I walked with the girls down onto the docks, and the smell of the salt was stronger here, along with various other smells. Why did the whole area smell like...no, I wasn't going to think about it.
The boat was starting to sound like a good idea rather than stay around all these invasive smells. I looked at the other girls, and everyone but Gloria and Lesha had their noses scrunched up.
"The Dead Right be up ahead, once onboard, head to the front of the boat so yer doesn't get in the way of the deckhands, or old Captain Nobby will give ya the left side of his tongue!" Braum said with a laugh.
"That's not a very good name for a ship," Trinity said, tilting her head at Braum.
"Oh, come now, little miss, this is a great name for her! She's a Flexil Fish hunter, so she is dead to rights if we get caught by the Flexil," Braum said in a more serious tone, losing some of his jovial accent.
"What are the Flexil Fish?" Lesha asked.
"We will talk about them more after we cast off. First, let's get everyone aboard so they can pull up the gangplank," Hershal said, waving us all forward.
The Dead Right was the biggest boat there, and I had only seen some paintings like this. It was hard to put into words how amazing it was. The ship had to have been at least thirty meters long. I didn't even bother trying to guess the height of the two sails that hung from wooden poles.
We were rushed up onto the deck and then herded up a half-meter set of small stairs at the front of the boat. There was plenty of room and some wooden boxes to sit down on, so we made ourselves comfortable.
I turned to see people rushing around, untying thick ropes and pulling up the ramp we had walked upon. Candi and Trinity came up to me and stood to either side of me, but neither of them looked very good.
We had just started to move and there was a feeling of constantly moving, but it seemed to be bothering the girls. Both were almost a head shorter than me, and the little girls looked like they were going to be sick.
"K, the waves, the boat, my stomach, ugh," Candi growled out as she grabbed my arm as the boat dipped a bit.
"Ya, Miss K, I don't feel so good, and everything stinks, do we have to do this?" Trinity complained, grabbing my other arm as the boat came back up.
I didn't know what I was supposed to do, and I turned to Gloria. She was the only one that seemed to have any idea about what we were going to do.
"Gloria, what can I do for these two? They don't look so good," I said, but then I noticed that she was helping Mei lay down, and letting her lay with her head curled into Gloria's lap.
"They just need to lay down and keep their heads still, they will get used to it, hopefully. If not, then next time we will get crackers and some Air Juice. Just let them put their heads in your laps for now," Gloria said while running hands through Mei's hair.
Both girls were looking like zombies from the dungeon, so I went and put my back against one of the crates and crossed my legs. I waved the girls over and one came to each side, but then Lesha came and laid down in front of me.
"Are you not feeling good either?" I asked with concern, but she looked fine.
"No, I'm fine, I just didn't want to sit alone, and you have comfy legs," Lesha said with a cute smile while looking up at me.
We all sat there and relaxed for almost an hour before Braum came to talk to us. Trinity and Candi were both sleeping and Lesha handed my arm and was running her fingers around it gently. It was a nice feeling that I had never felt before, and it let me relax to the point that I almost fell asleep.
"I hope your girls there are feeling better when they wake up. The sea can be hard on some, but I just take time for most. So, we are going to be coming up on the Reef soon, so I want to run over some important details. So, wake the girls up as well, Corbit and Tim are already getting changed, and Hershal and I have already gone over the basics with them," Braum explained to us.
Lesha sat up and I woke the girls up. The two of them sat up and stretched, both looked a lot better, so I stood up and stretched.
I turned to look over at Gloria who was trying to get Mei up. Poor girl still looked like she was going green, but she would just have to push through.
We all gathered around Braum, Hershal must be with the boys because he was nowhere in sight.
"All right, sorry for making you wait so long about the explanation, but I was helping out with the crew. See, I now head out with these here boys cause this is my boat. I just let old Nobby there captain the thing cause I got other Guild business outside of just Gem Heart hunting. So, Flexil, they look like a pile of floating snot, but not to be taken lightly," Braum said, shaking a finger at each to make sure we were paying attention.
"If they are floating boogers, then what makes them so dangerous?" Trinity asked.
"They eat through anything, the jelly melts holes through anything. So, If they touch the ship of you, it's all over for us. So, we have spotters, but the biggest thing is for the divers to get in and out without being noticed. Most people die on their way back from getting the Gem Heart."
Well, this just made things seem that much worse.
Braum finished explaining the rest of the process, but the part where you retrieved the Gem Heart was a bit hazy. There were different ways to do it, but there was a general principle that everyone followed.
The Flexil stayed inert until one of their gems were taken, and after that, it was a race back to the ship. Each group had its own way of doing it, but the general consensus is that tying a rope on yourself was the best route.
That was fine, but the average depth was fifteen meters, and that was a long distance to hold your breath. On top of that, the ship had to be anchored in a place that could get away safely, so it was a long trip, and this is where people start to get creative.
The same people that made the Air Juice Gloria had mentioned also somehow figured out how to bottle air into small canisters. These could then be used for more air, but the containers were large like oversized wine bottles.
Not only were they large, but the price made it so you could only use one per heart. Each bottle contained three breaths of air, and they cost one platinum coin per bottle.
The gem hearts were worth five but two-fifths of every gem heart was given to the boat and crew. Then you needed to get the Gem cleaned, another two hundred gold, and then you had to rent equipment.
In the end, you could make about fifteen hundred gold, which was good, but if anything got damaged, broken, or lost, you paid for it. The repairs weren't cheap, and it didn't matter whose fault it was. As Braum said to us, this was risky business, but if everyone got one that went in then you could have a good payday.
But then that led to the next problem, everyone had to get one. For each person that didn't get one, they would have to pay one platinum for the air tank and the cost of the tools rental, plus repairs.
So if only two people went down, and only one came back with one, then the profits could end up being zero. Not only that, if someone died, the party was reasonable to pay for replacing the lost equipment. That alone could put a person in debt, and that was not a position that a person wanted to find themselves in, according to Braum.
After we finished listening to Braum, the six of us were shown to a room to change. Lesha was all smiles the entire walk from the front of the boat, and I started to get nervous. Just what had she picked out that had her almost splitting her face with that smile.
The deckhand, Wocky, these people all had weird names, but he showed us to our room to change and then left us. I was forcibly pushed into the room and stubbled a bit.
"What is your problem woman? I am feeling very uneasy with the way you have that goofy grin plastered on your face!" I said squinting my eyes.
Instead of replying, Lesha reached into the bag she had brought and pulled out two pieces of red cloth. I looked at her flatly, but I still took the clothes, and that made her smile even brighter.
I sighed, there was no getting away from this now. This damn woman! When I was single, I would have just tied the bottom of my shirt to keep it from riding up and a pair of cut-off shorts.
"Lesha, this is a pair of underwear with a see-through skirt with white flowers somehow dyed into it. You can expect me to wear this?" I complain trying to figure how the top even went on.
Lesha gave me a dark expression.
"If you are worried about the boys looking, Gloria already said she would smash in the head of the first person that learned any of us. I picked it out and I want to see you in it, so don't be your growly self and just try it on!" Lesha said growling at me.
I sighed and looked over to see that the other girls had already changed in the time that I had been complaining. I started to undress, but it was a bit weird and I had to turn around.
Women or not, these ones liked girls, and for me, it was almost like they were men. I slipped the bottoms on and the skirt was not as transparent as I had first thought, but this top half of the suit was a mystery to me.
"Here, let me help you," Lesha said, sliding her hand around the sides of my ribs to cup my breasts and squeezed playfully.
I breathed in sharply at the feeling of her cold hands and the sensations of her gentle playing. I quickly glanced back, but the girls were gone, they must have snuck out. I leaned back and closed my eyes, enjoying the feeling of Lesha's hands, but they have pulled away too soon.
Lesha took the red cloth from my hands and started to turn it around so the lighter side was facing me. She still had her arms under my own, and she pressed the cloth to my breasts and then pulled back from me. She pulled the two strings at the bottom of the cloth around my back and I felt her tie them, but my breast fell out of the cloth, giving a little jiggle.
I pulled the cloth back up to cover myself while Lesha reached over my shoulder to grab the last string and tired it behind my neck. When she was done, I looked down to find most of my chest actually covered.
"See? It's not that bad, right? I know you wouldn't want to like what I am wearing, so I got you this because I thought you would look cute in it. I was right," Lesha said as I turned around to find her in a soft blue bikini that showed a lot more skin than mine did.
"Do we have to go out right now?" I asked hopefully as I ran my eyes over the length of her body.
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GOT IT