Azur/Lilly - 5th of Plantation '15 EoH - Afternoon - (5 days at sea)Azur/Lilly - 5th of Plantation '15 EoH - Afternoon - (5 days at sea)
The Night Jewel had a pub. Of course it did. It had everything else, except for a swimming pool that is. The thing was, I hadn’t noticed that there was a pub until five days into our trip.
I never used to even think about going to a pub or a bar, but after that night with Dusk, I had found myself wanting to go back to that little place for a drink. Well, not exactly the drink, I really just wanted the company. I wish I could remember the whole night, because just sitting with somepony who was actually listening to me was really nice.
I’d made my first real friend in a pub, so I thought maybe that’s where I could make more.
I did count Jade and David as friends, but since I had been ordered to escort them out of the country well… I didn’t exactly meet them just because. I met them because I had been told too. I liked them a lot, but it felt different from just hanging out with that mare. It felt… lesser. Not bad, just less good.
The ship’s pub was pretty nice. That should go without saying, the whole ship is in-bucking-credible, but the pub was nice by the standards of the ship. All extra smooth dark wood, silver bartops, an aquarium behind the bar filled with exotic fish, tables designed to comfortably seat ponies, griffons, even dragons.
It was really nice. Fancy decor wasn’t really my taste, my father had ruined gold and silk for me by, well, decorating our manor with it and thus making me associate opulence with jerks. But even so, I liked this pub. They made it work by having the fancy feel less ‘rich jerk’ and more ‘craftspony’. It’s hard to describe, but the style of all the decor and furnishing looked less like some artist made it, and more like a loving craftspony happened to have a ton of expensive stuff to work with.
I wondered if Dusk would like this place. I guess I didn’t know much about her, but she seemed to like me. If we ever saw each other again I would have to learn more about her. The Captain had said she was well, more powerful than he was. Maybe she had a house someplace with a room like this one.
Nah, that didn’t seem like her style. She might be rich and powerful, but she was actually happy in that old, stone walled, function over form pub. Her place was probably all Equestrian style, modern conveniences hidden behind a veneer of medieval decor.
I’d never liked Equestrian architecture. The wattle and daub style is fine, but the roofs. The roofs bother me. I get they like their history, but who the hay wants to use a thatched roof? With any luck, since I’ll probably be living there, I’ll be able to find a place with a roof made of something that isn’t literally a bundle of hay. A nice clay tile roof would be fun.
Fun. It would be nice to be having that right now.
Unfortunately while the pub was nice, the zebras and ponies in it had their cliques and friendships pretty well hashed out. So I was basically just sitting at the bar with a glass of something which smelled like it should be alcohol, but hadn’t gotten me buzzed after four and tasted something like shampoo, only delicious. At least the music playing from the jukebox was nice.
Also, this did beat sitting in my cabin reading spellbooks. I’d basically memorized everything aside from the publisher information in my books. While I had more to learn in, well everything, I had nothing to learn it from. Thus, pretending to study what the hell this drink was exactly to convince myself that I was practicing in my down time.
Thus far, I was hoping it wasn’t some sort of milk. If it was, I never wanted to see the animal it came from. I could only envision it to be some sort of cosmic terror made of nothing but tentacles that were also eyes and mouths. Nothing else could logically make milk flavored like this.
I missed the mead Dusk and I had shared. How did a place this bucking opulent not have mead?
Suddenly, a stallion slid onto the stool next to me. He was a pretty tall, blue furred, brown maned earth pony, with an odd star shaped patch of red fur over his left eye, and a cutiemark shaped like a burning microphone. He caught my attention mostly because of his facial mark, I’d never gotten to study them before since marked ponies are exceptionally rare.
He noticed me looking at him instantly. Actually instantly. Literally before I knew it. It was creepy.
The stallion swept a hoof through his mane to slick it back, and at the same time pulled a rose from… somewhere with the other and held it out with the same sort of smile a cart salesman gives you.
“Why hello there,” he greeted, “you're a very attractive young mare. I'd like to ask you out on the hottest of dates. I see that you have a lot of other gentlecolt suitors. Allow me to make my case…”
The hay was he talking about? Nopony else was even looking at me. Oh ponyfeathers! I was being picked up in a bar by this sleaze ball. No!
I held up a hoof to stop him from continuing, “Uh, actually I’m not-”
I felt my ears floop back in confusion as the stallion hopped off the stool and broke out into an actual song, prompting the entire pub to groan enmass.
“This guy plays hoofball // but I once won the whole super bowl by myself!” The stallion boasted, pointing to a short zebra who at the moment was facehoofing painfully hard.
“Damn it Sani! Every time any female comes in here…” The zebra moaned as the stallion, Sani, continued on.
“This guy is a weightlifter,” he sang sliding over to a fairly burly Zebra with an eyepatch, “// but I can bench an entire continental shelf.”
The burly Zebra glared at the stallion with his good eye and growled, “Skip to the main bit or I’ll punch you down a deck.”
Sani cleared his throat and slid back to me, almost masking a flinch. Fortunately, I was able to get a word in before he kept going on. “Oi, arschloch! I’m not a mare.”
“But-I-what?” He asked, voice pingponging out of a singing tone to a speaking one.
“I said, ‘I’m not a mare.’” I repeated adding, “arschloch.” again for good measure.
“But the dress, and the well groomed mane, those flanks, and the face?” the completely baffled horn dog asked eyes shrinking to pinpricks of confusion.
“Not. A. Mare.” I repeated again.
“Oh.” He he said, face pulling out of the confusion to something pretty normal. “Okay, just a minute.”
The stallion turned around and quickly zipped off.
Instantly the pub erupted into a chorus of “Yay!” and “Woo!” and even a lone, “Finally!”
The burly Zebra stepped over and gave me a grateful smile, “Clever move, miss. Nopony’s thought to convince Sani they’re a trap before. I’m sorry for that idiot, he tries to jump the bones of every mare he sees. It’s driven all the female crew out of the pub.”
I that moment I realized that I looked so bucking girly that even after violently insisting I was male, apparently only stupid people believed me. Faust’s mane… I needed to do something about that…
“Ja,” I sighed, “he seems like that guy.”
“He is. The real problem is that whole song… Yes Sani, you killed a Gorgon once. Feel free to pick up chicks with that for the rest of time…” The Zebra shook his head and walked back over to his table.
A second later the barpony chuckled and slid another glass of mystery goodness to me. “Everypony’s been dreading that. You’ll get more people’s attention now, and don’t worry nopony’s flirts are that ba- Oh bucking hay he’s back!”
I looked up to see Sani reentering, pushing a white stallion through the doors. A white, clearly Germane stallion. Who was admittedly pretty cute, especially with his long braided Nhorse styled mane.
The new stallion was doing his best to walk around Sani and leave, only to be pushed towards the bar. “I don’t care! I need to recharge the starboard spellbank! I’m on duty!” the white stallion shouted.
“Oh hay… He dragged Ändrin into this.” the short Zebra muttered.
“Look, you’re the only colt here who needs to be paired up.” Sani insisted, pushing the poor unicorn over to the bar with herculean effort.
“You can’t just match make based on sexual pref-” Ändrin’s eyes narrowed as he saw me, “Wow. We pick up a germane mare and you literally push me to her. Buck off you racist fertilizer bag.”
I cleared my throat and muttered in Germane. “Fourth post-war generation…”
Ändrin blinked, frowned, then winced, “Oh… Sorry about the whole… Er- Well this is awkward…”
“See? Guy.” Sani insisted before levering the other stallion onto a barstool, “No hook up. You never get laid, it’s creepy!”
Ändrin rolled his eyes. “On. Duty.”
“You can spare seven minutes!” Sani insisted, giving Ändrin a sly wink.
I couldn’t help but snicker. Seven? Seriously? Ladies and gentlecolts, the fastest stallion alive!
Ändrin rolled his eyes, “I’ll spare three, and not for that.” He turned his attention to me, “Hi, nice to meet somepony from the fatherland. Were you also banished, or are you heading out looking for medical help?”
“Banished?” I asked curiously, they hadn’t banished anypony in sixty years as far as I knew, “How old are you?”
“One eighty and a bit. I was banished at the end of the war for… Well…” He scratched a hoof behind his head awkwardly, “I was one of the biomancers they forced to work on Project Pureblood. So again, sorry for the massive failure that is your genetics. They asked to do the impossible at spellpoint… Hay, I didn’t even know they were using the spells we were making until six months into the war. They brought me in by claiming it was theoretical work.”
Wait. What? This stallion was one of the wizards… Oooo! Opportunity!
“It’s okay.” I said sincerely, “They tell us das whole story in school now. I know they forced the mages to do it… Sure someponies still say you should have refused but, you know.”
Ändrin nodded, “It’s not easy to say no with a charged horn pointed at your heart. Still, I’m really sorry. I tried my best to make my part work after learning the truth… Couldn’t stop the army from using it, but I could minimize the damage. Er, not too many ponies have developed Cancrum Oris or Polyglandular Addison’s Disease have they?”
“Nein, those are pretty rare. At least, from what I’ve seen.” I answered truthfully.
He let out a huge sigh of relief, “Good. There’s some weight off my shoulders… There is a reason the pony kinds are separate. The four types do NOT like to be blended…”
I nodded again, “Ja, I uh… I actually learned biomancy myself. It’s my talent. I was using it to fix ponies until I had to leave. They don’t banish anymore but… We'll… Social pressure.”
“You learned biomancy?” He asked with a shocked expression.
“Ja.” I answered.
“In Germany. Post war.”
“Ja. It is my talent. So I ordered books from overseas.” I explained.
“How did you get them through customs?” He demanded.
“I put my father's name on the packages. Sie don’t check nobles mail.” I answered.
Ändrin shook his head, looking pretty impressed. “Good work fraulein. It’s a shame the art is banned… We did so much good before the war. I used to regenerate lost limbs. Good times.”
“Sooo, you don’t hate the art?” I asked carefully.
“No.” Ändrin answered standing up, “It’s a tool. Just like all other schools of magic. Can’t blame a tool when it’s user does evil things with it.”
“Then, could you maybe teach me some things? I’m having trouble with-”
Ändrin cut me off with a raised hoof, “Yes. I could. I also would enjoy talking about biomancy in depth with somepony again. But, I am on duty. I’ll be here in five hours for a drink before dinner. Meet me here then. Er, but before I go, how much do you know?”
“I stabilised myself.” I answered, telling him the most impressive of all my accomplishments.
“Wait,” Ändrin asked, with a disbelieving look, “You don’t have any ongoing conditions?”
“Nein. I fixed everything.”
“How?”
“My parents received transplanted kidneys.” I said slowly, “So I have some non-Germane DNA. It was tiny, but I used it to make parts to replace broken parts of me until I stopped being sick.”
Ändrin gave me an impressed smile, “So you’re about where I was back when everything went to horse apples. Great! I can show you plenty, and you’re not going to be asking year one questions… I’ll see you later, uh…”
“Lily.” I answered.
“Lily. Nice.” He nodded and trotted off, “Five hours then ‘Miss’ Lily.”
I watched him leave with a mixed happy and sad feeling. It would be great to finally learn more than what my books could teach me. It sucked that I was only going to learn it because I found somepony who had to become a pirate after the art was outlawed. Ah well, at least I could finally learn a few new tricks!
I picked my glass of mystery drink up and took a sip, returning to time passing. As well as resolving to not ask what exactly this stuff was. Because now it had a hint of blueberry in it.
David - 8th of Plantation '15 EoH - Afternoon - (8 days at sea)
To my surprise and joy it turned out that the Night Jewel was less a sailing ship, and more of a steam ship. Sort of. A good chunk of the ship ran on what the crew referred to as magitech. Simple machines animated or controlled by simple spells. It was really interesting to learn how the small systems contributed to big things like making the ship’s oars move on their own.
This must have been what Azur was talking about by ‘behind the times’. It makes perfect sense for a species which can use magic to develop it for practical purposes. This sort of magic could be used and repaired by non-mages, sort of like an easy mode to engineering. I don’t know why I didn’t consider this as a possibility before.
The magitech systems were fun to work on. Equestria had similar technology, I was figuring on getting into this sort of work as a career. According to a few crewmen, the Night Jewel was an old ship, so she needed a lot of repairs, meaning I got to get enough experience working on her to decide I liked it. While a large chunk of the crew wanted nothing to do with me, the ship’s engineers were overjoyed to learn what hands can do.
Especially when it meant they didn’t have to fix the bilge pump.
I had assumed this was just something that broke a lot and thus frustrated the hell out of everyone when it broke again. I was wrong. The reason was far more simple.
I simply didn’t know what a bilge pump was. It’s the pump used to get rid of any water that gets to the bottom of a ship so the ship won't fill with water. The water can come from leaks in the hull, rain, or any other water that spills down onto the decks.
This means the water usually picks up oils, dirt, grime, chemicals, and all sorts of crap. So it smells like rotting Taco Bell shits in a frat house. When the pump fails, like it had now, there would be standing pools of gross in the bilge. So fixing the pump mean wading through a hundred yards of shit-smelling foulness the likes of which can only be created by a dozen skunks, White Castle grease, and a deranged drunken scientist.
Or a roommate named Doug.
“Christ…” I grumbled as I looked up into the innards of the pump.
“That’s not my name.” Glowing Forge muttered angrily.
Batponies were a new thing for me. While I had to admit that they were fucking adorable, they didn’t seem to understand using names as curses. Or at least this pinkish-gray mare didn’t.
“Just pass me a pipe wrench. The Archimedes Screw’s jammed up, gonna have to take it out.” I replied with a sigh as I held out a hand.
“Here.” she said as I felt the tool press into my hand. “The hay is an Archimedes screw?”
I started to unbolt the case from around the screw before grunting an answer, “The big screw here, with the wide threads, which does the actual work of moving the water up.”
“Oh! We have a different name for that.” she replied, shuffling some tools around.
“Figured you would.” I grunted again.
It was hard to have a dog’s nose and be down here. Especially when I pried the cover off and found the entire interior was gummed up with what looked to be rancid fat.
“Oh fucking hell!” I shouted, trying not to puke and ad to the smell.
“Ew! The hell is that?” Glowing moaned.
“If I didn’t know better, rotting bacon grease.” I informed. “Pass me a rag, I’ll need to pull it out.”
“How the buck did that get in here? We don't have a crematorium, or even pigs.” Glowing said, gagging a little as she set a rag into my hand. “Wait, how do you know what that smells like?”
“I’m an omnivore and pigs are delicious.” I explained. “I also have had many roommates who wouldn’t clean up after cooking.”
I could feel Glowing being uncomfortable with that as I started to scrape the rancid fat and… tar? The fuck?
“I mean… I understand pegasi eating fish. They’re fish. But pigs I mean those are really close to ponies.” Glowing said, presumably in a roundabout way to try and learn if I had ever eaten a pony.
If I wasn’t focusing 100% on now throwing up from the scent and feel of the lard-rot-tar-ball I was pulling out of this mess, I probably wouldn’t have instantly replied. “Like hell it is! Pork is nothing like horse. Horse is horrible. Bitter, stringy, tough… It’s like trying to eat a slab of beef jerky an inch thick that tastes like this shit smells.”
“W-what?” Glowing eeped.
Oh. Right. Trying to appear civilized. Lie time, don’t say your grandmother butchered her horses when they died. “A friend of mine had some really weird funeral rights. It was a culturally appropriate thing to do. I do however regret it because you guys taste incredibly bad.”
“O-oh… So like a griffon funeral, where close family eat part of the deceased?” she asked.
Ooookay… Glad to be far away from fucking Griffons! “Yeah, something like that. Don’t worry I don’t think I could hurt a pony who wasn’t attacking me. You guys are fucking adorable.”
A few seconds passed, a few more wads of gross were removed. “Two questions to help me think about something other than this smell.” Glowing announced, “First why do you swear like a foal? Just say buck for Luna’s sake!”
“I’m not cursing in Equish. I’m swearing in my own language.” I explained with an amused grin.
“Wait… Really?”
“Yes really.”
“Huh.” Glowing said in a genuinely interested tone. “Neat.”
“What's the next question?” I asked pulling one of the last clumps out of the mechanism.
“Oh! Right!” Glowing said shaking herself out of a train of thought. “How the hay did a Diamond Dog join the Hospitlars?”
“Excuse me?” I asked looking out from under the screw in confusion.
She pointed with a hoof to my sleeve, “You have their crest on your jacket… You’re one of their knight’s right? I mean if not you really shouldn’t wear their crest.”
“That arm band is used by my homeland to designate combat medics.” I explained. I wasn’t too fazed that another group was using the same symbol. It was just a red plus sign after all, pretty basic shape-color combo. “Who are the Hospitlars?”
Glowing made a small bemused sound, “Huh… If I get the wording right,a combat medic means you’re a soldier and a doctor at once, right?”
“Yeah.” I answered, getting the last of the rotting crap out of the pump and starting to wipe the mechanism down.
“Well the Hospitlars are pretty close to that. They’re an Equestrian knight order who responds to monster attacks… Except for Ponyville of course. It’s got it’ own safety measures and stuff.”
“Woah woah woah, wait, back up!” I said tossing a hand up to stop her. “Did you say Ponyville?”
“Yeah. I grew up there.” Glowing commented. “Why?”
“That is the literal dumbest name I have ever heard of! It literally means ‘Small-horse Town’ and it’s a town populated by ponies... Who the fuck named it that?” I demanded, actually a little upset by the name.
Glowing giggled, “Oh boy, you are going to HATE how Equestrians name cities! Hehe!”
“Oh god…” I moaned, “Please tell me there aren’t any-”
“The capital city is called Canterlot.” Glowing informed smugly.
I think that pun actually hurt me. That or the smell was that of a toxic gas. Maybe both. “... No comment.”
I quickly bolted the cover back onto the screw, and Glowing gave it a thump. Apparently Batponies were able to channel magic through their hooves. Nothing like a unicorn and their horn, but a good thump could get magic already present in things flowing.
The pump hummed to life. I gave it a satisfied nod. “Good! We can finally get the hell out of this smell hole.”
“So there’s a city in Equestria called Cloudsdale…” Glowing started.
“... It’s built in the clouds isn’t it?” I sighed.
“Mmmmhm!” Glowing said flashing me a grin that made her bright orange eyes twinkle.
I shook my head, trying to let the irrational anger wash over me… and failing. “I swear if there is a city made of crystals called-”
Glowing put a hoof on my shoulder gently. “Shhh…. There is, it’s called the Crystal Empire, but shhh! It’s okay. Not everyplace is given a bad pun name.”
“I have to know… why?” I begged.
“It’s just a thing. I’m sure your species has just a thing it does.” Glowing commented. “Anyways… we should probably file a report. About that gunk I mean. I don’t even know how it got on the ship in the first place.”
“That’s, actually that’s a great point.” I said, thankful for the distraction from the prior topic. “Let’s get on that. It's probably nothing, but well, you never know.”
To be honest, it probably wasn’t nothing. I made a mental note to keep a bit more alert. If that had been sabotage, then Jade and I were not out of the woods yet.
Jade - 12th of Plantation '15 EoH - Afternoon - (12 days at sea)
“No not like that! Pinion feathers at three degrees, not five!” Lightstride groaned, rubbing her face with a hoof. “Didn’t your mom teach you how to fly?”
I gave her a short blush, “Uh… Not with pegasi wings.”
“Oh. Right…” the cosmic latte and turquoise mare gave me back an embarrassed grin as she hovered in front of me. “In that case, is flying with bug wings that different?”
I had to give her another embarrassed blush, “Yes… I just kinda buzz, tilt, and go.”
“Yikes…” Light bit her lip for a moment, “Okay, watch me one more time.”
She blinked up about fifty feet. I’d asked Light to teach me how to fly since the first time I saw her do that. For a split second her body arcs with a round nimbus of blue-white energy and then pow! she’s a short ways away, faster than you can see her leave.
Sadly those super-fast ‘jumps’ as she calls them are her talent. I didn’t quite understand what she meant by ‘short superluminal jumps’, because apparently it wasn’t teleporting. But man I wished I could do it too.
At least she agreed to show me how to fly properly. Or rather, said it was a matter of honor if she knowingly didn’t teach a pegasus to fly. I’d told her I was actually a changeling, and that I just kinda liked being a Pegasus at the moment, but that didn’t change her opinion at all.
We had spent a few hours each day for the whole trip so far practicing. Light worked in the crow's nest, and insisted that teaching me wouldn’t stop her from her duties, so the Captain had okayed everything. I’d done okay so far, but Light wasn’t going to be happy with me just being able to fly, oh no, apparently I had to be able to fly amazingly.
I watched the mare turn a few loops and spins while circling the ship. I wasn’t just watching like a pony though, I’d shifted my eyes back to my real ones. Changeling eyes are much better at picking up details from a distance, and as a scout I should be able to mimic things I saw enough times.
I blinked, and suddenly Light was inches in front of me, a second before the ‘woom!’ sound of her arriving. “Okay! Didja get it now?”
“Um, maybe? Look, I’m already able to fly, why do I need to learn stunts?” I asked curiously.
“Because you’re going to Equestria.” Light answered, “If you spend any time as a pegasus in the air, Rainbow Dash, fastest mare alive, is going to notice you and want to race. You need to be really good, so she asked where you learned to fly, and then you can mention me and then maybe I’ll get to meet her… and uh… not puss out this time… So yeah! Back to learning how to conserve speed while performing loops and rolls!”
I raised an eyebrow, was that a crush I tasted? “I don’t know, that seems really implausible. It’s a big country right? I’m not going to run into any given pony.”
“Yeah you will.” Light said, rolling her eyes. “You’re the last of your hive right? So you’ll need to seek asylum. So you’ll have to go to a Princess, and it’s gonna be Twilight because the other Princesses made diplomacy her job, and Dash is her best friend so you’ll meet her at some point.”
“How do you even know that?” I asked with a confused expression.
“Gah! … Put your eyes back that looks really creepy!” Light exclaimed, wincing at my expression.
I quickly shifted my eyes back to green pegasus ones. “Sorry.”
“As for your answer uh…” She looked around for a few moments then coughed, “Stalking.”
“Stalking?” I asked curiously.
“I’m not good at approaching ponies I like, okay? Those are normal ponies too, not Rainbow motherbucking Dash! She broke the freaking sound barrier like a total badflank! As a filly! Without trying! I can’t top that… Not with my little like, mile max hops... So I stalked her… for um… since we were in the wonderbolts academy… But I uh... arranged a date once I felt I knew enough to not buck it up, panicked at the last moment and ran off… I wound up joining this crew actually… So yeah, less about my overreactions and more flying!” Light said urgently.
So I had tasted a crush! Ah ha! It was delicious! Also energizing.
“Sure, let’s go.” I said flapping to move up a little.
Light zipped ahead of me, and started to lead me on the same course of non-existent obstacles. I was almost able to keep up with her this time! But she still was staying a few body lengths ahead of me. Maybe three or-
Wait, what was that?
A small trickle of water was running down the side of the ship. That was odd. If you put a hole in a boat wasn’t water supposed to flow into the ship not out?
“What’s the holed up? Tired?” Lighting asked zipping over.
“No,” I said shaking my head, “What’s with the water pouring out there?”
“Oh that’s probably just someone dumping the sewa- Oh buck! That’s the fresh water tank!” Light vanished in a nimbus of energy, a half second later the flow of water stopped.
Another half second and she was back, grabbing me by the shoulder, “We got to go to the Captain now! Someone dumped like, almost all of the water.”
“We can’t just make more fresh water?” I asked in confusion.
“Not since we marooned our transmuter last month for attempted murder.” Light groaned.
“Ah so… Emergency time?” I asked rhetorically.
“Yeah, with a vengeance.” Light confirmed, zipping over to the captain’s chamber doors, and landing “Come on!”
I quickly followed, and landed just as Light’s furious knocks resulted in the door being pulled open. I gulped as Captain Sudi’s huge frame literally filled the doorway. I knew he was a niceish guy, but still, his looming frame of imposement was… well imposing.
“From your knocking rapid pace, I assume you have something important to report, Miss Light. What is it?” He asked quickly and bluntly.
“Aye sir!” Light said, snapping a salute, “Someone's sabotaged the main water tank. The reserve is full, but we have at best eleven days of water left. Jade spotted the tank being dumped a minute ago, and when I checked it out someone had taken the valve off the emergency release after opening it. I was able to close it with my teeth, but still, the valve was removed. So we have a saboteur aboard.”
Oh… crap… That was worse than I thought. I’d figured someone had accidentally bumped a lever or something. Actual sabotage-
Sun’s light! It was probably someone who was after me!
Sudikahmen nodded grimly. “Then David and Glow were right about the bilge pump… Someone wants to force us to go ashore.”
I gulped, “I uh… it’s probably someone after me… So you know… you can put us off the ship if you really-”
“Out of the question Miss Jade.” the Captain said with a dismissive hoof wave, “I never go back on my word when I can help it. Miss Light, you said there was eleven days of water left?”
“Aye sir. Not quite enough to reach Zebrica.” She said, ears drooping.
“Yes, about five days short… We have too many crewmen at the time to ration more than an extra two days… My fleet is too far away to resupply us in time… We’ll have to stop at Crookshank.” He said decisively.
“Are you sure sir?” Light asked timidly.
“Yes. Whomever our saboteur is they will be aware of our position, and thus know that Crookshank Isle is the only freshwater source within range. However, as we can not make more water ourselves, we have little choice. We simply will have to be extra cautious and ready for the inevitable attack.” he answered briskly. “Miss Light, Miss Jade, establish a round the clock guard on our food and water supplies. I will be organizing a deck by deck sweep for our saboteur.”
“Aye sir!” Light said snapping a salute.
The Captain’s door closed. I could feel my hearts race in panic. “I’m not ever going to be safe…”
Light giggled, “Pff! You’re safer than anybug I know. You got a whole freaking pirate crew ready to stomp a mudhole in any jerk about to attack you. Besides, this is probably the Stalliongrad king’s attempt to force us to stop embarrassing him each year. It happened every other time or so.”
“R-realy?” I asked nervously.
“Totally! Hasn’t been able to do anything to us yet though! Don’t worry.” She soothed. “Now follow me, we got to get that guard established.”
I nodded and followed her as she trotted off down the pyramid’s stairs.”So, you’re sure it’s not a trap?”
“Oh no, it’s a trap! Just not for you in all likelihood. I mean who even knew you got on board?” She asked.
“Huh… True.” I mused thoughtfully.
“Now come on, get guards set up, get lunch, and then more flying.” Light said rattling off each event like she was scheduling the whole-
Oh. She actually was scheduling the whole day.
“We can still practice with all this going on?” I asked in concern.
“Hey, if we stop everything because fear the badguys win. We just put up the precautions, then go back to training you for my benefit… Er, and also your benefit.”
That was a good point. I couldn’t help but reflect it. Light was completely right. If I just let fear rule me, then my enemies did win. I decided I would try my best to be braver in the future. I was going to be a queen one day after all. Noling likes a scaredy cat for their Queen.
I would be better than that. I would make a home everyling could feel safe in… As soon as I figured out how to feel safe myself. Fortunately, I seemed to have a good teacher for that.
“Thanks Light.” I said
“No problem.” She replied. “I know how much fear can cost you. Now, what are we gonna do?”
“Set up guards, get lunch, then train more.” I replied quickly.
“Damn right! I’m thinking a daisy sandwich… As for you um… huh, do you guys even have food stuff?” Light asked.
I giggled, “Just keep thinking about Dash, that’s delicious.”
Light turned a bright red, and remained like that for about an hour. I decided it would be mean to tell her that her reaction was also tasty.