Land of the Blades

43. Meeting

The "Wild Hunt II", as we had christened it, was able to move through the frozen sea with ease, even against the wind. The Lunarian's vessel was actually having problems keeping up the pace with us. Of course, if we had used it to reach that place from space it would have been way quicker, but I had made my choice. For the first hours of our voyage everything was pretty uneventful, Antarc was at the helm, while Bort looked through a telescope we had taken from Shirou's room. Cairn was sulking about not having his spear, something about him feeling naked without it. Kiyohime had insisted on traveling with us on the ship and to be as close to me as possible. That became a bit of a problem when I heard the radio turning on, and I had to make some sort of excuse for her to leave the bridge.

—Phos, this is Caster, do you copy me? Over.

—Uhmm, this is Phos, I copy you... Over? —I said, attempting to mimic her speech pattern. There was something about the proper procedure in Shirou's memories, but it was just the bare minimum.

—Phos, we have a problem. I had a hunch, and counted heads, we are missing Goshe and Morga.

—WHAT?! —Antarc and I said, barely keeping our voices from being heard outside.

—Calm down, I suspect they might have stayed aboard the ship when they were loading the food. Could you check it up? Over.

—Y-yes, I'll look around...

I placed the radio once more on its hiding place and went to the small cargo hold bellow the deck, trying to not raise any suspicious. There were several boxes filled with food, enough to keep me with energy to sustain the materialization of the ship for at least a week. In a corner behind these, there was what looked like an attempted campsite, with Goshe and Morga playing cards near one of Caster's warming orbs. Morga had Shiro the dog between his arms. Both my juniors and I didn't know what to say for a few moments after our eyes met.

—I-Incredible, Phos-sempai! You were able to find our hideout on the first day! —Goshe said.

—This was your idea of a hideout? —I asked—, moreover, what are you doing here? This mission might turn sour really quickly and everyone back at home could need your help there!

—Ah, well, you see... we thought it really didn't make any difference if we stayed or if we came with you, and we swore to be bodyguards, right, Goshe?

The red haired one nodded timidly. I sighed. Their recklessness and disregard for the authority reminded me of someone, but I didn't wanted to remember exactly who I was thinking about. I felt like going back to the island and then retrace our steps would be a huge waste of time, so I decided to just keep going on with them aboard.

—Fine, you can stay, but you'll have to make a lot of chores to make up for disobeying me.

—Yay! —Goshe said with enthusiasm, and hugged Morga.

I took an apple from one of the boxes and told them to follow me upstairs. I had to tell everyone that I had found them when I went to look for a snack, and later on I told Caster they were safe with us, alongside Shiro.

—Ah, I didn't saw him either, but I suspected he was somewhere on the island looking for Cinnabar. Over.

—We'll continue as planned, keep me informed of anything weird over there. Over.

—Got it, take care of everyone there. Out.

I sighed, hid the radio once again, and returned to the deck. For Morga and Goshe's punishment, I went for the old tested method of making them clean all the deck. They found a way to enjoy it by making it into a competition. Cinnabar looked less nervous now that he could held Shiro on his arms. When night fell, everyone went to sleep on the holds, taking advantage of the glowing orb that the juniors had brought with them. Cinnabar and I took turns holding the helm, as we were the most accustomed to go pulling all-nighters. Cinnabar definitively didn't had Antarc's steady hands though. The movements of the ship made me doze off a few times while I was off-duty, but at some point just before the dawn, I felt my legs cramping.