Homeward Bound

Mutiny

Eastwind...

Elizabeth eyed Fritz and Jeremy as they kept practicing. The young prince was showing a surprising improvement considering how little time had passed.

They'd been sailing for about another week since Fritz had started training and Elizabeth had (somewhat) come clean to Susie. In that time, little had changed. Elizabeth had started to talk more to the three guests (she didn't particularly care for the crew of miscreants) and endeared herself to them. More importantly, perhaps, they'd endeared themselves to her.

Jeremy was funny, always ready with a quip or a joke. He was also the best fighter out of all of them (after all, Elizabeth had never really needed to learn how to fight).

Susie was like the sail that kept them all on track. Kept them moving. She'd kept her promise, not telling Jeremy or Fritz about Elizabeth's true nature, and the goddess respected her for that.

Fritz was...interesting, to say the least. On the surface he was the weakest, but Elizabeth could tell from her conversations with him that the boy was brave. He was always ready to fight, and even die for his goal. Elizabeth hoped that when he was reunited with Cassidy, she appreciated the dedication of her brother.

Elizabeth pursed her lips, feeling that awful feeling of guilt again as she tapped her foot, watching the boys spar. She wanted to help them. The goddess could tell that Susie was right-if she wanted to feel better, she needed to help Cassidy.

The only issue was, she had no idea where Cassidy was. Elizabeth had been there when the storm in the bag was released, but she'd let the fleet go after that, not keeping track, and not really caring what happened to them. She had no idea where they were.

Elizabeth had even tried to find them using her abilities. She'd spread herself over all the wind, traveling the globe when night fell on the ship, attempting to see if she could discover where Cassidy and her crew were.

She couldn't. She didn't know.

There was always the chance that Cassidy really had died. That was an awful thought. The goddess winced as it came to mind.

Elizabeth had heard from Fritz what had happened, the news they'd received, and how he refused to accept it. The problem was, it was a very real possibility. Storms like that were difficult to survive in.

"Hey!" Susie said, snapping her fingers in front of Elizabeth's face. The goddess blinked as she was brought out of her thoughts.

Susie pointed at the pad in Elizabeth's hands. "Now it's time to erase the cross-hatching."

Elizabeth blinked. "Oh, right."

She had to put up a front, make an appearance on the ship during the day. Otherwise, more people than just Susie would question where she went.

That meant she needed to figure out something to do with her spare time. After seeing the more difficult options of practicing swordfighting or helping with the ships tasks, the goddess had settled on practicing her drawing and writing with Susie.

The only problem with that was, she apparently sucked at it. It was immensely frustrating for the immortal being to once again mess up her grip, and feel the charcoal pencil drop onto the spare drawing pad again.

Elizabeth growled in frustration, shaking the pain out of her hand a little as Susie chuckled.

"Here," the woman said, picking up the pencil and sliding it back into Elizabeth's hand. She started moving her fingers around, showing her how to grip the pencil. "Hold it near the tip. Between your middle and index finger, like this."