Withstanding Trials: Day 8

Word Count: 48,032

Summary of Events:

Aodhán felt improved after a good night's sleep, although he didn't feel fully back to normal come the morning, but he nevertheless went down to Finscéalta to have breakfast before wandering down to the waterfront and looking at the ships, from the large navy gunships to a small, damaged old fishing boat that was beached and unseaworthy. A boy approached him as he was looking at the little boat and explained that the boat was his father's and his father couldn't afford repairs to the vessel, which had been damaged in a storm, especially now that he couldn't use it to bring in money by fishing…

Excerpt of the Day:

Aodhán nodded looking at the vessel, then looking at the boy, whose clothes were definitely well-worn, with patches overtop of patches, as well as looking a bit short for a boy of his height and limb-length.

“Where is your father?” Aodhán asked.

“Over there, sir,” the boy replied a little nervously.

“Could you take me to him please?” Aodhán asked.

“Yes sir,” the boy replied.

Aodhán followed him over the sand and up onto a dock where a man whom Aodhán guessed was at least twenty years his senior was working on mending some crab cages that had undoubtedly had hundreds of thousands of crabs pass through their openings.

The man saw them coming and looked at Aodhán with a measure of suspicion, but he nevertheless nodded politely.

“Good morning sir,” Aodhán said. “Your son tells me that vessel is yours.”

“It is,” the man replied.

“I can see for myself that it isn’t seaworthy,” Aodhán said. “Your son says that you ended up having an accident in a storm, and now you lack the means to repair the vessel.”

“That is true,” the man replied.

“If it is acceptable to you, I would be willing to fund your vessel’s repairs,” Aodhán said.

The man looked surprised and perplexed. “That’s very generous of you, sir, but what I really should have is a new vessel entirely, as I can’t catch enough fish in that vessel to make the profit necessary to care for my family.”

“What size of a vessel would you need?” Aodhán asked.

“I don’t really know specifically,” the man admitted. “But there’s a man up the pier who’s not got any sons or grandsons to man his vessel with him, and he’s getting too old to go out on the seas, so he’s looking to sell the vessel, but he wants two thousand bearta* for it, and even if I were able to sell my vessel I wouldn’t have half that money, not even if she were seaworthy and I got a year’s worth of good catches before I sold her.”

Aodhán nodded. “This vessel, I would presume, is larger?”

“Over twice the size,” the man replied. “And even if two thousand bearta is a lot of money, it’s less than building a new one the same size as the one that I have.”

Nodding again, Aodhán wondered which vessel he’d passed was the one the man was talking about.

“If it is acceptable to you, sir,” Aodhán said. “I would be willing to purchase the vessel for you.”
The man’s mouth dropped open and he stared at Aodhán. “You cannot be serious.”

“I am,” Aodhán replied. “I have the means to, and I have no desire to see suffering continue that I can bring to an end.”

“How much will I have to pay you?” the man asked.

“Nothing,” Aodhán replied. “Unless you were to consider my taking ownership of your little vessel a payment.”

“But that’s not even half the cost if it were seaworthy!” the man protested.

“I am not seeking recompense,” Aodhán replied. “I would simply like to be of help.”

*beart (pl. bearta) is the currency of O'Enne, divided into 100 píosa (pl. píosaí)