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  [colpse]Chapter One Hundred ay-Three - Hop Along to Hopsalot

  I k on one of the benches along the fancier side of the Beaver Cleaver, arms crossed over the rails and back bent forwards so that I could rest my head on my forearms. I was beat. Even with the exercise with Bastion, I was still a little uhe weather.

  I was gettier though. Still, a day of gallivanting around Insmouth and trying out different things had left me dead on my feet.

  Below, the fog the vilgers had warned us about roiled and twisted, almost like the waves in the nearby bay. I could imagihat we were riding over the clouds if I wanted.

  “Hey.”

  I looked away from the fog and over my shoulder just as Amaryllis sat dowo me with a sigh. She looked about as tired as I felt. “Not going to bed?” I asked.

  “I noticed you weren’t in your room. You know, you were just sick, it’s not wise to be out at night like this.” She tilted her head to the side to look at me. “Not even wearing a jacket. Idiot.”

  I smiled. I was in my night clothes, a big shirt and some uhings, and a big pair of wooly socks of course. It was fy clothes. “I guess. The air feels nice.” It was humid and cool. It kind of reminded me of the air bae.

  “If you get sick, it’s on you,” she said.

  “Will you still tuck me in?” I asked.

  Amaryllis face went a strange shade of red. “That was all Awen,” she said too quickly.

  I sat up a bit. “Wait, did you actually tuck me in?”

  “I did not!” she said.

  “You did!”

  “I just said the trary.”

  I grinned from ear to ear. “I guess I was too sick to notice it.”

  Amaryllis crossed her wings. “I didn’t.”

  I pulled her into a sidelong hug, crossed wings and all. “I tuck you in ter if that makes you feel better. We’ll be even then!”

  “Absolute moron,” she grumbled into my shoulder.

  She tilted her head a bit so that she could look over the side of the ship with me. The fog would and shift sometimes, and when the wind moved just right there would be some openings in it deep enough that we could see the ground below. That’s when we could catch glimpses of things moving in the dark.

  “What an awful pce we’ve found,” Amaryllis said.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “It sure is scary, but it’s also different. I’ve never seen a pce like this before, and I don’t know if I ever would have bae.”

  Amaryllis was quiet for a while. “Do you miss it?”

  “Seeing scary things?” I asked.

  “No, you idiot, your home.” She led a little closer. I was sure that if I teased she’d just say that idiocy gave off warmth or something. “You never really talk about it.”

  I didn’t kly what to say. Thinking about it made my chest achy in a weird way. So I pulled Amaryllis even closer and leaned my head against hers. She didn’t protest. “I don’t know,” I said. “I... My parents moved a lot. From town to town. My dad was always chasing work, and my mom didn’t like staying in one pce for long.”

  “So you’re used to moving?” Amaryllis said.

  “That’s not quite it, but yeah. The thing is... uh, where I’m from you o go to school, from when you’re pretty young until you’re basically an adult. You’re supposed to learn all sorts of things, one of them being how to make friends. I never really got that lesson, you know? Every year it would be a new school, with nice people but hat I knew. And they already had their own friends.”

  “You were left out,” Amaryllis said.

  “A little? I’m pretty good at meeting people, I guess. I just never clicked with anyone, not the way I wao.”

  Amaryllis uncrossed her arms. I thought she was going to get up, but thealons started scratg my back through my nightshirt. “You idiot,” she sighed.

  “I think my parents are probably worried,” I said. “That’s... I should probably feel more bad about that than I do. But they’re the sort of people that would love to be in a pce like this, with magid monsters and all sorts of strange people to meet. They’d probably really like you.”

  “Are you saying I’m strange?” she asked.

  “There aren’t any harpies where I’m from. I think they’d find you really cool.”

  “Hmph,” Amaryllis hmphed.

  “There are other things that I kind of miss. Cars were . And music. We had so much music. The i was a terrible pce, but it could also be kinda cool sometimes.” I shook my head. “Lots of really naughty people there, though.”

  Amaryllis and I sat there for a little longer, until the skies cleared a little, and we could see the stars twinkling down at us. There was a bit of light from Insmouth, but not enough to hide away the night sky.

  “You ’t see this many stars from home,” I said. “There are way too many lights on for that.”

  “To prevent monsters?” Amaryllis said.

  “No, just... because we like lights I guess. We were always very afraid, I think.”

  Amaryllis snuggled up a little, her feathers poofing up in a way that made them really soft. I almost nodded off for a moment before she spoke up. “We’re going on that hare-brained mission, aren’t we?”

  “To save Insmouth?” I asked.

  She nodded.

  “I... I don’t know if I could live with myself if we didn’t at least try.” I liked my lips. “I got another quest for it.”

  Amaryllis nodded. She didn’t seem surprised. “You do know that we’re on a schedule, right?”

  “And will us arriving early be worth aire vilge of people?” I asked.

  Amaryllis shrugged. “I suppose it wasn’t much of an argument in any case. Not with a wive. They had better reward us fairly though, otherwise you expin all of this to Clementine.”

  “That’s fair,” I said. “We should go to bed.”

  “We should,” Amaryllis agreed.

  We still took a few mio rex before finally heading to bed.

  ***

  The m I bright and early and bunny-tailed! The grey fog had faded with the sunrise ahe world smelling fresh and full of life.

  Boats were leaving the docks at Insmouth to tackle the choppy waters of the bay, a whole fleet ht sails heading out to sea, and from the sts in the air, the townsfolk were w hard preparing a hundred breakfasts already.

  We, for our part, had a little gathering in the Beaver’s kit. “Alright,” I said as I set down a huge bowl of pe o a pte stacked tall with buttery toast. We didn’t have maple syrup for the oatmeal, but life was like that sometimes. “I know that some of you are aware, but I want to make sure that everyone is filled in,” I said.

  “Filled in to what?” Joe asked.

  “Our mission,” I said.

  “You’re not dropping us off here?” the scallywag asked.

  “Only if you want off. Insmouth is a stratle town, but I’m sure they’d wele you with open arms.”

  Joe’s nose sched. “I don’t think we’d fit in,” he said.

  “That’s alright too. So! Insmouth needs our help. The town wants us to head over to aown called Hopsalot just to the north to pick up something there. We don’t know if they’ll be willing to give that thing up though, so we’re going to have to iate with them. Or rather, someone from Insmouth will have to.”

  “We’re taking passehen?” Sally asked.

  “Just one,” I firmed as I passed some bowls around. “Howard, the town... actually I don’t think he has a title. But he’s a niough person.”

  “What are we getting?” Sally asked.

  I tapped my . “Howard called it a Font. I’m not actually sure what it is, but it apparently keeps monsters away. It might be tricky to get the people in Hopsalot to give theirs to us. We’ll have to see.”

  Discussion after that turo other things. Mostly revolving around the uping trip. We didn’t have any indication on any map of where Hopsalot was, so we had to guesstimate it a little bit based on what Howard said.

  Clive at least seemed to think it wouldn’t be much of a problem. “One of the great advantages of air travel is having the height to see great distances. Small things are difficult to find, even when you know where they are, but aire vilge? We should be able to manage.”

  “Brilliant!” I said. “We have a guide too, so that ought to help.”

  I grabbed my handy old kettle, put some water in it, a to boil with some mana while the others finished up their oats. By the time they were dohe tea was ready.

  A ixed berry tea brewed by an amateur, helps sooth muscles and energizes the drinker.

  For a moment everyone cuddled their cups close and ehe warmth of some freshly made tea, then it was time to get up and go.

  I did the dishes with a snap of my fingers (and a bit of mana spent) and then we rallied to the deck to get the Beaver ready to ge took her pce atop the figurehead while sails were ied, the fuel tanks were partially refilled by Awen and Steve passing s up and down, and Clive and I made a quispe tour of the ship.

  So far, the Beaver had really only done light duty for a ship. There wasn’t much to show as far as signs of wear and tear went, but it was better to keep an eye on things than not.

  Less than an hour after sunrise, Howard showed up below the ship and hailed us. He had a big pa his bad a few odds and ends clipped onto some belts around his waist. No armour, and the only on I noticed was a knife in a strap around his leg.

  “Ahoy!” I called down to him. “Gd you arrived! You’re just on time.”

  “Really now?” he asked. “That’s mighty good news. Now, how does an old fishman like me get all the there?”

  I ughed. “Give me a moment, I’ll lower the dder.”

  As soon as the dder was down Howard climbed his and scrambled onto the deck. “Reminds me a bit of being on the sea when it’s calm,” he said as he looked around.

  “It is an airship,” I said.

  “True. Don’t know why I had in mind that it wouldn’t sway and buck like a water ship,” he said.“Did you speak to your crew?”

  “I did,” I said. “We’ll bring you over to Hopsalot and back.” he grinned, a big fishy smile. “By the way, you look ready for adventure.”

  “Oh, this stuff? It’s what I wear when going in the dungeon. Minus a few things. Figured that since I was out of the vilge, it was better safe than not.”

  I gave him a big thumbs up. “That’s a clever way of looking at things. If you’re the only one ing aboard, then I guess we’re ready to set sail. Do you want to sit over by the wheel? You help us with dires once we’re underway.”

  “Sure thing,” Howard said.

  Soon, we weighed anchor, and the Beaver’s engine was happily thumping away below deck. An oily Awen came topside, grinning past the soot on her face before she came over to the quarterdeck. “He’s purring,” she said.

  I grinned right back. “The’s see how far along we go. There’s a whole bunch more adveo be had.”

  And so, with the winds at our backs and the sky calling to us, we set off to the leg of our journey.

  ***

  RavensDagger

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