Chapter 4

The next morning Ash woke up with a lot on his mind. He first got the silver out for the advance payment from his bank and then went to Bran's bar. He was wondering about the clients Bran had mentioned, if things didn't work out he would be back to square one. The market prices for ship supplies had already started going up.

The bar was crowded when he entered through the doors. No surprise there, Ash thought as there was a large group of half-breeds in one corner. Ryla was up at the bar talking to Bran, Ash had plenty of time to admire her figure while he walked there. The leather pants she was wearing were making it really hard for him to look anywhere else. She had that no-nonsense stance on like yesterday, with one hand on her waist and leaning on the other leg, her curves were accentuated.

"You are late," she said as soon as he reached beside her.

"Had some things to pick up" he said and paced the bag of silvers in front of her "Two hundred silver coins, twenty extra from myself" he said trying to smile. This had left him with only four hundred silver in his account, and he would need at least one gold to repair his ship and buy supplies. So he was shot another six hundred. He looked at Bran wondering whether he had any good news.

"They'll be arriving shortly, they replied to my message this morning" he answered, Ryla looked from one to other while Ash asked "And who exactly are they?"

Just then the front door of the bar was opened and two hooded figures entered. One had a white robe on and looked to be a woman, even under the thick robe her breasts were creating large mounds in the front. The other figure covered in a purple robe was over seven feet tall, with broad shoulders and a long sword on his waist. His hood was not able to cover his face completely and they could see the red-colored skin on his muscular neck. Ash instantly had images of what these people might be. He turned to Bran with a warning.

"Are you kidding me?" he hissed at him "What? Do you want me to turn my ship into a circus or something?" he glared at Bran.

"It's just an elf and a dragon-kin" Bran replied waving his hand and trying to get their attention.

"A dragon-kin, when have you ever heard of a dragon-kin on a ship? How does it make any sense? He'll burn the whole ship down" Ash had images of them fleeing a burning ship.

"Let's talk with them first, you can't jump to conclusions," Bran said.

"I am going to talk to my people, we may have to raise our prices," Ryla said and vanished before the two figures approached their area.

Bran ushered them to a corner booth.

"This is Ash Beckham, the guy I told you about in the message, he has the most suitable ship for traveling to the edges," Bran said.

Their heads turned to Ash and they removed their hoods. The elf woman had blonde hair like most elves, white porcelain skin, and a shimmering aura around herself. She had a cool look in her eyes, most elves move around with a superiority complex and look at other species especially humans with distaste. She hadn't shown any signs like that yet. Only because her companion was a dragon-kin that Ash found himself looking at him next otherwise he would have kept staring the elf, her ears, and her rising cleavage.

His skin had a red tint, an effect of having hard scale-like skin and actual fire coursing through his veins. He had a warrior's look, reminding him of Ryla except much more intimidating. In all Ash found the scene in front of him striking. Both of them had a powerful aura and Ash was out of words.

"This is Raeya Lilac and Drax Gout" Bran started "I'll let you guys talk, should I bring something to drink" They all ordered their drinks, Ash certainly needed something in his system before breaking this deal.

"Well, Mr. Beckham" Raeya started, Ash sat up a little straight "We did some research before coming here and your ship does seem suitable for our needs, Bran told us about your plans to go to the island where the Flower of Light grows, our destination is a mountain island that's in the same region, actually we have some reliable resources which tells us that they are a cluster of the island all close together and you can find many different kinds of treasures on the different islands" she finished.

"Do you have a map?" he asked tentatively.

"of course not. There is no map of the region beyond the edges," Drax spoke up this time.

"We are ready to offer you a large sum of gold for your troubles, of course, and I think we can mutually benefit from each other. We can help you on your journey and you can help in ours" Raeya said.

"Well, I am going there anyways, and if you say we are going in the same direction, then there's no problem, but if your place is not within a day's travel from there, we'll turn back, agreed?" Ash asked.

"A day would be plenty; as I said, our information is reliable," Raeya said, smiling.

Ash knew already that he was taking many risks doing things so fast, but he had no other option, he would have to improvise on the way, and he needed money.

"All right, let's talk about the money then," said Ash.

"We can give thirty gold coins, ten in advance," Drax said.

"Thirty for the whole thing seems less, and the Duke is giving a thousand."

"The Duke is desperate, he needs the flower to save his daughter's life, and we won't just be going with you, I am sure having me and an elf on your side will increase your chances of getting that gold, too" Drax pointed out. Ash didn't know about the sick daughter, but now it made sense. The flower of light was said to be able to cure any sickness, and it sure seemed like these guys had pretty good informants.

"Fine, thirty it is; when are we leaving?" He said, making up his mind.

"as soon as possible," they replied, and after shaking their hands and giving Ash his gold, they left. Ash hid the coins carefully in his pant and left for the dock.

The dock was abuzz. A large mammoth of a ship was being loaded with drums and drums of oil. There were dozens of canons sticking out from each side of the ship. High above on the front deck, he recognized a fat face looking over the drums. Ash moved out of sight quickly.

His ship was even more deserted today, he had no problem with it because he needed his mission to be quiet. When he went up the ladder and dropped down on the deck, he saw the half-breeds unpacking their stuff in the hammocks below.

"So you didn't run away," he said coming up to Ryla, who was looking over the work.

"We had already taken the money, we don't go back on our word," She said indignantly "I saw that other ship coming here, there are no cannons on our ship," she said.

"Even if there were, we won't stand a chance in a fair fight against that eyesore," Ash said "We will have to play a little dirty," he said smiling.

"Ah, my favorite kind of play" Ryla mimicked his smile.