The Good Goblin 52: The Indignant Seven

So… things have been rather tense since the forest incident. To think… Tadwick, Kiyui & I were genuinely really excited to see the sea a couple of days ago. Now that we are here… on an actual boat… well… let’s just say it is not going as we had hoped.

After the king and Svampe had left, Dacus refused to move… he just stood there staring at Alterius. Nomius did too. Flora stood silently watching her forest burn… saying nothing. Even Kiyui and Tadwick were quiet. Phoenix was the first one to try and talk everyone into moving. She wasn’t successful of course. I have never seen Dacus so full of rage… his eyes looked like they were on fire.

Eventually, the actual fire got so big that even Phoenix’s tempest spell wouldn’t be unable to put it out and Alterius went inside. Dacus has barely said a word since. Phoenix has been the one doing all of the talking for us in the city and on the boat. Which I suppose makes sense… we are out of lizardman territory now and back within the human world… and she is the only human that we have… well, apart from Tadwick… but funnily enough, he is no negotiator. Kiyui has helped her on occasion… it would seem that the number of humans that find feline’s attractive is quite significant… his presence has got us so pretty good discounts.

Svampe was true to his word… he had arranged passage for us on a boat before we had even entered the city. We were directed to it by the guards… Svampe was nowhere to be seen… which was a sha… he was a nice boy… it would have been nice to thank him. He also arranged so new clothes for Tadwick. Which was very nice of him. The climate across the sea is significantly more temperate and it is still only February… he can’t just run around wearing nothing but a cape over there. That being said, he is currently refusing to wear them… he seems to be enjoying the freedom of nudity.

The boat was setting sale that evening, so fortunately we didn’t need to wait long. The captain said it would only take a couple of days to cross the sea, as the weather looks to be in our favour. Which leads us to where we are now… in the middle of the sea… most of us barely speaking… and the rest of us not knowing what to say.

Flora continues to pretend to be part of our group… I imagine she is keen to avoid being killed by the townsfolk. They did burn an entire forest out of fear for a creature they had never seen. If they knew that creature was her, then I doubt it would be pleasant.

She is currently stood by the central mast of the ship… she has been stood there since the boat departed in fact… she hasn’t moved. I don’t think she sleeps… unless she can sleep standing up. The only ti I saw her move was when one of the other passengers was drunk and nearly fell overboard… she grabbed him with her tendrils then resud standing motionless. His friend attempted to thank her… but she said nothing… didn’t even acknowledge the guy.

I an… this could be normal for her… I don’t know her at all… we only t yesterday. I am trying to rely on my assumptions about people less, and judge them based on what they do, but sothing about her creeps out massively… once this boat lands, I will not be saddened to see her go.

Dacus is sitting on his own, by the cart. He says that he needs to guard the supplies… which is understandable… but it could be done in shifts… I think he’s just trying to avoid people. He at least speaks when people address him, unlike Flora. But he mostly just gives one word answers and tries to redirect people away from him.

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Sothing definitely happened between him and this Alterius guy… and I think Nomius was involved, because even he is quieter than normal. I promise I’m not being stupid… I know he can’t talk… but he is normally running around with Tadwick… playing gas with him… teaching him things. Other than Dacus, Tadwick is the one who knows the most of his signs because they spend so much ti together. He is still keeping an eye on Tadwick… but from a distance.

Kiyui is seasick. Which is sothing that I had never heard of before… apparently it is common for those unfamiliar with sea travel. He has spent most of the journey lying on the floor or vomiting over the side. Feiffer is laying on the floor beside him… also looking unwell. I find it odd the way that he reflects Kiyui like this… I know they have so kind of magical connection but it is still odd to see it so blatantly.

Phoenix is the only one of us who has actually been on a boat before, so she has been trying to help him through it. She gave him so ginger tea which she had bought at the port, told him to close his eyes and focus on talking to her. It has worked to an extent… he is nowhere near as bad as he was when we first set off… but he still randomly darts to the edge to vomit. This is probably the most that I have seen Phoenix actually talk to sobody. I an… Kiyui is doing most of the actual talking… once he gets going, he is very forthcoming with information… which I rember all too well from that ti we bathed together.

Phoenix is responding at the appropriate monts, but her current focus seems to be on the wood that she is carving. She is carving it in a rather aggressive manner however… I think she’s still pissed off about having her magic blocked yesterday. I must say… she has beco very proficient at wood carving.

When we first t, she was mostly carving animals like sheep but she is currently carving a lizardman with a child on its shoulders. I assu it is Nomius and Tadwick… she always says that children are not really her thing, but she appears to be making a toy for Tadwick, which is sweet… even though she is carving it with a certain level of aggression at the mont. I wish I could lip read so that I could know what those two are talking about.

Which brings to Tadwick and I. It has fallen to to keep Tadwick occupied during this journey. Which was quite difficult initially. I think he was picking up on the atmosphere from everyone… not to ntion that I think that he, like , is rather unnerved by Flora. Fortunately, once the ship set off, there was little ti before night fell and it was easy to convince him to get so sleep.

This morning, we did have so excitent however, we saw a lizardman vessel. Which initially stirred up all the sailors as they thought it was the Shadow Clan launching another attack. But once they got closer it was apparent that it was in fact a Thalassic Clan boat. The Thalassic clan don’t get on well with the other clans but they do have a good relationship with the humans of the Uddin Empire… apparently.

What we found fascinating was that when they passed us, we could see that didn’t use oars… they had lizardn all along the sides of their boat. These lizardn were moving their hands in a sort of swishing motion and the water beneath their boat was responding to them and moving their boat in a very smooth and flowing motion.

Tadwick shouted to them, asking how they do it. One of them drew a ball of water out of the sea and it floated through the air towards us. It stopped in front of Tadwick… he poked it and giggled… then as the lizardman got back to what he was doing it dropped to the floor. Tadwick was so excited by the whole thing that he forgot entirely about the awkwardness that was going on. He ran straight over to try to tell Kiyui about it… but talking to Kiyui about water was not the best move… he ended up throwing up… again.