“I’m… I’m sorry… I can’t keep it up anymore… I’m too tired...” Sairek grunted in complete exhaustion, dropping his right arm limp with his staff and sagging into the lifeboat. His expression was a strained grimace as he puffed weakly. His left hand instinctively went to grab the rim of the lifeboat, and Sairek was keenly reminded that his arm had been shot as he barked a sharp cry of pain, only ending up collapsing unceremoniously within the boat. "Umnph..." He grunted weakly upon impact.
“We all are… My arms are killing me…” Nayleen groaned.
"Wanna trade...?" Sairek grunted from down below. "Shit... that really—hurt... unngh..."
Both Sairek and Nayleen had been altering between using magic to propel the life boat forwards and then rowing with the oars, an idea they both came up with to try and be as efficient with their quickly diminishing energy as much as they possibly could be and let one rest while the other worked. Unfortunately, they both had less stamina in their system than they both had thought.
“We’ll never make it at this rate…” Sairek puffed, rolling himself over with discomfort onto his right side. Even using a generous amount of the energy in the jewel hasn't helped them very much. Thankfully, with no items, save for the diary within it, it would recover in time even through the enchantments. He didn’t have to feed it anymore, but that was only if his energy was good too—which it most certainly was not right now. Though the wounds on his left leg and arm had clotted and stopped bleeding by now, he had lost a hefty amount of blood, if the darkened dye of his clothes having stains over his arm and pant leg had anything to say about that. “Nayleen… I’m sorry…”
“Quit apologizing. We're not going to die just yet.” Nayleen twitched an eye. “We’ll make it, it’s just a matter of when—not if. Unless that stupid boat comes back. I can probably hunt for us something to eat when we get to the shore… hopefully.”
“...You have to be careful with those arrows… I had most of them and all of them are now on the ship we are currently fleeing from...” Sairek warned her, his voice a weak mutter.
“I mean, I only used ten, maybe even less in Karvadean. I still have a good forty or so,” she said, looking over her own shoulder and then towards Varhi and Cyial. “How is he doing, Cyial?”
“Not good… And neither am I…” Cyial admitted. He had moved himself onto the seat, and positioned himself so Varhi could use his lap as a pillow. “He’s completely passed out right now...”
“By the time we get there, it’s going to be raining…” Sairek groaned.
“That may not be so bad… it’ll at least delay the water problem. We can use this boat as a shelter for him… We may have to leave him alone for a little while, though to look for food sources…” Nayleen mused thoughtfully.
“Just leave him…?” Cyial asked.
“We’re kind of out of options. If we don't look for food, we’re not going to make it.”
“Nayleen, I can barely even walk…” Sairek protested. “And Cyial… He collapsed earlier on the mountain—remember?”
“No… I’ll be okay… If it’s just walking… I think I’ll be okay…” Cyial said, though his voice betrayed his lack of confidence.
“I don’t need you to think, I need you to know, Cyial... If you collapse out in the wilderness when there could be monsters lurking about, then…” Sairek trailed off.
“We’ll see how the situation is when we arrive on the shore…” Nayleen groaned in frustration. “Sairek’s right though… He can’t walk like that. It may just have to be us both, Cyial. Sairek can watch over Varhi and set up a rain catcher or something.”
“A… rain catcher? How… am I supposed to do that?” Sairek asked between heavy breaths.
“With rope, leaves and sticks.” Nayleen answered.
“...Huh?” Sairek blinked wearily.
“Varhi still has his satchel, so should we still have that remaining rope we used to go around that one bend in Karvadean. Tying sticks to leaves, you can make a sort of ramp with water with the leaves as rain falls. The water trickles down into a point and then you just put a container where it falls and let it slowly fill.” Nayleen replied.
“Okay… but I have absolutely no idea how to build such a thing…” Sairek grumbled. “I… I guess I’ll… figure it out… somehow. Maybe Varhi will wake up and be able to instruct me...?”
“You can use his little knife to cut the ropes. I know it’s not going to be easy with one of your arms being sore, but…” Nayleen trailed off.
Sairek shook his head. “I’ll manage… I'll have to. It still hurts but the pain is kind of going numb now… The leg though, not so much… that’s hurting badly…”
A groan from Varhi caused them all to turn around as Varhi weakly opened his weary, violet eyes. “...Are… Are we… there yet…?”
“No… We can see the land, but it still looks so far away…” Cyial replied. “We’re trying to get there as fast as we can, Varhi…”
“Ughh…” Varhi groaned. “I’ve… I’ve made some mistakes… as a mercenary… but this one is—”
“Gosh, you and Sairek are both such downers. It isn’t his fault and it’s not yours, either.” Nayleen scolded Varhi.
“Mmnnh…” Varhi only answered with a pained moan, tensing up slightly as he lay and writhed slightly in Cyial’s lap for a few seconds. “I should have… I… dammit…” He swore, squeezing his eyes shut tightly.
Nayleen released a sigh, picking up the oars. “Okay… my turn again, Sairek.”
“I… I don’t think I have another turn left in me, Nayleen… even with meditating… I… I can’t keep up…” Sairek replied a little hoarsely, shifting his position in the boat as he lay down as best as he could. “Urrgh… V-Varhi… how’s—your arm…?”
“You guys came in time to prevent it from being broken…” Varhi rasped in an answer. “But it’s going to need time… before I can use it. It still hurts… but, well, so does the rest of me… I think that was the... worst beat down I've ever gotten in this... line of work... And the bastard would use more ethereal... to keep me conscious...”
Sairek’s stomach gurgled and he bent inward, clutching his stomach. He had barely eaten anything in Karvadean because he was afraid he’d just vomit it out anyways.
...Which he had done, he supposed.
It had been nearly twenty-four hours since he last ate, thirty hours since he last slept and that lunch he had in Karvadean was so light, it may as well have been thirty hours since he last ate instead. On top of everything, using so much ethereal for his spells… he could feel his body starting to completely shut down.
“You know… in desperate times like these, some people drink their own urine…” Varhi said out of the blue.
“...I’m not quite that thirsty yet, thanks…” Sairek replied dryly. “It’s been a long time since we ate, but thankfully we still had some to drink by the time we were hauling you out… But with everything being left on the ship, now and since we had to use so many canteens for my own magic water, we ran out of fresh water a long time ago…”
“I don’t suppose several tonics of ethereal count as food…?” Varhi grumbled. “Fuckers wouldn’t quit feeding me that stuff, after all...”
“It’s better than nothing, but it’s not real food and doesn’t prevent you from starving.” Cyial said. "There's no... calories. It's like drinking water."
“That man gave me some of the refined stuff, but I already used all of that up just pushing us towards land…” Sairek mumbled quietly.
The distant sound of thunder boomed over the repetitive splashing of Nayleen rowing the boat extremely slowly through the ocean.
“If we don’t make it to land before the storm hits, we’re going to be in big trouble…” Nayleen growled in frustration. “Not only will it make getting to the land harder, we’ll miss out on valuable rain water.”
“I… I think I may have an idea…” Varhi said, and grunted and groaned as he began sitting himself up.
“Varhi…?” Cyial questioned, concerned, as the boy began fiddling with his left boot, beginning to pull it off.
“Unff…! When I was being so graciously interrogated by that asshole, they kept feeding me ethereal… At one point, I pretended to cough and spilled a good amount of the stuff over my boots… then I used my right leg when I was alone with just one of my capturers to knock out the bastard that was guarding me… but the left leg still has some ethereal left that’s stuck to it…” Varhi grunted, slipping his boot off and handing it over to Sairek. “That jewel should attract the ethereal stuck to it better than the silver on the boots… So, if you rub the jewel over it, you may get some residual ethereal to use…”
Sairek grunted as he pushed himself up halfway and turned around to look at Varhi and took a hold of the silver sabaton as he sat himself upright. Holding it with both hands, he decided to test Varhi’s theory and pressed it against the jewel and ran it up and down slowly a few times and frowned. “...I must look absolutely ridiculous doing this...” He commented dryly.
“No worries, we won’t tell anyone… Your secret is safe with me, at least...” Varhi said, leaning himself to lay back down and rest his head on Cyial’s lap and he gave a couple of weak coughs.
Sairek gave Varhi a weary but mildly annoyed look, but he kept up this same ‘ridiculous’ motion. He could feel it charging up a little. It had been a dull red before, and when he pulled back to look, it was a red-orange color. “It’s… working. I don’t know if this will be enough, though.” Sairek announced. “I suppose if I do this long enough and we’re lucky… I may be able to get another push in, enough for Nayleen to be able to carry us the rest of the way.”
“You keep doing that then and get as much energy as you can manage. I’ll keep going for as long as I can, then by the time you’re done, I should have enough strength left in my arms to just make it.” Nayleen said. “We can do this guys.”
For the next twenty minutes, Nayleen continued to row, until her arms were barely able to grip onto the oars anymore. When she announced she was completely exhausted, Sairek pulled Varhi’s boot away and examined the jewel once again. It wasn’t fully charged still, a pale yellow.
“How much is that?” Nayleen asked through exhausted breaths.
Sairek looked up, gauging how much distance they had to go. “Maybe enough if I really push it, but if the jewel dies and I have the pressure of the enchants put on me again while I’m like this…”
“Well duh, don’t use all of it. Just use as much as you think is safe.” Nayleen rolled her eyes.
“I’m just saying that you’ll probably have your work cut out for you still...” Sairek cautioned her, before getting into position again, pushing himself up slowly, shakily with a weary grunt of effort. He picked up his staff within the boat as he positioned himself and gripped the royal jewel with his left hand, wincing as the muscles in his left arm protested. “Wuh... nngh... W-Wuaie…!”
Sairek once more began to propel them along a few knots faster. As he did, Nayleen glanced down to eye the Masirean royal jewel. “Hey, if you can use that one, then why not use that jerk’s jewel?”
“B-Because I... can’t...” Sairek answered simply through the strain of really pushing the limits of his mind and body.
“Enchanted?” Nayleen asked, rolling her eyes.
“Probably not as strong as mine, considering how easy it was to take from him... But it probably is, yes...” Sairek replied, then paused. “Now that I think about it, it’s... odd how easy it was to take from him…”
“Maybe he’s just too much of a pompous asshole and was caught off guard…” Varhi scowled and then let out another weak cough.
“He may be a ‘pompous asshole’ as you eloquently put it, but he’s still not stupid...” Sairek said.
“Stupid…? No. Greedy and overconfident? Yes...” Varhi replied.
Another rumble in the distance warned them of the incoming storm. Nayleen glanced up, looking a bit worried. The waves were already starting to get a bit choppier. “How bad do you think it’s going to be…?” Sairek asked, noticing Nayleen’s shift of expression.
“Not a heavy storm, but still problematic for us out here like this.” Nayleen answered. “It’ll probably come and pass in a few hours. That’s why we really need to get to land. If we miss it, we’re going to be screwed on drinkable water until we find another source.”
“I don’t suppose you know of any drinkable water sources near the coast, do you Varhi…?” Cyial asked, looking down at the boy.
“Sorry, I don’t…” Varhi mumbled. “There's a lake near that abandoned monastery, but that's too far away for us right now... We’ll have to survive off of rain water for the time being...”
Cyial sighed dejectedly with a shake of his head, then glanced at Sairek. “Like it or not Sairek, it seems like you’re going to learn how to build a rain catcher.”
“Rain catcher…?” Varhi repeated, “You won’t have to build one. Well… not really, anyway.”
“I won’t?” Sairek asked, glancing back at Varhi and blinking.
“Of course…! Did you think I wandered around without a backup plan...?” Varhi asked.
“...Well you did run out of food in—”
“...Okay, look, I at least expected there to be animals to hunt for food and not the only potential reliable food source to be trying to kill me...” The mercenary interrupted with a grumble. “Either way, it’s nothing fancy… and you’ll still have to put it together a little, but it should be easy...”
Sairek looked a little more relieved hearing this news. “Can you tell me how it works now then, in case you pass out again?”
“My ‘rain catcher’ is literally just a piece of metal in the shape of a half cylinder cone, set up on a stand. You just have to stick the legs into the metal and that’ll do it; as long as nothing comes to knock it over…You’ll probably want to embed the stand into the ground a couple inches.” Varhi explained.
“Then we can just stick our pot underneath it to catch water!” Nayleen said.
“...We don’t have a pot anymore, Nayleen. Remember?” Sairek reminded her dryly.
“Oh. ...Right.”
“Just stick a flask underneath it. It won’t catch everything but it’ll get enough...” Varhi recommended.
“Will this really be enough to provide enough water for four people, though? I know Cyial doesn’t need to eat much, but he still needs to drink water just like the rest of us...” Sairek questioned.
“It won’t be, but it’s the only thing we’ve got…” Varhi sighed, and lay back on Cyial’s lap. “...Can I have my boot back?”
“Oh right. Can you, Nayleen?” Sairek asked.
Nayleen reached over, grabbing the sabaton, then moved herself over to slip it slowly back over Varhi’s foot, then pushed harder to get the foot in, which caused Varhi to grunt in discomfort, but he didn’t complain. With his leg once again protected just like his other leg, he lowered it back down onto the seat of the boat. “Mm… If there’s nothing else, I think I’m going to take… a little nap again…” Varhi mumbled, closing his eyes once more. "...save... strength... ..."
“Yeah, it's okay. Save your energy...” Cyial sympathized with him, but Varhi already seemed to be completely out of it again. Cyial glanced up at both Nayleen and Sairek, though Sairek was facing away to concentrate on what he was doing. “I’m getting worried… he can barely stay awake for more than a few minutes… We really need to get food…”
“We’re working on it…” Nayleen grumbled, rubbing the creases of her eyebrows. “It’s too bad we didn’t have just a little bit more time… If Sairek had just a minute more, he could have taken some time to just grab a couple provisions at least.”
“To be honest, the thought crossed my mind to grab everything but I didn't… It's my fault.” Sairek sighed with a shake of my head. “The only thing on my mind was getting out of there and recollecting the evidence. I didn't want to be weighed down or handicapped by anything at all in the jewel in the case of a confrontation...”
“Don’t beat yourself up out of it. You did your best and you did get us out of there.” Nayleen tried to encourage him. “And you’re doing good now, too. We’re almost there.”
Sairek stole a glance behind himself to look. They were still a few miles out, but they would be at land within the hour. “I’m almost out again, though… I can hold it for maybe another two minutes.”
“Then I’ll paddle us the rest of the way.” Nayleen said. “The rain will start before we get there, but I don’t think we’ll miss too much of it. We’ll set the boat to use as a temporary shelter for Varhi to protect him from the rain, and then I’ll go and try to hunt for anything I can.”
“And me…?” Cyial asked.
“I want you to look for herbs.” Nayleen replied. “Pretty much anything you can gather, even if it’s not medicine.”
“Huh?” Cyial blinked.
“A lot of stuff may not be really edible on its own, but you can still use them for spices for food. Some may not taste great, but it still can give you energy and makes the food more filling. We could all really use that right now...” Nayleen answered him. “We can use the medicinal herbs you may to help heal Sairek and Varhi’s wounds. We’re not going to make it to that abandoned monastery until we’re all at least capable of moving. We don’t have the provisions to expend that much energy dragging and carrying people around.”
“I see… I didn’t know you could also use herbs that way, but I suppose whether it’s for a potion or food, you are ingesting them either way.” Cyial replied thoughtfully.
“Unmph…! I... I’m out, Nayleen…” Sairek grunted, sounding even more exhausted than before, and he immediately lowered himself down to lay inside the boat again. “I… I might take Varhi’s advice… and take a short nap… to save what I have left…” he muttered weakly. "So... tired..."
“Okay, you do that Sairek. I’ll wake you up when we reach land.” Nayleen said, picking up the oars and beginning to row again. They only had a couple of miles to go.
“'Kay…” Was all Sairek could mumble as he curled up in a tight ball in the boat due to how little space they had, and within moments, he fell into an uncomfortable sleep.
His sleep was deep, but it wasn’t for long though. Droplets of cool rain splashing on his face was enough to rouse him with a throaty groan. Weakly, he pushed himself back upright and looked around. They were only about a hundred yards away from beaching the ship, and Nayleen’s face was red and sweating from the effort as he looked around. A glance up and the sky was heavily overcast, the wind had picked up a little, but they were so close to land now that the waves from the water were not much of an issue. This close, the tide was starting to push them in, rather than wherever.
Varhi looked to still be passed out, and Cyial was still sitting, but hunched forward, elbows resting on his knees and his tail draped loosely over Varhi’s midsection as he lay sideways on the seat, to help steady him from the mild rocking of the boat. Varhi’s satchel at some point had been removed from him and sat beside Cyial on the opposite side that Varhi was laying along the seat.
As Sairek watched the tip of Cyial’s tail dangle, making sure the iron spade of the tail wasn’t coming anywhere close to Varhi, he wasn’t sure if it was the sleep he was still trying to shake off from his extreme fatigue, but a strange idea popped into his head.
“...Sairek?” Cyial asked, glancing up as he saw Sairek staring at him. Or his tail, specifically.
“Cyial, how long is your tail?” Sairek asked, fully sitting upright.
“Eh…?” The demon blinked through weary garnet eyes at the sudden, strange inquiry. “I… I don’t know. That’s not something I’ve… measured. Four feet, a little less, maybe? W...Why are you asking this all of a sudden?”
“I don’t know why, but I just got this strange idea… and I remember Varhi saying that worms came to the surface in Karvadean after it rained, so… I was thinking we could dig them up and… um… use your tail as a fishing line?” Sairek asked hopefully.
Cyial stiffened and bristled, staring at Sairek in disbelief. “...W…What–?”
Nayleen giggled, then burst out into a sudden laugh. “Oh my gosh, Sairek, that’s brilliant!”
“S-Says you…!” Cyial retorted, his face becoming flushed and embarassed.
“Cyial, I know it’s really odd, but—” Sairek tried to reason.
“It is very odd–!” Cyial blushed. “As Varhi would say, ‘I do not consent to this!’ At all!”
“Cyial, please…” Sairek tried to console him. “We really need the food… we’re at the ocean… We won’t get a better opportunity to fish than here. We need as much food as we can get and fish would be an excellent source of it. I’m not asking to make fun of you. I’m being genuine...”
“I…” Cyial began, clenching his teeth slightly as he looked down at Varhi, then back at Sairek, eyeing the darkened blotches on his arm and leg. “Ugh… F...Fine… But if I am to do this, you owe me, Sairek…” Cyial growled slightly, looking deeply into Sairek’s eyes.
Sairek briefly examined Cyial’s expression and swallowed. He supposed that was only fair. “Anything you want. Is it a deal?” Sairek asked after his brief moment of deliberation.
Cyial hesitated, surprised at how little Sairek responded to him with. “Okay…” He said, a little uncertain still.
Nayleen looked at the two curiously, but only briefly as she glanced back behind her. “Get ready, land is coming up. We’re going to need to drag this boat somewhere suitable.”
“There’s lots of rocky outcrops we can probably use to shelter against the wind and rain, then we can use the boat for another layer of protection against that.” Sairek noted, observing the shoreline from where they were. “After I get Varhi’s rain catcher set up, I’ll look around the nearby area for sticks and stones and work on drying them as best as we can so we can cook whatever we find.”
“After we get our immediate shelter sorted, we should concentrate on gathering for the herbs and food,” Cyial suggested and then glanced at Sairek. “Um, by the way, I took inventory of Varhi’s satchel while you were sleeping. He’s got a single sleeping bag, so he can use that to lay on to rest. It should be suitable enough for now.”
“Anything else in there I should be aware of?” Sairek asked.
“Well, the lantern is gone, but he still has oil left for it. We can use that to start the fire as an accelerant easily. He also has a tinderbox, so you won’t even need to expend more energy using magic.” Cyial said and then reached over to begin rummaging gently through Varhi’s satchel. “He’s got the rain catcher parts, the rope, the maps and some other blank parchments which we can use to fuel the fire in an emergency. He has his seru pouch but it's basically empty, a whetstone and… metal polish.”
“...Metal polish?” Sairek asked with a frown. He had a feeling if Varhi was conscious, the boy would be upset and retorting to him right now at how a mercenary needed to look the part, or something. “Erm… anything else in there?”
“The pot lid—”
“Anything else useful,” Sairek interrupted, his tone dry.
That caused Cyial to release a small lopsided grin of amusement, despite their circumstances. “There’s a few parts of something? They look like two legs of a stand, and then a long stick. I assume it’s a spit roast type of thing we can use to cook meat over a fire or something. That’ll be very useful. And finally, the collapsible tent, but I don’t know how that works. It’s in this square box… thing.”
“That tent will be very useful… are you sure we shouldn’t set Varhi in that instead, though?” Sairek asked.
“Do you remember what color it was?” Cyial responded with a question of his own.
Sairek shook his head.
“Green. Not bright, but not dark either. Either way, out here, it will stick out like a sore thumb on the shoreline.” Nayleen answered for Cyial. “The boat will blend in better. We should bring the tent out at night when it'll be harder to spot it.”
“Right, I see…” Sairek nodded. “We’ll have to be careful when we light these fires, too. The light will give us away for miles if we use a fire at night and out here, the smoke would also be a big beacon.”
“The tent should be okay out here at night, as long as we keep it dark. It’ll at least give the rest of us a place to lay down. No sleeping bag, but it is sand, so it might not be too bad.” Nayleen replied. “We’ll definitely have to pack it back up before the first light hits. Hopefully given its name, that’s pretty easy and quick to do. Alright guys, here we are, finally.”
By now, the rain was falling at a gentle rate, but they were all starting to get more wet than just 'damp' by now. Cyial packed up the satchel and gently shook Varhi awake, who grumbled in protest, but said no words. Cyial explained to Varhi that they had arrived.
Varhi, with the help of Cyial, sat up, though not without taking a deep and sharp inhale of pain. Cyial also took liberty to hook the satchel back onto Varhi’s belt when the boy was upright again.
Nayleen jumped out of the boat, splashing water around a little as she moved to the end of the boat into the deeper end of the water, and struggled to push the boat up onto land to give the other three boys as easy of a time getting out in their weakened or injured states as she could. They still got a little bit wet though as they climbed out, and Sairek almost stumbled and fell face first into the water. His left leg’s pain had come to a dull ache, but putting any sort of pressure on it caused him to cry out softly in hollow agony and he had to catch himself with his staff using only his right arm.
“Crap, are you okay Sairek—?” Nayleen asked, moving up to hold him steady.
“Gh… nnngh... I… I don’t know... i-if I can search for sticks and stones... l-;ike this…” Sairek shuddered and hissed, wincing one eye shut. His breathing was quick and sharp as he tried to let the shockwaves of the pain in his leg ebb back down.
“Try to bear with it as much as you can. Cyial should be able to find and mix something for you to make you feel better later. We’re way out in the middle of nowhere. I highly doubt many people foraged for herbs around here.” She tried to reassure him positively.
“I—I’m... t-trying…” Sairek said through clenched teeth. “I know this isn’t even... compared to anything Varhi’s gone through, b-by now…”
“This isn’t a competition…” Varhi grumbled as Cyial was practically carrying almost the entirety of Varhi’s weight as they all stumbled onto the beach. “Unlike you, I’m used to this kind of thing by now…”
“Yeah… By the way… c-can you tell me what a pistol is...?” Sairek grunted. Nayleen moved to help support his weight as he hobbled his way onto the beach.
“A pistol…?" Varhi repeated in a murmur. "It’s a small projectile weapon, operated by gunpowder and carries ‘bullets’ as ammunition… small little pellet things made of metals, which are shaped and designed to pierce through skin and even plate armor like some of mine…" He explained, letting out a puff as Cyial moved him along. "It’s another Kior invention… They’re pretty new, but are extremely unstable. They break down all the time… I don’t know how Avotash got his hands on one, though… There shouldn’t really be too many any outside of Kior, at least not any that I know of... Well, I guess him getting one would not be hard at all... I just got the impression something like that would be beneath him... I guess I was wrong.”
“Maybe he tried his hand at making his own?” Cyial asked.
“I… guess that’s not impossible. Seemed to be working pretty damn well for that though if he got five shots in a row before it jammed. Those things usually break down after a couple of shots, they can handle up to two or three bullets more if you’re lucky...” Varhi said. “That thing had a really unique design, too…” He shook his head. “I wish we hadn’t been so pressed for time… if I wasn’t so hurt, I would have taken that with me to study it…”
“Study it…?” Nayleen asked.
“Of course. I don’t remember much well, but I did spend time in Kior, maybe even longer and I just don’t remember it…” Varhi replied to Nayleen. “That said, I still seem to have retained some knowledge from before I ‘woke up’... I know a thing or three about Kiorian technology and contraptions in general, and I did a little bit of studying on my own after the fact... I could create a little mini explosive if I had the materials on hand. Rudimentary, but it would blow something up…”
“And what was the purpose of that?” Cyial asked.
“Well, sometimes in a mercenary’s line of work, somebody has a door in my way. Sometimes, that door is locked. That's a problem for me in my line of work, so…” Varhi trailed off.
“...Have you ever considered just learning how to pick a lock?” Nayleen asked in a dry tone of voice.
“Pfft. Boring. Watching a door fly off of its hinges is much more satisfying. More intimidating, too.” Varhi countered.
“And noisy.” Nayleen retorted.
“Because we saw in Karvadean how good I was at that the whole sneaking gig anyway...” Varhi grumbled sarcastically.
“Oi, you two, over there should be good…” Sairek said, breathing more heavily as he struggled to raise his left arm through its injury to point to a rocky cliff outcrop, which next to it was a rather tall pillar of rock in the front. “It should protect us against the elements… and that pillar of stone is a pretty good landmark for us to find when we step on the beach here after foraging. If we can get a fire going, the smoke should be another clue so nobody gets lost if they don’t wander off too far.”
“Looks good to me.” Nayleen said, carefully supporting Sairek over there and Cyial did for Varhi. When they made it over, Sairek sat down with a long groan of discomfort and Cyial did the same for Varhi, bracing him against the side of the cliff. Once again, Varhi grunted loudly in pain at the movements of his body being positioned differently.
“Go bring the boat over here… I’ll set up his stuff out from the satchel…” Sairek told Nayleen and Cyial, who both nodded and began walking their way back to the boat. Sairek leaned over, digging into Varhi’s satchel, who took it off his belt and set it down between the two of them. “First things first… let’s get this rain catcher thing set up… You said a metal sheet half cylinder thing and… a stand of some sort?” Sairek questioned the other boy.
Varhi nodded slowly. “Yeah, there’s four legs to the device… There’s a pair of long and short legs that look like a ‘Y’ and they’re all made out of metal. There’s these two little iron poles to connect the two long and short legs across from each other…” Varhi explained.
Sairek, one by one, brought the legs for the rain catcher out, including these two iron poles, and then the metal sheet as well. “Okay… You’re obviously going to want to set this up where the rain is. Take one of the legs, and stick it into the ground a couple inches to give it support and try to keep it straight.” Varhi explained.
Sairek grunted, half crawling, half shimmying his way over and out into the open, setting it up in a position where it wouldn’t be in the way from the other two coming to drag back the boat and where it was clearly getting some rain. Sairek picked up a leg and stuck it straight down in, then looked at Varhi for the next step.
“Take one of the poles… and put it between the top of the leg and slide it in… notice how it’s slightly a bit thicker at each end?” Varhi asked. Sairek nodded. “This will help you measure the distance you need. Try to keep it straight and hook the other leg inside of it like you’ve done to the first, and then stick that into the sand as well. Try to keep it consistent to the depth of the first leg.”
Sairek followed Varhi’s instructions, before glancing back at Varhi again. “Okay… and uh… now what?”
“Take the metal sheet and look underneath it… See how there’s two duos of notches underneath it on both sides?” Varhi asked.
Sairek picked up the sheet and studied underneath it. It was as Varhi said. It was a ‘little’ bit more than just a half cylinder piece of metal. It was obviously designed specifically to have water flow into its shape. “Are these little notches where I place this in conjunction with the legs?” Sairek asked.
“That’s right.” Varhi nodded. “Balance the sheet and bring one of the shorter legs underneath it so you know where you need to place it, then just stick it in. Then, do the same for the other leg. Hook the last pole in between the two, notch the plates into the last two legs and then you’re done already. Place a container underneath, and it’ll catch rain water and drip down.”
Sairek followed Varhi’s instructions yet again. This was actually easier than he thought it would be. Perhaps he was a good student, or maybe Varhi was just good at explaining to him, though it wasn’t necessarily complicated either, he supposed. “There… done…” Sairek said, reaching for one of the flasks in Varhi’s satchel. He dug into the sand a little bit to give the canteen a bit of an indent to be placed in, then placed the canteen underneath where drops of water were falling from the rain catcher. Afterwards, he brushed the sand back around the canteen, so it had a bit of support and wouldn’t fall over too easily. Sairek then began crawling himself back over.
“So how do you like it?” Varhi smirked slightly while Sairek moved to settle back right next to him again.
“It was simple enough and your instructions made sense…” Sairek said, then added, “and well, it seems to be working.”
“Thanks.” Varhi replied.
“Thanks?” Sairek blinked, confused.
“Yeah, that rain catcher—I made it myself from scratch.” Varhi announced, sounding a little proud.
“...Huh? You really made that entire thing?” Sairek asked in disbelief.
“Yeah. That’s what I just said.”
“How?”
“I got some iron, some coal and shaped it into steel.” Varhi answered.
“I—I get that part...” Sairek replied dryly.
“There’s a lot of places you can do this in Kior... Half the city is made out of stone. The other half is made of metals. There’s even schools kids around our age can go to in order to start learning this kind of manufacturing stuff. It’s not even strange for someone our age to learn this kind of stuff over there… Kior is more... industrial and commercial, than you're probably used to. Very much more.” Varhi explained.
“I figured a rain catcher I could bring with me would be inexpensive, but nonetheless, useful. I could have just bought one, but well, making it myself when I could just get the materials in a place that’s always selling metal would be cheaper, and it was... Besides, it's a good skill to have. Half of my equipment is in metals... so I can maintain them on my own, so long as I can just rent the tools for a little bit...”
“I… I guess it isn’t that strange. It’s kind of like the magic schools in Ceareste, when I think about it.” Sairek replied. "Anywhere else, starting to learn magic as early as six probably sounds strange..."
“Or the knight training you can do in Masirean. Though, Jimmy was the one who taught me all of that...” Varhi answered quietly, looking away from Sairek.
“I’m sorry… I wish there was more that I could have done...” Sairek mumbled, looking down at his lap.
Varhi shook his head slowly. “You did everything you could… To be honest, I’m impressed you stood up against Avotash like that... Even I didn’t have the guts to fight back against him, despite wanting to…”
"I didn't have guts. I was just... I was angry." Sairek corrected him and glanced up to see how Nayleen and Cyial were doing, and it seems they were only just now getting started carrying the boat the way over here. And they were going slow. It’d be a few more minutes before they arrived. Seeing that, Sairek looked back over towards Varhi. “Besides, you already did fight back against him. You just did it in your own way.”
Varhi looked at Sairek with a look of confusion on his face.
“Karvadean. You also didn’t tell him anything, either. We all stood up to him… I was just more… direct in my displeasure, when I had the chance to confront him back.” Sairek answered.
Varhi snorted. “It’s not nearly the same…”
“I’m sure if you were not like this now, you would have joined me. You still saved me in the end, despite that.” Sairek replied.
“I only did that because you keep insulting my pot lid…” Varhi sniffed.
“Yeah, sure you did.” Sairek smirked slightly.
“There is the question of what you’re going to do with that precious crown of his, though…” Varhi muttered. “You can’t hold it forever and you can’t hide it either. You would start a full-blown war.”
“I probably already did…” Sairek sighed.
“I don’t think so. If that happened, the reasons why would need to be stated. I think you can use that as collateral, though…” Varhi mused. “Isn’t that thing enchanted to like, be able to be detected where it is?”
“They can be, but… this barely has any enchantments on it.” Sairek frowned, pulling out the crown and staring at it. “I was totally surprised I even managed to blast it off of his head. It’s stuck to the crown itself, but… I mean, just look at mine.” Sairek gestured, cupping the Cearestian jewel and tugging it hard. "It's glued onto my shirt. It doesn't matter how much you pull, it won't come off, and even the fabric won't tear because of the enchantments. The only way you would get this off of me is by pulling the shirt off of me or outright taking me, other than making the enchantments fail completely, which is what he tried."
"Why didn't he just take your shirt off then?" Varhi asked.
"He probably didn't know what enchantments I had on. And, well, if he did get that close, I would have retaliated anyway with the last of my and the jewel's energy." Sairek murmurred.
“I’m surprised you can tell what enchantments are even on it by just looking.” Varhi replied.
“It’s because I’m so used to my own… there’s some things about it that feel the same, but there’s so much missing… it doesn’t make sense. Masirean is pretty ignorant with magic, sure, but they’re not this ignorant, especially because of my own father’s guidance. Surely. It’s too easy. But I can tell that it's a real royal jewel...”
“That has me thinking… The squad from Ceareste that was supposed to arrive… Where do you think they might be right now?” Varhi asked.
“I don’t know. I suppose we’re kind of in their path almost. You said they should arrive in Cyvolta… and then travel north, right?" Sairek asked and Varhi slowly nodded. "And you also said the monastery is between Cyvolta and Karvadean. It could be that Avotash wanted Jimmy to go to Cyvolta to hand me over to them after getting what information he wanted out of us...” Sairek mused thoughtfully. “I think he planned for you to resist, but I don’t think he planned the rest of us to do the same… especially me. He threatened to take my jewel and damage my reputation… and he used you guys as hostages while he made my experience incredibly… uncomfortable, all in one... trying to torture me so I would give in.” Sairek finished in a growl, through clenched teeth and he closed his eyes shut tightly.
“I knew he was bad news… but I underestimated him. I thought he was just like everyone else… but to do what he did…” Varhi shared the same tone as Sairek did. "Next time we meet, I'll be sure to give him more than a pot lid to his stupid face..."
“I was so scared… I didn’t know what I was going to do… I was still willing to work with him some, but… but...” Sairek choked slightly. “...but when I saw what he did to you… something inside of me just… snapped. If he was capable of doing that to you, then I know he wouldn’t spare neither Cyial or Nayleen either. In a way, he didn’t even spare me...”
“Well, thanks again for caring so much about me. I’m still surprised, to be honest…”
Sairek chuckled weakly, raising his right arm up to wipe his eyes. “You’re welcome…” He said, his voice feeling heavy. He looked up to see Cyial and Nayleen getting close now. He and Varhi fell silent from their private conversation, as the grunts of exertion from both Cyial and Nayleen became audible as they carried the boat, with Nayleen in front and Cyial behind.
“Are you guys okay…?” Sairek asked as they approached.
“Yeah—just… peachy.” Nayleen grumbled, setting the boat down alongside the wall, where both she and Cyial flopped down in the sand. “Goodness… I am so tired, so hungry… I haven’t felt this bad in a really long time…”
“I haven't felt this bad ever…” Cyial commented with a winded exhale. "Starting to get... a bit... lightheaded..."
“I guess we should get sticks to prop this boat up or something…” Nayleen said, pushing herself back up. “I’ll look around, find some bigger sturdy ones, then we’ll snap them to proper size… Oh yeah! Cyial and I found this guy.” Nayleen said, and out of her pocket came…
“Y-You’re just carrying a crab you killed in your shorts pocket–?” Sairek asked, bewildered.
“Hey, don’t judge…! I don’t have a big robe, or a satchel, or a jewel that opens up a pocket dimension like you guys do.” She frowned. “I only just have my quiver. And it's not a pocket dimension quiver.”
“Lands…” Sairek groaned. “Still… That isn’t nearly enough to keep us going but I guess it’s a—start... UH—!” Sairek grunted, struggling to push himself up to sit, but he soon collapsed back down with a quick bark of pain. “Damn it… I just can’t…”
Nayleen sighed. “Alright, stay here… We won’t need much to get a fire going. Instead of stones, we’ll dig out the sand instead. I mean, it’s sand, so it’s not like the fire will go anywhere either way.”
“Fair point…” Sairek said. “Then I can at least do that while you guys are off hunting...”
“Kay, I’ll be back in a bit.” Nayleen said, wandering off.
Cyial watched her leave, then sighed. “Honestly, I don’t know how she’s still walking. Or how she even managed to row the boat with how much she cut her hands sliding down the mountain.”
“Part of me wants to say it’s because she’s always stuffing her face, and if that’s the case, I promise I’ll never make fun of her again for doing so…” Sairek groaned, shimmying his way out from the wall to begin digging a wide hole with his hands where the sand was still for the most part, dry. “Are you feeling faint, still?”
“I have to be honest with you Sairek, I never really recovered from that… I feel myself coming and going in waves… but I guess I haven’t fainted again... Yet.” Cyial admitted.
“Cyial, I don’t want you looking for things if you’re about to pass out.” Sairek said with a frown.
“Sairek… if I don’t… we’re going to die.” Cyial stated firmly. “I’ll take it easy as I can… and I’m taking a breather right now, too… plants and herbs shouldn’t be hard to carry, either.”
“Then you should drink what’s been gathered in the canteen before you leave.” Sairek said. “It’s not a lot, but it will help a little.”
“But Varhi—”
“Cyial, the canteen and I aren’t going anywhere... If I get desperate enough that I must drink, it’ll be right there…” Varhi reasoned with him. “Besides, given how much damn ethereal I’ve been forced to drink, I think I’m actually probably okay for a while on the hydration front... I actually really need to piss right now, if anything... but I'll hold it in for now.”
“That's... okay." Sairek sighed. "A-Anyway, Nayleen and I had the refined stuff, too… Cyial, you’re the only one who hasn’t had anything to drink today.” Sairek said. “It’s your turn. Take it.”
“O-Okay, I guess when you put it like that…” Cyial surrendered. He reached over, pulling the flask out from the sand and swirling it around a little. Cyial made a bit of a disappointed look at how little there seemed to be, but he tilted it and began to gulp the water inside down thirstily until there wasn’t a drop left, then he gasped a little, taking a few sharp breaths, calming quickly, before burying the canteen back into place where it had been before. “Only a couple gulps… Will just have to pray that buys a trip down the shore and back”
“There should be other things here to eat… There’s got to be some fruit or something nearby… berries, anything… Even Karvadean had berries… even if they made me a bit sick for a while.” Varhi grumbled.
“I hope so… or else the four of us are sharing a single small crab we can't even properly boil.” Sairek drawled.
“You don’t seem to be a fan of seafood.” Varhi noted.
“I-I’m not.” Sairek admitted. “I mean, of course, I’ll eat it still, I’m just… not a fan.”
“You want to try some worms? They’re rich in protein, or so I hear.” Varhi offered.
“I’ll… pass.” Sairek replied dryly. “Besides, we’d be better off using any worms we dig up to fish with.” Though, he opted to not tell Varhi how they planned to do that, for Cyial’s sake.
“I thought as much… On the bright side, I’ve probably vomited all of them out by now...” Varhi informed him.
“Well, you’re certainly good at making me lose my appetite without me even eating anything in over a day.” Sairek grumbled.
Nayleen returned a moment later, carrying two fairly large sticks underneath her right arm. “These should do, I think.” She replied, setting them down.
“Nayleen, those are a bit… big.” Cyial stated. “They’re nearly as long and thick as Sairek’s staff.”
“Uh-huh. I said we would break them down.” Nayleen replied.
“They’re too thick to do that.” Sairek pointed out to her.
“Nu-uh. We can just use Varhi’s choppy.” Nayleen countered.
“My… choppy.” Varhi repeated dryly, then snorted out a huff of amusement through his nose. “Alright, do with it what you will, but remember... I don’t just give my ‘choppy’ out to anyone.”
“I’ll take good care of it, I promise.” Nayleen teased, reaching over as Varhi bent himself forward a few inches, allowing her to reach with both hands to pull the weapon out of its scabbard.
“...You sure you can handle swinging that thing?” Sairek asked in genuine concern.
“I think I’ve got a handle on it.” Nayleen answered, gripping the weapon with both hands. “You know, this thing is actually more light than it looks.”
“Okay… Then can you do us all a favor and move the sticks way over there?” Sairek gestured with a shake of his head. “I don’t want you swinging it in our direction.”
“Don’t trust me?” Nayleen smirked.
“No, not really.”
Nayleen stuck her tongue out at him. “I mean, it’s just like my knives, just twenty times bigger.”
“Therefore, twenty times more difficult to handle than them.” Sairek retorted back.
Nayleen kicked the large sticks away from them and turned around, kicking the sticks again to be roughly aligned to her own direction before hoisting the sword over her head, she let out a sharp cry of ferocity as she swung the blade down…
...and harmlessly sliced into the sand.
“...You missed.” Sairek informed her helpfully.
She turned around and leered at him with narrowed eyes. “Yeah. I noticed. Thanks.”
She hoisted the sword up again, mimicked her previous battlecry, and once again, whiffed as the blade slammed harmlessly into the sand.
"Shut up, Sairek." She huffed.
"I didn't say anything!" The Prince admonished.
"You were thinking about it so hard about it that I heard it in my head." She argued.
"Guys... Really now of all times...?" Cyial sighed.
“Nayleen, you’re putting too much effort into it.” Varhi told her. “Don’t swing the blade down with all of your might. Give it the initial shove and then half way, let gravity and its weight do most of the work for you. From there, you can concentrate on the grip of the sword for a more accurate swing.”
“See, that’s helpful information.” Nayleen said, looking back to Sairek again, who rolled his eyes.
Lifting the sword up a third time, she seemed to take a little more time to ready her attack, before once more swinging and…
It wasn’t exactly accurate, but she at least sliced into the stick, albeit, lopsidedly, giving it a strange shape as it was slightly mostly down the middle. Nayleen shrugged as she observed her work. “Meh. Good enough.” She said, then tossed the two halves to Cyial. “Can you break this into pieces between twelve and fifteen inches long?”
“Sounds like you already made up your mind.” Cyial commented, looking down at the sticks he’d already received.
Nayleen didn’t comment, already reeling the sword above her head again, then swung down once again, getting about as accurate as a slice as she did last time, where she picked up the sticks and tossed them once more to Cyial, who was already in the process of snapping them down as best as he could, sometimes using his right boot to aid himself in the task. She stepped over to Varhi and carefully put the sword back into place within its sheath. “It’s lighter than you’d think, but it’s still a lot harder to swing than I thought.”
“The sword itself is mostly hallowed to reduce the weight, but it’s reinforced with three layers to keep most of the durability. One of those layers is a special crystal underneath the steel layer. Sometimes though the steel layer on top can get damaged, so I need to have it repaired now and then, but at least the sword itself doesn’t shatter...” Varhi explained. “Of course, lighter than normal doesn’t mean it’s a breeze to lift or swing. If it didn’t have some weight to it, it’d just be brittle, especially since it’s tailored for my size.”
“...That’s tailored for your size?” Sairek asked dryly.
“Of course…! Proper greatswords are quite a bit bigger.” Varhi said with a surprising amount of enthusiasm. “And that’s just the normal sized ones. Some are even longer and wider. Some even reach six feet in length…!”
“...Oh.” Sairek uttered, a little bit of concern etched into his voice. Varhi’s sword was already fairly large, nearing an entire four feet. “So what you’re saying is that your great sword is… extremely modest." He asked, rubbing the bridge of his nose with his right hand.
“Well, a six foot long greatsword is certainly intimidating, but not practical, especially when you’re usually alone like me.” Varhi explained.
“Anyway, that should be enough fuel to at least cook a crab. If we need more, we can get more later. I’m going to try and find something… bigger.” Nayleen said, tossing Sairek the crab, who failed to catch it with both hands as it fumbled into his lap, causing him to yelp and lurch.
“How are we even doing to cook this? Don’t these normally get boiled in a pot…? We don’t have a pot.” Sairek asked. Nayleen froze at this realization, and her expression looked dire. “You... forgot again, didn’t you.” Sairek asked in a tone that was more a statement than a question.
“Ah… right. Maybe we can use Cyial’s mortar?” She asked hopefully.
Cyial blinked at this, then dug into his robe and pulled out the small stone bowl. “Well… it’s made out of granite, it might work if we’re careful with it. I guess it’s large enough to maybe stuff that small crab in.”
“Isn’t this a bit inhumane for the poor thing…?” Sairek grumbled.
“We’re a little desperate…” Cyial reminded him. “And well, Nayleen killed it already, anyway. So… um...” Cyial shrugged.
“...I guess that’s a good point.” Sairek agreed reluctantly, then he groaned with a shake of his head. “Damn, if only I grabbed at least a couple of things… I was in too much of a panic…”
“We’ll make do. After surviving Karvadean, this is nothing...” Varhi said.
“Right, I’m going to go hunt some game and edibles now, for real this time.” Nayleen said, giving them a little wave and jogging off, unstrapping her bow from her shoulder as she did so.
Cyial sighed, putting his bowl once more into his robe and going back to snapping the sticks. “Once I finish doing this, I’ll go and hunt for some herbs. I’m not as good as spotting useful fauna like Nayleen is, but it can’t be that much different than when I worked at the monastery.” Cyial said, giving a nice good kick to a stick he held in both hands with his boot to snap it mostly in half.
“Be careful…” Sairek reminded him. “And take it easy. I know you’re really weak right now. Don’t exert yourself.”
“I’m not the one who got shot twice.” Cyial said, a bit of a growl in his voice. Not in annoyance, but in anger. “If I wasn’t taking care of Varhi… I would’ve—”
“You would have gotten in the way…” Varhi interjected, causing Cyial to turn around and leer at him.
“What did you just say…?” Cyial demanded. His tone was rough.
“I don’t mean it as an insult, but you’ve got no energy, Cyial. You can’t let emotions take over logic like that. Let’s say you try to jump in and Avotash easily overpowers you and takes you as hostage. Then what?”
“That would never happen…” Cyial growled.
“It already did. For all of us...” Varhi declared, his voice tense, his teeth clenched as if he hated having to repeat that fact—ashamed he was put in such a position himself and frustrated with the humiliation he had to put up with; even though it was relatively only briefly, in a manner of speaking. “If we weren’t lucky that common sense befell that one soldier, we’d be in Cyvolta right now, and there’s no telling what Avotash may have done with us there. Yourself and Nayleen would probably be in a cell together, maybe even worse for you, and I would probably be in the middle of getting the rest of my damn limbs broken. Meanwhile, Sairek would have had the royal jewel ‘confiscated’ from him, whatever the fuck that meant, and would probably be locked up in the dungeon of his own castle by his father to make sure he never got outside again until he took over the throne.” Varhi shook his head, eyeing Cyial back hard. “I don’t think you realize how close that reality was to coming to pass. What would you have been able to do to stop it? You probably would have ended up like how I am now, but worse.”
“But it didn’t.” Cyial countered simply. Angrily, he turned his head away from Varhi and snapped another stick using the aid of his boot.
“What’s that supposed to mean…?!” Varhi exclaimed in frustration. “Honestly… both you and the Prince... You both think that because you want everything to be okay… that it will be? That’s not how reality works and it’s high time you both started acting like it." Varhi warned them, his teeth clenched again. “Take it from someone who has experience… going in and expecting everything to not be bad… it will just make the wound dig so much deeper. Do you know how many people I know who have worked in just the Masirean Mercenary Association alone who just never ended up returning? I bet a lot of those people were hoping they would live another day to return just as much as both you and the Prince did, and that didn’t happen for them. What makes you two so special?”
“We’re not doing mercenary work like you are...” Cyial said. “All Sairek wanted to do was visit Yggdrasil. And all I want to do is be in Sairek’s company... We don't go looking for trouble like you do.”
“You know how the world unfortunately works. As simple as a request like that should be… what you are doesn’t make it that simple, Cyial… Mercenary work or not.” Varhi reminded him.
“Can we not do this right now…?” Sairek pleaded, trying to diffuse the situation. “This is the worst time to have this kind of argument… We can’t waste our energy like this, guys.”
“Whatever, I’m leaving now…” Cyial growled, placing a bundle of sticks in front of Sairek without turning around to look at him as he stood up and immediately began to walk off, his steps hastened, clearly upset.
Sairek sighed, gathering up the sticks and pulling them closer towards him. “What the Blazes was that about? Why did you have to start that, Varhi?"”
“Because it’s the truth. And the truth hurts. There shouldn’t be anything wrong with being friends with a demon, especially one that isn’t banished… but—”
“We’re… a little more than just friends.” Sairek mumbled.
“More cheesy ‘we’re a team’ talk again…?” Varhi sighed.
Sairek swallowed. “No… even more than that.”
“...Huh?”
Sairek sighed and rolled his eyes. “We… We like each other—a lot.” Sairek mumbled as he began to place the sticks in a formation to distract himself from the embarrassment of what he was saying.
Varhi was silent for a moment. And then another moment. Then another moment… his brain apparently processing. “Waitwaitwait a minute—” he called out suddenly. “You cannot be serious...?”
“...Is it a problem?” Sairek mumbled, fearing the next response Varhi was going to give him.
“Yes it’s a problem...! What kind of rhetorical question is this—ouch…!” Varhi hissed, moving to clutch his right arm while simultaneously holding his left side with said right arm as best as he could. His tone wasn’t one of anger like Sairek was fearing, but obviously he wasn’t impressed. “No bloody wonder why he’s so protective of you…” Sairek didn’t respond, just busying himself setting up the sticks into his makeshift little pit for the fire. “You know your country would never let this fly, right? And isn’t he an incubus?”
“I… I know that…” Sairek said, looking down at his lap. “But it’s how I feel… and I know it’s genuine… It’s not the incubus in him just clinging to me. It’s not him seducing me in that way, either…”
“...You’re... really set on this?” Varhi asked in finality.
“That’s how I feel. I guess it could change, but at least for now, yes… I should be able to be with whoever I want, like you said, right?”
“Oh, brother… No wonder he’s pissed off at me… I didn’t think you two were like… that.” Varhi grumbled. “You have my pity.”
“...I don't want anyone's pity. I just want acceptance.” Sairek replied dryly, moving over to Varhi’s satchel, searching for the canteen of lantern oil. He retrieved it and pushed the satchel back away. He saved two of the thicker sticks for use for propping up the boat later when the other two returned. “Although if we really want to talk about reality, that’s probably low on the list of concerns right now after what I did today…”
Varhi inhaled slowly. “I don’t blame you for your choices but other people would probably be hard to convince. Of course, it’s easy for me, I was there. That said, I don’t think the civilians of Masirean would appreciate you stealing their country’s jewel no matter how justified you may have been in doing so… They’d never believe anything you said, or would be willing to listen in the first place.”
“Maybe I should just get rid of it and just leave him to find it…” Sairek murmured.
“Oh, no no, don’t do that. We can’t get rid of it now. There’s a reason for what’s all been happening lately. Whether we have it or not, Avotash will be hunting for us. At least if we have possession of it, we have a bargaining chip.” Varhi reasoned, turning his head to look out towards the ocean. “We just need somewhere to get distance and to think—figure all of this out and decide what we need to do next and how we're going to get out of here…”
“I thought we already decided that?” Sairek questioned.
“Is getting you home as soon as possible and heading straight to the closest exit the best plan, though? There may be other, better options. We need to think carefully through this and consider everything. That kind of thinking is what has kept me alive so far.” Varhi cautioned him. “Then of course, the one time that I apparently didn’t do that… well, you saw what happened to me.”
Sairek opened the canteen for the lantern oil, wincing as it put more pressure on his left arm than he was comfortable with. He poured a gentle dose of it over the snapped bundle of sticks before closing the canteen back up and putting it back into Varhi’s satchel. Then shimmying his form back a little bit, he reached back into the satchel for the tinderbox. Nayleen had shown him how these worked when they were in Thalnar, shortly before they departed, though this was the first time doing it himself. He struck at it a few times, getting a few sparks, which thanks to the accelerant he used, the fire roared to life in seconds to the point he hastily scurried back a little in surprise as much as his injuries allowed. “Well, at least we won’t freeze to death, now. This should help Cyial and Nayleen find their way back to us, too thanks to the smoke."
“Hopefully it doesn’t let anyone else find us…” Varhi grumbled.
“Let’s see what I can do about this boat, now…” Sairek said, grunting as he forced himself awkwardly to stand up and he half stumbled his way towards Varhi and moved past him to the boat.
“Are you sure your limbs are up for this?” Varhi asked. “Being shot by a pistol, let alone twice, is no joke, Sairek. Especially for our age. And that's just on the surface, not even mentioning the exhaustion and hunger you are no doubt under.”
“The enchantments on my clothes had absorbed most of the damage, so I’ll be okay… though it’d be nice to get the wounds properly dressed and cleaned soon before they get infected…” Sairek stated, moving towards the boat and then gripping it with a heavy grunt to begin sliding it out from the cliff face it was up against beside Varhi and dragging it out a bit near to the fire, before he settled it down upside down heavily, gripping his arm again as he winced. “AH—! Oww…!”
Varhi rolled his eyes at Sairek, but watched the stubborn Prince go to grab his two sticks and Varhi’s sleeping bag as he settled himself down in front of the boat on one side, lifting it up in the middle with his right hand where the boat would be propped up facing the fire. He used his left hand to drag the bag underneath the boat as best as he could with just a single hand, then used his left hand as his right was still holding the boat up to wedge one of the sticks underneath it on one side, making sure to dig the stick in good and well into the sand so it wouldn’t slip and fall. Wincing, he used his left hand to hold the boat up now, as he used his right hand to do the same onto the opposite side of the boat with his second stick. Varhi heard the Prince suck in a sharp inhale of breath, then let out a whimper of pain as he struggled to hold the boat up with his wounded arm, beginning to shake and shudder as pain gripped through his limb, but eventually he managed to wedge the stick underneath the boat and he released his grip on the boat slowly carefully, cradling his left arm as he took deep breaths, sweat forming on his forehead from the pain, mixing with the showering of rain. Sairek took a moment, before slowly moving to straighten the sleeping bag underneath the boat.
“Ugh... There… That should do it I hope…” Sairek huffed, moving back aside from the boat. “Let’s get you under there so you can lay down properly and rest… It's a good thing Jimmy made these lifeboats extremely large.” He noted.
“That’s by intentional design, to do the very thing you’re doing now...” Varhi confirmed, moving to hold his arms out so Sairek could pull him along. “Besides, you never know how many people may end up—o-ouch…! B...Being on the boat…” Varhi winced as Sairek pulled him along. “M-Maybe he had to take a bunch of people for whatever reason and then something happened to the main ship... Jimmy is a careful man—nnnhh... u-usually...”
Sairek moved to remove the sword and sheathe off of Varhi’s back, before pulling the boy from the cliff, Varhi grunted in pain as the Prince did so. He had to practically drag Varhi over to the little shack of a boat. Neither of their movements were graceful at all. When Varhi reached it, he gently as he could, crawled underneath the boat with a few sharp gasps of pain, while Sairek held onto the boat to steady it just in case.
“This is—extremely inconvenient…!” Varhi grunted as he settled down on his back finally.
“I have to agree…” Sairek grumbled. “There’s got to be a better idea for this, but it’ll just have to do. For now, just try to get some rest… I’m going to try and do the same.” He announced, then clutched his stomach as it grumbled audibly and he groaned. “I… I hope Nayleen and Cyial come back real soon…”
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