134. Dead Fish: Ruku.

I didn’t learn the axe fishing skill, if there is one. I did get a level in Axe, Shield, Tough Hide and Water Sprint. Along with my new Skill, Poison Water, and a monster core, that was a very good fight. Gwaed and I went through the fish; there was only one core of the two hundred and twelve fish. Pybyr ate five, and Esgyn ate six. Merch ate one. Wai and Sugnwr shared the monster fish. That left 199 fish that I could keep fresh for about ten days. The Cook did not have the Monster food specialisation, so that meant we couldn’t eat them. If we kept six a day as food for our bonds, that is total, not each, that accounts for another sixty. We would not let them gorge themselves silly like today. Today they earned it.

Gwaed wanted all the innards, organs and guts for her Alchemy. So we filleted them all. We separated the fins, scales and bones, which would keep and be useful for other craftsmen. Gwaed took some samples to grind up and see what alchemical properties they might have. Two fillets per fish left us with 278 fillets of Monster fish that were going to rot away. It turns out the cook had some space in his Cool Store. We crammed in 159 fillets. In payment for the space, up until the next port we were stopping at, we gave 60 of the remaining fillets to the cook so he could see if he could learn the monster Cook Specialisation and as payment for some salt so we could preserve the remaining 59. Preserving monster meat this way degrades the Spiritual aspect of it, which is why you need a specialisation to cook and preserve it properly. Our next stop was just over two weeks away at another small village. There was no guarantee that there would be anyone at that village we could sell them to, but it was better than letting them rot.

The beast core was interesting. A flying fish monster. I don’t know what skills they might have, and I didn’t get to see them use any. My Aquatic Lore and Monster Lore were silent. I would need to look up information or ask someone. They probably had a Water affinity, but it may be Air or something different. It seemed to be more manoeuvrable in its flight, as I believe it targeted me. A ritual can be performed to find information on a Beast Core, but I am not a ritualist, and we are heading into hostile territory, so it will have to wait. Monster meat needs time to be absorbed by the bonds, so it is not good for them to gorge themselves. Spiritual poisoning is quite debilitating and takes a long time to clear.

The damage to the ship was light as we had time to store the vulnerable equipment, thanks to Esgyn. The ship's carpenter was busy replacing some of the thinner spars that got broken and strengthening some areas that were weakened by the fish. We would spend longer at the next village while he did some more permanent repairs. Looking at the state of the ship, I think actual repairs are a long way off, and more patch-up work is going to happen.

The next two weeks, we got back into the routine, the only issue being a three-day storm. That was rough, literally and figuratively, but the ship didn’t sink, and we gained a day. We are docking a day early at this village. We are closer to Northport than Obalno now. We are still travelling through wild, mountainous, no man’s land.

As was typical, there was only one long wharf to dock at. When Gwaed finished the breakfast shift, we grabbed a sample of the fish and went to see who might be interested. Pybyr trotted alongside us. Wai was on my upper arm under my sleeve. There was a general store, and the merchant was excited to have new customers. He lost his enthusiasm when we showed him the meat. He had no way to sell it before it went off. The only suggestion he had was an Animal Tamer camp outside of town. They were hunting the area for beasts to tame.

Animal Taming was not like bonding. This Animal Tamer rubbed us up the wrong way from the start. There was no partnership here. There was dominance and submission. The Tamer had several wild animals tied or caged in his camp. He was a very unpleasant Dwarf and tried to dominate us as soon as we met him. Animal Tamers didn’t have to be cruel, but he definitely was. I took the lead in dealing with him as I have the leadership specialisation and high Mental resistance to that crap. If I had left it to Gwaed, she would have killed him.

He had a mountain lion collared and chained and two wolves in separate cages. He had some smaller animals and cages of colourful birds. He claimed the mountain lion was well advanced in training and demonstrated it roaring on command. He said the wolves were being trained as guard animals and wanted to test one of them against Pybyr, as people with bonds always claim they are better. I quickly steered him away from that topic before he died on me.

I could tell Gwaed did not want to deal with him. In the end, I quadrupled the amount I was going to ask for the fish, and he haggled me down to triple the price. He wanted to part-pay with one of his parrot-type birds, but I was not interested. The meat would enhance his animals just like any animal. I left Gwaed in the village while returning to the ship and delivering the fish. He might find his camp mysteriously raided if he doesn’t leave before us. I didn’t warn him. One good thing was that he paid in Imperial Coin, and we would need that coin in Northport, or we would stand out as strangers.

We ended up spending a week in the village instead of the scheduled three days. There was not a lot to do in the village, so Gwaed and I decided to go hunting. The Captian was buying meat for the next leg of the journey. The first time we went out during the day with Esgyn guiding us. The trouble is she didn’t guide us to live prey, but carcasses to scavenge. Gwaed is trying to teach him to find monster carcases so we can scavenge the cores. It is a good plan. It is still a work in progress. I am no tracker, but Pybyr is pretty good, and we came back with a deer and a goat. Gwaed came back with a big sack full of plants for her alchemy. I got the feeling some of the plants were for known potions, but others were for her to experiment with. I got the feeling she didn’t know what she was doing in some areas, but that's how to expand your knowledge.

The second time we went hunting was at night, and we took Sugnwr. She was getting Sugnwr, Pybyr and Merch all to work on their stealth. She found it unacceptable that Sugnwr was spotted by Wiremu and me back in Obalno, even though I pointed out we both had high Physical Perception. Merch was the best of all of them. I took the opportunity to teach Wai stealth. It came pretty naturally to him, and my Trainer Class and Coach Skill helped. Now we just have to work on his camouflage. I Coached Gwaed’s bonds as well, and they made significant improvements. We bought back another deer that night.

The ship was definitely looking worse for wear. The next stop was the last before Northport. Gwaed used her Scry ability, and the assassin was on land, but we are not sure where. We assume Northport. I purchased a small canoe and paddles at the final village. I got several comments about not trusting the ship to stay afloat. I thought we needed to leave the ship before hitting Imperial customs. With Esgyn in the air, we will hopefully have plenty of warning about patrolling ships.

Gwaed woke me urgently one night to put out a fire in the med bay. I wonder how that happened. We managed to stop it from spreading and aired out the foul-smelling smoke. When a sailor was sent to investigate, we blamed it on Alchemy gone wrong. That was not quite correct, as Gwaed was quite pleased the alchemy had gone right. She just needed more protections in place. She wanted me to move in with her, but that was not happening. Too many animals, too small a space and too much foul-smelling alchemy. I organised a couple of buckets of water and a tub of water with a blanket soaking in it. She should be able to control most things until I can get there.

We had managed to make up some time, so we were almost back on schedule. We were about a week from Northport. It was late in my day shift when I looked up from scrubbing the deck. Fortunately, our axe marks in the deck went unobserved due to the Flying Fish marks. Then my Ocean Sense started to nudge me. Ocean Sense is a subtle Skill that senses changes or anomalies in my environment. I looked around, saw something move in the sky, and focused on it with my Farsight. It was an Osprey or Seahawk. It was a long way from shore. Then it dawned on me that it belonged to an Imperial scout stationed on a ship somewhere. It was time to abandon this ship.