Coming of Age

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-FxZYT2rxE

Coming of Age

The wind was blowing so hard that it almost knocked Servus off the edge. Because of all the gears and metal inside his deceptively slight frame this was no small feat. However, this also meant that he struggled with balance a little more than most people his size, which was a problem when he was hopping over a series of platforms hovering over an endless abyss of sky.

“Are you okay?” Tommy asked, as Servus regained his balance. He nodded, almost looking a little annoyed. Maybe Tommy was hovering a bit too much, but this was important to both of them. And maybe also a little irresponsible.

When he had turned sixteen, Remus has taken Tommy here to Lazahr, a reality filled with sky and swashbuckling adventure. There, he’d performed a coming-of-age ceremony that involved undertaking a series of tasks that culminated in arriving at a monastery high on a floating mountain. The first step was to make it to the mountain in the first place by crossing a series of rocks made of what the locals called “fluxite.” They were pretty small rocks, and he’d almost fallen once or twice.

Maybe that’s why he was so worried for Servus now. Being mostly mechanical, Servus would never actually turn sixteen, but he’d made so much progress lately as he’d started traveling with Tommy, and once he’d found out about the damn thing he was so insistent on doing it.

Though maybe this had all been a bad idea. Well, there wasn’t much Tommy could do about it now, except cringe every time Servus made the leap from rock to rock. He couldn’t help looking down at the abyss below and feeling a little scared himself, and he was a grown man not unused to physical exertion.

Servus almost tumbled again as an airship passed by far below and the air pressure hit just a second later. Up till this point Tommy had been hanging back a bit, but now he hopped to the rock just behind him. “Maybe we should go back…” he intoned.

“I can do this.”

For a second, Tommy was taken aback. He sounded angry. It was a new emotion for him. As if to demonstrate, Servus hopped forward once, twice, three bounds, the rocks sinking a bit under his weight with each hop. He over corrected a bit on the last one, pinwheeling his arms to avoid falling backwards. But he easily righted himself and gave to Tommy what appeared to be a rather sarcastic thumbs up.

Tommy sighed. He had no idea how Remus had just sat back and watched him do this. This was almost the harder job he was pretty sure. He had to relax. If he was anxious, it would just make Servus more so.

And yet, maybe there was a reason for his nerves, and in the end, it didn’t turn out to be Servus.

Far closer than it should be been, a sizable galleon suddenly shot directly above their heads, chugging along as full speed. Tommy knew what was going to happen a split second before he felt it. He leaped over to Servus just as the tailwind hit, so strongly that Servus never stood a chance against it. He flailed wildly, but it caught him and wrenched him towards the edge.

Tommy leapt to grab his hand, and though he managed to grasp the cold flesh with his own, it was far too late. Servus tumbled over, and with all his mechanics, he unfortunately weighed more than Tommy did. His boots skidded over the rock as he tried to pull the boy back, but it was so smooth from so many years of use that Tommy lost purchase and tumbled right after him.

The wind rushed past them as they fell, but Tommy barely noticed. He was too busy staring at Servus. Because for the first time, he actually looked human. The expression on his face had an unmistakable flavoring of terror. He didn’t scream, or flail, but looked back up at Tommy, seemingly pleading that he knew what to do.

The truth of the matter was that Tommy didn’t have a goddamn clue what they should do. Splat, he supposed, at some point. But luckily, he didn’t have a chance to start really panicking.

Just below, a ship came into view, sprinting ahead to meet them. And Tommy found his answer.

“Brace yourself,” he said simply, and Servus had just enough time to glance down before they both tumbled through the sails with a series of unfortunate ripping sounds.

There was a very loud thump as Servus hit the deck, and a slightly softer one as Tommy fell after him. It took them a solid minute to locate each other and pull off the mangled mess of sails.

“You alright?” he asked, and Servus nodded, though a bit hesitantly. He looked genuinely shaken.

“Damn,” was what he actually said.

Tommy chuckled, and ruffled his hair. “Looks like we got real lucky.”

“Well, that depends,” came a new voice, and the last layer of sails were unceremoniously ripped away, “primarily on my mood.”

Tommy and Servus looked up only to be greeted by an assortment of pistols and one very large sword pointed directly at them. Ah, these were pirates, weren’t they? It wasn’t necessarily a death knell, but pirates could be an unpredictable sort. Tommy opened his mouth, hoping to smooth things over, even if just by explaining the circumstances, but that turned out to be unnecessary.

The man with the sword—big coat, feathered hat, directly in front of them—broke out in a grin like he’d just told a really funny joke. He sheathed his sword and the rest of the crew behind him followed suit. “It seems you’re really lucky, my friends,” he held out his hands to both of them. “As it turns out, I’m feeling pretty generous.”

Hesitating, Servus glanced over to Tommy. But the last thing they wanted to do was piss a pirate off. So he took his one hand and allowed him to help him to his feet, and Servus did the same.

On Tommy’s end, the grip turned into a rather firm handshake.

“Captain William Dowd, a pleasure,” the man introduced himself. “This here’s my crew, and you’ve just so happened to come plummeting down onto my ship, the La Belle.”

“I’m Tommy, and this is Servus.”

“I’m afraid I must apologize,” looking a little bashful, Dowd turned to Servus. “You were undertaking the trials, weren’t you lad? It seems it might be thanks to us that you fell.”

“Your fault?” Servus asked, looking confused.

“Aye. That ship whose tailwind you got caught up in was a merchant vessel we were chasing. They were probably so panicked that they didn’t even see you down there.”

Servus stared at him, blinked a time or two, then turned back to Tommy. “See?” he said pointedly.

Tommy sighed. “You’re right, you probably would have made it, were it not for the fact that we were almost killed.”

He glanced back to Dowd. “Well, thanks for the catch and all, but could’ja maybe drop us back off at that island? Our, uh, ship is back there.”

Some of the crew-mates had already gone back to work, but of those that remained, each exhibited a rather… interesting expression.

Dowd once again looked almost apologetic. “Unfortunately, if I did all that, I may have a mutiny on my hands.”

Internally, Tommy groaned. How did he always end up in these situations?

“You see, we’ve been chasing that ship for almost a week now,” Dowd explained. “That’s what La Belle’s designed for. We’ve packed her full of so much fluxite she’d be liable to explode if we didn’t have the best engineer in the sky.” He gestured behind him to a rather muscular woman in a tank top. “So we can outlast pretty much any vessel out there. We chase ‘em away from any ports, out into the wilderness, and then just wait for them to run out of power.”

“So what does that have to do with us?” Tommy asked, and Servus nodded.

“Like I said, we’ve been chasing this fish for nearly a week. Another two or three days and we’ll have her. But if we double back now we’ll never catch back up. I do feel terrible about the whole affair though, so tell you what: you hang around until after we’ve claimed out booty, and we’ll take you back then.”

Tommy supposed that they didn’t really have a choice, but he wasn’t the one that needed to be convinced. “Well, kid,” he turned back to Servus, “I know this isn’t the adventure you wanted…”

But Servus just shrugged. “Pirates are cool.”

“Then I guess it’s a deal.”

~ o ~

Of course, neither Tommy nor Servus were the type to stand around, so they both quickly found ways to make themselves useful. The rest of the crew were highly impressed with just how strong Servus was, and so he spent much of the rest of the day hauling around big crates and cannonballs. At one point they made of game of betting just how much he could carry at once. Servus didn’t quite seem to understand how much he was entertaining them, but he looked like he was having fun anyway.

Tommy set about repairing the rips they’d made in the sails, and later on helped make dinner for the crew. “You sure know a lot of womanly skills,” one of the older, seedier swabbies commented, before being backhanded by the engineer.

“Well, a man’s gotta know how to take care of himself, right? It’s a lonely sky out there.” Tommy thought that would be an appropriately rugged response, and was rewarded with a lot of chatter and pats on the back.

They seemed to finally be really sold with him that evening, however, when Tommy realized that La Belle just so happened to have a crate full of oranges on board that they’d swiped from their last catch. The cook told him to use however many he wanted, and so Tommy acted bartender to a host of increasingly rowdy, very drunk seamen. Cowell would have been proud.

At first, he’d been a little worried about Servus, sheltered as he was, surrounded by thieves and murderers, but they seemed really taken by him, telling him drunken stories of their exploits and answering his numerous, if slightly simplistically worded questions.

Which meant that Tommy finally got a quiet minute to relax.

“A rather harrowing venture it’s been for you two, eh?” Tommy looked up from where he’d been staring out at the sky, only to see Dowd ambling towards him, drink in hand. “Specially with a child, round these parts.”

“Yeah, well, when I told him about the trials thing, he wouldn’t stop asking to do them.”

“Is he your son, brother?” Dowd joined him in leaning on the rail. His hat had been abandoned somewhere, and without it, long, somewhat curly hair taken by the breeze, he looked younger than Tommy initially thought him to be. Something about that thought seemed a little off, though.

Tommy hesitated in answering him. “Uh, it’s complicated. We’re not brothers. He’s got a sister, but she’s… not really around much.”

“So you’ve taken him under the ol’ wing, eh?”

“I guess you could say that.”

“I must admit, I’m a tad jealous.”

“Why’s that?”

Dowd looked down into his glass and tipped his head back to finish it off. “I’m not usually this talkative,” he admitted, “but you’ve got me in a good mood. I’ve got a daughter.”

“Really? At your age?”

He smiled. “Looks can be deceiving,” was all he added. “Her mum doesn’t let me see her, you know, no respectable girl has a pirate captain for a father. I think she’d be just a bit younger than Servus now.”

“I’m sorry.”

Shrugging, he seemed to shake himself a bit. “It’s probably for the best. I’d make a shite father, really.”

“I don’t know about that.” Maybe the drink was affecting Tommy a little too. “You barely know her, but you still care about her anyway, right?”

“Of course. She’s my flesh and blood.”

“I’ve seen parents that think far worse of their children. So you’re already not the worst. What’s her name?”

“It’s Farrel,” he couldn’t help grinning. “It was my pick. Her mother didn’t like it, but it was the one thing she gave me.”

He didn’t say it, but the way Dowd’s eyes lit up when he spoke about her… it was a look that Tommy had seen from Remus sometimes. If he had been around, Dowd would have probably made a much better father than he himself thought he would.

“Oi! Captain! Come tell us the story of the sky whale! You always tell it the best!” One of the crew-mates called out, and Dowd chuckled.

“It weren’t no whale,” he said, sauntering over to where a few of them were sitting on some barrels, regaling Servus, “it was a fucking behemoth!”

They had found two space hammocks for the two of them, and as they finally decided to head for bed Servus was positively aflutter with stories for him. He seemed happy. That was good. At least this adventure was turning out to be a good one after all…

The next morning, however, brought some slightly unfortunate news. “Looks like the merch’s got more fuel than we thought,” the helmsman explained, looking more than a little green around the gills. “She’s showing no signs of slowing. Might go another day or two.”

Servus looked holy unbothered by this information. One of the deckhands had vowed last night to teach him how to use a sword and was now only slightly regretting that decision. On the other hand, Tommy couldn’t help thinking about how far from Matilda they were getting. Of course, she was locked up tight, but he couldn’t help thinking about all the things that could happen to her.

“It’ll be okay.” Tommy didn’t even notice Servus next to him, and was even more surprised that he had noticed how anxious he was.

“Thanks, man,” he ruffled his hair. “I know it will, but the reminder is appreciated.”

Luckily, as it turned out, Tommy had to wait less time than he thought. Right around midday he was at the helm, giving the helmsman a chance to finally sleep off that hangover, when the merchant ship they’d been following this whole time did something… unexpected. It started to turn around.

“Oh, blast it all,” Dowd shook his head when he saw. “She’s a fighter.”

“What do you mean?” Tommy asked, afraid he already knew the answer.

“Well, instead of going quietly, she’s on her last legs and has elected to try to take us down instead.”

“So, that’s bad then…”

At that very moment, the first cannonball whizzed over their heads.

“Could be worse,” Dowd shrugged, and then walked over to the stairs leading down from the quarter deck, drawing his cutlass. “Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to claim our booty!”

Dowd immediately started shouting instructions, but it seemed very few were needed, as the crew knew exactly where they should all be heading. The engineer and an assistant or two disappeared down into the engine room, while the deckhands grabbed onto various ropes, prepared to tug on the sails.

Everyone else scrambled to prep the cannons. There were three of them, each absolutely so large that there could only be two on each side at a time. Tommy nearly panicked as he saw Servus, who was hauling cannonballs along with the others, but he was distracted by an outburst of cussing. “Barlow’s in no fit shape to steer. Tommy, do you think you can do it?”

Tommy had a lot of miscellaneous skills from all of his time spent traveling. Sailing a ship happened to be one of them, but it was a skill acquired in two days when he was fourteen. “I can certainly try.”

“Atta lad. Try to bring us portside, slightly behind them if you can. Easier to hit them, harder to hit us.”

“Aye, aye, cap’n!”

With Dowd coordinating, Tommy, the deckhands, and the engineers below managed to use their smaller size to circle around, though the ship had taken several cannonballs. They were in no danger of taking on water, of course, but La Belle had a lot more mechanisms running through her core than your average pirate vessel, which made her almost more vulnerable to damage.

After a minute, two of the cannons had been pulled into position, and La Belle started to return fire of her own. Cannons like these were a bit cumbersome to load, since you had to pull them back to load from the front, but the pirates were so efficient at it that it seemed as if there was almost no pause at all.

Tommy was beginning to see some signs of panic over on the other ship. He didn’t know what they’d been expecting, trying to best a ship designed for combat.

But just when things were beginning to look rather one-sided, there was a commotion on the deck. Looking down it seemed that the wheels of one of the cannons had jammed, making it impossible to push it back to reload. Even with several of the crew-mates and Servus pushing together, it simply wouldn’t budge.

Dowd cursed at the sight. “I knew we should have replaced the damn thing last time we were landside.”

There was no way for them to finish the other ship off with only one cannon, and not enough time to circle around to use the other side of the deck. Besides, the jammed cannon was the only one that could reach their rival’s engine room.

“I’ll do it,” rang out a voice, and Tommy groaned. Servus looked entirely calm—more like unaware of the potential consequences, Tommy thought—and he almost ran down there to stop him.

“Tommy, we need to approach for boarding!” Dowd yelled, and Tommy swore under his breath. Even if he called out to him, there was no way Servus would stop. All Tommy could do was watch out of the corner of his eye.

They tied a bag of gunpowder and a rope around his waist and explained what he needed to do as they placed the cannonball in his hand. There might have even been a trace of nerves in his eyes as he prepared to mount the cannon.

Slowly, as cannonballs flew over his head, he shimmied down the body of the cannon. The gunpowder was weighing him down a bit, but luckily the long pole on the other side of his belt helped even him out. Even though it couldn’t have been longer than a minute, the amount of time it took him to make it to the end was agonizing.

Finally, dangling over the edge of sky, the wind pulling his hair every which way, Servus began his task. First came the gun powder. They had a mechanism to pierce the bag back on the deck, so all Servus had to do was chuck it into the pipe and shove it back with the stick. This took another minute, as he could only use one hand.

The other one was holding the cannonball, which came next. He almost lost his balance as he shifted his weight, but he managed to hang on and also push the ball into the hole. Servus grabbed the stick again, but this was going to take more force than the sack, so he raised his arms above his head to get more force behind it.

Until there was a deafening boom, and out of nowhere a cannonball careened directly towards him. With a sickening screech of metal it shot directly into—and then through—Servus’ arm, taking half of it with it on its way.

Servus barely seemed to notice as he forced the stick into the cannon, just before the crew-mates holding the rope dragged him backwards back onto the deck.

As soon as he was clear, the cannon fired for a final time. It flew through the vast air between them, blowing directly through the bottom of the far side, and a rather loud explosion and a puff of smoke let them know they’d finally hit the engine room.

It wouldn’t be enough to send her plummeting, but the ship stopped right in its tracks. However, nothing was going to stop Tommy from dashing down the stairs to where Servus lay, a little stunned. Dowd took the wheel himself, and butted the side of La Belle right up against their opponent.

“Alright, ye bastards,” Dowd called out to the crew, drawing his cutlass again. “Go and take what’s yours!”

He made to follow them, except that just then, on the other deck, a man in a nice coat aimed his pistol, and fired directly at him. Dowd staggered, clutching the side of his head, but this only seemed to embolden the pirates. They surged forth, and took that ship for everything she was worth.

It was over pretty quickly after that. The merchants surrendered once they realized their lives weren’t worth the struggle, and were promptly captured and dumped on the nearest inhabited island, and all their booty was taken on board La Belle.

At first, the ship’s doctor was fretting over whether to help the captain or Servus first, but Tommy quickly explained that Servus didn’t need a doctor, he needed a mechanic. The doctor looked skeptical until a second later when Servus sat up, blinked a few times, and looked down at the stump where he forearm used to be.

“Damn.”

Tommy was clearly rubbing off on him, and it might not have been in a good way.

The engineer was summoned, though it took her a further half-an-hour to emerge from below, where she was making sure there was no major damage to the engine.

She rubbed some grease off her face, and before they could really explain to her what was going on, she grabbed Servus’ stump, looked straight into it, and exclaimed: “By the beasts above, the lad’s made of gears!”

“Do you think you can… fix it?” Tommy asked.

“The arm? Well, it won’t be as pretty as the rest of im…”

“Go on and help the boy, Helena,” came a voice from below deck. Dowd emerged into the light, looking… totally fine. Too fine. His face was entirely unmarred without a bandage in sight.

“Alrighty then, lad. Come with me,” she took Servus by his still-intact hand. “We’ll get you fixed up right as rain.”

It obviously took a long time to do. Normally, the pirates would be headed to the nearest port town to offload their ill-gotten gains, But a promise is a promise. La Belle was headed back in the direction of Matilda, so they had plenty of time anyway.

Strange things happen when people are bored, and somehow this led to the crew huddled curiously around a barrel as Tommy prepared to give Dowd a Tarot reading.

He decided to keep it simple, no Celtic Crosses or anything like that. Just a basic three-card spread, and only with the major arcana. He didn’t have to go and explain the intricacies of the full deck, and the major arcana were the flashy ones, anyway. Tommy told Dowd to ask the cards a question, and Dowd half-jokingly asked what he should do with the money he was about to make.

Three cards were laid face-down on the barrel, and one by one Tommy flipped them over. First, for the past, the Emperor. “Well, the cards seem to think you’re already on top of the world, a great leader of men.”

“And they’d be right,” Dowd smirked, and the crew made some noise.

For the present, an interesting draw. “Temperance,” Tommy explained. “You should be moderate and miserly with the money. Don’t go spending it all at once.”

The crew didn’t like that answer very much. But Dowd looked thoughtful.

Of course, half of Tarot was about interpretation, but this old, worn deck—his father’s deck—always seemed to give exactly the answers it needed to. That was why Tommy knew what the last card was before he even flipped it over.

“The Lovers.”

“So the cards are telling me I should spend the money on a fine mademoiselle?”

But Tommy shook his head. “You could interpret it that way, but the Lovers doesn’t necessarily mean romantic love. If you ask me, and, well, you are, I guess I would say that the cards are telling you that you have plenty, and that you should instead focus on those you care about.”

The other half of tarot was about knowing your audience.

“Is that your professional opinion?” Dowd asked, his expression guarded.

“It is.”

Dowd looked like he might say something, when—

“Tommy, look!”

Servus had just emerged from the engine room. The engineer right behind him. Servus’ new arm was a combination of metal and wood, and contrasted the rest of his very human skin. This didn’t seem to bother him though, for as soon as he saw Tommy was watching, he punched straight through a nearby barrel. He shot Tommy the broadest grin he’d ever seen, but all Tommy could think of was the problems this would inevitably cause.

“Well,” he said, trying to change the subject. “I know this wasn’t exactly the adventure you were hoping for, but was it at least alright?”

“Better,” Servus decided. “Only… one thing…”

“What’s that?”

He pointed to Tommy’s earlobe, and when the crew looked confused, Tommy explained. “At the end of the trials you’re supposed to get an earring,” he futzed a bit with his own.

“Oh, is that all?” Dowd laughed. “Siddown, son. I’ll bloody well do it myself.”

“Are you sure?” Tommy asked.

“Lad’s a bloody hero.”

And with that, the adventure was rendered perfect. It was official. Tommy was the coolest big brother ever.