Prologue: Just another day

Mihai makes sure to keep himself and Breeze out of sight when guarding the crates. His senses are extra sharp for the night. He'll keep snacks on hand so he'll have something to chew on. Preferably something that doesn't crunch.

He also makes sure there's a quick and discreet exit for Breeze to go alert the party if anything suspicious happens (an ajar hatch, a big enough grate, whatever).

The captain nods. Before going to his quarters, he answers Konrad's question.

"For take-out I assume? Just follow the main road, and two block away on the right, there's a restaurant that serves a little bit of everything." He looks at everyone. "Time for me to tuck in. Goodnight."

He nods and then leaves. Fedler decides to speak up.

"Amber, would you prefer to sleep at an inn?" she asks.

"Nah, the ship is fine," the teenager says.

The redhead looks at Mihai to make sure it's okay.

Mihai nods.

Steve will go along with Konrad so he can see the menu and help bring back the food.

Konrad will follow the captain's directions until he reaches the food joint and asks for takeout. Five cheesesteak sandwiches, potato fries with dip, and corn, and some dried fruit to with them (all the fruit is for Mihai, but he spares them that little headache).

Steve pays, and they both power walk back to the ship and hand out the food in the room with the crates. They hand all the fruit to Mihai, and Konrad gives a soda to Amber and offers to pour rum for everyone else.

Amber objects. "I'm old enough to drink," she says. "Only one more year and I'll be an adult."

"Then you can drink in one year."

Mihai will also abstain, for obvious (and not so obvious) reasons.

Konrad just ignores her protests. He'll hear them in about a year or so, for now it's just the wind.

Amber pouts a little, but she quickly forgets about it once Breeze starts singing a silly song about steaks and chicken going to war against each other.

The sailors are ecstatic at the prospect of eating pizza, and they thank the party profusely for their generosity. They celebrate for a few hours and the captain even joins them once he learns of this. He makes sure however that everyone has gone to sleep by 11 o'clock.

After taking their leave, Konrad asks Steve why he treated the crew. "What inspired you to be so generous today?"

Steve thinks about it for a bit and finally says, "It's my last mission with these guys. They've ferried us around on almost all our missions abroad. I guess it's my way of saying thanks for it all."

The black mage smiles. "Sure, I don't quite feel like sleeping yet. What is the glove for?" He follows Konrad to his cabin.

"I don't know if you've heard of something like this before, but I'm trying to make it return whatever is thrown from the hand it's worn on. I thought it would be cheaper to make on my own..." They go inside to talk about the glove and eat in each other's company before retiring to their own cabins.

7:35 AM, 29th of March 422
Narrowfist, Enclave

Under the watchful eyes of the ever brooding Mihai and the oh-so winsome Breeze, the crew of the Barracuda is now unloading their shipment onto the docks.

"Make sure not to look inside!" Breeze warns them. "If you do I'll... I'll be very mad!"

She crosses her arms, trying to look as menacing as her colleague. It doesn't seem to be working, as even Florolf – who's sitting on the rail of the ship, starboard side – yawns at this attempt of intimidation. Nonplussed by all of this, the captain turns towards the party and asks them, "Where are we supposed to take the cargo?"

"Wharehouse #7"

"Warehouse #7 everyone!" Captain Jim says. He leaves the party alone to make sure his crew is working efficiently.

Fedler, who's just finished gathering her hair into a ponytail, faces Mihai and tells him, "We should send Amber to wait at the inn while we finish this job."

The teenager is too busy petting Florolf to hear this.

A bored Steve is watching the crew do their thing but is listening to the conversation nonetheless. "Go ahead and go, we can take care of this part. We'll wait for you here and then we can all go together."

Mihai gives the cargo one last look, then - "Yeah, thanks."

He goes over to Amber - "Hey, kiddo. What do you say we go get our rooms before they start moving the crates out of here."

When Mihai approaches Amber and Florolf, the carbuncle glares at him before turning away in an contemptuous manner, not even wanting to look at him. Amber finds this amusing.

"Yeah, sure," she tells him in Lofellian. As they both walk away, she asks Mihai, "What did you do to Florolf? He's always grumpy when you show up."
____________

"To be honest, I have no idea," the captain replies. "We're supposed to receive new orders today, but I don't know from whom."

He shrugs - "Wish i knew. Maybe he's jealous?"

"Gee, I didn't even think about that," Amber says. "You're Fedler's favorite pet!"

She laughs at that and follows her brother in town until they find a suitable inn called the Itchy Gazelle. The room costs 8 silvers, and she tells Mihai that she'll stay there until the party gets back; they better hurry up though.

Mihai goes back to the ship and finds that all the cargo is now sitting on the docks. The sailors are in the process of putting the crates onto a horse-drawn carriage, which is probably owned by the city and loaned for a small fee. He also notices a small group of fairies, only eight of them, who appear to be fishing right now. They make a comment or two about Breeze, and how nice her attire looks compared to their cheap, almost ragged-looking clothes, but overall, they're just happy to be fishing in peace – they're using telekinesis to hold their fishing poles up. A little way from them, there's also this young woman who's observing the Barracuda and its crew, but she seems bored by it.

"Okay everyone," the captain announces, "it'll take a few trips to deliver all of this to the warehouse." He faces the party. "You probably should choose who's going with the carriage and who's staying here."

"I'll go."

Then he moves over to Steve and discreetly tells him the ship seems to have an admirer.