While flying I was the assistant engineer, oiler, and stoker. KaRaya stood her watches on the bridge.
'Do you know who steers this crazy barge?' she whispered to me, coming off her first bridge watch.
'You?'
'Ol'King,' she exclaimed softly.
'Well, that's a relief. I thought you'd say you were.'
'Very humorous. I kid you not. He stands at the helm and steers the blasted barge through the river valleys and gorges. Skipper told me just to leave him be. Been doing it since before I was born,' she said.
'And you let him.'
'He may be ancient, but he's twice as long as I am and still has most of his teeth. Yes, I let him.'
'Well, I suppose, he does knows his way around, which is more than you can claim. Besides, if Hissi can play Dragon's Luck and DuDan's Folly, I don't see why a Simla dragon couldn't con a barge. He's just a bridge officer, after all. It's not like he's trying to be an engineer.'
She shook her head. 'Whoever taught you how to act like an engineer, made a mighty fine job of it. Why, if I didn't know you to be a coin-less stoker, I'd swear you were an engineer.'
'I've got coins.'
'Only because you stopped playing cards with a Simla dragon. Speaking of which, I sure hope that having a young female dragon alongside doesn't distract him or make him want to show off. I don't want to end up in a mountain side. At least not on my watch.'
'If we do end up in a mountainside, it will most certainly be on your watch.'
She sighed. 'I can't argue that. It seems to be my fate.'