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!"

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"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.

***