Beastmen Love
Chapter 78: Open Sea

Chapter 78: Open Sea

Everything is ready for departure and the emotions inside Astri’s heart and her mates’ are a mix of anxiety and curiosity about what they will see. It’s time for goodbyes and Tyr is trying to hide his emotions and stay focused on his promise.

Tyr hugs Astri tightly, trying to fill himself with her scent and courage.

"Wait. I don’t know when I’ll be able to see her again. You will see her every day and I won’t. Just this time, please." Tyr says before her mates act and remove her from his arms.

Astri hugs him back, knowing he’s being actually very contained.

"Take care of yourself. Don’t do anything reckless." She says.

"You too... Please come back fast. I’ll be waiting for you."

"Sure. We will keep in touch."

"I want you in my mind. Not Claud."

Astri giggles and pokes his sides.

"Just because of that, I’ll be the one talking to you." Claud says with crossed arms to hold his jealousy at bay.

"Whatever. I’ll fulfill my promise either way." Tyr affirms.

He steps back, and when he looks at her face a great wish to taste her lips raises inside of him.

"Stop. Think as a friendly warning." Claud warns him since he’s watching Tyr’s mind at that moment.

Tyr clicks his tongue and steps back. Everyone gets inside the ships according to the plan. The Priest Guards in one and Astri and her family in the other. Tyr watches Astri’s ship getting smaller and smaller, she waves at him and helps Yuki wave at him too. He smiles and waves back feeling happy that the last thing he saw was their smile.

"What if their water ends?" A soldier asks watching the ships too.

"They will boil snow. They will be fine." Tyr answers.

"Lady Astri will be our Queen, sire?" Another soldier asks.

"Yes. She will." Tyr answers very sure of himself.

——

Astri will miss Tyr, and she hopes he stays fine. She can’t promise him that she will accept him but she can’t say she doesn’t care about him.

She goes to the front of the ship and watches the endless horizon with her cubs and mates. Then from nowhere, dolphins start to jump from the water near the front of the boat, like racing the boat.

Astri happily watches them with her cubs, explaining what they are. Then the dolphins start to make a show, jumping and spinning. Jumping together at the same time. That is not usual for dolphins. They see Koa swimming nearby and smiling at Astri.

Even Astri’s mates have to admit that is a nice power, but they would never admit it out loud.

"Can you do the same as him, Claud?" Lee asks.

"No. Mermen are very ancient beasts too, guardians of the sea. Guardians of nature. That’s why they know very well Astri’s importance. They can control some creatures for a certain time and that is useful to avoid attacks. They live long like any sea animal." Claud answers.

"We never saw you using all of your powers, actually." Wayde points.

"And I hope you never see because that will mean Astri is in great danger." Claud smiles.

"Let’s watch from inside. I’m sure it must look beautiful too." Astri says and then brings Yuki, followed by the boys and her mates.

The boys run and play like trying to take the fish on the crystal at the front of the boat. They watch the fishes and dolphins dancing, then after some time swim away like saying they’re tired of playing.

Aquaterran ships are controlled differently and the helm is located in front of the boat, and the captain can watch the sea in front of him. A longbow sticking out from the front hull with a red flag.

"Does that red flag tell the direction of the water?" Astri asks Beau, who was at the helm.

"Yes." Beau answers. He noticed she was watching everything and he’s impressed she’s learning things by herself.

She noticed a different part of the crystal wall, like a circle on it. It makes the light be redirected like a magnifying glass.

"What is this light?" Wayde is also watching everything with the others.

"The direction of the sun. That circle in the crystal shows the direction of the sun. Right?" Astri says impressed and then asks Beau again.

"Are you reading my mind?" He asks.

"No. I’m not." She laughs.

"You learn fast. Impressive."

"Can you teach us how to control the ship?" Astri asks.

"Sure."

Aquaterran ships can be controlled with only two beastmen. One stays outside in case it needs to fix something and watches around swimming outside. Beau shows a kind of control panel with many levers that control masts and rudder blades. The rudder blades direct the ship. The masts automatically adapt to the direction of the wind, and on the hull of the ship there are something that looks like fish gills. The water goes through the gills to make the propeller work.

Aquaterran ships, or boats as they call them, would be desired by the marines from any country in the other world by their great engineer.

"It’s a very complex system, but it’s amazing." Wayde speaks.

"These are the greatest boats we have. Aquaterra took hundreds of years to make them work so well like this." Beau says.

"It’s still amazing. It’s not that easy to control this, but we have a lot of time to learn." Astri says.

Then a fun thing happens. Yuki started to pat Beau’s shoulder like she was saying "There, there, it’s going to be all right". Astri chuckles and is amazed by Yuki’s sharp sense. The boys also rub their heads on Beau’s legs.

"I’m not food." Beau tells the boys.

Wayde smiles at them, being the only one who understands what they’re saying. And Astri also knows why they’re acting this way.

"They’re not seeing you as food." Wayde says.

"They just liked you" Astri affirms.

She hopes her kids never lose this sharp sense of other’s energies. Beastmen normally don’t have this sense, but maybe it’s because of the culture and how they are raised.

——

Over the next 10 days, Astri and her family spent more time to get used to this sailing life. It might get very boring, so they take their time cleaning the ship, cooking, or playing with the kids.

Started to snow, but with that, they could always have fresh water. One day, Beau returns to the control room and starts changing the ship’s direction. That’s when he sees Astri sitting near the crystal wall, reading a book.

He knew that she was smart, but she even knew how to read. She really is beyond what he imagined.

"Good morning. I hope I will not disturb you here." She says.

"Good morning... No, it’s not disturbing. Why are you here? Do you need anything?"

"Running away a little bit."

"From who?"

"My spouses and cubs. The cubs are full of energy and bored, and my spouses too. And I’m tired of helping them. They need to learn to find things to do without me."

Beau smiles and understands. For land beastmen it’s not easy to stay so many days inside a ship.

"There are not many places to hide here. They will soon find you." Beau says.

"Kick them out. You’re the captain."

"They will be jealous of me."

"Let them. They know what happens when they make me angry."

Beau doesn’t want to see her angry. He can imagine that she can even explode that ship, but he also can’t imagine someone so calm getting angry too. If she gets angry it must be because she had a real reason for that.

She stands up and sits near him. He looks at her with the side of his eyes and she’s watching him work.

"For how long are you the Captain and royal guardian?" She asks.

"More than 70 years I believe. When the last Captain got too old, and wanted to retire, I took his place." He answers.

"And as royal guardian?"

"More than 120 years, I believe. I don’t count."

"Do you have a spouse?"

"No.. I don’t know if I’ll ever have one."

"Why not?" She asks, crossing her legs and covering herself with her warm long vests.

He stays in silence. She can see that the answer pains him for some reason. She feels that he has a heavy energy, that he carries all the time like his heart is chained. He has a depressive energy, even if he’s a strong guardian and captain.

"Do you want to have a spouse?" She asks.

He also doesn’t answer. Not actually knowing how to answer. She smiles.

"Sorry. In the end, I disturbed you. I’ll let you do your work." She says walking away.

"No! You’re not disturbing.. I just don’t like to talk about me."

"I noticed... If this ship fills with water, what will happen?" She softly asks.

"Well... It will sink and won’t move." He answers.

She nods.

"Exactly. If you keep things inside, you will sink and won’t move." She says and that was like a punch on the stomach on him. She smiles and holds his arm. "I don’t know what you don’t like inside of you, but what I can tell you is that you don’t deserve it. Let it go. If you feel ready, I’m here to listen."

She walks away with her book in her hands.

Beau’s heart is jumping, and his breathing grows faster. He passes his hand on his forehead with billions of thoughts and he feels his heart growing colder and colder. His insides hurting.

Whenever he thinks about himself or the past he always feels this way. That’s why he doesn’t want to think about it. However, day by day it gets worse.