Once Hana saw that the brat was cleaning himself, she stumped back to her seat and settled back with her book. She politely kept her gaze on her book when she heard him splash out and start cleaning his clothes. She'd done the same plenty of times on the road, and without the benefit of warm water. She was soon engrossed in her reading, and didn't notice anything was amiss until Rio stopped in front of her silent. She looked up to see his mouth slightly open and his attention fixed on Pieter and Berlin. "Wha-" She said, "What's going on?" --- Pieter chewed his lip and raised the spyglass to his eye. Before he looked through he knew something was amiss; he'd been addressed as Priest. Whatever was on the horizon was beyond the ken of a first mate, and that worried him. His unsteady hands and the rocking of the [i]Borealis[/i] made the small circle of vision of the spyglass veer wildly across the sky, and Pieter first saw nothing important. He removed the glass from his eye, wiped his palm down his trousers, spotted the dark shape on the horizon, and looked again. It was... An eel? Or a snake. Flying. Were their wings? Yes, he saw the movement on the sides, with a rather concerning wingspan. It was at some distance, and the clouds obscured the long and sinuous creature from them. He'd never seen something quite like this. He'd been told dragons existed across the Eastern Ocean, but he'd never heard of one crossing the Ocean, going over Elbar and the rest of the continent to come here. The clouds parted, and Pieter could see more. The dragon had the color of sallow skin, and was just smaller than the [i]Borealis.[/i] It glided in wide circles, dipping low suddenly to surge back in altitude. Swinging the spyglass to follow the dragon, he saw the dragon plunge over a ship. A galley. The wind picked up, and Pieter thought he could hear the turtle's laugh in the snap of the sails. They'd found the slavers. A cloud of smoke lifted from the galley, and the dragon wheeled upwards. The galley and dragon were moving in a diagonal line to the southwest of them, moving faster than what he thought reasonable. They were over open ocean. How could the Barizians take a galley across the ocean? There was no way they could carry enough food and water for the crews needed to make such distances. And to carry slaves as well? He had no clue as to how often a dragon needed to feed. It was over the open ocean, and he didn't know if dragons ate fish. He shook his head, handed back the telescope to Berlin, and said, "That's a damn strange scene, captain. There in the sky looks like a dragon," He pointed, "And it's hunting a slavers galley." --- Wheel sucked on the lime, enjoying the sourness. He was pleasantly sore, and there was a looseness like he'd been massaged. Of course, while a berserker's definition of pleasant and sore were different than most people's The slight smile on his face was genuine. The curse had faded to a slight buzz and filled him with good cheer. He rolled a cigarette while he drank, and broke the silence with the occasional unhurried remark. Uban's oath made him look up, and he scanned the horizon until he saw what was going on. It was some distance away, "We could meet them in an hour and a half, two hours," He stood up, lighting his cigarette, "Sit easy, I'll find out what the plan is."