Tamarilla's Travels
Chapter 7: Getting a fresh coat of paint for the fair.

Copyright© 2009 by msboy8

The sun was just coming over the horizon, when Tammi felt someone shaking her and telling her to get up. She opened her eyes to see Alice and groaned. "Get up! Wake up sleepyhead! We need to go to the painter today."

Tamarilla wiped the sleep from her eyes, saw how early in the morning it was and asked, "Why are you getting me up so early? I didn't think you were all that eager to get yourself painted. C'mon you can tell me. The idea of some make-up got you excited?

If a figurehead could have blushed, Alice would have done so. "Well no, not really. I just thought that I would fit in better with the group if I looked more life-like. That's the only reason that I could have. I'm not a flesh and bone human woman, just a figurehead."

Tammi thought she could hear a sigh in Alice's tone, so she tried to cheer her up. "Alice you're not just a figurehead, you are 'The Lady Fair'. You brought us here and only you can bring us back home safely!"

Author's Note: Tamarilla has not quite gotten human to human relationships down yet. Never mind woman to woman or human to enchanted object. Darn it! She tries though and that's what makes her so darn cute, or as Lizzie would say, so hard to live with.

Groaning again, Tammi got up. She helped to wake herself up by splashing water on her face. She grabbed Alice's hand in hers and said, "Let's go before the others wake up. If we get to the shop soon enough, we should make it back in time to go to the bazaar and you can show off your pretty self." Alice didn't say anything, she just pulled Tammi down the gangplank.

The two ladies were greeted by a sight they didn't expect. Klauss was sitting in the king's cart waiting. "Good morning ladies, I am here to take you and the ambassador to the ferry dock. Will the ambassador be joining us soon?"

Tammi giggled at Klauss' question. "I don't even know if she is awake yet. She had a late night. Since you are here, just sitting around, and we are here, you can do us a favor. We have an early morning appointment at the artist's shop. Alice and I were going to walk, but now that we have found you waiting with all sorts of extra time..." Tammi paused waiting for Klauss to volunteer. He didn't so she carried on. " ... you could drive us to his shop and be back in plenty of time to take Danni, erm ... the ambassador to the ferry. We will walk back and we might even be back here in time to go with them to the bazaar. What do you say Klauss, pleeeaase?"

Giving Klauss the puppy-dog-eye look had the desired effect on Klauss and he grumbled to himself as he helped the ladies up into the cart. The trip to the artist's shop was a wild, bouncy trip, but the girls were happy when they got off the cart. As soon as the ladies were off the cart, Klauss snapped the horses with the reins and the cart was gone as quickly as it had come.

The door to the shop opened and the artist beckoned them in. He seemed transfixed by Alice, a live, walking wooden figurehead. He kept staring at her beauty and making Alice nervous. Tamarilla was eager to see Alice painted, but everyone just stood there as if frozen. 'If they don't start with the painting, I could miss the bazaar.' Tammi cleared her throat in a loud 'Ahem'. The artist shook his head as if he was just waking up and he directed Alice to sit on a chair he had placed on the raised platform.

Once Alice had daintily sat in the chair, the artist leapt to the table next to his easel and returned holding a pallet in one hand and a fine brush in the other. The artist explained to Alice, "I was told that this pallet and brush were magical, but they didn't seem so. They acted like a regular pallet and brush, so I set them aside. Yesterday I noticed some weak colors on the pallet. The only thing that was different was the arrival of your ship. Later that day Tammi came into my shop and requested that I paint her friend. I was quick to dismiss her thinking it was another portrait request. Tammi wouldn't let it rest; however, and soon explained your nature. I knew that this was something I had to do."

He held the pallet out to Alice. It was filled with pools of vibrant color that seemed to be alive! "This is how I found the pallet this morning. The closer you came, the more vibrant the colors became! It is clear to me that this pallet and brush were made to paint you." Alice looked down not meeting his eyes. She was still nervous about being painted. A tap-tap-tapping interrupted her thoughts and she looked over to see Tamarilla standing there tapping her foot with her arms crossed under her bountiful bosom looking bored.

This brought the artist, Pablo, back to the issue at hand and he cleared his throat and looked at Alice's face with a thoughtful expression. He dipped the brush into one of the paint pools on the pallet and spoke in a ready banter as he painted. "I think I'll start with the lips, no the eyes; a beautiful blue like posies in the spring." The brush danced from the pallet to her face as he painted the eyes, eye lashes, lips, teeth, and even darted sideways to place a dimple high on her left cheek. "It's almost like the brush is guiding my hand!" Pablo explained. "Now to paint her flesh..." The brush danced over her cheeks, forehead and throat, but the paint didn't dry on the skin. It seemed to fade into the wood. Pablo gasped getting Tammi's attention. "The paint, it seems to be soaking into the wood. I've never seen anything like this!"

Tammi reasoned this out like she did most things. "Of course it's soaking into the wood. She has been stuck up on the front of a ship under the hot sun day-by-day getting dried out. I'll bet that your skin would drink up the paint as well if it was all dried up by the sun. Just keep painting!"

Pablo shrugged and kept painting. The areas he had painted began to show a faint trace of the color of skin, so he painted her ears, neck, hands, every bit of exposed flesh. Being that the model for the figurehead was the woodcarver's wife, there wasn't much bare skin. He repeatedly painted Alice's flesh until the color stayed on the wood. This took awhile, so Tammi sat in a chair and took a nap.

Tamarilla woke up to someone shaking her shoulder, it was the artist. She was awake, but Pablo kept shaking her. Tammi was starting to get upset, but she saw where Pablos' eyes were looking. The busty brunette giggled and pushed him away. "I'm awake already, silly man. Aren't you supposed to be busy doing something else, like painting Alice?"

"I am already done, see?" Pablo pointed to Alice who was standing near the window. Her long blonde hair hung down to her waist and her bangs looked like they were being blown by a gentle wind. "Doesn't she look more lifelike? She is my best work ever, but I somehow feel that my greatest work will soon pass from memory."

Taking a closer look at the immobile figure of Alice, Tammi commented on her appearance. "She does look fine, almost like she is somehow frozen in time." Tammi moved closer to Alice and ran her hand down Alice's golden hair. Alice was startled by her friend's touch and jumped. "But she still feels like wood and when she moves you can tell that she is merely painted to look like a real human person and is not one." Tammi thought that she was being so clever, but when she saw a teardrop glisten in Alice's eye she knew that she had stepped in it again.

Author's Note: What kind of town is this anyway? It sounds like they don't keep the streets or the sidewalks clean! That's the only way Tamarilla could have stepped in 'it' while in a shop the way this author sees it. Tamarilla continued on like the bull in a china shop that she was. More on that idea later.

"Of course she's not a real human person, Alice is much more than that. Besides being alive she can be in two places at the same time." She glared at Pablo like he was the one behind Alice's distress. She stroked Alice's cheek and said, "C'mon Alice have your mainsail give a crack loud enough so this fool can hear it and be amazed." A sharp crack could be heard in the distance. Tammi triumphantly pointed out the sound. "You hear that painter? She is special and will long be remembered! So don't you worry about your precious fame. Let's go Alice; if we hurry we might still get to go to the bazaar."


The mad dash Klauss made to and from the artist's studio/store was not needed, he found out once he had returned to 'The Lady Fair'. The ship still appeared lifeless and Klauss resigned himself to more time wasted on the 'visitors' to his island. 'Another day wasted, when I had chores to do on my farm.'

Author's Note: I should have realized by now that I couldn't slip anything past you readers; let me explain. Yes, the island, Brightland Island, is actually owned by Klauss. The King has a lease that has no specific end to rent the island and its coastal waters for one gold piece every ten years. It automatically transfers to Klauss' and or the King's descendants. Klauss does this because of friendship and the fact that the King saved his life, but that's another story.

Finally somebody moved on the ship, but it was only a Sailor using the Head before he collapsed on the deck. 'That's what you get when you have a woman captain. I suppose I'll just sit here until the Ambassador makes her appearance. Far be it from me to show disrespect!'

The day was turning out to be nice and sunny, the morning sun's rays were beaming down from the cloudless sky. Klauss was sitting on the bench of the cart, trying to stay awake until the ambassador came off the ship. It was a most difficult task and soon a low rumble of Klauss snoring could be heard alongside 'The Lady Fair'.

After a late night, Danielle was slowly waking up. 'What a night. Margaret and Marlin were busy collecting the satisfied, sleeping Sailors from the Captain's cabin before they escorted the next 'willing sacrifice' to Lori. It went on until early in the morning. I know because I stayed with Margaret all night talking about what I would say to Lord Gilcrism. The bazaar! How late is it? I've got to get busy!'

Danni quickly rolled out of her hammock and started waking the other women up. She noticed that Tamarilla was not in her hammock. 'Alice and Tammi must be at the painter's shop.' She prodded the others saying, "Don't you want to go to the bazaar?" Lindi just ran a brush through her hair and announced that she was ready to go. Danielle looked cross at Lindi and sent her to do her morning ablutions.

The 11 year old was quickly done and hovered around Danni as she tried to get ready for the day. "Go up on deck and leave me be or nobody's going to the bazaar. Danni threatened. Danni mused to herself, "Since when have I become the voice of reason around here?" Margaret chuckled happy that Danni assumed the responsibility for the young witch.

When Danielle and the others joined Lindi on deck, she could see the relief in the watch's eyes. Lindi was a bundle of energy that had a talent for causing mischief and the Sailor's were about to throw her overboard into the bay. Danni pointed to Klauss in the cart. "Go get in the cart and behave yourself, Belinda!" Luckily the noise of her rough-housing had woken the driver up from his nap and he was lucid when Lindi clambered up on the cart to wait.

Danielle, Elizabeth, and Margaret descended the gang plank to board the cart. As Klauss climbed down to help the ladies up, a sharp C R A C K was heard from the ship's mainsail! Lindi almost went for a very exciting ride, but Klauss manages to get the startled horses under control. Danni was amused and was patient as she waited for Klauss to help her up onto the cart's bench seat. She didn't say anything, merely smiling to herself at Klauss' distress. Margaret didn't hold her tongue saying, "I hope that you will be able to control the horses."

 
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