Because it was night, the decks were mostly clear. Grey and Bella were up at the helm as usual, consulting a compass and map and likely plotting and adjusting the route to Caer Drarrow. Sylvia’s gleaming form was visible up in the crow's nest, where she waved down at me. I absentmindedly waved back. Other than that, there was only one other crewman that I saw, leaning against the starboard side rail and seemingly napping on his feet.

I walked away from the others up and toward the fore of the ship. Looking around, I confirmed the coast was clearing and started setting up. First I poured some of the black powder down the barrel of my primitive firearm, and then tamped it down with the stick I was going to use as a firestarter. Then, I dropped one of my lead shots down the barrel.

You know, now that I was actually doing this, I realized that I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing. The entire process that I was working from was guesswork. I was basing the entire thing on old memories and childhood movies. It was entirely possible that this abomination in my hands would explode.

I contemplated the device in my hands, and then shrugged.

Eh, whatever. I’d probably live.

Status had to be good for something.

I first lit the torch and then set it into a brace near me, and then lit the end of my stick on fire. I put it out, so there were only glowing embers on the end instead of a full-on fire. Seemed like a good idea to me. Bracing the wooden end of the pseudo-cannon on the deck of the ship like it was a firework, I aimed it at the sky away from the sails. I brought the glowing end of my stick up level with the hole near the base of the iron cannon.

With an excited grin on my face, I jammed it into the black powder and braced myself for the explosion, closing my eyes.

After a few moments, I opened them in confusion.

Nothing had happened.

Looking down, I confirmed that the glowing end of the stick had entered the small hole. Furrowing my brow, I stirred it around inside the barrel a little. I definitely felt the powder in there. Taking out the stick from the hole, I held it up to look at it. Yeah…it was definitely still lit. If anything, it was glowing a little brighter, as stray sparks were now flying off of it from the residual black powder.

Odd.

Okay…attempt number two. This time keeping my eyes fixed on the entrance hole, I stuck the firestarter in the hole again. I paid close attention this time, but nothing happened inside the hole again. No sparks, no explosion, no boom, and most importantly, no gunshot. The black powder that had previously been sparking on the end of the lit stick was now inert.

What the hell?

Okay, maybe the powder was bad somehow? Last time I tested it was a few days out from Marrowmist. Could the sea air have dampened it or something?

In the...few seconds that it had been inside the gun.

I sighed, and went through the process of unpacking the primitive firearm. Taking the sack I’d held everything in, I dumped everything in the barrel out on top of it. Taking the torch in my right hand and a handful of black powder in my left, I walked up to the railing of the ship. I leaned over it leading with the torch, holding it over the calm waters below. Holding my left hand over the torch, I let some of the black powder escape my hand, to drift down onto the flame below.

The powder ignited just fine, leading to a momentary flash of dim light. That was great, but it wasn’t what had caught my attention.

The flash of light had illuminated something below me in the water. A pair of large yellow eyes, glaring upwards.

My breath caught in my throat. Slowly, I opened my hand and let a little more black powder drift down onto the torch. This time when the flash of light happened, I didn’t see anything below me.

No eyes.

Maybe it had just been a really big fish or something? I let out a shaky breath, and laughed slightly. Man, I wasn’t normally this jumpy. Maybe I should just get some sleep, and try and figure out what was wrong with the gun tomorrow.

I backed away from the railing and turned around, torch in hand.

The light illuminated a massive, quadrupedal form with the torso of a man growing from it standing in front of me. I didn’t get the chance to either inspect it more or even scream before a massive hand closed on my mouth, nearly enclosing my entire head. Swiftly, whatever this was drove me down to the deck, seemingly making an effort to be quiet.

I tried to scream into the hand holding me down, grasping at it ineffectively. However, my scream wasn’t just cut off by the hand, but by the sphere of water that was somehow starting to engulf my head. The hand on my face loosened only slightly, but only enough that water started to rush into my mouth. Wild with panic, I activated Sylvan Vigor and tried to pry the hand holding me down off of me.

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I still couldn’t budge it, though.

Fuck. Fuck…

I could already feel myself slipping from the asphyxiation. I couldn’t do anything to this thing, so I had to grab the attention of the other people on deck. Desperately, I moved my eyes around as much as I was able to, hoping for a magical solution.

I found one.

I’d dropped the torch not far from my position, and lying close to it was the small sack of black powder that I’d made. With a surge of hope, I scrabbled frantically for the torch from my prone position. My heart lept as my hand closed around it. Desperately, I tossed it to the open sack.

It exploded immediately, in a massive flash of light and flame. The creature holding me down reared back with a strange chirping noise, releasing my face. Luckily, the sphere of water around my head dissipated as well, letting me cough up the water in my lungs.

Above me, the monster that had nearly killed me was hit by a bright silver bolt of power. It was blown off of its…hooves, impacting the railing behind it with a screeching noise. Despite how drained I felt, I still tried to scramble to my feet. I don’t think the monster was dead from whatever had hit it, and I needed to get up anyway. The explosion of the black powder had lit a few fires around me, and I needed to struggle away from it.

I needn’t have bothered.

Sylvia fell from the sky like an avenging angel, blue short-sword plunging into the flesh of the creature. Whatever it was managed one last weak chirping noise before slumping over, dead. Sylvia abandoned her blade in the flesh of the monster, uncaring about the corpse of the beast. She instead hurried over to my side, and helped me to my feet.

“Nathan, are you well?” Sylvia asked me urgently. “Are you injured?”

“N-” I tried to say, but broke out into a fit of coughs instead. I shook my head. “No, I’m…fine. Thanks to you.” I smiled at her weakly from my hunched-over position. That didn’t seem to reassure her much, as she still looked worried.

Our attention was stolen when what seemed like the rest of the ship stormed onto the deck we were on. Leading the way were Grey and Bella, with spell and sword in hand, both gleaming silver. I guess it had been Grey that had sniped the creature away from me. Most of the crew were bleary-eyed and half-dressed, but that didn’t prevent them from seeming very willing to jump into battle. Among them were Azarus and Venix. Azarus didn’t have a shirt on, but he still had his hammer and shield ready. Venix had one of his four swords drawn and was scanning the deck with sharp eyes.

Speaking of, at the same time that they arrived, the creature finally dissipated into a puff of Miasma. Everyone on the deck watched as Sylvia’s sword and a monster core the size of a golf ball fell to the deck.

Bella broke the silence. “Can anyone tell me,” She said in a rising tone. “JUST WHAT THE BLEEDIN’ HELL IS GOIN’ ON?!”

……………………………………..

It took the crew a bit to put out the fires caused from my explosion. Of which the Captain of said ship wasn’t too happy about.

I fell on my ass, knocked there by a swift hook from Bella. The world went white for a moment as I experienced a ringing noise in my ears. When my sight cleared up, I found Bella standing over me with an outstretched hand and an irritated look on her face. I took it, grateful for the hand up.

We were in her Captains quarters again, and I’d just finished explaining what had happened. After which Bell had decided to deal out a little corporal punishment for the damage I’d caused to her ship.

I didn’t blame her.

Still.

I rubbed my aching jaw. That woman could throw a mean punch.

Bella was still giving me the evil eye. “Don’t test explosives on a ship, ye moron.”

I held up my hands in surrender. “Hey, it wasn’t supposed to explode. Well, much,” I amended. At the incredulous look on her face, I smiled weakly. “It was meant to be a small, controlled explosion. The only reason there was anything louder than a ‘pop’ was because I was trying to alert the ship.”

Bella snorted, while Grey stepped between us shaking his head. “Be that as it may Nathan, you should have waited until we reached the shore to test your ‘gonne’. Isabella, as Nathan’s mentor, I’m fine with whatever punishment detail you wish to assign him.”

I winced, but nodded slightly. I’d let my enthusiasm get ahead of me on this one, I acknowledged that.

Bella waved Grey off, muttering something about Mages under her breath. “Just make sure ta clean and polish the decks after the fire and we’re good. We got more important things ta worry about right now.”

“The Neptaurian,” Sylvia interjected, pushing off of the wall she’d been leaning against. “Who was most assuredly a scout of some kind.”

So that had been a Neptaurian. From the brief glimpse I’d gotten of it, I hadn’t been sure. Using Observe on the beast hadn’t been high on my list of priorities while it was drowning me. It had almost seemed like a kind of…aquatic centaur or something, like the creature out of Greek myth from back home.

I’d probably be getting a better look at more of them soon.

Bella nodded at Sylvia’s observation. “Aye, it was for sure a scout. And it must have been new, or else we’d’ve known about.”

“How? How could you have possibly known about it?” I asked Bella, puzzled. “Do you have some kind of…ship sense skill or something?”

“Gods no!” She said, barking out a laugh. “I wish I had somethin’ like that. We just have someone keepin’ a watch on things under the ship. Only, he were off duty when that one jumped ye.”

What? Keeping a watch under the ship?

The door of Bella’s quarters creaked open, drawing the attention of everyone inside. Pete slipped through, but froze when he saw everyone looking at him. He let out a nervous laugh, running a hand over his porous head.

Bella rolled her eyes and nodded at him. “Pete’s been pullin’ shifts under the ship fer the last few days. It ain’t like he needs ta breath down there. Just needs somethin’ to weigh ‘im down a bit and a chain attached to the ship, so he don’t float to the top.” She smirked. “His punishment fer tryin’ to deal with the Longslip boys.”

“I ain’t gotta breathe, but it’s still cold down there, Captain,” Pete said mournfully.

“Suck it up,” Bella scoffed at him. “Cold don’t hurt you none.”

Grey cleared his throat, interrupting the back and forth. “As amusing as this is, we still have the problem of the herd possibly being alerted to our presence.”

Bella turned away from Pete to shrug at Grey. “It ain’t really a problem. We’re goin’ to slaughter the lot of them, ain’t we? If they show up before we reach this cave o’ yers, that just means we ain’t takin’ a guess on their nest.”

“I suppose so,” Grey sighed. “Since this was likely a new scout, then herd might be unaware of us, and thus can’t set a trap.”

“Aye,” Bella nodded. “Now all we need is ta reach the island, and take them out. Should only take a couple more days, if the wind is fair.”