Luna was shown to her cupboard sized sleeping quarters and she instantly decided to spend as much time on deck as possible. The room was barely big enough for a small bunk at the wall and room to drop her backpack. She had been handed a small key on a cord, which she had slipped around her neck and she hoped that nobody on board had any serious interest in rummaging through her things, as any half competent person could open the lock to the room in a few moments.

While walking over the quay towards the ship the wind had already been buffeting her cloak around, so it was quickly bundled up and crammed into her backpack. She replaced it with her new blue coat, but now she could no longer fasten the machete to her back as she was used to. With a little fiddling she managed to fasten it on her hip, where it was covered by the coat, but still easy enough to reach in case of emergencies. She closed up the backpack again and then stuffed it under her bunk, it was tight fit but at least that way it would not roll around when they hit the ocean proper with higher waves.

Luna stepped out of her cabin and wandered back to the deck. A lot more people were around now, not only the sailors crewing the ship, but other people in normal everyday clothing, often wearing thick jackets and coats. She felt a little lost, with nothing to do and so she ambled over to and climbed on top of the sterncastle. Watching from a higher vantage she could see the whole ship, the other ships arrayed behind them and the rest of the harbor. The town defenses looked quite impressive from down here, as the city proper lay considerably higher than the harbor area. To reach the city, wagons had to transport the goods up a cobbled road with three hairpins and then through a city gate.

Luna heard steps on the wooden sterncastle stairs and when she turned around Parrot with two other people was walking towards her. “Ah Luna, you are up here.” He greeted her. “I apologize for leaving you alone before, but I had to get the latest updates and make sure we were ready to sail on the next tide coming in. Let me introduce you.”

The other two men following behind Parrot were introduced as the ship's captain Enric and the senior settler on board named William, who was the leader of the group they were carrying to new shores. Luna checked their levels and was positively surprised to find them at level 49 and 51 respectively.

Luna was introduced as their Pathfinder and while the captain did not seem to care either way, William looked a little sceptical. He voiced his concern that a young looking girl like her might not be up to the task of scouting the territory or fending off predators, but he looked a mollified when Luna explained that she had been a Hunter for her village before joining the Pathfinder Guild and that hunting for some food and scouting the land would not pose a problem.

During the short talk Parrot was standing behind William and grinning at Luna. He had briefed her on how to interact with the settlers and he had predicted the dismissive attitude. While he might be a drunk sleepyhead most of the time, Luna was glad he had warned her in advance, otherwise she might have lost the confidence of this settler group before they even arrived.

“Luna, do you have a Skill that lends you better vision?” Captain Enric asked her. Luna looked at Parrot questioningly and he shrugged his shoulders.

“Yes I do captain. Why?” She replied truthfully, seeing no reason to conceal the harmless Skill.

“Excellent. Care to try climbing up the rigging on the side, then at the shroud switch to the rope ladder and get up to the crow’s nest?” He asked her with a wicked grin.

Luna did not know why he was grinning like that, but she decided to humor him. The standing rigging with ratlines was fastened to the solid railing at the sterncastle, which was nearly one third of the ship long. She hopped on the railing and swung around the rigging, quickly climbing her way up the side. Hours of training on the obstacles courses turned the rigging into a simple ladder and the climb to the shroud, where the rigging ended ten meters over the deck, took her just a few seconds. Slipping through a hole in the shroud she grabbed the rope ladder for the last 5 meters to the crows nest. The small rope ladder proved trickier than expected, but she managed to get up without major problems.

The crow’s nest was not much more than some wooden planks, solid but simple, mounted on the main mast and surrounded by a maybe 120cm high railing that prevented her from easily falling. The hole she had climbed up through was closed with a simple trap door. The view from up here was breathtaking and Luna declared it her favorite spot on the ship. She had been lost in thought for just a few seconds before she remembered that she had been sent up here.

She leaned over the railing and looked down towards the sterncastle where the captain was still standing with Parrot and William. She waved down to them excitedly, at which Parrot started laughing and clapping the captain on the back, who was looking up a little slack jawed. Not knowing what else to do, Luna climbed back down and rejoined the three men.

“Well done Luna. The captain is still not getting over the fact that you were faster than most sailors.” Parrot told her as she returned.

“I know these two did not believe you when you introduced me as a Pathfinder, but that little demonstration should prove that I received some training. And I am as good with a bow or crossbow as I am fast at climbing.” She said while looking at Parrot, while actually addressing the two other men.

Some embarrassed coughs later the captain apologized for not taking her seriously and requested her to take a few shifts in the crows nest. He had planned to leave it empty most of the time while on high sea, but if she was willing it would be nice to have eye up there, at least from time to time.

The plan was for the ships to split up in two groups of four, sailing half a kilometer apart from each other in the same direction. That way 4 ships could sail in a line, a little offset to not steal the wind from each other. With 8 ships the line would get too long and signaling from the last ship in line to the lead ship would start to get problematic.

On each ship one crew member had a vision Skill that allowed them to see better in the dark, through some fog and even rain storms, but only worked while on the ocean. Luna was a little envious of the bonus for rain and fog, but the limitation to the ocean made it useless to her.

Enric and William excused themselves, which left Parrot and Luna alone on the sterncastle. He simply gave her a thumbs up and then started to leave as well, from the stairs he reminded Luna that if she wanted to get food she would have to appear at the captain's quarters at sundown, which had the only larger table and would be their location for dining every night.

With nothing left to do Luna walked up to the railing where the sterncastle dropped down to the deck and swung herself up to let her feet dangle. She watched the other people on the deck, some goods still being brought aboard and carried down into the hold. She was surprised to see some families with children daring the trip. She had not really known what to expect, only that they were not taking any adventurers with them, the kings had refused to part with people who had fighting classes in the fear of weakening their kingdom.

Hopping down on the deck Luna decided to find out more about the settlers. It seemed prudent to get to know the people she would be working with in the future. As it turned out the whole group, led by William whom she had already met, came from a small mining village, which they had been trying to leave behind for nearly a decade. They only encountered a simple problem, the established villages and towns had no use for their classes and the king refused to sponsor a new village with a Class Stone and Class Tablet. They could have just set out and built their own settlement, but without access to classes for their children they would have to rely on the goodwill of neighboring settlements.

Once again Luna learned something about how the kingdom kept the citizens in check. While on the surface the kingdom was peaceful, people moving around was frowned upon and heavily restricted. Their mining village had encountered problems when the rich ore deposits started showing signs of depletion. With the amount of ore they could mine dwindling the whole village had fallen on hard times. Nearly all their classes were centered around mining, smelting and smithing, with very few focusing on other classes that were good for farming or hunting. In the past they had been easily able to afford buying food from merchants, but now they could just barely afford enough and it had gotten harder each year. New children undergoing the Rite had started to pick up Hunter, Trapper or even fishing Classes to support their families, but the failing mine had been the lifeblood of the village and both were slowly dying.

Parrot had been their savior, who offered a chance for a new start elsewhere. They were betting on finding a place with arable land and hopefully areas with ores to be mined. For a small settlement cut off from any easy way to supply themselves with tools, it was important to have a wide array of Classes which could craft new items for everyone, or gather and process materials.

The news that they would have a class stone had been the tipping point for them and they had gathered all the people from their village who were willing to leave. Of the 150 or so people, 45 adults had decided to take the risk, bringing 17 children between the age of 5 and 15 with them.

Luna introduced herself as the Pathfinder who would be scouting the land and some of the adults had instantly flocked to her and started discussing how to best find ore deposits and how soon she could get started on finding some for them. It took Luna half an hour to talk her way out of the discussion, in the end claiming that she would be following orders from Parrot upon making landfall.

Luna also had a quick look under deck and saw the cramped conditions these people would have to live in for the next six weeks and was suddenly very happy with her own sleeping arrangements. Where she had a bunk bed and a cramped space for herself, the settlers were sleeping in hammocks, which in some cases were stacked three high, up to the wooden deck.

The evening dinner was a simple affair. Since they were in port nobody was keen on wasting their own supplies just yet and so they were dining on food from a local tavern down at the docks. A hearty meat stew with fresh bread with a hard crust for dipping. The talk over dinner revolved around their trip, but especially the next tide. It would peak at around sunrise next morning and all ships would be ready to set sail. With the leaving tide they would quickly leave the harbor and follow the tide out of the large bay. Once they reached the ocean they would turn east, at first still following the coast, which was running from west to east.

The talking went on well into the night and Luna excused herself to get enough to sleep to be up and about early. She really did not want to miss their departure. She crawled in her bunk and curled up under her blanket. Her mind was still going, many different thoughts warring for her attention. Doubts about her decision, fear for her future, but also excitement for what lay ahead. After what felt like ages she finally dozed off.

The first thing Luna noticed when waking up was that the ground was moving, or at least that was what it felt like at first. She quickly jumped out of her bunk, her good vision in the dark preventing her from ramming her head straight into the opposite wall of the cramped room. After carefully putting on her clothes and coat, while trying not to fall over from the weird moving ground under her feed, she left the room and made her way to the deck. She was feeling absolutely terrible right now and when she saw that the sun was already up, it did not help lighten her mood.

She stomped up to the sterncastle where she found Parrot and the captain near the steering wheel. Behind them she could just barely make out the town of Middingfurt as a blob on the horizon and she realized she had once again managed to sleep in. This also meant one very terrible thing, Young Roots was not going to help her for the whole six weeks of the trip. After getting used to sleeping on the ground and waking up completely refreshed, that was really grating on her right now.

Parrot greeted her with a way too cheery expression. “Good morning Luna! We are on the sea again! Isn’t it great?”

Luna could not believe how the grumpy drunk man she had known for the past 14 days had transformed. He was smiling like he had just seen the first rays of sun after a week of grey clouds and rain.

“Parrot, do you have a Skill that improves your sleeping while on a ship or on the ocean?” She asked to confirm her suspicion.

The captain answered her instead . “Nearly every sailor here has such a skill. We recommend taking it, as it makes life on the sea a lot easier. Which is why we prefer to sleep on our ship, even when we are in the harbor. Why do you ask?”

Luna was close to throwing a temper tantrum. “Because I have one for sleeping on the ground and it does not work here and I slept too long and missed us leaving the harbor!” She replied in a whiney voice.

All she got in reply was howling laughter from the two men. The captain was holding on to the steering wheel and Parrot had to sit down while pounding on the wooden deck. “You have a skill … that,” he interrupted himself with more laughter, “that lets you sleep better on the ground and you get on a ship?”

Some sailors who had been working on the lower deck had come up the stairs drawn by the laughter. The captain pointed at Luna with one hand and said. “She has a Skill to sleep better on land.”

The sailors burst into laughter and yelled over to the others on the lower deck. “The Pathfinder girl has a Skill to sleep better on land.” Howling laughter answered him.

Luna was standing there looking around at all the laughing people who were having fun at her expense. “What is so damn funny about that?” She demanded.

“Because nobody who gets used to a sleeping Skill ever voluntarily leaves the place where it works. You just literally left land, for six weeks.” Parrot, who had managed to stand back up, told her. “Why do you think I was drinking all the time while in the capital? I was absolutely miserable on land. I cannot stand it and I try to travel by boat, ship, nutshell if I must, whenever possible. How long did you have the Skill?”

Luna started counting backwards in her head. “19 or 20 days I think, of which I have slept the last 14 nights outside, I need to be really close to the ground for it to work..”

“Then you should be fine in a day or two. You are lucky, if you had gotten used to it for a longer time, then you would have been sick and irritable for the whole crossing.” The captain explained to her.

“I am going into the crow’s nest for a nap.” Luna announced, and started to stomp off, only to decide otherwise and go down the stairs to hunt for breakfast instead.