Upon Vestia: Chapter Nineteen

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(Day 11 I think)

The hatchlings' enthusiasm was infectious, and Asher happily went to the shelf to pick out a few books, which he brought over for the hatchlings to inspect and vote on. He figured they should get some say in what they heard.

Ellie sat back to watch. Okay, this was sorta cute too. Heck, baby dragons made everything cute.

Luka smiled. "alright." She slipped the pendant on over her head and tucked the silver blade under her shirt and got her boots back on. "if someone starts yeling it's just Acus, ignore him, he just hates visitors"

Danika and Verr picked one book while Vela picked another out of the choices Asher gave them.

~
Moone looked to Luka in surprise "Is it alright to go? I don't want to upset anyone."

Asher settled himself so the dragons could climb on him and get a good view of the books, and started reading one of the books to them. He loved this sort of thing. Reading to people was pleasant, and being a parent/big brother was something that he was delighted to do now that the job had been tossed his way. He was wired to do it. Heh.

Luka nodded. "oh yeah, he's always grumpy. Don't worry about him, that's just his default personality. " She tried to look reassuring. "Come on, i'll show you around. She's an old girl, not nearly as big and fancy as Vestia but she has her own charm. I'm sure she'll like the company." She talked about the Devil as if it was actually alive.

The three settled in to listen and watch the pictures as Asher read.

~~~
Moone followed Luka and smiled "You really like your ship, don't you?"

Asher read happily to the little dragons, doing different voices for the characters. He still wasn't doing the dramatic reading he did for the adventure stories he and Kay read, but he didn't believe in reading monotonously unless he was trying to make someone go to sleep.

He'd read both books, and could probably be talked into one or two more if the dragons wanted that. Eventually Asher really would want to check on Kay though, he so wanted to find the guy and reassure him that Danika was all right and that everyone had been warned about the risk tonight. Also he wanted to make sure Vestia had dropped some food off at some point, because you never knew with Vestia.

The three talked him into three stories before moving off to play together before it would be time to eat again.

Starr smiled at Asher, glad he had come to help with Danika

Asher smiled and went over to Starr. "Is there anything else I should help you with now? I'd like to go do a few things before I take over looking after these guys," he glanced fondly at the hatchlings, "but if you want help with anything first, feeding, scale oiling, I don't know, I'm happy to stay."

Luka smiled softly. "I like all ships." She told Moone. "if you get to know them, they all have different personalities. " She led the way to the Devil.

James decided he didn't want to be by himself any more, so he headed out of the holodeck and went looking for someone to annoy. Stupid giant cruise ships. So many floors, so few people!

Also his shoulder was reading a bit off again. Maybe fencing after getting his shoulder wrecked by a minotaur wasn't such a good idea. Metal fatigue and all that.

Bah.

He headed down a hall, listening for anyone talking or walking nearby. He could have asked Vestia to point him to someone, but where was the fun in that?

Starr shook her ehad and smiled at Asher "No, you go ahead and do what you need to do. I'll make sure they have a bath before we go to change for tonight."

~~
Moone chuckled and nodded "That makes sense I guess. I haven't been on many, just Vestia and Mourn's ship, but we had to stay hidden away on there." Nope, she wasn't even going to talk about the slave ship if she could help it.

Asher looked grateful. "Thank you, Starr. I'll try to be back before too long." He looked to the hatchlings, "You three be nice to Starr, okay?" He was teasing.

"I'll keep them from doing anything bad," Ellie said sagely. As if she wasn't just as bad as they were, if not worse. She smiled proudly.

Luka nodded. "You had to hide? were you stowaways or something?" She was kinda curious, the hawk girls didn't talk about stuff much and Mourn never talked about anything he didn't deem interesting.

The three chirped agreement and said 'we will' before heading back over to Starr and Ellie.

Starr waved then picked up Kerr, holding him before looking to Ellie herself "Have you had a chance to give them a bath yet?" She asked curiously

~~
"Mourn had us hide, because the others were not like him." Moone said, frowning a little then looking to Luka "They were pirates, not really 'saviors' even though they did save us...before that ship got hit by the explosion of that planet and the three of us had to be saved by Vestia and her crew."

Luka frowned, pirates right, yeah, she remembered Mourn mentioning something about that. "He really cares about you guys doesn't he? well, as much as he cares about anything." She smiled softly, it was kinda sweet. "There's a heart under all that fluff after all."

Moone nodded and smiled "Yeah, he does, though there's a lot of fluff there too. He lets us groom his fur sometimes and I think he really likes that."

Luka tried not to laugh and sort of snorted instead, covering her mouth with her hand. "That... is so cute!" He really was an overgrown cat wasn't he?

Asher smiled fondly at his odd family, then headed off.

"Vestia, how's Ethan doing?" He asked. He was kind of worried about the guy.

"Ethan's okay now, I think. He's in the library​, reading something," Vestia said, "Which seems like an improvement over how panicked he was before."

Asher frowned and nodded. "Okay. I should keep leaving him alone?"

"Probably."

Asher nodded again, and headed in the direction of Kay's room. "You did give Kay food, right?"

"Yes, I dropped some off for him. Sometimes I don't think you trust me," the ship said.

Asher smiled wryly. "I'm sorry, Vestia. You've always treated me so well too."

Vestia snorted and went quiet.

Asher went to knock on Kay's door. "Kay? It's me again."

~~
"I haven't gotten to bathe them yet!" Ellie said. "Can I help? Can i? Please please please!"

Kay had eaten and gone back to soduku puzzles and similar logic games to ease his frayed nerves and distract his mind.
He looked up and padded over to the door to open it.
He smiled weakly to Asher.

[How's Danika?] He asked. Yeah he felt guilty she had to witness that.

Asher smiled softly. "Danika's fine. She doesn't seem to have been bothered much by what happened earlier, mostly she's just disappointed that she has to wait to see you."

Moone chuckled and nodded, it was cute. She looked to the Silver Devil as they approached the ship

~~~
Starr chuckled and nodded "Just be prepared to get wet, they love to splash" She said and stood with Kerr.

Luka gestured up to the ship. "The Silver Devil." She proclaimed dramatically. "You'll understand now why most of the crew don't much want to leave Vestia." She smiled and patted the hull of the Devil affectionately. "Don't worry old girl, you're still important to us." She indicated Moone follow her aboard.

Kay looked relieved. He nodded. [She's still too young to really understand, thank goodness.]

Moone nodded, this ship was tiny in comparison to Vestia, but she looked good enough. She followed Luka on board and looked around curiously.

Ellie giggled. "I don't mind water. That's totally worth it!"

~~
"Yes, that's certainly a benefit of her being so young," Asher agreed. "All the details of the situation don't make sense, and picture books make everything better."

Luka gave her the grand tour, which wouldn't take long, the ship was tiny and cramped and a great deal of access seemed to involve ladders.
she pointed out rooms. "That's the captain's room." She couldn't hear Acus moving around, maybe he was elsewhere? who knew. She wasn't overly eager to find out, he'd probably just yell at her.
"James' room..." didn't sound like he was about either. "My room." She gestured. "Vicky and Esk... " She trailed off. "Well... I guess just Esk now, that's gonna be weird." She sounded sombre. She was still worried about him, and she was sad for Vicky.

---

Kay nodded and went back to sit on the bed. [What's the plan for this evening?] He was going to be pragmatic damnit.