"Casan! Get your head out of the clouds and get down here and help!" Ceinule called up to his son, who was seated on top of the mast, checking the sails for wind damage from the night before.
"I am helping!" Casan yelled back. "How do you expect to get anywhere if your sails have holes in them?"
"I can send an apprentice up to do that," Ceinule bellowed. "But you need to be down here now! You're going to be at the helm, Faranth help us, and there's a few things I need to teach you about this ship before you take control of her."
"I can steer a ship perfectly well," Casan reminded his father indignantly. "That is one of the many things expected of a journeyman!"
"The knots on your shoulder are just knots if you don't have the skills to back them up!" Ceinule snapped. "Now get down here!"
Reluctantly, Casan started the long climb back down to the deck, saying a silent good-bye to the solitude offered by the skies. He climbed down the part of the mast which had metal wrungs in it and then jumped the last few feet to the ground. "I'm here. What wisdom do you have to share with me, O Great Master Ceinule?" he gave his father a mock bow.
"My first bit of wisdom is to shut that mouth of yours before it lands you in the galley," Ceinule snarled. "Let's go introduce you to the helm. You've seen them before... they look like wheels?"
"I know how to steer a ship, Father," Casan sighed. He had a feeling his Father would never completely trust him at the helm of any ship after he had run a fishing vessel up onto rocks a month ago.
"Yeah, right into a cliff," Ceinule muttered. "We're going to be carrying more than dead fish this time, Casan. A Lord Holder and his son, to be exact. Take extra care to make it a perfect ride for them."
"I'll tell the wind not to blow too hard," Casan drawled. "If you're so sharding scared about me at the helm, why don't you take the helm yourself? You obviously don't think I'm able to."
Ceinule sighed and clapped his son on the shoulder. "I know I'm being a bit too rough, but I'm serious. You've got to pay attention at all times. We're going to have the lives of Holders in our hands, and the last thing we need is the end of a Bloodline on our watch."
"I'm not completely hopeless," Casan assured his father. "Now, what was it you had to show me?"
Ceinule went over each of the the major quirks of Sunset Dreams in great detail. All ships had their quirks, as Ceinule has explained to Casan on countless occasions. "So if you're careful to leave enough space on your port turns and don't accelerate too fast when you turn starboard, you'll be fine," Ceinule finished. "Got it?"
Casan was feeling more nervous about this every minute. "Sure. Never met a ship I can't steer, and I'm not about to start now."
"I don't think you will," Ceinule chuckled and, slapping his son on the back, bid him farewell and a safe journey. As the official Captain of Sunset Dreams, he'd be too busy with other matters to visit his son at the helm. "A cabin boy will tell you when we're ready to leave," Ceinule added as he left, and then he was out of the tiny little 3-walled room that served as the helmsman's shelter.
Casan had no sooner settled back a chair, reviewing the course he would take back to his home, Green Waters Seahold, than his little green flit Laji showed up, scolding him furiously for not being in his cabin.
"Calm down Laji," Casan told the green, putting out an arm for her to land on and then stroking her back until her chittering turned to croons of content. "We'd better have the cabin boy bring you some food, I won't be able to leave for a while. I'm at the helm today."
Laji looked up with him with what Casan swore was sardonic disbelief and sent him an image of the fishing vessel he had run into the rocks still sitting there, but slowly the fishing vessel changed to look like Sunset Dreams.
Casan sighed. Even his flit didn't think he could do it. Well, he was stuck at the helm now, and everyone on board was stuck with him as their helmsman.
A few hours after they were out of the port...