Chương 607: Chapter Five Hundred and Ninety-One - Fox & Bunny

It was early the next morning when I heard a knock at the door to my room. I blinked awake, fumbling around in my warm blankets for a moment, wondering if the knock had been real or not. It was just something you got used to, packed into a ship with a dozen others: people made noise. Knocks, bumps, the occasional rude word--though my friends really weren't bad about that--sometimes two crewmates would walk down the corridor talking, and some of the people on the Beaver weren't so good at keeping their voices low.

Mostly that was Amaryllis. She was loud, and while I'd never tell her to her face, she did sound a bit shrill. I was just slipping back into sleep when a second set of knocks came, and then a voice, Desiree's.

"Captain Broccoli?" she asked through the wood.

"I'm aware that the hour is early, but I had hoped I could awaken you nonetheless. There's something I'd like to discuss."

"Uh..." My thoughts drowsily caught up to her words.

"... Yeah, sure. Jus' one moment." I laid there for a a dozen more seconds, gave myself the luxury of a jaw-cracking yawn, then rolled out of bed and padded over to the door while tugging my nightgown on straighter. Opening the door revealed Desiree, fully dressed for the day, standing prim and proper from heel to fox ear. I poked my head out and looked down the length of the corridor.

From there, I could see into the kitchen at the front of the ship, and a little out of the bay window that took up a wall of that room. It was fully dark out. That was probably normal. We were in a massive storm, so the sunrise wouldn't light the castle up fully for a while, even after it rose past the horizon, but the quality of the darkness still hinted that it was early, even for here. That, and I was tired. I had a whole Snoozing skill that made me sleep better and need less of it.

I'd been waking up before most of the crew whenever possible to relieve people from their watches early or just to putter about the Beaver and tend to the ship. Even so, I felt tired, though only a little, so Desiree must have woken me up quite early.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing is wrong, Captain," Desiree said. Her tails flicked behind her, both of them waving in sync. I think that if I spent a few weeks in the kingdom she was from, I might learn to read foxkin body language quite well at some point.

"It's pretty early," I pointed out.

"And you wouldn't wake me for just anything... did you want to come into my room? It's more private." If she had something embarrassing to say, or just something confidential, then I wouldn't make her pour out her heart in the public corridor.

"No, Captain, it's nothing like that, although... I may have violated your trust, and it weighs heavy on my heart."

"Huh?" I asked. Desire's tongue traced across her lips nervously, and she didn't quite meet my eyes.

"I may have allowed someone onboard the ship without your permission."

"Oh! That's not so bad? Wait, it wasn't Rainnewt, right?" She reeled back.

"Him? That blackheart? I'd sooner make him walk the plank at our highest altitude!"

"He'd turn into a sylph and fly away," I pointed out.

"Then I'd feed that loathsome scoundrel to the propeller!" I held back an inappropriate giggle. That brought to mind a rather violent image that I decided not to dwell on.

"No, not that. So, who did you let onboard?" It had to be one the Black Avatars, right? There wasn't anyone else around.

"Lady Guinevere. I was on the deck when I noticed her prowling about on the docks. We conversed for a moment, and then I allowed her onboard, only realizing that such was a breach of decorum after the fact."

"Oh, I think that's okay?" I tried.

"Did she do anything?"

"No. She is still on the main deck at the moment. I decided to assuage my guilt by finding you now." I started at that. The foxkin lady was on the Beaver? I reached out with my senses, but didn't notice anything strange. The Beaver felt quiet and rather sleepy, his engines off and everything stowed away in its place and even most of the crew asleep in hammocks or their bunks. Maybe it was a bit silly to ascribe so much feeling to a vehicle, but it also felt kind of appropriate.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Alright, then," I said.

"Give me just a minute to get changed? I don't want to meet Miss Guinevere in my sleepwear."

"No, that wouldn't do," Desiree agreed with a severe nod.

"I'll wait for you, then?" I nodded, slipped back into my room, and then back out a couple of minutes later while buttoning up my shirt.

"Ready!" I said. I wasn't going to go out in full armour for this. For one, I didn't think Miss Guinevere was a bad person, and for two, if she was, then she had a total level advantage of at least thirty-five (and honestly, probably a lot more than that) so my armor would be completely pointless. Plus it was just comfier. Desiree started towards the stairs at the back, walking by my side.

"This is an incredible opportunity. There are very few of my kin who have so many tails."

"So it's a big deal?" I asked.

"Yes. There are perhaps a dozen foxkin that I knew of who yet live who have more tails than Lady Guinevere."

"And they're important?" I asked.

"One is our emperor. The other is a hero of legend whose status as alive I can only assume. My grandmother once spoke of her. She met the heroine once, when she herself was young and the heroine had only three tails. The rest... well, I said 'know' but that maybe be an exaggeration. They are small legends."

"Whoa," I said. So, fourth-tier was a big deal. I supposed that only made sense. Which made the fifth tier a bigger deal still.

"Are there any people in the fifth tier and up?" I asked. Desiree frowned.

"None that I know of who aren't part of old legends, though I come from a smaller nation detached from the wider world, what I take for granted has been challenged repeatedly as of late."

"The world is a big place!" I said cheerfully.

"I think it'd be kind of boring, and maybe a little sad, if we found everything there was to find about it, you know? How many flying castles do you think there are out there?"

"I suppose that if there is one, there may well be two," she said with a nod.

"Uh-huh! And a bunch of other stuff, too!" I said as I made for the door. It was nearly black out, but there were some ship's lamps hanging around, for the night watch to be able to see by. I found Guinevere standing on the deck, head tilted slightly to the side as she looked at the Redemption nestled in the centre of the Beaver. Her tails flicked, the fur rippling down their lengths, before she turned to face us properly.

"You're right. There are always more things to discover. It's one of the reasons I joined the Black Avatars. I didn't want to be stuck in one place... though I suppose that has, ironically, happened anyway."

"Hi!" I said. Had she heard us talking a deck below? I supposed that our voices did carry a little, and at her level, and with big fox ears like she had, she could probably hear me snoring from here.

"Welcome aboard!"

"Thank you," she said.

"Little Desiree here was worried that I'd upset you by coming aboard without permission." I shook my head.

"She didn't have to worry! I'm hard to upset! You said that you joined the Avatars to travel a bunch?"

"Hah! I did. And we did. It's only in the last seven or eight decades that we've grown so... sedentary. I have a feeling--a twitch in my tail--that that is going to change soon enough, however. The World may well need us once more."

"Is that a good thing?" Desiree asked. The way she stood, with her hands clasped before her, and her tail tucked back. She looked very polite and proper. Guinevere hummed, then looked around the rest of the ship.

"I suppose? It'll be good to get out of this storm for a while, at least. But if the World needs us, that means that things are complicated. Complicated and violent. I'm well versed in both, but that doesn't mean I enjoy either. We'll see, once Rainnewt and the others return."

"I don't like him very much," I said.

"You made that clear, yes," she replied. I nodded.

"It's okay. I think he knows that I don't like him."

"But can you set that aside for the greater good?" she asked.

"Whose?"

"Pardon?" She tilted her head to the other side.

"The greater good of who?" I asked.

"Ours, his? The whole World's? I don't think that's something so easy to point to."