The early morning sky was only just beginning to brighten as the crew of the Gaping Maw gathered on the main deck. The full crew was in attendance, forming a dense crowd even on the oversized ship. Some even hung from ropes or precariously sat atop the railings to escape the crowd. Amongst the crew, Iris noticed a pair of familiar faces, and blipped over to meet them.

"Hi!" She said as she appeared.

The crotchety goblin man screamed in surprise, while the tall man with metallic skin seemed unbothered.

"It's Grell, right?" she asked, then looked to the tall man with a studious expression, "and-- Adam? I'm Iris, I've seen you guys around."

"Adan," the metallic man corrected with a slight bow, "it's a pleasure to meet you properly." He spoke in a slightly peculiar manner, placing curt pauses at unusual points in his sentences and often not emphasizing any particular syllable of his words.

"Who the hell are you?" Grell asked, looking up at her with an offended look.

"Uh-- Iris. I'm Iris. I said that."

"Yeah, well," Grell grumbled, "we're just two crew mates on the ship, minding our business."

"Yes, we are," Adan agreed, "my father is a cleaner, and I am assistant chef."

"Right," Iris said, smiling to hide from the awkwardness of the conversation, "we already have an assistant chef, but I'm sure Autumn will be glad to have the extra help."

"Autumn is the chef?" Adan asked with no emotion.

"Yep, she's a friend of mine. She's nice if you agree with her on stuff."

"I should meet her," Adan stated.

"Probably," Iris nodded, growing more confused by the second, "where, uh, where are you guys from?"

"Stop asking questions!" Grell nearly shouted.

"That's literally the first question--" Iris started

"You asked our names! That's two questions too many!"

"I was just--"

"My apologies, ma'am," Adan said, "my father prefers secrecy."

Grell was letting his son speak, but still glared up at Iris with an animated scowl.

"He's also like that," Adan said, glancing down at his father.

"Oh," Iris turned abruptly and looked across the crowd, "I just heard a friend calling me, I'll see you guys around!"

Iris waved with a smile and blipped away, sighing in relief when she reappeared behind her party across the deck. She was eager to make friends with the other crew, as she would be spending an awfully lot of time with them in the coming months, but she thought to herself that perhaps those two weren’t the ones she wanted to hang around.

Only a few moments later, the door to the captain's quarters creaked open, and the Shark Titan stepped out. He towered over even the tallest of the crew, and stared down anyone in the crowd that met his gaze. Eventually, he spoke in his characteristic guttural, booming voice.

"While you are on my crew, you will call me Captain Clement."

Those who had long been members of his crew shouted "aye!" in unison.

"While you are on my crew, you will work hard."

"Aye!" This time many of the newcomers joined in.

"And while you are on my crew, you will answer to no god but the sea!"

"Aye!" This time nearly everyone shouted, though Iris noticed that Victoria did not.

"Morose has taken Giantrock City," the captain continued, "and the Gaping Maw is no longer welcome in these waters. Tomorrow at dawn, we sail for the Shining Blue, where a great bounty awaits us. It will be a long and deadly journey. You will pull your weight without complaint or you'll be left behind. There's a lot of work to be done before the morning, get to it!"

"Aye!" the crew shouted.

The captain stepped back into his quarters and slammed the door behind him.

"You heard the captain!" Quartermaster Luo shouted, "get to work you swabs!"

What followed was a flurry of activity that extended through much of the day. Carpenters worked double-time to repair the remaining damage to the ship, riggers checked and double checked every rope, sail and knot. Sailors formed a chain of bodies leading down the steps to the storage deck, passing along boxes and barrels from one person to the next to fully stock the gun deck.

Victoria found work with the carpenters, using her spectral flight to inspect the hull of the ship from both outside and within and report back with her findings for each section. Shortly following the captain's address, Eli had begun the long climb to the crow's nest with his staff slung over his back. During the flurry of hasty work, no small number of injuries were had, and Titus patrolled the main deck to heal pirates on the go rather than wait for them to come to him.

Iris spent a while carefully blipping around to avoid the gaze of the ever-grumpy quartermaster as he stalked the deck searching for slackers to shout at. Eventually, though, she found work with the riggers. She didn't know much about knots or sails, but her blip ability came in handy for quickly checking the hard to reach places on the sails and masts. The pirates weren't exactly patient with her, but they were at least gracious enough to show her what each knot should look like once before sending her off to inspect.

While the crew worked, Giantrock City loomed in the distance. Activity had resumed on the docks, and a few boats even came and went from the Gaping Maw -- though the first mate and quartermaster had made it clear that strictly no one was to arrive or depart without the captain's approval. Smoke rose from the city once more, but it was the familiar pillars of chimney smoke that indicated the craftsmen and kitchens were back to work. It seemed, at least from the outside, that normalcy had quickly returned to the city despite its new government.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Iris made an effort to place herself near the rope pulleys that lifted up cargo from the arriving boats, hoping to overhear gossip or rumors from within the city. She picked up precious little information after the bustling of the crew, but was at least relieved not to hear that any more killing had happened.

Work slowed as the evening passed, and when the sun grew near to the western horizon of redwoods, a bell rung out across the deck to signal the end of the work day. The crew cheered, but few immediately stopped. Each task had matters to wrap up first. Tools were stored away, important knots were checked one last time and loose ropes were tied off out of the way, and carpenters quickly finished up their current repairs rather than leave them half complete.

Iris nervously watched the setting sun, even as she assisted the riggers with their final checks. She hadn't yet heard from Autumn about their plan to convince the captain, and Eli had yet to descend from the crow's nest. Despite her best efforts to refrain from irresponsible plotting, she began to form a backup plan to steal a boat and return to shore herself if necessary.

Her attention shot towards Autumn as she stepped out of the captain's quarters, and she blipped across the deck to meet her, "what did he say?"

"We're in business," Autumn smiled, "it's a good thing too, the rats are holding most of the ship's spices for ransom. Having my own supply will really take away their bargaining power."

"What are you-- nevermind," Iris blipped away. She didn't know what that rat business was about, but if she had managed to arrange an actual shipment of spices somehow that would only add legitimacy to the cover story.

She spotted Eli descending the crisscrossing ropes attached the main mast, and promptly chained a few blips to meet him half way. He startled and nearly lost his grip when she appeared on the ropes beside him.

"Please stop trying to kill me," he pleaded.

"Autumn said we're good to go," Iris said in a hurry, "but I think she expects you to actually pick up spices while you're out."

A short while later, Eli departed on Glimmer's back while Victoria drifted through the air above them. They were taking no chances on this mission, no matter how simple it was, and they were both clad in their full adventuring gear.

Iris waited on the quarterdeck, gazing out towards the city as the sun crept below the horizon. The distant clouds were still lit with hues of pink of blue when Glimmer screeched and clattered to a landing on the quarterdeck.

"Iris!" Milo shouted as he poised to leap off of Glimmer's back.

"Whoa there," Eli held out a hand to stop him.

Glimmer lowered into a comfortable crouch, tucking her legs beneath her until she was lying on the deck. Only then did Eli withdraw his arm and allow Milo to climb down off the griffin.

"He treats me like I'm a fragile child," Milo complained.

Iris greeted him with a tight hug that squeezed the air from his lungs. Without letting go, she spoke quietly, "I wasn't sure I'd see you again."

"Killing-- me--" Milo wheezed.

Iris released her grip and held away from her by the shoulders, "I'm sorry! Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Milo groaned, "you're really strong."

"Would you believe I don't even work out?" she asked with a smirk.

"Honestly? No."

They laughed, then settled into a comfortable silence as they shared a gaze into each other's eyes. The moment was broken when Milo remembered something.

"Oh! I made you something!" he said, ruffling around in his satchel for a second before pulling out a shining cylinder of brass. He continued speaking as he handed the object to Iris, "I've been working on it since I found out you were leaving, and I stayed up all night last night to finish it. It's not much, but I had some extra telescope parts lying around, and I thought you should have something like this if you're going to be a real pirate."

It was a collapsible spyglass, like Iris had only seen in adventurer magazines and illustrated storybooks. She immediately slid it open, even as Milo talked, and reveled in the satisfying ticking sounds it made as each segment extended into place. Holding it up to her eye, she could spot fine details on the distant buildings of the city.

"I hope you like it--" Milo was saying when Iris wrapped him in another crushing hug.

"It's incredible," she said as she pulled away, "you really made this?"

"Yep! With my own hands."

"You are the coolest person I've ever met," she smiled, and Milo's cheeks turned red.

Behind him, Autumn was deliberately unloading spices from Glimmer's saddle bags as slowly as she could, taking time to verify each tiny bottle against a written list.

"That's not all," Milo said. He rushed over to Glimmer, retrieved something from a saddlebag, and rushed back, "the librarian said she wanted you to have these."

They were three of Iris's favorite books from the library. She had pulled them from the shelves with almost every visit.

"She said you're the only one who's even taken them off the shelf in years, and she'd rather they be with someone who will read them."

"Tell her she is amazing," Iris beamed.

"I will," Milo smiled, "and I wish I could say I have a third thing for you, but unfortunately I don't. I went looking for your sword and couldn't find it anywhere, I tried to convince a few shopkeepers and blacksmiths to let me put one on a tab and they all just laughed at me. Sorry."

"Don't be, you've already done a lot. I'll just have to make use of the ol' whacking stick for a while. I wish I had something to give you in return, though."

"How about you do me a favor, instead?" he asked, handing her a stack of papers wrapped in a loose leather binding, "this is a collection of my best articles. Most of them never even got published in the badger, it's a lot of technical stuff but there's some good stories in there too. Can you take them with you, and wherever you end up, try to get them in the hands of publishers? I'm hoping this work will get me off this continent one day."

"You got it," Iris smiled, stashing the papers safely in her bag along with the books and spyglass, "I'll sing your praises while I'm at it to really make sure they get printed."

"Tell them I'm tall and handsome," he said, "and buff."

They laughed.

"That's about half of it," Autumn said at conspicuous volume as she moved to the other side of Glimmer to unload the remaining saddlebags.

"I guess we're running out of time," Iris said with a sad smile.

"We've been running out of time since the day we met," Milo said softly.

"I'm--" Iris choked back sudden tears, "I'm sorry I hurt you."

Milo stepped closer and placed a hand on her cheek. The sky was dark now, and the wind was growing cold. "Look at me," he said firmly, "you're the best thing that's ever happened to me. Don't ever feel bad for that."

Iris nodded in acceptance, even as tears fell down her face, "I don't want to leave you."

"It's not too late to stow me away somewhere," he offered with a smile.

Iris released a sudden laugh, "no offense, but I'm not sure you'd last a week out there without powers."

"Yeah, I know," his voice grew somber, but when he spoke again it was stern and serious, "but I am coming after you, you know. Whether it takes money, power, or both, I'm gonna get what I need to survive the journey out of this place and I'm going to come find you, wherever you end up."

"It's a big world to search," Iris warned.

"and you're worth searching for."

Their tears mixed as they kissed under the moonlight, and they held each other close for as long as they could. Inevitably, though, Autumn soon ran out of ways to stall, and announced quietly that she was finished. Iris and Milo heard her, but didn't yet end their embrace.

"Time to go," Eli said with a stern but apologetic tone.

Iris and Milo shared one last kiss that turned into two, and then three. Finally, when he could stall no longer, Milo tore himself away and smiled through his tears.

"I'll miss you, Iris Orion," he said as before climbing atop the griffin.

"And I'll miss you, paper boy," she smiled.

"Hey! I told you not to call m--" Milo's shout was cut off by the lurch of Glimmer leaping into the air and taking flight.

Iris laughed loudly and genuinely, even as the tears kept flowing.