Chapter 9

A Three Month Journey and a Swim with the Fish

The tree month trip south was a lot easier than any of them had anticipated. They practiced religiously every morning on the deck with wooden practice swords Beldovin 'borrowed' from the Bronze Dragon barracks, they slowly became familiar with the crew and what they did. Everyday was a routine.

Willow was fascinated by the sea, every night she would sit on the deck and write in her journal. She would make notes about the crew, what Horge's tattoo on his left shoulder meant, why Cookie insisted on everyone hitting the table with the end of their forks before every meal and why when gambling every night Nigi bet his shoes. She would go on to describe the whales that would swim along side the ship for hours, the sounds that they made and birds that actually lived this far out on the ocean. She often found herself absently playing with her Holy Symbol and some of the crew had gone out of their way to lower their heads as she walked by, she insisted that they not do it, she was an equal here.
The crew was a little uneasy about F'vel at first, but they eventually learned to over look this black, stocky winged figure. Klayn and Beldovin spent may hours discussing 'reasons' as they called it, everyone else called it 'seeing who can come up with the most believable tale', if they weren't doing that they were playing Stones or dice games. Kaydell spent hours on end with Spyder, whom they had decided had some line of high elf in his blood line, no human is that nimble or quick without some fairy blood in him. They genuinely liked Spyder and his personality.
Every once in a while they would play Shields or if they got really bored they'd play Itchy Arrow, both card games that ended in mock yelling and laughing. Most of the crew would start making bets when they played Itchy Arrow, it was always fun to see who betted on who when the game was over.
As they neared the Falistinian Islands the water started to become greenish blue and a new type of whale appeared. They were much smaller than the other ones and the coloring became different, instead of dark colored they were black and white. They would jump and do flips, she was amazed at how nimble these little whales were.
One afternoon, when the wind had practically stopped they lay several leagues away from a small island. The water was pale green, Willow could swear she could see the bottom. The small little whales came back and were circling the Fara Fey, their ship. Some of them would stop and chirp up at her, like they were trying to tell her something.

"They seem to like you, Willow," Spyder observed behind her.
"I've never seen anything like them, they seem intelligent."
"Oh, they are!" He added, laughing, "Very intelligent, they're actually very playful and will swim with ships for days on end, this pod has been with us for days now, must be a sign of good luck. They'll let swimmers play with them if they're in a playful way, there's even stories of them saving victims of destroyed ships."
She eyed them in amazement, two had sopped and were chattering at her, bobbing in the water, "I wonder what they're trying to say?"
"Well, Willow, we're stuck here until the wind picks back up, why don't ya jump in and see for yourself?" he suggested.

"What? Just..." she motioned to the water over the deck, "jump in? Actually swim with them?"
"Well sure, if they don't want to swim with you, they'll just avoid ya, but by the looks of it, they'd like a playmate."
"They won't hurt me will they?"
"By the four wind, no, not unless you try to attack them or harm them, they're very gentle creatures."
She needed no more encouragement. In no time she had managed to find a sleeveless undershirt of Beldovin, his frame was a closer match to hers than the others, and a pair of underwear that would work sufficiently for bottoms to swim in. She pulled her hair back in a braid and then, dove right in. The water was surprisingly warm and refreshing, at first she was a little frightened, but then one of the creatures swam right up to her and poked its head out of the water and started to click and chirp at her. It nudged her gently with it's slick head, and chattered again. This 'little' whale was bigger than she had first estimated it to be, it looked to be seven or eight feet long.

She held her breath and dove under the water. When she opened her eyes she was stunned to see the rest of the pod swimming towards her. They all began to circle her and brush against her. Their skin was slick and hairless, hard even. She was as fascinated by them as they were by her.
She was soon diving way down with them, hitching rides by holding onto the fin that was atop their back or their tail and playing with them.
She was starting to become wrinkled from the water, not to mention she was starting to get hungry. She climbed the rope latter to the deck, wrung out her long soaked braid then headed for her living quarters for some appropriate clothing for lunch.
"Wil! Where, in the middle of the ocean, have you been hiding?" Klayn asked her, then his eyes widened, "Did you fall over board?"
Everyone at the table turned to look at her, "No, of course not!" She shook her wet head at them, "I went swimming with the whales...fall over board, really!" She scoffed at him.
"The whales? Really?" F'vel seemed intrigued by this.
She nodded, seating herself between Beldovin and Klayn, stealing as much food as she could for her plate.
"Wil, I know that sometimes you can fly with ideas of great fun, but don't you think that may be a bit dangerous?"
"I assure you, Beldovin, that these whales will be completely safe with our young Willow, here," Spyder informed them all.
Beldovin, seeming a little confused by what Spyder told them, "It was not the whales I was worried about."
Everyone laughed, "Spyder was implying that Willow is in no more danger than those whales are with her, Beldovin," F'vel explained to him with a strait face.
Beldovins eyes widened as it dawned on him, "Oh, I see! Spyder, you are a quick one with words!" he laughed.

After lunch Willow returned to her swimming, but her brother joined her as well. Diving down to the sandy bottom, they retrieved shells of many different shapes and sizes. Ranging from black, violet, pink and cream to small and practically flat with small ridges to one that were spiraled and the size of a hand basket. The others who dared not jump in watched the twins dive up and down bring up arm loads of these shells. The others turned them over, inspecting them, inland, they did not get things like this.
"Ah, I see you've discovered sea shells." Spyder observed later in the afternoon.

"Indeed," F'vel replied, "These are very beautiful specimens, not like the ones that would wash up on the shore of my home land."
"Your home land must be next to the dark sea of the north, then."
"Yes, you have been up in that region?"

"Many times, my friend, many times, wonderful land up that way," pausing briefly he added, "skies are particularly spectacular as well."

F'vel smiled and nodded, "Without a doubt, finest skies I have flown in."

Klayn and Beldovin exchanged looks, there had just been something exchanged between the captain and their winged elf. They'd find out later.
"The question remains, though, what are you going to do with all of these shells now that you have them?" Spyder asked.

"I think I will send some to my..." Klayn hesitated momentarily at the mention of his creator, "father, I'm sure he'll be able to use them in some sort of spell or a component of some sort."
Beldovin nodded his agreement, "I will send some home to my parents when I write them when we get inland, I'm sure my mother and sister will enjoy these."
"I will save a few as well," F'vel added, "but for my own purposes. I think I too shall find a use for these in a spell."

Spyder laughed, "Aren't you all a resourceful and thoughtful group? This should be some voyage, I think, one that none of us will soon forget." At that, he walked away.

Beldovin shrugged, "Hmmm, I wonder what he meant by that?"

"Probably what he said, Beldovin." Klayn told him inspecting some more of the shells that the twins had brought up.

"Only three more days," Kaydell told them as they looked at the map, "that is if the winds stay at their current speed and direction."

Kaydell, Willow and Beldovin, were taking turns being 'captain', it was an eight day cycle. It was Kaydells turn, he was on his fourth day.

The others gathered around the map as Kaydell pointed out where they were, they all nodded their agreement that things were working out well.
"About what time of day would you estimate?" Klayn asked.
Kaydell frowned slightly in thought, "I would guess about 2 hours after high sun."

Once again they all nodded.

"Wonderful!" Chimed Beldovin, "My feet are craving solid ground to trod upon."
"I think it's your eyes that are craving some females to gloat upon, instead of the earth, Beldovin." Klayn laughed.
The others laughed with him because they knew all too well how true it was, "Ah, too true." Beldovin sighed.
They all retreated to do their nightly business. Willow taking her nightly perch on the rails to write ritualistically in her journal, Klayn and Beldovin to play Stones in the corner, F'vel climbed to the crows nest to look around and be alone for awhile, something he liked to do a lot of, and for Kaydell, it was to be a Captain.

He studied the map, large and small islands alike littered the ocean in this part of the world. The one island that they were due to land in, West Fall, was one of the larger ones.
He wondered what it would look like, the waters were different here than up north, the weather was much warmer now than it would be now in Paramin, and the wild life was new and unique to him. He'd never seen the smaller whales before now, the sea shells he had not seen, but knew that his siblings would love them when they got them.