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But I suddenly felt a lot more at ease. I looked up at the sky and stretched. “Well, now that I think about it, we’ve been through our share of impossible fights. So... I can’t say for sure that this’ll all work out, but relatively speaking, finding a way home should be a breeze.”
“I feel the same way.” Gourry smiled kindly at me.
I hadn’t totally sorted out my feelings. It was possible I’d let them get the better of me soon enough. But as long as I wasn’t alone, I’d be able to figure something out. That mysterious certainty swept away all the pain in my heart.
Listening to the songs of unknown birds, I followed our map until the trees to the left of the road began to thin out. Before long, I could see shining rays of sun through the gaps between them. The scent of water began to pervade the verdant smells too. And by the time the trees had disappeared completely, Gourry and I came to a stop.
The road before us was cut off by... blue.
“A lake?” Gourry asked.
“Or a river,” I responded.
There were barely any waves, and the water wasn’t very clear, but because of that, it reflected the surrounding scenery on its surface. I could just barely see the opposite shore. Whether it was a lake or a river, it was remarkably large.
“Which means...” I scanned the waterline until my eyes fell on a small building down the way.
Gourry gazed in the same direction and said, “That must be the whatsit stop.”
“Looks like.” We both started walking again. “I guess it’s a ferry after all.”
Looking closely at the seemingly calm surface of the water, there were signs of ripples along the banks. Probably a large river, then.
The closer we got, the better I could make out the ferry landing. The building was a sturdy little cabin, and there was a boat at the pier large enough to carry a dozen or more people easily. It didn’t have a roof, and the ‘seats’ were just a series of planks, but there were already several passengers aboard. A boatman stood at the helm, and... Wait, was it about to leave?!
“Book it, Gourry!”
“Hey! Hey, wait for us!” Gourry called as we took off at a run.
Thankfully, the boatman seemed to hear us. He waved and waited for us to catch up.
“Is this... the ferry... to Palbathos?” I asked when we arrived, heaving for breath.
The elderly boatman smiled widely. “Sure is! Payment in advance, please!”
“You got it!”
Catching my breath, I paid the man and boarded the boat from the pier. It wasn’t as unstable as I’d thought it might be, probably thanks to its size. The passengers already on board included a guy who looked like a peddler with a large pack on his back, an ordinary traveler, and various other folks along with a few caged chickens. The boatman must’ve ferried cargo too.
He waited until Gourry and I were seated, then bellowed, “The bas boat is settin’ sail!”
That was the last call before he reached out with a long pole with feathers at the end and lightly tapped the still water in front of the boat. Then, slowly but surely, solid black figures rippled to the surface. They were larger than humans, maybe even as long as an ogre was tall. It was a pair of...
“Fish?!” I found myself jumping up and shouting.
“Hey, stay in your seat. It’s not safe to stand up,” the boatman scolded me. “You seem a bit surprised... Have you never seen bas before?”
“Wait, so the ‘bas’ isn’t the boat. It’s...”
“A kind of fish, yes. Come on, we’re setting out. I’ll explain it as we go.” The boatman tapped the water with the feathered pole again, and the two figures slowly began to move. As they did, a rope surfaced in the water, pulled taut, and steadily dragged the boat along behind it.
“They’re known as giant bas, and though they’re fish, they’re very smart,” the boatman pronounced proudly. He indicated the chicken cages with his eyes. “As thanks for pulling the boat, I feed them. And as long as I uphold my end of the deal, they’re tame. They might even understand human language.”
“Wait, those chickens are fish food?!”
“Oh, yes. They swallow ’em up in one gulp,” he said even more proudly.
Maybe this goes without saying, but there were not fish like this in the inner lands I came from. Certainly none capable of pulling a boat the way a horse would a carriage. Although, when I stopped to think about it, we did have fish with arms and legs, considerable intelligence, and the capacity for speech. I didn’t know if the same fishfolk lived here in the outer lands, but I supposed I shouldn’t be all that surprised that they had some kind of intelligent fish.
The boat moved slowly at first, then gradually picked up speed until...
“Hang on! Hang on! Hang ooooon!” someone cried. I looked to see a girl running straight for the boat the same way Gourry and I had come. “Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!”
Her voice grew louder and louder as she barreled toward us with tremendous speed, but the boat had already set sail. That didn’t stop her, though. In fact, she ran faster!
“Huuwaaah!” With a strange cry, she took a flying leap from the pier! Of course, there was no way she’d make it. And so, she fell with a splash between the riverside and the ferry...
Or so I would have thought, but it went down differently. Instead, the arc of her jump extended unnaturally midair and she kept heading straight for us until... Thunk! She just barely landed on—er, boarded?—the edge of the boat.
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