"Thank you. Chao'nu, huh..." Neri then proceeeded to find someplace quiet(er) and sit down, not bothering to check if she would be a nuisance in that spot. She opened up some sea charts and started muttering to herself over them. At one point, she held up her finger in the air.
After several minutes of pondering and talking to herself, Neri strode up to the captain. "Well first we'll need to get out of port." She laughed inwardly. Then, she began her actual explanation; holding up a chart in front of Sven while doing it. "First, we'll need to go here. Then here. Then aaaaall the way over here to avoid the Chao'nu Death Reefs, and finally here." She pointed as she did this. "I'll be able to give more detailed instructions when we've set off."
we will survive.Toby continued looking at the mermaid as she looked his way, then as she swam up to enter the boat he drifted swiftswimmer forward to look up as she went. "Cool" Toby muttered to himself. Swimming around with a tail like that instead of legs... But this thing's pretty awesome too Toby thought to himself, glancing down at swiftswimmer. With the mermaid gone, at least for the moment, Toby once again oriented himself in the Westerly direction he'd been told to go, and started to speed forward. Once well clear of the boat, he slowly rose back up towards the surface until he was zooming along the top of the water rather than in it.
Just go out, see if it looks like it's gonna be stormy or not, and go back to the boat. Should be easy Toby thought, sweeping his gaze across the horizon. The view up here isn't nearly as interesting as the view underneath though it occurred to him, just a bit solemnly. Up here was just waves and sky; down there... There was all kinds of things down there. Buuut, he wouldn't really be able to see any storms from under the water, so alas, sticking to the surface it was. He could at least go underwater for the trip back to the boat, he realized.
You are reading this.Snake went to the rigging, making sure the masts were upright and straight. Doing the rigging made Scales think of his boat and how it really should have had a sail. Oh well, what is done is done.
The naga's tail helped him in the stability department compared to if he had legs. Guess that's one good thing of having a long tail, you can't really trip if you don't have feet. It made Snake wonder if Sven had the islander rig due to this advantage.
Some people say I'm lazy. It's hard to disagree.Sven winced as the navigator got in his face to explain the route. "Whoa there, little miss. Sloooowwww down," he exclaimed. The captain frowned. "I got all of that perfectly, Sven. If you were not able to keep up I apologize. But this 'little miss' knows her way around the sea. Very well, miss Neri. Indeed, we will have to avoid the Chao'nu Death Reefs." They were called such because of the many shoals that were in shallow water that tended to rip the keels of boats asunder, but also because of the mer population in that very reef which tended to seduce and kill travelers in that area.
Speaking of mer, Toby was not alone under the water as he traveled. He was being watched. A pair of golden eyes gazed at Toby from the depths, far too deep for Toby to see. As he returned to the ship, the golden eyes followed him. Luckily there was no storm on the horizon, but a storm would be the least of his problems....
edited 24th May '15 7:59:00 PM by AllHailThrall
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.Seeing no signs of a storm after a few minutes, Toby turned swiftswimmer around in a wide turn, dipping down underwater as he did. Down here the sights were more interesting, though he did not see the eyes following him. All he had to do now was return to the boat; maybe the mermaid would be underwater again, and he could introduce himself.
He kept a quick pace, seeing no reason to dally.
You are reading this.By the time that Toby had gotten back to the ship, the crew seemed to be ready to ship out. The captain walked up to the upper deck nearby the steering wheel. Sven stood on the lower deck, standing with his arms crossed and ready to bark orders at the deckhands.
"Is everyone ready to depart?" Sven called out to the crew.
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.The captain nodded. "Very well. We will be off!" he shouted, pulling something from his inner jacket. It was an ornate sword with arcane marking on it, made of orichalcum. As soon as he pointed it in the direction of the open sea, the wheel began to turn. "Raise the anchor! We set sail for Chao'nu!" he exclaimed. In an instant the deckhands got to work. In a few moments the ship would be on its way.
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.OOC: I apologize for the shoddy post last time. I'll continue from here.
The sails unfurled, the anchor raised, and the ship was off. The wind on the sea gusted at the sails and pushed them in the direction of the Jade Continent. For the better part of the day the ship was sailing, nothing but the empty sea and the sky above. The sun was beginning to lower over the horizon, and the Captain was sitting below deck. He had allowed Sven to take command of the deck for the time being.
Above deck, Sven was joining the crew in a lively shanty. Sven was much more laid back than the captain was, so he was eager to join the crew in song. However, before the crew could reach the next stanza, one of the crew noticed something in the distance. He clambered up the mast and sat in the crow's nest, pulling a spyglass to his eye. No doubt about it... it was a sail. "SAIL HO!" he shouted as loud as he could. The ship's singers went silent.
edited 1st Jun '15 9:55:40 PM by AllHailThrall
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.For her part, Alaryn swam at the side of the ship following it as it made for the oceans... her figure mostly visible under the surface of the water. She was thinking perhaps of building herself a nest or room of some sort underneath the ship... or to its size. Something underwater where she could be carried by the big thing of wood as it moved through the oceans. She could swim for a good while, but even she would get tired eventually...
And while she thought of all these things, she failed to notice the sails... though granted, it's a bit harder to see them from underneath the waters.
After getting back to the ship and reporting the lack of storms, Toby got himself back up on deck much like he had before; though this time he tried not to shoot so high so that he wouldn't come down on the deck so hard. Even he knew that wasn't a good idea for the wooden deck, though he wasn't sure if it could really damage Swiftswimmer in return. After that, he had done what he could to help out the deckhands, since he didn't just want to sit around and be useless; though, he didn't push himself very hard with any of the physical labor.
Once the spotter yelled out about the other ship, Toby looked forward out at the horizon. He thought he could make something out, but without a spyglass of his own it was hard to say for sure. "I can go check it out" Toby said aloud, moving back over to where he left his relics by the railing to start getting his feet locked into Swiftswimmer.
You are reading this."Not yet, boy," Sven warned Toby. "If you go out there and it's an enemy, you might end up floating belly-up before long. Patience..." Soon, the ship got just close enough to the other one for the man in the crow's nest to determine the ship's nationality. "It's Bellenican! Looks small..." the spotter shouted down to the deck. Sven tensed up. "Smaller ship usually means pirates. It's a common tactic. Smaller ships swim circles around galleons like this. Keep our guard up!" he shouted. The deck crew scrambled into defensive positions. "Toby, NOW you can go scout ahead. Try not to get spotted. I will send for the captain," Sven told Toby, before barking some orders at a deckhand to run below deck and fetch the captain.
Fairly soon the captain was on the deck, and he crossed his arms. "What's this about a Bellenican ship?" he asked. Sven pointed in the direction of the sails above the horizon. Thankfully it hadn't seemed to spot their ship.
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.Altan had mostly been talking with the crew members and doing odd jobs, the better to extend her network of contacts and make friends among the crew members. Wouldn't do to not know anyone on the ship she was serving on, of course. When news of a ship reached her, she went up to the captain and said "Sir, I may be able to reason with them, assuming that it's needed, and they are indeed pirates."
“Not a promise, not an oath, or a malediction or a curse. Inevitable." - Taylor Hebert"Alright men, you heard the call, sails ho," Xenon bellowed to the nearby crew. "Prepare yourselves. Double-check everything, triple-check the rigging, take a swig of water, stretch yourselves out, say a prayer to whatever gods you hold dear, and then wait at the ready, because as soon as we clash with that ship there'll be no rest until we're either dead or victorious. This may be the last chance you have to recover your strength, and you're going to need to give it your all if things turn bad and we're to make it out alive."
"Pirates huh..." Toby trailed off, glancing back ahead towards the distant speck; he didn't sound too worried. "No problem man, if I come at 'em from underwater, they probably won't even see me" he assured Sven, then got his mask on and tipped swiftswimmer over the railing to go down into the waiting waves.
Once underwater, Toby glanced around until spotting Alaryn. "There's a small boat ahead. We think it might be pirates" Toby said as best he could through the slight muffling of the mask, pointing forward in the general direction he'd seen the speck from on deck. Down here he couldn't make out anything, but from this distance it was to be expected that the keel would be hard to spot. Without waiting to see if Alaryn would follow, Toby took off in that direction; though he did glance back to see if she was following, because if so he would adjust swiftswimmer's speed to match.
You are reading this.Snake not being ordered to do anything for the trip as the ship sailed was basically just sunbathing. Becoming half-reptile made resting in the sun feel good. Of course, hearing talk about pirates immediately ended Snake's relaxed state.
The naga quickly picked up his spear and got ready for a fight. With Toby jumping off, Snake thought it would be best if the boy wasn't alone and dived into the water soon after, shifting his snake tail to a merman tail when he got under sea level. Still being near Toby, Snake said "Thought you might like company."
<OOC: Sorry for the lacklustre post, felt like I should at least get something out.>
Some people say I'm lazy. It's hard to disagree.As Toby approached the vessel, he could see that the ship was indeed relatively small. A ship of this size would normally be considered a sloop, had it not been for the strange alterations made to it. This ship seemed to be made of a more reinforced material. It wasn't orichalcum, but it was a tougher wood than was typically used on Tyrian ships. Before he could get a better look, however, a loud splash alerted from the starboard side of the ship, and soon a mermaid with curly black hair approached him dangerously, an ornate dagger tied to her hip.
"Children should be sleeping at this hour," she warned him. "You have interesting toys. It would behoove you to return them where you found them. They aren't meant for boys your age..."
The ship itself began to turn so that it was on a course directly for the Valkyrie. "Hold your positions!" Captain Sandersson shouted, as the ship began to move into full view. The ship was not in fact a pirate ship. Instead it seemed to be something far worse. Emblazoned on the sails was a seven-pointed star and a spiral seashell— the symbol of Tethys. Either these humans were loyalists to the goddess, or they were under her dark spell.
The ship got close enough to reach by rope, and sure enough a boarding party began to mobilize from the other ship towards the Valkyrie.
edited 5th Jun '15 3:42:10 AM by AllHailThrall
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.Toby was surprised by the splosh and the mermaid appearing, but he did really look all that worried from what of his face was visible. "Behoove? That's a funny word. Do mermaids usually learn funny words?" Toby asked jokingly, turning swiftswimmer away and making sure to keep it at enough speed so that the mermaid would stay just out of reach.
edited 5th Jun '15 4:50:54 AM by FirockFinion
You are reading this.Alaryn nodded her head as Toby told her about the incoming ship... swimming some distance behind him. However, once the mermaid from the other ship jumped down onto the water, the blue haired mer warrior got right on the front "Hail there, sister of the seas... what may your vessel do approaching the human ship behind me?"

Yeah... well I'm not most mer I imagine thinks Alaryn as she nods her head and then returns underwater... and looking at the dirty, algae covered wood, she bites her lip before grabbing her trident, intent on doing a bit of cleaning.