After leaving the Dark waters, Tan started to chare his time at the wheel more with Track and Vu. It felt nice to have Tan standing there when he worked on deck and Cole couldn’t help glancing over in his direction from time to time. Quite often he met Tan’s gaze when he did so. Cole wondered if that counted as flirting, or if it just was a shy behavior before the actual flirting begun. He had no idea, and honestly he didn’t know whether he wanted it to be flirting or not. It felt kind of weird to do something he didn’t know anything about, but at the same time, he kind of liked it.

Cole hung the washed clothes on a line tied between the foremast and the shrouds. At least he thought it was called the shrouds. It was a net of rope leading up to the mast, but he remembered Track calling it a shroud when he tided the line for him to hang the laundry on.

He had just hung the last of Tan’s clothes on the line when he heard footsteps behind him.
He was met with Tan’s smile when he turned his head.
“I hope the clothes I left for you fit?”
Cole nodded.
“Yeah. Quite nicely.”
Tan nodded and let his gaze follow the mast to the sails above them.
“Would you like to know the names of the sails?”
“I don’t know if it will do me any good.”
“It’s quite easy if you know the names on the masts,” Tan pointed to the front of the ship, “All sails attached to the jib-boom are jib-sails. Flying jib, outer jib and inner jib. Above us are the foremasts sails, so it’s the fore-sail, the lower fore-top-sail, and at the top is the upper-fore-top-sail … In the main mast is the main-sail, the lower-main-top-sail and…”
“Yeah. I’m afraid you’ve already lost me.”
Tan met his gaze and tilted his head with an amused look.
“I’m fully prepared to repeat myself until you got it.”
“Sure, but there is no way I’m touching those things anyway. My feet are not leaving the deck unless it is to cross the gangway.”
Tan chuckled.
“As you wish.”
He looked out over the water.
“I think we’ll arrive in Nara soon”, he added.
Cole turned his head and spotted a beacon similar to the one that showed the beginning of Dark waters. This one was green though.
“Are there a lot of different colors on the beacons and what do they mean?”
“The white ones marks borders to Dark waters, the green ones signals that we can go close to land and red ones means we need to stay far from land.”
“So green light means it’s deep and we won’t scrape the hull if we get too close?”
“Yeah.”
Cole nodded.
“Seems simple.”
“It is. Sometimes there is a yellow light though, and that means there is a harbor that will welcome ships to stop for the night. However, this was used by less honest people, so these days the yellow lights have no meaning anymore. Sailors only go for known harbors.”
Cole nodded.

When he turned his head he noticed that Tan had stepped closer.
“If you like, I can show you how to steer the ship. It’s quite fun.”
Cole’s gaze flickered to Track at the wheel.
“I don’t know. I might give it at try. It doesn’t seem that difficult. At least if I do the steering in open water.”
Tan gave him a smile.
“Absolutely. You just need to hold on to the wheel. There’s not much else to it.”
Cole nodded and looked at Track again.
In the corner of his eye he could see Tan gazing at his face. His heart started to beat faster, but he didn’t let it show. He kind of liked that Tan showed an obvious interest, but he was unsure about how to respond. He didn’t want Tan to think that he rejected him, but at the same time he didn’t want to rush in to something unknown too fast.

“Captain!”
Track’s call ended the tense situation.
“Seems we’re about to reach Nara”, Tan said before leaving to walk over to Track.
Cole turned his head and saw the city lurking in a valley between two hills.
He had never been to Nara, but he had been told it was part of a big trading rout. He could already see the forest of ship-masts in the harbor. Some ships were coming or leaving with their full assemble of sails up.
He only hoped no one would recognize him. He had not spent much time in harbors, but he was after all a prince of Orison. You could never be too sure.

Cole stood back while the others were busy tying up the ship to the pier.
He waited until they gathered on deck before walking over to them. Tan gave him a look before turning to the others.
“Vu can accompany Vock and go find what we need in the galley. Track and Ezur takes care of the cargo delivery and I’ll take Cole shopping for what he needs. Sounds good?”
When the others nodded, Tan responded with a nod of his own.
“Good. Let’s be off.”
He gave Cole a smile before walking over to the gangway. Cole hurried to follow.

Nara had a busy harbor. People were loading and unloading cargo all over the place. Cole had to follow Tan close to not lose him in the crowd.

As soon as they left the harbor behind, things calmed down quite a bit. The cobbled streets still had a few people passing them as they walked to the area with supplies and shops. The smell of food mixed with dung from animals in small pens and perfumes from shops.
“What kind of clothes would you like?”
Tan asked.
“Something practical, I guess. I need to be able to move around in them, but they still need to be able to take the wear and tear of all the work.”
Tan nodded and steered off in to an alley with plenty of tailors. There were signs with needles and coils of thread above windows with fabric and clothes in them.
It didn’t take long before Tan walked in to one of the shops.

“Hello, Edda.”
The woman stepping out from a room behind the shop gave Tan a big smile.
“Tan! How nice to see you. It’s been a while. All well, I hope?”
She looked like she was in her thirties and had round cheeks even if she was slender.
“Everything is fine. I’m here to equip my cabin boy with some fitting attire.”
Edda looked at Cole with an even bigger smile.
“Wonderful! I have a big collection of durable clothes made for mobility.”
She eagerly waved at Cole to step in to the room behind her shop.

Cole and Tan walked out of the shop with two big bags. He would not run out of clothes to wear during a week, at least. He didn’t mind borrowing clothes from Tan, but it was nice to have his own.

“I think we should leave the clothes on the Valkyrie and then explore the city a bit”, Tan said as they walked down to the pier.
“Sure. I just hope no one will recognize me.”
“Don’t worry. I don’t think the news has spread this far yet, and if it has, I think people will assume you would look or act a bit different.”
“Maybe…”
Tan looked at him with a calming smile.
“I’m not gonna force you to do anything you don’t want to, but I don’t think people will assume that you just walk around in Nara with me. They will assume that you dress with a hood over your head, hiding in the shadows or something.”
Cole sighed and nodded.
“Yeah. Probably…”
Tan gave him another smile before taking the lead through the crowded pier.

Track and Ezur sat on the gunwale when Cole and Tan left the Valkyrie the second time. The ship was unloaded and they waited for Vock and Vu to return.
Someone always needed to be onboard to keep an eye on the ship. They didn’t want anyone sneaking onboard or stealing anything.
Cole felt a bit privileged to just leave and not take part in the guarding of the ship. He was a newcomer after all and should help guard the ship with the others, but Track and Ezur didn’t seem to mind when he left a second time with Tan.

Tan looked relaxed with his hands in his pockets, strolling along with the flow of people following the street next to the docks.
Cole walked half a step behind him, just in case he needed to step behind Tan to avoid someone. The smell of sun-warmed wood filled the air with the scent of spices and fresh fish. Cole could at least say he disappeared in the crowds and started to feel a bit more relaxed.

Cole almost bumped in to Tan when he suddenly stopped. Tan’s back looked tense as he stared ahead for a moment before he turned and started walking towards the streets in to the city.
“Let’s go see what the shops have.”
Tan tried to sound joyful, but Cole could sense a strong hint of unease.
“All right.”
He glanced in the direction Tan had been looking, but couldn’t see anything that stood out.
“Any particular reason?” he asked.
Tan slowed down and looked down to the docks. This time Cole could follow his gaze to one of the ships. A dark-red one, slightly bigger than the Valkyrie.
“Someone you don’t want to meet?” he asked before Tan had the chance to say anything.
Tan sighed and walked in to the alley to get away from the docks.
“I guess you could say that”, he mumbled.
“Something you want to talk about?”
“No. Not really…”
Cole didn’t push it further.

They followed the streets in to the city before they turned and walked towards the area with the shops. Cole quietly walked beside Tan. If Tan didn’t want to talk about it, he would let it be, but he hoped there would be an explanation when Tan had calmed down. He was a bit curious.

“Should we get back to the ship?” he asked after a while.
Tan slowed down and sighed.
“Yeah. We might as well.”
They turned a corner and walked down a small alley. Tan seemed a bit more relaxed and once again put his hands in his pockets.
Cole considered asking about the ship, but he never got the chance.

“Tan, my darling! How nice to see you!”
Tan got yanked to the side by his horn, almost tripping on his feet. Colt could only stop in his tracks and watch as Tan got ripped into a hug. The Taur-bull had a huge smile on his face when he squeezed Tan tight.
“It’s been a while. How have you been?” the bull asked as he let go of Tan.
“Hello, Jock. What a surprise. What have you been up to?”
Tan sounded calm, but Cole could sense a hint of tension in his voice.
“Oh, you know. Sailing, shipping, selling.”
Jock’s eyes fell on Cole. He tilted his head with curiosity.
“Got yourself a boyfriend, eye?”
Cole met Tan’s gaze. There was a hint of panic and pleading, but Cole was unsure of the cause. He met Jock’s gaze and reached out his hand.
“Cole.”
He gave the chestnut-haired bull a polite smile. Jock grinned while shaking Cole’s hand.
“Damn… You got fancy taste, Tan. He’s quite the looker.”
Tan cleared his throat.
“Well. Yeah. We were just heading back to the Valkyrie. We’re not planning to stay the night.”
“Damn shame. I would have loved to invite you over to the Morning Glory for dinner.”
“Yeah. Won’t be staying for long. It was nice seeing you. Take care.”
Tan reached out his hand towards Cole. Cole got the hint and took Tan’s hand.
“It was a pleasure meeting you, Jock”, he said politely before following Tan down the alley.
“Likewise. See you guys around.”
Jock seemed a bit disappointed, but he let them go without any complaints.