Across the Sea

Across the Sea

--

Talos and Alanna spent the rest of the morning together gathering supplies at Rinoc's central market before making their way towards the large port district, the sun shining overhead under a grey, hazy sky.

The pair eventually located suitable transport for the quick three-or-four day journey across the sea. There was no port where they were heading, unfortunately, so Talos ensured he found a captain who was willing to row them to shore at the journey's end.

He had settled on the grizzled captain of the

Blackwind

, Tobias Fink, a man whom Talos thought lived up to their surname appropriately. It made no matter to him, of course, Talos always choosing men with experience over personality, a decision-making process which he had developed during his old days as a mercenary captain. Alanna played her part appropriately, which was to be silent as the captain and his crew looked her over with lustful gazes. She found herself drawing her red cloak over her ample bosom as Talos and Tobias worked on the details of their arrangement, doing her best to ignore the thoughts of the dozen men around her.

The

Blackwind

was a small hulk, which Talos recognized would be capable of great speed and maneuverability if they had needed it. Sigismund had just mentioned there were potential pirates out there, after all. The best part about the ship, however, was that it was capable of leaving within two hours after paying the absurd twenty-six golden crowns for the trip. Talos reached into his coinpurse and handed the payment to Tobias, Alanna wondering how her lover always seemed to be loaded with gold.

The pair settled into the lone cabin at the bow of the ship, Alanna giving Talos credit for securing the room for her to hide in for the short voyage. Within two hours, the

Blackwind

had lifted anchor and set sail towards the west, the sun falling over the endless sea in their path.

-

Casiama smoothly exhaled as she released the string of her longbow, striding towards her target when the arrow hit its mark. She was certain the arrow would kill before she had fired; a perfect bullseye into the antlerless elks heart.

When the lithe elf finished her eighty-meter journey, she paused and knelt down next to the collapsed animal, careful not to let her white skirt or cloak brush against blood. She daintily placed her free hand on the animals head and softly closed her eyes, whispering short prayer under her breath.

"I thank you, Eternal Lady, for this bountiful gift. May your subject serve you in the aetherium as she will serve me here."

Casiama opened her eyes and looked up towards the heavens, hoping the divine was satisfied. She slowly stood back up as her arms outstretched to her sides, a momentary flash of white separating her beautiful battle dress with the infinitely less-intricate cloth and leather she was now wearing.

Casiama smiled as she looked down upon her form. She found it necessary to look somewhat beautiful, even when wearing the simple clothing of humans. Her dark leather underbust corset fit her snugly, wrapping around a long-sleeved white cotton shirt which kept her shoulders and the center of her bosom visible. Dark leather gauntlets, tight pants, and boots finished the look. She unsheathed her ornamented hunting dagger as she began to skin the slain animal before her.

Her vile task completed, the young, thin elf made a small campfire for herself just inside the treeline, feeling protected by the wooded giants surrounding her. Before her, an endless ocean stretched on and on, silently telling her that she only need to travel along its shore to reach her destination. She had sent the elks hide to her personal other-worldly storage; no sense in letting it go to waste.

Casiama was cooking the animal's meat over the fire when she saw a wooden boat on the horizon, the first she'd seen on this otherwise empty coastline.

Cursing silently, Casiama stomped her fire out before getting into a low crouch to study the vessel. Her eyes, ten times more effective than a humans when she needed them to be, briefly scanned the crew of the boat. She didn't see the reds and whites on the men that Imperial soldiers would wear, but the simple clothing of common sailors instead. There was one well-armed man at the bow that she could only assume was a mercenary hired by the ship for its protection.

"Not an empire vessel, then,"

Casiama thought in a sigh of relief. They shouldn't have been able to see her fire, not at that distance, and they were fortunately sailing further along the shoreline and away from her.

-

Talos stood at the bow of the ship, his hand raised as cover from the glare as he examined the desolate shoreline on their starboard side. Alanna was below, still in their temporary quarters where she had remained for almost the entirety of the voyage. They had discovered during the short journey that she had not taken well to the sea, and was always experiencing some level of ocean-sickness. Her condition not only left her somewhat incapable for proper conversation, but also made sexual activities impossible. Talos couldn't wait for dry land as he was now addicted to her curvaceous form.

"

Alanna should really be up here,"

Talos thought to himself, questioning the veracity of his own memories of Sigismund's tale. Back in the Four-Leaf Inn, Talos hadn't thought he'd be retracing the steps of his old lieutenant when the man was telling them of his journey to the elven crypts.

Just as if he summoned her - and perhaps he did, Talos mused - Alanna appeared above decks, swaying wobbily against the ocean waves. He waved her over, Alanna giving him a half-smile before quickly running over to the ship's railing, leaning over it to continue her losing war with her own churning guts. Her position left her voluptuous ass vulnerable to the gazes of the vessel's sailors, an ideation she couldn't care less about at the moment.

She took her time in composing herself before making her way to the bow of the ship, feeling just a bit better when she arrived to overlook the cliffs beyond.

"Do you think we're close?" Talos asked her, scooting a foot away from her subconsciously in the very likely event she got sick again. She shook her head lightly before speaking.

"No," she answered hoarsely, "I don't think so. He mentioned 'where the treeline met the shore', and that there were high cliffs where he camped."

If there were cliffs at their destination, Talos realized they wouldn't be able to land there. He doubted he could convince the captain to anchor

near

a cliff-side either, what with the potential danger to the vessel that could bring.

He turned towards Alanna and stroked her cheek sympathetically. The pair could do with a little bit of walking over a longer voyage onboard the ship, the curvy sorceress so obviously unaccustomed to a journey at sea. Talos told her to pack up her things telepathically, giving her a soft kiss when he did. She nodded with a gentle smile, returning belowdecks after a moment with an abundancy of glee obvious in her swaying hips.

Talos made his way towards the stern of the vessel and asked Tobias to set his heading for the shore.