Page 105 of Found at Sea

“What?” I laughed and shook my head. “Be gone with you. I have a lot of resting to do. Captain’s orders.”

Kellan’s smirk turned to a full on smile and he pulled me in for another kiss before taking his leave.

I might’ve been only a little dishonest about the resting. Not wanting to spend the day cooped up in the room alone, I dressed and went down to the tavern. There weren’t many patrons that early in the afternoon. Some men appeared as if they hadn’t even gone to bed yet and were still on a drinking binge from the night before.

I ordered ale and sat with my thoughts for a while.

It seemed like a whole other lifetime when I’d worked in Ned’s tavern, cooking meals and serving drinks. Back before I was press-ganged to join a pirate crew…before I fell madly in love with the captain.

I smiled at the memory of me smashing that man upside the head with that pitcher of ale. That one action had set in motion all the ones that came after it: all the laughs, fears, happiness, grief, and love.

“You look lost, boyo,” a gravelly voice said.

Jumping at the sudden voice, I looked to my left and saw an old man. There was familiarity to him, but I couldn’t place why I felt that way. A patch covered one of his eyes and deep wrinkles lined his face.

“Pardon?”

“Lost,” he repeated, and the way his one pale eye watched me was unnerving.

“I’m not lost,” I argued, still feeling the prickling sensation that I knew him from somewhere.

“Sometimes being lost doesn’t have to be a physical place,” the man said, holding my gaze just as he held my attention. “It can be of the mind. Losing one’s way in life doesn’t mean you can’t turn around and follow a different path. If you so choose. One must remember that when lost…your heart will guide you home. Stay true to its deepest desires, and your heart will never lead you astray.”

It was then I noticed the necklace he wore; a piece of what looked to be sailor’s rope with a shell dangling from the center. And not just a shell, but a conch.

Before I could say anything, he stood from the table and walked away.

“Wait!” I called after him.

He didn’t look back, and soon, he turned a corner and I lost sight of him.

I was in a state of shock and confusion as my head spun. The words…I’d heard them before. My throat tightened and I wheezed out breaths, trying to calm down but only succeeding in doing the opposite.

“You have spirit. Good. You’ll need it in the world of man and among the men who aren’t men,” the old timer in Ned’s tavern had said the day before my life drastically changed. “If you’re ever lost…your heart will guide you home.”

I didn’t know what it meant—seeing him again—but it felt like a sign. The conch around his neck couldn’t have been a coincidence either.

Hope blossomed in my chest, and I left the rest of my ale untouched before standing. I needed to find Kellan. He would fight me at first, but I hoped that after hearing what I needed to say, he’d stop being so thickheaded and listen.

Please listen.