[SD:OA] I've Eaten Enough Fish - Chapter 10

Gem leans over the railing, guarding their eyes from the sun as they squint. “I think that’s Whale Island!”

Samuel rolls his eyes, “Is this the third or fourth time you’ve claimed that?”

Gem scoffs, “Bah, this time I’m extra double sure! And there’s seagulls! So there’s some kind of land involved this time!”

Emrys shrugs, “Well, we are supposedly getting close.”

June rolls her eyes, “Besides, if you claim to see the island every day, you’ll be right, eventually.”

Gem laughs, “True! Though like I said, I’m extra double sure! I even remembered that there isn’t actually an island shaped like a whale.”

Emrys shrugs, “To be fair, it isn’t like you were calling wolf all those times. You did see land. It was just is-lands and not the main-land.”

 Samuel, “Far be it for me to agree with them, but I think that might actually be our destination.”

Emrys looks over and squints, “Yeah, I don’t see it.”

Gem shrugs, “We’ll just have to wait.” And they throw their line back in the water.

Though as time passes, it is revealed that they are coming up on Whale Island.

Gem smirks at the revelation, though Emrys has a different view on things.

Emrys frowns with his arms crossed, “We’re only just now able to spot it, if barely. How could you have seen it before?”

Gem shrugs, “The horizon does cut things off, but like, you simply need to know what to look for.”

June shakes her head, “I’m not saying you can’t have seen anything. But not being able to say what is a little suspicious.” She turns to Samuel, “Now, why did you think it was near? What was your reasoning?”

Samuel shrugged, “Those weren’t seagulls, we were a little too far away to see birds like that. They were flying ships and the only place that would have so many gatherings together would be a trading town. That, plus us being in the middle of the ocean meant a port, ergo, our destination.”

Gem, “Huh, I didn’t see them as airships.”

June, “Which would explain why you couldn’t explain.”

Gem shrugs, “Eh, I had a feeling. Must have seen that or some such.”

Of course, with the port in sight, it isn’t much longer before the Salty Baron is pulling into said port.

Sssally walks over to the group and laughs, “Well, took us twice azzz long azzz it should have, but we’re back! Hope you enjoyed the round trip.”

Gem smiles, “The way out was exciting! That’s for sure.”

Sssally sighs, “That isssn’t how thingsss usually go, even with travellersss on board.”

Gem shrugs, “Eh, someone was going to run into them. In fact, given what we found? Others did.”

Sssally waves her hand, “Oh sssure. I know that well enough. I’m just sssaying that most tripsss are like the way back here. The syssstem generally allowsss easy travel for rote trade goodsss.”

June nods, “That is accurate enough, but something can always happen. Besides, I suspect our little chaos gremlin might be a bit of a trouble magnet.”

Gem crosses their arms, “Fun magnet. Though I’d debate even that. We’ve been traveling around for months and this is only the second out of depth battle.”

Sssally nods her head, “I have to agree. I’ve met actual trouble magnetsss and the return trip wouldn’t have been ssso sssmooth.

“Anyway, unless you’re sssigning up for another trip, this is where you sssplit. The ssship will miss you.”

Emrys snorts, “More like you’ll miss Gem and their fishing skill.”

Sssally shrugs, “True enough.”

Gem laughs, “Someday we might make our way back over there. The jungle sounded interesting, but also way too high-level for us.”

Sssally nods, “You travellers ssseem to be referring to it azzz end game content. Which I can’t really deny the concept behind it. The jungle has the highest concentration of metallic rank zonesss.

“Oh sssure, you can find metallic threatsss out and about, but actual zones? I think the jungle up there might have the only place with plants that naturally grow to the metallic ranks.”

Emrys shakes his head, “Yeah, we’re a bit away from that.”

June, “I don’t believe the entire jungle is that dangerous. The areas along the edge of the plateau are relatively low level.”

Sssally chuckles, “If by low level you mean blue rank. When the ‘low level’ regionsss are the type of place I would train, the place isssn’t for beginnersss.’

Samuel nods, “A bit out of our reach.”

Gem sighs, “Well, to future fun.”

And from there things went uneventfully for the ship. The Salty Baron was able to dock without trouble and start unloading the valuable trade goods that had been picked up. Which considering the jungle plateau continent’s level range, explained why even ending up out to sea for twice as long, the trip was wildly profitable.

Gem and the gang disembarked, though things weren’t as easy going as previously. While they were able to get in the ship just fine and the other continent didn’t care if they got off there. On this side, they were a bit more cautious about people arriving from over there.

So the four of them end up spending a good hour and a half stuck in Quarantine.

Gem was less than pleased with this. It wasn’t like they visited the actual plateau or anything. Oh, they understood why this was necessary and agreed with it. This wasn’t even their first rodeo, having traveled before irl. But irl they had a smartphone.

Finally, a harried looking catkin arrives. His ear drooped and their tail was practically dragging on the ground. However, they were professional.

They straighten their overcoat and talks through one of the windows, “Hello. It will only take me a moment. The ritual causes a fizzy feeling, so expect that. If, however, you feel a burn, alert me immediately.

“Note, the burn is unrelated to whether the ritual detects anything. We simply just received an update to our ritual for the new crop of horrors coming out of the jungle plateau. This may have caused the carefully balanced power use to go out of whack. So unless you want sunburn like you never could have imagined was possible, do speak up.”

And then the catkin walked around the outside of the quarantine room. At the center of each wall and the corners, they take a moment to hold their hand to the wall. It looks strange, but the telltale glow of magic shows they are doing something.

With that, the fizzy tingling begins and Gem can’t help giggling. It felt like a bunch of tiny bubbles on the skin. Though this didn’t last.

Bubbles on the skin? Nice, some people aim for it with fancy bubble baths and such. When that feeling of bubbles starts to penetrate the skin? Well, bubbles on the skin are quite different from bubbles on the spleen.

Your insides are not too keen on the feeling and it honestly made Gem feel sick to their stomach. Though the others seemed to be doing better.

Gem looks up, “How are you fine with this?”

The others in the quarantine cells all glance at one another and shrug.

June pats Gem on the head, “It will be fine. This only lasts maybe five minutes.”

Off in the far corner room, a boarkin man speaks up, “Could be your species. You seem at least a bit of a shapeshifter. I’ve heard the effects can throw your internals off. The ritual is basically magic going through every single bit of us and giving it a poke to see if it’s some parasite or sickness.”

Emrys perks up, “Oh, that’s an interesting method.”

The boarkin waves him off, “Bah, I don’t know anything about it. Go find a healer to ask. Just passing on what I know.”

All the while, Gem ‘melts’ out of their seat. Flopping on the floor and laying flat. “Blarg.”

Even a few minutes later, when the ritual finishes up, they don’t recover immediately. Instead, staying laid out for another minute or two.

Gem would have probably stayed there longer, except some guards came around to get the group moving. “We’ve got more people needing the rooms! Move it out! We’re on a schedule here.”

And so Gem pulls themselves together as June helps them out of the room and to the inn they stayed at last time.

Gem sighs, “Not hide nor hair of seasickness and I get brought down by the medical scan?”

Samuel laughs, “Well, even locked races can’t be 100% upsides! And you have to admit, even the tiny bit of shapeshifting you have could be power if you ever used it for something other than comedic relief.”

Gem sticks their tongue out at him. “Meh, I don’t want to do sneaky spy nonsense. Much more fun to play around. Besides, it isn’t like I wouldn’t use it for fighting. I just don’t have all that much control over it yet.”

Emrys laughs, “Yeah, while I can see some people going full on doppelganger, that simply isn’t Gem’s vibe.”

June nods, “Besides, not everyone is cut out for constantly changing their face.”

Gem shakes their head, “Oh, the whole ‘changing my face’ thing isn’t a problem. I can totally go full on shapeshifter. That sort of thing doesn’t bother me. I don’t care to hide who I am. So what matters if I can look like someone else? I’m me and that’s all I want to be.”

Samuel rolls his eyes, “Well, if you want to waste your potential, I can’t exactly force you.”

June shakes her head, “Just because they aren’t doing what you would with their ability, doesn’t mean they’re wasting it. Combat shifters are a valid path.”

Gem nods eagerly, “Yeah! That’s the kind of thing I’m aiming for. I don’t know if I’ll ever be the kind of fighter who can abuse having an extra inch of reach come out of nowhere, but the wind is already formless. No reason not to implement it into my fights!”

And with that, the conversation shifts to combat styles and elemental “bending” as a valid form of combat. Gem doesn’t exactly have the ability to control the wind or anything, so they aren’t able to go fully down that path. Though their shapeshifting does offer an alternate way of taking advantage of their element, even if it was closer to water than air.

Then they reached the inn. Which ended up being easy to get a room at as a caravan had recently left so there was more than enough space.

Once settled in, the four gather.

June looks around at the others, “So, what’s our plan now? We went on a nice little trip out to sea, but we can always take another boat somewhere more level appropriate.”

Emrys frowns, “I’d rather keep my feet on solid ground. My new wand is amazing for being out to sea, so doing something else is a bit of a waste, but I’ve eaten enough fish.”

Samuel nods, “Yeah, our gear is somewhat tailored to water combat, but we aren’t personally suited for it. The gear still works as normal equipment, at least. Emrys, your prism is still a wand and my vambraces help against piercing in general. Then there’s June’s tome, which wasn’t even water themed. Oh, and Gem’s spear helps their spells. What it did simply was more effective underwater than their regular spells would have been.”

Gem shrugs, “I’m good either way. If anything, I could probably survive off fish for years and not get bored of it! Then again, I’ve always been able to eat the same thing without getting bored. I do prefer searching out good food though, so traveling to find new snacks sounds fun!”

June nods, “Okay, so we’re going by land.”

Samuel, “Is there a reason we aren’t simply sticking around here for a while?”

June, “With the ocean, there’s half the land area to provide quests we can manage. Nevermind the fact that with how busy this port is, trying to snag any sort of job is going to be hard. I doubt we can even find a guard quest going elsewhere. We’ll have to hoof it.”

Samuel sighs, “I hate that it makes sense. I guess that means we’ll just have to stop at the local guild office and take a peek at their maps. At least the roads will be well detailed.”

June, “And they’ll have more than enough information on the danger ratings. It turned out well, but I don’t exactly want to dive into another green route.”

And All We Got Were These Black Gloves - Chapter 9

More Forest Or The Desert - Chapter 11