PARAGON

Within an hour, Paragon was back on the open oceans, sailing east. The liveship kept within the eastward subequatorial currents as much as possible, both air and water.

Her two passengers made themselves comfortable in her hull, pouring over books and maps of the region around Verona, including her magical one.

Travis and Myrllen were helping, trying to narrow down the location where the herb grew, just in case no one sold it in town.

Paragon wished she could help, but she knew little of the inland world. Her life was bound to the water, while her limited knowledge of life on land is the old memories of her previous captain.

She instead focused on sailing as fast as the currents and her magic allowed. It was what she could do to contribute.

Soon, however, the currents changed as she slipped into the mud-colored outlets of the river delta. The flowing brackish water of the estuary pushed against Paragon, trying to force her downstream as the ocean wind filled her sails and pushed her inland. The liveship knew the water's efforts were useless. She could travel anywhere she wanted; with or without the currents of air and water on her side.

She forged ahead, her bow slicing through the current. She passed the delta city of Iua and continued into the slowly deepening canyon. Paragon didn't trust the city; based on her map, pirates docked there frequently. She was uncertain if it was willingly or unknowingly, her map did not show the allegiance of the people, but she was wary of the settlement. More importantly, she couldn't afford the delay. Her swift arrival at Verona was much more important.

The canyon walls soon loomed high above Paragon's mast. But as she traversed farther upstream, the liveship sensed an ambush waiting for her upstream. Surprisingly, they were in a somewhat wide section of the river, where at least three ships could pass. They must have a mobility-based capture strategy.

The figurehead looked at the upcoming bend in the river, where she knew two boats were hiding behind the high canyon walls.

'Everyone,' she telepathically announced, 'there are pirates ahead, stay below decks, I will lock the doors so they can't get in. I'll handle them."

Paragon knew they would be safe inside her hull with the doors locked. No normal pirate would be able to force their way in as long as magic flowed within her fibers. She would protect everyone on board at all costs, both her crew and her two Ulven passengers.

"Are you sure you don't want help?" Travis verbally spoke as he zoomed in on the two grey pins on her map and eyed the two small vessels in the three-dimensional view. The pirate ships hadn't moved, remaining in prime positioning for an ambush. Paragon felt him pace slightly within her hull, his rhythmic reverberating through the wooden floor of the captain's quarters.

'Stay below, they can't hurt me, but they can hurt you if you come above deck.' Paragon instructed. 'They won't expect my speed, especially since I'm traveling upriver. Hopefully, I can catch them off guard and slip through, but they may board us.'

"Are you going to deploy your magic mist?" Myrllen asked as he looked at the map table. "I don't see a way to avoid them, and they'll notice that no one is at the helm."

'I don't want to endanger you.' Paragon stated. She knew she could force her passage and hoped she wouldn't have to resort to cannons. She'd used them before against the black ship, whose wood she couldn't eat. No, no cannons. She hated using them, both because they used up so much iron to create and because they effortlessly sank ships. They're more for show anyway.

Myrllen's stressed pacing briefly distracted the liveship. She could sense his desire to help rather than stay locked away, and Travis shared those feelings.

Paragon hesitated, I don't want to lose them, I don't want their blood spilled on my deck. The entire vessel shivered, every timber briefly shifting slightly.

The liveship paused as she sensed something up ahead that disturbed the flow of the water. It took her a moment to recognize the object: a rope strung across the gorge.

Travis sensed her stress, 'Are you sure you're ok?'

'Yes,' Paragon promised. 'And don't worry, I have handled worse.' Her mind briefly drifted towards the black ship before she refocused on the present.

"Let me help," Hibisca stood. "I can't just stay here idle while you're under attack! You've done so much to help my family!"

'No. No.' Paragon's firm tone reverberated through her hull, but she controlled herself before continuing. 'Hibisca, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but it's dangerous. You are a guest, I can't let you go out there and get hurt. I don't want anyone to get hurt.'

"Nothing happens without a bit of risk," the young Ulven insisted. "Ulvaria would still be trapped in a dark spell if it wasn't for the brave acts of one person!"

Irisva put a hand on her shoulder. "Paragon is right, we're guests."

Hibisca sighed as she returned to her seat and sullenly stared at the papers scattered on the map table.

Myrllen fidgeted, then gritted his teeth as he spun on his heel to face the door. "I'm going out there to help you! I'm your crew, I can't just sit here while you fight!" The determined Stellan quickly exited the map room. His pounding footsteps rang through the ship as he walked to the door to the main deck. However, when he tried to open it, he found it locked. "Paragon! Let me out!" His exclamation slightly echoed in the hall.

Paragon sped towards the snare. She knew she could break it, but in the seconds it took her to break it, the pirates could potentially be close enough to board her. 'Myrllen, I don't want you to be in danger.'

"I don't care!" Myrllen used his whole weight to attempt to open the locked door.

"I want to help too." Travis entered the hallway and approached Myrllen. "If we take out these pirates, maybe they'll never bother anyone again. They must be a scourge to the cities on this river system."

'Pirates are people too, many of them are not there by choice, but others of them choose to be pirates.' Paragon rounded the bend and the pirates came within sight. 'And I don't purposefully sink ships.'

"Then we capture the ships and put those who chose in jail, then help the ones who didn't! We can take them to Havenous or give them the supplies they need! Set them on the right path!" Myrllen's exuberance and determination rang through Paragon's walls.

Paragon signed in defeat as the center of the rope clung to her bow, pressed against her by the current. 'I can sense your resolve will not waver.' The liveship pulled a sword from her special storage place and made it appear on the wall next to Travis. 'Myrllen has his magic, but Travis, please take this sword. It was Captain Starport's sword. It is filled with memories of battles similar to this. I hope it guides you as you wield it.'

Travis gently took the weapon off the wall. Paragon was uneasy about letting him use the short sword and barely contained a fidget when the object no longer touched the wall. The liveship didn't know how well Travis knew how to wield it but hoped it would guide him.

"That's—that's an antique." Myrllen was awed at the starry stitching on the leather scabbard and hilt.

"I promise to take care of it." Travis soothed the liveship as he attached the scabbard to his belt.

Paragon mentally nodded to them as something stirred atop the cliffs. She struggled to determine what it was; her magic didn't work as well on land as in aquatic environments. 'I will help you as much as possible, but wait for my signal. We will have the element of surprise.'

Paragon unlocked the door as the rope became taut against her bow just below water level. The fibers of the thick rope strained and some of them immediately snapped, but the robe held for now.

"An ambush on an ambush." Myrllen quietly chuckled to himself as Paragon turned her focus to the skies.

A few winged creatures of various species jumped off the cliffs above and flew down with their wings spread wide. One even used a magical Stellan cloak to grant them wings. Two beings even carried a smaller crewmate down with them.

The six beings landed hard on the decks. Their footsteps resonated against the deck in a menagerie of clops, clangs, and thunks.

"They're hiding." One of them grinned as the others chuckled in dark glee as his wing-arms adjusted his hat. "King Corvin will pay us handsomely for this ship, and who knows how much we'll get from what's onboard!"

The liveship knew their intentions the second they boarded her, and it made her mind boil with fury. They were to capture her, take her crew and passengers as slaves or as bargaining chips, then hand her over to the pirate king, Corvin of The Black Reaper. It took effort for her to remain in place.

None of that will happen. Paragon slowly turned and built up a plume of mist in her mouth. Within seconds, white tendrils began to leak out of the corners of her mouth. Usually, she released the fog through her gun ports, but that was good for surrounding herself. This time, she needed to cover her deck.

One of the pirates spotted the movement in the corner of his eye and looked at the silver figurehead as she turned to face the boarded pirates. "B-boss?" his voice wavered as he stared at the wooden sea serpent. Paragon could sense his fear of her draconic form.

Paragon did not give the pirates a chance to reply as she released a massive plume of magical mist that surged and obscured the deck like an explosion. 'NOW!' She leaped off the forecastle deck and tackled a burly man in a tattered and stained Stellan cloak.

Travis and Myrllen quickly emerged from the aftercastle, sword and magic ready to battle the bewildered pirates.

The pirates blindly stumbled in the white fog, unable to see more than a few inches away from their faces. Travis and Myrllen, like Paragon, barely noticed the mist. As members of Paragon's crew, they shared the liveship's immunity to her magical shroud, seeing through it as if it didn't exist.

Pirates hollered in surprise as ropes magically wrapped around their feet and tied them up before lifting them high in the air. Planks from the deck swung up and hit the attackers in the face or the rear, stunning them. The figurehead knocked one off their feet with her tail, then made ropes burst from the decking and lash them in place. Paragon couldn't help but admit it was fun to not passively wait for the pirates to leave.

Myrllen tied up several with starry ropes. Travis protected himself with the short sword; the clang of two blades rang out among the sounds of pirates yelling in surprise.

Travis parried a pirate's wild swing, then kicked him into the mast, where Paragon used ropes to hoist him up and tied him.

The other two ships swung in close, and grappling hooks snagged her railing, and Paragon let them hold as the two pirate ships pulled themselves close on either side of the white vessel. The pirate ship's starboard side splintered and caved as it collided with Paragon's port side. Her hull remained intact. The contact allowed her to sense the contents of the pirate vessel: slaves.

Paragon's anger boiled; she ran to the other ship and sank her frontmost claws into the deck with her hindmost limbs anchoring her.

The ship, named Swift Trout, was filled with memories of being a humble fishing vessel before it became a slave ship. The wood of the mindless ship immediately came under her control with no resistance, as if it wanted Paragon to free her.

The live ship quickly freed the slaves and used anything she could to capture the pirates onboard. Chains burst off of enslaved people and coiled around their jailers. Sails dropped from the mast and tied several pirates on the deck to each other. The ship's helm spun wildly, and when the helmsman backed away, the deck beneath him gave way. He stuck fast between floors.

A few pirates jumped overboard as their ships began to fight them, but not all of them made it to the river. Paragon caught some of them with planks, ropes, and occasionally the figurehead's paws. She quickly detained the beings, then repeated the process as the second ship, named Waterscape, slammed into her starboard side. Just like Swift Trout, the second pirate ship willingly succumbed to Paragon's control, and almost seemed to aid her.

Soon, all the pirates were subdued in either magic or physical ropes, and Paragon breathed a sigh of relief as she dismissed the mist.

Cheers erupted from the two ships, even as one of them slowly sank due to the damage it sustained from the collision.

"We did it!" Myrllen grinned from ear to ear.

Travis looked at the slowly sinking ship off to the starboard side. "Paragon, is it possible for you to repair that ship? Like how you control the things onboard?"

Paragon paused, then nodded. "Yes, I can do that," she ran over to the starboard side and leaned over the side, grabbing the other ship's railing. The wooden structure succumbed to her control and began to repair itself, the fibers of the damaged planks knitting themselves together. She forced the water out of the hull and attached the ship to the stern of her ship with several strong ropes.

Once she did the same to the other small ex-pirate ship, Paragon sent a telepathic message to everyone onboard. 'Hello, my name is Paragon. My crew and I have freed the slaves on board, and we will take both of these vessels to Kira. You are all free to get off during our short stop or join us in Verona.

'I will look into the pirates' hearts, and put into custody those who deserve it. Some of these men and women were forced to be pirates to survive, and I will give them a second chance.' Paragon sensed some turmoil with her decision, but she continued anyway. 'We will arrive in Kira shortly, please do not hurt each other.'

There was some disapproval from the ex-slaves, but Paragon subtly soothed them with mind magic. Thankfully, no one resisted enough to disobey. She hated using mind magic, but she did not want any of the former slaves to try to hurt any of the pirates.

Now she had to focus on sailing to Kira, then to Verona.

Author Note:

Hi, I guess yesterday was an April fools, because there was no chapter.

I'm sorry. I had it done, but didn't have a chance to grammar check it until today.

I have a full-time job, and the company I'm working for is going through a bit of a personnel crisis, so I'm pulling three to six hours of overtime a week, on top of training a new dog and because I live with my parents, they need my attention frequently too.

So, I'm super sorry, but I'm going to have to change to updating every other week. I had this chapter half done ahead of time and I still could not get it published on time.

I'm really sorry, I even cried about this decision. But writing is something I do for fun, and between my work and the living beings that rely on me, I can't keep it up.

I'm so so sorry to the few of you that really enjoy my stories.

Thank you for reading.