After getting back to the deck, Tarrin and Dar climbed up onto the steering deck, where Dolanna, Faalken, Renoit, and a tall, swarthy Arkisian stood. The Arkisian was steering the ship, and Dolanna and Renoit were talking about tents, for some reason. "Tarrin," Faalken greeted with a smile. The cherubic Knight was wearing as simple gray doublet and breeches, which did nothing to hide his massively developed frame. Years of wearing heavy armor had built up the man's body to an impressive level.

" Andevouz, Tarrin and Dar. What brings you two up here?" Renoit asked jovially.

"There's a pretty big storm behind us, Master Renoit," Dar said politely. "Allia's up in the crow's nest seeing which way it's moving."

"The storm, she should not be a danger, no," he said reassuringly. "This time of year, such storms commonly move from the south to the north, and from the east to the west. We are behind it, yes."

"Large storms often control their own direction, Renoit," Dolanna said quietly. "Perhaps having Allia determine its direction is a wise precaution."

"Its direction, I would have the desert flower find, yes. I said they commonly travel such ways this time of year. I have seen storms move in one direction, stop, then move backwards across their own paths before, yes. The sea causes storms to move with a mind of their own."

"Regardless, there is nothing we can do until we know more," Dolanna said in her calm voice. "You can return to your kite, if you wish."

"Maybe later," Dar said after a moment, after looking at Tarrin. "I think Tarrin's not done carrying me around."

Tarrin gave Dar a quick look, then reached down and grabbed him by the waist. "Tar-RIN!" Dar screamed when the Were-cat jumped up to the rail, and then vaulted the large gulf between the rail of the steering deck and the aftmast. Such inhuman feats were easy for him; he could have jumped across ten more spans of empty air. One of the gifts of his Were nature. Dar just closed his eyes and gritted his teeth as Tarrin scampered through the rigging at a speed that would have made a human tumble to the deck, quickly getting back to the mainmast and up to the crow's nest. The Arkisian was breathing a bit heavily by the time Tarrin set him on his feet in the tightly packed lookout. "By the sandshield, Tarrin, did you have to scare me to death?"

"I'm not going to drop you, Dar," Tarrin said calmly. "You should know better."

"Still, that's something I don't do every day."

"I have not had enough time to determine direction, brother," Allia informed him calmly, her eyes locked on the horizon."

"That's alright. We're here just to keep you company," he replied.

"Your company is always welcome," she said sweetly to him, but she still didn't take her eyes from the storm.

"What is this, a convention?" Sarraya's voice preceded the buzzing of her wings. She flew up into view to their side and landed on the rail of the crow's nest by Dar. The Arkisian stared at her in wonder for a moment, then purposefully looked away from her.

"There's a storm behind us," Tarrin told her. "Allia's trying to figure out which way it's moving."

"Please. Let a professional do this. Nature is a Druid's specialty," she said.

As always, Tarrin felt a strange sensation that always seemed to be tied up with Druidic magic. It was a fleeting feeling, a strange feeling of reaching out, and then of communion. In that instant of communion, he could sense the power flowing through the little sprite, and he knew she was putting together a Druidic spell of some sort. She pointed to the stern, towards the storm, and her tiny brows furrowed in concentration for a long moment. All three of them stared at her while she did her magic, until she shivered her wings and looked up at them.

"It's a doozy," she said. "Not a hurricane, but not far from it. The good news is that it's weakening. The bad news is that it's moving in our direction. It'll overtake us by dawn."

"Is it dangerous?" Dar asked impulsively.

"We'll be tossed around, but this seems to be a pretty rugged ship," Sarraya replied. "It looks silly, but that Shacean keeps her in good trim. We'll be alright. We may just have some cases of seasickness, that's all."

"Could you go down and tell that to Dolanna?" Tarrin asked.

"Are you trying to get rid of me, Tarrin?" she teased.

He snorted. "If I wanted to get rid of you, I'd swat you."

Sarraya laughed. "True enough. Sure, I'll go tell her high-and-mightiness. Be back in a flash." With that, the capricious sprite buzzed her wings and lifted her feet off the rail, then circled down towards the stern, where Dolanna, Faalken, and Renoit stood with the steersman.

"That is one strange creature," Allia said bluntly.

"You have to take people as they come," Dar said sagely.

"You actually talked to her," Tarrin said with a slight smile.

"I guess I did," he chuckled. "For a moment there, I forgot who she was."

"I think she'd prefer it if you did forget who she is," Tarrin replied.

"I guess we're in for some shaking," Dar said. "I've been on a ship in a good storm before, when I was sailing to the Tower. It's nothing you quickly forget."

"We should be alright," Allia replied. "I do not favor the idea of being in a storm, but I do trust the sprite's judgement. It is merely something we must endure."

"Another one of those sharp corners," Tarrin said mainly to himself, referring to the Goddess' description of his path.

Shaking was not a good enough description of it.

Tarrin was in Allia's cabin, claws anchored into the floor, holding onto his sister as the storm howled around the garishly painted ship. It would rise, and it would fall. It would list from side to side so severely that Tarrin feared that the ship would capsize more than once. He could hear things bounce around, broken loose from their lashings and rumbling about with the movement of the ship. Water poured into the cabin sporadically, probably as waves crashed over the rail and flooded onto the deck, seeping through the boards to drizzle down on the people taking refuge below.

They had spent most of the night getting ready for the storm. Renoit had all the sails furled, then they were turned sideways and heavily tied down to the masts. All the rigging that couldn't be taken down was pulled taut to make the masts more secure, and all the hatches were tightly secured. There were only three men on deck, literally tied to the helm so they could move the ship among the waves to minimize their impact on the ship's hull.

And the ship rocked, and it rocked, and it rocked. It would swing from side to side, until Tarrin could stand on the walls. It would climb up waves, making it lean way back, then it would suddenly pitch forward as the ship crested and went down the other side. The sound of the water slamming into the ship was loud, nearly deafening, as the steady sound of heavy rain hammered on the ceiling of the cabin, which was the deck of the ship. The ship's wood creaked and groaned and protested the rough treatment, sometimes nearly as loud as the cracking peals of thunder that raced through the ship.

Above it all was the sound of the wind. He could hear it distinctly, a monotonous roar that whistled through the sparse rigging and along the masts, pulled at the ship, pulled the water up from the sea and created the large waves assaulting the vessel. It howled with a fury that made it nearly seem alive, as if the wind had taken offense to the small vessel on the sea and had decided to torture it for some unknown reason.

"I thought you said the storm was weakening!" Allia accused Sarraya, who was secured to the top of Tarrin's head with two handfuls of hair.

"So sue me!" she shot back. "It must have reorganized itself during the night! I didn't check before it got here!"