Chương 561: Chapter Five Hundred and Forty-Six - Come Here and Fly (Away)

We carried what we could back to the Beaver, and what we couldn't carry came by cart. Chloe hired a few random ostri off the street to pull along a large cart that had a repurposed fuel tank strapped to the back of it. It was funny, she just stepped out of her shop and asked the first few ostri passing by. Most refused her, but eventually a few of them shrugged and accepted, just like that. Apparently long-term jobs were a weird and uncommon thing here.

"So... no one has a day job?" I asked.

"Of course they do," Chloe said.

"You don't gain levels without specializing, everyone knows that. But most ostri, especially the younger ones, prefer to wander from job to job. Some will find something they're passionate about and stick to that for the rest of their lives, but a lot wander for a long while before finding their vocation, if they ever do. There's a reason that the ostri are unconquerable."

"I can't imagine trying to tax them," Amaryllis said. Chloe snorted.

"Good luck with that. If you even manage to explain the concept to them, they'll wonder why you need money to do things when you can just do it yourself instead of hoarding wealth to do it later."

"The city is very nice and clean," I mentioned.

"And pretty friendly."

"It's cultural," Chloe said.

"You clean up after yourself. You might pick fights with anyone here, but you need to be looking for a fight, and so does the person you'll fight. Beating up someone just minding their own business is such a faux-pas that it's just not done. It's unsportsmanlike, dishonourable, and gains you nothing." Oh. Well, I liked that attitude. Best to make friends rather than punch people.

"So if you're looking for people to work on something, you just ask?"

"And you won't find harder workers," Chloe said with a nod.

"But don't expect them to show up again the next morning, let alone in a week."

"I don't know where they fall in the trifecta of good employees," Amaryllis said.

"Ah, the what?" Awen asked.

"Hard working, cheap, timely," Amaryllis said.

"It feels like they hit two out of three, but miss the third one so much that it makes them poor employees." Chloe laughed, which sounded a little like birdsong. I side-eyed Amaryllis. Her laugh usually wasn't so melodic... unless she giggled involuntarily. Was she trying to make even her laughter sound uptight and serious? Chloe caught her breath.

"You'd lose that Harpy Mountain attitude quick enough, if you stayed here for any amount of time, princess."

"I'm hardly a princess," Amaryllis said.

"Especially not when you use the term so derisively." We reached the Beaver and I stepped back to let the experts take care of refuelling the ship's bunkers. It was something sensitive and dangerous enough that I knew better than to stick my bun nose into it. Since the city didn't seem so bad after all, I told the crew that they could head out and explore the city if they wanted, and some of them took up that offer and did just that. The rule was to stick close, and politely refuse any offers to fight.

The scallywags went out for something similar. They wanted to try the local food. They came back an hour later, Oda's face covered in tears. As it turned out, the food here was more than just 'spicey'--it was nearly lethal. He was tearing up and snot kept flowing out of his nose, but he was also putting on a brave face. A bit of Cleaning magic blasted at his face and into his mouth actually did the trick, which was good because I wasn't sure if there was a cure for eating something too spicy.

It took a couple of hours to move things into the Beaver and finish the refueling. By the time we were set to leave, it was already mid-evening, and the sun was starting to dip down towards the horizon. Usually, I might have wanted to stay, but... we were on a bit of a timetable, and the information we'd picked up from Chloe and some others in Come Here and Die suggested that the safest route out was north and around, which would add a good day to our travels compared to the straighter route we'd planned on taking.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. Our next destination was the impolitely named Weakling's Rest, far to the north. The Beaver rose, catching a thermal on our spread-wide sails to soap up until we'd climbed to a nice cruising altitude, then we pointed our prow north and spun the engine up. I watched Come Here and Die slowly scroll past behind and below us.

I think it would have been fun to spend a few weeks there, and get into some fun trouble, but time wasn't always so free. I'd be back, I decided, one day. Maybe with fewer friends, or more of them. We'd stick around, get used to spicy food, and live the hard but carefree lives of ostri for a while. It'd be fun! But for now, I had a different sort of fun to handle. Since I was too energized to sleep at the moment, I told Clive to head down and get some rest while I took the helm. It wasn't too hard.

I just pointed us due-north, the mountains of The Brake way, way off to the left, and the desert ahead and to our right. A few hours into the night, I felt a good wind coming in from behind us, so I shut the main propellor engine down to conserve fuel and helped deploy our sails to near-full to better catch the wind. It was pushing us a little to the east, but the occasional adjustment of the rudder kept us on track. Almost everyone was asleep soon enough, and I found myself nearly alone up on deck.

The exception was Orange, who came up and curled down atop a heap of ropes just next to the helm. She was sleeping too, but sometimes her head would move and I'd catch a glimmer of kitty-cat-green eyes in the dark. She was growing up into a fully adult kitty. Time really did fly when one was... flying. I needed to put more thought into that one.

In any case, a few people woke up in the middle of the night and came up to see if I wanted to switch out, but something about the warm air and the swaying of the ship was keeping me in this lethargic yet still awake state. So I stayed at the helm and just floated along until I saw the first glimmers of sunshine on the horizon. That's when the sleepiness hit me, and I decided to head down and crash onto my bed. I awoke a bit after noon, to the sound of someone cooking in the kitchen.

Someone had opened my door at some point, and it was squeaking back and forth slightly. I yawned big, stretched until my toes shivered, then got up. The scent wafting from the kitchen was pulling me out of the room. It was spicy and warm and... a bit savoury? Was that pasta too? I glanced down at myself, and felt a bit grossed out on realizing that I'd slept in my day wear, not even taking off my shoes of the night. A wave of Cleaning magic made it less bad.

"Sleep well?" Awen asked from behind the stove.

"I did," I said.

"Or I probably did? I don't remember sleeping at all. I think I could use some more."

"Hmm, might be best to, ah, not?" Awen said.

"You'll only stay awake all night again."

"True," I said.

"Need a hand?" Awen smiled.

"I wouldn't mind one! I'm making... actually, I don't know."

"You don't?" She shook her head, blonde hair rippling.

"No. It's just whatever cans we've had for the longest, and some spices that Calamity bought. It smells nice, though, I think? There's no meat!" I came over and peered sleepily over her shoulder. It was, as she said, a bit of everything. Chopped and diced... unfamiliar veggies. I did recognize some chopped carrots, peas and cubed-up potatoes, as well as some radishes and eggplants that looked like they'd been bought at Come Here and Die.

I supposed that chopping up any veggie and adding it to warm water wasn't the wrong way to cook them. Plus, the water had turned into more of a broth. Sniffing it from up close made my tummy rumble to remind me that breakfast had been missed. It also smelled very spicy, but in a good way.

"Oh, I think this might be good, like chili without ground beef! Get me a bowl, I'll help by taste-testing!"