Thar Shaddin

Sam followed the others as they made their way back through the city and over to the docks where their ship would be waiting for them. He was fine with letting the others lead the way through a city that they, unlike him, were familiar with. Once upon the ship he planed to step up and to be of more help, but as it was he was rather out of his element in a place so foreign. The way they spoke, the clothes they wore, even some of the objects that he could in shop windows and homes spoke of a place much more advanced than that of the simple fishing villages and sheep farms of Pretana.

For one thing, Sam had yet to see a young child attempt to herd his family’s livestock through the streets or a housewife hanging her wet laundry out to dry on lines that ran from the roof of one small cottage to the next. Old men weren’t sitting outside their front doors in an impromptu smoking circle, whittling new fishing poles for their grandsons and chickens weren’t heard being slaughtered in back alleys.

As strange and amazing as this city was, it wasn’t home. And Sam could tell that he wasn’t the only one that felt this way. The young boy seemed to filled with the exuberant feeling of sheer amazement that only children could express when presented with something far beyond their own imagination and the girl...well she responded by running away. In all honesty, he couldn’t blame her for making such a decision. What they were planning on facing was going to be extremely dangerous and it would be better for everyone involved if inexperienced children were not forced to into believing the lie that such a life was one filled with fun adventure and grand rewards.

Somehow, the fact that the ship didn't have any obvious deformities or issues did not help Leni's mood. It had the wear of numerous sojourns into the deep, but it was in good repair, and clearly well taken care of. She didn't see any barnacles, nor clinging growth. Of course, it was doubtful any of the ships pulled into the venture would be less than at the top of their game, but she'd wanted it to be shitty, because she was in a shitty mood. Rot it.

It was a barque, sleek of lines, with three masts and a fresh paint job. Square-rigged, with crisp canvas and thick, sealed ropes.

There was a man on the dock with a clipboard and a cabin boy at his elbow, all gangly limbs and peach fuzz. Leni hated him instinctively, with his bright promise and eyes gleaming mischief. Little shit.

Before she could present and make an ass of herself and her compatriots, Scraps had disengaged from their unruly gaggle (made moreso by Boulder's incessant banter and pithy comments) and drifted to a halt in front of the man. Leni didn't know what rank he held, but she suspected bosun at the minimum; he had that air of command about him that meant he meant business and could keep men in line. Scraps held up their papers. "Reporting in as hunters," he said. "Three from the Society, and three conscripts."

Sweet fucking mercy. The tits-out shipsinking vortex of doom had run away. With any luck she would not be back. Seeing the Serpent Runner was almost enough to provide a minor boost to Adhemar's mood... until he saw again the new fucking paint job. Oh how he had argued with Jeronimo over that, until the feckless git had put his foot down like a dense prat and growled "Stow your superstitious nonsense, Adhemar, I've got no time for it today. We're going into this looking our best, and that includes a fresh coat of paint."

Fucking idiocy. New paint invited new disasters: everyone with half an ounce of sense knew that. Still, it seemed to have impressed the fancypants inspection the Society of the Changed had conducted prior to signing Jeronimo onto their suicidal endeavour. Adhemar pushed past the others and nodded a curt greeting to the bosun "Higgs." He jerked his thumb at the fresh fodder and their paperwork "Looks like we're scrapin' the bloody barrel here. We might have dodged a fucking lance though, because the woman they signed on to our ship has already run off, bare tits flapping in the wind like some harpy. Quartermaster still with Jeronimo?"

Higgs nodded in response to Adhemar's question, but still corrected the tattooed malcontent out of habit "That's Bosun Higgs." Adhemar waved a hand in his usual acknowledgement. The bosun turned his attention back to the gaggle of new crew. He glanced over the papers and noted that, as Adhemar had indicated, they had one less person than the papers suggested. "Papers not quite in order, it appears. Down one already, and not even out of harbour?" Last think he needed was even one of Adhemar's foretellings coming true by coincidence. The man would be insufferable if that happened "Firstly, who's who. Then tell me who's missing and are we still expecting them?". Higgs stared at the five of them, preparing to link names to faces for the voyage to come.

Adhemar, unlike Higgs, didn't give the slightest fuck as to who was who at this point and didn't hang around. The harpooner hurried up the gangplank to go give the quartermaster his bloody berthing papers. Shame he didn't know which one belonged to the fled set of ill-omened tits. He'd have tossed it overboard.

Of course, Ika could have taken off right then as they had all figured she had. The idea of hunting a mythical beast that could swallow a ship whole was one that would scare off even the most seasoned of hunters. This was probably a large part of why the hired guns were so versatile; no one else in their right minds would have agreed to it, for any amount of money.

The path back to the stables was quick as Ika sprinted down the cobblestone walkways. People stared at her openly as she passed them, as usual. She did not stop for anything until she reached the stable. Nukani, the huge red bird, was still tied to the exterior of the stables. There was an empty stable between where the bird was tied and the nearest horse. Ika had instructed the stable boy to do this because of her bird's habit of trying to hunt any form of animal that behaved like prey.

The bird recognized her immediately, fluttering his wings and chirping loudly. The bird bowed his head low to the ground, folding his wings back to make himself appear smaller. Ika sounded off a sharp whistle between her teeth, which made the stable boy flinch.

She walked close to the boy and leaned in so he would be able to hear her. "Chanj plan," was all she said.
"What?" The boy was left puzzled while Ika untied the red beast. The bird made odd purr-like sounds while she did this, and in response, she scratched the feathers on the creature's neck.

To prepare him for riding, Ika did almost nothing. She removed the leather piece that had been tied around his head to make him easier for the boy to handle. She made a soft humming sound and the bird bent his legs to allow Ika to climb onto him. "Kala," she said, and the bird sprinted forward.

They weaved through the crowd as if they were one animal. Around them, surprised people ducked or stumbled sideways to make room, though they had no reason to worry. In what seemed like moments, they were together looking up at the Serpent Runner. Ika was cooing to Nukani to keep him from getting overly excited, as he seemed to think they were venturing off to another hunt. The pair walked to the rest of their party. There was a little man on the dock carrying a clipboard. Nukani, carrying Ika, walked past him onto the loading dock.

He raised his hand and opened his mouth to protest, but a sharp look from the bird kept him closed shut.

Jeeko had managed to stay surprisingly still and quiet as they waited to board the ship, right up until the foreign woman had returned. He caught sight of the giant bird, the fire walker, and grinned openly with delight and relief. He had been quite disappointed with the idea that someone like her could just run away from an adventure, and he was thrilled that the idea had been proven very wrong. As the bird passed the bosun, Jeeko made to follow quickly behind and ask the woman if he could pet the thing, but a hand on his arm stopped him.

Scraps, the hand's owner, was eying him with as much distrust as condescension. The bosun beside them seemed to forget the bird momentarily to get on with his present duties, "Name?"

"Jeeko Bonriqua," the boy replied after a moment.

One of the crew was about loading up the ship. Upon spotting the new arrivals, he discreetly took Sam by the elbow and loaded him up with nonessentials and a slew of directions for where it went. He made eye contact with the Bosun, directing Sam to give his name for the roster, and then gave him a little push up the plank and into the ship. Leni was right ready to protest, but hey, they weren't none of her problem and if the fuck got hisself all twisted round the wrong way on the decks, weren't her place to right him. She gave the bosun the information he needed, cutting herself off with "that's her, now" when Ika arrived, followed by a slurry of names. When it became clear Higgs was losing patience with her, Scraps took over. Not that Leni was about to protest.

She weren't so grateful to learn they'd all be bunkin' down alongside each other on the berth deck, and resigned herself to a full moon o' misery. "Rot it," she muttered, twice so when she realized the bosun didn't intend for the bird to be coming with them.

As Scraps finished talkin' all pretty with the man, Leni turned to Tits and drew up real close. "That thing ain't comin' with, hear?"

Adhemar had returned from giving the quartermaster his fucking papers and an earful about the kind of recruiting office that would hire women of such brazenly ill-omened that they'd walk about with their ship-sinking tits just bouncing around like lodestones of destruction. The quartermaster had been surprisingly unreceptive to Adhemar's ranting, and even seemed to enjoy the notion of a topless woman aboard the sink. Well, of course, it just went to show the entire expedition was properly screwed. Lucky the woman had run off.

The heavily tattooed harpooner left the quartermaster to his folly and inspected the jolly-boats again. As he had done every day. Just to make sure nobody had tampered with them. Because you could never tell what kind of malicious malingering bastards might just try to act as more direct agents of misfortune.

When he was done, and glowering at folks both new and old, he spotted her. The tits of doom had returned. But it was what she brought with her that had the harpooner's jaw drop. Fortune, both good and ill, were laughing in his face, he was certain of it. That bird was damn good luck, like an albatross, but better. Adhemar realised that his captain wasn't going to toss the tits of doom overboard, so the only chance they had was to make sure the bird came as part of the parcel. And right now, that side of things was looking dicey.

An argument was breaking out at the gangplank itself where folks with a bit more spine than the clipboard-wielding bosun were willing to keep unsavoury folks away. Well, all but their own unsavoury folks, that was. Like that bloke Leni - seemed the solid sort. Trouble was, Leni obviously didn't know good fortune when he saw it. A characteristic failure of people that weren't Adhemar, in the harpooner's experience.

It was bloody lucky he'd arrived when he did. Adhemar lied with the dour glower of a man who'd lie in the face of the Changers if it meant twisting fortune to the favour of his ship "Quartermaster said them AND their belongin's. If the walkin' display of tits owns the bird, it comes aboard. But she's cleaning up after it."

Bosun Higgs, who had assumed Adhemar had come down to argue further against the barechested woman's admittance, decided a bird - no matter how large or unusual - was worth not having to deal with an Adhemar-shaped headache for a day or so. "Very well then. Leni, make sure that ..." He glanced at his clipboard "Ika? That she keeps it away from the crew at work and promptly cleans up any messes."

Adhemar, having finally added a tiny hint of sunshine to an otherwise doom-clouded sky, glowered at the crowd of dockrats and lowlifes gathering nearby to gawk at the tits of doom and her good-fortune bird.

Waiting for instruction, Ika made purring noises to the bird. Almost immediately upon her arrival, there was clearly some discontent amongst the crew and those in the higher-ups. Leni moved very close to the pair, to which Nukani protested with an angry screech that had some crew members holding their ears. It sounded something like a mutated eagle.

Ika felt the desire ooze from Nukani to hatchet open the woman with beak and talons, but forced the bird to push such thoughts away. In protest, the bird flared open his wings and made a show of intimidation, fluttering each feather to get the mangled, pale woman away from them. Ika had known that Leni and the crew would protest to Nukani. It did not matter. Either he was coming, or she would not be a part of the hunt. Without her, she was sure they would fall to their doom beneath the black waves of the sea.

"Me haere ia ki a tatou!" Ika shouted at Leni, though none for thousands of miles would understand the speech. "Nukani come!" The rough translation came just as Adhemar came to them, arguing for her bird.

She noticed that all three of them, Leni, Adhemar, and herself, were heavily tattooed. It made her smile for some reason.

As the bird was cleared for boarding, Ika dismounted and smiled broadly, all white and toothy. Despite his expression, Ika walked up to Adhemar, took his hand and rather awkwardly shook it with both of her hands, using 100% more force than was necessary and shaking 200% longer than was normal. She then turned and began guiding the bird up toward boarding plank, rather excited to see their new living arrangements.

Jeeko stood, quietly shifting from foot to foot with built up excitement, and watched the scene unfolding. His large eyes jumped from one person to another; from crew, to ship, to sea, and back. He wanted to jump in with the crew and help with preparing the ship, but he also wanted to jump right up on the giant bird's back and try out riding it for himself. As Ika finally began boarding, it took only a moment of hesitation before Jeeko was once again following.