Chapter Five Hundred and Sixty-Two — Year of the Bun
Chapter Five Hundred and Sixty-Two — Year of the Bun Showing off my wings to Caprica was fun.Showing them off to Bastion was a mistake.He took one look at them, then before I quite knew what was happening, I found myself running exercises to see if I could use them as more than pretty back-based decoration. I didn't want to do exercise, I wanted to have fun with my friends, but Bastion had me running laps of the Beaver's top deck instead.Fortunately, I had an out. It was the New Year, and we had to party, and parties were hard work! I couldn't do one while all sweaty and tired.Bastion said that being tired just meant that I was building up my stamina, and he reminded me that Cleaning magic meant that my sweat wouldn't stink.I was seriously contemplating dropping Bastion from Super-Duper Best Friend to merely Super Best Friend. Caprica came to my rescue, and I was freed, enough so that I could get to work planning out the dinner I had wanted to have with the whole crew.It wasn't anything too special. We had the local cuisine that Desiree and I had purchased in the city, as well as some tasty odds and ends saved up in the pantry, so we pulled out the table from the dining room downstairs and Awen helped us turn a few planks into a second, longer table to set all of the food on.I convinced a few friends to help warm things up, and soon enough we were shifting meals from the kitchen up onto the deck and lining them up."So, is there like... a new years song, or something?" I asked."No?" Awen said. "Um, should there be?""I mean, I guess not," I said. "But there might have been.""We have parades on New Years," Caprica said. "Which often include marching bands. So I suppose that that counts, though they're usually playing some variation of the national anthem or one of the marching songs, and while I do enjoy a good marching song they're not exactly... well, they're marches. They just don't sound right without the entire band and hundreds of soldiers in lockstep."Bastion nodded along next to her. "Didn't you participate in the Army Marching Band?" he asked.Caprica's cheeks took on a hint of redness. "Yes. As an extracurricular. It was noted that being part of any military-adjacent group like that was good for one's future career. That was... mostly a lie. Well, not entirely. It was a way for young adults to make contacts and friends who would later likely be in the Sylph military at a younger age, so that's useful, I suppose."I nodded along. "I don't think we have what it takes to do a full marching band," I said.Caprica cleared her throat. "No, of course not. I suppose I went off track. To answer your question about whether or not we have music specifically for New Years... no."I couldn't help but giggle. "Alright then! What do people do for New Years, other than eat well and hang out?"The answer came, not from the Beaver but from the city right next to us. A lone spell shot up and up, catching all of our attention, growing brighter as it went until it was like a little star caught in the waning hours of the evening.With a flash and a bang, it burst into tiny motes of magic that spiraled away, then detonated with a brilliance to rival one of Amaryllis' spells."An attack?" Desiree asked."No, fireworks!" I cheered.A moment later, a few more spells went up from different parts of the city, and even if they weren't quite as radiant as the first one, they were no less enthusiastic. I could start to make out cheers and then even music. People were singing something.My friends and I ate up, chatted, and as the day darkened early, we watched Southerfell come alive. Those first few fireworks were soon followed by more and more people shooting spells up into the cloudy sky.Two casters eventually started to compete for who could create the more dazzling show, one of them making big dragons and dancing images, while the other fired out balls of fire and big explosions that only grew bigger and louder as the evening went on."Drunken wizards," Amaryllis complained. She had a cup of wine held in her own talons. I didn't even know that we had wine on the Beaver. Apparently someone had brought some onboard for special occasions, and tonight counted, so most of the crew were drinking.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.Calamity had snuck out to buy beer as well, and he was sharing a drink with Oda and Clive and Bastion to one side.I stuck to juice. Alcohol tasted way too bitter.The city opened up with more fireworks, this time the more traditional sort. Tiny rockets that shot up and exploded with loud whumps and cracks and which left bright sparkling lights behind. Spells were still shooting out though, piercing the early night with bright lights.Eventually, Calamity convinced us to try and join in on the fireworks. It was a much more fun use of magic than trying to blow up pirate ships... more or less, so I was happy to join in.Amaryllis, of course, set the bar. She cast a complex spell that created a massive bolt of arcing lightning that somehow froze in place for a whole three seconds, revealing a huge tree of branching electrical arcs that reached high up into the sky.She said that it was more visually impressive than it was dangerous. The magic was so spread out that it was quite weak, but it was very big and shiny.Without being able to make stuff out of glass, Awen just cast some balls of light into the air, and Caprica did something similar with flare spells.Bastion knew a few of those as well. They were a standard Sylph military thing, to signal things across an entire battlefield.The scallywags knew some fireball spells and a few other little tricks, but they didn't have anything that stood out too much.Maybe that was something we could work on? The Beaver stood up well in that last fight, but if everyone on the crew could fire off at least one particularly strong spell, then maybe we'd be even stronger? I'd have to see if Amaryllis could take some time off of her First Mate work to teach everyone something with a bit more kick.I tried my own hand at creating a light show. I didn't have as much mana to burn as Amaryllis, or as many cool spells, but what I did have was good control of my Cleaning magic, and it did glow a little.So I shot out a beam of Cleaning magic that was as long and narrow as I could make it, then I hesitated for a moment. I could shape the magic pretty well, but into what? My friends? No, that was cheesy, even for me. A dragon? Dragons were cool, objectively, but someone else had done that already.So I settled on recreating the Beaver Cleaver in as much detail as I could, as large as I could. It wasn't all that far above, maybe five ship-lengths away or so, and it required so much focus that I had beads of sweat trickling down my forehead long before I was done, but when I finally cast, there was a big, glowing image of a ship that looked a little like the Beaver hovering like a ghost above us.My friends cheered, and I let the spell go. It took a few long seconds for the raw mana to dissipate.Calamity loaded up an arrow with some two dozen spells, donated by anyone who wanted to show off a little, then he fired it high overhead.The arrow arced up, shrinking and vanishing into the blackness of the night. My eyes lost track of it until, distantly, a point of light bloomed out of nothing, sending dozens of spells flickering every which way.The fireworks in the city only grew brighter, colours reflecting off the clouds that hung low over Southerfell.I leaned on the railing and took it in. Soon, Orange was by my feet, curling her tail around my legs even as her eyes caught the sparkling lights. Thousands of people were celebrating. Families and friends and strangers, all welcoming the new year together. The air smelled like woodsmoke and cooking food. Was Happy magic a thing?Someone pressed a warm mug into my hands. I looked over and Amaryllis nodded, trying very hard to pretend that she had not just done a nice thing. I smiled anyway."I think this year is going to be amazing," I said.Awen leaned on the railing next to me. "Awa... a-as long as we stay together, it will be."
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Chapter Five Hundred and Sixty-Three — Anchors Aweigh
Chapter Five Hundred and Sixty-Three — Anchors Aweigh I wandered into the Captain's office early the next morning to find Amaryllis hard at work behind the desk. Maybe it should have been renamed the First Mate's office? More often than not, it was occupied by Amaryllis, after all."Morning!" I said. "Did you have breakfast?""Hmm? Oh, not yet," Amaryllis replied. "I woke up just an hour or so ago, I decided that if I was going to be awake, I might as well work on something. Be a little productive, as it were.""I can warm something up for you, if you want," I said. "There should be plenty of leftovers from last night.""I... would appreciate that, yes," Amaryllis said. She muffled a yawn behind a hand, and I stepped a little closer, curious to see what she was working on. She noticed the attention, and gestured at the papers and maps across the table. "This is the map you obtained from the local Exploration-Guild-equivalent.""The Adventurer's Guild," I said."Hmm, yes, them," Amaryllis said. "Did they seem competent to you?""Yeah, sure," I said with a shrug. "They seemed organized. If a little more hectic than the Exploration Guild? I think they have a lot more people and that their average levels are a lot lower." My friends and I were on the lower end of the spectrum when it came to the Exploration Guild, and I got the feeling that having a second class put us in the upper-medium for the Adventurer's Guild."Hmm, well, their maps are alright, I suppose. This little town, Blackwatch, is our destination. It's not all that far from here. We could make it there by mid-afternoon if we hurry.""And if we don't hurry?" I asked."Early evening, before the sun sets, at least," Amaryllis said. "Though we might want to move with some alacrity.""Why's that?" I asked."We're on a schedule, and did you forget that we've tangled with pirates already? Call me paranoid, but I can't imagine an organized group of pirates not having informants in the city. A paranoid bird keeps her tailfeathers, as they say.""They say that?" I asked.Amaryllis gave me a flat look, then gestured at the maps. "The map we have from Port Royal, which I've been updating with our movements, isn't terribly accurate when it comes to this region. For obvious reasons. The space between our... my home continent and the old one here is poorly explored, at least on our end. The desert and jungle make it hard to survey. The map you purchased-at a ridiculous markup, I might add-is actually a good find.""Thanks!" I replied. "Anything stand out?""No," she said. "It's a relatively straight path. If we move quickly, we can head out over the sea, then loop back around once out of sight of Southerfell. It'll disguise the location we're heading to. You didn't blurt out where we were going to the entire city, did you?""Ah, no? Only to a couple of people at the guild."Amaryllis rubbed her chin with a talon. "That should be fine, then."I grinned at her. "Excited to get to Blackwatch?" I asked.Amaryllis paused, then leaned back. "I suppose I am. At least, a little. I'm looking forward to putting an end to this mystery about the Black Avatars, one way or another. I just hope that we're following the right lead.""I'm sure we'll find something," I said. I went around the desk and gave Amaryllis a good-morning hug. She huffed, but it wasn't a bad sort of huff.I left Amaryllis to her work and found my way to the kitchen. By the time I was done making breakfast, most of the crew was awake and waiting for food. I sent one of the Scallywags off to deliver Amaryllis' breakfast, then went around to wake up the sleepyheads that hadn't crawled out of bed yet.Awen was the last to awaken. She stumbled out of her room, hair all mussed up and eyes extra bleary."Long night?" I asked."Aw-urgh," she replied before pressing a hand to her forehead. "I think the local wine doesn't agree with me.""You're too young to be drinking," I said.Awen gave me a confused look. "But I'm not a child."Ah, right, things were a little different on Dirt. I was pretty sure that alcohol was bad for people, regardless of anything else, but I wasn't going to make a fuss about it at this time of the morning. "Let's get some food in you, it'll make you feel better. And drink some water, you don't want to be dehydrated."This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.Once my whole crew was fed and watered, I sat back, hands on hips, feeling a bit proud of myself. Strangely, it felt like I was full up too, even if I had only snacked while cooking. Was it Captaining telling me that everyone was full? That was neat! It wasn't a very strong sense, but still, I appreciated it. The Beaver itself felt full as well, which was good.A few minutes later, we started prepping to get going. We packed up the remnants of last night's party and stowed away anything that wasn't fixed in place already. That... turned out to be quite a few things.I checked on the repairs that Awen had made. With the help from the Pyrowalkian crews we'd saved from those pirates, we had been able to find a good number of carpenters. As it turned out, ships frequently had someone aboard who could work on that kind of thing, like how we had a mechanic.Anyway, the Beaver now sported a seamless patch on one side. The only way to tell that the ship had been damaged at all was comparing the colour of the paint. Awen had dug out spare yellow paint for the new boards, but the color was off since everything else was sunbleached.Oh well! Scars added character! And if they got too bad, maybe we could re-repaint the Beaver? Oh! Winter colours?Would it be tacky to repaint the ship every season?I decided to keep that idea on the back burner for the moment. I was afraid of what Amaryllis might say if I shared the idea with her. She'd rant about the cost of things. And if Caprica found out, she'd have us painting the Beaver in Bastion's colours.Shaking my head, I took the helm about an hour later. We had secured permission to leave from the city's air traffic control, though I suspected that the flight plan that Amaryllis had submitted was a little... inaccurate."Alright! Weigh anchor! Gravity engine to idle. Scallywags, check the sails. Ah, Clive, what's the wind like up there?"Clive, standing next to me with his pipe in his beak, hummed. He looked up to the cloudless sky. "Headin' southwards," he said. "Not too strong. We can push through."I nodded, trusting in Clive's gut, and his experience, and probably in a few of his piloting skills as well."We'll be flying into the wind a little, then. Tuck those sails in tight! We're going to be burning a bit more fuel than usual to get going."Surprisingly, Awen joined me on the rearmost deck. She came over and sat on one of the railings, attention going to the fore of the ship, then back to me, at least until Orange showed up, hopped onto her lap, and demanded scritches. "Ah, um, the fuel we bought here has a different smell than what I'm used to. I couldn't get a straight answer from anyone in the refueling team, but I think it's a different mixture than what we usually use.""Is that bad?" I asked.She shook her head. "No? Not too bad. The Beaver's engine has a wide range of acceptable fuels. But it might burn differently, so the ship might drink up more, or less, and the amount of power will be different. Go slow at first? I'll listen for any knocking.""Okay!" I said. I wasn't entirely sure, but I figured Awen knew best. Maybe it was like putting gasoline in a diesel engine? Wasn't that really bad? Well, Awen was the professional, so I'd put my trust in her. Plus our fuel bunkers weren't empty, so the new stuff might mix with the fuel we'd bought previously. Would that be better or worse?The engine started up just fine, and I gave it a bit of gas by pushing the throttle up. I noticed Awen's head tilting to one side as she listened for the engine. My Captaining skill didn't warn me of anything, though."Seems alright," she said. "Don't go all out.""Okay," I replied.With the anchor raised and tucked away, everything on the deck stowed, and the crew at the ready, I throttled up our engine, and we slowly, carefully, started to rise.Southerfell had been an interesting place to visit, but maybe it would have been more fun to spend a few days there? Really get to know the city. Oh well! There were hundreds of cities to visit, and only so many days to visit them in.Next time!
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