FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Breathlessly, the two run as cobblestone road turns to wooden dock upon reaching the harbor, losing their pursuers as they dart into a messy warehouse and then an adjoining fishery, the hustle and bustle mixed with all manner of hiding spots and obstructions to break line of sight. Ducking behind a sheet of dark leather hanging in front of the entrance of a fishmonger's workshop, their hunters run straight pass without so much as a look in their direction. Waiting a few minutes before concluding they've successfully evaded the henchmen, the two let out a deep breath and exchange a nod before making their way back to the Aquilla.

Their home, an ordinary seeming boat covered in a glued-on tarp, pops open a hidden hatch along the side as they approach, a familiar face peering out.

“Heh. You two look like shit," Tam snorts, offering a hand up to each of them as they climb aboard the concealed fighter craft with an interior more befitting of a submarine.

He's not entirely wrong. Aso, a man of a draconic appearance with a coat of jet-black fur and glowing orange eyes and horns, has been shot at and nearly exploded today, rendering his clothes full of holes and wood splinters. His overcoat is entirely ruined, trousers in dire need of patching up, and his hat has seen better days for certain. His companion, Nef, is a female black dragon with black scales and a lighter underbelly adorned with violet and shades of blue, her eyes a deep magenta and possessing both a tail and horns that look like they're made from the stuff of a dark nebula.

Her black dress is intact, having been shielded from the blast by Aso on the walk back from the dancehall. Their pursuers would have not lasted long in a direct fight but drawing attention to oneself – the kind that a full-on scrum might bring – is not what an outlaw pirate wants. Tam doesn't wear much more than a loincloth for comfort wear, a mountain of golden and chestnut fur with flames lightly licking across his head and all the way down the spine to the end of his long, whiplike tail.

Aramon is dressed in casual clothes, sleeping just a moment ago and now slinking out of a hallway to join them at the bridge. Despite being Aso's brother, he appears more aquatic with fins along his head in place of horns and tail that glow with an ardent shade of crimson.

“What happened to you two? I thought we were safe in this city," Aramon sighs, helping Aso take his coat off.

“I've got a hunch," Aso growls. “The one who threw that grenade first was dressed in a style I'd know anywhere. There's something I have to do."

“Wha – what does that mean?" Nef questions as she follows him to their shared quarters, leaving Tam and Aramon to ruminate for the moment.

“To cut a long, long story short, an old 'business' partner has come back to say hello. I need to make sure we have a final goodbye."

“Alright… who are they? What is this about?"

Aso mulls over his thoughts as he kicks his pants off and pulls on a fresh set of clothes before sighing.

“The less you know, the better. I don't want you involved in this."

“Aso, I know your own finances better than you do. I joined you to become a militant pirate. You're my husband and we plan on having a daughter. Define 'less involved' at this stage."

“Fine, fine," He caves as he pulls on his padded pants, following it up with a metal plated vest. “They were the first and last person I trained in magic. It went to their head almost instantly and now they've become obsessed with finding more that suits their purposes. And it just so happens you would fit that bill perfectly."

“So, what – they'd kidnap me? Force me to work for them?"

“If they learned about you, it's a very large possibility, but I think they would study you before anything else. I know no one has been able to hold you for long, let alone reproduce what you do. But if they could… it'd be like giving a demolitionist a fuse to the bomb they've spent a lifetime building. I need you to understand I can't take that risk. And stars forbid she get Tam."

“She? Oh, this got interesting."

“Nef. Drop it. I'll explain everything when I get back."

“What's stopping you from doing it now?"

“Because the more you know about something, the harder it is to get you to leave it be," Aso snorts in frustration, turning to leave as he pulls on a heavy leather trench coat.

“You're leaving already? At least have Rou take a look at you!"

“Take the ship out to orbit," Aso says loudly so Tam and Aramon hear him as he strides down the hall to properly address them. “Then make one docking at Blackwood, the old smuggling docks in the cove we used a few years back, in three days from exactly right now. If I'm not back by then, I want the Aquilla out of this solar system. Assume me dead at that point, and do not try to find me, understood?"

“Absolutely not," Tam scoffs. “I need a damn good reason before I do something like that."

“Tam, did I ask for anything when I dragged you off the battlefield your country left you to die on?" Aso demands. “Or how about for custom bedding and rigging we had to do just to give you a place to sleep comfortably? What about that time you lit our payday up in flames because you lost a game of poker?"

“Is there a pit stop between here and the fucking point?" Tam growls. “Or can you just spit it out already?"

“I need you – all of you to trust me that this is something I need to do alone, and I have to go now."

“Fucking f-INE," Tam grunts flatly, leaving the bridge to return to his quarters. “Make it personal, why don'tcha."

“Aso… is this about that one rose w-" Aramon begins to ask before Aso gives him a sharp, warning glare. “O-KAY, I'll leave you to it. Don't forget your emergency pack on the way out."

“It'll just slow me down," Aso grumbles as he heads for the door. “The faster I move, the sooner this is over."

Nef opens her mouth to say something as she catches up to him at the hatch, but he stops her with a sudden kiss, squeezing her hard with a quick hug before letting go and slipping out, closing the door behind him.

“Wow," She remarks to the open air. “First kiss without him purring like a dork. He does expect to die."

Quickly walking back to the bridge, Nef marches up to Aramon as he is beginning to return to his own sleeping quarters, looking over his shoulder as she approaches and not seeing Tam until he rebounds off his hulking frame blocking the hallway.

“Spill," Tam rumbles. “What is this about?"

“I can't say."

“Oh, why the hell not?" Nef snaps. “You never shut up, and finally now that it's important, ya clamp up on us?"

“I swore to Aso I would never talk about it."

“And if you don't tell us, I swear I'll –"

“You'll do what exactly, Tam?" Aramon cuts him off with a scowl. “Fuck me without lube? Blow my back out? Rail me for three days straight? It's not a threat when you already do those things so regularly, I can't sit on a damn bar stool without worrying I'll hit the floor!"

“Aramon," Nef sighs, taking a deep breath and letting it out, “I apologize for being testy. But my husband, the person who trusts me explicitly with everything else in our lives, has decided whatever is going on is important enough to warrant walking off being hit with a shrapnel bomb and waltzing into the night to deal with a clandestine enemy without so much as a half decent goodbye. Give me something, man."

“I'll… elaborate on what he did say. He had a partner some time ago whom he taught magic to," Aramon begins to say, and his mouth starts to glow, his words becoming thick as he fights to keep his mouth speaking. “There was a job – we got our hands on something powerful – and she backstabbed us to take it for herself. Literally. We survived, went after her, but had to give up. All we really. Know is. She's been digging… into the arcane. But without anyone to teach her more… she's got to be grasping at straws."

“What's happening to you, Aramon?"

“Anti-interrogation spell. It's old. I can speak only a little more. I'll… be fine."

“Alright, so, he taught someone magic, and they betrayed him. Is that why Aso refuses to tell me anything about his abilities?" Nef queries, furrowing her brow.

Aramon nods before proceeding, using his hands to wrench his mouth open. “She might want to finish him. Might… try to force help from him."

“What sort of things has she been doing since then?"

“Space is big – not sure. Hearsay is…. She has. A heist squad. And. Robs. Powerful. People. Artifacts. Old tech. Sells."

“So, a person who was able to get the drop on Aso before and is now a completely unknown quantity to us has her own hand-picked gang, possibly composed of magic users, and Aso's about to run dick first into them?" Tam summarizes.

Aramon nods.

“He's right: I would not have left it be if he told me more," Nef muses. “Nothing for it now. You two rouse Rae and take the ship to orbit, and I'll make sure we'll have a captain by tomorrow."

“We both know how receptive he'll be about that," Tam remarks.

“He didn't specify who had to be on it, only that the Aquilla get to orbit," Nef shrugs as she heads to their quarters to change.

“If you ever become a genie, remind me to word my wishes carefully!" Tam calls after her.

“Just be straightforward with me and you won't need to!"

From the dark of the hallway, a Rou with only a pair of panties comes stalking into the light, eyes blurry and blinking against the light as she walks past Tam and Aramon to grab a bottle of port.

Taking a long drink before so much as looking at the two, she asks, “What's all the racket about?"

Moody on the best of days and disheveled in her current state, the short dragon has two pointed horns, one broken off at the middle, and amber eyes with a white and dark grey coat of fur. A shaggy head of locks currently falls over her eyes, and she tucks them back behind her large ears while taking another large gulp of the alcohol.

“Aso has some unfinished business to take care of. It's complicated. We'll be leaving for orbit soon," Tam explains shortly.

“So, an average Thursday."

“More or less."

“Do I need to be prepped for surgery now or can it wait until I get some proper sleep?"

“Go sleep. I doubt we'll see him again for a few days."

“Ah, so more of an every other Monday. Got it," She yawns, swirling the bottle as she lifts it again, draining it in a matter of seconds before tossing it over her shoulder into the trash with a shatter and stumbling back down the hallway.

Nef, now dressed in dark leathers, steps around the well lubricated nurse on her way back to the bridge.

“I know I'm look for some fop in Wine Duchy type clothing from the glimpse I got. Anything else I should know?" Nef says as she walks to the hatch.

“Her name. Elaine. Watch… out… for… roses," Aramon barely hisses out before his jaws audibly snap shut, cords of orange light tightly wrapping it closed like a muzzle.

“Oh," Tam snickers in response. “You're those kind of brothers."

Aramon rolls his eyes with a deep sigh, swatting him with his tail.

“Got it. Thanks, Aramon," Nef says with a wave, flitting through the hatch after barely opening it and quickly disappearing into the night.

A dark shade passes through the docks, leaving a cold wind behind it, a blur that scales a warehouse in moments and stands on the roof, forming back into her person as she steps into the moonlight and looks out across the city. Unlike Aso, Nef cannot sense any sort of energies or “magic", but knowing him, it's only a matter of time before a smoke plume will rise.

Speaking of smoke, Lyn has recently landed herself out of the frying pan and into the fire with the Curved Thorns, bound and gagged and left in a locked closet. With her long tongue, that gag was more than easy to spit out before chewing through the binds on her wrists and undoing the ankle restraints. Peering through the keyhole, she can see the guards are playing cards, well-armed and unfortunately drinking only water. Sighing to herself, she considers how well she'll be able to sprint past them in this unfamiliar place when someone bursts into the room.

“What are you idiots doing? He's almost here and you're supposed to be prepping!" She shouts, a feline woman dressed in a scarlet cloak with a matching hat and dark, finely made clothes. “If I don't see you on that cannon in the next five minutes, I'll pin you all to the side of the hull as an example to the rest!"

“We had a rat to gua–" One of them begins to protest before she steps forward, producing a heavy brass ring from her pocket and slamming it straight into the nose of his muzzle before the canine is yanked up by the cat's finger firmly wrapped around it, the hoop now inexplicably planted between his nostrils.

“A rat? A rat? You're screwing up something this important over some shmuck you found snooping where they shouldn't?" She spits, painfully yanking him onto his tip toes. “Next time, you find someone else to keep them locked up, or, and stay with me on this one, just kill them if it gets in the way of your job! NOW MOVE. ALL OF YOU."

Shoving him face first towards the door, she lets go of the ring and he runs out of the room, bleeding nose buried in his hands. The other two quicky abandon their cards and follow him. Marching up to the closet door, she pulls out a skeleton key. Lyn quickly sits down and wraps some of the ropes around her wrist as the door is opened. Stepping away from the closet as she does so, the scarlet woman has a clear view of Lyn and is not even remotely fooled whatsoever.

“Sailors, the three of them, and they can't tie a half decent knot…" She sighs angrily.

“To their credit they weren't half bad."

“Yet you got out and are trying to hide the fact like a child with their hand caught in the cookie jar."

“Can you blame a girl for trying?"

“If it gets in my way, yeah, I can," She growls, drawing a rapier and thrusting it forward.

“Woah, hey now!" Lyn cries, the blade slapped aside and grinding harmlessly against the plating along the back of the pangolin's wrist. “Rude!"

“I am just a lodestone for problems today," She mutters, slamming the door shut.

Confused, Lyn crouches down, prepared to glance through the peep hole as the rapier pierces straight through the door where she was just a moment ago, pulled out and then being stabbed through at random. Hitting the floor prone, Lyn avoids them and raises her tail as the whole blade suddenly thrusts downward, the tip biting into her shell and ripping her sailor clothes before the blade bends and promptly snaps.

“Oh, for the love of–!" The feline yells, losing patience and locking the door before grabbing one of the nearby chairs, shoving it under the doorknob to bar it. “I don't have time for this! Stay there and you just might get out of this alive after all!"

Quickly marching off, Lyn waits in silence for her steps to fade into the distance before picking up and examining the rapier blade. She determines there is nothing special about it despite the fact it was jabbed at her several times through a solid wooden door and left not even so much as a hole. With a shrug, she lays on her side to peer through the crack of the door and the frame to push the blade through, jabbing at the leg of the chair to shove it out of the way. It falls over with a clunk and from there the tip of the narrow blade makes short work of picking the cheap lock.

Leaving the closet is the first step. Getting the rest of the ship to accept that fact is another thing entirely, but that becomes less of an issue as a heavy impact thunders through the structure, nearly knocking Lyn off balance. Deciding caution won't do her any favors here, she pulls open the exit door and slips out. Luckily, she had time to familiarize with the layout of the ship before her cover was blown, and heads straight towards the cargo hold where a hatch offers a discreet way out.

With whatever's going on happening above deck, there are very few crew left below to run into. Every time she crosses a hallway, she does a quick peak down the interior before slinking across and makes it to the cargo hold in short order. She finds out the hard way the Cloak twins are guarding it as one of the many tarps folded over the numerous boxes and crates suddenly shifts, rising up with a mantle the same color before it shifts to black. The small fox pulls out a crossbow, and where there's one, there's always t he other.

“Whadid'ja call yerself again? Shellie or somethin'? This area's off-limits Shellie, ye should know that," He cackles. “Ye kno wut that means right?"

“We're going to have a calm conversation like adults?" Lyn offers wryly.

“Eh, if I wasn't ped so dam well, I might just be listenin'. Last I heard yer ass got dam near keelhauled. Not onah tha crew, kill on sight as ah right now. Sorry Shellie, just followin' orders."

“You… you know the bolt won't do anything against my shell, right?"

“Yah. That's why me brother is sittin' above ye with a hatchet."

Lyn looks up and sees nothing. Then he also looks up, seeing nothing as well.

“Ah. Well. That ain't good," He remarks before taking a quick shot at Lyn and then bolting.

It bounces off her forearm with only enough impact to bruise the flesh beneath and Lyn gives chase before he can pull more antics out of his cloak. He dashes around a large crate in the walkway before a surprised grunt is cut off with a solid clunk against the wooden crate. Peeking around it, Lyn spies the familiar form of Nef wrapping the brother in his cloak and depositing him in a barrel with a very similarly sized and shaped package before promptly closing and kicking it out of the cargo hold into the ocean waves far below.

They'll survive due to the low gravity across the ocean of this planet. Probably.

“Hey, shadow girl! I don't suppose it's me you're here for?" Lyn asks, stepping out from her cover into full view of Nef.

“I would love to say yes, but it would appear my husband has chosen today is the day to blow up this man o' war and is not doing a very good job of it. Lyn, right? What are you doing here?"

“Oh. Eh. Weeeell… I was doing some solo reconnaissance work here since these guys sorta turned up out of some place in space with a heavily armed warship and cap' Yskra wanted to know why. But one of the old Wicked Gold hopefuls that didn't make the cut wound up here and ratted me out," She admits. “I was sorta about to jump out that hatch myself."

“I see. I won't stop you, but how about you help me get Aso off this ship in one piece and you'll get a first-class trip back to the Archie?"

“On one hand that could get me killed. On the other hand, the smuggler that's supposed to be my ride off this planet is an ex. So, deal!"

“Alright, follow my lead!" Nef nods before taking off at a run, Lyn following.

“What's the plan?" She questions as they run.

“Make one up as I go! Aso picked a fight with a landscaper from some level of hell; I don't have time to waste!"

“Huh? Wait, rose bushes and thorn vines, right?"

“Yeah, do you know more?"

“No. Only that Elaine has a thing for flowers and a brain sucking device."

“Come again?" Nef asks, stopping in herself and Lyn in their tracks to make sure she heard that right.

“She has some sort of talisman, voodoo, stony device that rips memories straight out of people's heads, so I've heard. I got here a few days ago so I thought it was just gallows humor on part of the crew or maybe something the first mate came up with to keep rowdier bunch in check."

“We need to find him! Now!"

Rushing towards topdeck, one of the few guards left below gets his lights knocked out as they ascend out of the cargo hold and the two climb the stairs, finding the upper levels more populated. However, at battle stations as Aso has them, they're all tied to their posts, making getting spotted all the more suspicious but also offering more pathways to remain unseen without the crew freely moving about.

“Hey," Lyn catches Nef's attention as they stop along the edge of a hallway Nef peaks down. “I know where the gunpowder storage is. There's enough to drop this thing out of the sky. Speaking of sky, how did you get on here in the first place?"

“I followed Aso's enthusiastic walk through the city and saw it was towards a big ship, so I nicked a dingy and found a blind spot to get under the cargo hold and break in. As for the gunpowder, I don't want to risk getting him killed in the blast."

“Do we have the time to think of a better plan? Nothing else will throw a wrench in their plans like that."

“Touché. If I agree, do you know what you're doing?"

“I've got some idea of what to do…"

“That'll have to be good enough. Let's do it."

The path to the gunpowder storage isn't far, but it's protected by three guards in padded armor. Armor that conveniently is flammable as Nef slips into one shadow, comes out from one behind them, and uses a lighter from one of their pockets to set one of their backsides alight. The other two, noticing the smoke, immediately throw him to the floor. Given they're one wooden door away from enough explosive material to spread bits and pieces of them across the coast, they begin slapping his back and rump to put out the fire with no small amount of force.

One receives a chair to the back of the head courtesy of Lyn, the other the weighted back of Nef's knife, and the third is left reeling from being bodily hurled into the floor by his fellows. By the time he recovers, he sees the two pouring blackpowder into a bottle with a long canon fuse, lighting it and nonchalantly tossing it into the powderhold before locking its door and making a shooing motion to the guard.

The feline's nose blanches as he realizes what they've done and grabs the collars of the other two catty guards, now unconscious, and drags them away with the vigor only adrenaline can provide, screaming loudly enough his voice cracks, “THE BLACK POWDER IS GOING TO BLOW! GET TO THE FRONT OF THE SHIP!"

“Good to know," Lyn notes aloud, the two sprinting up to top deck as bedlam spreads across the ship.

They find Aso fighting not quite on the ship, but rather, on top of it along a shield barrier with the red cloaked feline alongside who could only be Elaine, a golden tigress dressed in pirate leathers with a red sash and a mane of braids. Giant planters are set into the deck, housing massive rose plants that have shattered free of their constraints to send their roots working through the decks as the branches and stems turn to vines, yet still growing and multiplying, creating more and more lashing obstacles that pierce through the shield to attack Aso as he fights, saber in hand, against the two and the encroaching flora.

It's clear he tried to use fire, but the thick, verdant plants refuse to so much as smoke, many of the vines scorched and blasted yet still thrashing as hard as the others, leaving him no choice but to occasionally clear them with a massive, concussive blast issuing from his palm that rips their very fibers apart, one such rocking the ship again.

“He's going to drop any moment; he can only do that so many times!" Nef breathes.

“Then be glad we picked the least subtle path and hit the deck!" Lyn shouts, pushing her to the ground as they get to the front of the ship by running headlong through the armed crew distracted by the fight.

She couldn't have timed it better as the back half of the ship is obliterated in the blast, the iron hull of the warship cracked open like a food tin. Whatever was powering the barrier fails and the three drop to the deck and continue their combat without pause even as the prow of the ship dips down.

“Abandon ship!" Lyn yells as the crew begin to rouse, “She's too damaged! Save yourselves!"

Much like the fire licking at the underside of the hull, one firm shove is all it takes for morale to break throughout the crew and they run for the limited supplies of lifeboats. Those with more backbone loyal to Elaine take up their arms and head for Aso or the sudden two new arrivals, but a sudden pitch in the ship knocks everyone to the deck as it begins to roll.

Lyn and Nef grab onto rigging but much of the crew aren't so lucky, sliding off the side of the ship and knocking each other off the railings as the craft does a lazy seventy-five-degree rotation along the x-axis. Vines lash out, wrapping around the one functional engine and forcibly turning it to return the ship back to a stable path. Anchored in place by an overgrown thorn bush, Elaine is unable to use most of the vines as the plants fall out of the ship, smashing out parts of the railing with the heavy weight of the broken pots and moist dirt, leaving her with only a few rooted in the hull to control.

Aso recovers, walking on thin air with sparks of red and gold showering from each step, rushing for Elaine. Her red cloaked companion deftly blocks his attack, her boots sunk into the boards of the ship with each step as she desperately wards him off. Impressively, she takes wound after wound, a stab to the shoulder, a slash to the arm, small cuts along her fingers, quickly falling under his aggressive attack without Elain's help, but she doesn't falter for even a moment.

Before a deft strike can kill her, one of the few remaining vines intercepts Aso's blade, the feline's newly acquired rapier passing straight through and sinking into his sword hand. Most would drop the blade, but he's near the edge of his limit, tired, gasping for breath, and most importantly, too tired and angry to feel the pain as he will electricity to suddenly crackle along its length. Red Cloak locks up and spasms, the vine twisting with sudden force to pull the rapier from her hand. As the ship rights, she tumbles away, limply coming to rest along the deck where the remaining crew that held on grab and pull her to safety.

Said remaining crew have bright colors of their own, but also a large assortment of minor wounds like Red Cloak's. Ice shards begin forming in the hands of one as the other conjures fire, but Nef quickly puts an end to that by running up and striking the ice mage across the face, forcing the group to engage her instead of interfering with Aso. One tries to blast her with flames, but the moment she is there, she's suddenly behind them and strikes again, repeating this for the ice spikes being hurled, swords swung, and all other attacks in a violent streak of hit and runs.

With the ship deck now level, Elaine emerges from the rose bush, longsword in hand, and resumes her fight in a clash of steel and sparks. It took most of her crew, an entire war galleon, and months of preparation, but the numerous wounds and hard fighting have taken its toll on Aso, and all it takes is one stumble for her to parry his sword, sending it flying from his injured hand with a sweep of the blade, and grab him by the collar.

He begins to say something, but a stone flips out of her sleeve, and she presses it to his forehead, his entire being seizing up as intricate mechanisms set in the stone whir to life and emit a blue glow.

“This is the funniest part, Asogorath," She declares, her breathing hard and winded. “I knew you would have always pulled this stunt. Your ego is quick to wound, and you become stubborn as a bull when you're angry. I admit, I underestimated you still, but that only makes this so much sweeter when I take both your life and knowledge!"

Lyn does the only thing she can think to do: pick up a pistol caught in the loose rigging and rush towards Elaine. She barely glances at the pangolin, her vines intercepting, but the thorns can only scratch at her shell as she leaps over and slides across the hellish plants precariously on her back, firing the shot as soon as she dares. With the rushing wind and the ship rattling as it continues dipping forward, gaining speed as it dives into the ocean below, she needed to be up close for the bullet to matter.

Lead shot doesn't work on Aso very well, and if Elaine brought him down, Lyn does not even consider trying it on her. Instead, she aims for the stone, only managing to clip it, but that's enough to knock a chunk free and the device rips itself apart with a loud pop. All manner of gears and tiny mechanical pieces clatter to the deck, destroyed by the stress of its own internal mechanisms and breaking her hold on him. The last mage of Elaine's also has their leg sweeped out and brought to intimate familiarity with the wooden boards of the floor as Nef throws them headfirst into it.

“Ah. I never expected someone as bullheaded as him, with a flake of a brother, to find friends again. Let alone two of them! And one with the most singularly useful abilities I've seen yet!" Elaine laughs, her tone bitter yet strangely genuine. “I shall not forget your performance, 'Nef'. However, I got enough of what I need for now. Au revoir, mesdames!"

At first the two think she means to skewer them, but instead Elaine's vines nock them both to the side as she sprints forward along the deck, tossing the sword aside to rip a necklace from around her throat and hurl it into the ground. A space opens up, a portal to somewhere else, and Elaine proves she's far more than a pretty face as she grabs a fistful of clothing of each of her mages, tossing them through like they weigh nothing before last grabbing Red Cloak and following them. It shuts behind her, leaving Lyn and Nef running to where Aso fell as the vines collapse and go limp with the retreat of their master.

“We need to jump!" Lyn shouts of the rushing wind and rapidly crumbling ship. “Right as the ship hits the water!"

“We've too much momentum! Our best bet is staying on board!" Nef replies.

“We'll get ripped apart and skewered by the wood, just trust me!"

Having no other choice, Nef helps her grab Aso and the two haul him over, knocked cleared as the ship crashes into the waves. Grabbing both of them, Lyn wraps them all into as tight of a ball as possible, having enough forward momentum her shell skips them across the water like a river pebble, once, twice, thrice, before they hit the water at a weird angle and come undone in a haphazard pile.

It's enough they don't hit the surface at a lethal speed, Lyn immediately coming up for air and Nef shortly after, holding Aso. The two sling him over a section of floating wooden wreckage before following suit, taking a moment to breath and calm their strained nerves.

“Where – where did you learn to do that?" Nef gasps, shaking her head. “You Wicked Gold are crazier than I thought."

“I didn't."

“What?"

“I sorta just came up with it. Not enough time to make a good plan, you know?"

“Oh, for fuck's sake," Nef snorts, laughing. “I take it back. You lot aren't crazy: you're insane!"

“Something like that. So, the crew of… whatever this ship was called is now scattered across the last five leagues of the coastline. We have no boats. And we're clinging to scraps of wood while sea monsters are doubtlessly taking notice of how juicy our friend here looks with all the bleeding holes in him. Any ideas? Because I'm starting to get nervous with us bobbing along in pitch black water."

“Start paddling!"

“Just as well; I needed to work on my glutes anyhow!"

Between the two kicking along the beam and Nef keeping Aso's nose out of the water with her tail, they make it a short distance from the ship before a light from above shines down on them, the familiar whirring of the Aquilla's near silent engines above them as Tam clambers out of one of the hatches on a rope, passing the lantern to Aramon before descending down and taking Aso from the two of them. Slinging him over his back, he motions for the two to grab on and climbs back up without any visible difficulty. The two conscious passengers disembark from the Tam Elevator first before helping to drag the third one passed out one into the interior.

Entering last, Tam closes the hatch.

“Wow. He looks like shit," The big man observes. “Any deep wounds?"

“No, he's fine to carry, luckily," Lyn answers. “It's blood loss and exhaustion for the most part. I think. His brain might be melted too."

“Yep, never letting him live this one down," Tam nods, scooping him up once more to whisk off to the infirmary.

“Good thing you guys chose to make an explosion loud enough it sent the coast into a tizzy. We were just barely one step ahead of the navy," Rae speaks through the ships pipe system from where she is currently sitting at the helm, flying the ship out to orbit. “Mind filling us in on what happened?"

“Magic bitch. A lot of fighting. Blew the powder hold. Magic bitch now has what needed. And I now need a drink," Nef explains in the briefest way possible before trudging to the kitchen.

“Seconded!" Lyn agrees.

“Fair enough. Get some rest. I'll pester about it later," Rae affirms.

The two women get halfway to the kitchen before Aramon meets them with bottles of ale they happily take.

“Still muzzled?" Nef asks after taking a large quaff, noticing the rings of light still stuck around his mouth.

He nods.

“Do you know when it wears off?"

He counts on his fingers for a moment, makes an expression of thinking for a moment, and then shakes his head.

“So. You can't make a sound?"

He nods.

“Good, Lyn will actually get some sleep then."

In response, Aramon narrows his eyes and flips her the bird.

“Is. Is he a loud snorer?" Lyn asks quizzically.

“No, more of loud moaner. He rooms with Tam, you see. You'll be rooming with Rou for the time being, it's just that we don't have a spare set of ear plugs or caps to seal the voice pipes in our quarters."

“Oh? OH. Haha! I see," Lyn snickers. “I'll live, I'm sure. By the way, is Aso going to be fine? You seem… more okay with this than I would have expected."

“He's not got a hole all the way through him, and his horns are still glowing. If either were not the case, I would be scared to death for him, but –" Nef replies, pausing to take another drink. “– as is, I can relax; it's nothing worse than he's had before."

“Fair enough."

Chatting back and forth for a few more minutes, to two retire to get some sleep, crashing in their respective places to and rousing later. On the bridge, Lyn fills in Rae and Rou in on what happened as Tam, Nef, and Aramon group around Aso in the infirmary after he wakes up. He has quite a few bandages and head trauma akin to a concussion, according to Rou, but it's nothing bed rest won't heal. That is, so long as being dipped in a foreign planet's ocean with open wounds doesn't give him an alien parasite.

Nef givers her own recount of the events to the group, Aso listening wordlessly the entire time.

“I'm not going to make you eat a mountain of shit, Aso. But I want to hear you say it," Nef says firmly.

“… Say what?"

“Come on, say it," Tam croons.

“Oh, fuck you ," Aso sighs.

“Not until you say it."

“Are you seriously going to force me on this? Right now?"

“Aso, I'm at half mast," Tam grins, his tenting loincloth proving it. “I need to hear this."

“FINE," Aso growls, agitated by Tam's smug attitude more than anything else. “You were all right! I was wrong! I Should Have Listened."

In response, Tam lets out a sound akin to a deep chuckle and an aroused moan, his whole form vibrating with it loudly

“Jump up your own ass and die!" Aso scoffs, throwing his pillow at Tam.

“I can find it in my heart to forgive you, I suppose," Tam smirks, catching it before it can hit him or any medical equipment.

Tossing it back onto Aso's lap, Tam heads out of the room carrying an only partially struggling Aramon, stating, “I better make use of this muzzle while it lasts."

“I hate it here," Aso huffs after he leaves.

“Tam only gives shit to the people he cares about," Nef reminds him.

“Yeah, yeah. It can be easy to forget that sometimes."

“And it's not always easy to love you when you act like this, but I still manage. Catty comments of my own aside, Elaine said she got what she needs. Do you know what that means?"

“Things are fuzzy. I have a hard time remembering things right now, and this headache is certainly not helping, but I'm certain it will clear up. What I can think of right now is she extracted the theories of magic, its innerworkings to understand it, from me. Or enough to put the dots together. And she'll probably try to activate that artifact."

“The one she originally stole from you?"

“I was wondering how much Aramon managed to tell you before that ward activated. Yes, the same. I'm not sure what it even did. The place we took it from was so old the signs and paintings were almost gone and all we could make out was a big black circle on the wall she took it out of."

“Kind of like a reverse black hole?"

“I certainly hope that's not what it does! But we'll need to take it from her regardless."

“We. The we was intentional, right?"

“Yes, damn it, it was," Aso scoffs. “And it starts with me telling you about it. Everything."

Nef nods, taking a chair. “I'm listening."