BrightMoon: Path of a Witch King

Chapter 8

The girl who I had been talking to the most let me help them come up with a list of names, she had chosen the name Indra for herself. The girl with orange hair chose the name Satera while the green haired girl chose Cera.

I noticed that they all ended in ra, I asked if that was just a coincidence but as it turns out they were actual sisters and it was common to share a portion of the name. They were incredibly young when they became slaves and had not been treated humanely often, they had been objects and thus didn't require a name.

I sent them off and decided to explore the ship. I started with the captain's cabin, it was quite spacious, there was even a normal sized bed which on a ship wasn't all that common. There was a large chest with a small lock, the key happened to be in the lock, the bandit was probably in it not too long ago.

I found quite the stash of copper and silver inside, along with another bag containing some gold disks, I placed my own wealth inside and closed the chest. I locked it up and searched the rest of the room, other than a dagger in a desk there wasn't anything important lying around.

I moved on to the rest of the ship, there was a small galley, crew quarters for ten men, and a cargo hold. The cargo was what came as a shock to me, it was filled to the brim with various goods; foodstuffs, alcohol, weapons, hides, ingots of various metals, and a barrel of salt.

The boat was a fortune all on its own, the cargo however was something I could turn into hard currency almost immediately. The only problem was that I didn't have the connections to move most of the cargo, the only tradesmen I knew were a butcher and a tailor/leather worker. 

There was still plenty of room left in the hold, for now I would go home and butcher the bears and return in the afternoon. I went back up on deck and looked at the pier, I found a few men eyeing my ship, they turned away when they saw that my attention was on them.

I scoffed at them, they had let a few of their own get murdered in front of them, the cowards wouldn't dare try anything other than to look at the ship with envy. I waited on the deck until the girls returned, they each had on nearly identical outfits that were similar to the dark red clothes I bought from Gola on my first day in town. 

These ones however were more feminine and the cloth belts matched their hair colors. I helped them on board before removing the plank once more and returning to the captain's cabin.

As I sat down I reached out and picked up the blue orb that was supposed to control the boat, nothing happened, “Indra, do you know how it works?” she shook her head but Satera, the orange haired girl quickly stepped forward.

“Master, I believe you place the orb in the receptacle and channel mana into the orb.” she pointed at the hole in the desk where I had picked the orb up from. I put the orb back and placed my fingers on the orb and pushed my mana towards it.

The orb lit up almost immediately, a moment later the orb pulsed and a wave of light covered the desk. I watched as the light stayed and slowly formed into a map, I could see where we were located currently as well as most of the river.

I trailed the river with my eyes up until it reached a familiar section, just a few dozen yards from the caves, looking down at the map I wondered how I would get the boat to move. I looked up at Satera, she quickly took the hint. “Tap the boat on the map and then tap the portion of the river you would like to travel towards. There is more controlled mode if you want to take direct control of the ship. All you have to do is tap the glowing helm symbol next to your right hand.” she explained while pointing out the tools I would need.

“Thank you Satera.” She bowed slightly before returning to her sister's side.

For now I would use the autopilot, auto helmsman, function. I tapped the boat before tapping up the river, I felt a small drain from my mana but nothing significant. The paddles shifted slightly before they started pushing us out towards the rivers center before slowly turning us towards home.

With a little investigation I found how to adjust the speed, I kept it low for now and decided to enjoy myself. I went out onto the deck and the girls took their things to the crew quarters.

I watched the river as we paddled back up towards home. I could see large schools of fish moving around the boat along with a few other mysterious shadows in the water. The resources of this world were astounding, everything seemed to be a few notches higher here and it was most likely because there was mana here.

I wondered how earth was doing now that mana had started to invade the once barren planet. I started to day dream about all the possibilities, hoping that the Green family who had been good to me were alright.

At some point the sisters came up on deck, they had prepared a light lunch in the galley, a simple sandwich of cured meat and cheese. 

Simple yet delicious, we were getting close to home by the time we finished our lunch. I tossed a few crumbs into the water before heading back into the captain's cabin, I sat at the desk and pressed the symbol of a helm, another wave of light came from the orb creating a new view.

It showed the forward view of the ship letting me see where I was going, a small helm made of blue light was in front of me, I held onto the spokes and slowed down as I pulled the helm closer to me. 

I experimented for a minute, the controls were quite easy; pull the helm towards me and I slowed down while pushing away sped us up. 

I got us close to the shore, while I figured out how to lower the anchor it occurred to me that I would need to do quite a bit of work if I wanted to keep my new ship safe.

“Stay on the ship for now.” I told the girls before I jumped to shore. I waded through the water and examined where I would start my work. I closed my eyes and felt the stones and earth around me, my mana jumped and I pushed my mental image into all the surrounding stone.

The shore line receded slowly and the rocks and earth beneath the water started to reform to seem like a natural turn in the river. A large jagged stone wall slowly formed while I created a small bay for the ship, my hands started to shake and my mana started to dip low, I pushed through the discomfort and added in a few holes in the wall just below the waterline.

I dug out the bottom of the bay and the water flowed in, once the bay was full and wide enough I let go of my earth bending. 

I waded back on shore and leaned against a tree. I was nearly depleted of mana and I felt the world was shifting beneath my feet, after a few minutes I felt well enough to get back on the boat and navigate it into the small bay before I anchored it.

The three girls had watched me the entire time, I ignored their shocked faces and used my remaining mana to bend the rock wall around the bays entrance. “Come along you three, I need to rest and prepare a few things before heading back into town.” I called the three girls before hopping off the edge of the boat.

I started making my way towards the cave that was just beyond some foliage, I would clear some of the woods away and raise a stone wall. I sighed at all the work that still needed to be done.

I heard the hurried footsteps as the girls ran to catch up, “Master!” I heard Indra call me. I didn't stop pushing forward but I looked back at her.

“Yes, what is it Indra?”

“Master, are you an earth spirit?” I smiled at her question and completely refused to answer honestly.

“Nope, I am a witch.” I turned back and broke through the foliage to see my home.

“Still so much work to do.” I said under my breath. I entered my home and found a few of my sprites guarding the entrance, they gave me tiny salutes as I passed them but they eyed the three girls who followed closely behind.

“Don't worry little ones, they are going to be helping me from now on so make sure you protect them too okay?” I said to the guards, the other sprites were within range of my voice and they acknowledged the order with little chirps.

I turned to the girls, “Watch me as I work, you will be helping me with this type of work often.” I walked towards one of the bears and dragged the large body outside.

The girls watched as I hung, skinned, and butchered the bear. They actually helped me a great deal by running back to the ship and grabbing an empty barrel, they packaged the meat and placed it in the barrel and repeated the process until both bears were taken care of.

The girls had worked hard so we took a break and ate a light meal, I meditated for a while and once most of my mana had been restored it was time to head back to the boat. 

I shifted the rock wall, rotated the boat, and set back out down the river. I had unloaded a small chunk of the cargo, and all of the silver, into the cave. It was mostly things we needed or could use while the great excess was coming with us.

I sat on the bow of the ship remembering the small party my sprites had when they saw all of the silver, they danced and cheered, I reminded them to guard our home before hiding the silver in the wall.

I gave them each a silver cube before leaving, some made tiny swords with their combined silver, while others made an additional dagger. There were even a few who made jewelry and shared it with the others, to those who shared with the others I gave them an extra silver disk.

“Master! We are arriving.” Indra called from the door to the captain's cabin, I had infused more than enough mana to let Indra be at the helm, she had taken to the role of first mate quite quickly. Though with her sisters it was easy to see they got along and worked well together.

I thanked her and let her continue her work, she brought us into the pier nice and slow. Once we were docked I had Indra and her sisters go into town and invite Gola and Uran to the ship. I hoped they knew someone who could help me sell my cargo otherwise I would have to just sell what I could to the general store and settle for a bad deal.

While the girls were talking to my contacts I went into the cargo hold and started making a list of what was down there.

6 large crates of various crops

3 barrels of bear meat

5 barrels of alcohol 

1 crate of spears(iron head)

1 crate of short swords (iron)

20 rolls of various fabrics

6 large pelts

50 medium pelts

135 small pelts

1 barrel of salt

2 crates of raw iron ore 

1 small iron box

9 small crates of (earth blossoms)

The last two items on the list I decided to take a look at, inside the small iron box was a pipe, the wood pipe was a deep red and looked well made, I placed it back in the box and checked the earth blossoms.

The earth blossoms were a bright orange flower, they were like the tiger lillies back on earth, “now why would these be shipped?” I said aloud. I gave them a sniff and to my surprise they smelled wonderful.  A knock on the entryway brought me out of the sensation, “Master, the merchants you invited are here waiting on deck.”