I stepped outside onto the main deck, the sea breeze had grown really cold, and I instantly felt my face grow numb, Fortunately, I’m used to it by now so after a mere second of re-adjustment I headed straight towards my destiny, which coincidentally wasn’t far of anyway.

“Something wrong, captain? Been quiet for a while now,”

I asked the man standing in front on the bow of our old vessel, he was just observing the unending darkness a small lamplight at his side, not a word was uttered, and he didn’t acknowledge my presence, a few seconds until he finally spoke, his raspy voice carried clear wisdom within it.

“Not just me boy, the sea is as well, and that’s often a bad omen” He finally turned around to face me, a cocky smile on his face “it’s also freezing I feel my balls reaching my throat, you got what I asked for, boy?”

I handed over a bottle to him, the old man just sips half of its contents in a single very long-ass sip, not the first time I’ve seen it but not any less impressive either, given I’ve seen men twice the size keeling over on half what this geezer goes through in a day.

“Now… this warms the heart out, now does it, boy? The old family jewels are getting back in their rightful place,”

“Not sure it’ll do ya much good captain,” I said, worried about his physical wellbeing, not much point in trying to save his noggin.

“Nonsense boy, Vatkna is one of the scarce few things that never did any wrong to anybody. "

“I’m not a fan captain. My uncle used to get angry at me much easier when he was drunk. "

“Did he ever hit you with the bottle?”

“No, he didn’t, drink messes up the aim,”

“Then Vatkna hasn’t done no harm to you, now did it? See...” I could have started an argument, but that was probably his intention. The geezer has that habit of wanting to rile people up and I was far too cold and exhausted to give in to his shenanigans

“Someone ever told you about the Rá-kki when you were a kid?” He asked me as he eyed the bottle again

“Mmm-yeah,” I try to remember my childhood, the good parts at least, the ones that make me feel good when looking back on them, the memories I want to keep when I’m old and my hair has all but greyed out “think my aunt did, a weeping Fae, right? His whole tribe was slaughtered back in the winter wars, he survived because he was small and no one was able to find him, so small in fact, he can get inside men’s heads and give them advice, keep them on the good side in hopes of changing humans”

“Yeah, nice memory boy, that bullshit story, well… I call this here bottle the Rá-kki-drowner since once it goes inside the gullet, no pinky-sized fairy can tell me what I should do,”

He took another swig of vatkna.

“Now, did you bring the other thing?”

I gave him what I was holding in my right hand, a heavy wood and metal weapon, a crossbow small enough to carry on one hand.

“Nicely done boy, now, wanna check if the booze messes up with my aim?”