The Twisted Paths of Spirits and Mares

As soon as Water said ‘Eclipse’, I froze as a spark of recognition jolted in my head. It was just a hint of familiarity, but I had definitely heard the name before. It meant something dear to me. Or at least I thought it did. Frustratingly, my mind supplied no details to go along with that sudden, yet all too brief flash of enlightenment. “So, it sank?” I finally managed to ask after far too long of a pause.

“If it didn’t, then I don’t know where it went with all that stuff missing from it. Looked like it was destroyed to me or else there wouldn’t have been pieces of it all floating over,” Water replied with a shrug. “Why, do you remember something about it?”

“The name is familiar… though I don’t know why.” A troubled look grew on my face as I answered. “I am drawing a blank on anything other than the name.”

“Weeeeird~” Water spookily remarked, but I was distracted by a nibble on the line. “Well, have fun fishing,” she stated, turning back towards the wheel as I fought with the fishing rod. “I have to keep us on course while you get us lunch, Miss Breakfast Eater.”

I could only grunt in reply as I fought to keep the rod from being pulled out of my hooves as the nibble turned into another battle of skill.

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An hour of non-stop fishing later had me fairly tired and hungry, and Water hadn’t stopped moaning about eating for a full thirty minutes now. In that time, I had only managed to catch one more fish, two had broken the lines, and the other had been too small to bother keeping much to my chagrin when Water laughed at the poor thing.

I picked up my latest catch and looked it over with a hint of pride. It was smaller than the first one but not by much, different species too, but still looked tasty all the same. “Night,” Lily called from behind me on the main deck. “Bring that over here, and I will show you how to descale and filet it.” Turning around, my stomach growled as I picked the fish up in my mouth and started trotting down the small flight of stairs to the middle of the ship.

The taste of fish in my mouth had me wanting to just sink my fangs into it right now and eat. But I had caught this to be cooked! Not just to be unceremoniously devoured like a feral would, although my stomach grumbled in protest at my decision, and my brain half shared its sentiments.

“Here you go Cap, err Lily,” I said, stumbling over my words and got a playful bat on my left ear from Lily for my troubles. I really needed to get a hold of that quirk, but I just couldn’t resist the urge of calling her Captain. It was her rank, dammit!

“Stop that~” Lily softly chided me, smirking as she took the fish in her aura and walked over to a small, iron bound chest. With a flick of her magic, it opened letting me feel the sudden rush of cold air coming out of it, perplexing me for a moment. “This is where we keep our perishable food.” I took a step closer and examined the inside. Lily wasn’t kidding when she told Water that there was no more food as the only thing I could see inside the chest was the fish I had caught earlier.

“I know it looks bad but the ocean provides a plentiful bounty. That, and Water can really fish when she wants to. Though she mostly just flies around and dive bombs fish. Why just fish when you can fish and show off, as she likes to remind us,” Lily stated in an amused tone, glancing up to the filly at the wheel for a split second.

“She dive bombs for fish? Like, directly into the water?” I asked, confusion plastered all over my face. How can a filly half my size be able to fish like that and with no fangs to grasp them? It just didn’t make any sense to me. I would definitely have to see Water in action. Maybe I could even copy her technique if it was worthwhile.

“Oh yes and she’s good at it too. If not a little overzealous at times,” Lily quipped as I followed her over to a small wooden counter top with a few drawers filling out the bottom. It seemed to be built into the railing, which was kinda neat. Watching as a knife was pulled out of a drawer in an aura of light green magic, the mare smiled and turned to me. “Now, any questions before we begin?”

“No, but I want to do my part and help out,” I honestly stated, plus I really didn’t want to be labeled as the fishy fisher. “You saved my life, the least I can do is pull my weight around here.”

“That’s a good attitude to have,” Lily approvingly stated, floating the knife towards the fish. “Now, the first thing is descaling. I don’t know about you, but we don’t eat the scales…”

Just as before, Lily took me through the whole process, step by step. Descaling, gutting and filleting. She was quite a good teacher, and had me preparing the second fish in no time at all. I only made a single, small mistake that left a small chunk missing from the other filet, which I decided to rectify and popped the small piece of raw fish down my gullet. “Well done! That is how you prep a fish,” Lily said, carefully watching over my shoulder the entire time. I was glad she didn’t say a word about pilfering that small bit of meat, and my stomach momentarily thanked me for it.

Honestly, I didn’t mind the work. It wasn’t too hard or mind numbingly tedious and it let me feel useful, which I did enjoy. Plus, I was learning useful skills. My stomach on the other hoof, wasn’t as happy at the whole process, it hadn’t stopped complaining the entire time as the smell and taste of raw fish now saturated the air around us. “Okay, I am pretty sure I understand it now. But we probably need more fish,” I remarked, glancing over to the hatch that marked the entrance to below the deck. “What about the stallion? I think his name is Iron, right?”

“Ironsides is his full name, but you are correct. He just goes by Iron. We don’t need to worry about him right now as he usually takes the night shift. So we’ll let him get his sleep for now,” Lily explained as she took out a small pan and matching burner, feeding it a few chunks of coal. When it was sufficiently heated, she added the fillets, causing them to instantly sizzle. “How you feeling? We could use some more fish after you eat, if you’re feeling up to that is.”

“I’m fine for now…” I half lied. I was sore and felt weak, but on the other hoof, I didn’t want to come off any weaker than I already appeared, plus the smell of fish being grilled had my stomach protesting, and that wasn’t something I could really hide as it grumbled. “But I am definitely hungry.” Fighting back the desire to drool was difficult, but I managed it. Barely.

“I would imagine so,” Lily idly remarked, looking me over as her magic kept the fish cooking. “You are practically skin and bones. I didn’t know if you were going to hold the soup down or not.”

Lily sounded a bit concerned as her eyes examined my form. I had to fight back a shudder at her choice of words. Skin and bones. A thestral was a warrior, proud and strong, not feeble and sickly. “Right, I need to get my strength back,” I replied, choking down the disgust I held for myself before it could manifest in my features.

“The cooking is the easy part,” Lily remarked, luckily not noticing anything, as she glanced at a barrel beside off to the side and frowned. “Water! We need more fresh water!”

I blinked slightly at that slight absurdity of that statement and turned to look at the filly on the raised deck. “On it!” Water replied as she spread her abnormally large wings, launching herself into the sky, leaving me feeling very envious of the feat. I lost sight of her briefly as she flew behind the sail, but she was back a moment later with a cloud half the size of the ship. I briefly wondering what in the world she was going to do with a cloud that size as it was being anchored it to the tip of the mast. Water pulled off a small chunk, floating it down over the empty water barrel, and to my amazement, started jumping on it, making it rain into the barrel.

While she was doing that, I anxiously eyed at the forgotten wheel. It was probably fine, though I didn’t like it being left alone like that for some reason. “So Water navigates and provides fresh water?” I curiously asked, trying not to think about the empty wheel.

“And a lot more. We don’t just do one role around here. We wear as many hats as we need to,” Lily explained, watching Water start to fill the fresh water barrel, using most of the large cloud up in the process.

“Right,” I distantly remarked, tired of watching Water freely fly around. “I am not sure what else I can do besides catch fish and clean them.” That made me frown, though I wasn’t sure why. “But I think I was a sailor before. It just feels right to me,” I stated out loud for the second time today.

“Oh, you’re a sailor alright. There is no denying that,” Lily plainly stated without looking at me as the cloud Water so enthusiastically jumping on dried up, leaving the barrel filled to the brim with fresh water. “Thank you, Water.”

“No problemo!” Water kicked the leftover cloud, disperse it into the atmosphere and did a few loops, kicking my envy of her up a few notches, before heading back to the helm.

“What makes you so sure?” I asked with a furrowed brow, curious as to why she sounded so confident about my prior job in life.

“I have my ways.” She chuckled with a shrug, nonchalantly flipping the fillets over in the pan. “Call it intuition. Call it magic if you will.”

That extremely unsatisfying answer left me feeling very suspicious. A part of me was screaming that Lily was either lying, holding something back, or a little bit of column A and a little bit of column B, I wasn’t sure which. I studied the mare intently for a moment before I decided to let this go for the moment. I was a guest on their ship, and they hadn’t done me wrong yet. Plus, I didn’t feel up to fighting anypony in my current state. “Okay… What should I do now?” I asked as casually as I could, thought I could feel my right eyebrow beginning to twitch.

“For now, I want you to relax. You have been pushing yourself hard for somepony in your condition. Don’t need your injuries to worsen now, do we?” Lily asked in a motherly tone that somewhat set my hackles up. She only looked to be a few years older than me. She doesn't need to coddle me like a filly... “There is a hammock below, or you can relax at the bow of the ship. That’s where I like to sit at times. I’ll come get you when the food is ready, which won’t be too long now.”

“I think I will go lay down at the bow,” I politely stated, trying to not let my reaction to being mothered show. I didn’t wait for her response as I quickly made for the front of the ship, eyes locked on the horizon, scanning it automatically for ships or land.

Once at the bow, I gently laid down and tried to relax, keeping my eyes on the horizon while the ship gently rode over the waves. Relaxing was harder than it sounded. My mind kept replaying what Lily had said to me, over and over, and the more I thought about it, the more I was sure she was hiding something from me. But what?

Before too long, the scent of pan fried fish had wafted its way back up to me, and my stomach grumbled, rousing me from my thoughts. Out of pure reflex, I scanned the horizon once more, still not seeing anything except the ocean meeting the still blue sky. Getting up and doing a light stretch, I turned around, looking down the length of the ship just as Lily called out. “Lunch is ready!” As I started making my way back, I watched Lily set three steaming plates down on the table that wrapped around the mast.

Water easily beat me there, swooping down from the upper deck, grabbing the plate with the biggest piece, earning her a strong enough glare from Lily to make her drop it and frown. “But I want the big piece!” the filly whined, pouting.

“Where should I sit?” I asked Lily as I arrived at the table. Lily pointed at the spot with the big piece of fish, I took a seat and glanced at Water for a moment. Water was still pouting, having been denied the biggest serving as she sat down to my left, eyeing my plate. “Thank you, Lily.” I was slightly worried about what Water would do now that I was given ‘her’ meal for the second time in a row.

“Thank you for catching it,” Lily stated with a smile, floating over three mugs of what smelled like grog for each of us. I wasn’t going to complain, but I wasn’t going to refuse the drink either.

With the cooked fish directly in front of me, I couldn’t deny my hunger anymore, grabbing the piece of fish, I started devouring it, not caring what the other’s thought. It didn’t last a single minute as my jaws went to work chewing and swallowing my meal as quickly as it could.

Finished, I leaned back and sighed happily as my stomach no longer complained about the lack of food. “Did you even taste it?” Water asked, eyebrow raised, biting into her own food at a slower pace.

“I did, it tasted good,” I replied with a chuckle as I picked up my mug of grog and sipped it, wetting my throat. It still tasted horrible, but a little bit should be fine. A quick glance at Lily revealed that she was eating her own food and pretending to not notice this discussion. “But a full stomach is what I wanted,” I added, rubbing my belly as I glanced at the filly.

“Well okay then,” Water said before taking a big gulp of her grog. How she could stand the taste, I couldn't fathom. Better yet, why was Lily letting Water drink at such an age? Oh well, not my problem.

“Easy on the grog,” Lily chided, using her magic to lower Water’s mug back to the table. “Remember what happened last time.”

“I know. I know...”

"So... are you seriously going hunting for, umm, what did you call it?" I questioned, turning my attention to Water.

“Gold?” Water replied, finishing off her last piece of fish and slightly cocked her head at me.

“No, the city of gold…” I said, peering into my mug of grog, wondering if I had liked the foul liquid before I lost my memory. Water and Lily didn’t seem to mind it one bit.

“You mean El Marado?” Water asked with a enthusiastic grin. I heard Lily softly sigh at that, Water didn’t seem to pick it up though.

“Yes, this magical lost city of gold of yours,” I said, glancing at Lily for a moment who just rolled her eyes, though Water couldn't see her. “Is that what you are hunting for?”

"Sure is!" Water excitedly exclaimed to me, her mug of grog was now strangely empty I noticed.

"Excuse me," Lily softly said, getting up now that her food was done as well. "You two have clean up duty."

"Awww," Water deflated a bit.

Lily’s reaction had me wondering if this city of gold was real or, most likely, just the work of Water’s seemingly overactive imagination. I decided to let the subject go for now. Standing up, I started gathering the plates and mugs to be cleaned. “So, why are you sailing around like this?” I asked, watching Lily head below deck out of the corner of my eye.

"We have been sailing the seas for hundreds of years looking to remove a curse that has beset us all!" Water dramatically stated, waving her hoof in a big arc as she hammed it up.

“No you haven’t,” I flatly said, giving the little fabricator my best bullshit look.

"Well then I guess we are looking for El Marado, huh?" Water remarked with a smug grin that made me want to slap it off her face. I was trying to be serious here, and this is the company I end up with? Moon save me.

"Or you are traders? Couriers?" I asked, glancing at the ship once more, trying to deduce the reason for them being out in the open waters before turning my focus back to her.

"Treasure hunters!" Water boldly proclaimed, giving me an odd look. "I thought telling you we were searching for a lost city of gold that you would have figured that out by now."

"If you say so..." I shook my head at the situation. I needed to stop getting bogged down discussing this very implausible explanation. "I am going to finish cleaning up." I went back to wiping down the plates and the mugs, rinsing them with the fresh water before putting them back in the cupboards after a little bit of exploration to find the right places.

Water did decide to help me, somewhat. Declaring that we were finished, which didn’t need declaring at all, she headed back towards the helm and I followed her, noticing that she was having a slightly hard time keeping her hooves fluidly moving. We had been drifting during lunch, but it didn’t seem like much, at least I didn’t think so. But, I seemed fairly sure of that for some odd reason.

The filly took the wheel for a moment, turning it a few degrees to starboard. “Hey, you want to see some real fishing?” she asked, a worrying with a gleam in her eyes.

“Umm, sure?” I cautiously remarked. That loose confirmation was all Water needed as she abruptly let go of the wheel and headed for the railing, nearly tripping over her over hooves.

“Do you want me to hold us steady while you do this?” I asked, already finding myself on my hind legs and holding the wheel steady in a natural position. “Huh…”

Water blinked, looking between the wheel and then me. "Yeah, surrrre. Anyways, watch this!" Launching herself off the deck, like a newly fired arrow, Water’s massive wings unfurled as she leveled out about a hundred feet above the waterline. I watched her lazily circle the boat a few times, intensely staring down at the water. It wasn’t long before her circles got very tight over a specific spot. In the blink of an eye, Water propelled herself straight down into the ocean. I expected a large splash, but it never came. The small filly seemingly melded into the waves like she was made of her namesake. As I watched that spot for her return, I started to get worried when she didn't pop back up after twenty seconds had gone by. I was just about ready to jump into the water after her when she broke through the surface with a fish as large as she was tightly clasped in all four of her hooves as it tried its best to wiggle free. Water kept flying upwards over the deck, wrestling to hold onto her prize. Once she was about fifty feet up, she grinned down at me and let the fish free fall down to the deck below. I cringed a little at the resounding wet crack it made when it connected with the deck.

Water landed next to the dead fish shortly after it hit, grinning from ear to ear as she sized up her catch. "That's... how you fish!"

I let out a low whistle, taking in the size of the dead fish that had to weigh as much, if not more than Water did. “Well done. How did you learn how to do that?” I curiously inquired.

Water’s smile was ear to ear as she proudly answered, “I taught myself!”

“Good skill to have,” I remarked, doing a quick scan of the horizon and then tried to gauge our course off the position of the sun. “So where are we going right now?”

"Now? Umm, oh! To some port I can't pronounce so I call it Port Kitty," Water remarked between clenched teeth as she hauled her catch over to the ice chest, fighting with it to lift it up and get it in. I debated going over and helping her, but this was a little bit of passive payback in my book. “Going to stop there and probably trade some things we got from the flotsam for fresh fruits and veggies. Oh! You should look through some of it. Since you were on there, you might find something you remember."

My hooves adjusted the wheel slightly as a crest made the ship want to list to port. Trying to keep us heading in the same general direction we had been heading with no compass made that difficult as I had to guess off the position of the sun. “I guess I should. Couldn’t really hurt...” I remarked. “Where did you store the stuff you found?”

"Umm, the only place we have for storage? Below deck past the hammocks,” Water oh so helpfully stated before puffing herself up trying to look important, or whatever it was she was trying to accomplish. “Speaking of, I want my hammock back tonight,” she demanded, looking directly into my eyes.

"That's fine,” I coolly replied. “I prefer sleeping under the stars anyways." I stopped for a moment and shook my head. "I keep remembering useless things.” Ugh, that sounded whiny even to me. Water must be rubbing off on me. "I know my name, my tribe, and that I like to sleep under the stars. But... I can't remember what I did for a living or where I am from." My voice was rife with frustration. This was getting old, and fast.

"I hope you like getting wet then. Going to storm tonight. Not bad, but... Have fun," Water immediately answered, pointing at the sky for a moment before looking back at me, not caring about my mental state one bit it seemed.

I followed her pointing hoof to the sky, but I didn’t see any indications of a storm at the moment. Must be a pegasus thing. "Maybe I will sleep inside then..." I said with a chuckle. "Not many stars during a storm."

"No there aren't many stars during a storm. Too many clouds. That's why I want my hammock tonight. Usually I sleep up in the crow's nest though," Water explained, glancing up to the top of the mast. "That's where I was last night when we came upon the wreckage. I was too tired to help though."

Nodding in acknowledgement, I let my thoughts drift for a moment before I asked a question that had been troubling me, “How did you find me?”

"I didn't find you, Iron did. I was asleep," Water answered, making me want to face hoof as she sat down right beside me.

"I will have to talk to him when he wakes up then," I said, letting a small frown show through. Anything information I could get about who I am was number one on my top priority list.

"He should be up for diner in a few hours," Water stated, looking up at the sun. That couldn’t be healthy for her eyes. "Well more like six or seven hours. That stallion lives to sleep I think," she added with a small smile.

"What about Lily?" I asked, my eyes automatically scanned the horizon. I seemed to do that on reflex a few times a minute. "What's her story?"

"You know? I'm not too sure,” Water genuinely replied, scrunching up her nose in thought. “She never talks about her past much and when she does, it's always a cryptic sentence here, a baffling statement there, or misdirection over there... So I gave up. She's really kind though."

"How long you been sailing with her?" I asked after a few moments thinking over that answer. I wasn’t sure why I was going down this line of inquiry, but it felt like the right questions to ask.

"Since as long as I can remember, actually... I think I was born on this ship or something," Water said with a shrug.

“You don’t remember?” I asked, turning to look at her for a moment to confirm her statement. “Who are your parents?”

"Iron and Lily as far as I am concerned. They could be my real parents for all I know, but I doubt it." Water shrugged, truly unbothered by it if I had to guess.

I went silent for a minute while I steered the ship. "Okay then... Are you going to go back to steering, or am I doing it for the next few hours?" I finally asked.

"Ehh, I would rather go catch a few more fish and spread my wings, unless you want to do that, not the wings part, but this fish I mean, then I can steer I guess. Gets boring though." Water walked over to the railing, eyes fixed on the surface of the ocean.

“Well, I would rather have some more fish to eat, and you did a good job with that first one. So I will handle steering while you go catch some more fish,” I said with a smile. Steering the ship had me feeling useful, and I actually enjoyed doing it. She could go be the fishy fisher. That made me crack a smile.

"Thanks, Night. You're okay in my book," she said grinning as she took off into the sky, the gust of wind ruffled my mane as a spike of envy hit me again.

I let myself relax, eyes automatically scanning the horizon as the liked to do while I hummed an upbeat tune under my breath. I let the melody take a life of its own, content right where I was for the time being.