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If there is one part of any ship that Caduceus has traveled on that he likes, it has to be the crow's nest. Having the wind blowing through his hair as he can make out distant land just on the horizon is surprisingly freeing, and something he hadn't realized he'd wanted until the first time he'd done it.
Caduceus, however, doesn't like falling.
Especially when it's through a black void, and he doesn't know what's at the bottom.
He can hear Twiggy falling beside him more than he can see her, the small gnome tumbling end over end before she most likely manages to right herself in mid-air.
"Look!" she shouts, her voice echoing in the void around them. She's probably pointing a tiny finger in the direction they're falling, though Caduceus can't see it. "Get ready to land!"
Caduceus feels the air rushing fast against his face now, and he tries his best to right himself, to figure out how to brace when he's only sure of where down is. When he makes contact with solid stone, he's pleasantly surprised at having landed on his feet. At the last possible moment, he remembers something he's seen Beau do once, instantly dropping into a roll and rising to his feet. The odd crunch of bones and coins hits his ears as he does so. And he's not in pain, which is really nice.
When he looks up, he sees a blue dragon that's flying and on fire, a shattered mark in the stone where electricity seems to be dissipating, a fire elemental (which is probably what's responsible for the dragon being on fire), Beau looking understandably upset, Jester surrounded by tiny, sparkling unicorns and also understandably upset, and no immediate sign of Fjord.
This is bad.
He doesn't know what the fire elemental is doing, but given the aura of menace the dragon is emanating, he figures it's the bigger threat.
"Oh, boy," he murmurs, grabbing his holy symbol with one hand and pointing at the dragon. "Wildmother, help me to place a bane upon him!"
He grits his teeth and exerts his will, feeling the spell flow through him to dash itself against blue scales. For a moment, he thinks it's failed, that he's wasted the effort, but then feels the spell wrap around him. The dragon's wingbeats falter for a moment, and it looks like it's struggling against something that might be hampering him, but the spell is holding.
Just as the dragon's eyes are searching out who just cast that spell on him, Caduceus closes his own eyes, breathes in deeply, and turns invisible. He only has a few moments. He has to make them count. He runs down the closest hallway that he can see, hoping that something will be inside of it that they can use against a blue dragon.
"Evening, Caduceus," comes a soft murmur that would ordinarily be as soothing as a cup of tea after a long day, but is enough to jar him quite badly. "We hope your journey to port is going well. Being on a ship that needs repairs doesn't sound fun. Are you doing okay?"
Caduceus almost responds, but then Pumat keeps talking.
"Hey, sorry we missed you. The spell's working, so you're not dead, which is good. Just be careful? Send a message back when you can."
Caduceus frowns suddenly, wondering what's happening. He's really tempted to start answering, despite being invisible, because neither of Pumat's duplicates are giving him a chance to answer, and they're sounding like Caduceus isn't the one answering them.
Fjord flashes into existence not too far away, looking just as panicked as the rest of his teammates and looking back in the direction of the main area where the dragon is. He then turns and sprints down the hallway that they're in, coming to a stop some distance in. Caduceus can see Fjord's broad shoulders flex and move as he seems to examine something, but whatever he's found must not be that interesting.
A moment later, the half-orc wheels around. Two beams of energy briefly light up the hallway, showing that Fjord is standing in front of a pedestal of some kind. Caduceus flattens against one wall, barely avoiding them, and watches as they sail through the air and slam into the dragon's side.
The dragon shifts where it flies, looking like an older sister who's only been nudged a little by all of the strength in Caduceus's tiny hands. Blue eyes zero in on Fjord. "I see you, morsel."
That would be a nice voice if its owner weren't trying to kill them all, Caduceus thinks.
Caduceus looks over at Fjord, trying to see if he's badly hurt.
Fjord's form flickers for a moment. "Not now!" He squeezes his eyes shut for a moment and seems to be concentrating. "Shit!" Wide yellow eyes look back to the dragon, who is definitely looking back at him. Then Fjord screams in panic.
Beau darts down the other hallway, her feet soft as they fly over the finished stones. "Work!" she shouts over the din in the main room, which is pretty impressive. Her voice warbles with panic. "Energy!" A moment later, she appears in the main room again. In the light emanating from the fire elemental, Caduceus can see Beau shake her head at Jester before coming to a halt underneath of the flying dragon. "Fucking crystals!"
"I know, right?" Jester is a good friend to agree with Beau while she's clearly terrified of a blue dragon. That's nice. (Caduceus is too, of course, but Jester's closer to it at the moment, and she's not invisible.)
There's a flicker of movement out of the corner of Caduceus's eye, and he can see a tiny shape dart into an alcove. At first, Caduceus doesn't really pay any attention to it, but then something weird happens.
The wizard whose portrait they saw in the library before steps out from an alcove. He's much shorter than Caduceus was expecting, which is a little weird. But he's stepping out boldly, and when he opens his mouth, he says, "Hey! You look bigger than the last time I saw you!"
Caduceus blinks a few times. Wouldn't the wizard have known how big the dragon was…? He didn't think dragons grew all that fast, since they're so big…
The dragon glances over, snorts, and then returns his attention to Fjord.
That's not good.
The fire elemental shifts forward, shedding bright light, which is really nice. Caduceus likes being able to see.
Jester squeaks out, "Okay, Traveler, please, please, please let this work!" before chanting a spell. The sound of wingbeats suddenly disappears, and then Jester shrieks, "Catch him!"
That's a really weird thing to say, Caduceus thinks.
Suddenly, there's a deafening roar of fire, the sound of air being displaced, and then the dragon let outs a roar in response, sounding very offended.
The dragon, scales slithering against the mountain of bones and coins, takes in a deep breath, and there's a lightning bolt blasting down the other hallway. Caduceus barely catches movement as Beau tumbles out of the way, but the lightning makes contact in the brief, burning flash.
Jester screams something in a language Caduceus doesn't know, her voice choked with anger and pain. Caduceus thinks there was another sound, but with how close the lightning was, his ears are still ringing.
A faint blue light runs along a line on the floor, coming from the hallway where Jester had disappeared into, heading into the main chamber, and up to something on the wall opposite the hallways.
"That was cold damage!" Jester shouts, awed and hopeful.
The wingbeats start up again as the dragon takes to the air. There's more fire roaring after it, causing it to snarl, but the wingbeats start to recede. Down the other hallway, where Jester is.
"Hey, just checking in to see if you're okay," Pumat murmurs in his ear. "If I'm interrupting something, just let me know. We know all about pulling all-nighters, after all."
Caduceus opens his mouth to respond, sure that a disembodied voice could pique a dragon's curiosity, but Pumat starts talking.
"Respectfully, Caduceus, I know that I just said something that might make things awkward, but I'm firbolg enough to stand by what I said."
Caduceus frowns, confused about the strange Sendings from Pumat and worried about Jester. "It happened again. Why isn't he letting me answer? What did he just say?"
There's the sound of wingbeats again as his invisibility fades, and the scent of ozone tickles his nose.
"Deal with it later," he tells himself sternly. "We have to get out of here."
Caduceus's ear flicks as the air pressure changes, but he doesn't pay it any mind as he runs up to the mouth of the hallway, eyes tracking where the blue light is heading. In the light from the elemental, he can see a pedestal with runes. Looking over his shoulder, he can barely make out Fjord's outline near the end of the hallway.
"Duck!" he shouts before lifting his staff to point at the end of the hallway.
There's a brief flicker as the flames lick into existence, revealing Fjord's panicked expression, his bright yellow eyes squeezed as he tries to activate his Blink spell again.
And then nothing.
Caduceus can't help humming in thought. "Weird."
As the spell flickers and fades, he sees Fjord's expression as the half-orc thinks of something, and then immediately doubts if it would work. After another moment of indecision, he makes quick motions with his hands. In moments, the moisture is sucked out of the air, swirling around the half-orc before forming on his body like armor made out of ice.
Fjord stares at the crystal, looks down at the armor on his chest, then back to the crystal. And then he headbutts it.
The ice armor encasing Fjord shatters and is sucked into the crystal. As Fjord wobbles where he stands, a blue line of light runs past Fjord's feet, down the length of the hallway, and meets up with the other line. From his vantage point, Caduceus can see it heading for something that looks like Twiggy's fun ball of tricks, only glowing with a dull blue-green light, which is sitting on a pedestal on the other side of the main chamber.
Fjord runs up to meet Caduceus, seeing the light on the floor, and then braces himself. He squeezes his eyes shut again, letting out a grunt of frustration. "Dammit, what the hell use is this damn thing anyway--"
Beau sprints across the main chamber as lightly as a gazelle over the collection of bones and coins, stopping in front of the glowing orb. She looks it over frantically, sparing a glance over her shoulder before reaching out and touching it.
With a flash, she's gone.
"Caduceus? Are you all right? I couldn't cast Sending again." Pumat asks, his usually reassuring murmur agitated. "What happened?"
Caduceus tries to ignore the faint gibbering coming from Fjord right next to him, his eyes still locked on where Beau had just been standing.
"It's just like when the fun ball of tricks activated," he murmurs. "We need to touch that to get out of here."
In the light of the fire elemental, Caduceus can see Twiggy thinking quickly, glance up at the animated pillar of fire that's definitely turned on her, and then pull something from her pocket.
"What the hell is happening?!" Fjord whispers loudly.
Caduceus frowns. "Why is the fire elemental doing that? Did Beau summon it?" He flicks an ear in absent-minded irritation.
"I guess?" Fjord says, his eyes locked on Twiggy shove something in her mouth and start frantically chewing on it. "She threw something on the ground that shattered, and that thing showed up."
"Did you just say a fire elemental?" Pumat demands in his ear.
Caduceus is about to wave away Pumat's voice again when he notices that more of Pumat's replies aren't immediately following. "Yes. Beau broke something on the ground, and a fire elemental appeared. But she's gone now, and it looks like it just turned on Twiggy."
His ear tickles again, and it suddenly occurs to him. "Oh, I've been answering him. Huh."
"Answering him?" Fjord demands. "Him who?"
"Respectfully, you're in danger," Pumat says firmly, his voice so close to Caduceus's ear that it temporarily drowns out the flames. "When Beau left, the control over the elemental was severed. You've probably got a minute before it leaves. Get out!"
"What?" Fjord asks frantically, reaching out to shake his arm. "What's he saying?"
Caduceus sets his jaw. "It's a wild animal that's been brought somewhere against its will." He turns to Fjord. "We need to get out of here."
That's when the fire elemental walks through them.
Caduceus only has a moment of awareness before fire engulfs him. He instinctively winces away from it, which is probably why he's not breathing in ash and fire. Air returns a moment later, but then there's a pained shout as searing heat lashes out at Fjord. Caduceus is hit a moment later, fire and pain lancing up his arm and across his chest where the plates in the beetle armor meet. The stench of cooking meat and burnt fur turns his stomach.
The floor shakes as the dragon's heavy body hits, and Caduceus manages to open his eyes just enough to see that Jester has emerged from the other hallway, and right behind her is the dragon, blue eyes blazing, lashing out with claws and teeth.
Sparks fly as Jester manages to get her shield up in time to deflect claws larger than her arm.
The second claws rip through her torso, tearing through her armor like paper.
As the dragon's jaws open, the serpentine head moving almost as fast as lightning, Caduceus's vision clears.
He's managed to keep the bane on the dragon by the skin of his teeth, and he refuses to let it hurt Jester again. He grits his teeth, and throws a hand out to the dragon now.
"No," he manages in a strained voice.
Enormous teeth close around the edge of Jester's shield, and then the muscles weaken. Jester wrestles off the dragon with a firm shove, and the dragon's jaws waver again before snapping open and closed a foot away from her face.
"Caduceus?" Pumat shouts. "Caduceus! Answer me!"
"Owwwww," Caduceus mutters. They need to get out of there. If the dragon doesn't get them, the fire elemental will. Since there are more of them than there are of the dragon, the fire elemental could hurt them worse than the dragon at this point. Taking a deep breath, he runs towards the pedestal on the other side of the main chamber, but then stops.
Jester is still facing down the dragon, her blue eyes wide and terrified. Fjord is still trying to frantically Blink away from the fire elemental, which looks ready to take another swing at him. Twiggy is… somewhere.
And Caleb and Nott are nowhere to be seen. They haven't even arrived yet.
Someone has to be here for them, to show them the way out.
Caduceus sees the stone wall to his right, and mutters quickly, "Wildmother, help me." He touches the stone, closes his eyes, and pushes.
Compared to the chaos happening in the dragon's chambers, the silence of solid stone is almost deafening. Not even the woods ever got this quiet.
For a moment, Caduceus wonders if this is what it's really like to be dead.
"Caduceus? Are you safe? Can you answer me?" Pumat asks, his words sharp and fast. "You might be in some kind of magic field that's stopping my Sendings from getting--"
Caduceus tries opening his mouth, and is surprised when it works. He tries to speak, and realizes the flaw in his plan. There's no air in solid stone. He tries to think really hard.
He has a feeling it didn't work.
It's kind of nice in the stone. He's not on fire anymore, which is nice. Maybe he should teach this trick to Jester so that she can get out of harm's way. Then again, it might depend on if her god would let her do it.
Caduceus can't imagine a god who'd just abandon such a devoted follower. She even stole his straw hat for that one prank on a temple to Bahamut. He hadn't realized it until the next day when he was looking for it, and she bought him a new one.
Caduceus has to remind himself that he has friends out there, friends who could be dying. He needs to get out of here. And now feels like the right time.
The smell of burnt ozone hits his nose as he emerges from the stone. There's another blackened hole where the dragon must have breathed its lightning again, and there's Caleb and Nott, both wheezing and flat on their backs, and staring at him like they've just seen a ghost.
Caduceus really hopes they haven't. They don't need a ghost on top of this mess.
"Caduceus, I can't help you if you don't tell me what's happening!" Pumat adds.
"We're running!" he raises his voice to be heard over the dragon's wingbeats, which are getting louder over the roar of the elemental's flames.
"It's bad." he adds, just in case they missed the dragon flying overhead.
He glances around quickly for Jester or Fjord, because he knows they've taken a beating, but he can't see either of them. Looking up at the dragon, Caduceus winces because this is such a terrible idea, but it's the best one he's got.
He lets the bane drop, and points with his staff at the dragon's eyes. "Wildmother, protect us from his gaze!"
The dragon's eyes cloud over with black, and it roars angrily.
"Oh, that worked. Huh."
He turns to Caleb and Nott, who are still trying to recover the ability to breathe, and frantically gestures at the orb before sprinting over and touching it.
There's a flash of dull blue-green light, and he lands first on his knees, and then on his hands against the wooden planks of the Squalleater.
"Cad!" Beau yelps before running over and patting him down quickly. "Are you all right? Where's everyone else?"
"Still back there," Caduceus says numbly, looking around in wonder. "Are we back on the ship?"
"Yeah. You okay?"
"Yeah." Dimly, he notices his ears pop. "How long have you been waiting?"
"A few minutes." Beau is trying to look unfazed by everything that just happened, as well as hiding her relief. "What did you see?"
"Caduceus, please tell me that you didn't just try to blind a fire elemental," Pumat murmurs. "I don't think you can actually blind them."
"Well?" Beau demands.
Caduceus holds up a finger, and grins a little as he holds up his fingers. "I don't know about fire elementals, but it looks like you can blind a blue dragon with a spell." It looks like he has… six words left. "I hope they get out soon."
Beau frowns at him.
"Pumat Sol was Sending me messages in there." He frowns suddenly. "Quite a lot of them, actually."
Before he can think any further about how strange that is, Fjord suddenly pops into existence, frantically patting at his armor and his skin.
The others follow soon after: Caleb, followed a few minutes later by Nott, then Jester. All of them are the worse for wear, but Caduceus has a prayer of healing ready, and Nott and Jester have been patting out themselves and each other frantically.
Caduceus dimly notices that the crew are anxiously standing around them, that Twiggy's fun ball of tricks is sitting on a table. Right now, he's focusing on his friends, who he couldn't heal. Jester looks especially bad, though he can catch moments when she's trying to cover the empty look in her eyes with a smile.
Twiggy finally tumbles out, grinning widely.
"You guys, I did it! I killed the dragon all by myself!"
"What?" Beau and Nott say together.
"No, the dragon was alive," Nott adds. "We just left."
"Awww, man…" Twiggy wilts.
"Did you really?" Nott asks.
"I really did," Twiggy says in a small voice.
"Oh, Jessie," Beau says, trading a look with Jester.
Caduceus stops for a moment and stares at her. She meets his gaze directly, and he can see the truth in her eyes.
"God damn." He's not much for swearing, but this seems like a situation that calls for it. "Way to go. Did you get anything from him, or…?"
"I really tried to take a tooth, but I figured it'd be better to live," Twiggy replies breathlessly.
"Yeah," Caduceus agrees, even if he's a little disappointed about not seeing a dragon tooth. "Aw, man."
There's a clattering sound, and they look down to see a dragon tooth stuck in the side of Twiggy's tiny boot. With a grin, Twiggy wrestles it free from the leather and puts it inside her bag. "This'll be good for later."
Caduceus watches Nott pluck something out of Jester's hair, but his attention is quickly grabbed when Marius LePual steps forward.
"We've been waiting here for seven days," he says.
Caduceus dimly registers the rest of the Nein's shocked reactions. All he can think of is Pumat Sol's voice in the darkness. How many times had Pumat cast Sending? And how many of those times had been those strange moments when he wouldn't let Caduceus answer him.
As bizarre as it sounds, as worrying as it is to have lost that much time, it makes a certain amount of sense.
"Where are we?" Fjord mutters weakly. He sounds as battered as the rest of them feel, but he's more stunned than anything else at the idea of having lost seven days inside the ball of tricks.
To be fair, Caduceus is having trouble fathoming it himself.
"We're at Bisaft," Marius answers. "Our repairs finished like a day ago and we haven't paid yet because you've been fucking gone!"
Caduceus can't help laughing at that.
"The Dockmaster's not happy!"
As one of the other crew members eyes the ball of tricks suspiciously, Caduceus quickly stammers, "I-I wouldn't touch that. That's a lot."
"Well, we figured that was the case!" Marius snaps.
"Yeah," Caduceus agrees. He's glad he doesn't have to keep warning them not to touch it. That's nice.
"It's probably safe to touch now," Jester pipes up. "I mean, the dragon's dead."
"Marius, do me a favor," Fjord begins, sounding like a long stretch of road without water in sight. "Just tell us how much repairs cost and let's all settle in for the night. We're gonna--" In the middle of his exhaustion, he reaches over and bats at Beau's shoulder and shoulderblade. When she looks at him with some surprise, he gruffly offers, "Still on fire."
"Sorry," she mutters, taking over the job herself.
"We're gonna need it," he mutters.
Caduceus is slowly tuning out the rest of the conversation, turning his attention inward, asking the Wildmother for assistance. His ear flicks when he hears Caleb's voice but he doesn't pay it much mind. Not until Caleb starts walking away.
"Uh, if you stick around," he calls to Caleb, "I'm gonna be-- uh, helping every-- doing a-- the thing."
Caleb trudges off without showing any sign he heard. The defeated slump in his shoulders means that the chains are weighing heavy on him, though Caduceus isn't quite sure what's caused it. Still, Caleb's not going to stick around, and that's okay. If he needs healing later, he'll know where to find him or Jester.
Words are rapidly failing him, but luckily, the Wildmother doesn't mind if he's having trouble saying words. He closes his eyes, takes in a deep breath, and exhales, the wave of healing energy rippling out from him.
When the prayer is finished, Caduceus sighs and opens his eyes. "It's been a long day."
He gets murmurs of agreement in response.
"Well, let's just call that lesson learned, yeah?" Fjord manages, sounding a bit stronger than before.
Caduceus is certainly hoping that means Fjord will stop touching things willy-nilly, but he's not sure if the lesson will stick. Fjord reminds him a little of one of his older sisters who kept poking hornets' nests and expecting something different to happen every time.
"Maybe we should all reconnoiter in the morning." Fjord is almost slumping where he stands, even after the healing.
"Sometimes, mysterious spheres just happen to you, if I'm learning anything," Caduceus manages philosophically to the rest of the group.
"The good news is is that if Twiggy actually killed the dragon-- which you obviously did--"
Twiggy pipes up with a soft, "Thanks."
"We can go back," Fjord finishes.
That earns a round of muttering that doesn't sound very positive. Still, if Fjord is intent on it…
"I mean, maybe, sure." To be honest, Caduceus isn't all that eager to jump back inside himself. Not with seven days gone and who knows what kind of explanation Pumat was able to figure out during the battle of an actual blue dragon.
"There were lots of jewels on the ground." Jester also tries to put a positive spin on the idea, but she sounds as battered and uninterested as the rest of the group.
Fjord doesn't even pretend to be disappointed. "Yeah, it sounded bad when it came out."
"Well," Twiggy chimes in, looking at all of the Nein with large blue eyes. "I just want to say that this was the most fun adventure I've ever had in my lives--"
Caduceus turns to look at her, trying to figure out if she's referring to her previous life locked in a cage, or if she's been resurrected in the past.
"And you guys are the bestest friends that I've ever had, and I think you should keep the Ball of Fun--" She stumbles over her words a little. Perhaps she doesn't want to part with it, but she thinks she needs to? "But I'd be very careful because Sir Cadigan is after it."
Without a pause, she adds, "I better keep moving, so I might get off here, you guys."
"You don't want to stay with us?" Jester sounds almost heartbroken.
"You guys have been the greatest friends ever," Twiggy hastens to reassure her, "but I've spent my whole life in a box. I'm going to go exploring."
Nott lets out a small, "Oh."
"I understand that."
Jester would. She spent much of her life hidden away in her room. She loves her mother dearly, but Caduceus is sure that, if anyone could understand Twiggy's need to leave, to explore, it would be Jester.
Twiggy is relieved and still sad. "Thanks."
"It was nice to meet you and nearly die next to you." It's really nice that Nott is honest on both parts.
"Thanks for saving my life," Twiggy says with a big smile. Then she tugs the lapel of her jacket and drops her voice to approximate her squirrel friend. "Yeah, thanks for that!"
There are more than a few smiles at that.
"As an honorary member of The Mighty Nein, just do us a favor and make sure you tell your story far and wide, yeah?" Fjord offers gruffly. As much as he had been arguing against Twiggy traveling with them, he's sad to see her go too.
"I shall!" Twiggy beams. "I shall speak of your bravery to all that I meet."
For a moment, just a moment, Caduceus is reminded of his eldest sister going out into the world, trying to find the cure to the Savalierwood's curse. She had the same look in her eye, the same promise to speak of her family to other firbolgs she met. She'd been about to leave home without even--
"Let's-- let's pack some food and some tea and stuff before you go, you're going to need some--" Caduceus spoke up.
"Oh, I've got chocolate!" Twiggy says cheerfully.
If he hadn't let Cadence leave without packing at least a few days of food, there is no way he's letting a tiny little gnome do the same. "Yeeeeah, I'm going to go get some food."
Beau looks down at Twiggy and offers a soft, "Thanks, Twiggy." And, of course, because she feels uncomfortable being gentle with others, even friends, she adds, "I'm sorry I found your cuteness alarming."
"I have that effect on people." Twiggy says, not bothered at all. She puts up the hood of her cloak, and a second Twiggy blinks into existence, standing next to the original. "Bye! Bye!"
Caduceus watches her and the illusion speak and wave their hands for a moment. "Oh, that's weird."
"I would do that too," Jester says, just a little sad, "but I think I'm out of the ability."
As Twiggy responds, Caduceus can see Caleb returning to their group. The chains are still weighing heavy on him, but he's surfaced enough from his pain to know that Twiggy is leaving them.
"You stowing away, is that what's happening?" Caleb asks, eying her curiously.
"Yes!" Twiggy heads to the gangplank, turns, and waves to all of them, calling out, "Be good, be brave! Thanks for the adventure!"
"Halas," Caleb calls in return, slowly blowing her a kiss as everyone waves.
Twiggy's tiny form descends the gangplank and heads up the dock as they call after her.
"Bye!"
"Make good life choices!" Since that one is coming from Fjord, it seems a bit like the pot calling the kettle black, but Caduceus is too busy waving.
"Make sure to eat all the candy!" Jester yells after her.
As she disappears into the crowd, Caduceus wonders if they'll see her again. Most likely they will -- she's smart enough to get herself out of trouble if she gets into it, and she killed a dragon. That's pretty impressive.
"Well, that was the weirdest seven days I didn't know I had," Beau says.
Caduceus blinks, and turns to face her. It takes him a moment, but she's completely right. "Yeah!"
"Jester, are you all right?" Beau asks, looking at her.
"Oh, yeah, of course. I'm fine." Jester's voice is almost delicate.
She's not, of course. And for once, Beau seems to understand that too.
"You're a bad liar."
But she doesn't seem to understand everything about their friend. Maybe she'll figure it out in time.
Jester laughs. "I'm a really good liar, Beau."
Despite Beau's habit of pushing people, this time she backs off, so maybe she's learning. She has a tired smile on her face as she says, "Sure."
Jester smiles, brittle and fragile, before turning and heading inside the boat. Caduceus watches her go before Caleb's voice catches his attention again.
"Are you okay?" He sounds like an old bear who can't hunt anymore. He's very young to sound like that.
Caleb is addressing Nott, who is looking up at him with some confusion. "Am I okay? Yes, I'm fine. Are you okay?"
Caleb weakly motions to her with both arms. "Would you jump up here?"
"Would I what?" Nott asks, still confused. She can't see how much pain he's in. Maybe it's kinder that she doesn't, especially since she might not know how to fix it.
Caleb speaks a little louder. "Would you jump up?"
It just baffles her more. "Onto you?"
"Yeah." It's more of a sigh than a word. He's barely standing on his feet, but he needs this more.
Nott jumps up in a familiar move, grabbing his arm, using one of his narrow hips for purchase. She ends up in his arms, and kisses the tip of his nose. As his arms wrap around her, looking for all the world like a father holding his tiny daughter close to him, she pulls out a book from the inside waist of her pants. "We still have books to go through!"
She wouldn't sound so cheerful if she knew how much pain he was in. Caduceus knows that much.
Caleb's face crumples, but tears don't leak into his voice. "I'll look at those tomorrow." His arms around her weaken, but they don't let go of her. "Let's go get some sleep." With that, he and Nott disappear inside the ship.
Caduceus watches them go, and thinks that maybe, after they all wake up, they'll need some good food to help them feel better in the morning. He heads for the kitchen, and loses himself in cooking.
The crew they hired meander in from time to time, perking up when they see that Caduceus is manning the stove and oven. They eat their fill, thanking him in between bites. He smiles at that. Mom always said that those were the best compliments.
Some time later, Caduceus puts together a tea tray and heads for the deck, fairly sure that Beau hasn't gone to bed, despite her injuries. Ever since he had to trick her in the jungle in order to restore her health after a jungle flu had started working its way through her system, Caduceus has noticed her tendency to ignore physical injuries in favor of thinking through problems.
Sure enough, she's standing next to the rail, the crew politely ignoring her as they go about their business.
Caduceus sets the tray down on the rail, pours tea into both cups, and takes his, sipping it carefully. Beau eyes the tray, picks up her teacup, and sips as well.
"Another day," Caduceus offers.
She lowers her cup, looking at him steadily. "How are you?" Her sour tone is hiding genuine interest.
Caduceus has to think for a moment before he says, "Weirdly, I think I'm great."
Beau hesitates for a long moment before admitting, "Oddly, I feel okay too."
"Yeah, I know." As fragile as the others had sounded earlier, Caleb with his guilt, Jester with her brush with death, Nott's natural skittishness and Fjord's exhaustion, the only one not reeling from what happened is Beau.
Beau's face twists. "Is that wrong of me?"
"No," he manages before their words run together.
"I feel like everyone else feels so terribly."
Which they do.
"Well, in the morning, we're going to comfort everybody," Caduceus says, because that's what friends do. "We're going to take care of them, we're going to feed them. It's going to be our job to feel good for them and bring them back around. They did good work, they just don't believe it."
"I think I oddly feel the most comfortable when things are a fraction away from going terribly wrong." Beau sounds like it's something she's known about herself for a long time, but it's the first time she's said it out loud.
Caduceus lifts his cup to his lips, but doesn't drink. "Something's happening. I don't know what, but something's happening. And you did good."
The edge of Beau's lips curl into a smile. "So did you."
"Thank you," Caduceus says, smiling back. Judging from the look on her face, Beau is expecting some kind of criticism. "Do better next time to keep everybody safe." He winks, and sips his tea and stares out into the ocean, the blue waves glinting in the midday sun.
***
Caduceus surfaces from sleep gently, as though he were floating on a cloud. He doesn't want to open his eyes, even though he can smell the sea-salt in the air. He can pretend that his hammock isn't about to drop him onto the floor in a heap, even.
"Caduceus?" Pumat asks tentatively, and the soft murmur makes Caduceus think of somewhere else. A warm, soft bed. A cup of tea nearby, steaming gently wafting from it before disappearing into the air. "We wanted to cast Sending sooner, but we were pretty tapped out. Did you guys recover all right?"
Caduceus breathes in deeply before gingerly shifting, trying not to upset the delicate balance of his hammock and largely succeeding. He carefully frees a hand and starts counting on his fingers. "All of us made it out all right. We just need rest. It looks like our ship made it to port while we were…" He stares at his folded thumb before he finishes with a diplomatic, "Gone."
"Yeah, I imagine it would, if you had a crew running things. You haven't been answering like you usually do for seven days." There's a heavy pause. "I thought…"
"I would've answered you if I could, I'm sorry," Caduceus says quickly, not counting on his fingers. He can't let Pumat think that he would've just stopped talking to him all of a sudden.
He closes his eyes and breathes in slowly. He needs to make these words count, even if he's not sure how many he just used. "That sounds like what the crew told us. They figured it out, and then waited for us."
"What happened?" Pumat asks, curiosity overwhelming his usually polite tone. "We try not to ask for too many details, but-- respectfully-- you just fought an elemental and a dragon."
Caduceus sighs again, feeling tired. Pumat has been a good friend to him ever since their hair-raising escape from Urukaxl. Hiding details of their travels from him is doing him a disservice. Still, there are a lot of things that they've done that they need to worry about becoming common knowledge. The search for these orbs of Uk'otoa being a big one…
"We found a stowaway who had a magic item with her." At least that much is the truth. "Caleb wanted to investigate it, and each time he did, things kept… happening."
He stares up at the ceiling before he quietly asks the Wildmother for Sending to continue the conversation. He should be careful -- the last time they were in port, it had resulted in the deaths of most of a pirate crew, and their banishment from a pirate island.
But right now, he doesn't care. He just wants to hear Pumat's voice and let it soothe him. They did a good thing today. Blue dragons are supposed to be bad, and they got out of there alive. And that's good.
Caduceus touches his holy symbol, murmurs the incantation, and imagines one of the Pumat duplicates.
"I know I haven't been honest with you. I'm sorry about that." Thirteen left. "I'm sorry I scared you, and I'm sorry that I didn't answer you."
"You don't need to apologize, Caduceus," Pumat murmurs. "You were probably on another plane of existence if you weren't getting all of my messages."
Caduceus touches his holy symbol again. "I still scared you during that fight. I kept getting your messages all at once. Or I didn't, and I was answering you without realizing."
"How about this?" Pumat says, a hint of a smile in his voice. "If either of us can't talk because we're facing down big, nasty monsters or what have you, we're just 'indisposed'."
The simplicity of it is awe-inspiring. "Huh."
Caduceus touches his holy symbol again. "That sounds good. Though, given what's happened so far, I think I might end up being 'indisposed' more often. I apologize in advance."
"You'd be surprised." It's almost a mutter, and Caduceus wonders if that was intended to be part of the response. "Respectfully, Caduceus, we've seen a number of adventurers walk through the door. And a lot of them aren't repeat customers anymore."
Caduceus stares up at the ceiling, trying to imagine what kinds of people came to Pumat's shop in Zadash. Soldiers, to be sure, what with the garrison taking up so much of the city. People with lots of money, most likely. And adventurers, who happened across money, or got paid for jobs like the Nein did.
They'd lost a friend in the process, too. It's why they'd asked him to join them.
Caduceus can feel himself getting burned out. He might need to keep some magic in reserve, just in case this port is just as bad as Darktow.
But the Wildmother had said this was a place of safe harbor.
Surely, he could use just one last Sending.
He touches his holy symbol for a final time, gritting his teeth for a moment against the burn in his fingers. "Well, we have to figure out what we're doing after this port, but I'm hoping that we'll be repeat customers pretty soon."
He looks down at his hand, and realizes he has three words left. That's nice. "Take care, Pumat."
"Sleep well, Caduceus." Pumat's voice is almost as warm and gentle as his mother's when she was tucking him into bed as a child. "Safe travels, and try not to let your group get into anymore trouble if you can help it."
The message finishes, and Caduceus sighs. He just woke up, and already, he wants to go back to sleep again.
But. They're in a new port -- one that the Wildmother promised is safe -- and that means resupplying and being on solid ground again.
He eases carefully out of his hammock, and heads out to find the others.