After reading the letter to the point of memorisation, Lasutro snatched up the envelope off the floor from where she had tossed it aside in their excitement, pulling from it the smaller letter within for their passage on board the Jester’s Torrent. Setting aside the letter of acceptance and tucking away the smaller letter on their person, Lasutro began packing their things with haste despite the fact the ship wouldn’t set sail until the dawn of the next day. As the day passed Lasutro found themselves wandering the city picking up some personal rations and a simple compass, for no real reason other than to ease the burdens of the sailors she would soon meet, if only to a small degree. When she returned to their inn, their stomach filled by several different local staples, she had quick conversation with the manager on the partial return of their funds as she had several days left in the payment she had previously provided, after which she made their way up to room and attempted to rest fighting their lingering excitement.
When Lasutro woke on the morning of their planned departure, she did so with a vigor that often eluded them most days and quickly gathered their baggage in preparation for their departure. As she set out to the docks first guiding themselves vaguely with the lighthouse at first before the red light of dawn graced itself upon the streets leading to the docks. Lasutro watched the red rays of rising sun dance on the waves as they crashed against the seemingly perpetually wet wood of the dock, before looking around for the Jesters Torrent among the many anchored ships.
Following a few minutes of searching she spotted the ship at the end of the docks, with several figures loading goods onto the galleon along with a similar number of individuals who were clearly passengers or just incredibly poor crewmen. As Lasutro made their cautious approach, wary of getting any of their books wet despite the preparations she had done to protect them, the positions of the group standing by the dock doing nothing became clearer. The most obvious clue to the nature of figures, specifically the somewhat familiar fanciful wear of their apparent leader, or at least a respected member of the group, in addition to their face that is,was the examinee Lasutro had seen briefly before their practical examination.
Upon their arrival, she heard a voice from the deck of the ship call both the group of passengers and Lasutro themselves to board, which they did after a collective moment of hesitation. There, among the many moving members of the ship's crew, Lasutro and the rest of the group of new students of the academy collected themselves roughly in front of a single figure who gave off an imposing air as well as one of authority. With a stern word to air, almost pointedly towards the many chatty individuals of Lasutro’s group, the middle aged half-orc woman demanded attention, although in such a fashion where it felt less like a demand, and more like a polite request that made any other decision seem stupid.
After a pause that none dared to speak through, during which the woman made a quick evaluation of each new student, before introducing herself as Captain Aluri, the commander of the ship, in addition to a few of her rules for passengers on the coming three day journey to capital, each simple enough to follow, at least in Lasutro’s mind. Following which the Captain summoned a similarly muscle bound figure to themselves who she instructed to show the group to the quarters that had been prepared before introducing them as her first mate, Wylie Sletyear, a similarly aged human man, though instead of bearing the authority that the Captain’s scars gave her. The first mate’s scars instead spoke to an almost tearful solemness that hung in the air around him.
The instant the Captain took her leave to elsewhere on the ship, Wylie gave the comparably quiet command of the group of new students to follow them as he turned and led them down below deck. And while the short initial trek down was done in silence, several individuals around Lasutro broke out into murmured commentary on the style of construction of the way to their quarters and the wood itself with a haughty air that Lasutro had the misfortune of coming in contact with a few times when she worked at the Impaled Lupine. Not long after they made their way below deck Wylie pointed out the doors to several different rooms to the group, explaining with a slightest sadistic grin towards those few who had been complaining of insignificant aspects of the ship a bit louder than they should have, that they were going to have to share the rooms with at least four people to a room, before he turned to leave giving the group time to settle into their new quarters.
Following some slight debate among most of Lasutro’s fellow passengers, during which Lasutro set down most of their belongings in the room furthest from the stairs, choosing to claim one of the hammocks over one of the cots, Lasutro made their way back to the deck of ship, taking only one of their smaller books with them. As she sauntered their way up the ship, she ignored the now less competitive chatter from the rest of the group instead pondering the subtle sounds of the deck above and the crashing of waves against the ship somewhere below.
When Lasutro emerged from below, back onto the main deck of the Jesters Torrent, she watched in awe of the Captain and the crew as she shouted commands to their crew, who answered in the affirmative with near equal calls of their own, and a gleam of excitement in their eyes as they took to opening the sails. And with that the ship slowly shifted away from the docks, the wind breathing life into the many sails and pulling it further into the bay. As the ship pushed forward, Lasutro found themselves on the edge of its starboard side watching the gradually shrinking image of the port city and taking in the strong sea breeze she had come to love during their stay. When the image of the city became almost imperceptible, Lasutro let out a mumbled a quiet farewell to themselves, not only to the city that had managed to worm its way into their heart, but to their former self, who would remain gone, until she could reclaim it in safety.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
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As the Jesters Torrent sailed through the bay, Lasutro stared out from the starboard side of the ship watching the last bit of land fade from view, pondering both their future days in the Academy and a few tall tales she had heard that took place at sea. Following nearly an hour of reflection and beholding the sea, Lasutro wandered about the deck for a place to read, being careful to find a place that wouldn’t disturb any of the crew in the performance of their duties, but also a place where she could relax unbothered. When she finally found an appropriate spot several minutes after she started their search she took to the casual reading of the book she had brought with them. A book they had chosen in consideration of its appropriateness for the days at sea they had ahead of them. Among the other books Lasutro had purchased it was one of the few she had bought that had been memoirs; the others being mostly codexes,introductory texts on specific subjects that had begun to draw their interest during their studies,the odd essay and several different fictional tales.
The memoir she found themselves reading in between glances towards the working members of the Torrent’s crew and the occasional sea sick student to be, was that of a unnamed captain who had been stranded on an island for a time following their attempt to travel through the Kladys Sea to find the almost mythic Isle of Uwtomii. An “lost” island supposedly blessed with untapped wealth in addition to the hoard of an ancient dragon who was slain in their efforts to extort more from an ancient dwarven kingdom.
The captain wrote of their troubles living on the island that, with the exception of those creatures that could kill them and those they could hunt,it lacked the life they wished for following the loss of their crew. Furthermore they wrote of the increasing weight of the guilt they felt in having not found the island they had sought together, and the additional guilt they felt for not regretting their choice to sail through the famously deadly sea for what they saw now as a pointless endeavor. A great deal of the memoir dealt with the personal reflections they had on the island that ultimately pulled them into a spiral despair before shifting dramatically when the captain by chance discovers the diary of long dead sailor that was filled by their desire to return home obstructed by the injuries they took at sea before being stranded on the island. Following their reading of the diary the memoir shifted to a more positive tone, the captain finding the act of crafting a raft to get home letting them focus on their return to civilization not just for themselves but for those whose death weighed on them. When they finally managed to return home they wrote letters to all of the families and friends of their crew they could find, before retiring as fishermen in a small seaside village during which they wrote the musings that would be later published into a memoir after their death.
As Lasutro finished the book, she was torn from their reflections of its contents with the increasingly loud cries of the crew surrounding them, which eventually drew their attention to the sky. An unfamiliar panic began to rise in Lasutro as she stared into the dark clouds that had begun to cover the sky all around the ship and with it echoes of thunder. As the storm set in, the crew furled sails together with surprising coordination given the growing screams of the wind and rain, a sight that Lasutro couldn’t help but admire for a moment before she shook themselves from their astoundment and hurried to the perceived safety below deck.
Moving as fast as they could past the focused sailors, Lasutro ran for the shelter of the lower decks, doing their best not to slip in the moments of blindness brought on by the nearly persistent strikes of lightning around the ship. As she reached the door that promised at least some safety from the storm, with the sounds of their heart only barely audible under the deafening thunder, a great gust of wind the likes she had never felt before pulled them from their feet and sent them flying farther than they thought possible, throwing them all but off the ship.
With their vision impaired not only by the sudden flashes of light in the darkness of the storm that rocked the ship violently, but the sudden impact as well, Lasutro was left in a state of disorientation. When she finally managed to regain their bearings, she found themselves facing the dark and turbulent sea, beneath which she didn’t notice the form of a large lurking leviathan until its glowing amber eyes breached the surface along with wholly terrifying rows of jagged viscous teeth.
As the leviathan dragged its serpentine body from the waves it let out a cry of hunger that was just audible over the sounds of rain and thunder, that sent chill though Lasutro’s body, bringing forth the memory of the fear she felt on the way to Traclins, only far more real, and nearly freezing them in place. In their paralyzing terror Lasutro watched the members of the crew from the corner of their eyes roar back with all the resolve they could muster against the beast. As they did so, portions of the crew broke off from their previous duties, some of which headed down below deck under the direction of both the Captain and the first mate, who had armed themselves with large harpoon-like spears in preparation for the leviathan’s attack. At which point the great serpent reared its head back before shoot it forward towards on of the slower sailors who had been climb down the mast, snatching them up in their jaws with such force to splinter the deck and in the process shake the ship to the point of nearly being consumed by waves of the storm. Causing many of those still on deck to shift including Lasutro, whose paralyzing fear had slowed their attempt to brace themselves for the second impact and was met with a familiar darkness.