a grunt, and then, "Well, we shouldn' of lost as many as we did, then…ships from the coastal villages..." The phrase was repeated with disgust, and Adeline could imagine the owner of the voice shaking his head.

Focusing on the voices help bring her back to wakefulness, exercising her tired mind for yet another bout with reality. By the end of this short-lived conversation, she was able to raise he head up off the floorboards. The two sources of the voices she saw sat at a table nearby, across from each other, peeling potatoes. Adeline knew she must be in the ship’s galley, and looking around confirmed it as so. The two men must have noticed her movement, and both jumped up at once, heading toward her. The larger of the two grabbed her by the arm, pulling her up. Adeline was too tired and too numbed by surprises to cry out. She stood, her knees ready to give way, and had trouble comprehending what was being said around her from the focus that was needed to keep her knees from doing so.

"Took her long enough...done with the taters...go tell...the cap'n'll want to..." The way the man grinned at her after all was said, Adeline was ready to fall back to the floor. Doran would be notified that she was conscious, and he would...what? She cursed every wooden plank that made up the ship she had been held on too long, long enough now for her mind to rock with it on the waves. Never would she be able to appreciate the beauty of the sea, nor the power, nor the majesty, nor even the fear. At this moment, Adeline felt she would never be able to appreciate anything except dry land. A lovely trimming would be that this dry land was far away from any man whose name began with the letter 'D'.