—–
Outside of a large hive, constructed against a tree using sticks and mud, a group of bees relaxed in the warm morning sun. It was good to be afforded such a reward after having gathered an extra surplus of honey over the past couple of days. They all thought the same thing: where should the search begin for candidates for their Queen's husband?
All while unaware of three candidates quietly hanging out behind their hive...
"Keep them coming" Mac urged Chevy, who had his head inside a cut-out hole in the back of the hive.
"Here's another one-" Chevy pulled out and handed a fourth large honey-filled crock, made of hardened mud, to Mac. Then, Mac relayed the crock to Luke who placed it in a pile nearby.
The trio had been en route to the Zipangu region, as planned, but the sight of a large Beehive that was stuffed full of delicious, and valuable, honey was too good to just pass up. So with hand-saws on their belts, they made their first detour.
Mac caught Chevy dipping his hand in the honey for a mouthful. "Hey you! Don't eat the merchandise" he snapped.
"But it's so good. Here, try some-" Chevy rubbed Mac's mouth abruptly.
"Sp-yeeh! What're you trying to do-?" Mac spat and licked his lips. But the delectable flavor swooning into his mouth was overpowering in flavor. Far more rich in sugar than the likes of any treats that they would snag behind the baker's back on occasion. And it was even better than the raw nectar that he had tasted back at the Alraune's flower. "Alright, fine. At the end, we'll take an extra jug for ourselves" he relented to the sweet temptation.
"Say, when do we plan on carting all of this stuff back to the wagon?" Luke spoke up after he put down the fourth crock. "I don't want to become a Bee's pin-cushion"
"When we have enough" Mac avowed with a greedy gleam in his eye.
"You can't have enough of this stuff, I'll tell you that" Chevy cleaned up the rest of the honey from his hand.
"Exactly. Now less eating, more hauling" he nudged Chevy back to work.
Their rhythm started to quicken from that point on. Chevy to Mac and then Mac to Luke. A fifth crock. A sixth crock. A seventh crock. An eighth crock.
But something was different about the eighth crock that the rhythmic Chevy had handed to Mac without so much as a thought. But Mac wasn't too caught up to notice what was in his arms. It was yellow and black-striped with brown hair, four petite bluish wings, and two flickering antennae...
Mac found himself holding a Honey Bee whose cute but bemused expression began to blush instantly.
Mac gasped like a frightened child and dropped her with a thud at his feet. "Come on, you 'syrup-brain'! We have enough!" he shouted as his sudden panic had him running off, snatching a crock along the way.
"Smart thinking" the derisive Luke likewise shrieked and followed Mac's example, running off with a crock in hand. Chevy, however, did not catch on until he stuck his head out the hive once again.
"What did you say? Gaah! Where did you come from!?" he bellowed and shoved the crock onto the grounded Honey Bee's head, saturating her with the sticky sweets. He scooped up two more crocks and ran after his comrades. "Wait for me, guys!" he bellowed once again.
For the Honey Bee, she found it too difficult to free herself in time. Thus, it was late to sound an alarm. By the time she got her head free, she had lost the trio, who were riding off on their wagon-train.
—–
An hour later, the wagon-train was parked near the top of a hill, with all three men inside the makeshift cabin. They piled their bodies against the barrels and tables which had been barricaded against the door from a trio of Hornets ramming from the outside. The oblivious men didn't realize how pungent the stolen honey really was. Its sweet smell had managed to catch the foul-tempered attention of the Hornets whose aggressive nature made them ambush the men without so much a moment's hesitation.
"I knew we should have installed a lock on this door!" Luke groaned as he pressed back against another blow from the Hornets.
"Next time, don't keep your trap shut!" Mac roared back, holding up his end.
Outside, the Hornets could be heard buzzing around the sides of the cabin, opting for another way in.
"Give us the honey now!" yelled Hornet #1.
"Yeah! And you've got some fresh nectar in there, too. Hand it over!" followed Hornet #2 in an equally fierce tone.
Defiant as ever, Mac bashed his fist against the wall nearest one of the Hornets. "No way! We stole it fair and square! Buzz off!"
"You pip-squeak! You'll force our hands if you don't give it to us!" came Hornet #3's voice.
"I'm not afraid of their hands as much as their spears" remarked Chevy.
Mac rolled his eyes. "Not while these two still have a drop of blood in them!" Mac fired back at Hornet #3 while motioning toward Luke and Chevy.
"That's right… Wait, what!?" Chevy stopped himself.
"What a leader…" Luke mocked Mac's role as a spokesman.
"Don't worry about it. If we can get this train moving, we might be able to lose them" said Mac.
"And how are we going to do that? We'll be pin cushions by the time we get all the way to the front. What's your plan there?"
Mac frowned as he had to concede. Then he changed course.
"How about a distraction?" he suggested, gleaming at Chevy.
"What're you looking at me for!? I'm not going out there!" Chevy protested.
Luke wasn't keen either. "They're three of them out there, remember?"
"One for each of us..." Mac sighed in an uneasy tone.
"At least those are fair odds" Chevy sighed.
"Yeah? Well, I never liked fair odds" Mac spat back. Tipping the scales when no one was looking was part of Mac's philosophy in life.
But they were in a pickle for sure. Although, tough spots were often where the men did their best thinking. And some of their only thinking.
Suddenly, there was a crackling burst and Chevy yelped. "Ow! Something bit me" he clenched his butt as he hopped away from the wall.
The tip of one of the Hornet's spears hand punctured through the wall of the wagon, giving Chevy a glancing blow. It retreated, only to then puncture in a spot only a few inches away from the first. The Hornet planned on puncturing a circular path of holes which she could then kick through to make an entrance. Hitting Chevy in the butt was a lucky but happy bonus on her part. What she didn't expect was for her targets to be foolish enough to grab and hold her spear, preventing her from pulling it out again.
"Now I got her, boys" Mac held the spear tight.
The boys smiled amongst each other in their false victory until the angry Hornet began tugging back and forth on the other end. Mac held firm… so firm that his head was rammed into the wall a few times before he braced himself with his feet.
He was stunned but resolute. "Ha! What are you going to do now, you yellow-bellied 'butt-load'?" he sneered, face full of pompous derision.
Mac's gloating was broken when a massive stinger poked through the wall just inches from his stomach. He recoiled his gut before the angry Hornet pulled out and jabbed through once again. This time it nearly stuck him in the back, catching his shirt.
"Look out! It's her 'butt-load'!" Chevy exclaimed from the sidelines.
Still holding fast on the spear, Mac shrieked and reflexively darted forward out of danger. Not bothering to bypass the spear, his body plowed straight through it, breaking it clean off as he fell forward.
The Hornet was not happy to discover it when she pulled it out.
"Wha-? You rat! I'll skin you alive!" she raged as she tried peaking through one of the holes.
Meanwhile, Mac had rolled back to the others. Like his partners, he noticed the other Hornets were following en suite with their spears. It was only a matter of time.
"You know, she's right" said Chevy as he helped Mac up.
"How?"
"We are trapped like rats" he joshed with a nervous half smile.
"The only, 'rodent' around here is you!" growled Mac, not willing to surrender. Then he turned his attention to Luke who had already begun to look through a cabinet full of bottles. "I hope you've got a rabbit in that hat down there" he egged Luke on.
Luke wasn't sure what he was looking for. His hands grabbed bottles faster than his eyes and mind could formulate a plan. All he hoped for was some kind of muse to strike his survival instincts.
And bingo, it happened.
"Here! Give them a poke at this!" Luke handed Mac the wooden cup of Thunderbird feathers.
"Attaboy. The old noodle strikes again" Mac commended Luke's creativity and scurried away with the cup in hand.
"Hey, you better have something for me, too!" complained Chevy.
Luke looked in the cabinet for a few more seconds, then came upon another idea, in the form of a bottle with a crude, squeezable pouch of air on top. Inside was a mixture of Matango spores and Pixie dust. "Try this. And remember, this time, they're the ones to get a puff of this stuff. Not you" he admonished, jogging Chevy's memory of the last time he goofed around in his shop.
"Oh, this stuff. Heh-heh. I hope they brought pillows" Chevy giggled.
With the wooden cup in hand, Mac waited for a spear to pop through once again. When it did, he forced the cup's opening around the top of the spear. Mac made sure to not touch the spear with his own hands as the powerful surge inside the cup raced up the spear and zapped the unsuspecting Hornet. After several seconds of wattage, Mac pulled off the cup and the Hornet fell to the ground; eyes wide, hair standing up, and out cold.
Over on the other side of the cabin, Chevy haphazardly peeked through one of the holes. "How about a free sample of some other sweet stuff?" he persuaded the Hornet to come closer. Such a quick rapid change had dumbfounded her curious mind enough to stick her head near the same hole for a peek. Now within range, Chevy squeezed the small air pouch and blasted a thick puff of the spore-dust combo into her kisser. The Hornet's whole world went blurry before she even had the chance to pull back. Then, her heavy eyelids slammed shut and she fell to the ground, sound asleep.
"Sweet dreams, that is. Ha-ha! I got her!" Chevy cheered.
"Nice work, kid" Mac replied.
Two down, one to go.
Both Mac and Chevy waited with their 'weapons' ready. As they scanned around, expecting the last Hornet to strike, they found that nothing happened. It had gone very quiet outside, except for the sound of the sleeping Hornet's snores and the occasional snap of a spark off the other.
Flabbergasted, Luke finally called out, "You give up!? Are you going to leave us alone now!?" The silence remained. "Maybe she realized that she was outnumbered and took off?"
Not spotting anything through the holes, Mac spoke up. "Only one way to find out. Go check it out" he urged Chevy.
"Me? Walk out there? No way" Chevy refrained.
"You don't have to walk out there. Take a quick peek out the trap door" Mac pointed up at an emergency door in the roof that did, in fact, have a latch on it. Installing such a thing was more luck than brilliance, seeing as how the spare lumber that they used to build the roof already had it bolted on tight.
"What if she sees me?"
"So what? You'll also see her" Mac pulled one of his usual con-jobs.
"And we'll hold your legs" Luke added.
"Oh, that's different. Let's go"
They two men held a leg and boosted Chevy up, as strenuous as it was. Slowly, he lifted the door up and looked about. Nothing. So he lifted it up more for a better look. He peered around, but nothing, again.
"You were right. That 'needle-butt' bugged off just like you said-" Chevy was cut off as his shoulders were seized by the enraged and spearless Hornet who had been hovering out of sight above the trap door. Seeing her hive members taken out of commission had her change tactics.
"'Needle-butt'!?" the resentful Hornet spat at the sputtering Chevy. She was so fiery that she shook his head right into the trap door multiple times, just like with Mac.
"Pull me- Ow! Pull me ba- Ow! Back inside-Ow!" Chevy hollered between bumps.
"Hurry! Pull him in!" Luke yelped.
"Dammit. What a stubborn woman" Mac groaned and pulled.
The Hornet tried to yank him all the way out for a beating, but her fluttering wings proved no match against the combined force of Mac and Luke's pulling, as well as Chevy's bodyweight. Still, when Chevy was jerked back inside, she held on and crashed with him on top of his compatriots.
The cabin shifted from the impact in the back of the wagon-train, rolling slightly.
Mac was able to pull himself out from under the weight of the Hornet and Chevy, while Luke was not so fortunate as he'd taken the brunt of the impact. Chevy groaned, still woozy from his head bouncing against the trap door, but the Hornet was fine and none the less peeved. The first thing she spotted was Mac.
"Oh boy…" he murmured.
"You! You broke my spear!" she recognized his voice.
Mac went aghast at his lack of ambiguity. His bulging eyes bounced around and his slack jaw searched for words to help in formulating a solution.
"...Uh... Can I interest you in an Orc warhammer...?" he peeped with the most pathetic salesman smile he ever made.
She hissed before lunging at him. He wailed before she collided. Taking hold of his shirt, her fury propelled both of them around the cabin, knocking over cabinets and tables as they wrestled for control. Their grunts and shrieks mashed together in the frenzy of chaos. Mac was more interested in just getting away for a breather, but she planned on kicking his butt all the way into next week.
Mad as a Hornet.
She ended up mounted on top of him once they spilled onto the ground. "You dirty, stinking jerk!" she slated him while yanking him by the collar. She followed with a punch which he dodged. Though she didn't want to kill him, she would leave Mac black and blue before she grabbed the honey.
"Come on, it was just a piece of junk spear!" he retorted, which only made her angrier.
"The last drop of blood, alright!" she echoed his words in rage and tried to land a good wallop on his face.
Amidst the commotion, Luke was still stuck helpless under Chevy until the big man recollected himself.
"I could use a hand here, 'lunk-head'!" Mac squawked to Chevy who saw the fight and then rushed over.
"Listen you-!" Chevy grabbed her shoulder. But before he finished, she slugged him and knocked him back through a table.
Mac groaned at Chevy's lack of help. He turned to Luke next. "Do somethi- Ack!" he bleated when the Hornet grabbed him by the throat.
Not wanting a close range fight, Luke grabbed a stool and tossed it at her. But their struggles on the floor made it hard to hit his mark.
"Urk! That was… me! Thanks!" Mac choked out his spite at Luke after he took most of the stool.
While they staggered back and forth in the cabin, Chevy was on his way back to his feet. Until the Hornet's armored shin belted him in the face, sending him into a spin and back down. Luke began dragging the honey crocks to the back of the cabin. He planned to throw them outside, hoping to lure the Hornet out, as well. But when he moved the barricades and opened the back door, he noticed that the cabin was moving.
Unbenounced to them, the brawl had shaken the cabin hard enough to strain the wagon tongue which coupled the cabin to the rest of the wagon-train. Soon, it broke. And being at the top of the hill, there was only one way to go.
"Hit the dirt!" Luke yelled out and dropped to his stomach. They all looked and saw an oak tree coming at them at high speed through the open door. They all followed him down and braced.
The crash didn't topple the wagon, but it did slam it to a halt. It had been more of a strong concussion on the wagon, than a destructive one. However tables, containers, and bodies flew everywhere.
A few minutes later, Luke dug himself out first from under some barrels. With a brief rub of his head, sought the nearest person. When he stepped on an overflipped table, it yowled. "Urngh, get off!" came Mac's angry voice.
"Oh, there you are"
"I hope round two is canceled" Mac grumbled.
Once he was dug out, Mac shook his head clear. It was then that he saw the mess and grumbled to himself.
Chevy shifted under a cabinet. They both ran over to drag him out.
"I got you, big guy. You okay?" said Luke.
"I'm good. Only the cabinet landed on my head" Chevy nodded.
Yep, Luke knew he was fine, alright.
"Well, all things considered, we came out okay" Luke was relieved that none of the material seemed to be broken out of their containers. He thought they all might have blown up or worse.
Mac was about to berate him, but another voice beat him to it.
"You won't be okay when I'm through with you!"
It was the Hornet again. They hadn't even noticed her over to the side. The crash had tossed her clear through one of the larger holes that had been punctured in the wall. She was stuck, with her upper half sticking outside and her lower half still sticking inside. But worst of all was how she was showing off her lovely, round butt in the most embarrassing of ways.
She kicked and squirmed, trying to pull herself forward and out, but her lady hips were too wide to make it through. She decided to reverse her direction, except that Mac reacted first.
"She's lodged! Quick! Hold her there!" he ordered Chevy and Luke.
"But that stinger will poke my eye out!" Chevy griped at the pulsating thorax looking for a victim.
"Use a jug, you 'jug-head'!"
Chevy grabbed a big empty jug and raced over with Luke close behind. He slipped the conveniently sized jug over her entire thorax like a sock.
"Just wait. I've got an idea" Mac ran off.
Luke didn't know how else to help other than press his hands into her butt to keep her from backing out.
The hornet's eyes popped and she went rigid. She gave a tiny sway of her hips as her bug brain struggled with the... unfamiliar sensation. She was inclined to explore more of it, but she was restricted by the wall that held her. This, of course, reinvigorated her frustration.
"Wha- What are you doing!? G-Get your hands off my... bu- uh, bottom!" she stammered as her face blushed hard.
It took Luke a second to realize what he was doing. His hands pressing into the softness of her ample butt made a prude like him blush just as hard as she did. Women were near the bottom of his list of expertise.
"I... Uh... S-Sorry. But you got yourself into this" he muttered and looked away from her lovely rump.
"Yeah, we got you now" gloated Chevy. "Hey Luke, give her a good spanking for ruining our cabin!"
Though Chevy was oblivious, the self conscience Luke refrained from such an amorous act.
"Grrr, when I get out of this, I'll-" she stopped when she saw Mac coming at her with a sack and a rope.
Mac stuffed her upper half, wings and all, into the sack and tied it tight around her waist. "Stay in there until you cool off"
When he pounded the signal on the wall, they pulled the muffled, cursing Hornet out of the hole, back into the cabin where they proceeded to tie her up. Afterwards, they inspected the damages to the cabin. To their surprise, it wasn't too banged up. Just a few nails and boards was all they needed for repairs.
While Mac and Chevy got to the fix-up, Luke began gathering the scattered goods that had fallen out of the back of the cabin during the crash. Everything was there and accounted for, except for the crocks of honey. It was baffling to think that they would fly off so much further than everything else. But then Luke spotted something.
"Hey, Mac" he called. "There's a trail of honey over here"
"Well, what are you waiting for? Follow it and get the honey back" Mac ordered, finishing up the last touches on the cabin.
Luke was less than eager to go alone. His first thought was that they were taken by other passerby Hornets. But he figured that it couldn't have been that since Hornets would not have been so peaceful when taking them.
Nevertheless, he followed the trail that led into the bushes about twenty yards. He peaked around a tree and nearly fell on his butt from shock. A Grizzly was sitting in a tiny clearing with all four of the honey crocks around her. Her face would have been a wild kind of beauty if not for all of the honey that had been smeared across it. Her furry, clawed paws dug out massive globs of the syrup-like snack for her to shove into her mouth, not unlike Chevy, leaving them just as messy as her face.
The Grizzly stopped and looked back at Luke who, likewise, stared at her. If not for the sticky honey in her mouth, she would have asked Luke to join her in eating it. She didn't mind company, but Luke was not feeling quite so social as he returned a nervous smile and waved before scurrying back into the brush like a critter spotted by a predator. The Grizzly simply shrugged and continued eating.
Luke returned to the others, short of breath.
"What happened? Did you find it?" asked Mac.
Luke huffed. "I found it alright. Just forget it. Someone staked their claim"
Mac jumped down from the wagon train, mad as Hell. "Oh no they don't. Not after all of this hassle. I'll just have to unstake it". With his club in hand and a head of steam, he stomped off.
"Be my guest" Luke muttered.
Mac charged along the trail and through the bushes like a bull. He marched out into the clearing with his club raised. "Alright, where's that honey thief!?"
Then he stopped.
Mac's fearsome entrance spooked the Grizzly who jumped to her feet. While she had not turned aggressive yet, she was nonetheless at full attention at the stranger.
One look at the grizzly's impressive six-foot six-inch, burly build was all it took for Mac to reverse course. The fact that she was thick and voluptuous in the most provocative of areas went clean over his craven head. Even the Grizzly cocking her head like a puzzled animal didn't bring back any of his fire.
The corner of Mac's mouth twitched nervously. "...I...I just wanted to let you know that the honey came from 'The Super Salesmen's Monster Shop'. Drop by anytime" he scattered a handful of business cards from his pocket onto the ground and slunk away.
Again, the baffled Grizzly would have asked the male to sit down with her, but he was gone. And just like before, she shrugged and returned to her meal.
Running back, Mac came upon the others. In his time away, Luke had brought the rest of the wagon-train down the hill and positioned it to re-couple onto the cabin.
"Say, where's the honey?" Chevy probed.
"Donation!" he snapped back, frustrated at the turn of events. "Now you two get that cabin re-attached so we can get out of here!"
"What are you going to do?" Luke added, noticing Mac's shaken, but vigorous face.
Mac had made his way over to the bound Hornet. "Get me another donation" he began dragging her up the hill toward her unconscious hive-mates. He wasn't about to leave empty-handed.
A half an hour later, the men resumed course toward the Zipangu region with their wagon-train complete again. All that they left behind was the stuffed and snoozing Grizzly in the brush, as well as three furious Hornets gagged and bound together around a tree with their spears, gauntlet gloves, and gauntlet shin-guards ransacked.
Or rather... 'donated'.
—–
Once the trio neared the Wilkah Sea, they picked a spacious cavern to hide the wagon-train in. It offered plenty of room, which made it a good spot to store the horses while they were away, as well. All they had to do was leave out the surplus of horse food and the water troughs that they'd taken from Truseve.
They weren't exactly going to swim across the Wilkah Sea to get to the Zipangu region. But they were prepared. Lashed to the top of the wagon-train, was a twenty foot Karve boat which they'd assembled from spare parts. It was capped off by the stolen sail lashed to the mast. Praying to all the gods that it floated, they sighed in relief when it didn't sink. Loading up food and any items that might aid in the journey, they set out.
Chevy was ecstatic that his imagination had come true: they were sailing across the sea as sailors. Mac was the captain, but still, Chevy forgot his swimsuit.
Fortunately, it would only be a day or two before they reached the shores of the Zipangu region. However, there wasn't much to do to fill the day, besides a little fishing.
"I got another one!" Chevy announced and pulled in his line. On the end of the line was a fish no more than ten inches long that he seized. "Sorry, pal. But we gotta eat for a living" he spoke to the fish and threw it inside a barrel with the other eight catches.
Mac's fishing skills proved not as natural as Chevy's. All eight fish were exclusively from Chevy without so much as a peep on Mac's line.
"Not a bad haul, my man" Luke complimented his partner.
"Well, dumb is attracted to dumb" Mac grumbled on the side.
No sooner than Chevy had thrown his line back into the water, he hooked another fish.
"Wow! Another bite!" he rejoiced, to which the jealous Mac stirred in aggravation. One more catch, and he'd go push Chevy off the boat.
Chevy had just about reeled in the fish when something much larger swam up from the depths right in front of him. It was a Mershark. She snatched the fish on Chevy's line in her mouth and made a break below the surface, splashing all over Chevy.
"Did you see that!?" said a staggered Luke.
"Yeah, I think it was a whale" answered Chevy as his reel kept running further and further.
"Not a whale, you 'bubble-brain'. That was a Mershark"
"Say what?" the near-dozing Mac dropped his line and was at full attention. "Well, don't just let her dip back into the sea-bed. Haul her in here"
Chevy braced his feet against the edge of the stern, while the other two steadied him. He was careful to bring the line to a stop. The ensuing struggle had the Mershark dragging the boat backwards over the water's surface in the opposite direction that they were traveling. It was proving difficult to tire her out, as opposed to normal fish. If that wasn't bad enough, none of them had a clue what to do with her once they got their hands on her. A haphazard choice, but whenever an opportunity for an acquisition presented itself, the men had to take it; regardless whether they would sink or swim, to coin a phrase.
Eventually, the Mershark seemed to wear down and all came to a stop. Then Chevy began to reel her in.
"Attaboy, 'salty-Ron'. Don't let go. Keep her coming in" Mac patted Chevy who chuckled in response.
"What items do you think we're going to scramble from her" Luke nudged Mac.
"I don't know yet. But we'll find something"
"We won't have to chop anything off, will we?"
"Nah. Too messy. If we need more time, we'll just stuff her into the barrel like the rest" Mac readied the barrel.
"Yeah, the Order will love to find that cargo when we get back to Truseve" Luke fretted.
"Not all the way back home. Just for a while. And if she gets snappy, Chevy knows how to handle fish"
"Huh?" uttered Chevy.
With both men having let go of Chevy while conversing, the Mershark was able to spring back to life with a good jerk that sent the unwary Chevy flying off the boat and into the water with the rod still in his hands. He didn't get the chance to cry out before he was cut off under the monstrous splash.
Mac was irritated, planning to berate him if he came up impoverished. But Chevy didn't surface. "Great. Just great" he complained.
"He knows to come up, doesn't he?" Luke scanned the water's edge for any sign of life.
"He's doing fine. I told him not to let go"
"Yeah, but I don't think it's out of conviction"
"Relax. He'll show up when she does. We'll just need to pump the water out of his stomach when it's all over. Keep looking for him" Mac dug through some gear to retrieve a fishing net.
They waited for any indication from the depths. It wasn't long before they saw some bubbles rising up right next to the starboard side.
"Hey, here she comes now!" Luke called to Mac who ran over with the net.
"Get ready..." he said as both him and Luke readied the net, poised to ensnare her the second she breached.
A large splash of water came and the two men pounced on her. Effectively tangled, they dragged her on to the boat where they then stuffed her head-first into the barrel of other fishes. Her grunting sounded less feminine than they expected. They sounded manly. A familiar kind of manly…
Mac and Luke both eyed each other as the realization hit them both. They dragged their prisoner out by the pants to get a good look.
Yep. It was their third, waterlogged member, Chevy. He was going blue in the face, but was still holding his fishing rod.
"Good thing that all that fat makes you buoyant" remarked Luke, knowing that Chevy didn't have the first clue as to how to swim.
Chevy spit out some water. "How do I always get into these fixes?"
"You were so good at fishing, weren't you?" Mac derided him. "And now you lost her"
"I couldn't help it if that big trout got away. I held on while she towed me all over the place before my line snapped" Chevy said, still catching his breath.
"If only that monster was flying. You're pretty good in that scenario" Mac jeered as he thought back to the excursion with the Griffon.
"Which way did she go?" Luke whacked his back to give him some air.
"I don't know. I was left all alone down there when I remembered that I needed air"
"'Needed air'" Mac sneered in greedy contempt at Chevy's words. Here they were with no monster parts to show for it.
"Well I'm sorry. I'm just used to breathing, that's all"
"Maybe she'll come back around for a second helping" pondered Luke.
"I hope not" Chevy detested. "Almost taking one bite out of me was enough"
Just then, Chevy was brought to the ground by the net still entangling him. Grasping the net was the sharp-toothed Mershark, grinning like a hungry predator as she loomed over the side of the boat.
"Where're you going, chum?" she gleamed with an amorous glow in her dark eyes as she raised herself up even more.
Mac and Luke intervened. "Oh no you don't. You can't skedaddle before we're done with you" opposed Mac as they prepared to net her. But the frenzied Mershark surprised them by lurching herself into the boat where she barged her way right through Mac and Luke and onto Chevy.
Almost laying in an intimate position with her on top, she bared her sharp, smiling teeth. "Thanks for holding that fish for me, cutie. I'd been trying to catch it for a while. Now I wonder what you taste like…" she became entranced by the smell of Chevy's delicious mana. As per her instincts, she wanted to bite him and drain his mana before mating.
"Guys, this fish is still hungry!" Chevy screamed for help, only growing more terrified when he noticed his reflection in the black and yellow eyes on her pretty face.
"Get her!" Mac yelled as he and Luke picked themselves up and charged. He wrapped his arms around the midpoint of her shark half, while Luke struggled to control her thrashing shark tail at the end. It was all they could do since she was pinning down the net that they had hoped to use on her.
Meanwhile, the chaotic yelling continued as the Mershark tried to take a bite out of Chevy's shoulder. He blocked with his hands pushing against her head and nose. The stimulation on her sensitive nose was most pleasant for her. But what wasn't pleasant was when Chevy shoved his fishing rod into her mouth to hold her back.
"Just hold her off for a minute, kid! Give me some time to think!" Mac responded under the strain. The Mershark's upper half may have been brimming with feminine charm, but her hefty lower half possessed the ferocious power of a great white shark that thrashed both men around like they were children. She could breathe just fine above the surface, but she nevertheless flailed like a fish out of water, especially when spurred on by the maddening scent of a male. Through it all, Mac had yet to find any part of her that didn't require amputation to acquire for their inventory.
"You know, she's never going to fit in that barrel, Mac! So you'd better think fast!" Luke stuttered from wrestling her tail.
"She'll tire out before long… I think!" Mac argued.
"Not before she sinks the boat 'captain'!" Luke needled Mac, even mocking his voice. "She's not a keeper!" he fired back.
"Let's see…" Mac scanned her over for something to rob.
"What do you want me to do!? Floss her to death!? She still has teeth left to sink into me next!" an exacerbated Chevy wailed, horrified that his pleas seemed to go unnoticed. The Mershark had been too busy fondling Chevy's face to pay attention to their debate. While she tried to pull it closer, his fishing rod had kept her mouth busy. She was left with no choice but to gnaw her way through the rod. Then she could sink her teeth in and taste his delicious mana.
Chevy's cries set off a light bulb in Mac's head. Without warning he dropped his half, leaving Luke woefully incapable of controlling her. He headed toward the back of the boat and grabbed ten feet of chain connected to an anchor. Chevy had brought it along, even though Luke and Mac insisted that an anchor with such a short chain was useless in the middle of the sea.
Mac, for once, was happy for Chevy's stupidity.
He tossed the anchor at Luke, which landed on his foot and caused enough pain for him to drop her tail. The Mershark thought she was free to go after Chevy with full force, but was assailed by Mac who latched the end of the chain around her tailfin. Once he secured, it he turned to Luke.
"Time to weigh the anchor!" he signaled, to which Luke heaved the anchor overboard. It sank fast enough to the dark depths to yank the scrambling Mershark straight overboard with it. With no way to propel herself due to the weight negating her tail, she disappeared out of sight.
In the aftermath, Mac snatched the fishing rod from the winded Chevy's hand.
"Yes! Just like I had hoped" he delighted and plucked one of several of the Mershark's teeth that were embedded in the wooden rod. A rare catch, indeed.
Luke took notice. "Wow. Good thinking"
"That's why I'm the brains of this group" Mac bragged. "Now let's get back on course"
Chevy was still stuck in the net on his back, catching his second wind.
Mac gave him a kick. "Get up. Break time's over"
"Aye-aye, captain" he wheezed with a salute, though he wondered if the sailor's life was really for him.
They continued on their journey without another incident. Particularly, since they'd had enough fishing for the rest of the journey.
—–
At last, they came upon the shores of the Zipangu region.
"Keep bailing her out. We're almost there" Mac stood at the bow of the ship. Luke was manning the sails while Chevy was at the stern, repeatedly scooping water up into a bucket and then overboard. The quest for treasure had them too anxious to set sail, rather than get bogged down with details. Such as testing the structural integrity of their impromptu boat. The leaks and cracks had caught up with them, but land was in sight, at last. Sure, they would have to patch up the boat before sailing again, but that was a task for another day.
Touching down, an exhausted Chevy dropped himself over the side of the boat, desperate for a nap. Luke and Mac were up on the shore with the map.
"There's that weird tower" Luke identified an unfamiliar building known as a pagoda, which was shown on the map near the shoreline.
"Good eye. Now let's get the tools and see where this map takes us next" Mac replied.
Without their wagon-train available, they were forced to venture on foot. At least until they could buy a horse and carriage. Or steal one; whichever came first. They had their bags of tools and tricks with them, hoping they were ready for anything that they'd find, or for anything that found them. However, they would soon learn that things in this distant land were quite different from the land they called 'home'.
—–
Author's Note: That'll be it for now. I'm working on the next 5 or so chapters.