By Kondoru
Standard Disclaimers
Thanks to Richard for betaing
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Jane continued upon her voyage though the Seas of Chaos.
Tonight everyone was sat in Cid's workroom, the inventor was busy at his workbench, he was handloading ammunition for Kaze's gun. The twins and Miles were helping him. Miles put the cases though the resizing die, Ai weighed out black powder and Yu checked the size of bullets that Cid had cast yesterday.
All the inventor had to do was assemble each unit. Cid had a machine for making bullets for Nav's Gatling which was fed from a drum on the top. The few other guns of the Comadeen used the same ammunition but Kaze's firearm was of a much bigger calibre.
Cid looked over to the man of the Black Wind who was sat between a rack of crossbows (the main missile weapon of the Inner world) and a crate. "I wish you could remember more about this." He waved a bullet at Kaze.
Kaze ignored him, only yesterday he had been in the showers, Yu had blow dried his long hair but it was still too long in close proximity to people. Consequently he was in one of his moods.
Cid looked back at Miles, Lisa and the Twins. "I see he's in extrovert mode again."
Miles said nothing. Kaze had not forgiven her ever since she had made Lou Lupus a rag doll that looked like him.
Lou had left them over a month ago; She had gotten sick of the close confines of Jane, also various brushes with Nav's shipboard discipline for getting into mischief.
Nav was by no means hard on his crew but he didn't let anyone pick fights. Lou had got into several, mostly over rumours regarding her and Kaze. Being put in the brig distressed Lou, she sulked when given extra chores to do as a punishment, and Nav didn't want to have to whip her.
No one else wanted Nav to whip Lou (with the possible exception of the punched party) and made such a fuss that he had been pathetically mild on her.
Never mind that Lou's body was made of steel and leather, and blows didn't hurt her at all.
Lou tried to be good. Mostly.
She wasn't used to close proximity to humans, a kind whom she tended to mistrust. Humans were afraid of Lou once they found out her abilities, and so Lou was wary of forming relationships. But Lisa and the twins got on well with her, and none of the Comadeen were afraid, were indeed glad to have such a fierce ally.
Lou had a crush upon the hapless Demon gunner.
Kaze, strangely enough, didn't seem to mind. The normally untouchable gunner manfully let the varg girl hug him, even sleep discreetly at his feet like a dog at night.
Lisa had warned Lou against going any further.
"Kaze's very funny at times. I don't know how he would react." She had warned the hormonal teen.
Lisa wasn't sure Lou had taken that advice, and several of the Comadeen spread rumours that Lou and Kaze were using the storeroom for traditional shipboard activities.
This was not mean cruelly, since everyone was the subject of scurrilous chatter.
Lou took it personally though. There were several ugly incidents.
Eventually Lisa and Miles had managed to convince Lou that no harm was meant. "Kaze's not bothered. Why should you be?" Miles had told her.
Lou had snorted in annoyance, she could not really explain.
Nav was secretly glad that his Comadeen were making filthy chatter. It showed they were losing their Apathetic attitude problems. The Apathetics had notoriously low libidos.
Lou was also difficult to feed. She needed meat daily, unlike the rest of Jane's crew who only had it on special occasions. Ai had managed to get tins of corned beef out of Poshepocket sometimes but she knew full well the magic bag creature was notoriously untrustworthy with food.
Lou would eat fish, with reluctance.
They had moored by some rocky islets and gone fowling.
Cid had converted a storeroom into a big freezer that was now hung with seabirds, the odd unwary seal, and a few gorals they had managed to buy.
The cook grumbled a bit at having to prepare special meals for just one of Jane's passengers but was secretly pleased when Lou thanked him profusely.
Kaze who in his own way was also an outcast got on very well aboard ship. He still was very reserved, and the crew, after some attempts to get their new hero to open up, had learned to leave him alone. Kaze spent his nights in the hold and days he sat quietly on the main deck where he could quietly watch what the others were doing. Lou had joined him for a few days until she got bored of his inattention.
She then started to make mischief.
She was disruptive during lessons, and spent a lot of the time in bouncing a rubber ball off of the most reverberating panels on the submarine.
Everyone had breathed a sigh of relief when the too lively Varg girl had jumped ship at their last stop on a wild coastline full of exciting scents.
Lou had been surly the past two days, but now was quivering all over with delight, her sensitive nose sniffing excitedly.
Though in human form she had no tail, she was definitely bottom wiggling.
"I think I'll stay here." She said to no one in particular.
"Aren't you coming with us?" Asked Lisa mildly.
The Varg girl had shaken her grey haired head. "It seems I'm not welcome here."
"Don't say that." Ai was in tears. "We love you very much."
Lou nodded. "I'd rather be free in the woods than cooped up on your ship."
"Don't let Nav upset you," said Yu. "He wants you to be nice after all."
"And Mister Kaze doesn't react to anyone except Makenshi." Ai explained rather snidely with a quick glance at her silent protector, who as usual was sat staring into space.
"What about Kaze? Don't you want to stay with him?" Lisa added.
Lou gave a sad look in the direction of her silent crush. "I do but I'm lonely for the wilds too. At least I know where Mister will be. He looks like he's going to stick with you and the Comadeen...Wherever they will be." She went over and gave her hero a bone crunching hug. "I love you very much Mister Kaze but I'd like to jump ship a while. I'll see you again someday." She gave Kaze a big wet kiss on his tattooed cheek, then stood up and ran into the woods without a backwards glance.
Nav watched her go with a silent sigh of relief. It wasn't he was an enemy of the Wolf girl, but Lou had tried his patience as leader in so many ways. His crew were almost as placid as Apathetics, a group whom most of them had come from. The Twins were scamps but were kept in line by the tireless Lisa. Kaze who could potentially have been troublesome was in actuality the least tiresome of all Janes crew.
But over the next few days all missed Lou's rumbustious presence.
Nav's life was now too quiet.
Even Kaze had been caught looking wistfully at her spot on the deck.
Cid had almost finished his task.
"Playing the Ocean Puzzle eh?" Lisa said as she loaded the new bullets into the magazines Cid had devised to make loading one handed easier.
"If this is a game and we are nearing Telos, then obviously the final level is Telos. Right?" Cid pressed black powder into a cartridge.
"Like a computer game" said Ai from where she was weighing the powder out.
"You had them in your world?" Asked Cid curiously. The world he came from was very technologically advanced, as was the one of Nav and Miles.
Yu nodded "Ai is the better player."
"That's because I work harder at it." Ai said smugly. She looked over to Lisa. "Did you play computer games?"
Lisa was silent. She did not like to remember the life she had left behind in order to search for him. Mundane in many ways it was also safe and secure.
"How about you, Miles?" She turned to Nav's tomboy second in command.
"I did a bit, ones with marksmanship skills of course."
"Kaze plays shoot em ups too I bet." Yu gave the black clad gunner a sly look. They knew nothing of Kaze's destroyed homeworld but all assumed it was another Soil technology based one.
Kaze was still silent. He was only in the too crowded room because Cid had invited him to see the handloading and check it was up to standard. In actually Kaze trusted Cid unsupervised.
"Game or no game, we will have to be extra careful when we reach Telos," everyone nodded, "Earl tyrant is sure to have laid a trap there."
"Does he know where Telos is?" Asked Lisa.
Nav shook his head, "I have no idea."
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