^^ Cleo ^^

— Ben —

As I didn't have a place to sleep, (considering the events of the night,) I decided to sleep on the ship, with Doctor Cole's permission. It was docked and at port, with only a mild storm blowing, so I knew it was perfect to get the boy-knight, Reginald, used to sleeping on the ship, as well as giving me a comfy bed for the night.

Also, watching him attempt to stand straight on the rocking deck was amusing.

Either way, I pulled him along to the Doctor's quarters, and tossed him into a hammock, laying in my own with a contented sigh. "Ahh... a proper bed."

He yelled and fell out of his, having twisted too far to one side.

"Don't fight the hammock or the rocking of the ship, lad. It'll feel much better, and end with you on your arse far less often." I chuckled.

He opened the hammock again, and slipped into it, settling the small rolled-up jacket of a pillow I'd given him under his head. "Thanks, I guess." He muttered.

"Get some sleep, Reggie. You'll need it, I'd wager." I smiled, and let the gentle rocking of the ship sway me to sleep.

—

I couldn't tell you the last time I'd had a vivid dream such as this. I usually dreamt in cool pastels, the colors of the ocean and dawn, the sky in storm, and other similar pallets.

Now, though, I stood on a beach, a perfectly white beach with sand made of crushed glass or crystal of some kind, and water so clear I couldn't tell how deep it was. Sitting in the waves, an unsure distance outward, was a massive cat, so tall that their chest was in the clouds that seemed to gravitate to the creature, and their head towered far over them.

A pair of golden eyes set into the stern face of the leopard-like creature focused suddenly, paying attention to me, and the creature took a step forward, a furred paw dripping with enough seawater to be considered rain on whoever would be beneath it, but when it set it down, there were no waves, as it's paw seemed to merge with the water seamlessly.

As I was so focused on this, I didn't notice the change in ratio, as the creature was now only 16 hands tall, (4') trotting through the shallows towards me leisurely. It was a beautiful creature, perfectly proportionate, being twice as long as it was tall, with the boxed skull that was reminiscent of the Tigers of India, which I'd seen in a caravan in Gibraltar, once.

It approached fearlessly, and began to trot around me, ramming it's head against me in a clear demand for attention, and I blinked slowly at the familiar activity. "You wouldn't happen to be my friend, Cleo, would you, dear?" I asked quietly, petting the ears the way she liked.

She purred deeply, a coughing roar of volume that nevertheless calmed me. "And now you can hear me... isn't that nice? I've a few thoughts, as to my temple being rebuilt... stone, this time, so it cannot burn."

I laughed and patted her head. "I cannot afford Stone, my dear, but I'm happy to know I'm not crazy, and you are some sort of Supernatural creature... it certainly explains how you eat the way you do."

She chuffed and laid down on the sand. "You are a Lord, now. A Knight! You are soon to be more capable of building things, I'm sure of it... by the way, the Queen is sending a letter to the Pope. I've commanded Cardinal Birchwood to make My crew the messengers. More money, renown, and a chance to season up the Boy in the Mediterranean, and take him to Rome to meet the Pope... all good things."

I chuckled. "Your crew?"

She glanced at me, and seemed to smirk. "All that I See is MINE, Benjamin. Remember that."

I smiled and laid next to her, leaning against the silky fur. "I will, Cleo. Now let me get some sleep? I have to teach a boy how to be a Salt come morning."

She laughed softly, and her massive feline form wrapped itself around me, creating a wall of fur and purring to send me back to sleep.

—

"Well... that explains some things." I heard Reginald's voice, and cracked an eye in his direction, finding it full of fur. My hammock was creaking dangerously, as the massive cat from my dreams was here in real life, until she slowly shrank down into Cleo, though her coloring was a little different, now, with larger spots of dark grey over white, like a miniature of her larger form.

"Good morning, Reggie! Sleep well?" I asked, sliding out of the hammock and pulling my coat on in a single movement.

"Better than I thought I would, for several reasons, but it could've been better, that's for sure..." He shook his head.

"Good! Grab a cup of grog and a biscuit, and we'll begin your lessons on being a proper Salt!!!" I laughed enthusiastically, and grabbed my breakfast, a piece of hardtack and a cup of the water, ignoring the watered-down rum that was an essential part of most sailors' lives, Grog.

He sniffed the cup, and reeled back. "Rum? We're to get pissed in the morning? Is that truly a part of being a sailor?" He frowned saucily at me.

"No, it's just so you get your inner soups, according to the doctor! It's made of fruit, you see, and fruit is in low supply for a ship on a long voyage, so you must eat fruit and bread to survive, yes? How to do it? Drink a cup of grog a day!" I explained. "Also, if this stuff gets you pissed, watered down as it is, then just drink it at night, before bed!"

He hummed, and nodded. "I see the wisdom in that, though it seems a thinly veiled reason to drink alcohol all day..."

"Oh not veiled at all, being drunk is part of being a sailor, for most. I myself don't actually drink alcohol very often; last night was the first time in several months, in fact. I spend my rations in port buying myself fruit, which is why I'm always out of money." I explained truthfully, and tossed back the food and water, urging him to do the same.

He nodded and chewed the bread obediently, drinking water instead of the grog, then sipped the alcohol, to test the taste I supposed. He made an appreciative face, and hummed. "Better than it smells, actually, not nearly as rough as that stuff last night..."

"Ah, Yes. Harsh, the stuff of nightmares. It's thrice-distilled, designed to make even a drunkard pissed as a dog in a single cup. Tastes nice, though, if you let it sit on the tongue." I grinned, teasing him, and led the way up the steep stairs.

The sun was just barely peaking over the horizon, giving us a perfect view of the dawn as it turned the sky orange and purple. Cleo hopped off my shoulder, pouncing behind a barrel, and I smiled when she came out holding a pair of fat rats, and sat down to eat them.

"Well done, my dear." I nodded, and turned towards my cabin, with all my maps and such.

"Of course, I accept your offering of live food, though I'd prefer a nice shark or two..."

I paused, and turned my head. "That... is a little unsettling..."

Reggie nodded. "You've never heard her before, hmm?"

"No... anyway! My cabin is here, it's where all my maps and charts of the sea are, I'll teach you what I know as we sail, and the cabin next to it, that's the hospital, Doctor Cole's office!" I showed him the two doors, along the small hallway towards what should've been the captain's quarters; instead, as the owner of the ship was aboard, he'd taken the captains quarters and the medical room, knocked down the wall, and built his laboratory here, leaving the two smaller rooms that were meant for the navigator and the first mate for the captain and I.

He gasped at the collections of glass test tubes and specimen jars full of odd and otherworldly creatures and organs, and other stuff that I didn't quite understand, (being only an apprentice of Doctor Cole's, and newly that, even,) and I placed a hand on his shoulder when he reached for something. "The doctor doesn't allow anyone to touch anything in here. I advise against making him angry. Trust me." I shook my head, and led him out, closing and locking the door behind me with the keys.

"He doesn't seem quite so dangerous as all that, the Doctor." He shook his head, chuckling sarcastically.

"Mm. Many have thought so. None for long." I patted his shoulder and walked around him, as he puzzled over my meaning. "Now lets get you started with the basics: how to tie a proper knot." I grinned at his exasperated sigh.

—

Many hours of semi-grueling manual labor later, I perked up, stopping his questions with a raised finger. "Do you hear that?" I asked softly.

He narrowed his eyes, and then knelt, touching the bulkhead. "People on the top deck? Should they not-"

I drew my short sword off my belt, holding it out to him, hilt first. "Don't get too close. Use the pointy end."

He gave me the rudest expression I'd ever received, and drew a long dagger from the back off his belt. "I'm well aware of how blades work, Benjamin."

I drew my own dagger off my belt. "Good. Don't try to prove it." The steps got closer, and men shouting to each other now in other languages, muffled and garbled by the wood layers between us. I stepped up to the door, and waited for a moment, as I heard a man come closer.

The door opened slightly, and I slammed my shoulder against it, throwing the man back into the opposite wall and stabbing at his stomach, until a hand the same size as mine gripped my wrist. I twisted instantly, throwing the owner onto the ground and stabbing downwards at his throat, stopping just short of killing him.

"Ah... Cardinal Birchwood. Good to see you, I suppose! In the future, when you board a ship, you stand on the Gangplank, and bellow quite loudly, 'permission to come aboard'? That's so we don't assume you're pirates or thieves." I grinned, and stood up, sheathing the dagger.

He chuckled and accepted my hand, standing up easily. "Yes, I imagine that's a worry any sailor would have, on a Ship this large and expensive... how ever did you manage a first-rate three-decked ship that isn't in the Royal Navy, Doctor Cole?" He asked, looking behind himself.

The doctor shrugged. "I had her built. Either way, Benjamin, get the lad to work hauling in these boxes; the Cardinal has given us a message to deliver, and we depart at low tide."

I blinked, and looked at the Cardinal. "The message from-"

He cleared his throat. "I imagine Lady Cleopatra told you of the message, but it's contents and recipient are very private."

I nodded. "Right, then! Reggie! Start helping these poor land-lovin' dogs get the cargo stowed proper!!!" I barked loudly, and he exited the cargo hold slowly, handing me my saber.

"Uh... Alright, I can do that." He nodded.

"That's 'Aye, Navigator, Sir'!!! Naval Etiquette will be the next thing you learn, boy!!!" I barked again, and smacked the back of his head swiftly, sending him up the ladder to the top deck.

His father grinned, nodding. "I can already see the improvements you'll be making to his character. Well, I'll be furnishing your ship with a variety of necessities, including weaponry and ammunition. Such as..." he opened the box the man who I'd tackled had dropped, and handed me a six-shooter revolver, a weapon I'd only seen in the colonies, and accompanying higher-up naval persons.

I hummed, turning the wheel slowly to see all six slots, which seemed ill-formed for pouring powder into, given the open ends. "I don't quite understand... the bottom is open."

He nodded and handed me a small brass cylinder, with a lead tip. "There's the bullet. The doctor will explain more, as I must be getting back to the Order. I've been gone too long already." He shook my hand and climbed the ladder with a surprising agility, up and gone in a matter of moments.

I hummed and looked at the 'bullet', placing it into one of the holes in the wheel, and pressing until it clicked into place, flush with the firing pin. "I see... the powder is inside... these could be loaded in the rain, couldn't they?" I grinned.

Doctor Cole nodded. "That, and even someone untrained in handling black powder could make it work relatively easily. Now go make sure our apprentice isn't screwing anything up, Hmm?"

I laughed and tucked the pistol into my belt, behind my saber. "Aye, Doctor."

—

I opened my eyes, finding Cleo staring at the two cats that the captain had brought with her, when she'd boarded after the cargo was aboard. "Sigh... Cleo, leave the pissing contest, please? We cast off in a few hours..."

"I am not arguing with them. They are ladies' pets, and they have much information to give about the Ladies of Court. After all, you require a female to suit your new status and give you kits, do you not?" She glanced at me.

I sighed, leaning back into my jacket-pillow. "No, Cleo, I do not 'require a female'."

"Would you like several?"

I rubbed my face slowly. "I'd like some sleep."

"Hmph... granted." She snorted at me, making me raise my eyebrows, and then my eyes rolled back as I was tossed into a vivid dreamscape, of the Ironheart on the Atlantic, it seemed, in the center of a hurricane.

I smiled at the beautiful sight, from the moon beaming down through the Eye, and the walls of wind and rain and lightning. Most men would be afraid of such a sight, but I was only enraptured by the raw beauty and power of Nature.

It was soothing, sitting in the crow's nest and listening to the wind, the rain, the breaking waves against the hull, and the thunder. I found myself falling asleep to the sound, paradoxically asleep inside my dream.

—

Introducing Reginald to the Captain was another amusing experience. I'd told him much of the Captain; her exploits, that she was a hard, but fair Captain, but I still don't think he expected her to be a female, or to be stunningly beautiful.

As the doctor's daughter, she was a redhead, nearly as tall as me, (taking after her mother, no doubt,) nearly as old as me, and just as sturdy. She sported the muscles any sailor developed with no issue, but they didn't detract from her statuesque beauty, in most people's eyes. She wore a standard Naval Captain's garb, that of a thick leather coat over woolen clothes for warmth, with nice silver buttons and other expected frilleries, though no undue decorations.

She raised an eyebrow at him slowly, as he stared at her with his mouth open, the hand he'd extended to shake and frozen there, when she'd turned to answer him. "Greetings, Sir Reginald Birchwood. I am Captain Adrian Cole III, Captain of the Ironheart. I understand you're to be my father and Benjamin's apprentice, learning medicine and cartography?" She shook his hand, gripping tightly, and the pain allowed him to speak.

"Oh! A firm grip... seems to be normal around here. My apologies for staring like a Luddite, I was quite surprised, Lady-"

"Captain will do, boy." She interrupted sternly, gripping even tighter.

I could hear his knuckles grinding, now, and I cleared my throat. "He might need that hand." I muttered when she glanced at me.

"Hmph." She released him and turned back to my desk, where I was plotting our course to Rome.

"My apologies, Captain..." he glanced at me, looking for a queue, it seemed.

"Make yourself useful, Reggie, fetch me that compass." I pointed at a metal disk on the other end of the desk, and accepted it when he hurriedly handed it to me.

The Captain wasn't done with him, it seemed, as she glanced at him, and hummed. "How old are you, boy?"

He stood up straight, clearing his throat. "17 summers, Captain."

"17? And a member of the Clergy... are you a virgin?" She asked bluntly, and placed a small X over Gibraltar. "Pirates spotted in Gibraltar, on both sides of the Gate..."

He frowned. "I don't see how-"

"Bad luck to have a virgin on a ship." She explained, glancing at me.

"Aye, True, but he's a Priest." I shrugged helplessly.

"True..." she hummed.

"I'll have you know, I have-!!!" He stopped, frowning at us both and blushing, his white hair and porcelain skin making it more apparent.

"Have what? Did you kiss a girl in the halls of the church, and confess afterwards?" I smirked.

"Our Order does not restrict men and women from copulating, thank you!!!" He snapped.

"Ah, then he's likely to have some sort of experience. He's got a pretty face, and the white hair is nice." The captain nodded.

"Mm. I'll take him to a whorehouse in London, then, when we stop for water." I hummed.

She nodded. "That seems best. Or just introduce him to Jaime. He's her type."

I hummed, thinking about the captain's clerk, a beautiful dark-haired woman from Greece, who had a bit of a reputation for liking inexperienced lovers. "That'll do... lad, go next door, to the captain's office, and introduce yourself to Jaime." I smirked at him, and he stomped out, muttering in Latin.

Adrian laughed, and smacked my hip sharply. "She'll have words with you about that, you know."

I shrugged. "She'll have words with you, if she decides to be offended."

She grinned and shoved my shoulder. "Is that right?"

I grinned and pushed her back, pulling my sleeves up. "That's right! You got somethin' to say about that?!?"

Her eyes slowly narrowed playfully. "Ohhh, you don't want this game, Ben... I'll win."

"Bring it!" I smirked, waving her forward arrogantly.