Stripped of Protection

Previously, the ship had some sort of magical protection, such that it could ignore nearly any sort of storm, save for the worst of tempests. Bar an attack by creatures or monsters, a sudden ailment striking me down or the gods themselves smiting me, nothing would have threatened my safety. However, the ship had clearly lost this protection, along with its power, since I noticed that the sails were starting to move with the wind like they never had before.

I swore mentally at the sudden predicament I found myself in. By now, should a slightly severe storm upset the ship too much, I could easily slide off the main deck if I was on it. Worse still, I would be completely helpless if the ship completely overturned - hiding on the lower decks would not help me in the slightest. 

It would be ironic if I fell not to one of the myriad monsters that populated this desolate world, but rather to a force of nature that I had completely disregarded up until now. 

Indeed, my worst fears were realized no more than a few days later - a few days of utter boredom as I lazed around eating, drinking and contemplating the purpose for my existence. A storm, one of the worse ones I had seen, was directly overhead, and the ship tossed and turned with every choppy wave that slammed into it.

Personally, I was being thrown about like a toy below. I had held onto the ladder - one of the only convenient places to anchor myself - for some time, but once I lost my grip I was immediately tossed into a wall. After a few rough tumbles and collisions with hard, unyielding objects, I wondered dazedly if I would perish due to my injuries rather than the ship being overturned.

Somehow, I rode out the storm. Despite losing my grip several times and consequently being slammed into various walls and other things, I had made it through without breaking any of my bones… though my nose was definitely worse for wear.

As the storm finally calmed down and retreated, leaving behind a surprisingly blue sky, I painfully made it up to the main deck, wincing with every move I made. However, once I got up the ladder, I froze for a moment with shock at what I saw.

The main deck was in a state of terrible disarray. Most of the objects had been heavily damaged by the storm, and there were even a couple of dead fish, evidently washed onto the ship by the waves. However, more worrying were the intermittent creaks that the mast emitted from time to time, which was clearly in danger of breaking.

In hindsight, it should have been obvious that the ship would be damaged after a storm, but for so long it had been impervious to any harm, steadily weathering through natural disasters, battles or even assaults by massive creatures.

Now I had to fix this… somehow.