Bargl crashed into the inn we were staying at in the middle of the night before we were due to set sail. We weren’t tired, which meant Vel got his own room for once. For a few hours anyway.

                “Oh, to be young again.” She sighed, hearing the short cry for help before I set up sound proofing. Tired or not, I didn’t want to get thrown out on the street thanks to a noise complaint.

                “I’ve got some stuff in here somewhere that’ll make you feel-“ …at that point my brain caught up to what I was about to say and the repercussions, “1,000 years older.”

                With a stupidly smug smirk, she glanced over at me from where she was lazing on the bed. “I don’t know, the old grave-sitters-“

                “That we never saw.”

                “That we never saw, did look pretty energetic.”  She patted the bed and fluttered her eyes in what was probably supposed to be an invitation. With her, it felt more like a threat.

                When I inevitably joined her, she leaned in. Her calloused hand gripped my knee while the other slipped around to my back. Puffed wings drew closer and her smile became even more crafty than before, which I honestly didn’t think was possible.

“How far have they gotten?” She whispered in my ear.

                “The girl crashed immediately and the boy’s trapped under her.” I relayed evenly. Very evenly. Calmly even. Evenly calm, one might say.

                She laughed, low and quiet. A smooth sound that reminded me of the fire we set upon my house. A rising warmth from the darkness that threatened to engulf us if we faltered.

                Well, I’ve always been good with soundproofing.

                The next morning we picked up the kids, the girl was still out cold, and headed off to the dock the dealer specified. Dawn was edging towards the horizon with caution, fog swirled by crashing waves that were slowing down as the tide considered whether it was time to pull away yet.

                “Did you feel the earthquake last night?” Vel blurrily muttered from his spot under my arm.

                “No/pe.” We both answered shortly.

                “Oh, it must have been her snoring...” He fell back asleep. Aena and I were both looking at him with mixed emotions.

                “…Do we need to talk to him about reproduction?” I asked, legitimately concerned from a medical perspective.

                “Did that not come up during your lessons?” Aena shuffled the girl on her shoulder to the other side so she could pat Vel on the back since his head was dangling by his feet.

                “We discussed how to remove the parts in question without killing the “patient” but not why they’re there. He didn’t ask, so I’d assumed he knew…”

                The docks were crawling with folks of all kinds, mostly humans. Seeing some cages, I swung the boy to the other side so I could actually grab her hand. The leash was still on her, but considering who she was…

                Against all odds, we arrived at the boat safely. The merman was waiting and chatting with the pick up crew.

                “Oh, this will be an interesting trip.” Aena chuckled and I joined in. The fishman joked about Vel being a half-breed…

                                “Ah, here they are!” The fish swung his stupidly defined bare arm to welcome us. “Your generous patrons! Is it just me, or are there more of you now?” He smirked.

                “Our dear child’s partner decided to follow us all this way, throwing aside her family and status to join our boy in-“ She paused. I could almost see the thoughts running across her mind. Exile? No, we aren’t criminals. (yet) Retirement? Accurate, but not for the kid. Poverty? (heh) “Traveling!” She decided.

                The fish and the two mixed race crew members shared a very loaded glance.

                After a moment, the older of the two asked “How much are ya’both paying per person a’gain?”

                “Unless the cost of gold has gone down, enough to buy the town.” I grumbled. That had happened before and it annoyed me every time.

                “Well, 3/4s of the city.” The fish shrugged. I tossed 2 more bags over for payment, nailing him in the forehead with one and the other bag was lightly tossed to the crewmember.

                “The cap’in will be glad to have you and yours on board.” The crewmember grinned, showing off her very pronounced canine teeth.

                “As long as you brats don’t dump us in the middle of the ocean, we’ll be fine.” I scowled, why did they all have such sharp teeth? She’s going to get ideas again. I finally got her to stop filing her teeth to points after we got her cured and I hid the file. Especially now that I know she bites.

                “Are all of you-“ Aena started asking purely out of curiosity, I risked letting go of her hand to gag her.

                “Don’t mind it.” The younger one cheerfully waved his hand, urging us on. “The tide is going out here soon, so we can get going if you’ll hop on.”

                Boney wiggled free in delight and toss the girl to the older one before jumping onto the boat. Since she was still leashed, I had to jump with her so she wouldn’t fall. The older one gave our wrists an long look.

                The older one was almost twice the size of the younger, she had rippling muscles under a shirt that could barely fit them. The younger one looked like he hadn’t hit puberty and was wearing the same size shirt, which meant it looked like a sack hanging on a stick.

                “My name is Spel and this is my youngest brother Pear.” She introduced themselves. “Ours’s a family run ship. As Uncle Monger” she pointed to the fish who probably had a concussion now, “probably told ya, his cousin is our mum who married our dad, the ship cap’in. Besides us and our siblings, the rest are aunts and uncles who didn’t bother get’in their own place ’n ship.”

                “We don’t have cousins yet, but some of ‘em are starting to look like they might hook up!” The fruit interjected after he finished untying the boat and as he was getting the oars locked in place.

                “How exciting!” Aena felt the need to chime in.

                “Some of them might have hooked up sooner,” Spel sighed as she reluctantly sat down away from the oars to keep telling the situation. “but the parents would always get excited when they’d see their siblings even talk to each other so that slowed things down a ton.”

                “As Aunt Sparkly said, ‘Excess enthusiasm from third parties is detrimental to the development of relationships for fear of ridicule.’ But really I think mum just wants the others to have kids so she can mess with them like our aunts and uncles did with us.” Pear sighed the exact same way his sister did earlier.

                Aena got excited, and I tuned out after that. Vel and Bargrl were stacked next to each other, the boy’s head on the girl’s shoulder. Spel was watching Aena carefully, looking for any sign that she was a captive or something. We still had our hoods up, making it harder for the half-bred wolf.

                …I wondered how long that would last.