The Medieval Marine - S01 E03

Story 18 hours ago

The Medieval Marine - S01 E03

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 3

This got the ladies moving. Over the next few hours, they worked harder than they ever had in their lives, the dead were stripped of anything useful, even their clothes. All the loot was put in the carriage for transport. While the ladies were busy with the dead, Luke rounded up some of the horses. They had enough for each of them to rid their own horse and to have a spare apiece. On William they found a number of gold coins and some silver ones as well. This was added to the money that was being carried in the carriage. After Luke rounded up the horses, he began to dig a mass grave for the dead and place them in it. He had also policed his brass. He thought that with his knowledge that he might be able to make reloads, plus he wanted to leave as little evidence as possible. Finally, everything was finished and they still had about two hours before nightfall, so Luke set up camp away from the road, in a clearing next to a clear stream.

As he began to set up, Cecilia and especially Marion were immensely curious. They had never seen gear like this before. Sure, they had seen satchels and tents before, but never made of this strange material. Luke got a fire going, and then started boiling water that he collected from the stream. Now the lady's curiosity overrode their lingering fear.

"Why are you boiling the water, Luke?" asked Marion.

"Just making it safe to drink. By boiling the water you kill off the microorganisms, in the water, that can make you sick

"Microorganisms?" asked Cecilia

Yep, microorganisms are organisms that are too small to be seen by the naked eye, but make no mistake they are there and the wrong ones can kill you" explained Luke.

"Sounds like you speak witchcraft or heresy" stated Cecilia. She was devotedly religious. "God alone decided who dies and who lives." Through this Marion wasn't sure who to believe. Although the things that Luke said made absolutely no sense to her, what reason would he have of lying to them over something like this. Luke must have been in a good mood however for he wasn't offended by Cecilia's rebuttal. He actually looked amused.

"Well, Cecilia go ahead and drink the water straight from that stream then, and when you do eventually get dysentery don't complain to me about it. As far as witchcraft is concerned, stop being insulting for there is nothing magical about anything I do for I am an engineer."

"You're that confident that we would get sick from that water?"

"Maybe not the water from that stream but why take the risk."

"I have a couple of questions for you Luke." Marion continued when Luke nodded toward her "what does "don't" mean, and what is an engineer?"

"Oh, sorry about that. It is a speech difference from my homeland. Sometimes we would take two words and make them one. Doing this makes specking more efficient. Don't is actually do not. When this is done it's called a contraction. It's, is actually it is."

"Wow that is more efficient."

"And an engineer is someone who designed things to be made, or figures out why something failed, or figured out how to make things easier."

"Interesting, I have never heard of an engineer. So, another question for you, where is your homeland?" Marion was determined to learn everything that she could about Luke.

"Well, originally I came from an area called Wyorning, but now I live, well lived in an area called Alaska."

"I have never heard of either of those places."

"That doesn't surprise me for they are very far away. Across the western sea.

Marion wasn't sure of what to ask next. She wanted to know everything about this man but she could sense that he was hesitant to talk about himself. She sat next to him by the fire and like him just stared into the flames. Cecilia had started her evening prayers by now.

"Are you going to say your evening prayers, Luke?" asked Marion.

Luke gave her a weak smile. "Sorry, I don't pray"

"You don't believe in God?"

"Nice use of a contraction, Marion, and to tell you the truth, no i don't. I never have for I have seen more destruction and suffering caused be differing religious beliefs then you could ever imagine. I do believe that you have the right to believe what you want and you have the right to peacefully practice your beliefs without interference, but I could never fallow something that allows Interference, but I could never follow something that allows Innocent children to be tortured and killed of no reason at all, or that preaches that half the human population are inferior because they were born as a woman."

"Maybe their torture was all God's plan for them; and woman are inferior to man after, all Eve was created from Adam and it was Eve that got them kicked out of the garden."

"Ya sure, "God's plan". I've been hearing that all my life and every time someone says that, it is usually to cover up for either them not caring or they were the guilty party. Problem with the Adam and Eve theory is that there is absolutely no proof that it happened and I find it ironic that the "first people" had European names. Plus, this sounds just what it is, a story that men use to keep woman subservient to them, makes me sick."

By now Luke had a faraway look in his eye. Marion realized that is his mind, he was somewhere else entirely and he was. Luke had traveled back to his time spend in Iraq and the death he had seen firsthand that was caused by people's differing bellefs, and these weren't even beliefs in different gods, just different ways of worship. In his mind's eye he also seen women that had been burned with acid or hot oil because they did something to "offend" their family. He seen what happened when men used their position to "marry" young girls and the horror inflicted on the girls. Eventually Cecilia got done with her prayers and came back over. Luke shared some of his food with her. He had lost his appetite. Anything he thought about his time in Iraq he lost his appetite.

"Something bothering you?" asked Cecilia "You barely ate anything."

"Just some very bad memories of a place that I was in for a time. Nothing for you two to be worried about."

Eventually Luke stood up and stretched, Marion and Cecilla were almost asleep sitting by the fire. "Well ladies, you two should get some sleep. You two can sleep in my tent and I will sleep against that tree so I can keep watch."

"But we cannot sleep were you sleep. You need the sleep as well protested Marion.

Luke just gave a look and told her "Shut up and get in the tent, both of you. Make sure to take your dresses off before you lay down so that you don't damage the bedding." Both Marion and Cecilia knew that they wouldn't win this argument so they did as Luke told them.

They were amazed by how soft and comfortable Luke's bedding "But we cannot sleep were you sleep. You need the sleep as well" protested Marion.

Luke just gave a look and told her "Shut up and get in the tent, both of you. Make sure to take your dresses off before you lay down so that you don't damage the bedding." Both Marion and Cecilia knew that they wouldn't win this argument so they did as Luke told them. They were amazed by how soft and comfortable Luke's bedding was. It was simply the most luxurious thing that they had ever laid on. Within minutes both had passed out. Luke sat outside and kept watch all night. He would doze off of ten or fifteen minutes at a time. He would then wake up, look around and then doze off again.