8) The wind beneath my wings.

As I drank down the salty metallic tasting oily fluid, I could feel it sort of soaking into the soft bits of my mouth as much as it was going down my throat. From the feel of the vanishing fluid, I doubted that any of it actually made its way to my stomach.

I also heard a shouted command of “Take him down!” from the passing Corsair ship.

Not wanting to get shot. I threw myself down on the deck between the rowing benches. And then landed on the wooded deck as a ten ounce bird.

While the change was a bit of a surprise. I guessed that my desire to get low enough to make myself harder to target, and to get behind enough cover, was enough to activate the change.

More to the point, it felt natural. As I popped back to my little scaly feet and examined my wings, I already knew everything I needed to do to take flight. Which I had to get to doing real quick since my ride was moving away rapidly.

With a slight dip of my knees and a flutter of wings, I was out of there and flying hard after my ship. High up into the air above a darkling sea. Very high up. Normally I'm not a fan of heights. More from a curiosity about what it would be like to leap and fall than a concern about hitting the bottom.

Now though, I was up high. Not falling but soaring.

It was glorious. I don’t think turning into a skinny desert wolf would have been the same.

All too soon I was coming into a landing, curious as to why no one seemed to be trying to stop some bird shifter trying to board our ship. Wasn’t anyone on guard…

Right. It says Bram in blue right above my head, doesn't it? Duh.

I landed on the rear guard rail and gave talking in an animal form a shot. Surprisingly it worked. "Are we away now?"

Before anyone could answer the blue boxes did.

[ Encounter ended. You have been judged to be 23 percent responsible for the victory. ]

[ You have received a 10 percent bonus as an Einherjar for winning a combat encounter ]

[ You are now second level. You may now level up. ]

[ You are now 14 percent of the way to third level ]

“I just leveled up. Anyone else?” Everyone mostly shook their heads, while Erin was dancing around and shaking his hand about her head yelling “Woo hoo.” and Sandra was hugging a surprised looking Ryan.

Kev shook his head sadly. “I’m three percent short. Just three.”

So I guessing having an undead in a fight, or using a crown in each fight had helped the girls. And I imagine a Captain would get some kind of bonus for anything happening on his ship. But by getting a bonus for a fight, and being in three fights I would have thought I would be even farther ahead.

In any case. “We got ex-pees, so the encounter is over. Once we get clear and get done leveling up for those that can, we should check the loot.”

Sue bent over to look down at me. I had to turn my head to get a clear look at her. She asked. "Why are you still a bird? Can you change back?"

I spread out my wings. “I can fly, for a good another forty five minutes or so. If you ever get the chance I highly recommend it, and I'm not going to waste it.

Taking off I flew ahead of the ship and began to drift from side to side. I finally stopped after a good twenty or so minutes. Not out of boredom, but because my wings were starting to get tired. I guess that without winds or thermals that flying was a lot of hard work.

Landing on the front rails I just shook my head around to settle some feathers and spoke up. "Show me my level-up page."

[ You may add one point to the ability score of your choice.]

[ You may pick one ability modifier.]

[ Warcry. Spirit cast. One in the chamber. ]

Focusing on the three modifiers told me that Warcry gave a surge of refreshing energy to all my allies who could hear me. It wasn’t a healing effect but it did make any wounds they had a bit more tolerable and made them a little less tired.

Spirit cast let me send out Lister to heal someone at a distance. Or any other spirit that needed to go out to do something. But they had to stay still once they got there and it was limited to how far I could see.

One in the chamber just added one more shot to my spirit weapon. Which seemed kind of lame.

Warcry sounded awesome. I had always wished that screaming in a fight was actually useful. But as the party healer, I just had to take Spirit Cast. Keeping my friends and the new people alive was more important than anything else.

As for my ability point.

Might 13

Grace 11

Health 12 ( 15 with race bonus )

Wit 10

Resolve 11 ( 14 with race bonus )

Glamour 10

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

1 point unspent

Recovery for magic was one point four an hour, so buying up my resolve to raise it seemed like a very incremental way to improve my magic, while raising wit or glamour would had rounded my magic poop up to an eleven.

I guess a bigger gas tank would be the best call. Physically I was good, and I think I would have to make a choice of combat or magic at some point. But for right now I could do both in what amounted to the newbie zone. But ultimately I was going with magic.

"Put the point in Glamour." You know, because being a little smarter could help. But being a little better with people was something I had always been bad at. So why not get better at that when it also helped my magic?

Kev wandered up a moment later. “We didn’t wait for you before we opened the chest, but you might want to take a look at it before we decided what to do.”

I turned around, dipped down, and flapped over at Kev. Who went wide-eyed and began to try to duck.

Landing on his shoulder. I commanded him to, “Take me to the loot. My captain, my captain.”

After realizing I just wanted a ride, he seemed to perk up and bit and swaggered to the back deck.

Rob looked up to where he had spread out a bunch of junk on the steps up to the navigation deck.

“Okay this what we found out from Kev claiming stuff for the ship.’

“We have a fuel stone which I think might be able to refuel the ship.”

“We got a bunch of copper pennies and other copper coins. Some silver coins in Spanish pieces of eight, pesos, American half dollars, and some others we can’t identify. As well as some gold dollars, pounds, marks, and more odd stuff. But I haven’t counted it all.”

“We have two charts to Port Rogue, and one to a place called Bernard's coast. That one is marked with an X, like a treasure map."

“We got two more healing vials, and one for shadow walking which no one here can use. Not even the new girl.”

The lizard woman made a clicking noise. “I can’t believe you people have a treasure map. People would kill for one of those.”

I looked back and forth, then leapt off of Kev’s shoulder. Transforming back to human as I dropped down, and nearly lost my balance as I landed on my feet.

“My concern is that if we drive a nice modern boat full of modern food into a pirate port. With only the seven.. eight of us on board, we might get the ship seized and get killed even if we surrender it.’

I pointed over at the stack of thick rolled up charts. “The treasure map is probably made for our levels and everyone who is still at first is sure to level up by going on the adventure. Even some of us that did level up might do so again”

“Also, I took the ability to send my spirit out to heal people at a distance, so call out if you're hurt bad even if you don't see me. Erin, Sandra?"

Erin pointed at her eyes. “I can see what my bone friends can see, just sight thought. I figure I can send them out to scout instead of one of us.” Then she turned to look at Sandra.

The elf looked a little shy, then set her hands to her hips as she stepped forward proudly. "I added a little bit of shielding to my aura. As long as I have a defender still standing, everyone and I get a little protection from being hurt or possessed, or anything bad it sounded like.”

She sighed. “It seriously sounded like it was pretty weak, but it was still very comprehensive. I figured it was better to have even just a little bit of everything when it might be just what you needed to save your life.”

I thought about asking about their other choices. But why? To criticize them for taking a choice even if there had been a better one available. Too late. Besides Erin wouldn't listen and I was pretty happy Sandra was being more active by making her own choices.

Leaning back against the guard rail I realized that it had only been four or five hours since we had woken up. And that whatever had knocked up out wasn't the same as sleep. "Maybe we should all grab a bite to eat, and maybe take a nap before we make any decisions.”

“I would volunteer to stand a watch. but I got hurt when I fell on that ship and while my shoulder reset itself. It took something out of me. I really needed a sandwich and a lie down, at least for an hour or two.”

That got everyone moving towards the main cabin and the kitchen. With Ryan volunteering to keep watch and he voluntelling the lizard girl to stand watch with him. He also brought the slowly trawling ship to a stop as the rest of us began turning off lights and pulling down shades.’

Well, me and rob began turning off lights and pulling down shades anyways.

Sandra drafted Kev and Erin into throwing together some sandwiches and setting out chips and drinks. I downed a thick club sandwich and a glass of real orange juice. Then chased it down with another glass of water before heading back to stretch out in my bunk.

As I drifted off I realized a shower would have been a good idea as well.

I woke after what felt like hours but a glance at my phone proved to be only about forty five to fifty minutes. But I still felt refreshed and wide awake.

Rob was out cold on the bunk above me and drifting out into the main cabin to find Kev flopped back on a couch with his head at an angle that was sure to be painful when he woke up. Sue had been stretched out on the opposite couch when I came in. She raised her eyebrows up at me. "You relieving the two up top?” When I nodded she continued. “Good, because I can’t sleep and Stist looked like it’s been a long time since she had a good meal”

We made our way up and around where I told Ryan and… Stist, "Go get something to eat and figure out where she can stretch out. We got the watch."

Ryan nodded. “You guys better not have eaten all the ham. I’m hoping “you know who” will notice where I am if I eat some pork.”

I settled into one of the swiveling Captain's chairs. "I'm going to look off the right Sue. Hey Lister. Can you keep watch?"

The spirit answered me. "I can. But anything further than a few dozen feet from you is a little blurry. Other den someone you send me after. But if someone starts sneaking up on you vith a knife in their hands vhile you sleep... Even I can figure out dey are up to something bad and vill try to wake you up.”

I nodded and swiveled around to see Sue leaning back on the left side of the navigation deck staring at me with a curious smile. “The spirit can help, but not a lot. Shouldn't you be looking the other way?”

She snorted at me and took and took the other seat. Where after a moment she began twisting the seat from side to side. Looking over at me every now and then and poking at the controls.

After a moment I began to talk. "I don't really care why. That was your decision and none of my business. But if you do want to talk about why you choose to become a six foot tall green bodybuilder with tusks. Feel free to share.’

She snorted at me and we had a perfectly lovely extended moment of silence. I had been social and reached out to connect with someone and then got turned down. Mission accomplished without having to follow up on it. Perfect.

Then she went and started talking. What the heck am I supposed to do with that?

“I’m dangerous you know. I’ve been taking martial art classes since I was in elementary school. With my size I couldn't hit all that hard, so my teachers, the good ones anyways, taught me to be mean. Where to hit where my strength could cause the most pain. How to use people's size against them. All that stuff.”

"The problem was that at my size, no one took me seriously. They didn't see me as a threat even when I put them to the ground. It was just a trick to them and when I would offer to do it again… It was always the same old story. They didn’t want to hurt me, they didn’t want to hit a girl, or I wasn’t worth it.”

“Plus I knew how to really fight. All the kicks and punches that I was just too small to use.”

“Frustrating wasn’t enough of a word.”

"But here. I had a chance to be and look dangerous. Not to mention being this size means I can take more than one punch and actually do stuff."

I interrupted. “Like reach high shelves?”

She reached back and thumped me on the shoulder. "Actually yeah. But also to be able to pick heavy things up like a normal person, to not need to ask for help. I wasn’t a little person, but being a small person wasn’t all that fun either.”

"I'll never have to shop in the kid's section again. Of wear hand me ups from my little sister..."

“Or ever see her again...”

We sat in silence for a bit.

At least until swiveled around enough to look over my shoulder at her and ask, “So, would now be the time I should offer a hug?’

Her head dropped for a moment, then I heard her soft laughter. “Idiot.”

"Yes, I want a hug."

Even with all her muscles she still had that certain softness that girls always have. Plus she smelled nice.

I didn’t. “Thanks, I did need that. Now don’t ever do it again until after you take a shower. Jesus...”