The Chronicles of Tenroha

Chapter 28

Chapter Twenty-eight

Tor-kenna and the twins had been hunkered down in the bowels of the ship, hiding the best they could from the crew. There were many goats and sheep near them to help hide any noise that they would make. Tor-kenna spent a lot of her time as a rat and would sneak through the ship to find food for herself and the twins.

She had just returned from the galley of the ship with a loaf of stale bread. The loaf was too big for her to drag through the holes that led to the hiding spot, so she took the form of a raven and flew out a porthole in the galley and returned to the ship through another porthole that was closer to the where the twins were.

Food was not that hard to get, but getting enough water to drink was difficult. They would often fill their cups from the same troughs that the goats drank from, but every so often, at night, they would get milk from a goat that had given birth the day after they set sail. They had to be careful not to be caught, because the ship's crew took advantage of the milk from the new mother as well.

It was hard for the kids to tell how long they had been aboard the ship. For the first few days, Joel's stomach gave him problems. The smell from his retching made it difficult for them to remain where they were, so they had to move around to other spots in the belly of the ship to get away from the smell and to not get caught, before they found their current location. Joel's stomach had finally settled down as he became used to the rocking of the ship caused by the waves of the ocean.

They lost count of how long they had been at sea, but could guess that they had been aboard the ship for nearly a fortnight. They couldn't see any of the portholes from any of their hiding spots, so they had to rely on what Tor-kenna would tell them, whether it was day or night. It was the evening of their thirteenth day aboard the ship and Joel had gone off to relieve himself while the crew ate their evening meal above deck.

He had just finished dumping the bucket that they had been using out one of the portholes in the side of the ship. He turned around and started to return to his hiding spot, but he saw a man standing at the base of the stairs leading up from the cargo hold. He panicked and began to run as the man shouted out to the others above deck.

The man started to chase after him. Joel's panic driven run startled the animals below deck and they began to sound off loudly. The noise from the animals made it hard for Joel to hear the man getting closer to him. Joel changed directions many times trying to out run his pursuer and lose sight of him before he made his way to their hiding place.

Joel, believing that he had lost the man that was chasing him, ducked through the opening behind the animal stalls that led to space at the rear hull of the ship. He stepped on Tor-kenna's rat tail as he entered the hull. She squeaked loudly and he motioned for them to be silent. They moved to the furthest place they could away from the opening. The opening was small enough that a grown man would not fit through. It was dark in the hull, but they could see a man's hand reaching through the opening.

He began feeling around the hole with his hand, but felt nothing but wood. Tor-kenna pounced on his hand and began biting him over and over. The man pulled his hand back and shook it violently. Tor-kenna was sent flying into the cargo hold behind him. The man withdrew his hand from the opening and chased after the rat. Jessie and Joel could hear him stomping the floor at Tor-kenna.

They heard the man yell out as Tor-kenna ran up his leg and began biting his face before he threw her off of him again. She scurried back through the opening and returned to the twins. Her mouth and whiskers were covered with the man's blood. She was breathing hard and the twins could see her heart beating in her tiny little chest as her ribs heaved in and out while she tried to catch her breath.