Sea Stories

Once upon a time, something happened in a certain town. This town lay on a bay that, through a narrow mouth, led to the open sea. This mouth held special significance for the town's inhabitants. Thanks to it, even during a raging storm, sailing ships could safely rest in the bay, awaiting their next voyage. The town was a crossroads of trade routes. There was a large port, one might say disproportionate to the size of the place where it was located. All kinds of goods brought by ships were transhipped here. The town wasn't particularly large for a point of such strategic importance.

A boy lived here. He was sixteen years old. He loved listening to all kinds of "sea stories." He longed to experience such an adventure one day, one that he could proudly tell everyone about.

Early one evening, the boy, strolling through the harbor, admiring the beautiful ships, noticed a notice hanging at the entrance to one of them. He had no trouble reading it, as his mother, a teacher at the local school, had taught him the skill. His father was a shipwright and worked on the port docks.

The boy read from the note that they were looking for a young person with sailing skills and courage. He had to apply directly to the captain. They accepted applicants from the age of sixteen. "This is for me," the boy thought. A voice spoke in his soul, urging him to take up the challenge. A shiver slowly ran down his spine. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His heart began to beat faster. In his mind, he imagined himself fighting pirates and finding their treasure. He felt that the moment had come when he had to decide what he would do next. Would he stay in town and help his father repair ships, or would he now set out into the world? He had made his decision. He had made a manly decision. He decided that if he managed to get aboard this sailing ship, he would leave everything behind and set off for adventure.

He was about to step onto the ship's gangplank when he heard a hoarse call behind him. He turned. In front of the port inn, the Crooked Rumple, sat an old man. He wore worn, dirty clothes. A captain's cap, adorned with a gold anchor, sat tight on his head. His gray hair, like his beard, peeked out from beneath. His left eye was covered with a patch, like a pirate's.

The man waved for the boy to come over. Without hesitation, he did so. The closer he got, the louder the noise coming from the inn became.

"Hello, boy," the man said cheerfully as the boy approached.

"Hello. Why are you calling me?

" "I hear you're the one who loves listening to stories, especially those related to the sea."

"Yes, it's me," the boy replied confidently.

"I have a proposition for you. You buy me a meal, and I'll tell you a story, one you've definitely never heard." A glint appeared in the old man's steel-blue eye. The boy hesitated for a moment. He put his hand in his pocket and pulled out three coins. "Enough for him and me," he counted in his mind. "

Okay. It's a deal, but if it turns out I already knew this story, you give me your hat." The man's expression darkened. He lowered his gaze, then raised it. He stared at the boy for a moment, then smiled and rose. He was no taller than the boy. The old man and the boy shook hands in agreement.

They entered the inn. Inside, a stray fiddler was cheerfully playing a lively tune, to which some of the guests hummed. The sailors were playing cards, laughing and sipping beer. The mood was idyllic. A smile spread across the boy's face. Flames from oil lamps hanging on the walls cast a flickering light. Smoke from the pipes of more than one guest rose heavily.

The old man and the boy took their seats in the very corner of the inn. The younger man insisted that the man begin his story, but he remained silent. A woman with a wart under her eye approached them and, smiling, asked what they wanted. The old man told them what he wanted to eat. When the boy heard how much it would cost, he didn't order anything. They waited in silence for a moment, listening to the sounds of the inn, before the food arrived. The man ate a bite, washed it down with beer, and then began.

"It was about forty or forty-five years ago...

" ***

"Did I bring everything?" was the first thought that popped into the young boy's head. He had black hair and steel-blue eyes. He slung the sack over his shoulder and slowly began descending the stairs to the exit. He walked quietly so as not to wake his parents. He tried to step on the nails, making as little noise as possible. The first step… the second… the third. He'd forgotten that the fourth was slightly cracked, because that morning he'd jumped on it, and the sound of splintering wood had echoed throughout the cottage. The boy groaned in pain as his leg became stuck in the hole he'd made. His heart was pounding. He stood for a moment, listening. He heard movement upstairs.

"Who's there?" his mother said in a worried, yet sleepy voice.

"It's me, Mom," he replied, trying to keep his voice natural.

"Where are you going?

" "Uh...where the king walks," he lied, a bead of sweat forming on his forehead. He gritted his teeth and tried to pull his leg out of the hole. This time, to no avail.

"Then don't make so much noise!

" "Okay. " Sorry – when he heard the sound of his parents’ bedroom door closing, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Finally, he pulled his now pain-free leg out of the hole and went down to the exit. He grabbed the doorknob. He started to open the door, then hesitated. He turned his head. He looked into the dark room. Only the cracks in the shutters let in the bright rays of the rising sun. He lowered his gaze and pressed the handle. Stepping out, he whispered, "Goodbye."

He set off down the street leading to the harbor. He heard the men on the sailing ship called the Wave Runner shouting orders. He started running. He stumbled, but didn't fall. With a burst of momentum, he jumped onto the walkway, bending it like a diving board, and the boy almost fell into the water. On the deck, he bumped into a figure. It was the captain.

"I'm sorry," the boy blurted out in a breathless voice. He stepped back a little and wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve.

"I thought you weren't coming," the captain said calmly. He was a tall man. He wore a beautiful white uniform and a cap with a gold anchor. He stood erect. He wore white gloves. His right hand was tucked between the buttons of his uniform, Napoleon-style. With his left, he motioned to the man writing down the list to cross off the boy, then bent it at the elbow and placed it on the small of his back.

"I apologize for being late, but...

" "I didn't ask you what happened. Now go below deck and find your place. I can't show you where it is, as I have guests to receive. You come here!" the captain shouted to the other boy, who seemed to be the same age as the one who had run up. "Show your friend his place."

"Yes, sir!" A smile appeared on the other boy's face. He was blond. He had green eyes. His build seemed stronger than the brunette.

"A good boy. I hope you'll be the same!" the captain smiled at the new crewman.

"Yes, sir!" he saluted and smiled back.

"Well, you're a quick learner." You'll be a force to be reckoned with. Now go.

The boys got to know each other. They went down to the room below deck. There were plenty of hammocks hanging there. Someone's bag of belongings was already lying on each one. It was quite dark, as the only light came through the open doorway.

"This hammock is yours," the brunette's new friend informed him, pointing to a spot at the end of the room.

"Have you been sailing long?" the boy asked after throwing his bag on the hammock.

"This is my second voyage with this captain. I signed up a month ago.

" "Did you run away from home?

" "No, I just had nowhere else to go." The blond looked down at his foot, which he had begun to move in circles. He was silent for a moment, as if considering what to say. "I saw a notice by that sailing ship that they were looking for crew, so I signed up." He raised his head, not looking at the blond, but at one of the hammocks next to him. "And how did you get here?" He glanced quickly at his friend, then back down at his foot.

"Are there many young people like us here?" The brunette asked, as if he didn't want to hear the question he'd been asked.

"Not just the two of us. Let's go. I'll show you how." The blond quickly headed for the exit, and the brunette, after a moment's thought, ran after him.

***

"The sun was already quite high in the sky, but it was probably six in the morning. The guests who had rented cabins for the journey were just beginning to arrive. Their luggage was being packed. The senior watchman gave us orders. We were to clean the deck of mud carried in from the street. We grabbed buckets and rags. We began washing up. Meanwhile, the sails were being raised and the mooring lines were being cast off. The ship was slowly sailing away. I was just dousing the deck with water when I saw a woman running into the harbor. I recognized her as my mother… Tears welled up in my eyes…" The old man paused. He fell into thought and stared at a knot in the wooden wall of the inn. The boy, listening to his story, remained silent, not interjecting. The man slowly took a sip of his beer and continued. "I looked away. I sank heavily to my knees and furiously began scrubbing the now-clean deck. I held back tears.

***

And so the voyage passed. Every day the boys scrubbed the deck and served the guests. They ate their meals in the crowded crew galley (kitchen), where they also told stories and sang sea shanties. They slept a few hours a day. The boy quickly grew tired of this life. He wanted to go home.

One day, the sun, as it had for several days in a row, rose golden. It promised to be another hot day. Nothing indicated any change. The sailor, who had dozed off in the crow's nest, lazily opened his eyes. He yawned and stretched. Something on the horizon caught his eye. He peered out, shielding himself from the sun with his hand. Finally, he remembered he had a telescope. He saw through it…

"Pirates! Pirates!" He raised his voice and waved his hand in the direction they were coming from.

The bell, the one that tolled the glasses (the hour), began to ring the alarm. The sound of rushing sailors echoed through the ship from all directions. The entire crew ran onto the deck. Suddenly, it became incredibly crowded. However, they quickly organized themselves and distributed weapons. Orders were issued. The boys found themselves in one of the guns below deck on the starboard side. Together with experienced sea dogs, they began loading the cannons. The pirates pursued them for two hours before the order was given to fire. A series of loud explosions could be heard. One by one, the guns from both ships fired successive bursts. The next gun was quickly reloaded, then another, then another… The boys heard the noise from the deck. The pirates had boarded. They heard the groans of suffering. Everyone below deck ran to the surface to help their comrades. The boy grabbed the saber he had been assigned. He didn't know what to do. He ran after everyone. Hooks with ropes were attached to the sides, as were walkways across which the pirates had run. One of the masts of the Wave Runner was broken, and its remains floated in the water. Corpses lay here and there. The red color of blood stung the eyes. A fierce battle was raging. Someone attacked the boy, but he managed to avoid the blow. He saw someone else attack his blond friend. He ran to his aid and killed the attacker. Before he knew what he had done, his friend said, "Thanks." He turned around. At that moment, the brunette felt something sting his eye and someone threw him overboard into the water. His clothes and shoes immediately soaked up water and began to drag him under the surface. He desperately tried to swim up for a breath of fresh air. In the meantime, he managed to remove his shoes, which made him feel lighter. His injured eye began to sting terribly. Salt seeped into the wound. On the surface, he grabbed a plank. He barely managed to climb onto it. He couldn't do anything more; all the sounds coming from the ship faded away. The boy fainted from the pain.

The brunette woke up just as someone was washing his injured eye and applying a bandage. Then he groaned in pain. The touch on his face faded. The boy opened his good eye. He saw a painting of angels above him.

"Am I in heaven?" he asked himself in a dazed voice.

"No, you're not," a beautiful, pleasant female voice answered. Surprised, he tried to stand up, but he couldn't. The face of a wonderful girl appeared above him. She was young. She had silver hair and beautiful green eyes. She had strange, tattooed markings on her face.

"Where am I? What are you doing here? What happened?" the boy asked, surprised. He hissed as his hand touched the bandage and frowned in pain.

"You know the answer to a third of these questions," the girl smiled. "You're in a city you won't find on any map, a place where all treasure hunters, all those with evil intentions, want to go.

" "So where am I anyway? I'm not a treasure hunter, I'm... I was an adventurer..." The brunette closed his eye and tried to control the pain.

"You're in a city forgotten by the world, sunk in the depths of the ocean, a vast expanse of water. The city Plato wrote about, the city with a volcano." The girl slowly smeared the strange ointment around the boy's sore eye. He felt a slight sense of relief. He wasn't so tense anymore. He was slowly desoldering.

"Who was Plato?

" "Oh, boy, whatever your name is. Apparently, knowledge of the world isn't yours. Plato was a Greek thinker, and you're in Atlantis," the strange stranger continued in the same pleasant voice.

"Atlantis… I've heard of it before… it's a city that was sunk by a volcano…

" "Yes," the girl smiled. She took the boy's hand. He felt himself growing stronger with each passing moment. He rose and allowed her to lead him.

The girl led him to the city center. It had low buildings made of a stone the boy was unfamiliar with. Colorful lanterns were everywhere, and flowers unknown to anyone on the surface stood in the windows. The boy looked up. His breath was taken away. Above him, about fifty meters away, was the sea. He saw a swarm of fish, behaving as if they were a single animal, swimming by. He looked open-mouthed at the other people. They all watched him with great curiosity. They looked just like the girl who had healed him. Each person had silver hair and strange tattoos on their faces.

The boy and girl reached the city hall. They passed through a corridor decorated with gold and precious stones. Marvelous paintings of mermaids and sea monsters dazzled the eyes everywhere. The girl ordered the boy to kneel on the purple carpet. He did so. Suddenly, a colorful light appeared, illuminating the ornate throne, which had its back to them. The boy raised his head slightly, eager to see what was happening. The throne began to silently rotate. Sitting on it was an even more beautiful girl than the one who had led him. She also had silver hair and mysterious markings on her face.

"Who are you?" she asked in a soft, melodious voice.

"I'm a crewman from the sailing ship 'Wave Runner.' We were attacked by pirates, and I ended up where I am. I don't know how..." He trailed off.

The Queen said something to the girl in a language the boy didn't understand. She bowed and showed her the hat. The boy recognized it as his captain's. It was proof that he wasn't lying. The Queen ordered it back to the boy and clapped her hands. After a moment, he saw a blue light before his eyes. He felt himself growing drowsy. He fell asleep.

He awoke as people were pulling him from the water onto a boat. It turned out to be the crew of the sailing ship Atlantis. The boy found his way aboard. After eating the sumptuous meal they offered him, he told the captain of the ship what had happened to him. They deliberately omitted the fact that he had been in Atlantis. Perhaps this was because at first he thought it was just a dream and didn't want to be embarrassed? Much later, he realized it was true. He had the old captain's hat and an eye patch with him.

***

"...and that's how this story ends, boy," the old man concluded, finishing his beer.

"Are you telling me you were in Atlantis!?

" "And yes, I was..." the old man added after a moment. "I haven't told this story to anyone before...

" "So why did you tell it to me?

" "Because I saw you trying to sign on to that ship. Did you notice its name?

" "No..." the boy frowned, feeling embarrassed that he hadn't done the obvious. He stood up and walked to the window at the other end of the inn. By the glow of the setting sun, the boy read on the stern of the ship:

"Wave Runner II."

The End