Sailing Away RPG

[Encaitare]

Reggie took a cookie and began munching on it, shivering in his wet clothes. Oh, how he envied Sassy, standing there assertively, and also decidedly dry.

He wanted to feel empathy for her, he really did. After all, he was never included in the original plan either. But a little sister? He didn't have any of his own, but most of his girl cousins were always an annoyance. The younger ones were always running amok through Brandy Hall, acting as though they owned the place and bugging he, Bingo, and their friends. And the older ones were even worse; they were all superiority and smugness, calling them naughty boys when all they were really doing was something like trying to sneak mushrooms from the kitchen or getting mud all over the parlor. Yes, girls certainly were bothersome.

But still... he had been in the same position as Sassy just a short time before, although he hadn't been met with as much resentment from Bingo as Sassy appeared to be getting from Sondo.

Ugh. If anything could be said for girls, it was that they caused nothing but trouble, and a sideways glance at Bingo, who was shaking his head disgustedly, told Reggie that his brother certainly agreed.

[Child of the 7th Age]

Bingo exchanged a meaningful glance with his brother and then moved quietly off to the side. He said nothing aloud, but only stared stubbornly at his toes with a blank expression masking the real feelings that lay underneath.

Confound it all! he ruefully mused. What kind of an adventure was this? First, he had been dumped in the water, and now there was a girl threatening to come along with them! As far as Bingo was concerned, the addition of a girl could only bring trouble. What if their journey involved danger and excitement? This Sassy character would probably sit back to wimper and complain while cowering in the corner and insisting that the older lads protect her.

Bingo had always avoided meeting the younger sisters of his friends, and Sassy was no exception. The few experiences he'd had with lasses had not been good. They had giggled at him for being shy and awkward, or even because his neatly mended clothes weren't up to the standards they had set. One of his eleven-year-old cousins had insisted that Bingo do all her errands and chores since she was too busy with other important things. As he and his brother were dependent on the charity of her parents, Bingo had grudgingly complied with all these requests, even the most outrageous and nonsensical. From what he could tell, this Sassy had a sharp tongue about her and would probably threaten to complain to Master Saradoc about Reggie and himself in the same rude way that she had browbeaten her own brother.

All the other lads had taken a cookie, but Bingo kept his hand deep within his pocket refusing to be swayed by the girl's all too obvious attempt at bribery. He walked over at Sondo and grudgingly assented, "If she's coming with us, let's go. Can't we all get back on the raft and start sailing again? I'm tired of sitting around and doing nothing. We'd best get going, or the day will run out before we find a good place to camp and cook our supper."

Bingo stepped back on the raft and curled himself up in a small ball at the very edge; he hoped that Sassy would find another place to sit. Bingo's stomach was growling loudly. He had missed second breakfast, but he wasn't about to suggest a stop for lunch. He only wanted to leave this place and hope that better things awaited them further down the river.

[Kitanna]

Marroc could handle being knocked off the raft. He could handle being soaking wet. He could probably even handle meeting unpleasant folk on this adventure, but he couldn't handle Sassy coming along. He had sisters of his own who annoyed him. Now someone else's sister was here to bother the hobbit lads.

All the others were grumbling and complaining. Reggie seemed to be the only one who had any sort of sympathy for Sassy. Marroc was about to go retreat and ignore Sassy's existance when the cookies appeared. "There's enough for all of you." She said holding out a plate of cookies.

Marroc moved closer to Sassy and took a cookie. Marroc was changing his opnion of Sassy already. Could someone who offered them cookies be all that bad? "Thank you, Sassy."

Marroc continued to munch, thinking maybe this wasn't so bad after all. It was not like the raft couldn't support. She was small and light. But then again what if she was a whiner like Marroc's sisters. They'd all just have to wait and see.

[Firefoot]

Sondo felt a burning desire to slap his sister. She was right, of course; he could not send her home - yet. They were just close enough that a party of hobbits would be able to ride out after them and bring them home before the adventure really got started. He was stuck with her. He would not, however, let her boss him around like she just had. He was older, stronger, and smarter, and on top of it all, she was a girl!

Before he had time to tell her off, Bingo came around and reminded him that they needed to be moving on. Sondo agreed; they had wasted a lot of time already. They needed to be far away by sunset. He began issuing directions: “Someone tie the oilcloth down again - we need to start sailing again. But leave the blankets out, so everyone can get dry and warmed up. Then everyone get on board the raft - I’ll be there soon.” He realized that he was quite chilly, now that he had stopped moving around. The day was warm, but not warm enough for a swim and wet clothes.

He turned his attention back to Sassy, who had begun to move triumphantly toward the raft. “Come here,” he instructed. She looked at him, and then very deliberately turned around to face him, as if it were solely by her decision that she listened at all. Sondo gritted his teeth, and when she was close enough he grabbed a small handful of her hair and held tightly. “You listen to me, you little brat,” he hissed. “First of all, I am the leader of this expedition, not you. I did not invite you along, nor do I want you here at all, but since you have decided to come along you are now under my leadership since I am the leader here. You will come with us for a while, because we are too close to home. Yes, too close - you can be home probably before tomorrow morning, and then you will send hobbits after us. But know that I will have no qualms about leaving you somewhere up ahead if you cause trouble. Then where will you be? You won’t be telling Da anything, then. When we get back and he asks where you are, I will say that you weren’t with us, or if you were you must have been hiding and were lost with all of our supplies when the raft tipped on the first day out. Got that? You are in no position of power over me or any of the other lads here, and being my sister will afford you no special favors. I won’t be taking any sass from you. Now, come on.” He released her with a shove and strode briskly toward the raft, stopping only to untie the rope lashing the raft to the shore. In this time Sassy boarded the raft.

Sondo shoved the raft off into the river, and they were once more sailing the Brandywine. He was in a foul mood, and after picking up a blanket for warmth he selected a corner of the raft and plunked down, dangling his legs in the water and gazing with unseeing eyes back upstream. For the moment, the others left him alone with his thoughts.

It was not that he hated his sister. Usually he was rather indifferent to her, except when she tried to tag along with him, in which case he sent her home without fail. He supposed it was this rejection that had led her to stowaway, and this did not put him in a better mood. Why now? Why did she insist on trying to go along with him all the time? Weren’t there any nice hobbit lasses her own age to play with? Aptly named little spitfire, he thought, as if it were a curse. Why wasn’t she docile like all the other lasses who played with dolls? Too bad she hadn’t been born a boy. She wasn’t usually this bad, and he didn’t even really mean it about leaving her someplace; he had mostly just needed some grounds with which to hold some power over her, and he wasn’t even sure she believed him anyway. Not that he was any less mad at her. Did she want to make him miserable and annoyed at her? Perhaps. He stared broodingly at the passing shores and wondered why his adventure was not like the ones in stories. Those heroes did not have to worry about tag-along little sisters. Then he vowed that she would not ruin his adventure. Would not. As far as it was in his power, he would even ignore her.

With false cheer, he got up to join some other hobbits in conversation.

[Nurumaiel]

As Sondo moved to join the others, Falco stepped in his way and gestured for him to sit down. Falco sat down as well, and he was silent for a few moments. Every so often he would glance at Sondo, or at Sassy, or down at the water. At last he spoke, slowly and quietly, but with a very clear ring of annoyance in his voice.

"Look here, Sondo, I thought this was a good idea to start with," he said, "and I still think it has some promise. But you can't deny that things haven't come off to a wonderful start. Mind you, I'm not questioning your leadership, but I am saying that there are some things that should, and need to, be improved." He glanced over his shoulder at the other boys. "First, you need to get a better hold on the other boys. The raft tipping wasn't a good thing, as I'm sure I don't need to tell you. You really need to sharpen up, Sondo."

Falco realised, of course, that it was not Sondo's fault that the raft had tipped, but he had a vague idea that the leader was responsible for all under his command, and what was laid to blame upon them should also be laid to blame upon the leader. Anyway, Sondo had to be told that the adventure wasn't starting well. Falco did not break it gently, but told it exactly as he saw it. Sondo appeared annoyed and perhaps slightly angry, but he was too used to Falco's manner of suggesting improvement and giving advice to fly into a great rage.

"The raft was bad enough," said Falco. "Everyone was scared ('Except me,' he thought). Sam thanked me very humbly when I fished him out. If that's not a sure signal that they were scared, nothing is. Besides losing morale and running the risk of mutiny - " whereupon Falco drew himself up a little with pride for using such exceptional words " - we've also lost some supples ('I think,' he added to himself... he wasn't sure if they had our not... he hadn't exactly been paying attention). But I was willing to put up with that because we're not a bad set of boys and I think we can re-coop-i-ate well and trudge on. But this business about your little sister is going much too far."

"I spoke to her," said Sondo, through slightly tight lips. "She won't cause any trouble if she knows what's good for her."

"I don't care if she causes trouble or not! Her mere presence is trouble. Do you think she's going to keep quiet when Sammy starts saying sharp and grumpy things? Eh? Mind you, I'm not trying to insult your sister. I think she's a fine little girl in her place... but this isn't her place."

"I can't send her back," said Sondo. "Unless you want to be caught... and whipped..."

Falco pondered over this for a moment. "Very well," he conceded. "I suppose we can't send her back. But things have come off to a bad start, Sondo. Really they have."

"Do you think I'm not capable of being leader?"

"No, no, I wouldn't say that," said Falco, after some hesitation. "You're capable of it. But, like I said before, you need to sharpen up. And you need to keep an eye on that sister of yours." He paused for a moment, and then smiled in a comradely way. "I'm not trying to stir up trouble," he said, "and I'm not thinking of mutiny myself. I just wanted to give you a little advice... before the other boys started giving their opinions by deserting and... and... mutiny-ing."

[Primrose Bolger]

Sassy swatted at one, or most probably more, of the little gnats that hung in clouds along the riverbank this time of day. They were buzzing near her ear, threatening to chew on the tender parts. And really the sound of them was becoming more annoying than the buzz and hum of Sondo’s words as he scolded her. She hadn’t really been listening to Sondo as he talked. In fact, she had tuned him out as soon as he started his declaration. ‘First of all, I am the leader of this expedition . . .,’ he had begun. ‘Well of course you are,’ she thought to herself, squinting up at him in the sunlight. ‘You’re Sondo. You’re always the leader.’

She kept her attentive face on as he went on. It was a well practiced face, used mostly for times when her Ma or Aunty or one of the twins felt it was time to ‘take the young lass in hand’ for something. She opened her eyes wide and looked toward the person speaking, a look of sincere attention on her face. Then she’d let her mind wander, being careful to keep one ear tuned to the scolder’s voice. This time she was looking at the pools and eddies that lay along the river’s bank, thinking about what her Gammer had taught her about fishing. The gnats were hatching and she could just see where fish were rising to the surface to feed.

‘. . . and being my sister will afford you no special favors. I won’t be taking any sass from you. Now, come on.’ She caught the change in the pattern of his speech and brought her attention fully back to him. He’d shoved her a little, toward the boat, and she trotted aboard eagerly, glad that he was done talking. She was on the raft, out in the open, with the others! A part of the adventure!

The others on board seemed to ignore her, for the most part. But she was used to that, that’s how it was at home, too. Though . . . she looked slyly at two of the younger boys, Reggie and Marroc. They weren’t exactly overly friendly, but at least they weren’t grumbling about ‘girl’ and ‘little sister’. Maybe she could be pals with them. She looked toward her brother who seemed to be cornered by that Falco fellow. He looked sneaky, Falco did, to her. And some of the things he was saying sounded pretty darned whiney, though truth be told she couldn’t hear all his words. Sondo had that set look on his face. ‘Not gonna get anything by MY big brother,’ she muttered smugly, thinking to herself this was one of those people you didn’t want to be around too much. He looked like trouble to her.

With a shrug, she shouldered her pack and walked carefully to one side of the moving raft. The gnats she noted, were less bothersome now that they were on the move. 'Just like Gammer said,' she thought to herself. For a few moments she stood looking at the water. Sassy poked about in her pack, looking to find the fishing line she’d brought. Once found, she measured out several arms length, and taking her little scissors from her vest pocket, she snipped off the length. One of her uncle’s hooks was soon deftly tied on, and a bit of linty apple from her breeches pocket stuck on the sharp point. She plopped herself down on the edge of the raft, tucking her feet beneath her. Reggie’s brother was there, curled in a ball, and she could hear his stomach rumbling quite loudly. Tying her line onto the handle of her spoon, she trailed it out into one of the eddies as they passed near it. No luck with the first one, or the second, but the third cast was luckier, and a plump little trout caught the apple with its hidden hook and was soon pulled aboard, wriggling and slapping against the wooden surface of the raft.

‘Hey!’ cried Sassy, delighted with her catch. ‘Any one fancy some nice crispy fish for supper?’ She looked round with a grin on her face. ‘I’ve more line and hooks if you want to give it a try.’ Sassy cast her little line out again, not really expecting an answer . . .

[Boromir88]

Rory was usually the foolishly optimistic, slightly ridiculous, member of the hobbit lads, but he doesn't understand why Sassy was allowed to join. Just her name spelt trouble. Rory had his own tattling sister, and if Sassy was anything like Mirabella, he was going to have an awful time; he just knew it.

When the cookies got to him, Rory didn't want to attract attention, so he decided to pull one out. He gave it to Reggie, "Here you can have it, I'm not that hungry." somehow Reggie wasn't convinced. He could hear Rory's stomach grumble. Reggie still took the cookie and munched it down.

Rory went and sat down staired into the murky water. Why did he come? He was having no fun, not only that, but he was going to be in serious trouble when he got home. Rory didn't get depressed very often, and when he did, he always got out of it rather quick, but it's hard to be cheerful when everyone around him is moping around, with frowns on their faces. The only ones that were happy, were the ones congradulating Sassy for the cookies, and that only made things worse.

Then when Sassy caught a fish, Rory only grumbled more. Eventhough he didn't know Sassy very well, he kept thinking of his spoiled brat sister, Mirabella, and how much trouble she's gotten him into in the past. He just thought of Sassy as a show off, trying to win all the hobbits' affection. "She isn't gonna win me over, I don't care how many fish she catches." He said, then he thought he might have stated it rather loud, and was afraid some of the hobbits heard him....