“Hey buddy, come on wake up.” A voice sounding to my left ear and a hand on my shoulder shaking me lightly are the first sensory feelings that I am aware of. Followed by the hardness of the floor on which I am lying down on and the thin bed sheet covering my naked body. I can barely feel the movement of the ship on the water. Then comes the feeling of semi moist hair clinging to my face uncomfortably along with the usual tiredness from waking up. My head still hurts however enough for me to ignore it and to sit up to look at my surroundings.

Almost every time that I open my eyes, regret and the desire to close them follows immediately. I am still in the engine room of a wooden ship maned by cartoon griffins out in the ocean of a made up world. Yea, I regret waking up. Fuma is standing in front of me with his right claw still on my shoulder, my body is mostly covered by the sheet and only some parts of me are exposed. None of the important parts thankfully.

“Oh good, your awake.” He has that big smile on his face again.

“How long was I asleep?” It feels as though I barely slept an hour.

“Just a couple of hours. Two or three maybe.” Letting go of my shoulder he remains seated on his back legs in front of me. Almost unnoticeably looking over whatever he can see.

Sleep, so peaceful and calm it is almost like one does not even exist or ever even had. I remember the surgery I had not too long back about a year ago before any of this shit happened. The anesthesia they gave me had put me to sleep like I have never felt before. I am usually aware of me lying in my bed and the twists and turns that I do while sleeping. However, I literally passed out and felt like almost instantly I woke up after. During that time I felt nothing, it was as if I was not alive or conscious and it was the best rest I have ever had in my entire life. I remember reading how Edgar Allan Poe had once called them 'little slices of death,' how I envy them sometimes. It would have been better if I have not woken up at all, or ever again.

Fuma is sitting and watching me, almost as though he is studying whatever he can see. My right arm and shoulder along with some exposed part of my chest and my right leg below the knee. I sit up more properly with my back leaning on the wall and legs crossed, the left foot is sticking out from the cover and most of my chest is hidden. His sights are focused on my arm and foot, probably thinking over how different my body looks from anything else he has ever seen. Either that or he is looking over my accessories. He should probably know what leather looks like, makes me wonder how he views such things on me.

“Why did you wake me up?” I do not care how he perceives my tone of voice, I am too tired to care.

“It's morning, well really its past that. I let you sleep in a little, but if you want breakfast you should get up.” I almost said fuck breakfast, however I held it back. I do not need any issues coming up over some vulgar words that I am not even certain they know the meaning of. What would they even call it here? I know about the internet jokes with the word buck, however it cannot really be that. Can it? Whatever.

I am not hungry nor do I feel like eating. I would gladly try to go back to sleep for a couple of more hours, that is probably not going to happen. So we worked up until the morning, the sun rise was probably not long ago. Everyone else most likely is feeling like shit too, maybe even still sleeping like I was. What an asshole! If you see a guy who worked all night sleeping you don't wake him up for some bullshit like breakfast. This fucking sucks.

A sound grabs my attention as I hear foot steps coming from the stair case and Beak walks in a couple of seconds later. His eyes look somewhat tired with some grey circles under his eyes. He sees us and smiles while coming closer.
“Good morning guys.” Fuck you would have been my answer. Again I have to hold my tongue to prevent any problems, this is getting really annoying and tiresome.

“Morning Beak. So how are you? Did you sleep well?” Fuma is the first to respond and with a question that should be obvious from just looking at Beak.

“Uh a little, still tired from last night. That storm was a big one, but its not the worst we ever had to go through. Right?”

“Yep. The old ship sure had a rough time last night. Say, did you get breakfast yet?”

“No, just woke up. I didn’t see Trav in bed and came down here looking for him.” He turns his head and looks down at me. I am not entirely sure what he sees, however I am certain that I look like a real mess with my unbrushed hair, semi naked form and probably angry face. Probably staring at me like Fuma was.

“Hey Trav. Did you sleep here all night?” I guess that is my new nickname for now, not the worst one I could have gotten.

“Only a few hours.” My voice is deep and tired as I yawn and place my right hand over my right eye. Putting slight pressure on areas that hurt helps lessen the pain. So he did not get much sleep either, at least he did not have some dick waking him up over breakfast.

“That must have been uncomfortable. Well come on, lets go get some food. Or do you still want some sleep?” At least he asked if I wanted to sleep instead of just assuming that I did not. In a way I got lucky that I even got to sleep an hour or two instead of not sleeping at all. Not like I will be able to go back to sleep now anyway.

“Sure. Let me get dressed first.” Taking hold of the cover and wrapping it safely around myself I stand up. With my shoulders and body covered I walk over to where my clothes are piled and inspect them. They are all dry and comfortably warm in my hand, that is good to know. My gloves have some slight tears under the thumbs along with loose threads. Not all that surprising, these gloves were meant for workouts and not for constant wearing into the wilderness. The water and rope pulling must have finally damaged them, too bad I do not have any sewing thread or needles. I could probably use the fishing line to try and fix them, a problem that I will deal with later. Maybe when we arrive to Avias I could buy the needed supplies to repair them. The pants are fine, the underwear is fine, the socks do not feel like cardboard anymore although there is still a light smell to them and there are some holes that will be annoying to deal with. Another problem for later. The shirt only has the small ripped off portion from when I had to stop my leg from bleeding. I should look into getting a new shirt or making a new one myself.

Picking up my clothes I turn to see that both Fuma and Beak were staring at me, again.

“What?” I do not bother with hiding my annoyance.

“N-nothing.” My question has caught them off guard or maybe it was my tone of voice as they both visibly flinched. Their faces took up worried expressions.

“You can go without me, I will come up when I am done.” Walking over to where Fuma had his little bed set up, I quickly begin getting dressed while out of their view.

“Ok. See you there... I guess.” I can barely hear what Beak says.

“Yea, don’t take too long.” Fuma said as the sound of them both moving out is heard. Getting dressed in warm clothes felt rather good after such a long time. It almost makes up for the fact that I am putting on dirty clothes again. Getting clothes wet and then drying them is not really washing. This just adds to the list of things that I want. All dressed up and warm leaves me feeling rather incomplete without my jacket. Ah crap, I left it on my bed in the barracks all night. I do not think that anyone would actually bother looking over my stuff last night seeing as how everyone must have been dead tired. Still, leaving behind my things like makes me rather paranoid. What if they found my knives or iphone, questions that I do not want to answer would come up. I run up the stairs all the way up to the barracks door, opening and going through the it I do not bother to slow down or try to walk quietly. Many of the beds are full with griffins still sleeping, some were even snoring in a stereotypical cartoon fashion.

Everything is as I have left it, even the sheet wrinkles stayed the same. Placing the jacket on my shoulders I feel more comfortable with it, I wore it for so long that it does not feel right without it. Next time I am keeping it on, screw the rain. Careful so to not be noticed or that anyone could see, I look over my inventory and see that everything is there. No missing knives, iphone is still there, multitool, shoes,belt bag, scarf, not even a single missing herb or leaf from the backpack. Again, I was paranoid over nothing. Placing everything back in my belt bag, I put it on , take down the shoes and then put them on. Note to self: wear shoes next time, everything will dry out anyway. My head does not hurt so much that I could not handle it and using any remaining medication leafs means that I will have less for when I will really need it. I have to try to save up as much as I can and only use them for emergencies. Keeping that in mind and leaving only the backpack behind, I go out of the room and close the door. The extra weight of my things feels slightly comforting as I walk in the hall. There is no line for the bathroom, so I should clean up before going to eat.

Going inside and closing the door, I take off the jacket and tie it at my waist so it would not be on the floor. The issue with always wearing gloves is that taking them off is annoying and time consuming. Wearing the gloves will only further damage them, I should at least wait until I can find a way to fix them. Placing them in my jacket's inner pocket, I turn on the cold water and wash my face in the sink. The cold water feels refreshing on my face as it helps wash away some of my remaining fatigue. My hair continues to get in the way as I have to lean forward to the sink, time to deal with the hair issue. The leather wire on my left hand is too thick to and loose to tie it up properly, it will only unravel and fall off in less than an hour. Same thing with the other leathers pieces, I could just braid them into a single tail and as long as I do not move around too much or something then it should hold for the rest of the day. There is the option of going over to Gazer and ask for a rubber band, however because it is still fairly morning and the majority of the crew is dead tired in their beds (like I should be) Gazer is probably sleeping. And no one wants to be bothered in the morning with stupid shit, I should know. One single long braid it is then. It would be easier if I had a come, grandma always nagged about how I should cary one around with me at all times. I guess she was right, although to be fair no one could have predicted this situation. My hair still being slightly moist from last night's rain helps in trying to brush my hair with my hands as best as I could, some stray hairs come off along with my hand. Having long hair means that they are more likely to fall off earlier, the nutrition intake changes with the extra length so they die off from lack of specific proper feeding. Keeping food in mind, my diet has not been great over the last couple of months. It is annoying to deal with falling off hair, not that I have a choice really. Brushing off the loose hairs I begin to start braiding the hair. I have not done this for a long time and yet each motion comes automatically from repetition. I used to let my grandmother do it for me, she would make it in the center and it would always be tight so that it would not untangle itself.

With that finished I have nothing to tie it up at the end, leather and string would just fall off so leaving it untied is all I can do. Taking out my iphone I look at the screen to see my reflection. The screen protector is clean and clear enough for me to see my face. Just as I thought, looking uglier every day. And the new hair style is not helping at all, the face looks rounded again. I am most likely going to wear the hood again and it is going to be hot today. Great, just another regular day of my life. Well might as well go to the bathroom while I am here. Opening the stall door, I look inside to find a European styled public bathroom that was basically a hole in the floor. Wow, I have not seen one of these in over eight years. So much for a toilet, oh well.
With that done, I wash my hands without anything to dry them off with and leave the bathroom. The ship should arrive to the city soon, so I guess it does not really matter how I look or what the rest might think of me. I look weird to them anyway so it does not really mater if they see me like this anyway, besides it is already warm in here and it will only get hotter. Leaving the jacket tied to my waist I enter the opened mess hall. There is the smell and sound of cooking on a frying pan inside the room. The room has a total of five griffins with Beak, Fuma and chef what's his name. All of them were sitting down at the tables except for the chef who was cooking something. Why would he make breakfast if everyone is asleep and most likely not going to wake up for some time? It is just going to get cold, seems like waste. Oh well. Sitting down on the edge of the closest table, right elbow on the table with my head resting on my hand I close my eyes and exhale through my nose. This day is going to suck.

I feel like shit, I look like shit and my mood is shit. Oh yeah, I am at good start today. This is nothing new, if anything this is just a repetition of what life was like before. Minus the working on a ship in the storm with mythic creatures. Everything just seems so pointless and I mean more than just this trip. It feels like everything that I have ever done in my life was worthless and it is true. What the hell did I ever do in my life that made any difference in anything? All my life was wasted on things that have no value anymore, no meaning in this world. All that time spent worrying and pursuing things that I thought actually mattered, waisted years of youth. I starved myself by barely eating anything good and avoiding junk food, sweets and any other crap that people like. It is always the bad stuff and the things that will kill you that tastes good and feels good. All those things done and avoided so that I could have a good appealing figure, so that I would not be like all those fat disgusting cows that I see every time I leave the apartment. Being lean, athletic or muscular were the ideal body type's that everyone always wants and many strive for. It is considered to be one of the most desirable characteristics. Except that this view was not true and could almost be said to be bullshit especially when I notice really, really hot girls going out with ugly, skinny and or fat guys who look like they will role over if some tougher looking guy comes up and starts trouble. What was the appeal? What possible reasons could people have for making such strange and foolish decisions? I could not see it and I definitely could not understand it. Hours spent every seven days a week exercising and using excruciatingly hard techniques my personal trainer thought me that I named suicides because that is what they made me want to do when I exercised. After each suicide I followed with a regiment of different types of exercises, fitting in every major muscle group. Having followed this regiment for years it eventually lead up to my muscles growing and not feeling as much pain. I was really something back then, I had a great body even though I never thought that it was good enough, my mind was in the right place, everything about me was what everyone wanted and I do not care how narcissistic this sounds. It was all true. I have spent years of my youth and free time on such pursuits, even though never really getting much out of it. Never settling for me possibly being just like any other average asshole. No television, nothing that most would consider their average source of entertainment and relaxing time. No cheep fried food or sweets so that I would not add up the pounds or get even an ounce of extra fat. No drinking so that I do not loose any brain cells and act like a retard as so many others do when they get drunk, this is a bad excuse by the way due to the fact that on average we loose about a hundred thousand brain cells a day anyway. All those times going into bars and lounges now seem like wasted opportunities. Hell, I was cheap as fuck to myself; I did not waist money on my self or the things that I wanted. Always reasoning that I did not need any of those things, that the joy I would get out of them would be temporary and that I would regret for waisting my money. The knives were exceptions because pocket money for me was twenty or less dollars.

Exercise, reading, self improvement and any other small things that I enjoyed and did for one reason or another. Having all of my years worth of hard work lost in just a few months, well it hurts. It really fucking hurts. Knowing all of that really makes me angry. No, not just angry, I am fucking furious! I want to break something, smash through a wall, to kill something! Anything! And yet I just sit here in this makeshift mini cafeteria raging in my head while my body is calm with no sign of any distress. Why the hell do I bother with trying to keep myself in check? For these freaking chicken/cat hybrids? I actually wish they would start a fight, annoy me or anything else that would allow me to beat the shit out of one of them. Even in my anger, I can not stop thinking rationally. Sometimes I just want to go in to a blinding fit of rage with no thinking, not concerning myself with the consequences or the outcomes from it. I am even deprived of something as simple as anger, because I cannot stop thinking clearly unless I am either too freaking tired, malnourished or some other shit. If I start a fight or any kind of trouble then I will only make things worse for myself.

What is the point of anything anymore? I am but a husk of what I once was, I am nothing now. I am less than nothing. I always knew the truth, hell I even admitted it myself. I am waste of potential. I could have become anything if I really wanted, do anything, achieve anything. And yet all of that potential was waisted. My parents knew it, and I think that out of all the things that I have ever done to make them upset they were most disappointed by that fact. To know that something really amazing could have beed done and yet never utilized out of sheer stupidity and laziness. That is what I am, an insult to their whole lives. I wish I was never born. All of my anger and rage has changed into depression and disappointment. Great, now I think my depression is coming back and my headache might be making an encore appearance. It is like the universe decided to give me one strong kick right between my legs and the then left the foot there.

“Hey blondie. How's your morning?” I felt a hand on my shoulder as those words came out. Blondie? Where the hell do people always get blond from? My hair is light brown, not blond! I hate it when people say that I am blond, something to do with how the light hits my hair and makes it look blond. I turn to look at the one who has his claw on me. I do not know what he saw on my face however it was apparently enough to make the guy's eyes widen and an almost scared look appear o his face. I do not think that I was scowling too much or bearing my teeth at him, then again I do not feel much of anything at the moment.

“Uh, s-sorry about that. Um, nice mane style?” Mane? Really? It is rather pathetic to see them so worried that they might piss me off or something. It is as if they are not confident in themselves or they forgot the fact that they outnumber me. Hell, they have eagle claws and the mass of a lion (I think) and all I have are arms and legs. Plus the weapons that I am not really supposed to have on the ship.

“It is called a hairstyle and I am not blond. It only looks like that.” I could explain how my hair looks differently because of the lighting, however I do not feel like going into a small lecture about such simple things.

“Ok... so..hows your morning?” Does he not have anything better to do then to pester me in the freaking morning when it is obvious that I do not want to talk right now? What am I thinking? Anything less of me either having to scream at his face or spelling it out will not work. I think that I preferred when they were still cautious around me and kept their distance. At least then I did not have to talk to them.

“Tiresome.”

“Yea. After last night I just fell down on my bed like a sack of bricks.” And just like that his mood is suddenly all happy again. How did he do that? Meh, who cares. Sack of bricks? Do bricks ever come in sacks? Is that even a real expression? And if he obviously knows how tired I am then why the fuck would he bother me?

“Hey, if we are all tired and the rest are sleeping. Then why is breakfast being made now?” If the guy feels like talking and wasting my time, then he should at least say something of value.

“Well you can thank mister 'I don’t work on the deck' over there,” He points with a mocking sneer at the chef behind the counter who is seemingly oblivious to our conversation. “he didn’t have to go help out last night so he slept through the whole night. And he has this rule where if you don’t make it to breakfast on time then you only get whats leftover.” Huh, sound like someone from the military. I would sometimes go for days without eating so skipping a meal or two would not really be a big deal for me.

“Yes!” The chef suddenly spoke out loudly, some griff's got startled and turned to him. “And for those of you who decided to wake up get to eat all the fresh pancakes you want.” Apparently he was not as unaware to our little conversation as I have thought. Those words seem to lighten up the mood as smiles and small cheers came out from the griffins present, so that is what he was cooking. Not bad, almost makes up for not sleeping enough. I have not eaten any pancakes for a vary long time. And since it is all you can eat then I guess this gives me an excuse to pig out. Might as well, not like I am going to get any better at any time soon.

“Trav, why are you sitting there all alone for? Come here and hang with us.” Beak calls out siting with the rest while the guy who had his claw on my should walks off and sits down with the rest of the small group.

Their eyes have a look of hope I think, and a little doubt. Hard to tell. Is it too much to ask to be left alone? Hell, I did not get this much attention back home as I do here. You would think that if the guys are cautious around me they would stay away and give me my space, well apparently not. This is mostly Beak's and Fuma's fault, their friendly attitude is rubbing off on the rest. Might as well, maybe their stupid cartoon faces and antics will lift up my mood. Probably not.

“Sure.” I try to keep my voice deep and calm. Getting up and walking over to the group, Beak moves to his left to make some space for me as the guy next to him follows his example. I was going to sit at the edge or slightly further to them. Now I am almost in the middle, this would usually be rather awkward in some other situation. Apparently not in this one.

“Hey what you do to your mane?” Beak asks as I sit down. Well I saw that one coming.

“It is called hair and I braided it so that it would not get in my eyes.” I place my right elbow on the table and my head on my hand. This is feels repetitive.

“You look kinda weird like that.” One griffin sitting opposite from me spoke up.

“It is only temporary.” I do not even bother to look at anyone particularly.

“Why not just cut it if it gets in your eyes?” Another one spoke up from besides me as two of the others nodded their heads.

“Because I do not feel like it. It is only for a short time anyway.”

“Ready! Come and get some!” Right when I was just about to close my eyes, the chef spoke out form behind the counter. Again, getting up along with the rest, we quickly form a small line at the counter as the chef gives out the food.

“When you're done, don’t be shy and come for more. Doesn’t' matter if it is seconds or twenty-thirds.” The cook call out as he gives the tray's with food to each griffin. Twenty-thirds? That is sorta funny. I am not certain, however I think that I am smiling.I can not really tell, does not mater. My turn comes up and he hands over the tray with a smile.

“Hope you like the pancakes.” I can not really be angry at him for something that he has nothing to do or be involved with. I give him an honest smile, or at least I try to as I take the tray

“Thank you, I will.” He smiles even more back as I move to the table and sit down. The cartoon pancakes look like what you would expect cartoon pancakes to look like. There are five of them stacked on top of each other on my plate along with a fork and a butter knife on the tray. One of the griffins who got his meal first took a bottle of syrup and placed it on the table for everyone. I could definitely use the glucose for my brain. Taking the bottle and pouring a generous amount of it on the pancakes, I cut a piece off and try it. Ignoring the fact that this is some cartoon drawing that I am eating, the pancake tastes delicious. It really was a long time since I had something like this. I close my eyes and savor the taste as I chew the piece. It almost makes me want to sigh in pleasure, almost. Opening my eyes I see that one of the griffins at the far end left corner is looking at me with a raised eyebrow. Once he realized that I was not amused, he quickly turns back to his plate with haste. Little bitch.

I continue to eat as the rest of the griffins get off the line, take their seats and begin to eat. As always conversation arises in between bites amongst the others, I don not pay attention to them. Food, something that most never really think about beyond the prospect of what they are going to eat or at what specific time and place. I almost never feel hunger, even during my time in the forest. Yet I wonder about what things I will never be able to eat or ever try again. Some foods cannot be made without the proper equipment, or at least not vary well. Not that I could make any of them even if I wanted. Besides some basic food recipes and barbeque preparations there is not much else that I could do. I was raised on my grandmother's cooking, everything she ever made always tasted great. And it was homemade so it was not that big of a deal when considering what I eat. That is something that I will miss. While on the topic of my grandmother, how is she? How is my mother doing? Maybe they finally made some peace with one another after such a life changing event. How have things changed if at all? Probably nothing has changed, the world keeps on spinning regardless of who dies or disappears in my case. How did my parent take my sudden disappearance? I think we were on good terms for that week so I did not leave with an argument behind or any hurt feelings. That would have caused guilt for my parents as situations like these stereotypically do. Was there an investigation? Had to be, my parents would have raised hell itself to find me. Kind of makes things worse after knowing that. Oh crap. I did not delete my internet history in a long time. I just hope the police I.T. guy who goes through my pc does not feel the need to reveal to my parents just what is on it. Probably will, what a fucking asshole. Now I know that I probably broke my parents hearts even more. Well, maybe my grandmother's. Mom already knew about the shit on my computer. Still wish I could have deleted it or even better, throw the whole damn thing out the fucking window with no chance of survival. That would have been way better.

As I ea, some small peaces of conversation are heard from the griffins talking amongst themselves. Mostly about the food and yesterdays weather.

“Boy that was some storm last night! I sure wish we had some time to put on our raincoats before running out into it...” The rest became irrelevant as the mention of raincoats became my the subject of my thoughts. They had raincoats on the ship... You have got to be fucking kidding me. I went out into the storm and exposed my self to the possibility of getting sick only to realize that they could have given me a fucking raincoat?! There could have been easily a spare so there would not be any bullshit as why I could not have gotten one. Alright fine, lets not loose it right now. They were all in a hurry and everyone got hit by the rain so nobody was getting off. The idea that there could have been some protection form the rain and water just makes it... uhh just freaking annoying.

I finish eating my food and while I do feel rather satisfied, I could definitely go for some more. I get up, pick up my tray and walk back to a new forming line of griffins waiting for seconds. My turn comes up quickly as everyone gets what they want and goes back to sit down.

“So you do like them. I am glad, come back again for as much as you want.” A new stack is placed on on my plate.

“They are delicious. Thank you.” Going back to my seat, taking the bottle again and pouring syrup I continue to gorge myself with the delicious food. The subject of the raincoats is easily left behind as the notion of great food takes precedence. Where will my mind wander to now? What exactly will I do once the ship arrives at it's destination? What will I have to deal with once there? I am well aware that there will be looks from the locals and I can not blame them, it is not every day that you see something completely foreign to you. My sword and other weapons might get me into trouble. I do not know the laws and customs of the gryphon lands. Carrying a sword may be illegal or I might need some special papers or permission. That is something I need to investigate before we arrive, Gazer is due for a visit today. However he was with the rest of us on the deck all night and he barely gets any sleep as it is. Perhaps later in the day when he is rested. Then again, some of the more talkative crew members might be willing to inform me about such things. Perhaps a certain gryphon who seems to have a reputation for walking in to walls face first. From what little I know about him, he lives where I am going and he is more than willing to partake in a conversation. Slightly bit more eager for my taste however it can not be helped. With that in mind, I should not ask him about weapon laws anywhere near the others so that they may not overhear some things that do not concern them. I will have to wait when he is done eating and away from the rest. What will I have to deal with in the long run? There is no point in even trying to believe in any delusions of a simple life, things are just too different for any kind of simplicity. I think that this is what most people overlook when they think about going to other worlds or Equestria in this particular example. Out of boredom I have read my fare share of online fan fiction and other crap. The human, mostly male with an age from mid-teens to mid-twenty's, usually giving a vague physical description, sometimes made to be anonymous so that the readers could pretend that they are that character or something. Ending up either in Ponyville or Canterlot with or without a specific reason. For some weird reason having the main six character involved instead of some random other individual or maybe even someone that was actually trained to communicate with foreign countries like a diplomat. Some small issues arise, then things start going on about in making a life and then all the other bullshit. What I found rather interesting is that the writer often assumes that a good life in this new world can actually be made for that human. This is a different world, for all intense and superposes it is nothing like the earth from which they came. The idea that the ponies or whatever would just accept a human being, some creature that they never even seen yet alone heard of, after some time or some “good deed” is just not vary plausible. The whole love and tolerance thing is crap. To tolerate does not mean that they have to like it, they just have to not show their distaste so obviously. In order to make the whole acceptance thing happen on such a massive scale would literally would have to be done by something outside of humanity to even come near the idea. Which obviously they were created to be portrayed that way. Sure there are the assholes in those stories who are meant to be the antagonists with closed minded tendencies, however in reality those assholes are the normal ones and are more common. In reality, any average human being will never fit in into that world, never truly be a part of it or be one of them. The transformation stories leave out so many issues that come with that, like would a whole population really accept something that was once a different being. Maybe some, however most would not. Hell, the more brighter ones would chastise the being for abandoning his species, betraying who and what he once was. The best anyone could ever hope for in those situations is that the population would eventually forget about the differences and get used to them. That is nor realistic nor possible, not even in a world that was made for it. Enough of that, never really liked most of the stories anyway.

I should have asked the cook if he had any coffee, I am beginning to thirst for something warm. Even if he does have coffee I like to drink mine with milk and sugar and those things are probably not present on this ship. Tea would be nice, I have not had that for some time. I will ask after my meal is complete and maybe even go for another serving. I really should not over eat, yesterday was a good indication that my body is not used to large quantities of food so soon. Those manticore pieces were rich in proteins, in reality they could have caused more damage then a simple stomach ache. The manticore, I still have its fangs in my jacket. And now I want to take one out and examine it up close. What would happen if I showed them to someone, however why would I? Revealing them and telling how I got them would serve no purpose other than to show off and probably make them even more curious and cautious around me. Or even consider me a threat and take up arms against me. Not worth the trouble.

When I really think about everything regarding my whole situation, I find it all to be rather depressing. Not just how things are in this world, however how my life was like before my arrival here. A rather unpleasant past year overall. Getting depressed for a whole year with no known reason or cause, having a constant feeling of tiredness and lethargy following me day after day. It had gotten so bad that my school work had started to take atoll on me. To an extend where I could not even find a reason to bother with getting up in the morning. I got … in trouble at college that year. The fallout of that haunts me even to this day regardless of how far away I am from it all. That is nothing new to me, I always remember my past mistakes, humiliations and moments that are just down right fucked up. Usually those memories come out suddenly and without warning followed by a hollow feeling in my stomach and some strong flinching in the shoulders. I guess I am just disappointed at how things turned out. I was not an angel nor a down right asshole scumbag by any means, however I definitely did not deserve something like this to happen to me. It all starts with one thing then you just stand back to see how the time swings by, turning moments into days as the clock tick's life away. That is how it is for most people, some try to change things, make them better, fight for something more in life. I certainly have tried and alright, I will admit it that sometimes I have succeeded so it is not all that bad and depressing. Only thing is that the times that I or anyone else for that matter have won do not really add up in the long run and when counting up the score, almost everyone losses in the end. I tried, I really did try to hold on however it just feels like I have wasted it all. And now I am holding on to that memory of a time I tried so hard. No point in thinking about such things anymore, it does not really matter. Not anymore.

Why me? That is one of the many questions that has plagued me for some time now. Out of all the people that his could have happened to why me? I certainly never thought that something like this would happen or even could happen in my lifetime. How many people would have wished to be in my spot right now? People who so pathetically dream and beg for such a thing to happen to them. Those are the poor sad bastards that should be allowed for something like this to happen to. And maybe... not necessarily the bad experiences. Maybe some poor weaklings who's lives are just shit, with hopelessness and sadness drowning them on a daily basis. For them to go out into a cartoon world like what they saw on the show and let them have the false happiness they so desperately desire. A world where the sun bitch would grant them a home and give them a life that they always wanted. I feel no pity for such people, pathetic weaklings who could not stand the pressure of the world and had succumbed to being nothing, doorstops or just some foot-mats for those who would step on them. And yet, out of all the people who deserve to go to other worlds for better lives it is them that should have that possibility. The weak, the sad and the poor. I am not one of those, I am nothing like those people. I do not deserve to be here.

“Oh that was good! I am so full!” My thoughts are interrupted by some jackass exclaiming loudly. Many of the others nod and agree with his statement, as though anyone really cares for others opinions about such things. At least I am not thinking about the past or any depressing thoughts anymore, my mood is shit as it is. No point in making it any worse.

Finishing the last of my meal, I get up again and go to the counter. It seems as though some of the sleeping crew members have woken up and are now enjoying whatever they can get. There is no one at the line as I near to it.

“Back for more?” The cook... Marks! That is his name, comes up to the other side of the counter.

“No, I think that I am full. Thank you.” Placing the tray on the counter. “Is there a chance that you would have any coffee or maybe tea to drink?”

“Oh, sorry no. We ran out of both of them a couple day's ago before you came up. We didn’t restock any of it because we were not far away from our next docking spot. It would have been cheeper to buy all of them there than in any of Equestria's ports. We have some soda left if you like?” Well that was rather informative, even if I only asked if he had any coffee or tea. When was the last time I drank any soda? I think it was two or three years ago, no point in breaking that record.

“No thanks. Can I have some water?”

“Of course! One moment.” He quickly takes out a glass and a bottle of water. Pouring in water to the top, he hands me the glass. The water is not transparent, it almost never is. Instead is a light blue color. And yet it tastes as water does, perhaps I should be surprised that I have not gone mad yet. Then again, who is to say that I am not already insane.

“Thank you. You need any help?” I should still try to make myself useful, at least for decency.

“Oh no, no, no. No work for you today, go and rest. I heard that last night was vary hard.” Well I did ask and now I have time to myself. Except that I have nothing to do with it.

“As you will. Thank you for the breakfast.”

“Your welcome.”

It seems that Beak is still eating and talking with the rest. He sees me and waves his hand at me, I acknowledge it with a nod and leave the room. What should I do now? I will not be able to sleep for a long time and with food in my system it would be even harder to try and sleep, at least right now I do not feel as bad as I previously had. Some fresh air would be good for me, to clear out my thoughts. A short walk up to the deck and I see that the sun has risen already. It is weird, the idea that the one who forsaken me to a forest that promises death (or at least made to seem like it did) rises the sun over my head. I never liked the sun, it annoys me to no end. At least now I have a face to go with my annoyance. I wish that Chrysalis had killed her when she had the chance. Oh well, nothing can be done about that now. The deck is covered in some big puddles, just enough to leave an indication that there was rain. I walk up the right side of the ship and lean forward on the railing. The air is filled with salt as the ocean has calmed down greatly since last night. There are some clouds that cover parts of the sky, the colors are horribly sharp with no sigh of blending or shading. Not to mention that they are too close to ground level, at this elevations the clouds would not be able to sustain their form and would have condensed in to water. And just like before this world ignores physics and gives it the middle finger.

I guess I could try and actually relax seeing as how I have nothing else to do. Maybe draw something, I have not done that for some time. I wonder, if I were to draw one of the gryphons would the drawing be close enough to be almost like a photo for them? It would be less of a drawing and more of a tracing of something that I see. It might answer the question of how they see themselves, as the cartoon world looks like or maybe something else. I would need a subject to draw, it would take maybe a minute however I would need him to stay still for that. My best bet for that is in the cafeteria, although coming back there will definitely result in me being observed as I obviously draw something. I swear it gets awkward every time I am in the same room with a large number of them. It does not matter, I just need to hold on for a short time more and then it will be over. Maybe I should just draw some random pony and see how they react to that, it should produce the same results anyway so who cares. Taking out the paper that I wrote on from before, I consider of getting a pencil. The ink in the pen is not unlimited and a pencil could at least be easily replaced when it is all used up. That would mean I would have to ask Gazer and he is currently either still sleeping or stuffing his face with the rest of them. Great, now I have to wait for some time. At least I am left alone and not bothered right now.

The sound of the doors opening reaches my ears. Turning to the door, I see Beak walking in with a searching look in his eyes. As he notices me he smiles and lightly runs up to me, he seems a little too exited to see me. So much for being left alone.

“Hey I found you. Why are you here?”

“Had nowhere better to go. Is there something you wanted?”

“Just thought that you might want a little company to talk to,” Oh how wrong you are. “Why didn’t you go to the barracks or the engine room?” Because there was nothing there except heat and some sleeping crew members.

“I felt like breathing in some fresh air”

“Oh, ok.”

Silence follows his last word and I have no intention of changing it. Beak walks up to my right side and takes up a forward leaning position on the railing like me. Nothing is being said and the only sound audible is the ocean below us, it is nice.

It is strange, how I always find him trying to be nice to me. Maybe it is the paranoia however I find his behavior towards me to be rather suspicious. Could he have an ulterior motive for wanting to interact with me? Is he just playing the fool so is to not arouse suspicion? Or am I just getting myself worked up over nothing? Forget it, just drop the topic.
While he is here I could use the opportunity to ask the questions about the sword and other things. He looks like he would welcome the conversation.

“What can you tell me about Avias?”

“Its an average sized city, although most would confuse it for a town because they only first see the docks and the houses near them. The real city goes on up to the mountains where the old homes are.” A city near the mountains, I can only guess as to what kind of style the houses are built in. It is probably an old city that started a long time ago, so there are probably not manny tall buildings or even sky scrapers.

“Are there any laws regarding weapons like sword or anything like that?” That question caused him to raise his right eyebrow. Does that even count as an eyebrow? I mean his face is covered in feathers so why or how would he have... I am doing it again, damn it. I have got to stop thinking about these things.

“Not that I know of any, only the guards cary around swords or spears. Why do you ask?” Well that answer is not vary satisfying, Gazer might be of better use for that question.

“Just curious. So, what are you going to do when you get back home?” A quick change of topic to throw him off from any possible suspicions he might start to develop, although something tells me that he is not really capable of forming any suspicions from what I can tell about spending time with him.
“Oh nothing much, I'm going to catch up with some old friends and neighbors about how things were going while I was away. Maybe later go over to my parents home to see how they are doing. Probably meet up with my sister later and things like that.” Apparently my little change of topic was effective enough.

“Thats nice.” And once again the deck became quiet. I could ask him about the points of interest regarding the city, he should at least know know that seeing as how he lives there. Although there might not be much of a point in that. Even if he did tell me I doubt that I would go to many of those places, or even care about them. I do want to go to the library if the city has one, it should have one. I want to see the worlds history and science books, just get myself familiar with the worlds past and level of knowledge. Or maybe just try to understand the the current events of the world and see how it came up to be what it is. Maybe I could find regarding the alicorns, the show did not really give much on that topic. Then again the show was never really meant to be dissected to such an extent. It was meant for the entertainment of small children with no questions asked regarding the structure of its world.
So many things too look up with plenty of time and almost no way of reading the books. Maybe I will find one of those old book reading professors who love to answer questions whenever someone asks them, if I am lucky.

“So... what do you think of the ship and rest of the guys?” Beaks voice brought me out of my thoughts, he is looking over the ocean in the same leaning position as he was before.

“The ship is fine, the rest are alright too. Why do you ask?”

“Its just that a lot of the guys feel like you have been giving them the cold shoulder. You were so quiet the whole time you were here and you always look like you’re angry at something.” More like angry at everything.

“I did not exactly have a good week before this.” Not really all that bad except for the insomnia and manticore attack. Could have been worse.

“What happened?”

“Shi-stuff happened.” Damn it, I thought that I was better then that. Almost said something that could have been problematic. Great, now I have to censor my self. This is kindergarden all over again.

“What kind of stuff?”

“Nothing important, just some annoying things I had to take care of. Don’t worry about it.” I wonder what would be his reaction to me telling him that I had killed a manticore in the Everfree forest. Would he be offended because he is kind of related to it due to the whole lion part thing? That would be interesting to see. “How much longer before we reach the city?”

“Well the storm last night actually pushed us further to where we are going to, so we will be there even faster. Maybe in a couple of hours.” He shrugged as he said that.

“Cool.” He turned to look at me when I said that. Probably did not expect that from me. “What?”

“Nothing. I just didn’t expect you to say something like that.” Called it. That actually made me smile. Enough so that he would notice and start smiling himself. I cannot really say that this trip was all that bad, almost. Eh, who am I kidding? It was horrible.

A moment passes by before beak turns to me and asks.

“Say I kind of wanted to ask you something. What does that red R on your strange bag or whatever it is there stand for?” He points his left claw at my belt bag. The anarchy styled letter R patch that I had gotten some time ago back home. It was just something I sewed on my belt bag because I liked how it looked. It was actually from a video game that while I enjoyed had received some bad reviews. It had free running, guns and a post apocalypse oriented story. Who does not like games like that?

“Resistance.”

“Resistance? Against what?” Confusion and curiosity is clear in his voice so such an extent that I do not even need to turn to look at him to know that he looks confused.

“Resistance against oppression, tyranny and anything else that forces others against their will.” Some dramatic words for the hell of it, not like many people actually try to live up to the symbols that they carry on themselves. If anything people only walk around with a bunch of signs from a video game because they think that the signs and symbols look cool. Although I agree with the notion to fight against those who try to take away freedom form others and oppress the people. I hate those who think they are stronger and powerful then others enough to terrorize and hurt people. Hate enough to kill them.

“Wow. That is deep. Are you like a soldier or something?” How the hell was any of that deep? He is looking at me with a big smile and wide eyes, a look of... expectation I think? I am not a soldier, not even close. I do not really think that I could ever be a soldier, I have issues with authority and people telling me what to do. Now that I think about it, I have a really long history of that. I could just lie and tell him I am a soldier or something, then again what would be the point? All I am now is just a traveler who can fight and probably will do somethings for money that uses my skills. Does that not make me a mercenary? I am getting full of my self, just because I killed a few things here and there does not make me into some badass mercenary. Eh, who cares?

“Something like that.”

“That is so cool! I bet you have like a ton of awesome stories to tell!” Ah shit, I should have just kept my mouth shut. This is what I get for talking when I should have just stayed quiet and not draw attention. Well, at least try to draw less attention then I already am.

“No, not really.” He looks slightly disappointed before his face light up again.

“Well I bet you do.” He is almost like a child arguing about him being right regarding something even if he is wrong. It is almost like he is daring me to say that I do not so that we could go back and forth at it like little kids.

“Whatever.” Let him think whatever he wants, it is not like I will have to care for such things much longer.

As we stand there, the minutes go by and some griffins come out on to the deck. The sunlight is starting to annoy me so I take out my sunglasses and put them on. The weather seems decent and not too cold, although these things tend to change rapidly and without warning so I better be careful. I wonder if Gazer is awake and if he had eaten anything yet. Might as well go and see, it would give me something to do. Standing up at full hight I turn around.

“I am going to go see how the captain is doing. See you later.” I walk to the door as his voice called out.

“See ya!”

Through the door and down the stairs to the captains door I walk. Taking off my glasses and placing them in my pocket, I knock on the door three times. It seems as though he is either sleeping or already eating, this leaves me with nothing much else to do. I guess then that I will have to wait for my rubber band and pencil some what longer. Unless Beak might have one, I should have ask him before. Turning around and starting to walk back up to the the deck I hear the door behind me being opened. Looking back I see Gazer opening the door and looking at me.

“Morning. You knocked?” He does not seem tired or irritated that I am here, nor does his voice carry any edge of agitation or tiredness.

“Good morning, sorry if I am bothering you.”

“No no, it is alright. Is there something you wanted?”

“You wouldn’t happen to have any rubber bands and a pencil that I could borrow, would you?”

“I don’t know about the rubber bands, Im going to have to go and take a look. And I have a pencil you could use. What do you need them for?” He scratched his head with his left claw as he spoke.

“The rubber band is for tying up my hair and the pencil is just for some small writing.” I do not think that telling him that I want to draw would help in me getting a pencil from him. He most likely uses them for drawing courses and mapping out shipping routs.

“Your hair?” A confused look appears on his face, I point toward my head. His attention goes up to my head as he notices my current hairstyle. His face takes on a rather strange look of either curiosity or surprise, or maybe both it is hard to tell.

“Your mane or hair looks like its tied up already. And why would you need to tie it up anyway?”

“My hair is long and it gets into my eyes. Besides, the braid I made will not hold for long, I need something more long term like a rubber band.”

“If its long then why not just cut it off?” Great, it is just like back home where everyone used to tell me to go and cut my hair. I am probably going to be hearing that a lot more later on.

“Because I like having my hair long.” He rubs his chin or the bottom of his beak or whatever. Then he shrugs his shoulders.

“Alright come in and give me a moment while look for some.” He turns back to his office as I walk inside.

“Close the door will you.”

“Sure.” Closing the door behind me I see Gazer looking through his desk drawers. A good opportunity for me to ask him some questions while he is doing that. “I was told that we are going to be near Avias soon.”

“Yes, the storm helped us push the ship in the right direction. We should be there in a few hours.” Good to know, although the idea of arriving on a different country that I have no knowledge of does leave me with some concerns that I should have probably addressed earlier. “I saw you on the bridge last night. You did great work out there, makes me feel bad for not paying you.” The compliment came out of nowhere. Not exactly great work if all I did was pull on ropes along with the others.

“Do not worry about it, it is fine. We already talked about this.” He simply hummed in agreement as he continued to open drawers and look inside. Back to the questions.

“Are there any weapon laws that I should be aware of?” That made him look up from the current desk rummaging. “Namely the ones concerning my sword.”

“You should be fine as long as you don’t go about waving it around others or causing any trouble.” Not exactly an assuring answer.

“Should be?”

“Im not gonna lie to you. Your looks are definitely going to get you noticed and having a sword with you is not going to make things any better. The guards might just pay more attention to you , but as long as you mind your own business and stay clear of any trouble then you should be fine.” He did not say anything that was new to me, I already know what to expect. At least he is giving decent advise.

“There you go! Found one.” He takes out a simple white greyish rubber band from his desk drawer and hands it to me. It seems to be about twice as thick then a usual ribber band so it should last longer and not break too easily.

“Thank you.”

“Your welcome.”

Unwinding the already loose braided hair, I take the makeshift hair scrunchie and begin to tie it. The issue with rubber bands is that because of the rubber texture they often make it uncomfortable to tie hair with them. Instead of tying up my entire hair, I only tie up the top portion of my front into a pony tail so that the back remains free and the hair would not get into my face and eyes. With that done I will not have to worry about my hair for some time now. Gazer was standing and watching the whole time while I was tying my hair. I honestly do not know what could possibly be so interesting for him to look at how I fix my hair. He had to have seen hundreds of ponies with different hairstyles so this should not really be all that new to him.

“Huh. That looks a little better, although I still think you should probably get that cut.” He comments before returning to look back into his desk drawers.

“I will consider it.” Probably not. Gazer takes out a pencil from the first drawer and hands it to me. A simple cartoon light brown colored pencil with an eraser on top. The pencils tip is blunt and it is thicker near the end rather then near the base from where led comes out. The pencil itself is about twice the usual of an average pencil, probably so that they would not bee too hard to hold for ponies, griffins and whatever else uses pencils. Not as sharp I am used to for drawing, then again an electronic sharpener tends to make better work then the old small pencil sharpeners that were before. This pencil will have to do for me to waste some time before the ship arrives to Avias.

“Thank you.” Apparently that one question regarding the weapons was all that I had. I cannot think of any good questions right now for me to ask. The majority would involve history and some background information about the world, which I am guessing would seem rather strange if not suspicious to the captain, the library at Avias might be my best bid for that information. Although he might not really care seeing as how he had given me passage on his ship regardless of what I am and accepting the fact that I did not give him my real name. No, it is better that I do not risk it. Everyone has their limits and I am not in the mood to try and find out what might be his.

“Your welcome. Anything else I can help you with?”

“No, thank you. That is all I need.”

“You sure? How about some paper for your 'small writing'?” He actually did the quote signs with his claws as he mentioned the small writing. He saw through my lie, I guess he is more clever then I originally thought.

“Yes...I could use some more paper.” Might as well get more space to draw something and pass the time faster. He pull out one sheet from under a stack of papers on his desk before passing it on to me.

“Here, next time don’t be shy about it and tell me what you want. Oh and you can keep the pencil.” He smiles to me as he says those words. It seems strange to me how he though that I was being shy. If anything I was trying to be polite and not bother him. It does not mater now. I got a free pencil so now I will not have to buy or steal one later.

“Thank you very much.” A smile to show my gratitude.

“Don’t mention it and don't forget we will be docking soon so you should probably get ready for that.” Not like I have all that much to do except pick up my things and leave.

“Will do and thank you again. I will see you later then.”

“See you around, ” With that being said and done, I might as well go.

Leaving the room and closing the door I head back up on to the deck. The sun is too bright for my liking so I put on my glasses again. There are five griffins on the deck, they hanging out and talking by the mast. I notice that Beak is amongst them and has not seen me seeing as how his back is facing me. Since they are just standing and talking they make for good drawing subjects. Now I just need to find a good place from where I can draw. The deck floor still looks like it is wet so sitting on it may not be a good idea and going anywhere near them would just make it too troublesome with their curiosity and possibly apprehensive behavior about me. The corner near the ship where I can see them looks like the best location. I can lean on the rails if the floor there is too damp. Walking over to it I find the floor to be not all that bad, good enough to sit without having to worry about any wet stains on my ass afterwards. Without a hard surface the pencil and paper that are still in my hand would be rather hard to use properly. I am going to have to use one of my thighs as a surface like I used to do back home whenever I needed a place to draw. Placing the paper on my right thigh I look on at the still talking griffins. I am going to have to be vary careful so that I do not puncture the paper with the pencil. The pencil head is too blunt for me to make smooth lines, I am partially tempted to take out a knife and try to sharpen the tip; however that would be foolish seeing as how it would be an unnecessary risk. Simply make do with what I have. It is not hard to draw what I see, mostly because how they are just basic cartoon figures. Anyone can trace simple things like these especially if they are lacking any concrete details. The pencil is rather annoying and I will have to darker in the outlines once I am done. I am not even relying on any art skill at the moment, just copying what I am seeing. It is good that they are not moving around that much as it makes it easier to trace faster. Since I am doing that might as well give the drawing a background and add in the ships mast, floor, nearby ropes and railings. And just like that I have a nearly identical image on the paper. Erasing and correcting any irregularities, I stand up and use the railing for a better surface to correct any other mistakes as well as darker the outlines. Now to just get someones opinion. I do not want to walk up and ask the griffins on the deck, they may not like the idea of me drawing them without them knowing and if it is nothing like what how they perceive their reality then the responses will not be too full of criticism. For all I know they could probably think that the drawing was extremely cartoony and nothing at all close to what is their reality. Better to ask one of them that is not going to overreact or ridicule me. Gazer is probably busy with work again and I do not want to annoy the guy anymore, Marks was nice however I do not really know what his reaction could be, Fuma and Beak are the best choices. Beak is still talking and I do not know where Fuma is, most likely in the engine room.

As I turn to leave for the cabin door, I hear the sound of two sets of feet walking behind me. That and the voice of a rather familiar character.

“Hey Trav, you came back. That was quick.” Not quick enough. Turning around I see Beak walking over to me. The others by the mast seem to continue on with their conversation and not paying any attention to me or Beak. He must have excused himself to come to me. Why would he do that?

“Yea.”

“So did you get to talk to the captain? Did you do something with your mane again? It looks a little different now.” I did not really think that he would be attentive enough to notice that. Then again why would he be paying attention to the slight differences in my appearance? Alien, right. Dumb question. If you see a new creature or species then you are definitely going to be noticing the changes that go about of it.

“Yes, I got to talk to him. And it is not a mane, it is called hair. I tied up the top portion of it so it would not get in my eyes.” Since he is already here and the others are not paying attention, I could go about with my experiment. Strange how this whole situation ends up getting solved by itself. It is rather convenient, a little too convenient.

“It looks good.” If this is his attempt at flattery then he first needs more practice and second a different target because I do not care for such things. However, I guess he does deserve some points for trying.

“Thanks. Hey, can you do something for me?”

“Yea, sure. What is it?” He appears to be rather enthusiastic with helping me.

“Here” I stretch out my hand with the drawing and hand it to him. “What do you think? Any good?” I cannot just ask him if it looks real to him or not, what kind of question would that be. I need him think that this is just a critique of a drawing so that whatever the answer may be it should at least give me a clue if it is close to his reality or not.

“Wow! That looks really good, its almost like a photo. You drew this?” I did not need to wait long for his response as he just starts of talking about it as soon as he saw it. And there is my answer, The reality that I am seeing is in fact the reality of this universe and dimension. I am literally trapped in a cartoon world, at least now I know for sure that this is what they see.

“Yes, I got bored so I drew whatever caught my eye.”

“This is really good. You'r really talented, are you an artist?” Talented, yea right. All I did was trace out whatever I saw in front of me. My artwork back then was by no means great or amazing, it was just something that I liked doing once in a while. I did not really get recognized for it, my work was never the that great of a level. Sure there were some people who liked my art and said that it was amazing, however I sometimes wish to have a bigger audience tell me that. Drawing was just one of the manny things in my life that I liked doing, however it was also one of those things that would have never paid off in my future. I tried many different things in my life and they were never amazing. Good and great once in a while, however that is about as far as it went. Not that I ever really cared or gave much thought about it, it is just the way things were and probably still are. Makes me rather disappointed for not being able learn how to make amazing digital art like in the internet websites. I never had the opportunity to learn it and I had no one to teach me. Just one more thing to add to the list of personal disappointments and failures.

“No, just something I do once in a while.”

“Well its really good.”

“Thanks. You can keep it if you want.” Not like I need it anymore.

“Really? Thanks! Im going to show this to the guys.” Whatever, it really does not matter how the rest might perceive the drawing.

“Sure, go ahead.” With that he ran off to the others who are still standing and talking by the mast. Now what do I am I going to do? Maybe just walk around or sit down alone somewhere.

“Land Ho!!” A sudden scream from above made me quickly turn my head up while bending my knees and raising my hands in preparation of an attack. On the top sails there was a wooden crows nest in which a griffin is standing and pointing his right claw at the front of the ship. What the fu... When the hell did he get there?! How long was he even there? Was that crows nest even there before? I do not think so, although I was not exactly searching for it before.

I realize that I am still in my fighting stance before quickly standing straight. None seemed to have noticed my rather embarrassing reaction as their attention was drawn to the front of the ship or rather what is beyond it. I quickly walked up tot he front to where the others were standing I could faintly make out the sight of a mountain. I can barely see it from how far we are, however there is not doubt that there is land in that direction. So, here it is. I am finally close to my destination. Except now I don't really know how things are going to play out. Oh well, too late to turn back now.

Author's Note

This chapter was supposed to come out a couple of months ago, however like everything else in life shit just kept on happening. And it did not stop there. I did say that I would start writing more often, apparently that was not the case and all I can say now is that I will write whenever I can which is not vary often. So no more promises because that will just lead to more disappointment. Well at least this is the end of chapter four and things can finally get started.

Tell me what you like and dislike so that I will know what to focus on.