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The Big Oof! Volume 2 Chapter 42
🕑 Added 2023-05-24 08:06:22 +0000 UTCVOLUME 1 IS DONE YAY. ON TO VOLUME 2
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"Are we there yet?" Yana whined, her tiny wings fluttering impatiently as she hovered near Elijah's head.
Everyone was sprawled out all over the deck in a bored manner, trying to find ways to pass the time. The only exceptions were Azeline and Rhea, who sat near the entrance to the lower deck with Elijah's datapad in hand, absorbed in a rather gripping tale about a knight's quest to the holy city. Even though the two women couldn’t understand a word that was being spoken, they were both in awe of the captivating moving images that accompanied the story.
"No," Elijah replied in a flat voice, his eyes fixed on the next bend of the river.
Yana huffed and crossed her arms as she landed on her Human’s head. “Okay, but when will we get there?” She asked, her childlike impatience show.
Elijah’s eye started to twitch in agitation. This had been the 5th time she asked this hour and this little charade would repeat every hour, on the hour.
For the past few days.
“We’ll get there when we get there.” Elijah replied, trying to contain his anger.
Yana pouted and sat directly on his head. "Okay, that's great and all," she waved her hand dismissively, "but when will we get there?" The little fairy persisted, clearly unhappy her question wasn’t answered.
Pinching the bridge of his nose, Elijah took a deep breath in an effort to control his rising blood pressure. "Yana," he said, his voice strained, "I. Don’t. Know."
“Why not!? Why don’t you know!?” Yana retorted, grabbing two fistfulls of Elijah’s hair. “You should know these things! You're my servant and I demand you to know these things!!"
Elijah gritted his teeth, trying his best not to lose his temper with the insistent gnat. "Yana," he began calmly, "There is no way for me to know when we’ll get there when I’m not Captain of this ship. Plus, not only are we moving slower than I could ever imagine, but we also make frequent stops."
Letting out an exaggerated yell of frustration, Yana finally let go of Elijah’s hair and floated in front of him. "Fine! But you should still know," she grumbled and fluttered away to sulk elsewhere.
Finally obtaining some semblance of peace and quiet, Elijah watched as Yana landed on Azeline's shoulder and started pestering her in his stead. Breathing a sigh of relief, he rubbed his temples to alleviate the headache and refocused on his subvocal conversation with Bennett.
“How far out are they?” Elijah said as a peculiar orange light flickered across his eyes. An augmented reality display suddenly came to life, superimposing data and images onto his vision. The live feed from a satellite, tracking the ship they pursued, materialized before him, made possible by Bennett's ability to interface with their orbital assets.
"Ehhh… Approximately 50 or so nautical miles, and if we keep our current speed," Bennett reported, his voice coming through the subvocal communication channel. “Then we should be able to catch them in a day or so.” The engineer finished, highlighting the position, speed and trajectory of the ship they were chasing.
Dragging his hand over his face, Elijah tapped on his forehead for a brief few seconds before letting out a grunt of discontent. "Fifty nautical miles..." he mumbled, feeling a wave of dread pass through him. "They’ll be able to dock long before we’re able to catch them at the rate we’re going…”
And that meant the cargo would most likely be unloaded and could be god knows where before they could even get close. They needed a new plan, and they needed it fast.
“There’s no way to speed us up?" Elijah asked, knowing full well the answer was most likely no.
"No, this thing is powered by rowers, the current or being pushed by the wind." Bennett replied with near disgust. "The sails aren’t even constructed to take advantage of Bernoulli's principle." He said in annoyance. “I bet if we created real sails, we’d be the fastest fucking ship on this shit hole planet.”
Elijah rested his forearms on top of a chest high box and slammed his head into them. “And we don’t have any way of tracking anything…?” He asked, knowing the scathing reply that was to come.
“No. No, we didn’t get them. You wanna know why?.” The engineer snapped. “Because you said, ‘oh we don’t need that dude, it’s just gonna stay on the SHIP.’”
Wincing at the retort, Elijah felt that Bennett was being somewhat unfair. How was he supposed to even FATHOM they’d crash land on some alien planet with magic infused and handsy locals. Let alone be on an extremely low speed chase down a river in order to get back their stolen possessions from said locals. But regardless of how unfair he thought it was, they were paying the price for being cheap and not spending the extra money for a proper safety net.
"And do you want to know where I tracked the ship's transponder to, Eli?" Bennett asked, his tone dripping with sarcasm. “Hmmm?”
A sigh escaped Elijah's lips as he felt his headache intensify, but he knew if he didn't let his engineer vent, Bennett would continue to be a bitter little shit. "Where, Ben…?"
“AT THE BOTTOM OF THE FUCKING OCEAN, THAT'S WHERE!!" Bennett exploded.
Silence reigned over the net as Elijah slowly spun around and leaned back on the box and stared at Azeline and Yana bickering with each other. Rhea had already made her escape and went back to yelling at the ship's lazing crew. A faint and weary smile spread across the man's face as he pushed himself to his feet and started to make his way over to the lower decks.
“Ya well, shit happens sometimes.” Elijah responded dismissively. “You can’t expect me to predict we’d end up stranded in magicland with elves and shit.” He said as his eyes adjusted to the darkness below. “Plus, we'll figure it out. It's not like we haven't been in tough spots before.”
Realizing he wasn't going to get a response, Elijah carefully ducked down to avoid the door frames and continued his descent into the lower decks. In the dimly lit hallways, he found himself constantly sidestepping to avoid the occasional crew members hurrying past him to reach the deck. He couldn't help but feel a tinge of envy at how fluidly they navigated the ship's archaic design, but it was evident that it hadn't been built for individuals of his stature.
Upon reaching their quarters, Elijah found Bennett hunched over a small table, meticulously etching something onto a piece of wood. The oversized, bone-like instrument in his hand emitted a soft blue glow, giving the scene an otherworldly ambiance as he kept repeating the same pattern over and over again.
Elijah peered over the engineer's shoulder, observing as he carefully burned a series of peculiar symbols into the wooden plank. "I still don't know what you're doing," he remarked, his voice tinged with curiosity.
The peculiar series of symbols suddenly flared with a bright blue light before vanishing into thin air. "Magic," Bennett responded unironically.
Upon closer examination, Elijah's eyebrows lifted in surprise. The majority of the wooden plank was adorned with the same repetitive series of symbols, leaving only a few seemingly random areas untouched and blank. Intrigued, he studied the intricate design, wondering what purpose the symbols served and why Bennett had chosen to leave certain spots empty.
Then, it dawned on him as another row of symbols flashed and subsequently faded into nothingness, leaving that specific plank completely unblemished. Elijah tilted his head in wonder as he tried his best to make sense of the strange calligraphy
"What are you even trying to do?" Elijah inquired, eager to learn more about the engineer's enigmatic project.
Bennett looked over his shoulder and gave Elijah a nonchalant shrug. “I dunno, I'm trying to figure that out myself,” he said, lifting a strange book made of parchment and hide. “The magic lady just gave me this book and to keep practicing the first line until I can get it right every time.”
Elijah furrowed his brow, intrigued by the mysterious instructions. "Interesting," he mused, taking a closer look at the strange book. The pages appeared to be organized like an instruction manual, detailing each individual symbol in a writing system he wasn’t able to decipher. “Man, I really gotta get Auri to teach us how to read.”
Turning back to his project, Bennett nodded in agreement. "Yeah, that’d help." He replied as he went back to burning more symbols onto the board.
Seeing he wasn’t going to get much else out of his Engineer, Elijah decided to leave the man to his devices and see if he could track down his alleged tutor. As popped his head out of the small doorway, Elijah turned his head to the side and spotted the woman in question. She was in the middle of coming out of the room she shared with Azeline and saw her nervously fidgeting with a handful of parchments.
“Hey Auri!” Elijah shouted, causing the poor woman to squeak in fright.
Dropping everything in her hands, Auri spun around with a panicked look on her face, and her hands collapsed together. However, the woman's expression relaxed as she breathed a sigh of relief upon realizing who had called out to her.
"Oh, Eli-jah," she said, giving an awkward smile as she bent over to pick up the dropped parchments. "You startled me. What can I do for you?"
Elijah rubbed the back of his neck as Auri approached. "Ah, sorry about that. Didn't mean to scare you," he said, bending over to help pick up the mess he had inadvertently helped create. "I was just wondering if we could find a moment to work on what we agreed on," Elijah said, deliberately keeping his words vague as another deckhand emerged from the labyrinth of cargo to head to the deck.
Auri’s eyes went large as her parchments once again hit the floor. “W-Wha… W-what?” She stammered as her face went beet red. “I uh… I-I thought you w-were just jesting. I mean… I was certainly jesting… T-There’s no way I can do that!”
“What? Come on, it’ll be great!” Elijah said, waving off her worries as he finished picking up the parchments. “It’ll be fun, trust me!”
Another squeak left Auri’s mouth as Elijah pushed her back into the shared room. “W-Wait! Wait Eli-jah! I have to at least prepare myself!” She yelped, looking back at the nonchalant man. “Oh gods… Oh heavens…” Her vision began to swirl as wild thoughts started to flood her brain.
It was long until Auri found herself sitting on the floor right across from Elijah as he sounded out different letters of the alphabet. The woman didn’t know whether she should be relieved or ashamed by the misunderstanding, but she still felt somewhat bamboozled. She glanced over at Elijah, who seemed completely oblivious to her previous discomfort and let out an exhausted sigh before continuing the lesson.
"Now this here," Auri began, writing another character on the back of a parchment, "is a 'G.'"
"Alright, G," Elijah repeated, his hand hovering over the letter.
Putting the misunderstanding behind her, Auri shook her head to dispel any lingering embarrassment and concentrated on teaching Elijah the basics of reading. As the lesson advanced, she noticed that her feelings of shame and bewilderment were gradually replaced by amazement. In just an hour or two, they had not only covered letter recognition and individual words but had already progressed to constructing simple sentences.
It had taken Auri weeks to reach the same level of proficiency when Master Simol first took her under his wing. Yet here was Elijah, breezing through the same material as if he was simply taking a refresher course.
"Um... I'm sorry to ask, but are you sure you don't know how to read?" Auri inquired, her brow furrowed with a mixture of suspicion and astonishment.
Scratching his chin, Elijah thought how best to approach this question. “Well, I do know how to read and write.” He replied leaning back against the wall. “As a matter of fact I can read and write in several languages, just not this one.”
That made a little more sense to Auri, but she still couldn’t quite accept how aggressively he was learning. "Ah, I see. Having a strong foundation in literacy would definitely help, but…” The red headed woman still held a complicated face. “I… I still find it hard to believe anyone is capable of picking up an alphabet, let alone grammar THIS fast.”
“In all my years, I’ve never met a soul that could pick up a writing system as quickly as you, not even Simol…" Auri admitted, giving Elijah a hard look. “The boy was also a Polyglot and even he still had difficulty picking up reading and writing this language.”
It was Elijah’s turn to give a difficult expression at the change of tone and verbiage. The way the red headed woman spoke seemed… Different.
“The boy?” Elijah asked with a raised eyebrow.
Auri locked eyes with Elijah as her mouth silently flapped with a terrified look on her face. “I-I mean I… I mean!”
Elijah remained silent as studied her for a moment. "I usually don’t pry into anyone's personal life, but considering all that has happened, I think it's fair to ask for a bit more context," he said gently, trying not to sound accusatory.
Looking down at the ground, Auri’s face scrunched up as she squeezed at the hem of her dress. “I… He’s… I mean.” She continued to stammer, unsure how to proceed.
“Is this Simol’s son or something? Will this boy be a problem in the future?” Elijah asked cautiously. “Am I going to have inquisitors down my throat because of him?"
Another look of shock and disbelief spread across Auri’s face as she became at a loss for words. “N… No…” She finally spoke up in a quiet voice. “N-No, I swear it…”
Taking a deep breath, Elijah closed his eyes and decided it was best to take her word for it and let the matter go. "Alright, Auri, I trust you," he said, opening his eyes. “I just don’t want this coming back and biting us in the ass.” He knew she was hiding SOMETHING, but seeing how she was starting to clam up, he figured that pushing her any further wouldn’t yield anything tangible.
Auri's shoulders finally relaxed as she heaved her own sigh of relief. "Thank you, Elijah," she murmured. “It won't be a problem, I promise.”
“Well, with that out of the way,” Elijah gave a reassuring smile. “Let's continue then, shall we?”
Returning the smile, Auri reorganized her parchment and picked her quill back upl. "Yes, let’s.” She said, underscoring another series of words.
rith ease.The two resumed the study session with renewed focus, progressing onto more complex sentences. Even though Auri was startled and weary of Elijah’s capacity to learn, She still felt as if the atmosphere between them was warm and comfortable. Coupled with Elijah’s occasional joke or light hearted frustrated yell, the red head couldn’t help but start to enjoy the teaching process. Not only had this helped them understand each other better, but it also made the subject A LOT more interesting.
It wasn't until the moon began to rise over the horizon, casting a silver glow across the landscape, that their lesson was interrupted. A series of knocks at the door startled both Auri and Elijah, causing them to exchange puzzled glances.
“C-Come in!” Auri said, her voice wavering slightly, as she tried to maintain a semblance of composure.
The door creaked open slowly, revealing a pair of long pointed ears and a head full of blonde hair poking through. “Oh, how disappointing.” Azeline said as her excited face shifted into one of boredom. “I thought you two were fucking.”
“M-Miss Azeline!!!” Auri said as all the blood rushed to her face.
Scratching the back of her ears, Azeline’s eyes shifted between the two. “Well I suppose that makes sense, if you two were, she’d be screaming like a banshee just like that beastkin tavern whore you liked so much.” She said nonchalantly, clearly amused by her own comment. “Well anyways, Lady Rhea’s looking for you and Ben, we’re apparently a few hours from Aldenshor.”
Auri sat there, eyes as wide as dinner plates as her mouth flapped silently at the obscene insinuations. Elijah, on the other hand and a comical grin on his face and replied, "I think you fried her brain, but thanks. I’ll drag Ben up there shortly."
Azeline simply chuckled and waved her hand. "Alright, I'll let them know you're on your way." She said as she closed the door with a thud. However, she immediately opened it back up and stuck her head back in. “Oh, and if you do fuck him Auri, make sure you tell me so I at least know that I wont be sleeping that night.”
“MISS AZELINE!!!!” Auri yelled, grabbing her quill and throwing it at the Blonde.
The door once again slammed shut with a thud as a mad cackle echoed out from the other side, leaving Auri fuming. “This insufferable woman went from trying to kill me all the way to teasing me about intimacy…” Auri grumbled under her breath. “Madness!”
Elijah was already at the door when he chuckled at Auri’s Exasperation. “Well, at least she isn’t trying to kill you anymore, right?" He smirked.
However, the only response he received was a snarl and a huff of indignation as Auri crossed her arms and turned her cheek.
Another laugh escaped Elijah’s lips as he shut the door behind him, figuring it was best not to push his luck any further. Taking a few steps down the hallway, Elijah found himself in front of the room he shared with Bennett.
He knocked lightly on the door before pushing it open, revealing Bennett sitting on his bed, deeply engrossed in etching another wooden Plank. "Hey, Rhea's looking for us. Apparently, we're nearing Aldenshor," Elijah informed him as he leaned against the doorway. “Did those shitlords dock already?”
Bennett suddenly froze and looked off to the side, coming to the realization just how long he had been working on his trying to master this odd form of magic. A strange, but faint orange light flashed across his eyes as he interfaced with an overhead satellite, checking the target ship's position relative to their destination .
"Damn, we're closer than I thought," Bennett muttered under his breath, the orange glow fading from his eyes. “They’re just about to dock.” The engineer looked over at Elijah, who was watching him with a mix of curiosity and concern.
Elijah stroked his beard thoughtfully, considering their next move. They were several miles behind, and with no other options available, they could only bide their time. Hopefully, if they kept their eye on the situation, they’d be able to gather a solid amount of intel for a proper plan of action.
"I guess we'll just have to play it by ear," He finally said, a hint of frustration in his voice. "Come on, let's hear what the good Captain has to say."
Comments
scribbles
Oh thanks, sorry it took so long to respond, I've been incredibly busy @_@
David Ellis
Minor editing mistake: "rith ease.The" Probably the part before the "The" should just be deleted?
