Feared the sea with its dark, shifting signs.
"Too deep and too wide,
Where strange things might hide,
I'd rather face mountains than brines!"
- Goldie Honorhide
We carted three logs and a thinner branch down to the edge of the ice and floated them. I held two about two meters apart as Yoboc held the thinner branch vertically in the water. I then froze the water around the logs and branch, holding them in place. I then positioned the third log at the same distance and froze the water around it so we had an ice platform about four meters wide and three meters long with a mast.
I held my Cosmic Aura near the edge of the outermost log so the ice didn’t grow too large or it would be too hard to move. I also tried not to make it too deep. It was deep enough to be stable in the choppy sea but not too hard to move. At least, that was the idea. We would need to experiment once we got away from shore. I can freeze more easily, but I can’t thaw it.
Or can I thaw it? The heat was part of the Astral Affinity. Why can’t I do the same with heat as I can with cold? I will definitely experiment, but not in the middle of the ocean.
The water was so cold that I didn’t need to keep freezing the ice; I just needed to keep an eye on it and check that it didn’t thaw too quickly.
Felix was keen to check out our ice raft and sniffed all over it. We loaded the packs, and Yoboc had the tent material ready to be a makeshift sail. The hardest part was convincing Goldie that it was stable and that it would remain so for the crossing. I left that to Yoboc.
The wind was blowing along the channel, parallel to the shore. It was also blowing away from the marker on my map labelled “Worlds End.” This wasn’t a problem as it would just mean more walking after crossing. Worlds End was still 2-3 days tramp away, even if we crossed straight over.
Goldie had cut several other branches, and we had carved them into paddles to help propel the ice raft. It would be a slow trip across. Felix is again getting a free ride.
Goldie sat in the middle of the raft—the exact middle, as far as I could tell. Yoboc and I pushed off with the paddles, and then he left to rig the sail. Because ice floats, the wooden logs were further out of the water than they would normally be. They formed a side to the raft, and the choppy waves started to splash against them.
The wind caught the makeshift sail, and we started moving out into the channel and along the coast. Yoboc must have some sailing knowledge, as he used an oar as a sort of steering guide behind us. I stood near the side in my hairy Humanoid form with an oar and basically watched, adding a paddle here and there. Ways of travelling interested the Explorer class. It's not enough to level, but it all adds up.
We were about halfway when the wind slowed. My map still showed the far shore as a fussy position as I didn’t have Farsight, which included a better judgment of distance as part of the skill. It seemed no matter what Yoboc could do, we were moving more and more out to the open sea. The Map Skill was tracking us very well.
“You know,” said Yoboc, “we are not sailors.” Goldie and I looked at him. “We may have forgotten to take into account a small thing, like the current.”
We pondered that statement for a bit.
“Shall I get in the water and push?” I asked.
Goldie gave me a horrified look. It was worth it just for that. Yoboc shrugged, so I stood up and stripped off the ill-fitting dwarven pants. Even though Goldie was in a reduced state of fear, she still gave me a wolf whistle. You would think she would be used to me changing by now. I changed into a Polar bear and splashed into the ocean.
Polar bears are good swimmers. I nudged against the ice raft and started swimming. The logs and ice were heavy and I appeared to be changing nothing. After a quarter hour my map did show a change in direction so I was making a difference. Goldie had stirred herself to look after the sail under Yoboc’ direction while he paddled.
I am pretty sure Felix was helping too even though he seemed to be asleep next to the packs. His Team Leader Skill was helping me keep going. He was acting like a true leader.
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After an hour I climbed up onto the ice and had a snack and then followed the example of our team leader and had a short nap.
Then I got back in the water and kept swimming. The Map told me I was making a difference even though the shore didn’t seem any closer.
The water was cold, but my resistance was high. I could do with more fat, but that will come later. The smell of the salt water filled my nostrils, and when a wave shoved water up my nose, my Olfactory sense realised there were smells in the water as well. However, I did not like water up my nose.
I had my Cosmic Aura out full with my Spiritual Senses. The sea was another different environment I could explore. Unfortunately, I still needed to breathe, so that was not going to happen.
I swam for an hour and then took a fifteen-minute break. I was training my Spiritual Sensitivity, especially when I detected fish. Normal fish had a very low spirituality, and a vague moving blob was the best I could do. My Clearsight could see in the water fine, but I was training my Spiritual senses.
By the fourth hour, I was getting very tired. The longest I had swum before was about an hour. The far shore was a defined line on my Map now, so we were close enough for me to see it.
“Get out of the water, Ivan,” Yoboc said, looking further out to sea. “We might need the spears,”
I looked in the same direction. All I could see was some sort of disturbance in the water. Spears means I need to change to my Humanoid form. I get that started. It doesn’t take me long now that Transform is at Journeyman Level.
I grab a paddle rather than a spear to keep us moving. Getting to shore is much better for us. The disturbance is coming closer.
Yoboc strung his bow. I pulled a spear closer to where I was paddling. There was a battle going on under the water. It was coming this way. Suddenly, a blue figure with fins shot out of the water at speed and twisted in the air. It was too far for me to see any details but it either had arms or tentacles. Another large tentacle shot out of the water and smacked into the figure, slamming it back into the ocean.
We paddled faster, but I wasn’t getting back into the water. I looked around. We were still kilometres from shore, and the island we came from was way back on the horizon. Everything around us was an empty ocean.
I was not the only one thinking this, “Whoever is fighting this monster is leading them directly to us,” Yoboc said.
“Do you think they are in trouble and need our help?” I asked.
“We ain’t going to be much help. I have only seen the one Mer fighting. Ivan,” he said, “Add more ice to make us more stable and larger. That thing will just capsize us.”
I extended my Cosmic Aura, freezing the water around and under us. We lifted higher away from the ocean. It wasn’t hard when the water was so cold it was borderline freezing itself. This meant there was now no point in trying to move us, so we weaponed up. If we survive this, we will have to break off a small piece of ice to get us to shore. I moved to the edge where the fight was coming from and froze more ocean.
I added my belts to my Humanoid form, strapped on knives, and picked up a spear. I left my axe because I thought it would weigh me down if I ended up in the ocean. I thought it was likely because if any of the dwarves or gear went overboard, I would be the one to fetch them. I kept my axe close, ready to grab from the ice. It seemed like a good tool to chop tentacles.
Yoboc started with his bow, but he had his axe and shield ready. Goldie was similar, but instead of a bow, she had her spear.
As they got closer, I could see a lot of blood in the water. I ducked my head under the water and let some up my nose. The scent of blood was strong. There was a strong monster smell, and I thought it was the smell of the Mer. I couldn’t tell if there was more than one Mer. What I could tell was that there were only two types of blood in the water.
Something flashed past the other edge of my Aura. It had the spiritual sense of a shark, but that was all I could tell.
Then, a tentacle invaded my aura. “Definitely a monster with water affinities,” I warned the others, “and some sort of shark Mer.”
“I got a read on the monster. It is a small Taniwha,” Yoboc said.
“What?” I said because the name didn’t help me.
“Think sea lizard with tentacles as limbs. The body will have scales and massive jaws,” that was as far as he got as our ice island shook as the Taniwha’s long, sinuous body crashed against it. It was bright in my Spiritual Senses aura and wet. A long fin broke the water as the Taniwha curled down and went under our ice.
“Incoming!” I yelled, and a fast-moving shape flashed through my aura and breached the surface on the opposite of where the taniwha went under. It had obvoiusly gone under to chase him.
It was a him. He flew into the air and landed on the ice, skidding a bit. Yoboc aimed an arrow at him, and Goldie and I had our spears pointed in his direction.
He was blue like a shark. He was about my height, which was impressive, but skinnier. Streamlined was probably the word for it. I could see fins from his ankles and one poking out his back. He was only wearing some belts with knife sheaths and other pockets, so his manhood was on full display. He grinned at us, and his mouth was too wide to be dwarf or human, and I could see a row of shark teeth. I was not sure if his grin was supposed to be friendly or a threat.
“Get off our ice and lead that thing away from us,” growled Yoboc.