Words for Wednesday ~ January 10

This challenge started a long time ago. Now it has turned into a movable feast with Elephant's Child as our coordinator; and the Words provided by a number of people.

The general idea of this challenge is to make us write. Poems, stories, subtitles, tales, jokes, haiku, crosswords, puns, ... you're the boss.
Use all Words, some Words, one Word, or even none of them if that makes your creative juices flow. Anything goes, only please nothing rude or vulgar.

 It is also a challenge, where the old saying "The more the merrier" holds true.

So Please, remember to follow the links, go back and read other peoples' stories. And please leave a comment after reading. Challenges like this one thrives on interaction, feedback and encouragement. And we ALL need encouragement.

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The prompts for every Wednesday in January are provided by Elephant's Child, and made public at her blog.

For today we had these words:

Memories
Thanks
Running
Grave
Collected
    And/or
Clover
Regrets
Marvellous
Enchanted
Clock

I continue my tale of the apprentices, the strange locket from a sea monster and an old sailor.
As usual I use all Words in the order they were given.

Fiona and Veronika were given the job of trying to pick the old sailor's memories. Thanks to their daddy bringing some beer and asking the crowd in the meadow where the nets were hung from poles for drying, cleaning and mending, they found out that the old sailor was sick at home. They bought some flowers, and as a second thought some frozen soup and went visiting. He was in bed with a bad cough, and Fiona pulled a chair up next to the bed and sat down. Meanwhile Veronika had the water running, scrubbed sink and pots and had the soup boiling in a very short time.

The old sailor sat propped by pillows while Veronika fed him spoonfuls of the hot soup and good bread.

He slept for a short while, and then woke, lucid and ready to tell his tale.
"It was a dark and stormy night," he began, making the sisters smile. "We had to anchor up out of the harbour, near the wood with all them windblown trees. We took the lifeboat, more like a big dinghy, to the shore, as captain was certain the boat would capsize before the night was over, but it did not, it was a good boat, the old Cormorant. The winds were cold and blowing the sea-spray at us, so we walked. We thought it was far, as we sailors do not like walking. Somewhere along the way we found an old grave, weathered and worn, but fear inducing to the superstitious crew. One of the men collected pebbles from the grave, and put some on the tombstone and some in his pockets. We walked, stumbled on through the stunted forest and in the end we saw the light of a small door or window from afar. We followed it and came to an inn. It was surrounded by a garden, the strangest garden I ever say. Patches of clover grew around it, all filled up with four leaf clovers. I tried to warn the others, but they were frozen through, as was I and Captain. We spent the night at the Yellow Cormorant. Finding it a good omen that the name of the inn was almost the same as that of our ship. The inn was full, despite its remote placement. We sat down and made merry with the customers.

We paid the bill later, but no regrets," the old sailor said. He dozed off and the girls sat quietly, waiting.

"Where was I?" he asked, when he awoke again.
"At the Yellow Cormorant," Fiona said. " Listening to the tales of the sailors there."
"Oh yes. One of them I remember best of all. He was old as time, maybe he just looked old to us young 'uns back then. White hair, blue eyes, ruddy, weather-beaten face, kind of like carved in wood. He told a tale of a marvellous trip, to an enchanted land, through the maelstrom there. He showed us a coin, pure gold, heavy and big. Later that night he gave it to me for safekeeping. He said that he had seen the Klabautermann and death was coming for him."

The old sailor sank back on his pillows and said: "The old clock still hides my precious treasure." He drew a deep breath brining on yet another attack of coughing and continued in a winded voice: "Now I need to sleep. Your company and soup have don me good. Kind girls please leave me alone."

Fiona kissed the old sailor on the cheek, and they left for home.  

Next day they read in the paper that a neighbour had visited the old sailor in the evening, to feed him again, and that he had died during the night.

... to be continued