Liam sat in his bed pondering. How was he to make his body stronger than it was? The answer was pretty obvious that he had to train. But should he just start doing push up and squats and get it over with?
That didn't seem like the right call. Not at all. If he wanted to train, then he needed a well thought out training plan... presumably created by somebody who knew what they were doing.
'I really should have paid more attention to stuff like this,' he berated himself.
The cabin door swung inward, and Lad poked his head in. He gave Liam a dubious look.
"Why do you look so gloomy?"
Liam suppressed an exasperated sigh and shook his head. "It's good to see you too"
"Of course it's good. I am a beacon of joy to all who need it after all," he laughed.
"..."
"Why are you giving me that look?"
"What look?"
"'That look' the one that's being judgemental"
Liam shrugged. "I'm not being judgemental at all"
Lad gave him a deep stare. Then he mumbled something inaudible before he said, "Anyway, let's go have breakfast."
Hearing that Liam got up from the bed and followed after Lad. The young sailor couldn't stop talking the entire way.
"Did you know, this ship was attacked by the Kraken once?"
Liam had the urge to roll his eyes. "No, I did not. "
Lad gave a small laugh and slung his arm over his shoulder and pulled him closer. With his other hand he made a grand gesture. Thus began the tale of the Conquistador and its crew fighting the great beast of the sea.
"Well...it all started with a commission from the Knights of the Vale..."
"Knights of the Vale?" Liam gasped.
"Oh, so you know them?" Lad rasped.
"Of course I know them, everyone does"
While most of the world's nations had awakened who fought under multiple different guilds, the Knights of the Vale were the sole guild that resided in the United Kingdom under the direct command of the royal family.
Such a feat was completely unheard of. Most people only came together when faced with a common threat. They each had their own personal goals and ambitions as people after all.
Bright City for instance.
That one city alone had more than ten Hunter Guilds operating within it. Yes, most of the guilds were small, with the most consequential being the Vulcan Guild but with them falling from grace, there must have been fierce competition to see which guild would replace them.
Things like these were more common in the rest of the cities as well, so you can see how unimaginable it was that a nation could have only one guild running the country. Because of that, the rest of the world paid a little more attention to them.
Lad continued speaking. "They wanted us to take them to the very centre of the Atlantic. Not too far from the British Isles, the Kraken lay. Of course, there were already rumors going about. After all the beast had already sunk more than 6 ships that dared to cross its territory."
"I think I heard about that before," Liam pondered. "Saw it on the news once, a little while ago... something about a monster that blocked the main water route?"
"Exactly," Lad nodded. By now they had turned into another corridor. "The Kraken was huge and they powerful. It flung most ships around like toys. Honestly, thought the captain was crazy when he accepted to partake in the expedition even though most of our job was just to dump a few barrels of lead on the bastard."
"Lead?"
"Magic TNT. Boy, oh boy, were the barrels heavy..." Lad paused. "Come to think of it, most of the magical goods we transport are heavy as hell,"
"You take them often?" Liam asked.
Lad shrugged. "As often as a man has to eat. It's what pays the most after all. Anyway, so back to my story. The barrels were set on the sides of the stern, and a few knights joined us... they all wore heavy armour and honestly for a second I thought maybe I was sent back in time or something..."
The young man wanted to talk more but by then the two of them had already arrived at the doors to the mess hall. There was plenty of noise coming from inside already. Lad released Liam's shoulder. Stepping towards the doors, Lad gave them a push.
The door swung inward. The scent of fried fish and cooked rice drifted into Liam's nose.
His stomach rumbled. Lad glanced over his shoulder with a knowing smile.
"Rodrick's cooking is something else, huh?" he winked, to which Liam coughed and averted his gaze.
Lad laughed and continued forward. Liam followed.
The mess hall was an assortment of tables on one side and the counter on the other, behind which was the kitchen where a man was stirring his spoon in a pot on a gas stove. There were already several soot covered pots half a man's size on the counter, already opened with some of the food already half empty.
Lad rushed to the counter and looked into the pots with an ashen face. He looked towards the crew sitting on the tables. "What are you wild beasts?"
The crew laughed. A little puzzled, Liam inched forward and took a peek as well. There were three pots set upon the counter. One pot was fully emptied, and the second one wasn't too far off.
"Woah" he couldn't help but say
"Right?" Lad shook his head. "A little later and you and I would be starving right now"
"Stop being so dramatic" the man behind the pot had turned his attention to him. He was a tall man with large arms and broad shoulders. If Liam met him in the street he wouldn't have thought he was a chef of some ship somewhere, yet here he was.
"Hey Uncle Rodrick. Looks like everyone's worked up quite the appetite," Lad smiled
"Damn right!" Liam heard a crew member shout from the tables behind him.
Rodrick had a grin on his face as he took possession of a steel tray. With the serving spoon, he scooped up some rice and stew and fried fish. Then he proceeded to pack it all within the tray until he was carrying a small hill.
Lad licked his lips as he received his plate.
"You the one that washed up?" Rodrick said as he took another tray and did the same.
Liam followed the man's movements with his eyes, his own throat swallowing. He barely heard the man's query and gave a soft nod.
"Pretty lucky to have found us," he said
"Yeah" Liam nodded as he received his tray of food. He turned to follow Lad but then paused. "Pretty unlucky to have ended up in the middle of the ocean though. "
Rodrick froze then chuckled. "You're alright kid"
Liam found himself smiling too.
The two boys sat around a table that was a little further away from the main bulk of the crew. They had the table all to themselves, in fact. They sat down and ate in silence. Liam took a spoonful into his mouth and felt the flavors assault his tongue.
He moaned. "Oh this is good"
"I know" Lad took his own spoonful.
Liam shook his head. "So what happened next?"
"So you do want to know the rest of the story" Lad had a coy smile.
To be frank, curiosity had been killing him ever since he heard about the Knights of the vale being involved. He needed to know the rest of the story. It wouldn't be human to leave such a tale untold.
"Anyway, I don't remember most of what happened that day, but what I do remember is the large shadow that covered the entire deck. The Conquistador speared right into the monster's territory and the moment it did, the water boiled, and then it boiled some more until... a monstrous head burst from the bottom of the ocean.
"So much water spilled in its wake you would have thought it was raining. And the monster...it was huge. Bigger than ten houses stacked, and its tentacles were longer. I honestly don't know how something can even get that big."
For a second, Liam wondered if it could have been larger than Aragon in his dragon form, but then he shook his head. That wasn't plausible...at least as far as he knew. Still, he just hearing this from somebody else had his heart beating faster.
Lad took several spoonfuls of his food as he continued. "Honestly, everything else felt blurred, and it was too terrifying to even remember. I remember the vast shadow of a tentacle falling toward the deck and there was no way the captain could steer us out of its way it time. I remember seeing a knight in golden armour jump high into the air, swinging a sword that spilled power into the air...There was a flash of light and a rain of warm liquid that fell...
"I had closed my eyes at that moment, but when I opened them I saw something incredible. The vast tentacle had been cut, a large piece flying over the ship and splashing into the water. The warm liquid that was falling? The monster's blood. A knight of golden armour fell to the deck and landed on one knee. You should have seen it. He looked so cool"
"I can imagine" Liam nodded. They ate in silence for a moment before he asked. "So what happened after that? How did they defeat the kraken?"
"I don't know"
Liam froze. "You...don't know?"
"Aye" Lad nodded. "After being cut, the Kraken screamed, and I'm embarrassed to say that the power in that scream almost burst my eardrums, and I lost consciousness. And the crew that managed to stay awake during the rest of the confrontation don't really like to talk about it"
Liam felt a pang of regret. He really wanted to know. Of course, he already knew how it ended but he wanted to know how such an ending had come to be.
'I guess I'll have to find out one day then"
As the two boys talked the doors to the mess hall were pushed open, and two more people emerged. The Ushari had arrived and silence their companion.