TRAVIS

In the morning, the beam of light from the porthole woke Travis from his restful sleep. After he stretched and rubbed his eyes, he slipped off of the bare mattress and straightened out his clothes. "All right, time make this real." He checked his hair in the bathroom mirror, then hurriedly left the bathroom.

I'll have to talk to Paragon about giving me at least some blankets and clothes. When she said she cleared out the room for me, she was not kidding. Even the hallways are empty now except for the lights. He glanced to the massive map table that was in the largest room of the Captain's quarters. It was the only thing that survived Paragon's intense clearing out.

He noticed the white pin on the map was not too far from a familiar stretch of coastline. Somehow, the closer he looked, the more detailed the map became, even though he was sure the entire world stretched across the map. He could even see the individual piers that dotted the shipyard, and for a second, swore he saw the unfinished ships docked on the boardwalks.

That can't be right, there's no way I saw that much detail. With a shake of his head, he refocused and emerged onto the deck of the liveship. "Paragon?" He looked towards the bow as he briskly walked to the silver figurehead. "I'm ready for whatever you need me to do." He looked at the still figure sat in the same posture Travis had first seen her in.

The wooden sea serpent's sapphire eyes widened. "Are you sure? I figured you would change your mind." She shifted and looked away. "You initially rejected my offer, and I thought you would regret changing your mind and go back to hating me." Her dangling tail gently tapped the hull and her fins clamped against her sides.

"I'm sorry," Travis frowned and gently stroked her neck. "I promise to do my best at whatever you need. I can't promise I will be good, but I will do my best." He managed to smile. "Now, what is the thing you needed me to do?"

"There is a small ritual to bind us, and if you complete it, our connection will last until one of us dies." Paragon swiveled her neck and locked eyes with the human. "Are you willing to commit?"

Blue star sapphires and sea-green eyes stared at each other. "Yes," Travis left no room for uncertainty.

"Very well then, may I see your hand?" The silver figurehead lifted one of her arms and held the webbed talons out to him. When he obliged, Paragon looked to the shipwright's son. "Close your eyes and press your forehead into mine. You will feel a slight poke, but do not break the contact."

"Yes, ma'am" Travis bowed his head and closed his eyes. He felt Paragon gently place her head against his, the figurehead's ribbonlike spinal fin carefully folded flat against her back.

Travis marveled at how real Paragon felt despite her wooden composure. Her scales were warm, and he could have sworn she was breathing. Lifewood is amazing, it can create a creature that can do anything a living creature can do.

He paused as he felt a slight prick on the center of his hand, then froze completely as his senses expanded beyond his own. He felt the calm ocean waters lap against the hull, the gentle breeze fly the flag and the thoughts of the ship itself.

Paragon slowly broke the contact, but Travis could still feel her presence as if she was all around him. He felt slight anxiety but determined it wasn't his; the emotions belonged to the ship itself. "Paragon?"

"Yes, Captain Travis?" He sensed the figurehead's struggle to believe she had a captain. "What is it?" She looked at him with wide eyes, open for questions.

Travis looked down at his hand. The spot on his hand tingled, but he didn't see any damage to his palm. "What did you do?"

"I took a minuscule amount of blood to seal our souls and minds together. I healed you afterward, though you would not have noticed the wound if I hadn't." Paragon assured. "I would never deeply wound anyone. At least, not on purpose."

"So this means I can feel you and practically read your thoughts; does that go both ways?" Travis blinked. "Can you read my mind?"

Paragon hesitated, her thoughts racing, but she ended up telling the truth. "Yes, I can, but that is one of the things that comes with our bond. I can teach you how to shield your mind from me if you wish."

"How much magic do you have?" The new captain struggled to wrap his head around the full power of the ship.

"I will teach you, and as our bond strengthens you will be able to use some of my abilities. I have more abilities than I often admit." Paragon slowly spoke as she rose from her position on the bow. "For now, I will show you how to read the map while we set sail for Havenus." The sails suddenly dropped and snapped as the wind filled them and the anchor swiftly raised from the depths.

"Havenus?" Travis followed her, then blinked as his mind pulled information out of thin air. Havenus was a cliffside city in the country of Draconia. They specialized in exports of magical items and imported foodstuffs, livestock, and textiles. How do I know that? I've never heard of Draconia!

"Don't fret, you know because I know," Paragon explained as she led Travis belowdecks and into the map room, "With the bond, my knowledge is now yours. It will seem initially strange, but you will adjust eventually."

The sailor nodded as the doors opened without Paragon touching them, and they silently closed after Travis walked through. The figurehead sat at the map table's western edge, while the human stood at the eastern border. Even though the bond between him and the ship was fresh, he had a better idea of how to read the map as the entire world sprawled before him.

The white pin marked Paragon's location, and green, yellow, orange, and red markers recorded ports. The blue, brown, pink, and purple tacks were other ships. However, the knowledge of what the colors meant was still hazy.

"This is Havenus," Paragon pointed to the green pin and with a wave of her paw. To Travis's shock, the map zoomed in and became three dimensional. "The one port on any of the seas of Wynn that accepts me even without a captain."

Travis studied the colossal castle that towered atop the cliffs, then looked to the detailed harbor with five docks marked by the green pin. He could even see the individual ropes on each of the ships, and the colored pins stood atop their main mast. As he looked at the cliff, he noticed a door-covered cave opening so people could move the trade goods up and down from the castle town above. This map is amazing!

The map flattened and zoomed out as Paragon continued her lecture. "The yellow pins are accepting of magical ships, but I need a captain to trade there. Red ports are completely unsafe, while ones marked with orange are places where magic is not allowed."

"That's on the other side of the world! It will take months to sail that far, and we don't have enough supplies." Travis frowned and gripped the edge of the table. "I'll die before we get there."

"You won't die," Paragon assures. "I have drinking water and I can catch you some fish, and when we arrive my friend, Horizon will gladly fill my hold with supplies and items to trade with other ports."

"And this Horizon will give it to us for free?" The skeptic human looked to Paragon with a mix of shock and disbelief splattered across his face. "How? Why would anyone do that?"

"I rescued a menagerie of magical creatures from slavery after their boat sank," Paragon says, then briefly speaks in a slightly higher tone. "Also, I take most of the treasure I find on the seafloor and donate it to her treasury whenever I'm in the region." When Travis raised an eyebrow, she quickly defended herself. "I didn't have any use for it! You can't trade if you can only access one port!"

That explains the treasure in the hold. Travis paused and frowned. "How about we move on; why don't you tell me the other pin colors mean? I know they are all ships, but I'm hazy on the exact details."

"Yes," Paragon refocused and looked to the map, then gestured to the closest pin of each color as she spoke. "Blue means it's a merchant's vessel, pink is for warship or battleship, while purple is a passenger or private vessels like small sailboats and dinghies. Grey is for pirates, but they aren't a problem for me." She paused, then continued in a slightly guilty tone combined with a nervous laugh. "And, well, the brown pins record the locations of shipwrecks."

"Why do you have shipwrecks marked?" Travis blinked. Please don't tell me I bonded with a murderer.

"Because sometimes I crave wood, metal, and whatever else I can potentially find and use my anchor and its chain to pull stuff up," Paragon said, then frowned. "Don't look at me like that. I don't hunt ships, if a vessel is damaged and I'm around it was like that when I got there. Retrieving materials from wreckage deep underwater is like you humanoids taking food out of an icebox. I don't hunt ships and sink them just because I crave some wood. I only sink ships if they try to sink me first, and even that is rare. Most captains worth anything won't attack a white ship. Too many superstitions." Paragon pouted as her human companion continued to stare.

"But our food isn't usually rotting." Travis crinkled his nose. "Why do you eat wood and metal?"

"For about the same reason you eat," Paragon stated, "to grow. I don't need it to live, but it's also good for if something on board gets damaged somehow."

Curiosity overwhelmed Travis like a wave tossing a piece of driftwood near a coast, "what's your favorite part of a ship to eat?"

Paragon tapped her tail in thought as her mind critically evaluated every plank and piece of wood before evolving to a mental argument once she narrowed her choice down to two options. "The helm," she eventually spoke in a determined tone, "though the bow is a very close second."

"Any particular reason why?" Travis blinked as he tried to figure out his new companion and her strange tendencies.

"The memories stored in the wood are more clear. The helm stores the pounding rain, the helmsman's tightening grip, and the rationale between every decision. If I were to compare it to the tastes you experience, those kinds of memories are like sugar to me." Travis almost store she saw the figurehead salivate slightly. "As for the bow, it stores memories of all the places the ship has been. All the ports, the rivers, the currents, it is much more akin to a savory taste."

Travis tried not to laugh at the mental image of Paragon happily eating a ship's wheel as if it was a giant cookie. When he calmed his mental laughter, he looked to the silver carving. "Do all lifewood beings eat?"

"I don't think so." Paragon's sapphire eyes glazed over slightly. "I doubt any can eat normal food. I'm pretty sure none of us need to, but it's in my design to be able to use materials I consume in my construction if I choose, but I also absorb the memories of the materials to improve my capabilities as a ship. Wood has memory, as does metal, though to a lesser extent."

"Wood has memory..." Travis hummed, then looked down at the lone black pin on the map. For some reason, he felt uneasy about the marker. After a pause, he pointed to the pin. "What kind of ship does that mean?"

Paragon frowned and her voice deepened. "The Black Reaper."

"It's real? It's not just a myth?" Travis's mouth hung agape as he stared at the pin. "I guess that means The White Phantom is out there, somewhere." He paused and looked at the white pin. "You are The White Phantom, aren't you? You have the white hull, the mist, and the silver figurehead with striking eyes."

Paragon paused; her star sapphire eyes glimmered slightly as she contemplated her memories. "Perhaps, people have called me that before, but I never paid much mind to it, especially from the more fearful or aggressive people"

For a second, Travis felt a strange memory briefly flash through his mind, but it was too hazy and brief for him to comprehend it. However, he did see the figurehead flinch. "Paragon?" He frowned.

"Just memories," Paragon shook herself, then stood and walked around the table. "Do you want to show me what decorations you want back? Or ideas for new decorations? I want to make you feel more at home here."

Author Notes!

What do you think of Paragon, now that we know more about her?