Northbound Pilgrimage II

Chapter LXXXIII - Steady as She Goes

Jack's ship somehow looked even smaller in the daylight.

He had a crew of only five people and the boat was large enough to fit all of them comfortably and their cargo – it wasn't as if they were all cramped in there. But it was surprising how it weathered the harshness of the Sea of Ghosts for all this time. Jack said that he had it for over ten years. He must have been quite the navigator.

Or maybe the ship was sturdier than it looked.

After all, the first day, when the evening came and they were just passing Hjaalmarch swamps in the distance, most of the sailors gathered around below decks to spin wild tales about their adventures at sea instead of manning the ship. They talked about all manner of encounters – from vicious storms, through pirate battles, to sea monsters and Nereids. According to their tales, they barely ever had an uneventful journey at all – the Sea of Ghosts was treacherous further from the shore on any day and they traversed almost the entirety of it regularly. They said that they were prepared to whether anything though, which was a bit comforting.

It wasn't that different from the road after all. Bishop and Aeyrin barely ever made a journey without getting intercepted by bandits, monsters or dragons. And those were the better options. They were convinced that their sea voyage would turn out even more peaceful than the journey would have been otherwise.

Besides, the sailors were surely exaggerating at least a little. Especially when Jack joined in the recountings. The tales about the monster as tall as the White Gold Tower or a group of vicious whales with a taste for human flesh that had followed them across the sea did sound a bit implausible. Even if Jack claimed to be cursed.

So far though, the voyage had been nothing but enjoyable.

They made good time – they were already nearing Dawnstar when night fell and they would be far enough from the town itself to get a good night's sleep as they sailed past it. Bishop and Aeyrin already knew that – their first escape from the nightmarish struggles had also been on a boat after all and it was decidedly closer to the shore to boot. The ferrymen with their small vessels never sailed this far from the coast. So since they knew that the dreams didn't affect them on the small ferry, it was easy to surmise that they would be safe here on Jack's ship as well.

With luck and good winds, which Jack seemed to be convinced would hold, they would be passing Winterhold by noon the next day and they would surely be able to dock by the Windhelm lighthouse some time before the evening. This was going to be their only night spent on the ship.

And they decided to make good use of it. Hopefully Karliah would let them rest afterwards, before they had to undergo whatever mission she had concocted.

Especially since the sailors were definitely fun company with their wild tales, constant merriment and endless supplies of rum.

"Satakal's word, I swear to ye, hundreds of 'em. All of those fat horkers cramped in one teeny island, for some daft reason," Jack smacked his hands on his tights as he laughed heartily. He was just in the middle of telling his new passengers about some small island by the shores of Solstheim, allegedly teeming with horkers. Though it was probably not 'hundreds' of them, as he colorfully put it.

It must have been pretty late already, but they all still stayed below decks, aside from Jack's first mate who had been making sure that they stay the course up on the deck. Surprisingly enough, the Sea of Ghosts had been very calm that night, but Jack assured them that that could change any second. There was no reason not to enjoy the quiet for now though. They were all drinking rum, though not enough to dull their senses if a storm came, eating plenty of horker meat and exchanging tales of adventures.