Once the rowboat reaches the top deck of the large vessel, I can see dozens of crew members all looking over at us with hope in their eyes. Most of them are elves and there are a few humans mixed in. Surprisingly, the humans do not show any signs of slavery nor do they look mistreated. I guess the elves know the saying of 'an eye for an eye turns the whole world blind'.
Directly where we would get off of the boat is a group of three elves. One elf has on a pirate hat, he smells a little like saltwater, one has a full set of armor, he reeks of citrus, and the last seems to be wearing a cloak covering everything but his face, he does not have a scent of anything.
And then time catches back up with me. Most of the crew's expression changes to confusion as they see a wolf in the boat. The three closest to me, showing their higher levels, all draw various weapons at me. I leap off the side of the rowboat onto the main vessel and start growling at the three as I wait for my companions. None of them go to strike at me instantly, keeping ready but not entirely hostile. I slowly move to the side, still keeping my eyes on the three as I move so that Delphine and Ugrask can board the boat.
{Ding! Elven Captain(lvl:51)
Defense: Level difference too high!
Health: Level difference too high!
Attack: Level difference too high!
Description: You are a piece of calamari to this guy!}
{Ding! Elven Knight(lvl:53)
Defense: Level difference too high!
Health: Level difference too high!
Attack: Level difference too high!
Description: I liked comparing you to food! To this guy, you are nothing but a granola bar.}
{Ding! Elven Rogue(lvl:54)
Defense: Level difference too high!
Health: Level difference too high!
Attack: Level difference too high!
Description: What do rogues eat? I got it! To him, you are nothing more than a weakly poisoned soup.}
If a fight ends up breaking out, I will definitely die. I knew I shouldn't have taken this dumb quest.
"Everyone, put your weapons away. This wolf is an ally." Princess Ilway's voice calls out from behind me. I glance quickly over and see her being helped out of the rowboat by Delphine and Ugrask. The three still look wary, but they sheath their weapons. I look past them and see the crew having relieved expressions before they start cheering.
{Ding! Quest: The Heist of Jud-
I hide the quest. I will look at it later along with the rest of my other notifications. I turn my attention back to the elves.
"Princess Ilway is back!"
"Praise the heavens!"
"Thank the gods!"
The princess walks over to the three stooges in front of me. On cue, as if just remembering that they are in front of royalty, all the crew that can drop to their knees and kneel before the princess. I say all that can because there are two or three that are up on the masts tying ropes and setting the sails.
"Up! Up!" Princess Ilway motions up to the crew to stand. "If anything, I should be kneeling to you, my saviors."She announces to the crew before talking quieter to the three elves in front of me as the elves return to their various jobs. "Captain, Resald, Teras, is there somewhere we can go to speak quietly?" Ah, so the knight's name is Resald and the rogue's name is Teras. The princess seems to be unfamiliar with the captain, so I am guessing she has never met him before.
Resald, the knight, nods his head. "Yes princess, we can go to the Captain's quarters. I assume that is okay with you?" Resald looks over to the captain before turning to Delphine after seeing his nod of confirmation. "Delphine, you and your companion can go below decks and get some rest. I will send someone down shortly with some food."
Resald starts to walk to underneath where the Captain's wheel is. Teras and the captain quickly follow behind after Teras takes off his cloak and hands it to the princess. I, of course, stay next to the princess's side, trying my hardest to look like a loyal pet. I might learn something during this meeting. The princess looks towards me as she wraps the cloak around herself. "Do you want to come with me?"
I wag my tail and walk towards the Captain's cabin before glancing back at the princess as if to say 'you coming?'. Princess Ilway laughs a little before walking ahead of me and into the door. I glance a little at the door frame before walking in.
{Ding! Skill: Performance(lvl:3): Level up}
The Captain's cabin is nothing like I expected. First, there is a bed in here against one of the walls. Then there is a table with various maps around it and chairs pulled out. The princess is sitting on one side while the other three are sitting on the other. It is nothing like I imagined a Captain's cabin would be. I thought there would be more scattered treasure chests and a more smoky atmosphere.
The knight notices me entering the room, "Hey! Get out! Go pla-"
Princess Ilway cut him of before he can yell at me more, "It's fine Resald. She is just a wolf, it's not like she can hurt anything by being here. Come here girl!" The princess calls out to me.
I'm laughing internally as I trot to her side. I lick her leg a little before laying down in front of the chair. I am laying down underneath the table, so I can't see who is talking around me.
"Princess I'm so glad you are back! The Queen will be very pleased. Are you hurt anywhere?" An unfamiliar voice calls out. I am not 100% sure who spoke as it could either be Teras or the Captain.
"No, I am not hurt anywhere. Although I am really hungry, the slavers did not feed me anything but rotten cabbages." The princess's melodic voice replies to the previous speaker.
A rough, gravely voice speaks next, "I will go fetch some food from my cooks. I will be back in a minute."
Ah, he said his cooks. This must mean that the first speaker is Teras and the second speaker is the captain. I glance from my position, laying underneath the table, to the doorway to see a pair of legs walking out the door.
"Princess, we will not take up much of your time as I am sure you are tired. We just need to know what happened to you to be captured by slavers." Resald starts to speak first.
The princess seems to be thinking for a moment before replying, "Yes, I am a little tired. I haven't slept in a real bed in a month. The reason I got captured is that we were betrayed."
"That's impossible! I personally picked out your entire entourage for your journey to make an alliance." Teras shouts out angrily. I think he might be angry that someone pulled the wool over his eyes more than the fact that the princess was betrayed.
Alliance? This is the first I have heard of an alliance. I guess the players did not get much of a chance to talk to the elves the first time around since more than half of them died in the civil war. Hopefully a civil war will not happen this time since I made sure the rescue mission for Princess Ilway was successful.
In the original story, most of the players helped the humans and set up new regimes that would be better for the people. From what the devs said, there was supposed to be a major war on planet Somalspire between the elves, dwarves, gnomes and the humans. Instead, what happened was a boring one way slaughter with the humans easily winning against every other race. The players complained a little about this, but quickly forgot about it when they could reach space in the next update.
"We were betrayed by the Spriggans. Instead of making an alliance with us, they made a deal with the human nation of Eratos. In exchange for me, Eratos said they would stop their expansion into the Spriggan's territory. I then escaped from the entourage when the humans turned around and betrayed the Spriggans by burning down their forest. I guess I was lucky to be captured by slavers bound for Roshan instead of the Eratos forces." Princess Ilway recounts her journey to becoming a slave.
I think for a moment. Spriggans sound familiar but I can not quite place where. Oh! That's right! Spriggans are supposed to be forest spirits that protect the land. In the sixth year of the game being up, a new player found a single Spriggan left alive. It had lost its mind by having its home burned down and been driven insane. The players could find the Corrupted Spriggan deep in a cave in a burned down forest. The spriggan became a unique raid boss that the players were given a quest to kill.
"That's awful. At least those traitors got what they deserved. All right princess, we will let you go get some rest. The captain had prepared a room for you in advance. It is at the end of the hall on the first floor. We should be arriving in the elven capital soon with the help of our wind mages. I'll have the captain come down with your food in a little bit." Teras says.
I move out from under the table as the princess stands up and starts for the door. We leave the room, but not before I hear Teras speak to Resald. "Keep an eye on that wolf. Something doesn't feel quite right about her."
I follow the princess down a set of stairs on the opposite side of the ship. Down the stairs is a long hallway with a few rooms on either side. As this boat is not a luxury ship, most rooms are filled to the brim with hammocks and sleeping bags. The princess quickly walks towards the end of the hall where a single door is and goes inside.
The room is very simple. There is only a small wardrobe, a comfy looking bed, and a small table. The princess walks over to the bed and starts to lay down on it. I, like a good pet would, drop down and lay next to the door on the inside. A few moments later, the captain walks into the room with a plate full of food.
Something doesn't feel right. What's that smell? Or rather, where is the smell? I can't smell the scent of saltwater off of the captain. I can smell something like oil though. Realization hits me. I leap at the back of the captain, using [Shift] as I go. I turn into my humanoid form right as the captain reaches the halfway to the bed.
From behind, I reach out and grab him, attempting to restrain him. We grapple back and forth for a moment before I over power him and shove him to the floor. I tear a part of his shirt off and shove it into his mouth as a makeshift gag. But wait, that shouldn't happen. He should be like 50 levels higher than me. And where did this chain necklace come from? That must mean...
The princess starts to shout. "What the heck? What ar-"
I cover myself with my tail before cutting off the princess. "It is a pleasure to meet you Princess Ilway."
Her ingrained manners get the better of her and she stops shouting at hearing my polite greeting. "It's nice to meet you too? What are you? I thought you were a wolf this entire time. And why did you jump the captain?"
I punch the 'captain' in the jaw, knocking him out, before I reply. "This isn't the captain. This is an assassin and he just tried to poison you." I reach for a piece of chain around his neck and pull it off of him. To the princess's shock, we watch as the person changes from the captain to that of a random human. It seems like this necklace has some glamour power like Delphine does. Maybe I cou- The chain necklace turns into dust and a breeze blows it away.
I hear a rustling sound from out the door and quickly summon my cloak from my inventory, putting it on. I would like to put on clothes too, but I don't quite have enough time before-
The door slams open and Resald and Teras rush in, both with weapons drawn. Taking stock of the situation, Resald runs in front of the princess, his first thought obviously being to protect the princess. Teras looks around for half a second before sheathing his daggers. He obviously saw an unconscious human, me with wolf's ears, and the throne food. He seems to have decided that the threat had already been taken care of.
Teras was the first to start questioning me. "Who are you? And what happened here?"
"Yes! Tell us before I strike you down!" Resald shouts from in front of the princess.
"I am the hired help in the mission to get the princess back. My name is Wyx. This human is probably an assassin that was hired from the elven capital to make sure that the princess can not escape." I say quickly, trying to calm down the intent for violence I see in Resald's eyes.
"Go get Delphine." Resald calls out to Teras, but Teras had already left. A few seconds later, Delphine and Ugrask walk in, both looking a little sleepy. That sleepiness vanishes as soon as they see the unconscious human, me in my humanoid form, and Resald with his sword pointing at me.
Delphine coughs lightly to get Resald's attention before motioning to put the sword down. Ugrask looks at me before tossing me his [Steel Sword]. He then turns and kneels down to the princess. "Princess Ilway, this is our companion, Wyx, that helped us free you from your imprisonment. She was the distraction so we were able to get you out."
Resald puts away his sword and moves away from the princess, but still looks at me in an untrusting way.
"Thank you for taking part in the rescue mission for me Wyx," the Princess's voice sings out. "It's okay Resald, she is our ally."
"As you say princess." Resald attempts to calm down his protective instinct and stops looking like he is ready to kill me, but he glances at my ears every once in a while.
Teras appears in the door frame. "I found the real captain. He was unconscious in a storage closet. The assassin most likely planned to frame the captain and then escape off of the ship. The captain is now seeing the medic on the ship to see if he has any medical problems."
"Thank you Teras. Now, can we continue this another time, I really am tired. Lock this man up in the brig and put an armed guard on him." The princess says to the assembled group.
I lay my new [Steel Sword] down next to the door and stretch a little bit. I then use [Shift] again and lay down in my wolf form next to the doorway. My cloak automatically goes into my inventory's only free slot.
"No way. You aren't sle-"
Princess Ilway cuts off Resald's complaining, "I don't mind if she sleeps in here if she is a wolf. And if she wanted to hurt me, she would have had ample time to do so on the boat and the few minutes that we were alone together." Princess Ilway quells Resald's worries in a second.
Seeing the princess start to lay down, everyone makes their way out the door glancing at me occasionally as they go. Resald stays in the room the longest before leaving. A few seconds later, with everyone but the princess outside, I close my eyes, set to go to sleep. When I wake up, I will take care of all the notifications that have piled up.
I am just about to fall asleep when I hear the princess speak quietly, "Will you come lay down on the bed? I don't want to sleep alone anymore." I can hear her sadness that she hid from everyone else dripping into her voice. I understand, she put up a strong front for her loyal followers so they wouldn't worry about her. As royalty, she has to be strong.
Making a quick decision, still in wolf form, I walk over and hop onto the bed, laying down next to her. I coil myself around her slightly and close my eyes. The princess wraps an arm around me and gently strokes me fur as she too tries to sleep. I fall asleep gently with the pleasant feeling of having my fur stroked.
This chapter was extremely annoying for me to type. Every single time, Resald would auto correct to Result.