Chapter 6: Conquest
Slowly, Marco calmed down enough to consider the facts of his situation. Not interesting didn’t mean it was boring. He was out on the water, in his own ship. He had his own sword, and he had a crew in Elisa.
Government pursuit and a general lack of preparedness aside, this is pretty good. It’s most of what I wanted. We’re alone, sure, but that has its own charm.
He took a quick inventory of his supplies. He had some food and water, although not enough of each that he could afford to take too long finding land before he’d have problems he didn’t want. He had Tatric’s basic tools, which he knew like his own hands. He had tried to push them back to the old man, but the dockmaster had insisted he could get more. It was much more than a hammer, a few nails, a saw, and a few other miscellaneous tools. It was a bit of home.
Last but not least, Marco had a small package. The captain had looked like he didn’t want to give that one up when he had pulled it from his pack at the last minute. After a bit of hesitation, he handed it over.
“I’m supposed to deliver this to someone. I guess I’m going to claim I lost it and compensate him.” Garrick had looked a little embarrassed as he said it. Marco had guessed that he was more worried about failing at an assigned task than the money part of things. “I thought you might need it after I heard what your class was. Don’t open it now. There will be plenty of time once you’ve already caught wind.”
He turned the package over in his hands a few times. It was heavy, which usually meant good things in Marco’s experience. All the best stuff weighed a significant amount. Given the kind of quality his sea-faring friend usually traded in, this promised to be something special.
He had just started to work out the knotted twine when he was rudely interrupted. At first, he thought he had just caught a bit of an impact on his head, maybe from a loose piece of rigging. The immediate warmth coming down the side of his head surprised him. That was blood, from a real cut. He had taken real damage. There was a splash from the side of the ship as something silver disappeared back into the water, not quite fast enough to keep his class from identifying it.
| Bladefish The Bladefish is a sharp, fast predatory fish that slices up anything smaller than itself in order to feed. Its fins are as hard and sharp as iron, and any contact with its abrasive scales is likely to open up dozens of smaller cuts just as quickly as its primary weapons would. The Bladefish is at its most dangerous in the water, but can operate almost as well in the air. It can launch itself out of the sea in short, brutal jumps, cutting at whatever it collides with, with the goal of filling the waters with even more food than usual. This fish moves in schools.
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