The ship lurched forward, making Tarrin shoot a paw up and drive his claws into the low beam over his head, stabilizing him against the motion. He held Allia by the waist, who had both hands wrapped around his chest tightly, using him as an anchor to keep from sliding towards the wall.

"Can this ship take this?" Tarrin asked her.

"This isn't bad at all!" Sarraya assured him. "It's not as bad as it feels! The ship just feels like it's flying around, it's really just riding on waves that crest just about at the deck! I haven't heard a single board split yet!"

As if that was an omen, the unmistakable sound of ripping wood reached them. Almost at the same time, Tarrin felt something big hit the deck right over them, making the heavy beam shudder and sink dramatically before rebounding against the force of the blow. He felt it slide along the deck, then stop and bounce back. Whatever it was, it was loose, but it was still tied to ropes that made it bounce around on the deck.

"You had to say something!" Tarrin accused the Faerie.

"What?"

"Something just tore off the mast and hit the deck! It's rolling around up there!"

"Tarrin, we need to secure that! It could slam into the masts and split them!" Sarraya told him.

"I'd better do it. I don't know if the humans can handle something that big in this storm," he grunted. "Allia, stay in here. You too, Sarraya. I'll go up and see if they need me."

"Be careful, my brother!" Allia said emphatically.

"I'm always careful," he said as Sarraya flitted off his head and landed on Sarraya's shoulder. He saw her tying a rope to her bunk as he left the room.

Walking on the ship while it lurched around was entertaining. He had to put a paw on each side of the companionway and stabilize himself against the wild rocking. By the time he reached the stairs, he was greeted by a wall of water that splashed down from the deck above, soaking him to the skin in salty water and driving him back nearly a span. Deep gouges from his claws were left behind in the wood as he started working his way up the steep staircase, hearing the door to the deck above flapping wildly in the raging wind, banging into the bulkhead with frightening rapidity.

The scene on deck was something he could never have imagined. The sky was an angry murky gray, and stinging rain was driven before howling winds with enough force to make it painful. The sea was raging, with huge waves and swells that easily rose as high as the deck itself, and it was the movement along those waves that made the ship lurch and roll so severely. The rigging that was up was all shredded, the ropes flapping fiercely in the heavy wind, and the heavy object that had hit the deck was the crow's nest and about ten spans of mast. Ropes tangled it to the mainmast, and it rolled about on the deck wildly as the wind and the waves pushed it around. He saw one of those waves approaching the starboard rail, and he just managed to get his claws into the wood before it broke over the deck, sending a huge torrent of water slamming against him, trying to suck him back down the staircase. Tarrin shook the water out of his face and out of his ears as the force receded, hoping that the three men tied to the helm were still there. They were behind and above him, and he'd have to move out on deck to get to where he could see the steering deck.

Sarraya was right. With that heavy an object rolling around on the deck, it could do some damage to the ship before the storm was over. He realized that he could either cut the ropes and let it be carried away by the sea, or try to tie it down and save it, hopefully to be reattached to the mast somehow.

Staggering to the stairs leading to the steering deck, Tarrin managed to climb nearly all the way up before bracing himself against another crashing breaker, then got up far enough to see the steering deck. All three men were still there, all of them desperately turning the wheel to try to turn the ship's bow into the next approaching swell. One of them was Deward. They looked at him in surprise, halting their turn for just an instant before continuing the maneuver, moving with a quick efficiency that showed they knew what they were doing. Tarrin scrambled onto the deck just as the wave was split by the bow, sending a raging mass of water flying over the lower deck, to slam into the sterncastle.

"Tarrin, are you crazy?" Deward demanded in a fierce shout over the howling wind. "Get back under cover!"

"The crow's nest is tangled to the mast!" he shouted back. "It's banging all over the deck, and we don't do something, it'll break something else! What do you want me to do with it?"

"Try to tie it down!" he shouted in reply. "If you can't, then cut it loose! And for the sake of the gods, be careful!"

"I'm always careful!" Tarrin shouted back, then made his way back to the staircase.

He struggled out onto the open deck, holding onto the aft mast while another wave broke over the ship, then moving towards the flapping half-ton piece of debris. He saw another wave about to break over the port side, and realized that he was out in the open. Cursing, he dropped down and drove all twenty claws into the deck below him, flexing his claw muscles with everything he had to keep them secured as a powerful surge of water slammed into his prone form. He felt his claws tear the wood as the water sought to uproot him from his spot, and lost his purchase with his left paw as a sizable chunk of the deck came up with his paw. But the other three appendages held firm, leaving gaping holes in the deck as the Were-cat quickly sized up the bouncing crow's nest, and grabbed hold of it as it swung past him. Claws dug furrows into the deck as he wrestled the huge chunk of wood to a halt, then pushed it towards the mainmast. The wind caught at it and picked it up off the deck, and Tarrin had to fight with every mote of his strength to keep it from bowling him over. The wind changed direction before it overwhelmed him, letting him literally throw the chunk of mast up against the mainmast. He scrambled for the mainmast himself as another wave crashed over the bow, claws holding him to it as a leg kept the piece of mast from rolling away with the water. He grabbed at some dangling rope tied to the broken mast and lashed it quickly around the broken end of the crow's nest, then ducked down between the mast and the nest as another wave came over the bow. He pulled at a rope tied to the crow's nest and looped it around the mast, then tied it quickly and securely. That gave the crow's nest three separate moorings, and as a wave crashed over the starbord beam, he saw that it was somewhat secure. There was no way he could immobilize it, but it was good enough to keep it from breaking through the deck.

Soaked to the skin, his ears burning from the salt water accumulated in them, and feeling the exertion in his chest in a slightly uncomfortable manner, Tarrin scampered back to the staircase below as the ship dropped into a trough between waves, giving him a good few seconds of flat deck to cover the distance. Once there, he grabbed the rickety door of the companionway and pulled it shut, then secured it from the inside with its bolt which had been thrown in the tossing of the ship. He nearly slipped on the wet stairs as the ship lurched to the side as he went down them, but caught himself before making an embarassing tumble down the steps.

He returned to Allia's cabin a little worse for wear. Sarraya took one look at him and laughed. "You look like a drowned rat!" she told him with a grin.

"That is something I'd rather not do again," he said fervently as he anchored himself against another lurch with one paw, and put a ginger paw to his chest with the other.

"What happened?" Allia asked, grabbing hold of him again.

"I tied the crow's nest to the mast," he replied as the ship rolled. "I nearly got swept off the deck twice. Those waves are powerful."