Frigid Waters
Mo’cookies was a remarkably small vessel with paddle wheels on both sides. It was constructed from high-quality wood and was well-maintained—though, given the low amount of wear, it was rarely taken out. It had only three rooms: the main cabin, a storage area below decks, and an engine room. Strangest of all, the engine did not appear to operate on steam or human power, but rather some kind of magic crystal power.
Vivian was still rubbing her head. “I… I still feel weird.” She was currently dressed in brilliant red robes that covered every part of her except her face, which was largely shrouded by her hair anyway.
“Karl does that to people,” Jenny admitted as she wrapped up the extremely short tour of the ship. “Don’t worry about it.”
“I’m worrying about it.”
“Then be glad he’s not going with you.” Jenny jumped off the boat and back onto the royal docks. “The ship is yours.”
“We may not be able to bring it back in one piece,” Caspian pointed out. “If we find the way out…”
“The last Mo’cookies exploded when it reached its destination,” Jenny said. “We can always make another one. Need to, actually; the mechanism is highly experimental.”
“...Fun.” Caspian adjusted his sheath, looking at the boat with uncertainty. “Well, she’s seaworthy, but if we hit a storm… well, that would be unpleasant.”
Jenny shrugged. “It stays upright just fine.”
“You… sure?” Luigi asked.
“Enough.” Jenny sat on the edge of the dock and pulled out a flute, starting to play a slightly haunting melody. She no longer seemed interested in them, instead focusing on the clear waters of the massive river that passed Altdorf by.
Caspian nodded. “I suppose that’s our cue to set sail… without a sail.” With a frown, he walked into the cabin. There was a wheel for steering, but there was also a lever that had a bunch of ‘speed’ numbers on it. There was a red line at six, though the lever could go all the way to nine.
He checked the map on the wall for their journey. Altdorf was in the middle of the continent, but the river eventually led to the ocean via the port city of Marienberg. Most would think that going north would require traveling along the shores of Kislev, but they had one of the Empire’s best maps; they would need to sail to the northwest to get around the annoyingly placed peninsula of Norsca before arriving at the Northern wastes. At that point, the plan was to have Vivian burn a hole through the ice until they got to their destination. A ton of provisions and winter coats had been provided, of course.
It was going to be a long journey, even in this rather speedy “magic boat,” Caspian realized.
With the crack of his neck, he put the speed setting on two. There was a churn in the engine room below him and the boat began paddling away at a decent pace. Even though he was unfamiliar with the boat’s operation, he was a master sailor and knew exactly how to drive it gracefully down the river.
Jenny kept playing her ominous song as they drifted away. Caspian swore he could still hear it in the distance an hour later.
~~~
Mo’Cookies paddled along through the open ocean at night, a small light on an endless sea of black-lit only by starlight. There were no moons in the sky.
Luigi was leaning against the railing, twiddling his thumbs. He didn’t move until Caspian came up from below decks.
“Is she…?”
“Nightmares,” Caspian said. “Her sleep is restless. The darkness is gnawing at her. She is protected somewhat, but I do not see her withstanding forever.”
“What’re we gonna do?”
“Be her friend. Help her through it. Do whatever we can. Get her away. And if she turns on us, we stay at her side, even if that means fighting her.”
Luigi pulled his hat over his eyes. “I wasn’t ready for this.”
“None of us were,” Caspian said. “I would never have considered laying my life down for a creature of the darkness before this journey. Now I intend to do exactly that, should it come to it.”
“Bu-bu—”
“Luigi.” Caspian put a hand on his shoulder. “You do not have to prepare yourself for that. Not having the strength to make the ultimate sacrifice is no shame. It is only human.”
“R-really?”
“Really.”
“Thanks…”
“And, Luigi? You’re stronger than you think.”
Luigi stayed silent, staring out into the ocean.
“And if I ever needed proof that you weren’t secretly Mr. L, this conversation is it. That guy…” Caspian shook his head. “He was so proud and arrogant and rude and…”
“If I ever see him, Imma whack him with the hammer of Luigi time for insulting the ‘stache with his attitude!”
“You sure like your mustache…” Caspian shook his head. “Good night, Luigi.”
“G’night.”
~~~
Unlike carriage rides, which end in disaster often enough that they have a reputation for being nerve-wracking, boat rides are largely uneventful. The ocean is big, and if you’re not sailing near any shore, you’re not likely to run into anyone else. Rumors of sea monsters are also largely exaggerated; oh, they exist, of course, but they rarely attack ships since they aren’t very paletable things.
So they sailed north, further and further into the frigid waters.
It was getting to the point where Caspian was wearing his coat at all times and Vivian periodically lit herself on fire just to get herself significantly warmer—only for a few seconds at a time, though, so she didn’t catch the boat on fire. She’d ditched the red robes a long time ago.
Luigi spent most of his time in the cabin sleeping. Or pretending to sleep while being wrapped up in seven layers of blanket.
Currently, Caspian and Vivian were looking to the north under a white overcast sky. Mo’cookies was moving along at a brisk six speed, which was far faster than any sailing boat Caspian had ever run. Still, they’d been at sea for a few weeks.
“I believe we have to be getting close,” Caspian said. “I’ve been consulting the map. There’s only a guess on where the Northern Wastes begin, but even accounting for that, we should be able to see it soon. Within a day or two.”
“Mmm…”
“...Have you been having those nightmares again?”
Vivian nodded slowly. “They haven’t stopped. Whatever that… thing is, it wants me. I don’t know why. Maybe just to say it can take me. But every other night, it sends something to me. It’s… very vague and I can never remember it.” She hugged herself tight. “I don’t like sleeping anymore.”
“Then we shall leave this world and this nightmarish entity. Until then, Aslan always watches over us.”
“Mhm.”
“An—well, I’ll be!” Caspian pointed to the edge of the sea with his finger. “I think I see it!”
“Where?” Vivian put a hand to her face, scanning for land. “I don’t see anything…”
“It’s solid white, Vivian, almost mistakable for a cloud.”
Vivian narrowed her eyes, scanning the edge of the horizon—and discovered that Caspian was right! Just at the edge of their vision, a pure white hunk of land drifted into view. Soon, it covered the entire horizon with its flat, icy sheen.
“Luigi!” Vivian called, running into the cabin. “Luigi, we made it to the Northern Wastes!”
Luigi groaned, rolling over in his pile of blankets.
“Don’t you ‘five more minutes’ me, mister!” She grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him out. Of course, he was in his coat, but the sharp motion was enough to wake him up.
“W-we’re under attack!”
“No, silly, we’ve just made it!” Vivian dragged him back outside to the railing where they could all look at the incoming land. Sure, it was going to be cold and brutal and probably filled with daemons, but it was their destination.
Luigi was the one who saw trouble first. He pointed to the left. “Uh, what’s that?” There was a black dot moving perpendicular with them along the shore of the Northern Wastes. Caspian took out a spyglass and examined it.
“Bother, that’s a rather large boat,” Caspian said. “And it looks like a warship. I believe I can make out cannon ports.”
“...Will we get to the shore before them?” Vivian asked.
“Not at this speed.” Caspian grimaced. “I don’t want to figure out what kind of welcome that ship will give us. Hold on.” He ran into the cabin and took hold of the wheel. “This might be a little bumpy.” He pushed the lever all the way to speed nine, taxing the engine to its absolute maximum. The usually calm rumble of the engine gave way to sparking noises and loud scraping. Mo’cookies was not designed to go this fast for very long.
Good thing Caspian didn’t need it to for much longer.
Instead of going straight for the shore, he twisted Mo’cookies to go in a northeasterly direction, both shortening the distance to the shore and attempting to widen the distance between them and the ship. The warship was definitely slower than them, but it also had less distance to travel. Caspian could have solved this by taking a more gentle slope toward the shore, but that would have taken too much time. As it was, he wasn’t sure he’d make it before the engine exploded.
“They’ll be within firing range soon,” Caspian called. “Vivian?”
“On it!” Vivian said, lighting her fingers on fire. “Let’s see what they’re going to try…”
Instead of cannonballs, it turned out to be a rain of arrows. Luigi jumped into the cabin to hide from the assault while Vivian remained outside, releasing a few fireballs at the ship before ducking into the shadows. The fireballs hit the black ship dead on, lighting one of its sails on fire. In return, the archers started shooting flaming arrows.
Vivian giggled to herself. A quick wave of her hands was enough to dissipate any flames that caught on Mo’cookies.
The noises of the engine got significantly worse. Everyone heard something snap. The left wheel stopped turning, prompting Caspian to drop the speed to zero to keep from turning away from the land. However, they were remarkably close, and they had more than enough speed to reach the land. In fact, they looked like they were going to crash into it.
The attacking ship finally decided to shoot a cannonball at them, though it flew right over the ship and into the water past it. The second one fell short, prompting Vivian to fire more fireballs back at the attackers. The third attack… that hit Mo’cookies engine.
“Uh oh…” Caspian said.
Vivian pulled both Luigi and Caspian close.
The engine exploded in a shower of white energy and noxious flames, launching the three of them into the air and onto the icy land of the Northern Wastes. They slid a fair distance, picking up piles of snow with their faces serving the purpose of snowplows.
Vivian got up and shook her head, getting the snow out of her hair. “Is… everyone okay?”
“Mama mia…” Luigi said, rubbing a bump on his head.
“Nothing’s broken,” Caspian groaned, standing up, finding his boots suitable for walking on the frigid ice and snow. “So…”
The ship fired a cannonball at them, making a crater in the snow just past their current location.
Vivian pressed her hands together and created a disc of fire in front of her. “Follow me!” She called, using her fire to melt the ice and snow away, creating a tunnel into the frozen earth. Luigi and Caspian jumped in after her as she carved out an underground tunnel going directly north.
Two more cannon shots went off, but they stopped once they realized their prey had gotten away. Just to be safe, Vivian brought the cave down behind them, preventing any possible on-foot pursuers from following them.
“W-wow!” Luigi said. “That was some pretty impressive work, Vivian!”
“Thanks!” Vivian said, shooting a pink fireball into the air for celebration.
She didn’t notice that it had been pink. She continued burning the tunnel through the ice, bringing them closer and closer to their destination.
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Again, feels like there's a story here...
Disappointed that this shit does not, in fact, go all the way up to eleven.
Vivian no! What about global warming? The rising sea levels will wreak havok!
Oh man, a battle between Luigi and Mr. L? Such a showdown would be a fight for the ages! They seem about evenly matched, and they even have similar mustaches! And outfits. And choice of attacks... That just means it would be a clash of equals!
The real thing you gotta worry about is scurvy. Hope they brought plenty of citrus.
Null Fire is a useful thing to have.
Something something momentum.
I'm gonna assume that pink is the preferred color of everyone's second favorite God of Chaos.
Man, I sure am glad we skipped over that boat ride. You could have fit, like 3 whole filler arcs in there! I'm told there's a manga where the heroes spent several years of real time on a boat, but we just breezed past that shit in a single chapter! Now we're at the Arctic, where all the cool people hang out. Get it? 'Cool' people? Like, because it's cold in the- nevermind.
No, you fool! Your greatest strategy is doing nothing and letting circumstance destroy your enemies.
In any case, our heroes approach their destination... but Chaos corruption is a slow and insidious thing. And no one said the Lord of Change's claim on Vivian would end when they left this world.
11066488
Datz onlys da ORK BOIZ bots dat doz dat.
11066488
…
So is pink bad, or good?
11066611
As a Warhammer nerd: Bad. Deeply bad. Pink Fire is one of Tzeentch's main motifs; the only way this could be worse is if Vivian started growing bird parts.
Chaos corruption has set in. Not good.