Chapter 54 - Side by side

Sandy the Pleiosaur approached the little fishing boat.  It was an incredible sight.  She swam around them, circling them a few times before slowing down.  This caused the boat to spin, but nobody on board minded.  Narteb looked up and saw the bushy bearded fellow in the driver’s seat.

“Good job, Bushy Beard!”. called out Narteb.

The man nodded his head.  He seemed a lot friendlier than before.  It must have been the ‘Pip Effect’, thought Narteb.  Everybody loved Pip.

Speaking of Pip, here he was, at the bottom of the leather ladder on Sandy’s side.  He had a rope tied to one of the leather straps and he tossed the other end to Narteb, who used it to pull the little boat in.

“Hiya,” said Pip.

“Salutations,” said Narteb.

“Picking up some extra passengers, are we?” smiled Pip.

“Bethany,” said Narteb, “This is Pip.  Pip, this is Bethany.  I’ll tell you all about it later.”

Pip helped them get up the ladder.  When all three had finally made it to the top of Sandy’s back, they plunked himself down on the first available seats.  Narteb stretched out and then sighed, saying, “Phew!  And now I will take a nap.”

“Fine,” the Bushy Bearded Fellow called out,  “You do whatever you like.  But now we go to Kuma!  I’ve had enough waiting around for you lot.”

He pulled on the reins and Sandy began to turn and soon began swimming in a direction Narteb assumed was towards Kuma.

“By the way guys,” said Pip, “The Bearded Guy’s name is Bento.  And he’s not quite as big a jerk as we thought.”

“Hi, Bento!” said Narteb.

“Hello, Bento,” said Skaife.

“Greetings, Bento,” said Bethany.

Bento growled.  It was a fairly good natured growl, and they all chose to interpret it as a positive noise.

“Well,” said Narteb, “I am so sleepy!”

He went up to the closest empty seat, got cosy, closed his eyes and fell into a slumber.  When he finally woke up, it was nighttime.  It felt like he had been asleep for hours; he felt so refreshed.  Narteb could hear the quiet muttering of two voices, Pip and Bethany, chatting together in some deep conversation peppered with chuckles.  Narteb looked around.  Bento was fast asleep in the back, and Skaife was sitting alone at the front, in the driver’s seat.

Narteb stood up, stretched out his arms to wring out the sleepiness from his body, and then went to the front and climbed into the seat next to Skaife.

 “Had a good rest?” she asked.

“I feel so refreshed,” said Narteb.

She smiled at him.

Narteb looked at her.  Seeing her sitting there in the darkness, her face illuminated by the starlight, with the sea wind blowing wisps of hair over her face, he admired how beautiful she was.

Perhaps she knew what he was thinking, because she gazed back into his eyes, smiling.  For the rest of the night, they didn’t say much to each other.  But the observant would have noticed that they both leaned in and sat closer to each other.  Close enough that their warm bodies pushed against each other.  The wind blew fairly stron gthat night, but Narteb none of the cold.  All he felt was the heat coming the person next to him who was hotter than the Sun.