Chapter 3
The void takes me, after what feels like days, our adventure with Kiera feeling like the most fun we’ve had in years. My first real outing as me… I guess you would call it a date? But maybe Kiera wouldn't like that… A date for me and Zelia at least, with our companion of chaos by our side, yeah perfect.
The City of silver, a place of adventure and the sea, apparently a bunch of sex as well if Keeks’s night out was any indication, I mean… yeah, nearly forgot I got fuck jumped didn’t I? Yeah, there's a lot of things going on behind the curtains, damn.
If only the things we had to do today were like that, and not just… literally nightmare inducing. I try and think about the first thing to do, uhhh the guild needed to check the dungeon and uhhh gotta wait for Keeks, Zel should be around here someWHHEREE.
“Heya hot stuff, this ass for free wan?” two hands had enveloped my butt, squeezing it mid thought process. As I turn around a mischievous silver and blue fox girl smiles back at me innocently.
“I think Keeks is a bad influence moo!”
“No way! Keeks teaches me the best pickup lines for you~ What you didn't like getting your butt squeezed in public wan?” I blush and turn away, of course I enjoyed it, but only after the fact, scared the heck out of me… something that I will never admit.
I cough and straighten myself out as gay as I can, “It seems you didn't get enough punishment in the shower moo!” She looks at me shyly like an innocent damsel that didn't just cum from her ass only 10 minutes ago while screaming my name.
“Different bodies you know hehe, this one could use some fun as well wan!” I shake my head in derision.
“We have to find something to do while we wait for Keeks, maybe we could ask around at the cost of boats and things? I know she really wants to be a pirate, it could be a nice present for her, maybe we could have enough when we finish this dungeon moo?” She nods, sulking a little, obviously expecting a lot more out of our free time.
“Will I get that cowgirl fucking soon though wan?!” I nod my head and hold out my hand for her to take, she takes it and we start heading to the docks, the smell of the salty hot air swirling around us as Zel tells me about a new fanfic she’s writing, sounding awfully familiar to our day in sydney central region.
“And then she plants her head straight in her butt and says, nothing better than hauling ass on a weekend and plows in wan!” I looked around shocked trying to hide both of us from any prying ears, thankfully it doesn't seem to be very busy, the only one in utter embarrassment from listening to her explain her smut story out loud being me.
“Oh no we are at the docks! Gonna have to finish up your story later cutie, I’m sure Keeks would love to hear it as well moo~” Not wanting to be that kind of girlfriend, it might embarrass the hell out of me but I would rather her be encouraged than to be silent. She nods and checks her messages.
“I thought she would have messaged by now wan…” I check my messages too, yeah nothing after she went home… I'm sure she’s okay, but I still worry, my fears compounding little by little, I really gotta get us all together.
“I'm sure she’s fine, maybe her comms unit ran out of battery or something moo?” I try to explain away her actions hiding the worry in my voice as much as possible.
“Okay, if you say so…” We hold hands as we walk along the docks. Finally a ship purchasing desk of some sort comes into view and we can break up the uncomfortable worry with something other than silence.
The whole area has transformed back into a place of constant work, no stalls in sight from 2 nights ago, either they just appear with game logic or maybe they actually do it so often that they can pull it out of the woodwork.
“Hi there, we were looking into buying a ship moo?” A grisled literal old sea dog stares back with his paw cupped around a wooden pipe, his hair is wild and he has the look of a man that has watched another man drown in the sea and just said out loud ‘aye tis how tis’.
“Aye… and tis the place ta buy a ship… what kind ya need waf?” I turn to Zelia with panic in my eyes and so she takes charge, I have no idea about ships?! Except that I am one sometimes!?
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“We would like to know pricing for a two mast and three mast ships, what kind of crew that we can get and what it would likely be for paying said crew… unless you have some kind of magical boat that doesn't need a crew wan?”
“Aahh waf waf waf waf, dats a good one lass, doesn’t need a crew!? Unless ye talkin bout them ghost ships evry ship done needs a crew!!” The guttural heaving laughter of a man that has smoked since birth disturbing us only less than the look in his eyes talking about the ghost ships, they go wide in fear and then after screaming about needing a crew goes silent, staring off over the waves as if waiting for something.
“Uhhh yes, of course how silly of me… sooo… the price?” He seems to snap back to reality, uhh virtual reality.
“Right right the cost… not the ghost ship… well… a two mastr will cost ye about fifty thousand gold and a 3 mastr will put ye back around a hundred thousand gold… Then if ye need a crew ye would need ta pay an easy two thousand for each and then if they die ye will need to pay recompense to their families for an extra thousand, which will most certainly happen with that ghost ship out there… waiting on the water… waiting for me to go back out on the sea…”
We look at each other and back away, trying not to disturb whatever vibes this man has got going on, “How much do you have on you moo? I think I got like… six thousand or so moo.” She shrugs.
“Well I'm about the same… so much for that… I mean we could find a crew of adventurers or something? Maybe Mershi has some idea, or if there's some kind of shipping mission we could go on? Hard to say though wan…” I hold her close and grab her hand, pulling her away from the depressing hard gaze of the salty dog out to sea, the mumbling under his breath getting to me a little.
Beep Beep < Message from Keeks >
Oh shit, it's about time, she should have been home already… I open it up and see its just a crying emoji with a ‘call me’ on it, oh fuck what happened?!
I look at Zel with concern before throwing us all into a call, she picks up with a video call and I see that she’s on the street carrying a limp cat in her hands.
“Nacho ran out of poowweerrr!!!! She’s soo heavvyy!! She got into a heated argument with the transport lady and must have busted something because she ran out of power when we got off the train!! OH?! MAYBE SHE WAS VANDALISED BY THE TRANSPORT LADY!? This is some kind of conspiracy to make me miss the dungeon?! Are sci-axium in on it?!”
“Kiera, Kiera, you're all good, keep us on call and we can help you get home okay moo?” I pull away from the call to look around and see that there's a tavern on the close end of the docks, motion towards it to Zel, and we head over there both consoling Keeks the best we can. “Hey she’s gonna be okay, she’s the strongest kitty you know right?”
“Uhuh… I guess… she's my Nacho… just don't want anything to happen to her… I’ll be all alone again…” Fuck… my fucking heart.
“No cutie you've got me and Zel remember? It's gonna be okay, you're gonna get home and she will be there to greet you and then you can get Nacho all charged up okay. Where are you? I'm going to get a taxi to pick you up, it's going to be okay and then soon we will all be in game again together.” She’s nodding through the video call, tears slowly dripping down her face as she holds Nacho, her ragdolling in Kiera’s arms.
After a few minutes of coaxing out her address and where she is between sobbing and worrying thoughts she finally gets a taxi, when it arrives a voice starts asking about Nacho, quickly being responded with a “You killed my beautiful Nacho!” Oh dear, transport lady… got it…
“She’s not dead, let's just get you home, you can ignore the transport lady and get home safe moo!” I hear mutters coming from Kiera as she is trying her best to hold in all her anger and fears, meanwhile in the background a woman is talking and rambling on about nothing, as if she wasn't being ignored, maybe it doesn't matter, some people uhh A.I. Yeesh.
I get notification on my unit that Kiera has arrived at her destination, she rushes out the best she can with Nacho in her hands, runs up the door and into her apartment.
“NACHO?!?!” Her screams of worry being replied to as quickly as possible.
“Yes yes I’m fine, just plug me into the wall, silly humans worrying about nothing.” A teary red eyed Kiera rushed to the wall and plugs her in, the Nacho body quickly coming back alive in her hands, her eyes flowing even more as she hugs her kitty tight. I feel Zelia pull into me and I pull her closer as well, such raw emotion being seen from our friend in the last few days while we have known who they are as a person.
I want to protect both of them, no matter the cost. A voice whispers from inside my head in agreement, wordless in the dark.