Brysys.

Felt.
So.

Much.

BETTER!

The sun was shining brightly in the clear blue sky as she strolled along the deck. The clouds passed lazily by, thin wisps of smoke in an otherwise mirrored ocean. The sailors went about their duties, some of them returning her hellos as she passed. She knew a few of them now, not well, but they’d played a few rounds of cards. 

She eventually found Deelah up on the decks. The first mate was inspecting some rigging up in the sails. It looked like she was preparing to climb the mast. Brysys didn’t know how everything worked on board the ship, but she was getting better at knowing what some of the chores looked like.

Brysys called out her name, drawing her attention. She waved and jogged forward, barely able to contain herself. Ordinarily she didn’t need to talk about these sorts of things, but it felt like she and the other half elf were becoming friends and since they’d discussed her apprehension before, Brysys felt like this was something they could perhaps bond over.

“You’re looking chipper,” Deelah noted as Brysys drew close. 

“I took your advice,” she confessed, a little squeal escaping her once she did. “Didn’t break my record, but I don't mind one bit. Turns out I wasn’t bored, just horny! It’s amazing how often those two get confused!”

“For me it’s normally the other way around,” Deelah noted. She didn’t stop working as they talked, still studious on the ropes above.

“Can I tell you about it? I don’t normally, but it feels like we’re maybe friends? And I don’t actually have any of those on the ship otherwise.”

Deelah didn’t react visibly to the confession, still staring up at the rigging. “Oh, that’s not true. What about the Captain?”

“Well, I suppose, but it feels strange telling him who I’ve slept with. It’s unprofessional, isn’t it?”

Deelah snorted and reminded her, “We’re pirates. Not a situation where you need to be concerned with professionalism. Rather the opposite in fact, the fewer rules we have the better.”

Brysys rolled her eyes. “Sure, but you’re rather- You aren't exactly the most piratey pirates, are you? You buy and sell things, that’s hardly dangerous.”

“Tell that to the HerramianNavy.” She frowned at the ropes and then at Brysys. “Look, it’s not that I mind talking about it, I’m just rather busy at the moment.”

“Can’t you tell someone else to do this?”

“I could, but it’s really something I should have a hand in. Well being of the ship and all.”

“Oh, well, let me help you. You’ll finish faster that way.” She really didn’t mind helping out. She knew she wasn’t the most informed person when it came to sailing, but she wanted to be useful.

Deelah shook her head. “Don’t think it’s something you can help with. I have to climb up there and see where the damage is.”

Brysys frowned and followed Deelah’s gaze. “So you just need to see where the rope is damaged? But you can’t take it off and need to climb up to verify?”

“Don’t want to disconnect it if I don’t have to, but I have to make sure it’ll last until Trove. Don’t want you falling off the ratlines and injuring yourself. Captain might never forgive me.”

Brysys could do it. She wouldn’t fall off the ladder. She wouldn’t even use it! She knew there was no sense in arguing though, so she just turned into a seagull and flew up before Deelah could tell her not to. 

Having wings was always odd. It had taken her forever to figure out how to do things with no hands, and even longer to fly, but it was worth it. Feeling the wind currents, like you were a piece of them, was incredible. She soared high, circling down until she could see the rigging clearly. New eyes were always an adjustment, but birds were closer to her normal senses than some of the animals she shifted into. She found a bit that was catching on- she didn’t know the ship name, but the pulley system for the sails. It didn’t look damaged, more like something was on it?

She went closer, keeping her gaze on the foreign object for as long as she could before landing on the line. It was certainly food, or had been. Oh, her human mind didn’t appreciate the thought of tasting it, but all of her senses changed in animal form and so did her impulses. Logically she knew that she could keep her tongue from even touching the thing. 

Brysys pecked at the substance, green and black and sunbaked onto the ropes. Whatever it had been was unidentifiable, but it clung to the rope stubbornly. Not as stubbornly as Brysys, however, and soon she’d freed most of it with minimal damage to the rope itself. 

She checked around for whatever else Deelah was looking for and then came down to land beside the surprised looking women to transform into her normal body. “There.” Brysys grinned proudly. “I think I took care of it. I didn’t notice any damage at all, but one of the ropes had some sort of residue, it looked like baked on old food or something? No idea how it got there, but it was keeping the- I don’t know the term, but rope wouldn’t go through the pulley thing.”

Deelah frowned and walked over to a set of ropes that were wrapped around hooks and a big post. She unwrapped some, and tugged experimentally in different directions. Brysys looked up and saw the sails shifting as she did. “Gods and Devils Terry, can you at least just be useless and not actively detrimental?”

Brysys hadn’t met that sailor. “I’m sorry? Whose Terry?”

Deelah was still annoyed, but she vented her frustration to the pole and not Brysys, wrapping the ropes a little more aggressively back into place than she needed to. “Alright. Well done. Not an easy feat turning into a bird, I hear.” Brysys nodded. It wasn’t, but she’d been studying her magic a long time. “Come on then, I’ll bitch about Terry and you can tell me about your lay. It’ll be just like a slumber party.”

She didn’t sound excited. She actually seemed a little put off, but Brysys could be excited enough for both of them! She’d never actually been to a slumber party before, unless nights in the same room as her baby brother counted, but those were so long ago that they hadn’t had anything interesting to talk about. 

They went down to their rooms, Deelah taking a brief detour into Xasan’s quarters to fetch a bottle of some dark liquid. Once they were below decks they opted to go into Deelah’s chamber in case anyone needed her.

The room  was just a bit bigger than hers, but similarly laid out. There were weapons hanging on the walls of different makes, bows, crossbows, swords, a halberd for some reason.  There were a few portraits as well, similar to the one she’d gotten from their Captain. Different people were in each, and she only recognized one as Deelah. In her portrait she was mostly turned away, gazing into a fireplace at some unknown inn. It was striking though, and Brysys studied it for a long moment before realizing that there was another person in the room.

They were beside the window, so intensely focused on the book in their hands that they blended into the background. They only seemed to move when they turned the page, and didn’t even look up when the pair of them entered the room. “Hello, Mother,” Deelah closed the door behind them and went to her desk, pulling out three glasses and filling each with a finger of whatever alcohol she’d acquired. 

The person did lift their head when Deelah spoke to them. Long white hair framed a thin face. Their pale ears nearly blending in with their snowy hair. A wintered Wylds elf? It was still warm out. Brysys thought they changed with the seasons mostly, or was that only in the Wyldlands? “Hello Deelah,” they- she? Next, they turned light eyes, white with just the slightest notes of blue, towards Brysys. “Hello.”

Brysys greeted them, but they were already reading again. She quirked a questioning brow at Deelah who shrugged. “They won’t say anything.”

Brysys didn’t know either woman very well, but given Deelah’s position on the ship, and the conversations they’d had so far, she was inclined to believe her. Deelah didn’t seem the sort to suffer fools and surely her parent wouldn’t be either.

“Alright, well.” She looked around. The extra space afforded Deelah room for a small couch alongside one wall and Brysys took a seat on it. “Did you want to start, or should I?”

Deelah handed her a drink and then took a swig from her own glass. “Oh, go ahead. I could bitch about Terry all day. You might as well get out what you want to say.”

Brysys nodded. She’d wanted to go first. She wanted to explain how well everything had gone and how silly she’d been before, but she also really wanted to be friends with Deelah, and so she was determined to give her undivided attention once it was her turn to talk.

“I met a man. I’d never seen him before. He must work in the kitchens, or on a different rotation than me or something, but I thought about what you said, and some things that the Captain said too. I-” She should explain herself, her situation a little bit. “I’m not from here, you see.”

“Yes,” Deelah responded, already halfway through her drink. “I’d noticed that.”

“No, I mean I’m not from anywhere here. I’m not from Arrelan.”

“Oh, I knew what you meant,” Deelah assured her.

“What? How?”