Dinner was a tense and unpleasant affair. The people of Gerald’s Rest had been warped for less than a day, and had clearly not adjusted to either their new physical traits or their enhanced aggression. Coupled with the fact that they’d been cooped up in their cabin since we boarded the Swift and were still angry with Doreen for the Forresters’ failure to protect the town, and tempers were strained to near the breaking point.

“I wish I had some more of that hooch I bought in Whitecliff,” Marjory said eventually. We were sitting with our backs to the Ship’s keel, eating our dinner apart from the surly townspeople. “It’d do wonders to improve everyone’s mood.”

“Either that or start a full blown brawl,” Mable countered. “I’ve seen people after too much dwarven hooch, and these people are already halfway there.”

“It’ll amount to the same thing,” the dwarf shrugged. “They’ll all feel better after a decent brawl.”

“That’s a very… dwarven way to look at things,” Doreen pointed out.

“It’s a very warped way to look at things. We have all of that aggression, and it helps to let it out every now and then. And I don’t think your people would be willing to go hunt for warpwolves to take it out on.”

“They’re not my people,” Doreen hunched down into herself. “They’ve made that fact perfectly clear.”

“Do you really want them to be? They’re a rather sad looking lot, to be honest.”

“Oh hush!” Mable chastised the dwarf. “These people have been through far too much for you to judge them so harshly.”

She went over to sit next to the miserable looking Doreen and wrapped her arm around the dragon girl’s shoulders.

“You still have us, Dori.”

Mable had been not quite as surprised as I’d expected her to be at the sight of Doreen when the warped girl had joined us for dinner, and I had a feeling that she’d known about the Forrester heir being a woman long before I found out about it. She also seemed to be completely unfazed with Doreen’s new, fully warped, form.

Doreen didn’t answer, but the way she clung to Mable made her appreciation of the support as clear as if she’d shouted it out loud.

We wrapped up dinner as quickly as we could after that, since the smell of cooking venison was sure to pull a pack of warpwolves over to us sooner or later. I pulled the Swift back up to a safe height as soon as everyone was back on board, and left my Archers and Marine with instructions to attack anything that approached the Ship. Marjory, who was still worried about our passengers trying something during the night, decided to keep watch through the night while the rest of us went to the sterncastle to sleep.

The Swift had a lot more deck space to work with after her rank up, and my new cabin was a lot roomier than before. She’d also clearly been listening to what we’d been saying on board, since my new bed filled up most of the four meter wide cabin and was definitely large enough for three people, just as Marjory had asked for during the chase.

The folding writing surface from the Ship’s earlier incarnation was still there, and it was joined by a sturdy looking chair. I still hadn’t had any occasion to open the desk, but it seemed to have at least some significance for the Swift, since she didn’t seem to be adding anything frivolous to herself. At least, not without Marjory or myself implying that we wanted it.

The large closet that I’d found my Attire in was also still in evidence, and a quick check inside let me verify that the Deckhand Pattern was still hanging inside it. Two large, round windows were set in the port and starboard walls to let in light and air, and while I was still wearing my Attire and thus largely immune to the chill of early winter, I closed both of them up with panes of thick, sturdy glass to insure we wouldn’t freeze during the night.

The only other thing in the cabin was a ladder leading down into the hold. There was another hatch leading down next to the foremast, but I couldn’t remember a ladder up to my cabin when I’d checked the hold earlier. A quick check showed that the ladder led to a completely separate part of the hold, and that it was set up as a second bedroom with a pair of cots at each side and two sea chests next to them.

More windows were set in the walls of the lower cabin, two on the aft and one each to port and starboard, and I closed all of them up before going back up the ladder.

Doreen and Mable ended up taking the lower cabin, leaving me alone in my overly large bed. I lay in bed awake for a long time after the girls went downstairs, missing the warmth of sleeping next to Mable, even if we’d done nothing but sleep during the chase. But I also couldn’t begrudge Doreen the company. It’d been clear that she was in need of comforting, and remembering what she’d told me earlier, I didn’t think she’d ever had anyone other than Mable to turn to.

I was also really missing sleeping with Marjory. We hadn’t really had a chance to enjoy each other since we’d come across the destroyed Outpost, and with the urgency we all felt while chasing the raiders gone, there was nothing to distract me from that fact.

When I finally did manage to fall asleep, it was to the thought of getting my brother and the rest of the people of Gerald’s Rest out of the Swift, so I could have my Ship back for myself and the women I actually wanted there with me.