Maeling follows silently behind the men loading the ship. All excitement is gone as she walks down the boarding plank and drops down onto the main deck before stopping. She begins to count the shadows creeping along, attaching themselves to the group of workers carrying wooden barrels. They struggle as the demons leech the essence from their spirits. The men hand their loads to the workers below deck, then hurry away to bring more. Maeling stays observing the scene until she hears her name called. Her father is looking for her.
“Maeling, what are you doing? It is not safe here, if you want to watch do it from the Captain’s deck with me,” he orders. When he turns to walk away, she sees that he carries a small wooden tea crate.
“Yes, Baba.” She replies following him up the wooden steps to the deck above. She wishes she could tell him about the demons, but she remembers the last time she told them about Elina and the pyramids. Sometimes grownups don’t like to hear the truth. If she told her father, he would tell her grandfather and her lessons would get longer. Maybe she will tell them after dinner.
“What’s in the box?” she asks.
“It is a tea service, which I must find a place for. Maybe you could help me with that?” he states with a weary smile. His smile grows as he watches her jump up and down again.
A sudden crash on the deck draws his attention, he places the tea box down and rushes down the steps. Maeling watches him go and picks up the box. A smile curves her lips, I know just where to put this box.
There are two hatches which lead down into the holds of the ship. The largest hatch is in the center of the boat and it is busy being loaded. A smaller hatch is toward the back of the boat and it leads to the sleeping quarters.
Maeling skips along, carrying the small box and heads down into the belly of the ship. She rushes along, heading down the passageway searching for the small door which leads into the galley. The perfect spot for a tea set, she thinks. She looks around the sparse kitchen and finds that it is crammed full of crates and barrels, still needing to be unloaded. In the corner sits a shelf, above a table. Too short to reach the shelf, she climbs up on a chair and pushes the tea box onto the shelf and smiles. Now we can go to the market.
Alex smiles in his sleep at the innocence of the child, he releases the dream and drifts away. In the basement Elina dream walks with Alex. She watches his dream and she is shocked to see Maeling! Of course. She smiles when she feels Alex slip away, but she is not finished.
Maeling jumps down and runs towards the door, when a crash from behind has her spinning around. The shelf must have collapsed, sending the crate crashing onto the table below and cracking open. The tea box itself is still nailed shut, but the bottom of it has broken open and a bunch of straw has fallen out, revealing the hidden treasure within. It is a small wooden ink quill and ink well. Maeling looks closely at the wooden pen and sees an intricately carved design. The moment she touches the pen a vision takes her.
Masculine hands carve the small wooden pen and she hears voices speaking in a language she can’t understand. The hands begin to shake as he hurries to finish the carving, then he uses a tool to pry open the bottom of the crate and place them inside. Next the hands stuff the area with straw to keep it from being discovered and replaces the bottom.
The scenery changes, but the hands still carry the tea crate. Once more back at a desk, the hands are carving more identical quills and wells. The hands tremble with fear as he painstakingly carves, until loud voices are heard. The hands go still as the sound of a door being kicked open is heard. Maeling sees the hands rise up attempting to block an attack. The quills are sprayed with blood and the hands fall with their owner to the ground in death.
Elina watches the young girl tremble with terror, feeling a sense of urgency she can’t explain. She looks for a secret spot to hide her treasure. When she looks at the wall, she remembers a hole in the back of one of the cabinets.
She used to play inside it, before they filled them with supplies. Maeling rushes inside and searches for the correct cabinet. Quickly she chooses one and sinks to her knees, then desperately begins to pull all the sacks out until she reaches the back. She pushes the back of the cabinet until she feels the smooth wood give and slide to the left. A small opening appears and she grabs a sack of rice flour and shoves the treasure inside it, then pushes the sack back inside the hole. Sweating, she slides the panel back into place and hurries to replace the remaining sacks. At last she breathes a sigh of relief, she heads out to find her father. Not sure what just happened, Maeling breaks into a run and finds her father waiting for her at the loading plank.
“Time to go, Maeling. Where have you been?” he asks starting to walk towards home. Maeling looks up at him and knows he will not believe her, so she tells him what he wants to hear.
“I was just putting the
