[ Continued From (http://www.spiritsoftheearth.net/smf/index.php?topic=27331.329) ]
A week into the voyage aboard the Adamant Lady, Hana and Thrax were given the rare opportunity to enjoy each other's company on deck. The bard held her close as they watched the waves roll by. Remarkably, his seasickness had yet to rear its ugly head.
Hana leaned back into his chest, both because she enjoyed the contact and to partially use the gnoll as a windbreaker against the seaborne breezes.
"Surprised Gracie let you off the hook for that," she noted with a small smile and a nod toward the opposite rail, where a handful of sailors were hauling in a small net of fish.
"Me too, if I'm honest." Thrax smiled contentedly. "Not that I'm not grateful for the breather. She's really making us work for our low fare, isn't she?"
He had never had to really put his back into manual labor before. Sure, he did the odd physical job to get by from time to time, but not as much as the last week had required. Muscles hurt that he didn't even know he had.
Eyes lighting up with mischief, Hana leaned back into him a little bit more and tipped her head up against his chest so she could see his face.
"Sore, huh?" she asked with a flick of one tail; Gracia's crew was diverse enough that she'd felt comfortable to stay in her halfway form during their voyage. "Maybe I could help you with that—I've been getting better at massages."
Thrax smirked down at her. "Have you now?"
A mist rolled over the waves, strangely unnoticed by the crew. With it came an unusual chill and a feeling of unease.
"Mhm..." She smirked and reached up with one hand to cup his jaw. "Though I am rather hoping you'll return the favor—"
Her ears suddenly perked straight up, and she twisted her head to look back out over the water.
"...Do you smell that?" She sniffed at the air—not realizing that the sense she was using wasn't actually scent, but magic.
Thrax sniffed along with her. It smelled wrong, somehow. Unnatural. Not familiar exactly, but it reminded him of something he just couldn't quite grasp.
"Yeah... What is that? Fog doesn't smell like that. And shouldn't we be steering away from a fog bank? Why aren't we?" It was concerning.
The fog was thickening quickly, so quickly that the Lady was enveloped just as those less attuned to magic began superstitious murmurs.
Thrax's eyes widened and he suddenly called out, "We need to turn around! Now!"
Hana nodded swiftly in agreement, ducking out from under his arm and trying to wave the pilot's attention.
"Hey!" she called, then louder when the man at the wheel didn't seem to hear her, "Hey!"
The fog around them felt...stale. Dead. But not like the scent of decay, it was...something else.
And it seemed to be affecting the crew; the men who had been hauling in the fish were now staring listlessly out over the rail.
"We're going to have to steer ourselves," Thrax said, scrambling up the stairs to the quarter deck. The helmsman, like the men with the net, seemed transfixed by something.
"Find Gracia! I'll work on getting us turning!" he called back to Hana. Moving the helmsman aside, he turned the wheel hard to port.
Hana had no idea why whatever was affecting the rest of the crew didn't seem to be affecting her and Thrax, but it meant they were the only people who seemed to be able to do anything.
"Gracie!" She went tearing down below decks, making a beeline for the captain's quarters. "Gracie, we've got a problem!"
She found the captain like everyone else, staring out of the stern windows in anticipation of something. Gracia didn't notice her enter or call her name. Then, out of the blue, she started to speak in an eerie monotone.
"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest..."
"Yo ho ho, and a bottle of rum..." the crew continued, sending an odd shiver up Thrax's spine. It wasn't an unusual song, but between the emotionless delivery and the bizarre context, it was damned creepy.
"Gracie, what the hells?" Hana demanded, even as her stomach dropped in an instinctive warning against...whatever this was.
Shaking herself, she approached the other woman and shook her shoulder firmly. "Captain, your ship is in danger. Pull yourself together!"
Gracia just stared blankly ahead. "Drink and the devil had done be the rest..."
A voice behind her spoke up. "They're all like this," said Lars, the ship's resident mage, his dark eyes nervous as he wrung his hands. "This does not bode well."
Hana whirled around, a ball of bluish fire already igniting in one hand before she saw who it was.
"All of them?" she repeated, frowning. "So...why not us?" She looked to Gracia, then back to the mage. "This...whatever it is in the fog—you think it doesn't affect folks with magic?"
"Being attuned to magic does grant a certain resistance to it," the wiry man answered.
Gracia kept speaking. "The mate was fixed by the bosun's pike..."
Lars frowned at the dark turn of the words. "Could that be a song? Perhaps your man, the bard, knows of it?"
Hana frowned, but nodded sharply. "It sounds like poetry...and maybe a bit familiar. Hold on, I'll get him."
She started to run for the deck, then stopped and looked back to Lars. "Ah—maybe you should tell him to come down here? Someone is going to have to steer the ship, and if it's not Thrax you've got a better shot at it than I do."
"M-me? Up there... alone?" the man responded nervously.
Shaking himself, he straightened and looked her in the eyes with a nod. "Yes. I can do that."
He disappeared out the door to the deck with fresh determination.
Thrax hurried through a few minutes later. "Yes, now that I think about it, I think I've heard it at least once before. Nothing good happens in that song."
While Lars went to fetch the bard, Hana moved to try to physically drag Gracia away from the stern window. The captain actually moved easily enough, but the second Hana released her she drifted right back to the spot where she'd been standing, like there were magnets in her boots.
"Nothing good, like it's a tragic ballad?" she huffed, turning to Thrax as he came in. "Or nothing good like, everyone dies?"
Thrax's worried expression told her everything, even before he opened his mouth. "Everybody dies... violently.""
He glanced over at Gracia. "But we're not going to let that happ—"
A pair of cannon shots rang out and the ship shook from two impacts.
The gnoll's eyes went wide and he raced out onto the deck to discover what happened. There was a giant iron harpoon stuck in the deck, attached to a chain that was drawing tight.
Hana was a step behind him as he sped onto the deck, and she swore under her breath when she saw the harpoon.
"Can you get that out?" she asked as she ran to the rail, knowing it was a lot to ask even of someone with Thrax's physicality. She tried to follow the length of the chain back through the fog to its source, but it was so thick. She couldn't see more than a few yards.
"Not remotely that strong, babe," Thrax said, slightly rolling his eyes. "And I still haven't figured out how that sword demon used my lightning to cut."
The ship lurched as the rusty, barnacled chains grew taut. As they pulled, the smell of elemental death grew steadily stronger. The crew began to gather on deck as if hypnotized, still reciting the dark lyrics.
The bard watched them worriedly. "This isn't looking good. Do you see anything yet?"
"Can you break the wood around it?" Hana asked desperately, trying to come up with some semblance of a plan.
It seemed they were under attack from another ship. And all but three hand in the Adamant Lady were essentially useless.
...She didn't know what to do with that.
"It's...a galleon," she called back in response to Thrax, squinting and leaning further over the rail. "But it—it's hard to make out. I thought it was the fog, but...I think the ship is the fog!"
"Like, the ship itself is a ghost? Fantastic," Thrax replied sarcastically.
The bard looked closer at where the harpoon pierced the deck. He could try, but he doubted he would have time to hack both of them free before the ghost ship was on them. And he needed that energy to fight. Unless...
"I can't cut us free in time, but if the ship is a manifestation, then so are the chains. Maybe between the three of us, we can disrupt the magic."
"Maybe?" Hana was struggling to keep her voice even--she'd never seen anything like this. She was still squinting out into the fog, then suddenly her eyes widened and she threw herself back from the rail, yelling, "Down!"
A boom echoed through the damp air, and another harpoon embedded itself in the deck not far from where she'd just been standing.
Scrambling back to her feet, the kitsune turned and cupped her hands around her mouth. "Lars! Get over here, we need you!"
Thrax braced himself against the first phantasmal harpoon. When the third one landed where Hana had just been, he rushed to her side as if he could retroactively protect her. "Storm, are you okay?! That thing almost..." He had tried to play it cool, but he choked up a little as the reality of the near miss set in. Telling his pride to sod off, he embraced her.
Lars interrupted the impending emotional detour with a cough. "What do you need? The wheel is useless right now anyway."
"I'm alright, I'm alright," Hana hurried to reassure Thrax as he wrapped her up in a tight hug. Her tone was soft and even, but she was trembling slightly--that had been close.
When Lars answered her call, she ducked out from under Thrax's arm--giving his wrist a brief squeeze as she did--and explained as best she could, "We think the attacking ship is...some sort of manifestation of the fog. If we pool our magic, Thrax thinks we might be able to disrupt it."
"The chains, at least," Thrax said. "It would give us a chance to get away before we learn firsthand what it wants with us."
Lars stroked his beard in thought. "That... might be doable. But if the manifestation has any kind of will behind it, it will fight back."
"We'll have to cross that bridge when we come to it," the bard responded.
"Yes. That we shall." The mage nodded, studying the chains. "Perhaps if we throw our best offensive spells at the same spot, we'll break up the spectral energy enough to sever the chain."
"Ahh—" They didn't actually have time to argue about this, but Hana couldn't stop herself from asking, "Thrax and I tend to work in fire and lighting—is your magic gonna interact with that in a weird way?"
She glanced out into the fog, saw how close the misty ship was, and decided quickly, "Y'know what, never mind! Let's see how this goes!"
Thrax readied Stormsong for musical casting and nodded. "Then let's do this."
"Agreed." Lars aimed his staff at the chain, gathering magical energy for the attack.
"On three," Thrax said, "two... one!" He strummed Stormsong, sending a steady lightning bolt at a link in the thick chain. Lars' stream of magic joined up with it, making the form of the chain waver.
Hana curled one hand into a claw, summoning a ball of bright blue flame to her palm, then hurled it at the same link the other two mages were targeting.
The whole chain flickered as magic washed over it.
"I think it's working!" She looked out over the water, trying to judge the distance of the other ship. "Hit it again!"
The ship was dangerously close; they would have to figure out how to break the chains faster if they were not going to get away without a fight.
Thrax strummed again, focusing all of his mind on drawing as much of Stormsong's power as he could handle. The second volley burst the chain like fog before a sudden gale. The ghost ship released a ghastly howl and the mesmerized crew suddenly fell silent as they drew their weapons.
For a moment, Hana thought the rest of the crew might have come to their senses, and a relieved smile started to spread across her face.
"Well, it's better odds than just the three of us, eh?"
The blank stares the crew returned as they stepped forward said otherwise.
"Uhh, babe?" Thrax said nervously as he stepped between her and the crew. "I don't think they're in control."
"...Shiiiiiit."
Hana took a step forward, turning slightly so her should was pressed tight to Thrax's, forming them into a phalanx against the evidently possessed crew. "Hey, uh, Lars? Don't suppose you have any incapacitate-type spells handy?"
She glanced up at Thrax questioningly as she asked the other mage; maybe a sleep spell?
"I can entangle them, but I have to actively maintain it," Lars answered uncertainly. "I won't be able to help with the chains."
Thrax nodded once. "Do it. We'll figure something out."
Lars stepped forward, staff raised and shining green. Over his shoulder, he said, "Good luck," before speaking an incantation. Glowing vines erupted from the deck to bind the crew.
Hoping Lars could keep the ensorcelled crew off their back, Hana turned back to the second harpoon. She looked out at the foggy ship, then to Thrax, and nodded firmly.
"Again?"
The ship would be on them soon, but if they could break the chains, they had a better chance of getting out of the damned fog, even if they did have to fight whatever was on that damned ship while they did it.
"Again." Thrax nodded, rushing to the second chain for the next volley.
"I have an idea. Launch a fireball, big as you can make it, and I'll blast it against the chain with a force wave. If I'm right, we'll blow the fog away in one strike."
Hana nodded quickly, already summoning fire between her palms as she hurried after him. "Okay."
Her brow furrowed as she drew on her magic--more than she ever had before for this particular spell. The ball of blue and white flame that could normally be cupped in her palm grew so large that she had to hold it over her head with both hands.
"Ready...and...now!"
She hurled the fire at the ghostly chain, gasping and swaying with the effort as the magic drained from her body in one abrupt swoop.
Thrax fired off a thunderclap spell strong enough to knock him on his ass. The wave of force carried the fireball to the target and the combined spell exploded, blowing away the phantom chain and sending out a shockwave that took out the other remaining one. The ghost ship, or something on it, shrieked in fury.
The crew found itself released from the entity's control and was clearly confused by suddenly finding themselves entangled. "Lars? What... Oh dear gods, what is that?" Gracia asked.
"Ghost ship!" Thrax exclaimed as he sat up, laughing, despite the dire situation.
When the spell knocked him backward, Hana darted forward to help Thrax sit up, glancing up with a soft exhale of relief when Gracia seemed to come back to her senses.
"They don't have chains in the hull anymore, but I doubt that's enough to stop them," she shouted, before looking Thrax over quickly. "You okay?"
Thrax shooed her off and gave her a thumbs up. "I'm fine, babe. Just... need a second for the ringing to stop."
He rose to his feet with a groan. "Yeah, I'm feeling that tomorrow." The gnoll shook his head to clear it. "Captain! We need to get moving! This thing is closing in fast!"
The entity fired a warning shot across the bow.
"And it's angry."
Hana gave him a concerned look, but backed off. They didn't have time for her to be overly fussy about it.
She winced as the warning shot blew a few slivers of wood off the figurehead--a woman in adamantine armor--and looked around.
"Cap, I think your mage is about to faint," she noted a second before Lars swayed and nearly hit the deck. Percy grabbed him under the arms, and Gracia joined the gnoll and the kitsune in looking out over the rail at the ghostly galleon.
"It's moving faster without wind than we do with a full gale," Gracia muttered, before whirling and barking orders at her crew. "We need to get out of this fog!"
Hana's eyes widened. Fog.
"I'm an idiot!" She grabbed Thrax's arm and pointed to the crow's nest. "If we get up there, can you use Stormsong to try to keep that thing distracted for a few minutes?"
Thrax sighed. He hated climbing. "Yeah."
He smirked. "I've never run from a hostile audience and I'm not going to start now."
Moving to the mast, he began climbing up the rope ladder to the crow's nest. From there, he could barely make out the glowing phantasmal vessel but he could make out a few unpleasant details that he hadn't previously seen.
The ship had eyes--eyes and a jagged rend in the prow shaped like a mouth.
"What the hells are you?"
Hana scampered up into the nest before Thrax--she knew he wasn't a climber by nature, and she needed to get up as quickly as she could.
She winced when she got a better view of the attacking ship. "That is not friendly-looking," she muttered, moving to the edge of the crow's nest and leaning out as far as she dared.
"I'm gonna use the fog," she told Thrax quickly over her shoulder. "I'm gonna see if I can make another ship--an illusion--and try to draw it off. Or at least distract it. We just need enough time to get out of this fog bank."
She bit her lip as she glanced at him. "But an illusion that big is gonna take a lot. And it's gonna take some time. Think you can keep it from latching onto us while I work?"
Thrax scratched his ear thoughtfully. "Come to think of it... How am I supposed to do that? Its song would probably attract it, so... maybe something with the opposite vibe would repel it?"
"Maybe?" She looked at him uncertainly and shrugged. "It seems worth a shot--I mean, if that doesn't work...can you do more lightning?"
Although she didn't love the idea of him wielding a spell like the one he'd done on deck and accidentally blasting himself out of the crow's nest.
"That's definitely Plan B."
Thrax cleared his mind of everything that wasn't music. Sorting through his repertoire, he carefully identified the most upbeat, lively song he knew. Then, he started to play.
The haunted fog seemed to draw back from his immediate surroundings, and the phantasm howled softly in displeasure. "Hah! It's working!"
He called down to the crew. "Everybody! Sing with me!"
The members of the crew that heard him shot incredulous looks toward the crow's nest.
But the captain caught his shout, and quickly realized what he was doing. Looking to her crew, Gracia bellowed, "You heard the man! Sing!"
Hana was gripping the edge of the nest so hard her knuckles had gone completely white, her eyes screwed shut in concentration. Her ears were pinned back to her head, tails lashing back and forth.
Slowly, very slowly, the fog off their starboard bow began to swirl into a vague shape. Another galleon.
The phantasm began to turn towards the nearer prey. There was no telling what it would do when it discovered no life there, but for now they had a chance to get some distance from it.
Yet Thrax kept playing, sure it would target the Lady anew if he stopped. Besides, he was never not going to seize an opportunity to perform. It was kind of awesome, really.
Gracia ordered the crew to their stations so that they could flee. The ship's doctor fetched some smelling salts to rouse Lars so that he could encourage the wind to speed them along.
But as they began to gain a little distance, the phantasm seemed to realize the ruse. With a gruesome howl, it turned to pursue.
Hana kept the illusion going as long as she could—but when the attacking ship gave that howl, she gasped and let the magic go.
That sort of illusion work was one of the most powerful spells she'd ever performed. And that right after her massive fireball in junction with Lars' and Thrax's spells.
But it seemed to have got them some distance at least.
"I—" She swayed, eyes fluttering, knees trembling and threatening to give out—and then she pitched sideways over the edge of the crow's nest.
"Hana!" Thrax cried out. He dropped Stormsong to the floor of the crow's nest and lunged after her, just managing to catch her leg before she would have plummeted to her death.
"I've got you!" Using his impressive strength, he hauled her back up.
The world was spinning around her, even after Thrax had pulled her back up into the stability of the crow's nest. Her heart was racing from the near miss, and her stomach churned with a mixture of belated fear and magical overextension.
"Wh-where...?" She licked her lips and pressed a little into the solidity of Thrax even as she turned her head to look out into the fog. "How...close is it?"
Thrax held her tight, his heart still racing from nearly losing her. He was only vaguely aware of the ghost ship as he glanced in its direction in order to answer her question. "Far enough for us to have a chance."
"You did good, babe; real good." He smiled softly before taking on a serious look. "But never overextend in a high place ever again, okay?"
"...Okay." She nodded shakily and turned her head into his chest. Looking out from this height was...mildly terrifying, now.
"Didn't mean to do that," she breathed with a trembling sort of laugh. "Thanks for—thanks."
He gently rubbed her back and rested his head on top of hers. "I'll always have your back. Just as you'll have mine."
Their tender moment was interrupted by a cannon shot. Down on deck, what appeared to be a sphere of bones crashed into the deck, shaking the crow's nest.
"Right. Still in danger," he sighed. Smirking unconvincingly, he said, "Duty calls."
Hana nodded, pressing her nose into the swoop of the collar of his shirt to let the familiarity of his scent wash over her, grounding her.
Well. They were still too high up for any proper "grounding", but close enough.
"Right." She moved cautiously toward the edge of the nest. "Still in danger."
She glanced down, then back up at Thrax. "You'd better go first—my magic is all but spent, you'll be of more use quicker than I will."
Thrax nodded as he picked up Stormsong. "Take a breather before trying to climb down, okay?" he advised as he climbed onto the rope ladder.
Below, the ball of bones began to rearrange itself, unfurling into a giant, skeletal isopod. As the crew engaged the creature, more of the bone cannon balls crashed into the deck.
"Sure, hun."
Of course, she didn't. She knew he was right and she should, but they didn't have time for her to take a breather. Her magic might be shot, but she still had teeth and claws, and she'd use them.
Once Thrax had got far enough down the ropes that she didn't think her own tired weaving would disturb his grip she started climbing down after him. The whole ship seemed to shudder with the impacts of the second two shots, and she had to cling to the rigging to avoid being throw off onto the deck.
"Gods, what else do they have?!"
Thrax kicked off of the ladder a couple of feet from the bottom and turned to survey the scene. "Roly poly bone bugs? Sure, why not?"
He shrugged Stormsong off of his shoulder and rushed to meet a creature in the middle of a leap. The axe cracked its bony carapace and sent it crashing into a nearby barrel. It released an insectile clicking sound that caused the other creatures to focus on the gnoll.
As the other two creatures rounded on Thrax, Hana growled and dropped the last ten feet to the deck. She shifted forms midair, landing with a sizable thump on four massive paws.
The magic use had drained her, and she wouldn't be creating anymore illusions for a while, but the shapeshifting was a part of her. She may be tired, but she was standing.
She lowered her head with a menacing growl as she stalked to cover the bard's back, four tails lashing and red eyes almost glowing in the fog.
Thrax grinned at her over his shoulder. "Time for some fun, eh babe?"
He turned his attention back to the threat. "Break on three."
On three, he charged the many-legged skeletal abomination coming down the stairs from the quarter deck. His axe swept low, breaking the unnaturally long and sharp front legs of the monstrosity. It shrieked and leaped before he could recover, sinking its mandibles into his shoulder.
"Gah! Get off me you little bastard!" he hollered, attempting to pry it off.
"Your idea of fun might need some reevaluating," Hana quipped back, but there was a laugh in her voice.
She lunged for the insectile creature closest to the rail, snapping massive jaws closed on it and jerking her head up sharply to send it over the edge and into the sea. It seemed to work--but then the water lapping their hull began to bubble, and it started skittering its way back up.
"Damnit--"
She heard Thrax cry out and whipped around. She was already panting, still exhausted from her overextension, and the blue flames that normally leapt from her paws in such a state were barely spitting sparks.
She ran to him anyway, swiping at the creature with a heavy paw to try to knock it loose.
The creature was knocked away, landing on its back, its legs scrabbling at the sky. It lacked the proper instinct to roll up and right itself.
"Thanks." Thrax huffed, feeling at his wound with a hiss. He looked down at the creature and brought his axe down on it until it was too broken to be a threat, saying, "Why. Won't. You. Die!"
"I think..." Hana blinked, her vision fuzzy at the edges. "I think...they're already...dead. Right?"
The blue sparks around her paws flickered, then died. Her head hung heavily, though she still made sure to keep the bulk of her massive fox form between Thrax and the rail where the last bone creature had been climbing back onto the ship.
As the remaining creature crawled over the rail to chitter angrily at the pair, their sharp hearing picked up more scrabbling legs climbing up the starboard hull. A lot more. The ones that had crashed into the ocean had caught up.
Thrax tensed, looking worriedly down at Hana. "That... doesn't sound good..."
Hana growled, the sound thrumming low in her chest. "No," she agreed warily. "It doesn't."
They need to get out of here.
Tails lashing, she crouched low and tried to focus through her fuzzy-headed exhaustion. "Can we keep them back long enough to..."
Eyes widened, she whipped her head toward him. "Wind. Can Stormsong call up a wind?"
Thrax sighed. "I saw my master do it once, but he never had a chance to teach me wind magic. He wanted me to get better at lightning first. Not that I never tried."
He closed his eyes for a moment and took a slow breath. "Least I can do is try."
Cradling Stormsong, he began to play the Song of Wind as he remembered it. He focused his thoughts on the wind, visualizing the flow of the air and grabbing it with a great, invisible hand. Slowly, the wind picked up; it was working. But would it grow enough to matter?
Okay. Okay, the music was definitely doing something.
She and the crew just had to hold off the bone-bugs long enough for it to start filling their sails.
Weaving slightly on her paws, Hana took up a guard position directly in front of Thrax, serving as his main line of defense while he played, and barked to the sailors, "Use the wind, and try to keep those things off us as long as you can!"
The crew rushed to work, those without a specific role grabbing weapons and moving to intercept the creatures climbing over the rails. Steel met bone and bone met flesh as the two forces clashed.
Thrax was getting tired from the constant drain of his magical energy, but he knew that he couldn't stop until they were safe. One missed note and the wind would falter. His relief when the sails finally billowed was palpable. Just a little longer and they'd be away from there.
Hana had just batted yet another bone-constructed over the rail of the Lady when suddenly the ship broke through the far line of fog into suddenly blazing sunshine.
She sighed heavily in relief and started to slump onto the deck, panting. Hopefully Thrax could keep the magic up just a little longer, just to make sure they had left this thing behind them.
The instant the sunshine hit them, every one of the constructs shrieked in agony as they were reduced to dust. The battle was over; they had survived. There were a few casualties but, miraculously, no fatalities.
Once they gained a safe distance from the fog bank, Thrax slumped to the deck, drained by the unprecedented level of spellcasting he had just performed. "There's no way I'm making it to our bunks..." he yawned tiredly.
Hana just barely had the energy to roll toward him and flop her vulpine head into his lap. "Mhm..." she agreed tiredly, eyes already fluttering. The usually constant blue sparks that would swirl around her paws had disappeared entirely, and her tails hung limp with exhaustion.
She thought she heard a familiar voice, Gracie, calling for the crew to sound off, but she couldn't even make herself respond before the darkness at the edges of her vision claimed her.
Thrax gave her a scratch behind the ears before he succumbed to the siren call of sleep.
He awoke in the corner of the map room, where the crew had dragged them to get them off the deck. "Where...?" he mumbled, momentarily confused by the change of location. Then he noticed Hana curled up next to him and couldn't help but smile at how adorable she looked sleeping in fox form. He couldn't stop himself from snuggling up against her.
Hana was so thoroughly exhausted that she barely stirred when he curled against her, and she made a sleepy whining sound in the back of her throat that was almost more a squeak than anything else.
"...Shoeprints," she muttered, barely audible. Her eyes were still firmly closed. "Bananas in...the coffee..."
Thrax fell back asleep with an amused smile on his face.
After an unknown length of time, the door creaked open. Gracia winced. She had hoped to slip in and use the map room without waking the pair. They had saved the whole damn ship, so they deserved all the rest they could get. And, damnit, they were being absolutely adorable.
Thrax's eyes fluttered open and he shot Gracia a sleepy, annoyed look.
"Sorry," she mouthed.
Hana grumbled and shifted sleepily--and her shape shimmered around the edges before it started to shrink, collapsing in on itself with a faint pop of blue sparks until she was left curled in her halfway shape.
It was hardly the first time she'd shifted in her sleep. In fact, it didn't even seem to have awakened her, as she simply rolled onto her back and gave a puppyish sneeze.
Gracia snorted quietly, then caught Thrax's eye and nodded behind him to the bolted table in the center of the room. "I need to check our course," she said quietly.
Thrax met Gracia's snort with one of his own and nodded. They couldn't monopolize the map room forever. He quietly extracted himself from his snuggle and sat up.
"Everything okay?" he mouthed.
She nodded and edged around the two of them toward the table. "We got turned a bit in the fog. We're set on the right course again, but I need to figure out how much time we lost."
Hana grumbled sleepily and reached out with one hand after Thrax as the warmth snuggled against her disappeared. Gracia snorted quietly and nodded to her. "Take her to my quarters, the two of you can sleep it off there. I won't be needing them for the next few hours, and you did just save the ship."
"Thanks," Thrax said quietly as he kneeled down and picked Hana up, cradling her easily in his big arms.
"Storm, she's adorable when she's sleeping, isn't she?" he chuckled in a fond whisper. "I really do love her, with everything that I am."
Hana curled up comfortably in his arms, nuzzling into his chest. Either she just wanted the warmth, or even in her sleep she recognized him.
The captain rolled her eyes, though her lips twitched up slightly on one side. "Off with you both," she murmured, waving them toward the door. "You'll rot my teeth with all your lovey-dovey stuff."
"I sure hope it doesn't work that way or I'm gonna end up toothless," he chuckled before disappearing through the door.
When Hana finally woke up, it was to Thrax watching her with a dopey, lovestruck smile on his face. "The fairytale princess awakens at last," he smirked.
Hana blinked, then smiled even as she rolled onto her back with a dramatic groan.
"Oh, that's all we need," she huffed, "for one of us to turn out to be secret royalty. Don't we have enough problems?"
"Well, I know I'm safe," Thrax laughed aloud. "Gnoll royalty isn't a thing that exists. And unless there's a kitsune monarch off in some foreign land, you're safe too."
Smirking playfully, for he knew he was going to say something incredibly cheesy, he said, "Of course, I'll hedge my bets and treat you like the queen you are."
"Oh, gods," Hana half groaned, half laughed and rolled back over to bury her face in her arms. "You're such a sap," she accused fondly when she lifted her head, reaching out with one hand to stroke his cheek lightly. "There should be laws against it."
"You said it yourself that I have a weakness for cheese." Thrax continued to smirk as he leaned into her touch. Love was worth acting the fool for. And he was head over heels for her. "Besides, you know you like it. Deep down. Really deep down."
Hana scoffed quietly, but she was smiling, and she kept her palm pressed to his cheek for a few moments. "Maybe," she admitted teasingly. "A little. Way deep down."
She pulled him in to peck the tip of his nose, then let her hand drop and rolled onto her back with a sigh. "Gods. Everyone okay after...all that?" She shook her head. "Can't believe that was a whole-ass ghost ship."
"Everyone is remarkably okay," Thrax answered. "Well, aside from the mental trauma of being used as the puppet choir from hell. But they're a resilient bunch. They'll be fine."
"I'm more worried about you, honestly. You wore yourself out more than I did and I don't feel great."
He exhaled. "Let's never tap our magic out like that again, okay? That sucked."
"Uuhhhg, you're not kidding," she half-groaned, half-laughed in agreement. Her eyes flicked up and down him, then she noted with a slight raise of her eyebrows, "You seem to have recovered pretty well, though. How come you're not still asleep?"
He smirked. "We gnolls have energy to spare. We don't know the meaning of--"
He snorted, unable to carry the blatant bullshit any further. "Nah, I was dead to the world until a few minutes before you woke up. I woke up once earlier, though, when Gracia needed the map room. But believe me, I collapsed again after carrying you to her quarters."
"Well, c'mere." She shifted back to make room for him and tugged lightly at his hand. "I think we've earned the right to nap until Gracie forcibly removes us from here, yeah?"
She cocked her head at him, lips quirked on one side and ears flicking playfully, but there was a hint of concern buried in her expression. That had been a lot of magic--and she'd never seen Thrax collapse like that after casting.
Thrax cozied up to her, too tired to laugh off her concern with a joke. It really had been a close call, perhaps as close to death as he had been since the day he fled his village. And he had almost killed himself trying to keep everyone alive.
"I didn't even know I had that much magic in me to burn. Controlling the wind was something I thought was beyond me, even with the boost from Stormsong. Maybe I finally could, because now I have something to protect beyond my own life."
"All those cheesy songs about the power of love don't seem so ridiculous anymore," he chuckled.
Hana scooched herself up on the mattress so she could hug him against her chest and curl around him protectively.
"Mmm. Most magic is emotionally fueled, isn't it?" she noted through a small yawn. Her eyes were fluttering again. "Love is a strong one. Makes sense it can power some pretty insane stuff..."
Her own magical education had hardly been structured, but Tobin had taught her enough that she knew that could, in fact, be the problem; an intense emotion could fuel a spell, but ultimately the magic relied on the energy of the caster. Like a mother's "hysterical strength" in lifting a fallen tree off a child--the adrenaline allowed her to ignore the damage being done to her body, but once it faded...
Thrax couldn't help but be a little amused by her curling around him, much like he had around her while she slept.
"That does make sense. When Stormsinger Zezak taught me that emotion was the key to musical casting, I never realized just how powerful a key it is until I met you," he responded. "Another way we make each other better."
"How very dare you." Hana sniffed. "I was already perfect. I hardly need your help."
She kissed the top of his head, and the way she curved her body around his rather undercut the words. The teasing dropped from her tone and she murmured, "Get some sleep, baby. Gracia will have us pulling our weight again soon enough."
"Sooner than we'd like, I'm sure," Thrax sighed with a sleepy smile. It took no time at all for the big guy to fall asleep in her warm embrace.
Some time later...
An announcement from the crow's nest signaled that the couple's time on the Adamant Lady was quickly approaching its end. Soon, they would be crossing the desert.
"Ugh... I'm torn between wanting to be on solid ground and not wanting to experience desert heat again," Thrax commented. The Serha got pretty miserable in the summer but that was a humid heat. He had only been in Essyrn once and briefly but, even though it was more bearable than he had expected, he could imagine drying out pretty quickly if you weren't careful.
"Yeah," Hana sighed dramatically in agreement, leaning out over the ship's rail with her arms folded on the wooden beam. "Bringing heat I can do, but unfortunately I don't really have any magic that will help cool us off."
She glanced up at him sidelong with a lopsided smile. "And the desert makes illusions easy enough on its own, but all accounts."
Thrax leaned out beside her, careful not to look down at the waves lapping at the hull as to not aggravate his seasickness, and mused aloud, "And water magic, if either of us even could use it, would just get us on Essyrn's shit list. You'd think living in the flipping desert would be easier if they used it but, no, it insults their goddess somehow. But I guess I'm just not equipped to understand—my people didn't even have a god."
Hana shrugged. "Honestly I'm not sure if mine do—they don't follow the rest of Thanatos, but beyond that I don't really know. Doesn't really matter I guess," she mused, tipping her head to one side. Unlike her partner, she had no issue watching the lapping of the waves. "Tobin didn't much care for gods. Always said if there was any force worth worshipping, it made itself known in nature."
Thrax grinned. "Sounds like he and Zezak would have had a lot in common. That's my religion in a nutshell. No gods, but rather the observable power of nature itself."
He sighed. "I still feel empty sometimes when I think about all the people I'll never see again—not until my spirit joins them in the eternal storm. I sometimes wish I could go back and change things, but then I realize I wouldn't be the man I am today, and I wouldn't have met you."
She glanced up at him, then reached out to rest her hand on his arm lightly.
"You're allowed to miss them," she told him softly, her voice just barely audible over the rhythmic rush of the water. "Just like you're allowed to enjoy the life you have now. Liking who you've become doesn't mean you don't mourn them, and wishing the past had been different doesn't mean you don't care about this present."
There was an uncharacteristic melancholy in her words and tone, a slight weight of experience. She knew they'd lost their people in very different ways—and on very different scales—but she could sympathize with the "what if" trains of thought.
Thrax turned his head to look down at her. There was regret in his eyes. "I wonder what they'd think of me. I don't think I've dishonored our ways but I haven't exactly adhered to them either. Would they think I've become too much like a human? Would they understand that I had to adapt to survive, or would they think that's just an excuse?"
"I don't even know what they'd think of you. There was no taboo against relationships with non-gnolls—it just never really came up."
Hana was quiet for several long breaths. Then, slowly and quietly, she murmured, "How...important is that to you?"
She frowned a bit, unhappy with how that sounded. "I mean--even if you are a bit more human than most gnolls, is that...a bad thing? To you?" She tugged awkwardly at one ear, lips pursed. "I think it's...really up to you. I know the situations are so, so different, but I can't help thinking about, y'know...my people. And how they reacted to humans--to one of their own choosing a human."
She shrugged. "If they were still here, if we'd met some other way, with you a fully trained gnollish mage...I dunno. What would you even think of me?"
Thrax took a slow breath as he contemplated the question. "I don't really think that's a question that has an answer. I just..." He turned to face her, putting a hand on her shoulder.
Continuing, his voice tender, he said, "I'd like to say my soul would always know yours, that we're two halves of a whole... But I only know for sure that this me wouldn't trade being with you for all the gold in the world. So, no, it isn't all that important to me whether I'm 'too human'. I am who I am and I like who I am."
"I like who you are too," Hana told him with a small smile, reaching up to place her hand on his where it rested on her shoulder and squeeze gently. "And for what it's worth...look, it's not like I enjoy the tragedy of my early years. But...who I am now led me to you. And I'm grateful for that."
She looked up at him for a moment--then away again quickly, clearing her throat to cover the warmth in her cheeks. "So. Y'know. Relish the present and all that, blah blah blah."
"I'll drink to that," he chuckled, smirking, "I mean... I'll drink to a lot of things, but especially that."
He put an arm around her and held her close, content to spend the rest of the moment in companionable silence with the woman he loved. Eventually, someone behind them cleared their throat.
"Alright lovebirds, you need to be getting ready to depart for your ill-advised trek across the desert," Percy said.
Hana was well content herself to enjoy the moment, though of course it couldn't last.
Sighing, she pushed away from the rail and turned to face Percy. "Alright, alright," she huffed. "We'll get moving. Cap'n need anything from us before we dock?"
Percy shook his head briskly. "She merely wants one last moment with the two of you before you leave. For old times' sake, I assume."
Thrax nodded to the first mate. "I think we can manage that. We don't have much to take that we don't carry with us, other than the extra supplies we'll need."
Percy nodded. "Then I'll tell her to expect you. She'll be in the captain's quarters until we get close to shore, so go sooner rather than later."
"Thanks, Perce." Hana gave him a quick smile and waved him off.
The smile dropped a bit as she leaned against Thrax a little more heavily. "Well...seems like a fifty-fifty chance this is a fond farewell or a chewing out. What are you putting coin on?"
"Knowing her, a bit of both." Thrax smirked. "But if I had to place a bet, I guess I'd have to say fond farewell."
He put on his best innocent expression. "But only because I can't think of anything for her to actually chew us out over." Dramatically, he put a hand on his chest. "I, at least, am the very model of innocence."
"Suuuuuure you are." Hana rolled her eyes fondly, then reached over to loop her arm through his. "C'mon, let's go find out."
Her expression softened a bit and she added, "I do sorta feel like we owe her one. Not many captains would have taken us on just on the promise of work."
"Oh, definitely," Thrax chuckled as they started walking. "We don't exactly have the appearance of reliable people."
"And it's not even because most humans don't trust gnolls or kitsunes. It's because fun people aren't typically reliable people. But we can totally be reliable... if we like someone enough. Yeah?"
"Hey, River kept trying to pawn those twins off on me, so either parenting makes you so exhausted you lose any sense of judgement, or someone trusts us," she laughed as they headed below decks to meet the captain.
Thrax was still laughing from her comment as they approached the door to Gracia's quarters. He reigned in his amusement and prepared to knock, but the door opened.
"Do you really think I didn't hear you coming? You aren't quiet," Gracia teased with a smirk.
The gnoll put his hand on his heart. "Who? Me? Well, I never."
"Silent as the grave, us two," Hana agreed, still laughing a bit herself. She tried to sober herself and straightened up a bit. Snapping into a quick, only slightly sarcastic salute, she said, "Percy told us you needed us—reporting for final duties, captain!"
Gracia shook her head like a teacher weary of corralling excitable children. "I swear, neither of you ever took anything seriously."
She chuckled to herself. "But this is just a social call—mostly—so come on in.
"Yes, mom," Thrax sighed theatrically, stepping inside. For that, he received a playful swat on the head, even though she had to stand on her tiptoes to do it. He barked a laugh in return.
Hana arched an eyebrow. "What does a mostly social call entail?" she asked warily, easily ducking under Gracia's swat to Thrax's head so she could pop up on the captain's other side.
"Part friends saying farewell, part a friend making sure you know what you're getting yourselves into," Gracia answered. "I'd never forgive myself if you died out there doing something stupid." She seemed to direct that concern more towards the gnoll.
"... fair," Thrax admitted. "That is the odds-on favorite in my death pool."
Gracia frowned. "Not the time gallows humor, Thrax."
"Oi, a little credit here," Hana protested mildly, looking between them both. "C'mon, Gracie, you really think I'd let him get himself killed?"
Granted, there was a non-zero chance they would both do something stupid, but she thought the odds shifted in their favor if they remembered to check each other.
"Oh, if you didn't have each other's backs, I'd never let either of you do this." Gracia smirked, trying to lighten the moment a little. "Well, to the extent that either of you waits for anyone to let you do anything."
Thrax rolled his eyes. "I think we're both a little more responsible than we were. We've been through a lot since then."
The captain sighed, deflating. "Right. I suppose you have, fuzzy. You certainly don't have that pesky deathwish gnawing at you."
Hana shot a quick glance toward the gnoll, a flash of memory from their brief but intense sojourn to the plains playing behind her eyes. She shook her head slightly and looked back to the captain with a customary half-smirk half-smile in place.
"We'll be fine, promise."
"You'd better be," Gracia responded.
Taking on a lighter expression, she went to her desk and opened a drawer. "Now that that's out of the way, on to the socializing." She got out three glasses and a bottle of rum. "I was saving this for a special occasion. I think this qualifies, don't you?"
Thrax grinned. "Oh, definitely. Of course, if I had that I'd have drank it already."
Gracia laughed. "I think we're all well aware of your longstanding feud with impulse control."
"Eh, impulse control is overrated," Hana scoffed, grinning as she took the offered glass and lifted it up. "So! What are we toasting to? Friends? New journeys? The spectacularly hilarious awkwardness of finding out that both Thrax and I courted you at one point?"
Thrax barked a laugh as he raised his glass. "I know, right? I almost choked on my ale when we realized it."
Gracia laughed warmly. "With the way you two got around, it was bound to happen eventually. So, all of the above, I guess?"
"Hear, hear!" the gnoll grinned, clinking his glass against theirs before knocking back the contents like it was water.
Hana rolled her eyes and muttered something under her breath about Thrax being too heavy for her to cart through the desert when he passed out, but she was smiling, and downed her own glass nearly as quickly.
"Well, we're grateful for the lift, regardless," she said to the captain with a lopsided smirk.
"Yeah. We couldn't have asked for a better ship or captain to get us this far," Thrax agreed with a smile.
Gracia chuckled. "Not in your price range, no," she said humbly.
"Hopefully this trip is profitable then! Then we can actually pay you with more than labor next time," Thrax said enthusiastically.
"And pshaw to that!" Hana added, raising her now-empty glass. "You and the Lady are the best we could have asked for at any price range."
Gracia rolled her eyes, but there was the faintest hint of a pleased, warm color in her cheeks. "You and that silver tongue," she said with a small chuckle. "It truly is a wonder it hasn't yet gotten you into more trouble."
Thrax grinned, bumping shoulders with his girl. "Oh, I dunno about that. I'd say it's gotten us out of trouble far more often."
"At least she's gotten me out of a few unpleasant encounters before my gnollish battle lust comes out. My own silver tongue is no good when that happens." He put a hand on hers and smiled gratefully.