Uban was up first. After a lifetime of waking with the sun, as any good farmer’s son does, he was never fully able to break that habit unless he’d been carousing the night before. He awoke to the soft hiss of waves on sand, the call of seabirds, and a snoring he guessed belonged to Berlin. After relieving himself, Uban rekindled what was left of the fire and began butchering the boar brought by their young hunter. Even though the crew was asleep, he could feel an air of anticipation around him. If he was honest, he was excited to have a chance to push his abilities to their limits and to see what he and Hana could do together. They would need a lot of food in the next couple of days—they always ate more than most as a mostly magical crew, but today they’d need extra. He fetched some tea, some bread, and apples from the ship as well.

Rohaan, awoken by the smell of smoke and meat shuffled over with his hair looking even wilder than usual. His bare toes dug happily into the sand—this was like Home to him. Almost. Uban heard his scuffing feet and then felt a head drop onto his shoulder from behind with a little tired grumble.  Uban laughed. “Woke you, did I?”
“Te.” Rohaan plunked down beside Uban, leaning up against him wrapped in his blanket. 
“Cold, eh? Startin’ to get cool at night now that fall’s a’comin. Oughtta get you some new winter gear—I don’t think yours fits anymore.” Uban put an arm around him while the other poked at the bacon with a long fork. “You ready for training? It’s gonna be a tough one. I think Wheel’s got plans to push us hard.” Rohaan made a soft noise that was vaguely affirming as Uban pushed a small mug of tea into the boy’s hands. There was a comfortable silence as the half-asleep Rohaan sipped his tea, snuggled up against Uban, then the older man said softly, “we’re gonna get ‘em you know.” Rohaan said nothing. “Berlin aint gonna hold you back—not this time. We’ll show ‘em how stupid it is to mess with The Borealis, eh? And we’ll send ‘em down to the briny blue where The sharks will eat them whole.”
“Yeah...” came his soft reply. “If I don’t do it first.”

Uban blinked hard. “What did you say? Can you—can you do that? Eat a man?”
Rohaan gave a noncommittal shrug. “Probably. I seen it done once.”
Uban stared at the mess of blond hair poking out of a gray wool blanket beside him, his mouth open. Surely he wasn’t serious...but then...maybe he was. “Lad, sometimes you scare me.” He often forgot what he was. It was easy to when he was in a sweet mood and half asleep cuddled up beside him like any young boy. But then he would say things like that, and Uban felt chills down his back.

Rohaan drifted back to sleep, nearly spilling what was left of his tea until Uban slid it out of his hands and nestled the cup into the sand. He let him stay there until the bacon was finished and he held the sizzling pan under the boy’s nose. “Baaaaaacon......baaaaaacooon....” he taunted as the two blue eyes cracked open slowly. Rohaan was more aware this time, more alert, and gratefully took the proffered food and began to munch steadily on it.

The rest of the crew began to stir, with Berlin lagging uncharacteristically behind after the night’s drinking. But they gathered and ate, and as the chewing slowed, Berlin spoke. “So, Wheel. What do you have planned for us? I have an exercise I’d like to do with myself and Rohaan at some point, and Hana needs her obligatory flying lesson. Not to mention, you two should go over your usual aerial maneuvers again as a refresher. But the rest I leave in your capable hands.” Berlin was comfortable enough in his own authority to easily hand it off to someone else if the need arose. Wheel was the master of combat amongst them and, more importantly, he knew firsthand what they were up against.