Chapter Four Hundred and Eighty-Five - Money Talks

I was laid out flat on the ground, taking in breaths as deep gulps while I allowed sweat to pool on my forehead and slowly soak into the back of my shirt. I was probably a little stinky, actually, but I'd clean myself off later, once the sweat had done its job of cooling me off.

A familiar vulpine face appeared above me. "Are you well?" Desiree asked.

A birdy face appeared next to her, blocking out the rest of the sunlight pouring down onto me. Amaryllis frowned a little. "It's mana exhaustion. Combined with the more traditional sort of exhaustion, I think."

"Uh-huh," I agreed, because that was just two noises I could make while exhaling.

"How's your stomach?" Amaryllis asked.

"Ugh."

"I see," she replied with a knowing nod. "Mana exhaustion is... well, there are unkind and improper words to describe it, but I won't descend to that level here and now. Suffice to say that it's unenjoyable."

Desiree nodded. "I, too, have exhausted myself in this very manner, expending such a quantity of mana that even twitching a single tail was beyond my reach. Nevertheless, I find myself impressed with you, Captain Bunch! You acquitted yourself admirably. I particularly enjoyed seeing you scamper about like a mouse to avoid Miss Amaryllis' electrical discharges."

"I have burns on my butt," I said.

"Hmm, those are likely from the aforementioned electrical discharges," Desiree said knowingly.

"If you can talk, then you're unlikely to lose your lunch," Amaryllis said. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm better," I admitted. "But I'm not sure if I want to do that again. Not right now."

"Oh no, at most we can do this once a day, perhaps twice," Amaryllis said. "Any more than that and we'll risk burning you out. Besides, this is kind of time-consuming, no? By the time you're back on your feet we'll be arriving at Port Royal."

"Wait, already?" I asked. I forced myself to sit up and... yup, the Harpy Mountains were right there, coming up to the north. I could pick out a few other ships in the air, now that I was looking, so we really were getting closer. "Oh, I'm gonna need to fetch my captain's hat," I said with a groan.

"We have a few minutes, don't worry," Amaryllis said. "You did well enough, but no new skill?"

I shook my head. "No new skill," I said.

"It'll take some effort," Amaryllis said. "Speaking of which... you spent a lot of time dodging," she said leadingly.

"Indeed," Desiree said. "Have you considered training Graceful Under Pressure at the same time?"

"I can do that?" I asked.

"You're already training for Mana Regeneration and Thick Skin simultaneously," Amaryllis said. "What's one more besides an order of magnitude more effort on your part?"

Desiree nodded. "I can assist you, of course. I don't enjoy feeling as though I'm extraneous, so I would be honoured to aid your generous personage."

"Aww, you're not extraneous," I said as I finally pushed myself into standing. "We should definitely practise together!" Desiree smiled and gave me a hand to help me to my feet. I wobbled a bit, my legs all jelly, but then I stabilised well enough.

A look ahead, now that I was standing tall enough to see over the railing, revealed Port Royal approaching us. We were maybe an hour away, as the crow flies.

I turned towards Desiree. "Let's talk more once we're docked, okay?" I asked.

She nodded, then headed off with a swish of her twin tails. I didn't get to follow though, because Amaryllis touched my upper arm with the back of a talon. "One moment," she said.

"What's up?" I asked. I finally allowed some Cleaning magic to seep through to wick away the sweat and regretted it right away as a wave of nausea washed over me. Oh, right, I'd just used up all of my mana, and now I was pulling at the dregs for sweat-removal.

Amaryllis eyed me for a moment, making sure I could stay on my feet. "We need to talk financials."

"Are we broke?" I asked, a little nervous all of a sudden.

She sniffed. "No, but we might be one day with the rate at which we're spending and not earning. I mapped out that Sue-Chef dungeon, it'll earn us a very small sum from the guild since they have a pretty accurate report already. I was hoping you could come with me to hand it in? That, and the other reports I've penned about the dungeons we've explored."

"Right, I can do that!" I said. "Is there anything else?"

"I want us to try to obtain a steady income. There will be missions available from the guild, and with four registered members in our crew now, we can start splitting off to take care of more missions across a wider range," Amaryllis said. "The real prize would be getting the Beaver Cleaver marked as a sanctioned Exploration Guild ship."

"What would that mean?" I asked.

"In practical terms? It wouldn't change too much onboard the ship. We might have to keep a minimum standard of cleanliness and maintenance, but we do that already. And we'd have a flag to fly as well, with the guild's crest."

I nodded along, that sounded easy enough. "And in... uh, impractical terms?"

"That's not how that works," Amaryllis said. "But I understand what you mean. Being guild-sanctioned would mean that the ship would be considered as part of the guild. It means that every so often, we'd be compelled to take certain missions, fly the flag, and generally represent the guild. I'll look into it some more, but I think we might count as a mobile headquarters in remote locations as well, if we encounter members out in some distant corner of the world."

"Oh, that's neat."

"It also means money," Amaryllis said. "Or... a way to defray expenses, at least. Every time we're back in Port Royal or another major city with a strong guild, we'll be able to hand in an expense report. The guild will cover some of our operation costs."

I perked up. "So we'll dock for free, and get free food, and fuel?"

"I don't know about the food, but the fuel is a certainty. And I think the guild will cover something like twenty percent of docking fees."

"Uh, that's not a lot, is it?"

"It's more than the none they cover now and that we're paying out of pocket," Amaryllis said.

That was fair.

"Will we have to fill out forms or something for that?" I asked. "It does sound like a good idea."

"Of course, but I'll take care of the paperwork then have a solicitor check over it just in case. I suspect that our recent work with Mathilde will help in that regard. We're in the good books of the guildmaster, and that's worth more than you could imagine."

"Are you sure? I have a very active imagination," I said.

Amaryllis huffed and gave my tummy a poke. "Don't be too foolhardy," she said.

"It won't kill you to say 'silly,' you know," I said.

"No," Amaryllis shot the idea down. "Get to the helm, Captain Bunch." She smiled a little, giving the title a mocking tone that I figured she didn't actually mean. But she wasn't wrong.

I got back to the wheel, where Clive was currently stationed. I didn't push him away; he knew what he was doing better than I probably ever would, so I left him to it, but tried to help by rousing the crew and then calling people out so that they were in their positions.

There were always a few tricky manoeuvres to do when coming into the dock. But Clive handled it like a champ, and soon the Beaver Cleaver was tied down and resting at Port Royal.

We were back!

Rhawrexdee swooped by above, and then flew upwards where he was met by another, slightly smaller and definitely slimmer dragon. Cholondee and her brother circled far overhead. I turned towards Booksie, curious, and she noticed my look. "He's saying hi," she said. "They always meet when one of them comes back from a trip. The two of them argue incessantly and both profess to hating each other, but I've rarely met siblings that are as closely knit," she said.

"That's cute!" I said. "I wish I had a big brother who was a dragon to share my stories with! Or a smaller dragon sibling. I'd accept both." I nodded.

Booksie giggled.

I took a moment to gather everyone up, then we split up our tasks. The crew deserved some shore leave, and I didn't want to let Booksie return home without an escort! That left a few that wanted to stay on the ship behind. All of us who were Exploration Guild members would be heading out though, we had a mission to find!

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