Chapter 13
Curious crew
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Harry
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Harry woke up. He was still not in the best of moods, but he'd be fine. He could tell that Charles and Quill were gone. When he got up, he thought he could feel the cart rocking.
As he climbed down and out of bed, he confirmed that the cart was moving. He dressed himself in the cloaks he had and stepped out.
Harry looked around as his brain finally caught up with him. He was probably in the cargo hold of the ship they had paid for. The walls, floor and ceiling were made of wood with crates and barrels stacked neatly against them.
He quickly found the stairs up to the ship deck, where he could see lots of Griffins, a few ponies and a minotaur or two walking around doing stuff. Despite the crowded-ness of the deck, he could easily see his brother sitting on a crate.
Dodging the ship crew, Harry made his way over to Charles, who was carving even more runes. Quill wasn't too far away, leaning overboard next to the crate.
"Morning. " said Harry as he approached them.
"Good morning, ginge. You OK? " Charles said as he looked up from the black gem he was working on.
"Yeah, I'm fine. " he replied.
Quill looked around, his face tinted green.
"Umm...you alright, Quill? You look sick. " Harry asked.
He opened his mouth to speak before suddenly putting a hoof over his mouth and throwing up off the side of the ship.
"He's sea sick. He'll be fine. " Charles said as Quill threw up again.
"Aren't you travel sick as well? " asked Harry.
"Yeah, but I'm not sea sick. Remember that boat trip we went on years ago. Even if I was, as long as I don't think about it, I'll be fine. That's why I'm doing these runes. " Charles explained.
"Huh, I guess that makes sense. " Harry said as he found a spot to sit on a crate next to his brother.
As he sat there, he looked at his brother. So far, he had saved Harry from thieves, stopped the prissy pony and helped him understand and use their magic. But even after that, he chose to just sit quietly with a rock and spike and just carve away at it.
It confused Harry to no end. How could he do all the work and still be the silent, chill, introverted brother he was? Without something to do, Harry had taken to practicing with his magic and trying to chat with his demon.
Harry looked down at the multiple stones next to Charles. He hadn't read any of it since Charles always had it, which meant he had no idea what the different runes were. But some of the rocks did stand out.
The three gems Charles somehow brought with only 5 bits. One was a lime green emerald, the other one was a nearly completely clear diamond and the last one was a piece of obsidian as black as the night back in their old world.
"Hey, Charles. Can you please just tell me what you are making? It's really bugging me now. " Harry asked, breaking the quiet between them.
"Fine. I'm making some golems. " Charles said.
"Golems? As in the creature made of stone? " asked Harry.
"Yep. I'm doing the last few runes, then I'll activate them. " he said.
"Then why did you get those gems? " Harry asked.
Charles smiled. It was the 'I've been waiting for this' smile that told Harry that he was in for an explanation.
"I brought those gems to make one unique. It said in the book that putting rune on gems can give them magical side effects related to the gem. I don't know what these will do, but the example in the book was a golem rune on a ruby. It causes the rest of the golem to light itself on fire and gain fire related powers. " explained Charles.
"I'm also combining the runes together. I have to put an attraction rune on one of the stones to keep the others together. It makes it more complex, sure, but it also makes the golem more versatile. With the setup I have for these, they should be as intelligent as a cat and we won't have to manually charge them. " he continued, splitting the stones around him into three piles, all with the same runes in each.
"The only problem is that it saids that the form the golem takes changes depending on the size of the rune. But since none of the ones in the book were as small as mine, I have no idea what form they'll take. " Charles finished.
"So we could be getting monster golem things? " Harry asked, having only understood parts of what Charles had said.
"Essentially, yeah. I've just got to put the actual golem runes on the gems and then power them. The one with the diamond is mine. The emerald one is for Mr sick over there. " Charles said, getting a scowl from Quill.
"That means the obsidian one is mine, right? " he asked, now interested in Charles' little project.
"Yep. This will be yours once we get to land. I don't want to activate any of them yet, though, just in case they damage the ship. " Charles said.
"But how do you power them? " he asked.
"Oh, that's pretty easy. Just hold it in your hand and put some magic into it. " Charles said as he pulled out his 'find me' rune stone.
"But I thought you said we couldn't use magic on runes? " he said.
Charles nodded. "True, you can't use magic to make the runes, but once it's done you can use magic to power them. ".
Charles and Harry sat and chattered on, finally having a good conversation. They hadn't had one for a long time, even before being sent to the new world, but it felt relaxing to just talk.
While they talked, they had unknowingly gained the attention of one of the crew.
"Umm, excuse me? " said a female voice. Both Harry and Charles turned to see a Griffin standing there.
The Griffin, which by the voice sounded like a girl, was brown with bits of silver lining. The unique thing was that she was wearing a leather jacket.
Harry had seen some of the crew wear clothes, but it still seemed like clothes here were optional. The difference between her and the rest of the crew was the colour. Hers was a much darker brown while the other wore a more lighter brown.
Charles was the first to reply. "Yes? ".
Harry's reply was not far behind. "What do you want? ".
The Griffin gave Harry a wary look before responding. "Urr, I can see you're not minotaurs, but the rest of the crew want to know what you are. " she said.
*sigh*
*groan*
The brothers responded nearly exactly at the same time, which Harry could see freaked the Griffin out even more.
"We're humans. " Charles said simply.
"But, what are humans? " she asked.
Harry could see that stupid smile again.
"Humans are very intelligent apes, not monkeys, there is a difference. " Charles said as he stood up in front of her.
"Where are you from? " asked the Griffin who was getting more interested if the leaning was anything to go by.
"From a place far, far away. " Harry said with a smile as Charles chuckled.
"Really, a star wars reference? " Charles said.
Harry shrugged nonchalantly.
"But yeah, my brother is right. We are from a very distant place that we might never get back to, unfortunately. " said Charles.
"You were banished from your homes? That's dreadful. " she said.
"We weren't kicked out. " corrected Harry. "We were kidnapped and dropped here with little warning or choice. ".
"That's even worse! Who would do such a thing? " said the Griffin.
"God. ".
"Lucifer. ".
Although it was obvious she didn't understand the second one, she clearly understood the first.
"A GOD! What did you do to deserve such punishment? " she questioned.
"Nothing. They just found us as the most suitable for their task. Before you ask, no, we are not telling you what the task is. " Harry said as he stated the lost bit bluntly.
"Oh...soo...what are you doing on this ship? Are you heading for the Griffin Kingdom? ".
"Yeah. After a...misunderstanding, we were banished from Equestria anyway. " said Charles.
"So you've been taken from your homes and dumped in Equestria. You then get banished from Equestria and are heading to the Griffin Kingdom. It seems like you've had a pretty hectic life. " she said.
"Life!? This all has happened in less than two weeks! See these wings, tail and horns? Humans aren't supposed to have these! " Harry shouted as he was now riled up and frustrated at the reminder of how their life went to shit.
The Griffin sat shocked and silent. Her eyes darted between Harry and Charles, not knowing how they would continue to act.
"Hey, ginge, calm down. I'd rather not have the entire ship hear you. " Charles said, trying to calm his brother. Harry simply huffed and murmured to himself.
"So...What's your name? " asked Charles as if nothing happened.
"Oh, my name is Jesse Claw. " she said.
"Huh. That's a surprisingly human sounding name. My name is Charles David Steel. And this is…" Charles started.
"...Harry Michael Parkes. " Harry finished.
"Why do you have three parts to your name? " Jesse asked.
"Just a human thing. They come from our families. Our mom's last name was Irons and his dad's last name was Parkes. " Charles replied.
"And what about your mid…".
"Hey, move it! We told you to stop getting in our way. " said a minotaur as he walked past us, carrying a heavy box.
"Sorry. I'll see you two later. " Jesse said before following behind the minotaur.
As soon as she was out of sight, both brothers sighed, then laughed at how synchronised they were. It wasn't uncommon and it always showed just how related they were.
The rest of the day passed without fuss. They ate the food they had on board and returned to their cart once the sun started to lower.
Quill was the first to fall asleep, having spent the day emptying his stomach of everything, and then some.
Harry and Charles stayed up for as long as they could, not wanting to get up too early. Unfortunately, Charles gave in as his eyes drifted close with the book in his hand.
Harry was now the only one awake, like normal. His internal body clock had been screwed for years, sleeping at 3 in the morning and waking at 3 in the afternoon.
Being unable to fall asleep, he crept down and nicked the book from Charles. It was tricky, considering Charles had oftentimes an awareness of his surroundings that it could be almost impossible to scare him when they were at home.
Harry, however, had mastered the art of sneaking past his brother as he would always raid the cupboards at night for something to eat.
Harry pinched the book at the top in the middle and slowly pulled at it. Once it was half way, Charles's hands slipped to the side away from the book.
With the book now in his hands, he climbed back into bed and opened it. Harry glanced over the glossary for anything interesting. The first to gain his interest was the mimic rune.
Mimic rune.
This rune is capable of copying the effects of whatever rune it is bonded with. It is not a perfect copy and is usually weaker with other random faults.
If the rune it is bonded to is disabled or broken, then it shall disperse its power at random, causing it to either explode or cause magic poisoning.
Do not bond mimic runes to single uses runes.
Harry could now see why Charles liked this book. Although he would never be able to carve runes like his brother, he could still curse thing. And with the mental lessons from his demon, still got to give him a name, he had a pretty OK grasp on the basics.
So as he continued to read the book, in his head, he started thinking of curses. He planned which objects to curse and had a general idea of what to put on them.
Fuck, I'm sounding like Charles. What has my life come to!