Dory lay on the beach with her eyes closed. The sun and the sand would be absolutely divine if not for how her body felt. She was completely exhausted, battered and bruised. The training she had gone through with Lucy, James and Kyra had been an easy warm up for Teddy. He pushed her relentlessly. Fighting with her before she ran laps with Kyra, he’d surprise her while she was meditating with James and she would have to defend herself or he would jump out of a shadow when she was having a lesson with Lucy. She had never felt sand before, it seemed to cup her entire sore body like the crystal on the Serenity. She had seen how the others all looked at the door with the huge barbarian’s likeness, she had no desire to sleep in that room and chose instead to sleep on the sofas in the prow of the middle deck, the plush sofas more than comfortable enough and although the others gave her guilty looks she felt they were glad the room was left untouched.
She heard the others animatedly talking and reluctantly opened her eyes, she felt that the heat which was so alien to her occurring naturally having lived in the cold mountain, it had a naturally rejuvenating effect on her body.
“I just think it’s a huge strategic oversight, how could we let this happen? James was complaining.
“I feel we can meet the same ends by other means.” Lucy prompted.
“I’m totally with James on this, it’s a disaster.” Kyra shockingly said.
“Guys the lack of ice cream on the Serenity is not a strategic oversight, like Lucy says, we have ice, we have flavours, we can make sorbet.” Teddy said, exasperated.
James stopped so suddenly they thought something was actually wrong with him as he put a hand to his chest in mock heart attack.
“My own brother! One does not eat a cone of sorbet at the beach!”
They were interrupted from their argument by a shadow making its way over the beach. They looked up in time to see the massive blimp cross overhead. It would have dwarfed the Serenity if it hadn’t already been put back in storage. Massive magical panels on the rear pushed it forwards with similar panels underneath blasting blue energy downwards to keep it aloft. The team reminisced about their time travelling back from Vitesse to Greenstone by boat, the Magical density would have made an airship uneconomical so they were glad that the Arngotian sea was more accommodating to magical travel. They boarded the massive ship, with no gear to stow and no need to book cabins they made their way to the foredeck to watch as it rose back off the sand.
They had a mix of passengers to share the journey with, travellers like themselves that were easy to chat to and the teamsters who promptly found benches and chairs to sleep on for the short journey over.
They soared across the ocean in less than a day. The ship had amenities for all ranks and classes of people and Dory was amazed at being introduced to it all by the Mitchells. As an active bronze rank team they enjoyed the luxuries of the bronze bar, inviting Dory in as their companion. They met other bronze rankers, the type that frequented the airship rather than the slower boat were either from rich families or very active adventurers. The Mitchells were busy meeting people but they never excluded Dory, swapping stories about monster hunts and close calls, exchanging information about Arngo that each other might find useful. The city was vast and catered to much higher rank than the bronze rankers, they would struggle to plumb all of its depths by themselves.
When they were most of the way over they made their way out to the balcony. They had made arrangements to depart the airship early as soon as they were in controlled water that was regularly patrolled by the city’s adventure society for high rank monsters. The fare was paid in full so the captain wasn’t bothered.
Teddy launched himself off first, shooting off the balcony like an arrow from a bow. The girls dropped next leaving James standing next to a very nervous Dory.
“First time jumping off a perfectly serviceable airship?” He said, grinning at her.
She looked at him in panic.
“You bloody well know it is! James, If I mess this up I could die!”
“Oh this is nothing, we regularly do this straight into monster nests. You get used to it.”
“I don’t know if I can do this…”
“Think about it, the sooner you jump, the sooner it’s over, plus, thats saltwater down there. You can get squiddy out.”
“Don’t call him that!”
“Then think of a name for him! Come on.” And with that James stepped casually onto the rail and held out a hand for her.
She took a deep breath and took his hand. He fell backwards, dragging her with him.
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“Yeehaw!” He shouted as she screamed.
They dove down towards the water, they were very high, if James had to guess it would be somewhere between seven and ten thousand feet high to stay away from the gold rank monsters in the middle of the ocean transit. James’s Vision of the Eagle power let him zoom up to ten times and he picked out the rest of his family ahead. They had set this up to test a theory for working with people without slow fall. Teddy had gone first and had the rapidly unfolding Serenity in front of him which should hopefully be ready before it hit the water and he would use his powers to simply step on board.
There was a thrill to falling through the air, Dory copied James and bent her whole body like a bow, chest and hips pointing to the ground. When she was stable with her hands and feet buffeting in the air outstretched behind her she had time to marvel in the experience. She glanced at James who was still grinning. He winked at her and went into a series of backflips and cartwheels in the air, she realised he wasn’t using magic at all, just moving his body in the air. She experimented and found that she could spin this way and that, she managed a little bit of steering before she flipped out of control. James collided with her and sorted her out into a stable position again.
The girls each had a buggy unfolding, taking far less time than the bigger Serenity, the simple craft hadn't bothered with wheels but had small winglets either side forming. James still had hold of Dory’s hand and slingshot her to Kyra who caught her and stuffed her inside before getting in herself. She pulled a series of levers and grabbed the wheel before looking at Dory who was wide eyed and pale.
“Aww Dory, you shouldn’t be scared of this, this is the fun side to being adventurers!.” She patted the girls leg. “You’ll either learn to love this sort of thing or you’ll know adventuring isn’t for you.” Kyra turned forward to judge the distance between them and the surface. Not long now, she controlled the buggy a little, gliding through the air.
Dory thought to herself that this was fun once you got over the near-death part. The people that she was with wouldn’t let that happen so she felt a lot better. She was almost convinced that she was having fun when the sea was rapidly getting closer and closer and she scrambled back in her chair, she scrunched her eyes tight while holding onto the bucket seat and her familiar swam to the middle of her face. His presence there made her open her eyes just as the small buggy smashed into the surface of the water.
The world became light blue, she stared in wonder out the window as Kyra pulled them out of the steep dive and shallowed out. Dory felt suddenly at peace, comfortable in this environment. It was the first time she had been in anything deeper than a bath and she loved it.
“How far down can we go?” She asked in awe.
“Not much further than this really.” Kyra replied, looking around for the Serenity’s hull on the surface above. “The magic on the open sides isn’t strong enough to keep out the pressure, they’re not designed to go much further. I’m sure in time Lucy will change that.”
Dory raised a hand like she was going to touch the open sides but thought better of it, she didn’t know if it would interrupt the magic. Her familiar swam to the end of her arm and excitedly moved up and down her arm like it was trying to ram its way out the end. Dory instinctually felt how to release him and did so. He appeared outside the buggy and she suddenly wondered how fast they were going. The kraken was a streamlined bullet with trailing tentacles, he twisted and twirled loving the freedom in the depths. She watched him enjoy himself and she felt so much love already for him. She was proud of him when he dived off to one side to snag a small fish and stuff it in his mouth without losing pace.
They moved through the water soundlessly, joined after a while by Lucy in her buggy, James was noticeably absent from the other vehicle. The kraken familiar moved to get closer to the other buggy. A monster rose up from underneath and snapped the small cephalopod in one. It was all over before Dory could register the panic. In a heartbeat the small kraken burst out the bottom of the mouth in a burst of blood.
[Ouch, not as funny as I thought it was going to be.] James said.
The monster was the long-necked dinosaur-looking animal form he had taken when they were hunting monsters at sea before they left Greenstone. It had a long large body smooth like a seal with four large flippers. It’s whip like tails were able to be employed as weapons. The important part the team didn’t address just yet was how a level-zero iron rank familiar managed to break through the bronze rank skin on the bottom of James’s mouth before what looked like flipping him off and swimming back over to the buggy with Dory in.
Kyra started to ascend and the familiar splatted itself on the windscreen to one side in front of Dory, tentacles spread wide. They popped out the water like a cork out of a bottle. Kyra had aimed it at the back of the ship and it landed perfectly on the drop deck. James also leapt out the water and transformed mid air into himself.
They made their way up the back to the top deck to find Teddy underneath the console in the drivers station with a magical equivalent of a screwdriver.
“What’s up with the Serenity?” Lucy asked. She was the only other person who had worked on the Fourth-stage Crystal and could possibly help.
“Oh just a little flooding in the kitchen. I’m amending the properties of deployment, would be useful if it was watertight sooner. We hit the water and went under for a bit before we came back out, the pumping action was pretty intense.”
“Otherwise that worked out pretty well for our first HALO deployment?” Kyra said.
“That was the first time you’d done that?!” Dory asked in shock.
“Well, the first time we’ve done it like that.” Kyra admitted. Moving with Dory, Lucy and James to the prow of the ship.
Teddy got up and sat in the captain’s chair, he pushed the right lever forward and the Serenity blew up spray from the bow wave as it leapt forward. Dory was white-knuckled gripping the railing in front of her, gripping on for dear life, her familiar had still been present, following her out the water and wrapped itself around her hands gripping her onto the railing with her. The poor girl had never been on a magical cart, let along magical vehicle. First the airship and now luxury pleasure yacht stroke speed boat. She looked right and saw Lucy tucked up in James’ arms, her back to his front as they cuddled watching the sea go by. Kyra put a hand on Dory’s on the railing and she looked left to see the blonde woman smiling at her kindly.
“It must be a lot to take it. But enjoy this, its what adventuring gives you. The freedom to really get out there and see new places. You’ve seen the other side, the danger that comes. Well this is the reward.” She took a deep breath through her nose. “Smell the salt in the air, listen for the cry of sea birds. It’s all new to you, enjoy it!”
Dory’s hand relaxed a little and she tentatively smiled back. She could feel the power beneath her feet through the deck. Saw the almost infinite-looking expanse of water cresting in waves on the wind around them, the white caps breaking with a little spray. The Serenity cut through it all easily, gliding smoothly with no bumping from one wave to the next. As she relaxed so did her familiar, it loosened its grip and went from staring at Dory to staring out. It casually stroked her arms in an affectionate gesture absently as it looked out. The Ink Kraken looked at her, intelligent eyes boring into hers. It loosened a bit more, then some more. Then it leapt off the prow of the ship straight out. Dory’s grip became white-knuckled again. It smoothly entered the water with barely a ripple, they lost sight of it for just a moment before it popped up. All his tentacles were streamlined behind and powering himself through the water, using the bow wave of the Serenity to keep ahead.
Teddy joined them at the front, wrapping his arms around Kyra from behind.
“That’s a pretty damn special familiar you’ve got yourself there Dory.” He commented, watching the kraken with everyone else.
“Is he? I think he is, but I’ve not really seen many. Yours all seem wonderful as well!”
“I think it’ll be really interesting to see how your powers are going to interact with him when we get you some more awakening stones and trained up a bit!”
Dorianna thought to herself, the realisation that she had this wonderful companion but she also had to learn to fight with him. She looked left and right, seeing the two couples either side of her that had accepted her so readily and had already done so much for her and really relaxed. The scene was beautiful, she had a happy familiar playing in the surf, new friends, on an amazing ship. Chasing the sun down as the huge city came into view in front of her. She could get used to it.