After saying goodbye to Sett and thanking him for everything he has done, they boarded the ship, Jackie giving her a tour “Welcome aboard the Screaming Siren, best cargo ship Lexon has to offer, or that’s the goal.” Jackie laughed, snapping his finger at a crew member who stopped his work to join in on the laugh “…we are on a tight schedule, so to keep things short, this is the main deck, you are free to roam up here as long as you don’t get in the way, and the food is kept frozen.”
“Hmn, ok.” Mia nodded, watching the crew work. Most were preparing the sails and moving cargo, but she did see a few off to the side, cleaning and doing some other tasks she didn’t know or understand.
“Good, follow me, watch your step.” Jackie led her down the deck, past a hole the crew were loading crates into with a crane “That leads down to the lower cargo area, your work area is down there.”
Mia carefully snuck up to the edge of the hole, peering down “deep.” It went down past two layers, the crane stopping between the layers to drop off cargo in the appropriate floor. “Gah-?!” her neck was grabbed, Jackie pulling her back from the edge.
“Careful! I just told you to not get in anyone’s way!” he sighed, dragging her away, making his way to a wooden gated door “This leads down to the lower levels, dining room, kitchen, and finally crew quarters.” He stopped at each one, briefly showing her around, stopping at the entrance to the quarters and looking her over “Really can’t turn off the mist… can you lass?”
Mia shook her head “no.” she had tried, and while she had lessened it over the course of a few days, she still could not get rid of it completely. “New.”
“Shame, don’t want everyone to freeze to death… well, we will figure it out tonight.” He shrugged, dragging her further down into the ship “Cargo areas, makeshift passenger hold…” he stopped, peering in to check in on everyone in the large room filled with cots, beds, and about 100 people, all some variant of beastman or beastkin “…Right, attention!” he walked into the room, leaving Mia at the door.
“We are about to head off, sorry about the cramped accommodation but as I told all of you before, this is a cargo ship, not a passenger.” The people started to murmur and he raised his arms into the air “now now, good news is, we are fully stocked on food, and the Screaming Siren will keep you all protected, no kraken or hydra will sink this girl. We will be arriving at Lexon in 5 days if weather permits. Until then, sit tight, be patient, and everything will be fine and dandy, you hear?”
Mia looked at all the passengers, amazed at how many were shoved in here, all beastmen ‘it’s really that bad…?’ she thought it was just them causing trouble in her village and the territory, but if it was like this then… all the more reason to get stronger. ‘five days…’ plenty of time to work on what she wanted to.
After answering some concerns from the passengers, Jackie returned to Mia “Alright, down another floor to the Fridge, nothing much around here and uh… don’t worry about these folks.” He motioned back at them “They will be well taken care of.”
Mia nodded, following him down another flight of stairs and arriving at a large metal door, currently swung open as it was being loaded.
“Side entrance.” Jackie pointed to a much smaller wooden door to its side, leading her through while waving to his crew “This is it, almost jammed pack.” He spread his arms wide, boxes stacked atop boxes, crates every wall, and barrels hanging from the ceiling “EVERYONE CLEAR OUT!” he yelled, catching Mia off guard, covering her ears.
“Eh?””What?””boss?””wassit?” The crew stopped what they were doing, looking back at him.
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“This little lass is gonna show everyone here that our food reserves are secure, so move!” he shouted, and after a moment of them looking between the two, he shouted again “MOVE!”
“”Sir!”” They all moved out of the Fridge.
“Alright Mia, just the ones in the back, completely frozen, if you will.” He stepped out of her way, leading her forward with a bow.
“Ok.” Mia stepped forward, looking back at the crew then at all the cargo ‘should be fine?’ she couldn’t see how far it extended back, but encasing the entire thing in ice should be fine. She raised both her hands, and blasted forth a wave of ice and snow. Crackling of ice filling the room as ice stuck to the crates, expanding and penetrating the rows of cargo until it was all frozen, a clear layer of ice covering everything. “Done.”
[200]
‘that’s a lot, was really that much?’
“…There, food storage secured.” All Jackie could do was rub the back of his head, as the rest stared agape.
“Didn’t our last one only keep the room cool?”
“She froze it completely…”
“Did she just put a wall up?”
“No, look, it froze all the way to the back!”
“…wrong?” Mia worryingly glanced at Jackie, who quickly shook his head.
“No, you did amazing. They are just surprised.” He then pointed to the frozen wall “only concern is how to get the goods now…we should have someone with fire magic on board…”
“Oh, can fix.” Mia perked up, trotting over to the wall she touched it with both hands, then spread them out wide, causing the ice to recede, freeing up one crate “There.”
“…”
They all stared, dumbfounded.
“…What have I been doing with my life.” One of the crew members, a thin bunny beastman hung his head, leaving the room.
“Uh…” Mia watched him leave, wondering what was wrong with him.
“…Fria, go make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid…” Jackie commanded one of his crew, another rabbit beastman, who gave her salute before running off after him “don’t mind them Mia… they are just amazed someone so young could have this level of control.”
Mia just remained silent, deciding to keep her mouth shut so she doesn’t slip up about her being a hero or the time travel levels, instead, she asked why people hated this job. “Job, why hate?”
“Wha- oh, well.” He looked back, seeing down the hall the two rabbits coming back “takes a lot of mana to keep a room like this cool, and you have to do it constantly unless you…freeze the whole damn thing… depending on how much mana they have it’s a job that can be easy, but boring and more draining than most physical labor.” He shrugged “And Ice mages are rare as it is, so they can get bugged into doing this job a lot.”
“I see…” she enclosed the crate in ice again. She could leave it like this for a long while and check in on it every now and then… still unsure how long it would take for it to melt, she’d also have to stay nearby if they needed anything out of it… ok she could see how this job would be annoying, but easy.
Jackie clapped once again “Ok, back to work, Mia feel free to stick around here or do whatever, just don’t get in anyone’s way. As long as you keep up with keeping this maintained you are free.”
Mia nodded, easy enough. “Ok.” Now suddenly with a lot of free time, she wondered what she could do, she had to stick close by to freeze the rest once it was loaded, but didn’t want to stay close while they were working… maybe she could- “oh?” there was another door off to the side, she turned to ask where it went, but Jackie had already left “Fast.” She blinked, she was only thinking for a moment but he was already gone.
“Oh that room? Just more storage.”
Mia swung around, seeing it was the bunny beastman from earlier, Fria? Along with the other one she never caught the name of “Empty?”
“Just a bunch of metals, why?” She put her hands on her hips, leaning forward “Looking to get into trouble?”
She shook her head rapidly “no.” then looked back to all the people, hard at work “Don’t want, in way.” She choked out.
“Aah, I see.” Fria smirked “Well, you can go in there, since it’s already loaded and wont be touched for the rest of the trip, just don’t open anything.” She reached out and patted Mia on the head, flinching “Geez, you are cold…well, good for us.” She waved, then pushed the other beastman away, who had been staring at Mia “Good luck Mia! We will grab ya when the rest is ready!”
Mia waved, turning to the storage room, opening the door with some difficulty and peering inside ‘more crates, metal bars…enough space.’ She smiled, she had secured a place out of the way, she didn’t have a lot of time, but she did have time for one thing.
She sat down in the middle of the floor, taking out the 3 accessories and saving.
“Now, what do these do?”