Victoria was the last to emerge from the portal. She floated in the air above her companions for a moment, counting to make sure they were all there. Then she sighed in relief, lowered herself towards the ground, and shifted to her physical form. The others were all sprawled out on the floor, soaking wet and gasping for air. She looked down at the hatch, the usually active water had settled, and its dark coloration cleared to reveal the wooden floor an inch or two below the surface.
Iris rolled her head to the side to look at Milo, he looked back at her with wide eyes. They broke into nervous laughter, and one-by-one the others joined in, both in celebration and in disbelief. Eli was the only one not laughing, instead quickly climbing to his feet and evaluating their situation. He quickly noticed the difference in the water, and looked around for the kitchen for the mage.
Victoria found him first after scanning for his aura. She opened the door to a large cabinet, revealing Kieren bound and gagged tightly in seaweed. Eli quickly cut him free, and he fell to his hands and knees gasping.
"You owe me," he gasped, "a bonus."
"Deal," Victoria agreed instantly, "but we need your opinion the portal. Is it closed?"
Kieren climbed to his feet and stumbled over to the hatch to inspect the portal, "definitely. What did you do?"
"We didn't do anything," she said, "but I'm pretty sure the Fish Wizard destroyed the other end as we escaped."
Kieren nodded, "that would do it, but we're not safe here. He can come and go with his staff."
"His staff is destroyed," Cameron said proudly.
"Does that mean he's trapped in there?" Eli asked.
"Maybe," Kieren answered, "I wouldn't count on it though, just to be on the safe side. If that concludes my job here, I'm leaving."
"Yeah," Eli sighed, glancing around the kitchen, "so are we."
Contingency plan F was simple. Before the heist had begun, the members of the core party had gathered their every last belonging in the tavern and stored it all in Iris's bottomless bag. They knew from the start there was a major risk that the Fish Wizard would catch them in the act, and had planned accordingly. Kieren left quickly after collecting his bonus from Victoria, and Milo and Cameron followed him outside.
The party stopped in the main room of the tavern on their way out, pausing to turn around and take in one last look of the tavern they'd called home for nearly two months. Besides a few tables shuffled around and noticeably emptier bottles behind the bar, it didn't look all that different from the first day they'd walked in.
"Just like that, then?" Iris asked, "we're really moving on?"
"Yeah," Eli said, "that's the adventurer life for you."
She smiled with a tinge of sadness, recalling all the dinners they'd shared in this room, gathered around their favorite table laughing and arguing over their plates.
"I'm really going to miss that kitchen," Autumn sighed.
"I'm gonna miss the shower," Victoria said.
The others nodded their heads somberly in agreement.
Eli took a deep breath before speaking with stoic authority, "alright, time to go."
Stolen novel; please report.
Iris was the last to leave, lingering for a moment longer in the empty tavern. This was the first home she'd ever known outside of her valley. It was the first home she'd ever come back to after an adventure. She knew that for decades, centuries if she grew powerful enough to live that long, this would be the place she remembered first when recalling her earliest days as an adventurer. Her eyes lingered on their favorite table as she closed the door with a smile.
___
Milo and Cameron broke away from the party shortly after they departed the tavern, with Cameron promising to ensure Milo made it back home safely. There wasn't much concern of the Fish Wizard tracking them down as he'd never met either of them before and likely didn't catch a good look at them in the pocket dimension. It was the main party members who had the most to worry about, and their priority at that moment was to turn Gerald in to the Shark Titan and officially earn their positions on his crew, thus falling under his protection.
When they reached the end of the Shark Titan's dock they were glad to see there wasn't a line to speak with Quartermaster Luo. They approached his desk under the awning as a group, and he looked up at them skeptically. It occurred to Iris that they were all still soaked to the bone and probably looked exhausted.
"We're here to turn in a quest to the Shark Titan," Eli announced.
The quartermaster laughed, not recognizing Titus as the man who had brought him the note about Gerald in the first place, "what quest would the captain have given the likes of you?"
Iris stepped up and placed her bottomless bag on the desk. The quartermaster raised an eyebrow as the bag opened itself to reveal the empty void within. After a moment, the head of a giant golden fish poked out of the void, held back by a purple tentacle wrapped tightly around it. The fish blinked at the quartermaster, then its eyes widened in fear. Abby pulled the fish back into the void and the bag cinched tight.
"I see," the quartermaster said with surprise, then turned to one of his guards, "prepare a schooner for our friends here. They have business aboard the Gaping Maw."
A short while later they were sailing across the Giantrock Bay on a small boat bound for the Shark Titan's ship. The heist had begun in the late morning, and it was now midday and their clothes were beginning to dry in the warm sun and heavy breeze. The Gaping Maw loomed in the distance, its true scale slowly revealing as they drew nearer. The ship was larger than any singular building in Giantrock City except for perhaps the governmental complex, and the masts shot into the sky like impossible towers. The black flag that fluttered at the top of the tallest mast depicted a white outline of a shark's serrated mouth and must have been bigger than a carriage to be visible from such great height.
The gentle waves of the lake sloshed against the hull of the ship as they approached. Their helmsman brought them right up beside the ship, where the waves rocked their small boat back and forth. He used a pole with a hook on it to reach out and grab hold of a metal ring bound to the ship's hull and hold the smaller boat steady. He was clearly a champion, as the effort of holding the boat back from colliding the ship barely seemed like a chore.
The helmsman nodded to the rope ladder hanging down the side of the ship and dangling beside them, "up you go."
After exchanging looks of trepidation, the adventurers began their climb. The rope ladder swayed with the occasional gust of wind, causing Iris's stomach to churn as she moved up one rung after the other. The ship's deck seemed impossibly far away, and she began to feel like she was scaling a small mountain.
Eli looked down from his position in the lead and called out, "Autumn, how are you doing?"
Autumn's response wasn't words, but rather a few slurred syllables mixed with groans. They had unanimously agreed she would have to be the last to climb the ladder in case she puked from the heights. Still, even with her eyes clenched shut and a pained grimace across her face, she pulled herself up the ladder with determination.
It was hard to gauge how long it took to climb the ladder, but it felt like an eternity. Even with her strengthened muscles and endurance, Iris's body was burning by the time they neared the deck. She was certain there was no chance she could have made this climb at level 1 without her body completely giving out and dropping her back into the lake below. When they finally reached the top and climbed over the railing, Iris collapsed onto the deck with a groan. Autumn stumbled onto the deck with her eyes still closed, leaned back against the railing, and slid down until she was sitting. Her face was still contorted into a nauseous expression when she buried it in her hands.
After waiting to ensure Autumn made it over the railing, a ghostly Victoria drifted up and shifted into her physical form to land lightly on the deck, "c'mon, it wasn’t that bad."
Autumn and Iris shot her angry glares, to which she responded with a faint smile.
A shadow passed over the winded adventurers, and all heads turned to see the Shark Titan looming over them. He grinned wickedly before he spoke, "welcome aboard the Gaping Maw."