Leveling: When Water Has Overtaken Land: Episode 2: The Ship (Leveling: Season One)
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“This isn’t like last time, but yes. I have a lot of paddling to get these packs to the group.”
Beckett smiled. “Okay Luna, yes.”
He started back-floating and flutter-kicking away.
“I’ll see you soon Beckett, I will.”
He laughed, flashing his full dimpled smile. “I know you will.”
“Really?” She stood and projected her voice as he kicked farther and farther away. “Because overconfidence isn’t usually your style!”
He tapped the side of his temple. “You said we.”
She smiled, picked up her paddle, and soft-paddled against the current that was twisting her away.
He called across the expanse, “I also know you have to come, you have a responsibility, a commitment, and it’s too big to shirk.”
“A what? What are you talking about?”
“You have to bring me my great-grandfather’s watch!”
Luna looked down at her wrist and then smiled broadly across the deep ocean between them. The sun was bright, the visibility clear.
“I love you!” she said.
“I love you too.”
Chapter 34
He made it to the ship and looked up.
Captain Aria called down, “Okay, Romeo, hold your horses, we’re sending down the sling for you.”
A few minutes later the sling, on a pulley system, was lowered, and Beckett was instructed to flop into the loop of fabric and hold on with his shoulders and arms as it lifted him up and out of the water.
Trouble was, as he raised, the ocean pulled his elastic-topped pants down below his butt cheeks.
Buzz and Seggy bent over laughing.
Sky gave a low appreciative whistle. “Luna, that ass is something to see.”
River said, “An ass like that would be worth giving up the ocean for.”
Luna said, “And did you see those dimples when he smiled?”
Sky smiled, “I literally couldn’t see anything past that ass.”
Luna tapped the end of her paddle against Sky’s and then River’s, the Waterfolk version of a high five.
Chapter 35
When Beckett was deposited onto the deck, the whole crew stood in a circle. Captain Aria tapped her foot in what Beckett hoped was fake anger. Dan, smirking, tugged Beckett’s pants up and then pulled the sling-loop off over his head. They all stood and awkwardly waited for Captain Aria to say something.
She looked at Beckett with narrowed eyes. Then finally spoke, “That’s what this was all about—you have the hots for a Nomad woman and you’ve raced off across the ocean to declare your love—lying to us in the meantime?”
“I met her when I was working on the Outpost. I didn’t want to lie, but I also needed to find her.”
“Well, if you hadn’t almost killed yourself helping with the whale, I might not forgive you for keeping secrets, but I will. Mostly because that was an epic bellyflop in the name of love.”
Dan patted Beckett on the shoulder.
Beckett said, “Luna called it historic.”
“She’s probably right. I notice she didn’t come with you on the boat?”
Beckett looked to his right, the eight Waterfolk were paddling away.
“She has to help deliver supplies to a larger group. Then she’ll paddle to meet me at Heighton Port.”
“I would suspect that’s going to be a long time of worry for you.”
“Yes,” Beckett nodded under Captain Aria’s studying gaze.
“Well, you behaved rashly, jumping off my boat, putting us even further behind schedule. We’re supposed to be northeast of here, yesterday. I need to know you won’t be lying or doing anything crazy for the next two weeks. And no acting crazy either. Or love sick. But in return I’ll help you out. Do we have a deal?”
“Um, yes, of course. I won’t do anything crazy.”
“Dr. Mags is going to rewrap your hands, because that left one is oozing, and it’s gross looking. I don’t think gross is the way bandaged hands should look. While you’re getting your wounds cleaned, Dan and Jeffrey will take the zodiac and deliver a radio to your friend. I have an extra, solar, waterproof. You can check in with her every day.”
“That would be amazing.”
“No jumping off my ship, unless you see me take my pants off first.” Captain Aria smirked and returned to the bridge.
Dan clapped Beckett on the shoulder. “Any message for your girl?”
“Tell her I’ll call her tonight.”
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Acknowledgments
A very big thank you to the crew of the M/V Farley Mowat and the volunteers of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society for giving me a tour of their ship. It brought the interior of the boat and the crew’s sense of duty in focus.
Thank you to Amie Conrad for your date checks. (My fictional calendar was an unwieldy mess.) Glad you helped me get it under control.
Thank you to Jessica Fox and Mara Donahoe for encouragement and excitement. Your notes helped assuage my worries.
Thank you to Isobel for reading this while she was in Europe and giving me her corrections by Skype. I know you had better, more exciting things to do, thanks for including this.
Thank you to Fiona, for reading and advising and loving the story. Your thoughts and ideas made it better and better.
Thank you to Kevin for being my resident paddleboarding advisor.
Thank you to Ean and Gwynnie, for inspiring, cheering, and advising, even though you didn’t get to read it—yet.
And thank you to my mother, Mary Jane Knight Cushman, she was a hopeful soul and taught me if the waters rise to grab a paddle.
And finally, to my father, Dave Cushman, who taught me that any story, like life, is better with a punchline.
About the Author
I love weaving tales about characters who are in way over their head. People faced with huge environmental issues—light-polluted skies, droughts, piles of hoarded things, encroaching water—who rise above and carry on anyway. I like a story in which everything is a disaster, yet they kiss in the end, so it’s all good.
My characters are not perfectly strong, more like creatively ordinary, yet capable of amazing things. They include Estelle (The Estelle Series) who becomes a celebrity dissident for starting a farm, the Princess Amelia (Fly: The Light Princess Retold) who discovers gravity and rescues her kingdom from a drought, Edmund who scales heights to rescue Violet (Violet’s Mountain) and the paddleboarder Luna (Leveling) who finds love, shelter, and possible disaster at the edge of a rising ocean.
I live in my head most of the time, but in Los Angeles the rest.
@hdknightley
hdknightley
www.hdknightley.com
hd@hdknightley.com
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Excerpt of Violet’s Mountain
Chapter 1: Better Left Unsaid
Violet watched the last sliver of sun collapse below the horizon as a tear rolled down her cheek. She hadn’t cried at sunset for a while, so it was unusual—now, but not always—there was a time not so long ago when she cried through every sunset. “I miss you mom,” her words floated out on her breath, mingled with the offshore breeze and swirled in her aural eddy, before flinging away behind her, headed who knows where. Traveling away.
This was Violet’s nightly ritual and usually ended at the moment of the sun’s last glimmer, but tonight she lingered. She looked to the North; her view stretching for miles. She wiped her cheek with the back of her hand and looked behind to the East and then up, the sky filling with stars as she watched, the night unfurling across the sky. Her gaze followed it’s movement west, toward the ocean, and down, way, way down below, to the sleepy beach town nestled in the dunes. There was a time, years ago, when she would go there, to shop, visit, play, but not anymore. Now she just...
“I wish something would change.” As soon as she said it she regretted it. This wasn’t a time for wants and wishes and dreams, for selfish thoughts, she had dut
ies and musts and shoulds— “I wish something would change!” Her words echoed around in the upper atmosphere, better left unsaid, but she had said them. So there.
She was Violet Winslow and she had work to do and she would do it without grumbling but still, “I wish something would change, anything, maybe.” She sighed and added, “Actually, forget I said anything Dear Sun, don’t worry yourself on my account. You have plenty to do. Have a nice sleep and I’ll see you tomorrow.” She clicked on a spotlight, dropped her helmet’s visor to shield her face, and ignited her welding torch. She aimed the tip of her flame at a point where steel met steel and an arc of sparks glittered away.
Also by H D Knightley
Bright (Book One of the Estelle Series)
Beyond (Book Two of the Estelle Series)
Belief (Book Three of the Estelle Series)
Fly: The Light Princess Retold
Violet’s Mountain
and all the Leveling Series can be found on Amazon:
Episodes 1-6