The Truth

I opened my eyes. There was a hand on my shoulder from behind me. I turned around looking for the dagger next to me with my right hand. Relief, it was only Garlo.

"Come on Rolf, the captain wants to speak with us."

I rose up, put on my leather vest I had taken off before I fell asleep and stepped out of the tent. It was already bright outside and the sun was shining. The storm had left us and there was no wind. All of the sailors were gathered around the central campfire where the captain was standing, accompanied by his officers. Alot of the men were discussing between eachother, although I could not hear what they said. Me an Garlo went to the front, almost next to the captain. It didn´t take long before the captain started speaking.

"Men, there are some very ill news I am forced to tell you. It seems that there has been a mutiny on the ship..."

Many of the men started mumbling, some started shouting towards the captain in disbelief and anger.

"There has been a mutiny on the ship and we are now stuck on this island, whether you like it or not"

The captain needed to raise his voice with every word as the men started arguing and shouting even more.

"It is essential that we would not be disheartened by this. We must find a way to first survive and then get out of this place. Luckily we have quite a few tools from the first boats that landed and enough food to survive for some time. If we do not work together as a crew, we will not survive, remember this when you do your jobs. I have given my officers orders of what to do and they will gather you up and give you your tasks. We need to get some housing built in the next days. Some of you need to scout the surrounding area for food and anyhting useful, make sure it is safe to be here. I want Rolf and Garlo to stay with me for a moment."

The captain looked at us with a surprisingly happy face.

"Alright men, youre free to go and do whatever you wish to do, however the officers will get to you very shortly and start giving you your tasks. Let´s get working"

At that moment, most of the men were quiet, only a few discussing the situation we were in. Then, someone from the back shouted:

"Do we still go under the Flystornian kingdom?"

"Ah yes, Flystorn. But you tell me, will we work for the traitors that abandoned us. I say no! What do you say?"

"NO!", all of us shouted, and headed off towards our tents. Me and Garlo, as requested went towards the captain. Garlo approached the captain.

"Captain, you wanted us to talk with you"

"Indeed, I want you and your friend to go with Tinore," he pointed at an officer talking with some of the sailors, " and search the surrounding areas and see what you can find there. I understand that you," he looked at me, " are very good at geology and all those sciences, so you would be perfect for this kind of task"

"Yes, captain." I replied looking at Garlo and the captain. Garlo nodded to me and asked the captain if that was all. The captain nodded his head and started talking with one of his officer who had stood behind him.

I was walking back towards the tent with Garlo, when he said.

"I think the captain trusts you already"

"I´m not so sure about it. He looked at me like he was sacrificing me to the snakes, like they do in Korsäld"

"No, it is nothing like that. We will be fine, besides others will most likely start cutting trees and getting firewood and everything like that. You are not meant to do physical work anyway."

"I guess you are right. Let´s go to this Tinore now."

"Yes, but first I need to get something from the tent."

I followed Garlo to our tent. He took his sword, the lovely double-edge sword he had inherited from his father few years ago. Atleast thats what he told me. I followed his example and took my own sword, not as fine as Garlo´s, just a small gladius, but still my sword was sharp and deadly. I would like to say that I was really good in swordmanship, almost as good as Garlo. I also decided to take some bread with me as I had´nt had any breakfast until then. Garlo waited for me, and we went together towards the tent where Tinore was. Tinore was a really friendly person. I had spoken with him during several nights when I couldn´t sleep and he was on nightwatch. He comes from Urlad, not that far from my own home village. He was quite short, barely reaching Garlo´s chest. Unlike many men from Urlad, Tinore had blonde hair, shoulder-length. Apparently for the landing he had worn his best uniform, a blue coat with the white diagonal, showing his unmarried status. For whatever reason, even in the navy, the Flystornian standard said that unmarried men must always have a white diagonal on their formal clothings to show their status. The blue coat had his Lieutenant markings and he also had a sword, similar style to the captains sword, with a similar curve although his scabbard was much less decorated, which is understandable ofcourse. Tinore was also one out of two officers who didn´t wear white trousers. His trousers were brown, just like most of the ordinary sailors did. That is also why alot of the sailors liked Tinore.

Tinore saw us coming already, and turned toward us.

"Garlo and Rolf, right?"

"That´s right, Lieutenant"

"Very good. We will be going to the east and scout the area."

"Yes, we have already been told"

"Ah, okay, that is good then. I guess you´re ready to go."

He called a few other sailors so there were 6 of us total- me, Garlo, Tinore and three more sailors. We started walking towards east, into the unknown and we did not know what we would face infront of us. As we were leaving the camp, many looked at us. Some had already started with their tasks, just as Garlo said, taking down tress and collecting firewood.

We entered the forest, which reminded me the moment when I left the beach. It felt so long ago and yet it was only last night. It was dense, Tinore hacked away some of the plants with his sword to make a way through and so we went on through the forest.