//------------------------------//
// [3-E] Sail 
// Story: Seattle Seapony 
// by dNihil 
//------------------------------//

“Cans.  Cans.  Cans.  Cans.  Cans...”  Sigh.

Cala sat in the underbelly of the boat, examining the supplies.  There was quite a bit of food, for the most part.  All of it... canned up.  Not much other than that.

Sigh.  “Cans.  I don't even know how to open cans.”

“Do either of you know how to use the hand-crank can-opener Peyton brought?” Harper said over the soft music it was playing.

“Without hands?”

“You have magic.  Both of you.”

“You still haven't taught us anything,” Cala said with a harrumph.

“You're not willing to learn.  Maybe going hungry for a day or so will make you finally listen to what I have to say.”

“But the magic lessons you try to give are so... boring!  It's no fun listening to you go on about... arcane science, willpower, blah blah blah.  Who cares about any of that?  I just want to be able to shoot laser beams and wreck stuff!”

“You have... uh... sharp teeth, for that.”

Cala narrowed her eye at the radio for a moment.  She reached over and grabbed a tuna can from the top of the stack... then began to gnaw on it!

“Hey!” Peyton said, ducking her head in the hatch in the ceiling.  “I think I figured out how—”

Cala stared back at her with a chewed-up can in her mouth.

She groaned.  “Ugh, what are you two... doing, down here?”

“I don't have anything to do with that,” Harper said.

“I'm hungry!”

“This is why we brought a can-opener,” Peyton said.

“But how are we supposed to use it?  Neither of us have figured out how magic works...”

With a fine show of dexterity, Peyton opened a fresh can of tuna with only her hooves, teeth and said tool.

“...How...”

Peyton sighed.  “I had to figure it out on my first day.  My family had been due for a grocery run.  Opening up the can of baked beans was a bad idea...”  She shuddered.  “Almost as bad of an idea as eating the whole thing.  My body had been turned inside-out by the time Willy found me.  Anyways, when you're done with that, just chuck that mangled thing overboard along with the empty can.  They're both useless to us now.”


∘


“...Run that by me, again?” Cala said.

Peyton sighed for the umpteenth time.  “Fine.  The big problem is, we need to go north, but the wind is going south.  We can do one of three things.  The easiest option would be to wait it out until it goes in any other direction.  The hardest would be to try and paddle our way north against the wind, but it might take longer than a month to get to the pacific ocean and it's too exhausting.  We also have the risky option of trying to zig-zag our way up the Puget Sound, using what little leverage we can from the wind, but it probably won't work since neither of us have any sailing experience.”

Cala was silent for a moment.  “So why didn't we just get a motorboat?”

...Peyton smacked her own forehead.  “Duh.  Renée suggested this instead so that I wouldn't have to worry about maintenance and fuel and all that... but nobody really thought about the implications of a sailboat...”

“Hey, it's not so bad.”  Cala smiled and rested a hoof on her friend's shoulder.  “I'd rather be stranded on the ocean with you than anyone else.  I know that you'll look after us and get us somewhere safe eventually.”

Peyton giggled.  “Thanks.  It's nice to get to be here with you, too.  I know I'd probably really hate this otherwise, but if I get to spend this time with you, I know that at least I'll enjoy it, and we'll probably get to have lots of fun, too.  Could you imagine if I had to get trapped alone with just Harper?  This would be torture!”

And then they kissed.  Or something.  I don't know; look, I'm just here to tell a story, and they were reluctant to give me all the details, alright?

...Maybe some.  Peyton is a bit of a pervert.

Let's just wrap this up, shall we?  Even put in one of those fancy arrows again so you can tell I'm moving on to something big:


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