Gareth and th Lost Island (8 page)

Gareth held the reins of the horse leading their
rented wagon lightly in his hands as they took the road leading
southwest from University City. Tralnis and Henry had chosen to
take advantage of the two hour ride, and sleep in the back of the
wagon. The rocking motion of carriages and wagons always put
Tralnis to sleep, and Henry looked like he hadn’t slept a wink the
previous night. Gareth glanced down at his remarkably clean jacket
and wondered if Henry had stayed up to clean it, or set out on a
solo adventure to steal yet another jacket to replace the stolen
one he had given him yesterday. Either way, Gareth was happy to let
his family sleep.

The road twisted through the country side on its way
to the southernmost tip of the University peninsula. At the
southern edge of the peninsula was a harbor that was home to both a
naval port, as well an airship port. It was the later that was
their destination, and where they hoped to hire transportation.

Prior to them leaving University City, Gareth and
Tralnis had made a trip to the bank to withdraw the money the Dean
had set aside for their expedition. Like he had told them, the
amount was exactly what he and Tralnis would make in one year.
Knowing the amount was inadequate to properly fund an expedition,
they both emptied out their savings and were able to double their
funds. They were hoping to use the initial amount to charter the
airship, and the rest to pay for expenses for however long the
money lasted.

Gareth woke the others when they reached the giant
stone wall surrounding the airship port. As he approached the gate,
a port worker wearing a bright yellow jacket waved the wagon
towards a huge building made of wood on the outside of the wall.
Following the guidance of two other yellow clad port workers,
Gareth parked the wagon in a row filled with similar vehicles.

Tralnis hopped off of the back of the wagon, as
Gareth climbed down from the driver’s seat. Henry was about to
follow Tralnis, when the Dwarf held up his hand for him stop. “No,
Henry. I need you to stay here and keep an eye on our luggage and
equipment. There is no doubt in my mind that if we leave the wagon
unattended, the whole thing would mysteriously vanish before we
could walk 20 paces,” he stated.

Henry nodded his understanding, and pulled out his
favorite cast iron skillet from his pack. He held the skillet down
by his legs, and tried to look as fierce as he could. Considering
Chims have very sharp teeth, and looked more than slightly mentally
unhinged when snarling, the effect worked rather well.

“That’s a good lad,” Tralnis praised.

“Hopefully we won’t be too long. If we haven’t
managed to hire a ship by noon, I’ll come back and relieve you so
you and Tralnis can go get some lunch,” Gareth promised. He knew
that his friends would bring him back some lunch, and both had
better luck finding decent takeout food than he ever did.

“You’ve been on expeditions before. How do we go
about hiring an airship?” Tralnis asked Gareth.

Gareth shrugged his shoulders. “I have no idea.
Professor Rand always took care of the details. I think she used
the opportunity as just another excuse to get out of the
classroom,” he admitted. They walked over to one of the workers who
had led them to their parking stall, and asked where they could
hire an airship. The man hurriedly pointed to the main doors of the
administrative building before walking off to direct another
wagon.

The first impression Gareth had when they stepped
into the main hall of the administrative building was of ants in an
anthill. The ant like effect of the room was intensified by the
huge floor to ceiling windows that dwarfed the workers they
provided light for. The cavernous room was full of people of
several different races scurrying around the numerous booths that
were scattered around the floor. Each booth had a different colored
banner that told those who were in the shipping business which
merchant group they represented.

Tralnis and Gareth stood in the doorway for a few
minutes as they tried to make sense of the organized chaos they
were seeing. The overlapping shouts of over a hundred different
sentients made conversation at a normal volume impossible. Tralnis
tugged on Gareth’s sleeve, and pointed towards a booth on the
opposite wall that bore a blue and white banner with the words
“Shipping Guild” printed on it. Gareth nodded, and they started
winding their way through the throng of people.

Halfway to their objective, the moving tide of bodies
forced them to pause while different groups crossed their path.
When a gap in the throng opened, Tralnis started to walk forward
but stopped when he noticed Gareth wasn’t following him. Tralnis
turned around, and saw Gareth was looking off to the side with a
familiar goofy grin on his face. The Dwarf walked back to his son
and looked in the same direction. “Whose arse are we ogling?” he
asked in a tone meant to embarrass Gareth. From what Tralnis could
see, there was several men and women who were attractive enough to
warrant a second glance.

Tralnis’ teasing tone snapped Gareth out of his
self-induced trance. He wasn’t going to give the Dwarf the pleasure
of knowing that he actually
was
staring after a woman. A
young human woman with bright red hair had caught Gareth’s eye. She
was dressed in brown leather pants, and black ankle high boots. The
pants had pockets on both the hips and shins, indicating they were
some sort of work pants. The young woman was also wearing a bolero
jacket of the same leather as her pants that stopped halfway
between her shoulders and her waist. Under her jacket, she wore a
tan cotton shirt that was tight across her large bosom. While
unkind folks might call her chubby, or possibly even fat, Gareth
would argue that she had wonderful curves in all of the right
places. Besides being beautiful, there was just something about the
woman that had snagged his attention and wouldn’t let go.

When the ever shifting mass of people blocked his
view of the woman, Gareth sighed and nodded towards the guild
booth. “Come on, let’s go find out how to hire ourselves an
airship,” he suggested. They soon learned that a straight line
wasn’t always the fastest way to get somewhere in the huge room. A
short trip at a right angle from their trajectory brought them to a
fairly clear path that was parallel to the direction they wanted to
go. A few more turns, bends, and some backtracking led them to the
booth of the Shipping Guild.

The guild representative behind the counter of the
booth was a surly looking Dwarf standing on a raised platform so
they could see over the counter. Blue and white ribbons were woven
into a brown beard that was even more impressive than the one
Tralnis wore. The gray waistcoat over a crisply starched, white
shirt gave the representative a very businesslike look.

“Slithering salamander shit!” Tralnis swore under his
breath as he grabbed Gareth’s arm suddenly. He pulled Gareth away
from the booth so they would be out of earshot of the Dwarf at the
counter. “I think you better be the one to do the talking here,”
Tralnis suggested in a tone just barely above a whisper.

“What’s wrong? Do you now that Dwarf?” Gareth
inquired.

Tralnis closed his eyes, and stroked his beard before
he answered. “She’s an ex-girlfriend, and things didn’t end well
between us at all,” he admitted.

Gareth stood there for almost a whole minute with his
jaw hanging open, as he tried to process what he had heard. They
had always been too busy to go visit Tralnis’ family in the
caverns. “I thought you were kidding when you said female Dwarves
had beards as well,” he managed to say when his brain rebooted.

“Now you know why all Dwarves are bisexual. When both
sexes look the same, the soonest you find out if your date is a man
or woman is when the clothes come off,” Tralnis explained.

“That makes sense,” Gareth stated. “So that I don’t
go into a situation blind, why don’t you tell me why you two broke
up?” he suggested.

Tralnis looked intently at his shiny black boots, too
ashamed to meet Gareth’s eyes. “She caught me in bed with her
brother,” he admitted.

Gareth put his face in his hand, and shook it slowly
from side to side in frustration. “You know, I really wish that I
could say that surprises me, but I can’t,” he complained. He put
his hand back down to his side, and took in a deep breath to center
himself. “You’re right, I should do the talking,” he muttered, and
walked back to the Shipping Guild booth.

Once they stood in front of the counter, the female
Dwarf didn’t give Gareth a chance to speak before she snarled,
“Tralnis… I thought I had seen the last of your two-timing,
despicable carcass.”

“Bregga, you’re looking well,” Tralnis replied,
ignoring what she said.

Bregga rolled her eyes, and turned her back to
Tralnis to show she had no desire to talk with him. “What do you
want?” she asked Gareth bluntly.

“We… I mean,
I
was hoping you could tell us
how we go about chartering an airship,” he said, hoping his
correction at the beginning would make her more interested in
helping him.

With an irritated snort, Bregga pulled out a form
printed on a half sheet of paper along with a worn out pencil.
“Gods below and above, save me from stupid ground pounders!” she
muttered under her breath. “Write down your name, where you are
wanting to go, how many are in your party, and what type of cargo
you have, if any. At the bottom of the form, write down the most
you are willing to pay. If it looks like a good deal, more than one
ship might be interested and it’s possible you can get the price to
come down in a bidding war. When you’re done filling out the form,
give it to me and I’ll post it on the job board,” she instructed
them.

Gareth took the form, and filled it out quickly. He
handed the form back to Bregga. She quickly read over the form, and
let out a very unladylike laugh that shook her impressive beard.
“So you’re Gareth Mintel. Good luck finding a captain willing to
piss off Deek Nutleiss, one of the biggest merchants in the IRD,”
she scoffed as she crumpled up the form, and tossed it into a waste
bin behind the counter. “Magnate Nutleiss made it clear that any
captain doing business with you would never do business with him,
or any of his partners, ever again,” she explained. “Get out of my
sight, and take that pile of dragon shit called Granitestaff with
you,” she ordered. To drive her message home, Bregga reached up and
then pulled down the wooden blinds to close up the booth for her
lunch break.

“That could have gone better,” Gareth observed
dryly.

Tralnis shrugged his shoulders in a noncommittal
fashion. “Actually, I thought it went rather well. Last time Bregga
and I met, I ended up needing several stiches after she shot me in
the arse with a crossbow. Believe me when I tell you trying to
stich up your own arse using a mirror is a stone bitch,” he
commented. Suddenly feeling very exposed, Tralnis stepped to put
Gareth between him and the Shipping Guild booth.

“She tried to kill you?!” Gareth gasped.

Tralnis shook his head. “No, not at all. Bregga could
put out the eye of cave viper from 50 paces. She just wanted to
make sure I would have a permanent reminder of our relationship,”
he explained.

Their discussion about Tralnis’ past love life was
cut short when a bubbly feminine voice inquired, “Sorry to
eavesdrop, but are you wanting to hire an airship?”

Gareth turned around, and found himself face to face
with the young woman he had been watching earlier. Seeing her from
the front, he was even more taken in by her beauty. She wore her
red hair short in the back with long bangs in the front. Her bangs
were brushed off to the left side of her face where they almost hid
one of her beautiful green eyes. A light dusting of freckles ran
across her nose and cheeks. Her pale skin made the oil smudge on
the tip of her nose stand out even more than usual. A set of dark
tinted goggles hung from her neck by their strap. Gareth had seen
women who would be considered much more beautiful in a classical
sense, but he had never seen someone whose cute features warmed his
heart instantly. With a genuine smile on his lips, Gareth simply
said, “Hello.”

Like Gareth, the young woman was suffering from
sudden sensory overload. She had noticed how handsome the young man
was from a distance, but was unprepared to be blown away once she
was face to face with him. His boyish good looks were of the type
that made a young woman want to grab a hold of his arm and drag him
back to meet her family. The warm hopeful smile he gave her quelled
her worries about the old adage that all of the cute ones were
either taken, gay, or undead (or any combination of the above.) The
young woman looked into Gareth’s violet eyes, and matched his smile
with one of her own. “Hello,” she echoed.

“Hello,” Gareth repeated.

“You’ve already said that, Gareth,” Tralnis
needlessly pointed out. He held out his hand to the young woman in
a friendly gesture while saying, “I’m Doctor Tralnis Granitestaff
and this eloquent lad is my son, Professor Gareth Mintel, and yes,
we are looking to hire a ship.”

The young woman shook the Dwarf’s offered hand. “I’m
Isadora Morgana, the engineer and part owner of the Glorious Dawn.
My friends call me Izzy,” she said, introducing herself. She let go
of Tralnis’ hand, and offered hers to Gareth whose cheeks were
blushing slightly. The fact that he was still smiling while
obviously embarrassed made him even more endearing to her.

Finally reengaging his brain, Gareth shook her
offered hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Izzy. I would be
honored if you would call me Gareth,” he said, never meaning that
phrase more than at that very moment. “Once you get to know the
good doctor here, I’m sure he would appreciate you calling him
Tralnis rather than the other less pleasant names I’m sure you’ll
come up with,” he teased, getting back at Tralnis for making fun of
his brain lock. Gareth enjoyed the sound of Izzy’s bubbly laughter
as she let go of his hand. “We need to hire an airship for an
undetermined about of time for an archeology expedition. Aside from
us, we have a third member of our party and a small wagon load of
supplies and equipment,” he told her.