“It was a good day for me today” said Brisa with a smile as she handed the boys the dinner she had purchased.  If they wanted the meat-pies hot they had better eat fast.   “The more people start piling up in town the more people need scribe work.”  Since Brisa was paid by the job, not by the day or the hour like the boys were, it wasn't hard to see why she liked busy days  “I need to test out my new spell later, if one of you don't mind, I think it will help us.  I remember how those frog men were invisible, only they weren't, they were just camouflaged by the terrain, and I think I can mimic that effect on one of us now.  Later anyway.”  

“A shipwright came in today needing some scribing done and said that trade ships were going to start heading south soon, maybe as soon as another moon cycle if the weather holds this nicely.  You are right we should start preparing.” She took a big mouthful of the meat pie.  “um, I ot sue but I ink we eed os” she continued around her mouthful of pie.  

Seeing the boy's odd look she blushed and swallowed hastily.  She rarely got to eat anything for the midday, usually just a bit of goatsmilk and honey or a cooked egg if she was really lucky, thats all her Scribe employer ever ate during the day, she was just grateful he shared it so willingly.  Hector often had sweets he called “hard candy” on hand, like sucking on a sweet rock, good but not very filling.  When dinner came she was famished and that often overwhelmed her manners.  

“Sorry” she said. “I mean I'm not sure but I think we need a horse, or a donkey, or something like that.  I know we can book passage for them on the larger ships too.  I'm a bit sturdier than I was...was it only half a year ago?” a far away look came and went as she remembered her family and her teacher, the whole reason she was trekking to the strange land of Chult.  “I still can't carry very much though.  And I have my books and scribes tools I need to look after.”  

She continued to munch on her dinner as she thought about what they might need.  

“We will need food and water of course, and some way to keep it safe from the elements, and bedding, clothing, good boots, rainproof cloaks, hmm what else.  I've been reading a lot about Chult now that Hector helped me translate that book of maps we have.”  Hector had indeed taught her the Chultean language and he had let her look through his library on the subject.  She felt she almost knew what to expect.  Almost.  “There's lots of weird animals down there, strange man-eating cats, winged snakes, giant boars as big as a horse, and strange peoples too.  It's also very hot and very wet, rains all the time and lots of mud, the plants grow thicker than even the marshes here.  What will we need to bring to help with all that?  Hang on let me grab a parchment.”

She swallowed the last of her pie, licked her fingers clean, and ran to her bed to grab her scribes kit.

“Goats!” she exclaimed enthusiastically as she set herself up to take notes.  She had been thinking about how much better meat pies were than goats milk and it dawned on her.  “What about taking some goats? One for each of us?  They can travel easily on almost any terrain,  eat almost anything so we won't have to worry too much about feeding them, carry reasonable loads, the females provide milk which will help our food supplies, and the bucks are feisty bastards willing to protect their does.”

She liked goats, she had tended her family's goat and when they first started out she had even taken one of the goats with them.  She had lost the poor girl rather quickly but she was smarter now, and better able to take care of herself and others. 

“So what should we bring?  I'll watch for the proper merchants to register with the city clerk so we can be among the first to know and shop before the wares get picked over.” 


***Nearly 2 months later****

Brisa forced her bleary eyes open and looked around in the dark room.  It took her a minute to remember where she was then the smell hit her...salt air, wet wood, damp hay, chamber pot, goat, slightly mildewy canvass cloth.  Still on the damn boat.  

With a groan she rolled out of her hammock and plopped to the floor landing on the damp hay between their three goats.  She was the only female on the boat as such she got the luxury of having a berth to herself.  Only not really.  She shared the small stall where their goats were quartered.  She had learned quickly that goats, if not kept in the fresh open air, stunk.    She was so ready to be off the boat, even if it was going to be in some strange new world she didn't know and barely spoke the language of. 

Traveling by ship might be convenient, and about the only way to get where they were going but it was pretty awful.  Not to mention that despite what she had heard it had taken the better part of the month to actually find a ship heading all the way to Chult. 

Her berth was with the goats which wasn't the freshest smelling spot on the ship but she had space because the goats were rather well tended but small enough they didn't take their whole stall.  The boys had to berth together in hammocks strung in a space that seemed about the size of a broom closet.  That had to get annoying.  To make matters worse a recent storm had given all three children a chance to experience true sea sickness first hand.  Brisa still wasn't entirely over it and for the last three days had nothing to eat but hard tack soaked in a little goat milk.  She was sick of it but there was no way she could keep much else down.  

Her body clock was telling her it was time to get up and start her daily routine.  This meant clean up the goat's bedding and lay down new hay, take the old bedding up top along with her chamber pot and dump it overboard, fetch her old clothing along with that of the boys and mend anything that needed mending then magick it clean.  Then back to the goats to milk them and take the milk up to the galley.  There she joined the cook and set to prepping the food for the day.  

It was a routine that had her below deck almost all day, she hated it but part of their passage was paid in work...and her work was the galley which was sort of an all day thing between prepping food and cleaning up.  Argurios and Aiden had work above deck, hard labor intensive work, but at least it was fresh air and they had long breaks followed by spurts of intensely busy work.  With her sea sickness she really wished she had more time to spend in the fresh air.  She didn't see much of the boys; she couldn't even join them for meals since she was expected to eat with the cook after all sailors and captain had already eaten. 

Only at the end of the day, when her chores were done, could she find a place to study.  Since candles, lanterns, and other sources of fire were not allowed willy nilly on ship that meant if she wanted to see she had to do so on deck near one of the regular night lanterns.  

After the long day was over she wearily climbed above deck, her precious spell book tucked under her arm.  There was a massive coil of rope near the upper deck and it was situated just below one of the very few lanterns allowed on the ship.  Since lanterns were fire and fire and boats didn't mix the Captain was very careful about where the night time running lanterns were placed and you just had to accommodate that.  Brisa had taken to crawling into the middle of the coil of rope and sitting there, cross legged, held in place by the heavy hemp coils around her.  She wondered if either, or both off the boys would have any time off from their duties to come over and chat but for now she set to studying.  Every free moment she could scrap together she studied, spells, maps, languages, everything she could to help them prepare for their arrival in Chult.  After all it was only supposed to be another 10-day before they made port.