Two days had passed out a sea, Mia had secluded herself away in the enclosed storage room. She had set up an igloo at first, but seeing the state she was in a bed was soon moved down there with her, along with a desk. What little space the room had had been transformed into a makeshift room and office for her.
At first, the majority of the crew were against it, not wanting a little kid to be all by herself down there, but after half a night of forcing her to sleep with everyone else and experiencing how cold she could turn a room, the majority were fine with it. The poor soul who nearly developed frostbite sleeping one bed over from her was especially fine with it.
She totally did not purposely lower the temperature to get a point across, nope, was just her mist.
The rest went along with it either because they didn’t care, or it was convenient to know where Mia was at all times instead of searching for her, as it turned out her ice took a very long time to melt against the 10 or so other people who could use fire magic, at which point they were afraid of harming the goods inside.
So she was left to her own devices, only getting interrupted when she had to free a crate from within her ice, when it was time to eat, and the occasional meeting with he captain. Other than that she just focused on training what she could, her water magic and taking control over her mist.
And after doing nothing but her assigned tasks and trained for two days she managed to get water magic to level 2, she could not make a steady stream of water without struggling, she could also launch water balls, but that was it.
As for her mist, it had now considerably lessened as long as she remained calm, it was now barely noticeable… as long as she remained calm… if she started to get worked up, happy, sad, or anything that wasn’t neutral it would start leaking out, but it was better than nothing.
It was on the 2nd day when there was a knock on her door, earlier than usual, she got up from her spot on the floor, making her way and opening it.
“Mia, still staying cooped up in here?” It was Jackie, he peered into her room “At least you are not going through the cargo from what I can see.”
“Hmn, it’s comfortable.” Another slight improvement she had unwittingly worked on was her speech impediment, slightly recovering from it to a degree. Having to constantly talk to the crew when they wanted a specific crate out helped with that.
“Well, glad to hear it.” He scratched the back of his head, not getting why she wanted to be by herself, but gave up. “Come up to the deck, we are passing by something you’d like to see.”
She raised an eyebrow, but if he came all the way down here to get her she might as well come up with him “Alright.” She exited the room, closing the door behind her and following him up the stairs.
“So…how has the trip been so far?” Jackie asked, trying to talk with her.
“Good, made progress.” Mia raised her hands, trying to emphasis the lack of mist.
“oh! So you were not just being a loa- “ he coughed, clearing his throat “well that’s good, that you were training.” He smiled, pointing towards the crew quarters as they passed it “Maybe now you can move up with the rest of us?”
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Mia purposely spread out her mist, giving him a court “no.” wondering why he was so insistent on this, she was perfectly fine being alone.
“…fine, sorry.” He hung his head “Just worrying about one of my crew… you should socialize more before we- wait where are you going?”
Mia had turned around, heading back down the flight of stairs, she didn’t follow to get lectured to.
“Wait, ok, sorry. You can do what you want.” He reached out to grab her, but stopped once Mia had halted, turning around “…I won’t bug you anymore about it, but I do want you to see this? Ok? It is one of the few wonders of the world, ok?”
“Wonders?” her interest peaked, she followed “What’s a wonder?”
He smiled, happy that she was coming with him again “A world wonder, something you can see no where else, an amazing sight.” He waved her forward, picking up his pace as they reached the upper deck “Come on, you’ll see.”
Mia followed, confused but interested. She followed him up on deck “Where is…oh…” she looked around, seeing people gathered on one side of the ship, following their gaze it did not take long to see what they were all staring at.
A massive wall of white, erupting into the sky in the middle of the ocean. The deafening sounds of rushing water and steam, the whole thing extending high into the sky…
“The Ocean’s fresh water geyser.” Jackie chimed in “A constant, year round steam geyser shooting water into the sky year round!”
Mia followed the steam up, not able to see the top “Wow…” she looked to the sides of the geyser, even though it was some kilometers away, the thing was huge.
“They estimate the geyser is about 1/4th the size of Lexon.” Jackie added, happily watching the wide eyed kid.
“Estimate?”
“Yeah, they can’t get too close cause the water is boiling, and every attempt to measure it from afar gets them a different answer that changes, like it’s changing sizes or something.” He shrugged “But the interesting part being…” he pointed over to the side of the ship.
Following his gaze, Mia saw people lowering barrels into the water, filling them up with sea water and hoisting them up back onto the ship “What are they doing?”
“Collecting water, the geyser shoots up so much fresh water it turned the surrounding salt water sea into a weird freshwater lake, right in the middle of the ocean. It’s actually a very convenient water refuel between the mainland and Lexon.”
“…can’t drink ocean water?” Mia asked.
“…” he stared at her for a moment, then raised his finger, telling her to wait. He went to the opposite side of the ship, tied a stray cup to a rope, and lowered it down into the sea, then walked over to her “This.” He raised the cup “is normal sea water.” He presented the cup to her.
She took it, staring into the cup “…?”
“Drink it, best you experience it once, and it’s particularly bad right next to the freshwater border.” He waved to his crew, who brought over another cup, while also inadvertently gathering the attention of everyone else, who now watched with twisted amusement as Mia raised her cup and took a drink.
And instantly threw it up onto the deck of the ship, the crew cheering. “S-salty…” she didn’t know, it was so salty she couldn’t even make out the water.
“Haha! Yeah, now for the water near the geyser.” He handed her another cup he got from his crew.
Mia grabbed hold of it, instantly chugging it down, desperate to get the taste out of her mouth but her eyes went wide, she had been betrayed. She threw up again on the deck, the cup was filled with salt water.
The crew cheered again, causing Jackie to turn on them, “Hey! Which one of you thought it would be funny!” He angrily shouted, charging past the crowd once no one owned up for it, personally getting another cup for Mia “Sorry Mia! Drink this, quick.”
She looked up at him, glaring at him as her mist spread. She saved before taking the cup, ‘if this is saltwater, I’m killing them all.’ She then carefully took a sip, or, tried to, the water was frozen “…” she loaded, took a deep breath to calm herself, then took the cup, taking a sip, thankfully it was freshwater.
“Phew…alright, own up, who’s bright idea was that?” he turned to his crew, trying to find the culprit “Who handed me the cup?! Well? Come on! Spill!” He tried in vain to get the culprit, but never found out, no one willing to sell the other out.
Eventually, everyone there besides Mia was charged with cleaning up the deck till it was spotless, while Mia got to watch atop a high point she had climbed up on “Serves them right.” She huffed, casually watching them and the geyser off in the distance.