Chapter 38

"We'll leave once the sun sets and it starts getting dark, I need to arrange enough supplies before leaving, knowing our luck, anything can happen, and it's better we are prepared for everything, I'll be back in a couple of hours, make sure you don't sink my ship till then," said Marty.

"Hurry up, there are assassins on our tail, and you know Nefar, he'll find a way to get into the city," said Derek.

"Yeah, don't worry I know the dock guards they'll make sure no one unknown can enter without proper identification," said Marty and left.

"Why did we have to go with him, I mean we could have picked a bigger and better ship," Ron finally voiced his opinion.

"Marty is resourceful, he always has something up his sleeves, and we can trust him," said Isanna, and Ron didn't like her standing up for him. 

"I'll go keep watch at the dock, with the Black Hand involved you can never be too careful, till then you guys settle down and maybe rest a bit, you have been traveling for a while, and it would be better if you are not tired in case we have to protect ourselves," said Derek and left the boat too. 

"He is right, you guys must have woken up early in the morning too to follow me, go to your rooms, I'll look around the ship a bit and then come too," said Isanna and left.

"I had hoped she would forget about that with all the commotion," said Fiona.

"No, my mom doesn't forget things so easily, and it's my bad luck that this ship is too small, there won't be a good place to hide from her, you have no idea how frightening she can be, she doesn't become a commander just because she was good, you have to be able to make a ton of rebellious men do your bidding and that's a skill even Derek doesn't have," said Ron and they left for their rooms. 

Ron changed from his traveling clothes and took out his bow and arrows. He had been thinking about Ester ever since she had tried to kill them. He had been on high alert when the first arrow had come, and it had never happened before that he was not able to feel metal somewhere around him, and the arrow was metal, still she had somehow managed to hide its presence from him a metal-type so well. He knew speed had a role to play in it too, but she was a very skilled metal type too. He needed to start using his powers more and in more ways to learn how the other users used them. He closed his eyes and expanded his mind to feel the metal around him, the ship was made of metal as he had seen, but he was surprised to see that the metal was only on the outside, most of the ship was made of wood and the bottom part too. He could feel wood, just slightly his affinity was metal and he also had a very slight wood. He had never trained that part, because it was of no use when he couldn't even manage to do anything with his main power. 

The room door opened and Isanna entered. 

"The bottom hull smells even bad, there are some canons on the ship, that's good, but not many only a handful and not big, I have seen hundreds on warships, if we got in a fight in the middle of the sea we'll have to rely on ourselves," went on Isanna as she removed her armor to rest too. 

Ron looked away when she got to her chainmail.

"Don't they have archers?" he asked.

"Archers could work at the ship, but a canon is much more powerful and can do a lot of damage in an instant, it would be much easier to just sink a ship to kill all of its occupants, and anyway with all the wind and swaying and large distances, you need a very skilled one," she said. Isanna had long learned being in the army to change with others, on a battlefield you didn't have the luxury of having privacy. She saw Ron looking away as she changed. She needed to teach him a lesson since she had decided to train him more and let him become a part of her battalion, She also needed to be treated the same as they would be if they did something so wrong. 

"Ron, look here!" she said in an authoritative voice.

Ron had expected that she was finished changing and he was too worried by the sudden change in tone, so he immediately turned and looked. She was not dressed, she only had her underclothes on, and they were the ones women wore under armor so they were smaller than usual for the ease of moving. Ron blushed hard wide eyed.

"Don't look away, this is normal when you are on a battlefield, and we'll be sharing a room for some days and I want to be comfortable when I am in my room, so open your eyes," she said.

Ron opened his eyes and looked at her face trying not to look down hard.

"Now, if I remember correctly you wanted to come along and be treated as a cadet right? but I don't remember any cadet of mine to step out of line so much, you didn't just put your life in danger but FIona's too," she said.

"I am sorry," he said, it was hard to focus, he had never seen her like this since he was small, and he had no idea then, but she was seriously beautiful and had very nice assets. He couldn't stop his dirty mind. 

"Sorry, won't do, you will have to be punished, give me fifty pushups," she said pointing to the ground. Ron didn't protest, since he wouldn't have to look at her at least, by the time he was done his arms were hurting badly. 

"Now, a hundred sit-ups," she said. Ron again preferred the pain and didn't say anything, it was hard but he felt this was the best punishment he could get so he shut up his mouth and kept going. When he was done he was sweating hard, the sea breeze was making him dizzy. 

"Clean this room till I come back," she said and left. Ron took a long time to catch his breath, it was too hot inside the room, he removed his shirt too, and got to cleaning the room. After the cleaning was done, which didn't take long because the room was too small, he went to take a shower because he was smelling too much after the workout. The facilities inside the ship weren't that good, but thankfully, Marty had ordered the crew to not use the facilities on their side because there was no male and female division on the ship. He entered the bath and saw that they had a small tub full of warm water, in which Isanna was taking a dip right now, her eyes closed and the bubbly water coming up to her chest. She opened her eyes and saw him at the door. 

"Come in, Fiona just left, the water won't be hot for much longer, It is not easy to get warm water here, I had a fire-type warm it for us," she said. 

Ron looked uncomfortable and slowly removed his clothes and got in, as far from Isanna as possible. He closed his eyes and let his sore muscles relax.