After master and me got out of bed and got dressed, we set out to fish. The first 2 were easy to catch but on the smaller side. Then came a squid fish that was the largest I’ve seen and I was going to shoot but all of a sudden yellow tentacles came out of the water. The squid fish was grabbed and I heard master tell me “DON’T SHOOT IT, were running”.

Suddenly the boat went backward for a bit then started to turn port side and we left, I was confused. My master sounded terrified, he wanted nothing to do with what took our prey. I asked what he was so scared of.

“No one has ever seen more than the tentacles and lived. Its body is deep under water and its strong, once it has you your done. Your pulled under and eaten I assume, there tentacles are almost bullet proof to. Its not worth risking our lives over one fish, we will most likely end up meeting Hades.” he said while still a little panicked.

Lucky I didn’t get taken by them when my ship crashed, its not like I could swim anywhere. I didn’t know that there was sea life that you had to run on sight if seen.

Master stopped the boat after several minutes and told me to come in, we were going to do something else. I also had some questions for him, last time we used a human head and meat as bait. Today it was just blood, where did he get all this?

I walked up to the second floor and asked “Master, why are we only using blood today and where do you get it?”.

“Any meat I use is human, the bodies of dead criminals are sold to fishermen. But I don’t always have that on hand so I also buy blood from the slaughter houses. They sell them in plastic bottles, and get commonly used as bait.” he told me.

“So what else are we doing today?” I asked.

“In the future we will be shot at, so I’m teaching you to shoot back. Ammo is expensive so try to save casings for reloading, the brass ones. Steel is single use, follow me.” he said as he walked down.

He tossed red floating balls in the water and handed me my AK with the stock unfolded. He showed me how to load the magazine, nose in and rock back he told me. I pulled the charging handle back, and was told some basic safety “keep your finger off the trigger unless you are shooting, don’t point a gun at anything you don’t want to destroy, treat all guns as if there loaded and keep your fingers away from the muzzle.” he told me.

“Pull the stock in towards your shoulder and hold the gun still, then just line up the rear and front sights and fire. Of course the rough seas can make hitting your target hard at times, nothing you can do. Finally this is the safety, selector and dust cover. Top is safe, middle is full auto, bottom is semi auto and for now were only using semi. I will teach you disassembly and cleaning later, now shoot” he told me then stepped away.

I pulled the trigger and it was louder than I imagined, rail guns were silent compared to this. This also had recoil unlike rail guns. I missed, I was aiming at a red ball 8 feet away but hit to the right. I was told not to anticipate the shot as that could cause flinching. After an hour and several mags later I was hitting and stopped flinching.

The pistol was harder to learn and I was okay with it, I had 6 shots then had to squeeze 2 latches and pull the cylinder and barrel up. An extractor/ejector popped out and emptied the gun before dropping, I preferred single action even if I had to cock the hammer. Double action had a heavy trigger, my revolver was a Hopkin arms model 916 and my AK was made by Imperial arms.

After another hour with the 916, we stopped shooting and went back to fishing, we caught a few more small ones. Then one as big as my first time fishing showed up but went to swim away, I aimed in front of the fish and fired. Right as it went under the harpoon hit and the rope was pulled under, after a few minutes it floated up after bleeding out.

The sun was starting to set and we were heading home I thought, but instead we were traveling to other parts of the empire. While sitting on the bed I was talking with master, “so for now on when we leave home I need to carry my 916 with me?” I asked.

“Yes, don’t shoot unless I tell you to and don’t go drawing your gun unless the situation calls for it” I was told.

“Where are we going?” I then asked.

“Vi city, to refuel and dock for the night. Then sell our catch and keep traveling to Saxum city, Sam has a job for me.” he told me.

We traveled and just like last time the sunset was nice to watch, the water was a little rough today and was getting worse.

We would have to sleep in the same bed, I was happy about that. I was given a pair of night vision binoculars. I looked out as the sun set and saw a lot of sea life, I saw multiple squid fish grabbed by those tentacles and pulled under. I eventually lied down in bed while master drove, the engine was loud but I got used to the sound.