Kenway canted his head to the side with a soft huff of air. "Alright. We'll let you walk up first, but we'll be behind you in case you or your dog try to hop off."

Ember soggily shuffled behind Phen, as did Kenway, and she nudged Phen's foot with her own. "Be quick, now. I wanna get out of these wet clothes. You should, too, 'nless you wanna get sick."

Ember puffed her cheeks out in indignation, likely to legitimately show her annoyance at his mirth despite their soggy situation, but it came off as more of a pout than any scowl or snarl. "Well, excuse me for trying to keep damage to a minimum. I'm just glad we didn't tumble off of the ship itself. We are not doing anything like that again."

Kenway, despite his best efforts, was still smirking like a canary-catching cat by the time they made it back over to him. He nodded over to Ember. "Take a good swim?"

"Shut up."

"Must've been very nice, really; you went in twice, Captain."

"I'll burn your stupid hair off, I swear to Perle."

Kenway's grin twitched up just the slightest bit, then schooled his expression back to cool indifference while Ember was still kicking the ground and muttering to herself under her breath. "You. I trust you know your own dog, yes? What's the best way to keep him calm as we go up the ramp?"

Ember shrugged one shoulder, her soaked clothing making her movements sluggish as she trudged back towards where Kenway was getting rid of the last of his wheezing laughs, sending him a not-so-discreet glare before turning her face back to Phen. "I s'ppose that every dog is different. I hope none of my crew gets on his bad side, anyway—I'll make sure to let those who prefer cats take duties far away from him."

Ember saw Phen's eye roll and, in response, pointedly rolled her eyes, but harder than he had. Just to tease and poke, of course. She slowly moved towards dry land, the water sloshing around her as she grimaced at the feeling of sand in her boots. "I can see that. Is he a biter, if he doesn't like someone?"

Ember sighed once more, though it wasn't as heavy as before, patting Ar'ruubis on the head lightly and rubbing behind his ears. She couldn't be too mad at the dog—he was just playing, even if it got her dunked in the water and humiliated in front of two members of her crew that already had a habit of ribbing on her.

"Well, our time together all depends on the money," she answered almost reflexively, with the same stiff countenance—that was her life, always focused on the next bit of coin—but paused, continuing to pet Ar'ruubis, calming down a little. It wasn't as if she could get any more damp, right now. anyway. "...But that's good. It'd be a terrible curse if I was hated by him. I can only imagine that I'd be pushed into the water with much more malice."

Ember flinched at the newest wet feeling on her cheek, and grumbled something unintelligible beneath her breath (though it certainly wasn't anything positive), and reluctantly patted Ar'ruubis on the head. She resolved to never get a hyperactive dog like him—old seadogs with lots of patience and levelheadedness, only.

She sighed, moving her hands to lift her hair out of her face once more. "What do you do to calm him down? Because if he keeps pushing us into the water, or at least trying to, I might just explode."

Ember almost regretted ever meeting Phen, now, as she tumbled back into the water, hair flopping back in her face as she resurfaced again. Ransom be damned, she was half-tempted to let both him and the dog flounder in the water like babies let down a stream, but considering all the stress that led her to this moment, her sense of greed outweighed her frustration and she grabbed Phen again, like a mutt by the scruff of its neck, and squinted through the red-black curtain of her hair obscuring her face.

"Where's your damn dog?" she asked gruffly, her vision only semi-accurate. If he was lost in the water, she was going to force Kenway to get a net and scoop him up like a sea bass.

Ember squawked in a tone not too dissimilar from a frightened hen, Haytham's eyes widening as he spun around at the chaotic mixture of sounds, turning just in time to see Ember's face disappear beneath the water.

She was a competent enough swimmer, as the water wasn't too deep, but she was never fond of getting wet, much less tangled up in other people and animals. She resurfaced quickly, fist twisted in Phen's shirt to help pull him up with her, mouth bobbing up from beneath to suck in a breath before she dunked her head under again, intentionally this time, to lift her huge mass of hair and flip it over her head and out of her eyes with her free hand, slapping Phen in the face with her long hair. That wasn't intentional, but it was a little satisfying, considering it was his dog that got them into this situation.

She coughed and panted for breath, glaring at Phen with barely-contained rage before lifting her head to the gang plank, scrutinizing the figures still up there. Haytham was seemingly dumbfounded, and Kenway near the end openly snickered. "Don't just stand there, you idiots. Get the dog."

She trained her gaze back onto her "captive," mirth fully out of her system now. "And you." her hand was still gripping his shirt, but she quickly shoved him away (or as much as she could with how heavy her arm was from her wet sleeve). "Get to shore or I'll drown you right here."

"Oho? You should be fine unless we pull out of port, then—a little rocking will be nothing. You don't seem too delicate," Ember mused, though she bitterly noted in her head that he was able to knock her down before.

She returned his smile with a far bolder one, about twice as confident and fairly carefree. "That all depends on how fast and generous your family is. Tell me, truly, how much do you think they'd pay for you? Not how much you think you're worth, necessarily, but how much your family does. Or employer, if your family won't pay."

Haytham silently guided Phen up the ramp, not bothering to give him so much as a quick glance over his shoulder to make sure he was following. His opinion of Phen, whatever it might've been before, had obviously already soured.

Ember held up the back with Kenway trailing behind, peering up at the magnificence of her ship. She tapped Phen's back, whistling absentmindedly. "D'you spend a lot of time on ships, or are they not your favorite place to be? Knowing whether you've got sea legs or not will help a lot."

Haytham raised a thick brow, crossing his arms gruffly. "And what made you think that, friend?"

His tone wasn't very pleased at all, his emphasis on the word friend certainly expressing that he didn't consider Phen even remotely close to that in the slightest. He was at least half-right, though—while Haytham's father was Essyrni, his mother was from Hyoite, and he was born there, to boot. Clearly, though, he wasn't keen on sharing that.

Ember rolled her eyes playfully, patting Phen on the shoulder so as to get him to move closer to Haytham again. "Careful with what you assume of others—or at least keep them in your head. Much of the crew aren't exactly open to talkin' about where they came from. What matters is the present, no?"

Haytham growled in frustration at Phen's sudden change of direction( but Ember snickered and simply nodded at Phen, flipping her long hair over her shoulder. "I do love jokes, but I also hate to lie frivolously—"

"That's a lie," Haytham grumbled underneath his breath.

"—and I'm absolutely telling the truth when I'm saying we've been to Hyoite, and we can go again. You can tag along, of course, since you're a precious guest. Who knows, maybe you'll fall in love with the place."

Business was business, to Ember—she dealt with slavers on the water enough times to see how varied they could treat their sentient cargo, but she never held slaves, herself. Prisoners, certainly, and hired laborers to help bring things on and off the ship if they had a particularly large load coming on or off, but never slaves that she owned herself. She liked the taste of freedom, and thought it best suited to everyone... but if the master didn't seem particularly cruel and they had lots of precious gold, who was she to say anything to how the world worked? She had to fund her own life and her own ship, of course.

She pulled away from his face, instead stepping to the side and nudging Phen's foot with her own, jerking her head to Haytham's direction, wordlessly telling him to walk to the master of the crows nest. She cracked a smile. "What? We're a charming bunch, aren't we? It's fun. Have you ever been to Hyoite? It's a bit chilly, but the people are rather interesting. Getting some adventure in your life has never been a bad thing."

"Your good looks would get you somewhere that isn't quite in my field of trade, I'm afraid," Ember hummed, stepping forward to carefully touch his cheek, turning his face to the side to better examine him bit by bit. Even if he was adopted, knowing exactly what and who he might look like would be helpful—perhaps his blood family was some sort of underground crime syndicate that might want him back, or there were whispers that someone with his specific features got adopted by a wealthy family. Any information was good, really.

She snickered. "We'll just have to see how much your adoptive family likes you, then. Or if anyone with lots of gold would care to say that you're their secret blood relative. Anything works, really; if no one reaches out by the time my patience runs thin, I'll take you on a fun trip to foreign waters, how does that sound?"

Ember raised her hand and whistled to a dark figure sitting at the edge of the ship, sipping at a bottle in their hand. Though his messy hair covered his eyes and his posture was low and slouched, she could very clearly tell that it was Haytham, taking a break now that they were properly docked and he no longer had to watch for land. Even from all the way down where she was, she could see his irritated scowl, and she grinned. "Oh, crow! Would you mind coming down here for a minute?"

His steel gray eyes scrutinized the sight below behind the windswept curtain of loose curls over his face, and evidently hated what they saw. "I'm off duty, Cap'n," he shouted, but nevertheless threw his bottle to the side and heavily clambered down the ramp of the ship to meet them there.

"It shouldn't be too much of a trouble to host you, Phen," Ember answered, turning to face him. "I've had quite an array of demanding captives—I mean, visitors; practically the same thing—so I'm sure we can handle you. Unless, of course, there's something extra-special about you that we should know about? You know, anything to make your stay better or shorter."

"Chained to the armchair in the corner of my cabin with a sack over your head, most likely," Ember mused aloud, returning to her smooth stroll to the ship, the gleaming, terrible, dark hull of the Black Torch seeming to come nearer and nearer. "You'll be given food, though, at the very least. You must be hungry after our scuffle."

Kenway simply kept his gaze stoically forward, though his hand (clearly strong, deft, and calloused from a lifetime of sailing ships, shooting guns, and wrangling runaways) appeared to absentmindedly tap against Phen's clavicle, as if to simply remind him that it was very much there and very capable of hurting him.

"Well, Seskah," Sorrel turned back to their new favorite animal, giving her light pats and praise that slowly devolved into something both unintelligible and inaudible.

Kenway just sighed, moving to sling an over-casual arm over Phen's shoulders to guide him that way, instead—far less strange-looking than before, even if his posture was still rather stiff. "Thank fuck. If there were any more barn animals we'd have to gather up, I might as well just kill you and get the hassle over with. Much easier than playing wild goose chase."

"Don't even talk like that," Ember scoffed (even if a tiny twitch of a grin graced her face), looking around for their ship before turning her face back to the pair. "No one's going to kill you. Seriously. At least, not under my nose."

Sorrel carefully came forward to take the dragon bird by the lead, giving her a ginger nod. "I use 'they' and 'them,'" they corrected briefly, gently tugging her forward. "But thanks for the heads up. Does this beauty have a name?"

Ember moved up front, walking in front of them all to scout what was out there first (nothing out of the ordinary, apparently) before beckoning them to follow her as she stepped out back to the open area. "Do you have any other pets we should know about, or is this it?"

"I enjoy stealing with style," Ember said simply, nodding to Kenway to start leading Phen to the ship. "Besides, we have practice with ransoms—it'll be quite efficient, don't you worry."

She cocked her head at the dragon bird as Kenway started to push Phen forward, insistent but not forceful. "Can we trust that your pet won't peck my chef's head open, or will we have to take extra precautions?"

She didn't mind wasting time where they were—it certainly didn't seem like anyone was going to come for him, nor did he appear have any powerful weapons or skills on hand that could have him win a fight against three of them. With two allies with her, she felt far more at ease that whatever came up could be handled.

"As long as it takes to get a sizable ransom, or interesting information from you," Ember shrugged with one shoulder. "Or as long as it doesn't get irritating looking after a hostage and his animal companions. Unless the absolute worst case scenario happens—we're forced to leave Essyrn in a haste for any reason—it shouldn't be any longer than a few days to a fortnight, depending on how stubborn you or your family are."