The port we were docking into was one of the busiest I'd ever seen.

It was also one of the first places we'd been where our ship wasn't one of the biggest… and in fact, looked to be on the smaller side of the scale.

Passing by one of the ships that made us seem tiny, I gaped up at the thing. Even when half way up the standard rigging ropes, putting me high above our ship itself, I still wasn't even half way as high up as the ship we were passing.

It was not plain like our ship either. The whole ship had designs, carved and etched into its wooden hulls. The thing had huge windows, massive black cannons peaking out some of them, and had more rope and sails upon it than four of our ships combined.

I was just barely able to make out the upper decks of the ship, where I could see a few people running back and forth… and I couldn't help but wonder how many it took to sail the mighty beast before me.

It took us sixty-three men. And forty-five women, and one young girl. That one though…?

I quickly counted the visible guns on it, and realized it'd take more people just to work one side of the ship's guns than we had onboard in total.

"It could conquer a nation…" I whispered in awe at it.

Who needed wealth when you had that thing? What would even a mountain of gold coins do against it?

It could lay siege to a port. It could blockade a river or waterway… even a lake… there would be nothing anyone could do about it…!

And somehow, it still wasn't the biggest ship. Nor was it the only one of its caliber.

Turning a bit as we continued to sail past the warship, I took a deep breath of ocean air… and felt tiny. Far tinier than usual, at least.

Just how big was the world? How might the oceans? There were hundreds, if not thousands, of ships here… and this was just one port. One of hundreds.

How many people were there? And most of them were humans? How? How had humans grown to such numbers? Even my family, as big as it had been, couldn't reach this number no matter the centuries that passed! There had to be more at play… maybe the dead gods had played some kind of trick on the humans, making them able to multiply when no one was looking or something…

"Oi! Gremlen! Down!"

I glanced down, found the Captain, and quickly went to descending the rigging. It didn't take me long at all to drop to the deck, a few feet from her.

Smiling up at her, I nodded. "Sorry Captain! I just… was in awe," I said as I glanced again at the huge warship. It looked like it was anchored, so we were leaving it behind… yet it was so massive that from here on the deck at this angle it almost looked like it was sailing behind us, if not catching up to us and about to hit us.

Captain turned a bit to look at the ship. "Aye, a mighty vessel. But we not here to gawk at big guns and wide sails," she said, with a small hint of exhaustion in her voice.

I nodded. I knew we were about to be busy. We had been given an important task, from the Society. We were carrying goods that needed to be delivered, in both safety and swiftness. It was why she was exhausted, as was most of the crew. We'd been operating at half the breaks and rest, an unnatural thing for this ship, ever since picking up our charge.

Personally I was glad to be doing something for the Society. These last few years we'd just been making trades… buying goods and selling them, with the occasional delivery or escort job. So it was neat to finally have something to do that was more than just earning coins.

Captain looked back at me, crossed her burnt arms and sighed. "Did ye' take duties?" she asked.

I nodded. "Everyone's been assigned their tasks and knows their windows of leave," I said. I spent all morning delivering each and every rotation letter to everyone. For a few who hadn't been able to read I had spent some time reading and explaining it for them too.

"And the pliers?" she asked.

"The fliers are ready to be transitioned, they're already up from the hull and in the three unloading bays," I said.

I barely even noticed her little lisp anymore, nor did I smirk at how cute it was either. Even though it was, I knew now that she was actually very conscious of her… struggle to speak properly. She tried not to respond when people called her speech impediment cute, but I knew in truth it bothered her deeply. To the point she'd cry at night when alone. So I tried my best to not even be aware it existed, when I could.

Captain then nodded, pleased. "I'm a'gonna miss you, mate," she then said with a small sigh, as if she'd just lost a bet.

A little humbled, I nodded. "I'll miss you too, captain," I said softly.

"Mhm… but me knew you'd leave. Too smart for a little ol'ship as me, aye?" captain said as she reached out to pat my head. I let her pat my head as if I was still a young girl, even though I hadn't even been young enough for her to have justifiably do this even when I first joined her crew. She ruffled my hair a bit, tangling it up. "Ye' a good girl, Brandy," she said gently.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"I love you too, captain…" I said softly, unsure of what else to say.

A part of me wanted to ask her name, since she'd never told me her real name. But I knew if she wanted me to know it, she'd have told me. If she even had one. A few of the members we'd met over these last few years, as we sailed from port to port, had been the types to not have names at all. Calling themselves by title, as captain did, instead of an actual name.

"Now, no amount of friendship overlook hard work! Get going!" captain then said as she pointed past me, to the entrance to the lower decks.

I bit back a groan as I nodded. Right. Even if I was going to stop being a member of her crew, there was no denying that as of this moment I was still her first mate.

Although watching the port as we docked was interesting, and something I really had wanted to do since it was so massive and new to me, I instead focused on my work. Captain was right. I was still a member of this crew, even if her friend.

I, alongside the rest of the crew, spent the rest of the day readying the ship for docking. Things were sorted. Places cleaned. Storerooms shifted, empty boxes readied to be unloaded as to be replaced with new ones, and so much more. It was well after sundown before the ship was finished docking, tied and moored, and I was joining the rest of the people and goods being unloaded onto the docks.

We were met by not just the port authority, where we had to pay a tax, but also by the representative of the Society's operations in this town. A taller man wearing a strange colored robe. One of the other sailors claimed it was an orange robe of tarthus, whatever that meant.

Once the real work was done, and half the crew was given leave and rest, I parted ways with the captain. I gave her a hug, even knowing it hurt her a little, and did my best to not get too emotional as we parted.

I left with the man in orange, alongside others. They had three wagons, which were carrying the boxes we had delivered here from hundreds of miles away.

While walking with the group through the city, which was still lively and noisy even at nightfall, I tried to find a suitable group to involve myself with. I honestly had no idea who amongst everyone were members, since none of them had any obvious non-human traits… but I knew quite a few were supposed to be. Captain had said this location had almost a hundred members, so…

"Young Brandy," a woman waved me over before I stepped over to a different group. Happy to be invited first, I hurried over to the rear of one of the wagons. She sat on the back of it, on a little lip of wood that stuck out behind its tailgate. "I'm told you're joining our location," she said to me as I began walking behind her… and the wagon she rode. There was room for me up next to her, but it was too high for me to risk climbing up upon. Especially since the extension she sat on was kind of small, and I carried a heavier bag.

I nodded up at her. "Yes. I'm told you have a bank here, I wanted to learn how it works," I said.

"The bank…? Of all things the bank?" she asked with a frown.

"Is it that surprising?" I asked. Surely not, right? I mean… it was a bank! Such a thing only existed in the larger towns; my own kingdom hadn't even had such a thing!

I had to slow a bit since the wagon was slowly coming to a stop. I peered around the edge of it, and saw we were nearing a busy area. We looked to be waiting for another cart to pass by. I wonder how deep into the city we were going?

The woman sighed at me, and I noticed the tip of her ears as she did so. Her hair had shifted a bit thanks to her sigh, and the wagon coming to a full-stop.

They were pointy. Very pointy.

"My name's Solia. I'm a gecko, a type of lizard," she said.

Ah… "Sorry. I didn't mean to stare," I said. She must have noticed.

She smiled gently at me. "This is where you introduce yourself, you know?"

Oh. Right. I nodded. "Brandy. I'm an otter."

"Oh? How cute! Though that only further makes your choice of occupation weird… The sea at least makes sense, water and all, so why the bank?" Solia asked as the wagon returned to rolling forward.

Stepping forward, I was about to answer but she held out her hand. At first I thought she was continuing our little, slightly weird, introduction… but then realized what she was actually doing.

Taking her hand, she helped me up next to her. As I sat down on the little outcropping of wood, she helped me take my bag and put it behind us and into the wagon proper with the boxes they'd gotten from our ship.

Or well, captain's ship. It wasn't mine anymore, was it?

Or maybe it was? What with it being the Society's and all?

"I'm trying to learn how money works," I told her honestly.

"Money…? Well I guess a bank would work then. But you don't need to come all the way here to do that, do you? Money's pretty simple, isn't it?" Solia asked.

I wanted to scoff at that, but didn't.

Simple? Money?

Hardly. My whole family was dead, and my kingdom collapsed because of money. Something so powerful was far from simple.

Someone who said something like that had obviously never needed to worry about money. Or its power. Or what it could do.

She must have lived, and is living, a simple life. I was jealous.

"Do you not work at the bank?" I asked, instead of letting her comment bother me too much.

"Me…? No. But my sister does," she said.

Glancing at her, she smiled at me. "Her name's Sofia. Make sure you're nice to her, okay? She's not much older than you. It's not often our kind get to meet friends the same age!"

"I'm older than I look, you know," I said.

She sat up a little straighter at that, and then groaned. "Oh… you're one of those. Of course you are… my bad… um…" she suddenly seemed apologetic.

Smiling gently, I nodded. "I look forward to meeting her all the same. By the way… what's a gecko?" I asked.

"A type of lizard!" Solia said happily, it seemed she was glad I had not taken offense at her misunderstanding.

A lizard…?

Before I could ask more Solia started to point at others nearby. Those guiding the horses that pulled wagons, or walking alongside them. She went to telling me not just everyone's names, but the more recent drama surrounding them. Most of it was simple things, like who was courting who, or who had recently eaten some snack that had not been theirs.

Happy to hear all about those who lived here, the people I'll be living amongst for the foreseeable future, I sat and spoke with Solia the whole way to the Society location, a huge stone building on the north side of town… overlooking the port and the rest of the city.

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