Maj had found herself below decks when the
Kyne’s Tear pulled into the safety of the cove. Unperturbed by the storm, trusting the sailors to their jobs she swung in her hammock trying to grab a few winks of sleep. Claps of thunder followed by the explosive force from the giant jellyfish would knock the strongest of sea legs out from under a sailor, for Maj her hammock swung her clear out of it and to the floor. She landed with a grunt and thud. More calls for an attack from above spread throughout the ship, the dunmer siblings rushed past her she grabbed her cloak climbing the stairs arriving in time to see the ship pierced with chains from the dwemer airship above.
The Golden Slug! She heard rumours, sailors and the Corsair Republic believed the tall tales. More thunder on the back of a roaring undead werewolf landing on one of the sailors. She winced at the sight, terrible luck. Members of the company were upon it ready to fight. The werewolf was accompanied by land dreughs, tall full of piss and vinegar ready to tear into anyone who got close.
Maj decided the airship was the real priority and others agreed taking to climbing the chains, Maj ran from the fight looking for more of what caused the initial explosion. She looked to the water for mines but instead saw giant jellyfish. Out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of Ariane, waving her over.
“Miss Fontaine! The jellyfish, did they cause the explosion?!” She shouted over the rabble of the storm and fight.
Soaking wet with rainwater and seawater, Ariane did not dare wasting her magicka repelling any form of water, not when monsters started dropping down the airship. She was scurrying about the upper deck when Maj Noor finally made her appearance. Ariane waved her assistant to the port side railings, carefully leaning over and pointing to where the jellyfish explosion impact the ship.
“Yes, right there.” Ariane gestured at a dent on the
Tear frontal armor. Thankfully, it was just a large dent, without leak. She shifted her hand to point at a reddish blob almost touching the ship’s hull. “You see the color taint? It is an explosion enchantment under a thin film of insulation. It is just like the Golden Slug to magically alter sea life.”
Maj considered the strange properties of the mythical ship, peering down at the jellyfish swiping wet hair from her face.
“Given your past...qualifications, Miss Noor, I believe we can retrieve a few of explosive jellyfishes intact.” Ariane proposed. She turned to face the Redguard, seeing uncertainty on Maj’s features not too different from her own.
A sudden gust of wind scooped up water towards the two of them. Ariane was fully splashed, her hood thrown off and herself nearing falling overboard if not for her assistant catching her in time. The Breton muttered thanks under her breath, then wiped water away from her eyes with the back of her arm. She stood up again, wishing for a warm, toasty fire. Not even five seconds later, she got her wish, in the form of Niernen’s missing fireball.
“Watch out!” Ariane warned. She quickly placed her hand over Maj’s shoulder and ducked them both down. The spell flew over them harmlessly, but it also flew over the dreughs harmlessly.
Having both saved each other’s life, Ariane decided that they had a good bonding experience. She stayed down in a kneeling position to avoid the drawing attention from the monsters, and urged Maj to do the same. She was not a stealthy person, and neither did her assistant look like one. But it never hurt to stay out of harm's way, and keep the gunwale between themselves and the waves.
Crouching down listening to her fellow mage immediately grateful for missing Niernen’s shot, rubbing singed hair between her thumb and forefinger. Maj frowned. Fire magic in the hands of an expert wouldn’t let a storm slow them down.
“As I was saying earlier, these jellyfishes allow our climbers to destroy the Golden Slug’s airship by detonating volatile gases onboard.” Ariane explained, trying to maintain calm in her voice, but a bit of nervousness was unmistakable.
“We need those for catching,” Ariane indicated to several poles with hooks near the mast; they were probably used to manipulate sails, “and nets for transporting, which our lead scout should have, if we can find her.”
After seeing Do’Karth off, Sevine scanned the deck where she spotted the huddled figures of Ariane and Maj. Were they hurt? She crossed the deck unscathed as most of the dreughs were locked in combat with the other mercenaries and sailors. She slid into a crouch beside them.
“Are any of you injured?” Her gaze sweeping over them, but didn’t see any blood.
“No.” Maj said, peering up at Sevine the lead scout. Drenched through as Ariane and Maj were.
“No.” Ariane said as well. She didn’t feel injured, that was until she wiped off her eyes again. Her eyeliner was all smeared up by the water; she should have applied some water-resistant enchantment. She looked at the mix of colors now on her palm, and decided to wipe it off on the back of Sevine’s shirt when she turned her attention to Maj. “Well, kind of. I’m fine now.”
“Do you have the nets? Those that Edith gave you before we left.” Ariane questioned. “We need them now.”
“I do.” She said with a nod, “Why do you need them?”
“Don’t worry about it.” Ariane replied. She didn’t think this Nord would understand anyways.
Sevine frowned, “Well I am worrying about it.” She huffed, but did as asked. She scurried across the deck and down the stairs. She had stashed the nets Edith gave her in a barrel underneath the staircase. She pulled them out, and returned to Maj and Ariane before she was apprehended.
“Here.” She said, her hands moving quickly to unfurl and separate the nets.
“You’re gonna need my help with whatever plan you’re not telling me, especially if you plan on trapping or catching. I did that my whole life growing up. So what are we catching?” She rocked back onto her heels, looking Ariane square in the face.
Ariane stared up puzzly at Sevine, partly because of her insistence and partly because of her complete disregard for her own safety in the middle of a chaotic battle. She sighed, and supposed the Huntress could be of some, if not much, help.
“These.” She stood up and pointed over the railing. Instead of the jellyfish she spotted minutes ago, they were now in a different patch of the lagoon. However, another one was close by. “No, that, the jellyfish, you see it?”
“Aye.”
“We are going to grab some with the hooked poles and load them into nets.” Ariane explained. It would take a long time to convince the simple mind underneath this mess of red hair, which meant, the short and simple answer. “Just make sure you handle the white parts, not the red parts. Bad things happen with the red. Understood?” She explained like she would to a child.
Sevine gave her a long side glance before nodding, “I’m not an idiot.” She stood up, “Let’s do this.”
“Simple enough! Gently bag up some jellyfish and hurl them to the airship. The faster we can incapacitate the
Golden Slug the faster we can end this.” Maj said grabbing a pole. “I’ll go first, it’ll be just like catching fish in a barrel.”
“Alright, be careful.” Ariane cautioned Maj. Turning to Sevine, she continued to utter caution. “Observe carefully.”
Easing close to the railing Maj planted her feet, relying on her sure sealegs. Dipping the pole over the edge and into the water, it became increasingly clear how little control she really had over it. She stuck her tongue out, talked herself through it. “I ain’t a fisher or hunter, but how hard could it be to catch something giant, slow and squishy?” She edged closer to the jellyfish, translucent with the red magicka. “What sort of properties does the
Golden Slug even possess? My gold is on some ancient dwemer technology mixing with scary big-”
“I’ve read Nord tales stating the Golden Slug is a millennium old sorcerer, and that it supposedly lived on lost islands with infernal machines before taking to the skies of Tamriel.” Conjectured Ariane. Truth be told, the sources themselves were inconsistent. “Some say the Golden Slugs plays with the organs of naughty children...” Ariane let herself trail off, not wanting to distract Maj’s fishing adventure with the gruesome details. In the meantime, she cast a stoneflesh spell on herself, just in case a dreugh gets too close for comfort.
The jellyfish inched a little out of her reach and the pole swung, tugging on a tentacle. “Fuck these slippery bastards.” Maj snarled, continuing her thought as she stared down the jellyfish, “Big soul gems have to be powering that flying contraption. I really want to see for myself-!” Wrapping the pointed hook around a tentacle she tugged excitedly.
Too excitedly, the jellyfish came floating far faster than she was prepared for.
“I believe the soul gem theory is just an invention to scare children; misbehave and lose your soul to the flying bogeyman.” Ariane continued her conjecture. At this point, the Kyne’s Tear was being dragged in further, and faster, into the cove. Their floating catch drifted away faster than they liked. “Try hooking the underside, it-”
“No no no no-”
Desperately trying to untangle the jellyfish, it dangerously approached the hull, “No, stop!” Unable to wriggle free Maj threw the pole away into the water in a panic redirecting it in the opposite direction. The weight of the pole slowed it down, coming to a gentle stop. She winced.
“Well, we can now safely assume jellyfish hunting is not in my skill set.”
Not deterred by Maj’s failure, Ariane grabbed a pole and tried it out herself. Eyes narrowed and hands tightening around the pole, Ariane focused on blocking out the uncomfortable downpour. She started the same way Maj did; catching a white tentacle with the metal hook. As expected, the tentacle refused to stay on the hook and quickly slipped off. The Breton shifted her pole to one of her hand, while the other lit up a feather spell. It would make the jellyfish lighter, and requiring less effort drag in. Speaking of dragging in, Ariane somehow knew the bottom was the best place to drag with. It had just enough membrane for the metal to bite and hold onto. So that was what Ariane did.
“See.” She told Maj and Sevine. No doubt Maj would catch on, but it would be better showing the lead scout directly than explaining this intricate maneuver to her.
So far so good; now it was just a matter of reeling in. As Ariane began pulling the pole back, she forgot to account for her own feather spell. What was intended as a short tug became a long yank. The now feathered jellyfish came up and out, and at the same time, its soft underbelly slid further into the hook. Ariane’s face lit up with joy, but a split second later, it turned to shock.
The hook pierced into the red jelly core; the jellyfish exploded.
The resulting explosion cracked the pole in two. Before Ariane could react, explosive force was returning the severed metal hook back to sender. With a gasp and a sharp
clink, the hook flew straight into her forehead. Her head rang, wind followed behind her and Ariane fell onto her back, ringing her head a second time from the rear. The other women couldn’t catch her on time, or in Sevine’s case, maybe she didn’t want to. The only thing saving Ariane from a nasty concussion was the stoneskin spell from earlier.
“Uuuhhhh.” Slurred Ariane. She laid there on the cold hard deck, watching the world above dance in a numbing figure eight. “Not in my skill set either...”
Maj turned to Sevine, trying to not laugh. She humbly nodded, “I believe in you. Don’t underestimate them.”
She bent down offering a hand to help Ariane up, “We can be ready to help with the net instead. There’s no messing up throwing that.”
“Ri, right, neck, next, net...” Ariane slowly accepted the hand, rubbing the nasty welt on her forehead the same time.
Sevine stared wide eyed at the two women, mostly Ariane, before shaking her head in disbelief, “You know, I
did say that I’ve trapped my whole life.” She stooped to pick up the net, and quickly secured it to the hook on the pole. It would allow her to scoop up the jellyfish. Just a few strips of cloth from her tunic, double knotted, and… presto.
“Watch my back.” Sevine said, glancing over her shoulder at Maj and Ariane one last time, and the lowered the pole into the water.
She had found her mark, a particularly decent sized jellyfish floating in the water. She wasn’t sure if they had eyes, or brains for that matter, but she needed all of the stealth to snag the creature. If others were watching her, they might think her crazy for trying to snag a jellyfish in the midst of a battle. Her focus was elsewhere, not on the noise and chaos behind her. It was the reddish blob in the water. And like a cat hunting fish in a stream, she inched the pole closer, the net billowing and twisting in water. She waited… and waited… and pushed the pole deeper in the water, causing the net to balloon out, and she pushed it deeper ever still.
And then she paused.
Maj watched with anticipation at Sevine’s work, trying her best not to talk or say a word. Not wishing to jinx or break the Nord’s concentration. While Ariane sat back down against gunwale, trying to make her head stop pounding.
Her eyes studied the jellyfish, wondering if it knew that it would be snatched up in a net? Regardless, Sevine inched back from the railing, and angled the pole against the railing so that it acted as a sort of lever. There, ever so carefully, and with a certain degree of grace, she raised the pole up. The net expanded as the water filled out, and as she neared the bottom of the jellyfish, she slowed her pace. She bit her lip hard as she used utmost caution, and brought the net up around the jellyfish. She had it snared! Now just to bring it out of the water without detonating the damned thing. Sevine continued to use the pole against the railing as a lever, to help counteract the sudden weight from the jellyfish, and to steady herself from losing her foot.
Up and up the gelatinous creature rose, until Sevine had it leveled flat with the railing of the ship. Gripping the metal pole, Sevine began the trivial process of bringing the jellyfish onboard. Within seconds, she had the jellyfish hanging in the net, aboard the ship.
“If you want to launch this at the airship, then we ought to find Sagax.” Sevine quipped, she would feel proud later if they didn’t all die first.
“The
demolition expert.” Ariane slowly and unsteadily rose to her feet. Her vision flickered wildly with the painful pulsations. “Isn’t that him climbing, the two of him?”
“Fantastic! Using the pole and the net was a great idea.” Maj clapped Sevine on the shoulder, genuinely impressed. “Sagax? The Imperial lad?”
She stiffened at the clap on the shoulder, “Careful! But… yes… scrawny lad. Black hair. Has a knack for getting himself into dangerous situations.”
“I believe Ashav called him ‘suicidal’, ‘having absolutely no regard for self-preservation’ and a ‘genius’.” Ariane added to Sevine’s appraisal. Helping them carry the jellyfish was obviously out of the question, as she might accidentally stumble, fall into it and blow everyone up in the process. Instead, Ariane staggered forward with the support of Sevine’s fishing pole and Maj’s arm. “Didn’t we promote him to a specialist on our last meeting?”
‘And if we don’t die, I’m forcing him to retire from these escapades.’ Sevine thought bitterly.
“...We did.” She sighed. “There’s only one way to do this.” Sevine shifted her gaze to the pole gripped tightly in her hands, and then again to the chains attached to the ship. She could see the scrawny fucker making his climb, and she swore.
“God’s damn us all.” And then she ran. She ran for her life across that rolling deck, past dreugh, past the werewolf, past the sailors and mercenaries to the chain that Sagax was on.
“Sagax!!!” She bellowed up at him. She could see him look down, or at least she imagined he did.
“Blow these bastards up!” And then, she planted her boots firm into the deck, turned at the waist, and threw the entire pole with the jellyfish in the net up at him. It soared high up into the air….
‘We’re fucked.’ She thought, only now remembering that Do’Karth was up there too.
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POOPHEAD189
love me some mystic characters. 