The light of the trodden

The Crew

The next morning Oliver arrived at the Dock. Nolander was already there, helping the General load the ship.
"Hey Nolander. Where's the General?" Oliver asked.
"Right there in the ship. He's the one catching the shipment." Nolander answered, lifting another heavy looking barrel. Oliver guessed it must be filled with either wine of water, knowing the General, mostly it would be water. Oliver walked into the ship with a frail looking guy at his toes. He spotted the General at the port side, catching the barrel thrown. While Nolander's powers were remarkable in throwing the barrel, the General was even more remarkable in catching the barrel. The General turned around and saw Oliver. The General once again turned to concentrate on loading the ship.
"Hey I got the guy." Oliver shouted.
"I saw."
"What, we're leaving already?" Oliver asked.
"Yeah in exactly two hours. The rest of the crew will be here shortly." The General replied while catching a sack.
"I've still got a navigator guy whom we haven't contacted." Oliver sighed.
"I contacted him. He's gonna be here shortly." The General briskly replied."I also got a guy who is a blacksmith, a magician, five boat members and an old friend. Oh and also a scientist and a beast trainer and another person called a weapons specialist."
"Nice, but is five boat members enough for this ship?" Oliver asked, looking at the massive warship and feeling pretty good with himself.
"Not at all but the magician I hired said that he is one of the best in his field and I checked him out. The guy seems legit." The General caught another barrel and set it aside "He said that he can row the boat and the scientist is making modifications to the boat as we speak. He developed some technology, he called a propeller or something and he's fixing it from last night."
"You trust these people?" Oliver was sceptical. It was a lot more people than he had imagined and it was not going the way he had decided.
"More or less." General said, catching the last barrel. There were five guys who were loading the shipment in the storage of the ship and one of them even though he was less bulkier than the rest of them was lifting it with more ease. Oliver tensed up seeing him.
"You know who he is?" Oliver said pointing the person out.
"Nope." General said looking at the boy.
"He's the predictionist-" Oliver started to say but a loud voice cut him off.
"Heyyyy, General." A very muscular man greeted the general. The man was at least seven feet with a bulkier muscle than anyone there. The six foot five General was lifted of his feet in what seemed to be a bone crushing hug but when the man let the General down, he seemed fine.
"Hey Lionheart. Meet Oliver, my old acquainted friend or something like that." The General smiled. Lionheart smiled broadly at Oliver, puffing out his chest. Oliver with a respectable height of six feet began to feel like a dwarf. Even the frail guy whom he had brought had a height of six foot five and Nolander was about the same height as the General. Only the boat men were six feet except the predictionist who was five foot five. Suddenly a guy dressed in a white cloak entered the ship. He had a hood drawn which hid his face and the cloak covered him entirely so his build was also unknown. He nodded towards the General and then went downstairs in somewhat of a haste.
"Who's he?" Oliver asked bewildered at his behaviour.
"He's the weapon specialist. He knows about almost every weapon in the world and is exceptionally good with every weapon with him here the blacksmith is going to have a hell of a time. Oh here he comes." A big burly man with strong shoulders entered the ship. He had black hair and he wore simple pants and a vest displaying his muscular body. The only one with more muscles than him on the ship was Lionheart. He also nodded at the general and went downstairs.
"Doesn't he need any equipment?" Oliver asked, annoyed. He wasn't used to asking questions, he knew the answers
"He brought them last night." General answered "I assigned every one of them thier own quaters. Oh look here come all the people." Nolander had now climbed aboard followed by a magician wearing a purple cloak much like the weapon specialist's, a beast trainer with a small dragon on his shoulder and the navigator guy. None except the navigator payed any attention to Oliver and immediately went downstairs.
"So long time, Oli." Navigator said.
"So long, Zeb." Oliver nodded.
"Zeb? Your name's Zeb?" Lionheart smiled broadly " My name's Lionheart."
Zeb looked up to Lionheart. Zeb was six feet and Lionheart was seven.
"Cool." Zeb said, a little intimidated.
"My name's Nolander." Nolander smiled at Lionheart. Lionheart too smiled at Nolander
"Nice to meet you Nolander and Zeb." Lionheart walked up to the tip of the bow and asked when the ship would be ready to go. Suddenly the ship zoomed forward And everyone fell down. A loud, squeaky sorry was heard. Then slowly the ship started to move forward and soon they were out of the port. The magician came out and stared at the General.
"I thought I was in command of the ship." The magician glared.
"You are in charge of rowing." The General calmly said.
"But the ship's moving already." The magician furiously shouted. At this time Oliver's negotiation skills clicked. The magicians and the scientists had a long standing fued. Any magician who worked with a scientist or vice versa would be an outcast in his field. Oliver knew that if the General told the man that a scientist was in charge of the ship he would blow up.
"The ship is in charge of a scientist." The General said. The magician turned red.
"Only because we want the magician to save his power and not let him spend it on puny rowing." Oliver smiled "The scientist would not had been here at all if the General had a choice but fate plays such cruel tricks on the pure hearted, isn't it?"
The magician grunted "True puny scientist should feel like he did something."
"Thank you." The General whispered. Oliver winked and stared at the horizon.
****************
"The General has left sir." A council member spoke. The leader smiled. It was time for chaos to reign.
"Release all hell in every kingdom on the third day. I want to make everything they built till now to come crashing down. Is that clear?" The leader said, quietly. The council member nodded. The shadow in the corner of the room smiled 'The leader has issued the order. Let's see how you deal with that General.'