Throw Them All Away!

Dan got surprised when he saw little Ru, right then she wasn't covering her face with ash or anything like that, so he was able to see her beauty.

He was somehow able to understand why Robert and the other crewmen tried their best to hide her, in that age, being pretty would only bring trouble open one's self and family.

"Hey Robert I didn't ask you, is little Ru a part of the crew, or is she just hiding here?"

Robert wasn't the one to talk, instead it was little Ru that said:

"I'm not just a hiding here, I'm also a part of the crew. I'm a navigator."

"Great, keep it up." Dan only said that before turning to Robert and saying:

"Let us enter and see if there's anything that can be thrown to make the ship lighter."

Robert nodded and lead the way, little Ru hesitated for a while before turning around and following them inside the ship, she wanted to know what Dan wanted to do in the ship.

While he was talking, Dan seemed as if he remembered something as he turned his head to Robert and asked:

"Oh yeah, Robert are the family member of the crewmen here yet?"

It was already the fourth day since dragons started fighting against each other, which meant that there's a big chance that the Great Migration was just a couple of days away, he didn't want to waste time later so he wanted the crewmen's families to be there as soon as possible.

"Yes, yesterday the last of them came here." Robert answered.

"Ok, remember to get then to live in this ship, the crew also, they all need to live in this ship " Dan nodded and said, the last time he and the others were there, after taking a look at the three ships they found that the ship which he was in right then, was the best among the three ships, it was well maintained and in the best shape.

"Ok I will do it." Robert said, he had a feeling somehow that that year's Great Migration was going to be way too different from the other years.

They first entered the ship's hold; Dan wanted to see what they were keeping there.

He saw that there were big containers for water, they weren't a lot at all, probably only around one thousand L of water, it might sound a lot but in a huge ship like the one they were in it was a small amount, he turned his head to Robert and asked him after seeing that:

"Why is there so little water in here?"

"As I said before the water is only enough for forty people to use for half a month, and we don't need more as that is the number of crewmen in each ship, this amount of water is enough for us." Robert answered.

In that day the more he talked with Dan the more he got a bad feeling, as if deep in his mind he already got an idea about why he was doing all of this, except that it wasn't clear making him more panicked the more he thought about it.

"Listen, get some of the guards from the underground base and ask them to move the other containers from the two ships to this one, and also when the Great Migration start, make them bring ten other containers like this one here and fill them with water." Dan said, after he thought for a while, before sighing, he wanted to find a way to make the ship go faster instead he gave orders that added more weight to the ship.

Before, he was against bringing containers from the underground base as that would have wasted time, but now they were going to fight the injured dragon anyway, so while they were doing that it would be good for the other people to move the containers and fill them with water.

"Sir Dan moving the water from all the other ships that's..." Robert didn't know what to say usually the water would be enough for the crewmen to drink in the journey, so why did Dan ask him to bring even more water from the base and got the water that was meant of the other ships?

"You just need to get it done that's all what you need to understand." Dan interrupted him.

After that he moved to one of the containers and opened it, he found that he was able to open it easily making him frown, then he took a look at the water inside.

He thought for a while before saying to Robert:

"Find a way to close the containers tightly and... Is there any silver in the base?"

"I don't know, but I will ask about around after returning." Robert answered.

Silver was good for keeping water fresh, Dan remembered reading about how sailors used to keep silver coins in water barrels to stop it from spoiling, so he wanted to use that method to try and preserve the water for as long as he can.

"And what about wine or anything alcoholic? is there any in the base?" he asked again after remembering that they also mixed some wine with water.

"there is, but it is on little quantities." Robert said.

"Ok, after we return you should collect all the silver and wine, for the silver put a little in each of the containers and for wine do the same with it too." Dan ordered, before adding while pointing at an area around thirty meters:

"Also make this place here, this whole area let it be empty I don't want anything to be in it."

He ordered that as they would need a place to keep the dragon if they were able to hunt it, thinking about how much an adult dragon must weight Dan started having headache.

Sail boats had big space for cargo as even though they may appear small from the outside a big part of them is under water.

Robert could only nod his head mechanically, he really didn't know what was going through Dan's mind, but what would he do? he had to got what Dan asked him to do done even if he didn't know the reason why.

Robert wasn't the only person who didn't understand what Dan wanted to do, even little Ru was standing there absentmindedly listening to what Dan was saying and his attention jumping from one thing to another, she wandered if he was just messing around.

As she was standing there lost in her own thoughts

she was surprised when she heard Dan say her own name, as she jumped:

"Oh little Ru, you said you were the navigator of the one eyed dragon gang, are there other navigators among the crewmen of the gang?"

It took her a while to understand him and say:

"Th... The others knowledge in this field isn't as good as mine, I'm the best in the gang when it comes to navigating and even compared to the other navigators from the other gangs I'm better than most of them." she was hesitating at the beginning but she said the last of her words proudly.

"That's good, then can I ask you if in the last two days were you able to see any change in the stars location or any similar ubnormalities?" Dan asked.

"Changes? ...No, nothg like that happened, but it somehow felt as if the stars got brighter, I don't know if that's true or not it's just a feeling." little Ru answered hesitatingly.

She wasn't sure about what she said as it was just a hunch she got, she watched the stars ever since she was young as they were the closest thing to friends when she was small, so the last time she looked at the stars she felt as if there was something different about them, yet he wasn't sure making her keep it to herself.

"Oh they seem brighter." Dan murmured to himself, before turning to Robert and saying seriously while looking at him straight to the eyes.

"Listen Robert I want you to throw anything that seem unnecessary, throw it from the ship leave it here in the cave, any furniture anything that might weight us down, even the nets don't keep them just throw them, you understand?"

After thinking about it for a while, he found that the heaviest thing on the ships was the fishing nets, they were so heavy and also big they took a lot of space, so he decided to leave them.

He knew that he would need them to fish for food in the ocean, but he also knew that the gangs were using such big nets because they were going to fish for more than a few hundred probably even a thousand mouth, while he only needed to feed forty or fifty peoples, and also if they got the dragon maybe its meat would be their main food source in the journey.

Robert's face paled when he heard Dan's words, and he hurriedly shouted:

"Sir Dan Wh... What did you just say, I can throw anything else bu... But why the nets, they are the reason why we are going to the ocean in the first place if we throw them, what are we going to go out to the ocean for, why wouldn't we just stay at our homes? that would be way better."

"I already said it, you only need to get it done, no questions the time will came and you will understand why I did all of this." Dan said.

"Is it in the Great Migration, what is going to happen then? can't you tell me? we aren't going to fish, so why are we going to the ocean?" Robert asked, he just wanted to know what was going through the heads of his new leaders.

"Yes, this year we aren't going to the ocean to fish but for another reason, don't worry you will know when the time is right." Dan said.

Robert didn't say anything more about that he understood that Dan wasn't going to tell him anything at least not before the Great Migration, so he just nodded his head and said:

"Ok, I will do as you said, but I want to ask you, whatever you want to do is it dangerous? are you just going to throw the lives of the crew away?" that was all what he could say. He asked about what his family would go through, he was afraid that Dan would easily send them to their death.

"I can't say it is going to be safe... But you should know that I won't just be sending them on their own, me Randy, Robin, Anie Leonard, Katherine, all of us are going to be in this ship with you when the Great Migration starts, all of us will have the same fate as you. If we suffer, we will suffer together, and if we succeed we will celebrate together." Dan said.

Hearing his words, Robert and little Ru looked at each other, it was the first time they heard about a gang leader going on the ship,because that was quite dangerous, after all there was once a time when they had four ships not just three, but one of them wasn't able to return to the shore fast enough, getting destroyed by dragons in the end.

Since then, no gang leader would go to the ocean, they would at most send a blood power user to be on it, and even that was rare, so hearing Dan say that all of them were going to be on the ships made them surprise and wander just what was going to happen during the Great Migration.