Passion of the Liger

Chapter 51 - Set sail (or rather set fins)

"You need passage to Kuma, ey?" said Lucy, eyeing the newcomer. "That'll be eighteen gold pieces for you."

"Eighteen," said the bushy bearded fellow, "That's absurd."

"Yeah, it's normally fourteen, but I don't like your face."

The man grumbled. "You're lucky I don't have time to mess around. Here, take the gold and show me where the ship is."

Lucy took the gold and carefully bit off one of the coins to test if it was genuine. Then she said, "There is no ship today. The only passage to Kuma is on Sandy the Pleiosaur."

"A pleiosaur!" said the man, "That's absurd!"

"You either get on or you wait for the next ship to Kuma, which could be never."

"Fine!" said the man, and he looked at Sandy, who's head was still resting on the pier. "But if I get eaten, I'm going to write a letter to your management. Okay, how do I get up?"

Lucy pointed to the leather ladder at the back of Sandy's head.

The man spat on his hands and rubbed them together, and then gradually climbed up Sandy. When he reached the top, Narteb offered his hand to help him up.

"Hi there, I'm Narteb. We'll be travelling to Kuma together."

The man took Narteb's hand to help himself up, but then merely grunted and brushed past him. Then he pushed through Skaife and Pip, and made his way to one of the seats in the back row.

"Good luck, team!" called out Lucy from below, "It was nice knowing you. I mean nice meeting you."

She began her wild arm gestures. Sandy made a groaning noise and slowly lifted her head.

"This is so exciting!" said Skaife.

Narteb could feel the bubbling in his stomach. It was a nice feeling.

And then, nothing happened.

Narteb looked down at the controls in front of him. Was he supposed to do something now?

"Look!" came the gruff voice of the man behind him, "Can we get a move on? I'm in a rush!"

Narteb looked down and Lucy was winding one of her hands in a circular motion.

"I hope this works," he said and he grabbed the left lever and began to wind it away from him. The mechanism began pulling the left rein and Sandy's head began to turn to the left. She kept turning slowly until she was facing the vast ocean ahead and then Narteb wound the left handle backwards, releasing the rein.

"Wooooo!" said Pip.

Now that she was facing the ocean, Sandy automatically began to go forwards. It was exhilarating. Narteb turned around and he could see them leaving the dock behind them. He caught Pip's eye and Pip raised a fist in the air and said, "To Kuma!"

Narteb smiled and looked forwards. They were going to a new continent! A place they had only heard about in stories and from the occasional stranger who had come through town. He never really dreamed he would actually be going there. And then he remembered why he was going there. He hoped when they reached Kuma, he would be able to find someone who knew about how they could cure his mum.

Narteb turned around and said, "Hey, Skaife. What was that thing we need to find in Kuma again?"

"We need to find an expert in ancient Hyborian or a loremaster who might have some ideas about where we can get information on ancient Hyboria."