Chương 578: 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." Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. 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!