Chapter Four Hundred and Eighty-Nine — Several-Day Trip
Chapter Four Hundred and Eight-Nine — Several-Day Trip "I think I'd rather stay, actually," Caprica said. She was in her room on the Beaver reading from a journal of some sort.I tilted my head way off to the side to be able to read the title. The Royal Burden? It looked like a magazine for princesses or something... which was a weird thing to have a magazine for. How many princesses were there that might buy a copy of that?Maybe it was marketed towards girls who wanted to become princesses? I decided not to question it too much. Caprica could read whatever she wanted to. "You want to stay here?" I asked."Want is a strong word," Caprica said. "It's more that I have a few things to look into at the embassy, and I think that Booksie will need more help than she thinks, when it comes to organising her wedding. I want to assist where I can.""That's nice of you!" I said."It's pragmatic of me," Caprica corrected. "I want to ingratiate myself to the local dragons. They are... less evil than I'd been raised to imagine. Not that they're sinless, exactly, but still, I think it should be possible to... discuss our differences. I was always led to believe that the average dragon was more of a rampaging, clever animal than a person. I've learned differently now.""Oh. That's actually a lot of growth," I said."Why thank you," Caprica replied. "In any case, I doubt the average sylph would care about my interpretation of things, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't do my duty as a princess and representative of Sylphfree and at least try to forge some amicable relationships. The local Grenoil of Deepmarsh certainly worked something out, and it has been good for them."I nodded along. "It's nice to have a good dragon neighbour.""It's also a massive economic boon," Caprica pointed out. "Do you have any idea how much gold they're saving on anti-piracy actions alone? Nevermind the lowered cost of defence. No one will attack Port Royal. Well, no one sane. It'd take several heroic persons to even make the attempt, and those kinds of high-levelled individuals can sweep away small armies already, no amount of additional budget would help against them to begin with.""Uh-huh," I said. Caprica sure was approaching this from an angle I hadn't thought of. "Well, staying is okay! So far it'll be myself, Awen, Amaryllis, Calamity, and Desiree said she wanted to come too. The Scallywags want shore leave, and Clive and the other harpy boys want to stick around to oversee any work on the Beaver and maybe get some time off the ship too.""This trip of yours will only be for a day or two, correct?" Caprica asked."About two days, yeah," I said. "Maybe three if things take longer than expected. Amaryllis is within banking-ring distance of Port Royal, so she should be able to send messages back!""Fantastic. In that case, keep me informed. If anything goes very wrong I can have a contingent of sylph men-at-arms to your location within an hour or two."I smiled, then raised my arms. It was time for good-bye hugs. I made sure to squeeze extra-good, to make up for any lost time.Then I rejoined the others on the deck. We were waiting after Amaryllis and Calamity, who weren't quite back yet. I decided to take that time to practice on those skills I wanted some more.Awen joined in this time. She created a long pole with a glass plate dangling from a cord on the end. She was able to move the pole, making it longer and shorter and swinging it around me. My job was to not get smacked by the plate while also unleashing small bursts of compacted Fire magic at the plate. If I hit it hard enough it would shatter into hundreds of little pieces of broken glass.It was magical glass, of course, made by Awen's skills, so it would quickly dissipate into raw Glass aspect mana long before anyone risked a foot on a shard of it.By the time Amaryllis returned, I was sweaty and almost drained of both stamina and mana. "Really, Broccoli?" she asked."I was training!" I said."You were wasting valuable energy. I... congratulate you on putting in the effort, but I'm not sure if now was the time for that. That goes for you too, Awen!"Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings."Aww, sorry!" I said. "I think I'm getting better at a few things though.""Have you been training Thick Skin?" Amaryllis asked.I froze for a moment. "No?""Hmph," she said, unimpressed. She might have been right to be. I was mostly practising my aim and quick spell casting, and of course draining my mana to eventually pick up Mana Regeneration. That was a skill that I definitely wanted to grab!"Anyway! Are we ready to go?" I asked."Let's just make sure we've got even packs first," Calamity said. "We don't want anyone carrying more than they can handle, but we also want everyone carrying a few things, otherwise things will end with someone lugging along more than they ought to. Nya never wants to be the one with the massive backpack while the others are light as a feather."We had a few packs, including my old backpack, so we divided up the food and camping supplies I'd grabbed between them until everyone had a few things to carry. The extra space ended up filled with a few non-essentials. Extra blankets, extra changes of clothes, a few small tools that were a little more situational.When I hefted my backpack on, I felt the weight of it, but it wasn't all that bad. I'd had heavier packs going to school, and they had been less ergonomic. "Okay!" I cheered. "Let's get going!"Amaryllis, as our group's designated busy-body, was the one to take the lead. She had scouted out the quickest path from the docks to the bottom edge of the city where we paid for a cable car ride down to the little town at the base of the mountain. It was that or ride down in a carriage. Or we could walk, but we'd be doing a whole lot of that soon, so not-walking for a little bit wasn't so bad."How's everyone feeling?" I asked as we reached the edge of the little town at the base of the mountain. Actually, it was changing pretty quickly from what I remembered. There were a lot of buildings going up on the outskirts and it looked like there was a whole team repaving the road to turn it from packed earth to a more cobbled street."Already asking?" Calamity asked."Yeah! What if you have cramps already? Or bad shoes?" I asked in return. The concern was mostly for Desiree, who had brand new shoes we'd picked up just earlier. Tough hiking boots that seemed comfy enough, but we hadn't really tested them yet.Desiree smiled and wagged her tails a little. I suspected that she'd caught on to the real reason I was asking. "I am fine and well. The weather is clement, the companionship fine, and my feet are used to treatment far less kind than this. You have nothing to worry about, Broccoli."I smiled back. That was good to hear. "Let me know if anything changes," I said."I will," she promised.Amaryllis nodded, then looked at her map. She squinted at it, looked up, then pulled out a compass and muttered something to herself."Do nya need a hand?" Calamity asked."What? No I... oh, I suppose you would be better at this than I am," Amaryllis muttered. She came in next to Calamity and let him look over the map with her as she traced a path across it with a talon-tip. "I was thinking we'd cut across the forest like this, in a straight line.""Hmm, mind if I suggest somethin' else?" Calamity asked. When she nodded, he continued. "Straight lines just aren't something you do in a forest. Too many trees, too many obstacles, not enough points of reference as you're travelling. Instead, it might be best to follow along the ridgeline here. It might be rougher terrain, but it'll be a lot easier to tell where we are and keep an eye out on each other. I'd rather walk an extra hour and not be lost than take a straight path that might lead me astray.""I suppose if we do get lost along the way, that would add a considerable amount to our travel time. Plus, Broccoli would definitely see something foolish off-track and lead us out of any route we plan on taking. How about following this road to this little village here, then pushing north towards the ridge?""Yeah, having a road to walk on for more of the trip isn't a bad move," Calamity said with a nod."So, we're ready to go?" I asked while ignoring that truthful slander of my good name.
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Chapter Four Hundred and Ninety — Sanity Splash Damage
Chapter Four Hundred and Ninety — Sanity Splash Damage The air was crisp below the mountain that Port Royal was perched on (whose name I still didn't know, actually) and the road was actually pretty nice. It wasn't cobbled or anything, but hard-packed gravel with wagon wheel tracks pressed into the sides to create a bit of a hump in the middle. The sides were pooled with puddles, which was perfect!"No no, see, there's a trick to it," I explained."Oh? Please, do instruct me further," Desiree replied. She eyed me very carefully as I took a slight running start, then hopped up and came crashing down feet-first into the middle of the puddle.There was a big splash, water went everywhere and I raised my arms above me in victory. "See? The trick is to keep your feet together, like this." I stepped out of the puddle and pressed my shoes together. "It makes for a bigger, flatter surface that hits the water and splashes it harder.""Broccoli, what are you even doing?" Amaryllis asked."The kind captain is instructing me on how to best handle puddles and other watery disturbances on the road," Desiree explained."I know, I was here for the entire conversation," Amaryllis snapped."It doesn't hurt anyone," I said. "I can just Clean the mud away. So it's perfect! Unless...." I gasped, hands clapping over my mouth. "Oh no, I'm so sorry Amaryllis!"Amaryllis' eyes narrowed. "I don't know what you're apologizing for, and it worries me," she said."Your feet aren't flat on the bottom, I didn't think about it. Did I insult you by accident? I'm sure you can still make fantastic splishes and splashes even with talons!"Amaryllis closed her eyes while next to her Calamity cackled."What's the difference between a splish and a splash?" Awen asked."Oh, that's a fantastic question!" I said. "So, a splish is more like splish! And a splash is more like splash!" I explained with the appropriate hand gestures.Awen nodded. "I think I see. So If I want maximum splash, I might want to make something like a plate under my boots? To have more surface area?""I guess so, yeah," I said as I pushed some Cleaning magic out towards Desiree, she was practising now.Awen's eyes narrowed. "I wonder... If I put holes in these plates, then the water will be forced through the small openings allowing for a great amount of splish.""Splish-splash science!" I declared."No," Amaryllis un-declared. "We are not inventing new sciences, especially not... such childish ones."Desiree splashed into another puddle, then looked up. "Must we cease the puddle jumping then?"Amaryllis groaned. "No, no you don't need to cease it. It's not harming anything but my peace of mind."I smiled and walked over to give Amaryllis a hug. She looked like she needed one for putting up with us for so long.The trip was-as all trips with friends ought to be-a lot of fun! It wasn't too long before we reached a little village some ways away, right where Amaryllis' map said it would be."Hello!" I called out to a grenoil waddling about in a field of hip-high cabbages. He turned our way and pushed the brim of his straw hat back to better see the lot of us. "Sorry sir! We're looking for a place to stay the night, is there anything like that nearby?""Hmm, we ain't got an inn," he said. "But check out the mayor's place. He'll rent out his ground floor to guests and passersby on occasion. For a few copper more he'll share a meal too! Or you can compliment his wife's garden, that'll always get you in their good graces!"I laughed and thanked the farmer before we continued on our way. It would be nice to avoid sleeping in a tent for at least part of the trip.As it turned out, the nice farmer was right, not that it was hard to complement Miss Mayor's garden, because it was an excellent one, actually, with rows of flowers next to a big crop of veggies of all sorts. She even picked a few ripe carrots for our meal that night after I complimented the size and colour of their leaves.The stew that evening was worth every copper penny!Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.We left early the next morning after a night spent sleeping in the mayor's living room, all of us huddled in a row with our feet pointing towards the fireplace so that our toes stayed toasty all night long.As planned, we cut northwards,leaving the roads behind and following a route cut into the brush towards the mountainsides in the distance.The morning was gearing up to be rather uneventful, we just had to trek through the woods for a good ways to get to the base of the hills. That was easy, the mountains were hard to miss, even when surrounded by trees.We kept talking as we went, and I made sure everyone was involved, that way we didn't lose track of each other.Then, an hour into our trek, Desiree stumbled across something incredible that distracted all of us pretty hard. A stick!It wasn't just any old stick, though, it was the perfect stick.It was about a metre long and as thick as someone-bigger-than-me's thumb. There was even a sort of curvy guard on one end where the branch had split then rejoined itself. Desiree looked as smug as a fox in a henhouse as she waved it about. "It's perfectly weighted too!""Whoa!" I said.I immediately started to look for my own stick. I did find one soon enough. It had fallen some time ago, and had a cool layer of moss on one side. It was a bit longer than Desiree's stick, with a sort of t-shaped crossguard on one end."En garde!" I shouted before smacking Desiree's stick.That soon devolved into a walking stick-fight, which was mostly about us aiming to hit each other's sticks rather than actually hitting each other."What are you even doing?" Amaryllis asked after she turned around to the sound of wood snapping against wood. "Awen, even you?""Awa," Awen said. She had a pair of small sticks in hand, the handle end cut off in a Y that looked very comfy to hold."Oh, are we sword fighting?" Calamity asked."We are not," Amaryllis said."The rules are not to hit each other, and you have to find a stick off the ground, you can't hurt the trees for it," I said with a nod."How about we allow people to hit you?" Amaryllis asked. There was a dangerous gleam in her eyes. "You don't have Thick Skin yet, do you?""Well, I mean, I don't," I allowed.Then I got a whap across the rump and I jumped with a squeak."Ah! I'm sorry!" Awen said. "I thought I was helping!""Oh, you are!" Amaryllis replied with a smug grin. "Keep it up!"I wasn't sure if I was making good progress towards Thick Skin but I was getting a lot of dodging practice in, and I was learning how to properly parry a stick-attack while running through a thick forest, so it wasn't all wasted.We made it to the hillsides out past the forest a few hours before noon. Amaryllis and Calamity took some time to stare at our maps before they figured out exactly where we were, then we were off again.,When noon did roll around, we took a small break next to a stream coming down the side of the mountain. It was a pretty deep stream, but not so wide that I couldn't step past it. The water was clear as glass and cool to the touch, so it was a nice, refreshing spot to stop at.We found a tree next to the stream and settled down for sandwiches. Calamity got a fire going after throwing together a firepit with some stream-side rocks and soon enough we had some soup to dip our sandwiches into.Once lunch was over, the fire was out, and our waterskins were refilled for the journey, we continued on our merry way.We didn't stick fight as much, mostly because Calamity had joined in earlier and now I was smarting all over, so instead we played walking games, chatted about stuff that really didn't matter all that much, and enjoyed the sunlight."Alright," Amaryllis said eventually. She had the map out, and the papers we'd gotten from the guild. "If my calculations are right, then this is where we need to leave the mountainside and head south and west. We're going to want to form a line because finding this place might not be all that easy.""Okay!" I said. "Keep your eyes and ears open, everyone! We've got an Explorer to find, and a cave to discover!"
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