Tales of the Pearly Kingdom (Pearly Tales Vol. 2)

39. Cabin Boy's New Fate

Cal loved Shayley for so many reasons. He had a new one to add to the list, she was truly the most fearless and freighting queen he'd ever known. And that little tidbit about killing the God of War was something he had not expected. Just like many things he had taken for granted on the developer's insights in this world.

But what boggled him still were the king and queen, Calphius was a name he thought he had come up with. He made certain it was nowhere else in the game. But who was Selene? How did she know him? What was her relationship with him that she had cried over him? Selene and Achilles Thetis. Drayken and Hydallie Calphius. Why were they as familiar as they were strange to him?

They walked through the colorful city. It was an odd mix of western colonial and eastern Japanese influence. For people that hated the pirates so much, their culture had been heavily influenced by them. But maybe that was just the naval influence.

Cal was trying everything to get his mind off of Selene who kept glancing back at him.

He thanked Gaia and Kami that Shayley took the reins but cursed his luck all the same. This was supposed to be going much more smoothly.

"Tell me guildmaster, do you have to start a fight everywhere you go?" Shayley tried to break the tension with some humor. "Between invading my palace, headbutting Kadoka, duking it out with Dakota, that show at the west gate, the raid on my father's clan, the raid on the Segaro Sea, and the fight on the pier, I swear that trouble just follows you. And those are the only fights I know about. How many others assault you or have you assaulted before even exchanging names?"

Cal thought about it, "Naomi stabbed me in the chest after we fell out of tree, but that was an accident, Silvia didn't attack me but broke out her battle mode, Seamus shot me in the chest before I even knew he was there, Vorn skewered me with three spears when he jumped us not but a couple days before that... I think that about does it."

"And you've only been around for, what, one, maybe two months now?" Shayley teased. "Maybe I should have left you on the ship, who knows what'll happen? Maybe you're the new god of war?"

"Please don't joke about that... I have enough problems with gods." Cal sighed.

Shayley giggled and shoved him a little before returning to her regal state. Cal couldn't believe how much a simple exchange of words had calmed him. She really was his best friend. He was really glad that she had stowed away, who knew what he would have done without her.

*

Seamus sat on the deck of the ship staring at his seed in his hand. He was a druid now and had to figure out what to do with this seed. He still felt naked without his blades, but there was no helping it. he was bored, after the excitement on the dock with Cal and Shayley nothing had happened. The crew was eagerly, tense they obviously enjoyed battle and after the show that Cal had put on, they were revved up. But to their credit they busied themselves with maintenance of the ships. The Fluffly Dragon had most of the cargo they were hauling, but they couldn't do anything with it since they hadn't been told where to put them.

They were transporters not merchants. Dakota dabbled in sales due to necessity and Gerald always had his eye on the market, so they weren't being swindled. He had saved them more times than they dared to count. High priced merchandise meant high risk, which lead to them being able to charge more. And since there was nothing fiercer in the sea then them, they always delivered and were worth the price.

The few times pirates had attacked them they found the tables turned on them. They got a commission for the pirates, sold the ships they didn't want, and got decent rewards or were able to sell unclaimed merchandise. The reasons they weren't more successful was because they never hired any new blood. Thus, they remained a one-ship-business that was able to charge whatever they wanted.

Seamus learned all these things while he was with them and watched them doing inventory and building sample crates.

But Seamus and the sisters were left out. Cal's crew were a well-oiled machine and they didn't want anything out of place if they had to jump into action.

Yvette and Naomi had their head buried in their books, Ophelia and her friends were off playing something, most likely something of Loca's design since she seemed to be the one that dragged the other two around on her every impulse. At first, you'd see the other two crying about her running too fast but now they were more or less used to it.

Everyone had something they were supposed to be doing. Everyone except Seamus. The only things that Cal had given him was a seed, a staff, and a lot to think about. But he didn't want to just lay on the deck and think all day, that's all he'd been doing lately. He'd think that Cal was slacking with his training, but he'd spent more time with Seamus than even his own daughter.

Seamus leaned back on the deck and looked at the seed against the blue sky. "Who do I want to be? What does that even mean?" Cal was his master, he was supposed to tell Seamus who he was supposed to be. Did Cal even know what to do as a master? If he had his blades he could at least sharpen them or train, but he was a support character now, and without anyone to support what was he supposed to do?

Something heavy hoped onto his stomach. He looked down to see purple ball of fur. It was a medium size lengthy creature. Seamus met they eyes of the mysterious and cute creature. It tilted its head and Seamus did the same. he stared at the purple creature for a long time.

"Hey Seamus, can I talk to you about-" Naomi walked over holding her nose in her book, but when she approached Seamus she noticed a strange animal on Seamus's belly. "-a Weasel?" She creased her brows and flipped through her book. "that's not just any kind of weasel..." then she stopped. "No way! Seamus do you know what that is?"

But before Seamus could answer the weasel hopped forward and stole the seed out of his hand and began hopping away.

"Hey!" Seamus hopped up. "Wait, no you can't have that!"

The Weasel perched on the railing and looked at him, then it stuck the seed in its mouth and zoomed away taking the shape of a lightning for a moment to travel a short distance to the pier and then disappeared into the crowd.

Seamus and Naomi paled.

"The seed!" They shouted together. It was a seed of the world tree and Seamus had just let some mysterious creature run off with it.

With a flip Seamus leapt onto the railing and scanned the distance for it employing every tracking skill he had.

Everyone on the ship and the dock looked at Seamus.

"Wait, Seamus you can't!" Naomi tried to stop him.

"I can't let him get away!" Seamus jumped from the ship onto the dock and followed after the blasted creature as fast as he could. He even took to the roof tops which proved more difficult thanks to the different architecture.

Seamus followed after it, but soon ended up leaving the city limits.

The island was lush, full of dozens of varieties of colors. But he didn't have time to admire them he was too busy cursing everything in sight and trying to get the seed back.