The Life of An Adventurer

Chapter Seven - Frozen North

Emily and I get to work on attaching the flying components to the ship,while Thrum and Rick start on popping the rivets on the lower decks and replacing the damaged parts of the hull. As we're working the light is slowly fading, turning the beach into eerie shades of grey.Suddenly there's a noise, muffled by all the things going on with fixing the ship. I look around and I see the archer sitting up in the life boat, looking disoriented. I walk over, and grab his face,looking him in the eyes. They're not blood shot, but they are slightly dilated. "What happened?" He asks, trying to crawl out of the life boat onto the ship. I try to help him, but he's heavy and we both collapse onto the deck. "Whiskey... need whiskey..."He mumbles and stands up shakily stumbling towards the kitchen and the pantry. I sigh and go back to the pirate, who stopped working to look at his pathetic display. After a few minutes the archer can be heard even over the noise of the riveting, he's cursing up a storm.He comes out dragging a ghoul with a bullet wound in his head. "Where is she?!" I look closer at the head wound and can tell it was shot by Angel's big slug. "Calm down, why are you so mad about a dead ghoul?" I ask, staring at him like he lost his mind while he was unconscious. "The bullet that killed this thing, also hit my cast of good whiskey! It's all gone, and what's left in the barrel is spoiled!" He screams at me, his face turning purple. He tosses the ghoul over board, panting hard. Suddenly the ship shakes violently,and I can feel the presence of the hunter golem against my mind, feel his panic. I send soothing thoughts, saying that it wasn't an attack. After a few moments, he goes quiet. "Look what you did! You scared the golem!" I tell him, crossing my arms, chiding him like a child. "We named him Twitch. He's very... twitchy." Says the pirate, trying very hard not to smile.

The archer lets out a yell and storms back into the galley, cussing all of us out. I sigh and turn back to the pirate, motioning her to help continue the attaching the flying components to the ship. It's calm for a few minutes until a loud boom breaks the sound, followed by aloud thud. I look over board and find Twitch with a smoking gun pointed to the tree line. I look there and see as small T-Rex laying on the ground, not moving. Another shot its sent flying and hits it again, splattering gore all alone the forest. I now know why he's called Twitch. "Shit." I say, turning to Emily. "That will probably draw a lot of who knows what to us. We need to get in the air, very soon." I say, exasperated. She nods, and goes back to work, installing the lifting crystals. "Almost done, tell every one to get in the ship and get secured." I nod, calling out to every one to get prepared. The archer comes back out of the galley, seeming calmer but still grumbling, he goes over to the railing and looks out to the sea. "I don't want to fly. It's death in the sky." He comments broodingly. "Well it's the only feasible way to get off the island. Deal with it, I'm still the captain here." I say,standing close by, hand on my rifle. He glares at me, huffing and turning back to look out onto the choppy waters. I leave him there and go to the bridge, looking over the controls. I lean over and say to the intercom. "Get secure, we're lifting off." I start pressing buttons, and flipping switches. The ship slowly starts raising off the ground, raising into the air. We get about twenty feet above the tree line when the orcs panicked voice comes over the system. "Arrow man fell overboard." He says, grunting a little. I sigh and bring the ship back down, landing it a little heavy. I leave the bridge and go onto the deck to see Thrum climbing back on with the archer and what's left of his stuff.

"Put him in his room, and tie him to the bed and feed him a healing tonic." I order, turning back and climbing the stairs back to the bridge. Sighing I start again, raising us up into the air. We climb higher and higher until we're amid the storm clouds. The wind is strong and trying to keep us steady as we climb higher is becoming more difficult. There's a flash of lightning and the ship shudders hard. "What did it hit?" I ask the pirate, glancing back to her."It hit one of the steam paddles and a rudder, we won't be able to sail in the water for a while..." She says a little vaguely. I frown but turn back to handling the ship. Lightning flashes a few more times, hitting us once more before we manage to get out of the storm, flying above the dark clouds. After a few hours, the compasses start working again, and show us heading north. "Take over Emily."I say, stepping aside. The clouds are now all white and fluffy, with no hint of storms ahead of us. I leave the bridge and head down the hall to the archer's room. I walk in and find Thrum masturbating vigorously and the archer struggles in his bindings. "Thrum! If you're going to do that go to your room!" I shout, blushing deeply while looking away. I edge my way away from the door so he can pass without me in the way. I close the door after him, turning to the archer. "Are you going to be stupid and try to go out on deck again?" I ask, hands on my hips, giving him my most unamused look."I'm not going to leave my room, but I'd like to be able to move." He snaps at me, struggling some more. "Relax. Dumb ass."I say, and walk over, cutting him free. He sits up and glares at me,he pushes me aside and stands up walking towards the door. "I thought you weren't going to leave your room?" I ask sharply,sneering at him. "I have to pee." He grumbles and leaves the room.