Sheng's reply was a hearty, genuine laugh as he collapsed into his chair to go over the route and the lists that Bertie had put together. Unlike the rest of the crew, he had another hour or so of candle-lit work to accomplish, and the gnome's parting humor was most appreciated. She did seem so concerned about the ship failing so utterly, and he avoided mentioning that the majority of ship-failures had to do with minor irreparable damage that left them stranded until all were dead. In fact, it was quire rare for a ship to be entirely destroyed, and they only rapidly capsized in the most dire of circumstances. None of that mattered though, and he bid Bertie an amiable good-night and asked her to make sure the door latched on her way out.
So exhausted was the crew that the ship was quite silent. Normally, there was at least a few boisterous fellows filling the surrounding sea with quiet songs or gentle music, or sending their laughter to dance with the dolphins and the swells. But not so tonight. There was a kind, peaceful silence about the Bourbon Buzzard as all retired save the few needed to keep the ship from crashing or from leaving their missing crew far behind. In fact, of all on board the ship, only that handful were awake when a pair of figures arrived.
~~~
He didn't dare go further than thirty feet below the surface, as this far out the depths were FAR below and who knew what kind of beasts lurked down in those deeps. One small pod of dolphins got uppity and tried to assault him, but he batted them away easily enough. He was just out of range of the storm's effects on the waters at this depth, so he was able to move quickly through the water, following their own path using a combination of intuition, luck, and his own personal brand of pseudo-magical assistance.
Everything was secured in his pack, which was strapped tightly to the odd harness he'd fitted himself with. Minor enchantments made it shift slightly to fit better and it would NEVER come off unless he spoke a specific command in Common, which was impossible underwater and in his particular… situation. Still, he kept moving, hoping he'd find some sign. He filtered out all the other life: the fishes, the sea-birds stranded on the waves, the blue whale that got one good, echolocated look at him and fled for deeper water, and even a pair of humanoid figures that fled deeper as well...but he sensed no fear in their movements, so fear was perhaps not the right word.
But then, finally, he got a scent. His eyes dilated heavily and his slitted nostrils flared, and his fins propelled him on faster and faster, until finally he caught sight of the form with his powerful senses. The boy was bleeding and only the storm had kept other sea creatures from approaching and pulling him down deeper. He'd managed to hold onto something floating that had gone over with him, and he recognized it as he drew closer of a closed-tight-and-mostly-empty barrel. That wouldn't last much longer, Carrn was sure, so this certainly was some divine-blessed luck here. He shot surface-ward and breached next to the boy, giving him such a fright that Carrn heard a high-pitched scream barely drowned out by the thunder. But then Carrn was Carrn once again, and the boy's hysterics turned into complete confusion, and Carrn grabbed hold of the barrel and pulled the boy close so he could whisper in his ear.
It took five minutes. Carrn was surprised at how quickly and easily it had been, but clearly this next generation was less aggressively bigoted and fearful, so the boy slipped the ring on his middle finger, lashed himself to Carrn's harness, and they were off. The ring let the boy breathe and see underwater somewhat, so he acted as the navigator, using the compass, which Sheng had modified to always point in the direction of the ship. It had taken almost four hours to catch up to the boy, and now they were headed back and would make good time...hopefully.
Unfortunately, the boat had inevitably drifted off farther than intended, so they did not arrive until exceptionally late in the evening, and when Carrn surfaced and gave the boy his first breath of crisp, ocean air for the first time in almost half a day, he almost cried out...but Carrn's words urged him to silence. Instead, he simply waited, watching in awe as Carrn shifted once again in the inky darkness, and the young sailor watched fins turn to bulky arms and muscled legs. Soon, he was astride an equally strange creature that began to clamber up the side of the ship. Carrn huffed and hissed and wheezed while the youth clung to his harness and the great, black fin jutting up from the base of Carrn's neck, and soon they made their way over the edge of the railing and landed in a sopping wet sprawl on the deck of their beloved ship. Carrn wasted no time shifting into his dwarven form and unhooking the harness and pulling away from the boy, who was trying to untie himself from the many straps and buckles that had kept him from sliding away or grating the insides of his thighs to bloody meat.
What Carrn did not know was that he'd came up the side of the ship right next to Bertie's chambers. He'd arrived before she stuck her nose to the port-hole, but she'd catch a momentary glimpse of a hulking shape with some sort of a rider go sliding past her vantage point. It looked akin to the silhouette of a shark, but with great arms and legs instead of small fins, but the towering dorsal fin looked sharp enough to slice through the hull and the tail thick and powerful enough to knock over a building. The rider seemed to be hunched over and clutching a long sword (though that was , in reality, just a smaller fin sticking up from the base of the creature's tail and hips), but by the time she was able to respond Carrn was already on board and laying on the deck in his normal form.
