[A teenage boy in a somewhat scuffed wool uniform picks at his food at the feast table but does not eat. He looks pale, a bit gaunt, and utterly exhausted, and the nausea from his last seizure is helping him avoid eating the fairy food. He's not a child anymore, but he still remembers his nurse's stories about Childe Rowland and warnings about eating fairy food. Still, maybe it wouldn't be so terrible to be trapped here for ever, rather than going back to whatever awaits him back at sea. Death, capture, or return to the Indefatigable where the same routine would be taken up, the game where he pretends nothing is wrong no matter what happens at night amidships.
It's not long before he is dead asleep, cheek pressed to the table and fork lying in his lap.]
Midshipman Archie Kennedy | Hornblower
It's not long before he is dead asleep, cheek pressed to the table and fork lying in his lap.]