Nite dragged the poles to the center of the deck from their storage place in the stern and called out to the group, "Come claim your hammock poles. I don't care where you sleep, so long as you don't destroy anything. Bigger the person, bigger the pole to support the weight." She began passing out the supplies to everyone. "Just put them in the holes. Make sure to find the hole that is the same size as your pole. I'll come around and tie up the hammocks for you."

When Nite got to Killer, she stopped. "Um..." she said awkwardly. "I think it might be best if you slept on the ground. I'm sorry."

Killer shrugged. "I'm used to it. I'm not mad." He spoke gruffly, and his voice sounded like that of a dog growling.

She apologized once more before leaving to return the remaining poles. Next, she brought out the thin wooden crate filled with the thin hammock fabric. The first person she brought them to was Cily, who nodded politely.

Nite began tying the hammock, making sure it was low to the ground so that there was less chance of it falling or breaking. As she was doing that, she felt Cily lean down next to her and whisper into her ear, "I'll tell you about the guns later. I'll explain what I can. Don't tell anyone what you saw."

"Thank you," Nite whispered back, avoiding eye contact in hopes of not drawing any attention. She finished tying the hammock and stepped back. "If it ever starts to feel like it's about to give way, just tighten the knots."

"I'm sorry for everything that has happened tonight. Not everyone in my group is as bad as you think."

Nite searched her brown eyes for lies. The only thing that she could find was genuine kindness. 

Cily's expression was not soft, but it was welcoming and honest. The bags under her eyes crinkled as her lips pulled back into a smile. Her eyes were wide and alert, and her bushy eyebrows seemed to constantly be raised. 

Nite wanted to trust her, but couldn't bring herself to. "Have a good night," was all she said.

Next, she went to the scrawny teenage boy. He was too busy rifling through a backpack to pay her any attention. She watched him for a second, expecting him to say something, but he said nothing. She quickly tied his hammock and moved on.

Iphos was next. He eyed the hammock as Nite began tying it. "Is there any way you could lower it just a bit?"

"I'm so sorry," Nite gasped, her cheeks beginning to burn. "We don't usually have people of your stature on board." She began loosening the knots and pulling extra fabric out to allow it to hang lower.

"You're good. Don't feel bad." Iphos stepped up to the hammock and pulled himself on to it. He reclined in it, placing his stubby arms behind his thick, curly hair. "See? It's fine."

"Thanks." Nite bowed her head. "Have a good sleep."

She moved on down the row of hammocks. Next came a woman who had chosen to set up her makeshift bed next to the horses. She was younger, short, and stick thin. Her hair was short and thinning, and the skin on her face was taunt. A purple bruise was beginning to form on her left eye.

"Hello," she whispered to Nite. "Thank you for setting up my bed." She kept her eyes focused on the horses as they walked in circles.

Nite noticed the additional bruises beginning to form along her neck and onto her face. She assumed they were from the street brawl earlier, with this woman being the one she had seen laying on the ground afterwords. Why she had even entered the street fight to begin with, Nite had not the faintest idea.

She quickly finished tying the hammock. She glanced once more at the woman, trying to judge if she would even be able to lift herself into the bed.

The woman didn't seem to notice her prying gaze.

Nite moved on, slightly unsettled.

Craid was next in line. He took the hammock from her hands and said, graciously, "I can tie this by myself. I don't want to waste you time. You look exhausted."

"Thank you." She moved on.

The second to last person was the muscled soldier, Mantho. He was busy talking to a distressed-looking Cily. They both ignored her as she tied the hammock. They were obviously trying to keep their voices low enough so that no one could hear them.

The last person in line was the last person Nite felt like seeing: Endi. The woman sneered the second she saw Nite and appeared ready for a fight.

Nite ignored her mean looks and focused on the hammock. Her hands were beginning to cramp from tieing so many knots. Normally, their customers knew how to tie knots without her help, but she wasn't about to trust the strangers to do it themselves.

"Could you hurry up?" leered Endi.

Nite glared at her over her shoulder. "Would you like to do it yourself?"

"No, no. You seem to have it under control. Just go faster."

"Just go faster," Nite mimicked in a high pitched voice. She made sure to tie the knots as loose as possible without it looking deliberate. If the hammock were to collapse in the middle of the night, there would be no way to prove it was Nite's fault.

When she was satisfied with her half-hearted work, she stepped back. "I'm done. You can sleep now. I'm sure you must be exhausted from abducting us from our house in the middle of the night."

"As a matter of fact, I am." She climbed on her bed and began to pull off her boots. "You can go now."

Nite rolled her eyes before walking away. She made her way across the deck back to the shack. The group had settled down into their hammocks and the ship was mostly silent. It was the perfect night for sleeping outside, and Nite would have enjoyed the peaceful atmosphere were it not for the current circumstances.

She blew out the hanging lantern attached to the shack and went inside. The creaking door blocked out all the other noises. When she shut it behind her, she felt like she was shutting out all of the problems that were crowding her thoughts. She let out a long sigh.

Bickum looked up from his hammock, setting down the book he was reading. The lantern hanging from the roof rocked with the waves and cast shaking shadows over everything.

He looked up at her and held out a withered hand. "How are you, Stump?"

"I want to jump off the boat," she grumbled. "This is a nightmare that I can't wake up from." Her father's hand was a welcome sight and she tightly held on to it.

"You still appear to be in one piece and I did not hear any shouting, so I can only assume that everything went well."

Nite climbed into her hammock, feeling it stretch under her weight. "I just want to go to sleep. It has been a very bad day."

"I do not know what could possibly make you say that," he chuckled sarcastically. "I thought that today was wonderful."

She lowered her voice. "I don't like these people at all."

The walls of the shack were thin, but she hoped that if she whispered quiet enough than no one outside would hear her. When Bickum added the shack to the boat, it was his reasoning that on long trips up the river, they might occasionally want privacy from their customers. Unfortunately, they also installed the latrine in the back of the shack, which left it always smelling slightly bad. It wasn't soon after they built the shack that they added in windows.

"I know you do not; neither do I. No person in their right mind would ever willingly go into the jungle. Something is up and I wish we did not have to be around for it."

She glanced over at him. "They're packing weapons. Those supply boxes are full of guns. I saw a big stack of them in one of the boxes. One of the military woman, Cily, said she'd explain it to me later. I don't know what to think about it."

"That does not sound good." He tapped his chin. "If all the boxes they had were filled with guns, then we might be in trouble. I am slightly worried."

"These people abducted us in the middle of the night and forced us to take them down the river. I can't believe you're only starting to get anxious now."

"I am trying to remain calm."

"Well, I've been freaking out since this whole thing started."

"You do have a tendency to freak out, Stump."

Nite huffed. If she couldn't hear the laughter in Bickum's voice, she would have thought that he was being serious. The adrenaline that had coursed through her veins for the past hour was just starting to recede, leaving her feeling exhausted, deflated, and empty on the inside. Her heart was still beating faster than it should have been.

"Just go to sleep, child," he whispered to her. "Things will be better tomorrow."

"I doubt that," she grumbled, "but goodnight." She sat up carefully and opened the window right above her. The humid night air began to fill the shack and rid it of the nasty smell that clung to it.

Within a few minutes she heard Bickum begin to snore. Nite always found herself surprised by how quickly he could fall asleep. For an old man, he slept like a log. He always joked that he was a terrible father to her when she was a baby because he would never hear her crying during the night. It was a miracle that she survived into adulthood.

Nite found that sleep was escaping her tonight. Her head was full of thoughts that kept her awake. As she stared out the open window, she realized something that she previously hadn't thought of.

"Bickum," she whispered.

When he didn't wake up, she said in her normal voice, "Bickum."

When that also failed, she spoke in a voice that was just a few notches below yelling. "Bickum!"

"What?" he grunted. He struggled to sit up. "What is wrong?"

"Who's going to be awake to maneuver the boat when the river forks?"

It was a problem she had never encountered before. Most trips they took were up the river, to Cantan and all the towns in between. They only rarely traveled south towards the port city of Oxton. The river split in two halfway there, with the larger of the fractures making its way to the ocean. The smaller river made its way into the protected and dangerous jungle. If no one was watching after the ship direction, then there was a good chance they would miss the fork and have to travel to Oxton.

She heard him groan loudly. "I did not think about that. Can you tell how long we have until sunrise?"

"At least a couple of hours," she guessed, staring intently out the window. "It's hard to tell."

"We should be fine. Don't worry." He leaned back into his hammock. "Just go back to sleep."

Nite tried to be as relaxed as him. "If you say so." She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths, which did very little to help her relax. Although Nite didn't consider herself to be an anxiety-ridden person often, it felt as if that night everything filled her with panic.

Whereas Bickum fell back asleep within five minutes, it would take her much longer to succumb to her exhaustion.

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The beautfil picture of Nite and Endi was drawn by Ember_Gunns