{"id":105,"date":"2009-12-18T12:30:22","date_gmt":"2009-12-18T19:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/atfmb.com\/Evermist\/?p=105"},"modified":"2010-02-11T21:32:56","modified_gmt":"2010-02-12T04:32:56","slug":"chapter-thirteen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/atfmb.com\/Evermist\/2009\/12\/chapter-thirteen\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter Thirteen"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a9 2009, Patrick Hester.\u00a0 All Rights Reserved<\/p>\n

Chapter Thirteen<\/h1>\n

Narut stared.\u00a0 Southport was fading behind them and Elias wondered if it was only just hitting his friend that they were leaving home.<\/p>\n

The days spent in Southport had been good ones, with Narut’s family keeping the four of them well fed and happy, not to mention the fact that the rest of their squad descended on The Lady Elle<\/em> once they found out how amazing the food was and that Militia received discounts on everything.\u00a0 Narut had said the place hadn’t seen as much custom in a season as they had in those two and a half days the Seaspray<\/em> was in port.<\/p>\n

They still had weeks before they would port in Evermist, but it seemed as if everyone onboard had become more subdued.\u00a0 A calm and a quiet had come to rest on the Seaspray<\/em>, and as Southport slowly melted away behind them, Elias felt that quiet seeping into his mind.<\/p>\n

“Ravi is a good boy,” Narut said suddenly.\u00a0 “He does what is asked of him and rarely complains.\u00a0 Momma said he will have to go out with Poppa soon to work the nets.\u00a0 The restaurant cannot support them all.\u00a0 He will need to earn his keep in others ways and let the younger children work with Momma.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Elias nodded, unsure of what he was supposed to say.\u00a0 Perhaps this was one of those times when simply being there was enough.<\/p>\n

“Ah, look at me, worrying over family, over things I cannot control.\u00a0 You have a brother and sister don’t you?”<\/p>\n

“I do,” he replied.\u00a0 “Jaina and Aristotle – Ari for short.”<\/p>\n

“What are they like?\u00a0 Too serious like you?”<\/p>\n

Elias frowned.\u00a0 ‘Too serious’<\/em>?\u00a0 Shaking his head, he considered this for a moment, before answering.\u00a0 “Jaina is the youngest.\u00a0 She doesn’t do well with change, so my leaving was hard on her.\u00a0 Ari\u2026\u00a0 I suppose he is ‘too serious’.\u00a0 He always has been.\u00a0 Father pushes them both very hard.”<\/p>\n

“And you?\u00a0 Did he push you as well?”<\/p>\n

Eli nodded.\u00a0 “I am the eldest.\u00a0 I protected them,” he said softly.\u00a0 “Put myself between them and him.\u00a0 Took the worst he had to give so that they would not have to.\u00a0 I never thought about it like that before, but it’s true.\u00a0 I worry about them without me there.”<\/p>\n

“Yours is a strange family, my friend.\u00a0 I am sorry to say so, but it is true.”<\/p>\n

Again, Eli nodded.\u00a0 Thinking about how different Narut’s family had been, how happy they had all seemed, he couldn’t help but agree with his friend.<\/p>\n

Jaina will be fine<\/em>, he told himself.\u00a0 She was the stronger of the two, but Ari, Ari would cave.\u00a0 He shook his head, trying to dispel the anger he was suddenly feeling.\u00a0 He didn’t see any of the pressure put on Narut’s brothers and sisters that Eli had felt through the years.\u00a0 Narut had it wrong – his family wasn’t strange, it was wrong.\u00a0 Children should not live in fear of their father.<\/p>\n

“I will not be like my father,” he said softly.<\/p>\n

Narut clapped him on the shoulder.\u00a0 “I do not think you are anything like him, my friend.”<\/p>\n

Eli nodded.\u00a0 Maybe that was why the man hated him.<\/p>\n

“Now, if you will excuse me,” Narut said with a smile.\u00a0 “I must say hello to Adia.”\u00a0 Narut walked off, and Eli smiled after him.\u00a0 That must be the second mate Narut was so interested in.<\/p>\n

Tell your friends:<\/em>
\"Add<\/a>\"Add<\/a>\"Add<\/a>\"Add<\/a>\"Add<\/a>\"Add<\/a>\"Add<\/a>\"Add<\/a>\"Add<\/a>\"Add<\/a>\"Add<\/a>\"Add<\/a>\"Add<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a9 2009, Patrick Hester.\u00a0 All Rights Reserved Chapter Thirteen Narut stared.\u00a0 Southport was fading behind them and Elias wondered if it was only just hitting his friend that they were leaving home. The days spent in Southport had been good ones, with Narut’s family keeping the four of them well fed and happy, not to […]<\/p>\n

Tell your friends:<\/em>
\"Add<\/a>\"Add<\/a>\"Add<\/a>\"Add<\/a>\"Add<\/a>\"Add<\/a>\"Add<\/a>\"Add<\/a>\"Add<\/a>\"Add<\/a>\"Add<\/a>\"Add<\/a>\"Add<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[18,9,12,10,11,8,7,13,14,6],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/atfmb.com\/Evermist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/atfmb.com\/Evermist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/atfmb.com\/Evermist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/atfmb.com\/Evermist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/atfmb.com\/Evermist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/atfmb.com\/Evermist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":204,"href":"http:\/\/atfmb.com\/Evermist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105\/revisions\/204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/atfmb.com\/Evermist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/atfmb.com\/Evermist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/atfmb.com\/Evermist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}