Neverminding the good flagship Deterounmoune a couple of docks down --the grandest, most splendid ship they'd ever seen in all their years, the ship being loaded with caviar and wine from the finest wine and caviar shoppes in Dorset, the ship with the gilded candle-stick holders and finest crystal goblets you'd ever seen, if, in fact, you'd ever seen that sort of thing, which a good deal of people have not, except in films, and, for the most part, the crystal goblets in films were really just glass, the ship on to which a grand piano was being wheeled at that very moment, followed by a calliope, three basses, a cello, and a very tiny violin, the ship which had upon it's gangway, being escorted and generally held at the elbow by four attendants, possibly the most beautiful woman ever to walk up a gangplank, and a rather fetching dog, if you're a dog sort of person, and still call yourself a dog sort of person whilst such a vision of more human-like beauty sees fit to walk up the ramp before the dog-- he began tossing his bags about the smaller, less luxurious, barnacle-encrusted, no grand piano havin', decidedly homely flagship Illyad.
Not that he was jealous, as he'd just rather save the fifteen thousand pounds (twelve thousand three hundred or so of which he hadn't really had, at any rate) he was saving by travelling as a galley cook, and, upon his arrival, as an indentured servant to a nice family of nomads that wandered the fjords of Finland, hunting, gathering, selling the lovely afghans they knitted nights in front of the fire, and organising record deals for four of the top seven Finnish bands, and three of the top eight Scandanavian bands.
He didn't need the creature comforts of a luxury liner, nor did he particularly wish to ride on the same boat as a dog (partly because of an overwhelmingly fear of dogs that he had acquired at a tender age, when a dog ate his brother while they were walking down the street to the shoppe to buy a few sweets with the money they'd found underneath the bridge in the park, only to find, as you may have gathered, a dog in their path, which proceeded to eat one of them, and scare the other one, more than likely for life). He had simple needs, simple wishes, and no need for such frivolity.
In fact, he had been thinking that he hadn't even the need for a boat such as the Illyad, and had, in his less settled moments, been thinking of swimming the English Channel, hanging a left at France, popping in to the Low Countries for a bit, then either walking it around to Denmark and swimming to Finland or just popping back in the water and trying to make it all the way in the water. However, having gained the resources to make such a trip, on a boat, he reasoned he might as well do with his minimal wealth what he will while he still have the life in him to do so. This final decision had a little something to do with the reminder of mortality that the dog provided (and not in the sense that he handed him a pamphlet reading "Repent, or thee shalt be quite sorry when thou diest, yea, and verily, soon, unto which no souls gain respite" but from the reminder of his brother being unceremoniously eaten, along with the money for the sweets, which was just adding insult to injury).
And so, he boarded the ship, after his bags, which lay on the deck where he had tossed them, and looked out in to the shadows gathering over the Channel, and the continent on the far side, which he really couldn't see, not having very good eyesight, but he imagined quite well, based on the stories of all sorts of strange and wondrous people dwelling on that continent, and readied himself for his next great adventure, off, on his own, except for the 75% share owned by the Finnish nomads who'd bought him, and felt the wind on his face.
He also happened to be a tortoise.
disclaimer:
NB: The good flagship Deterounmoune was to sink immediately upon untying itself from the dock, causing no end to the delays and hassles trying to get in or out of the harbour and on to the great wide seas. There are plans for an animated short, chronicling it's Fate, but it happens to be a rather short Fate, and one in which no one really dies, so the end film may not resemble the event in the least.
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