Roland titled his head curiously.
"What do you mean?" He asked Jimmy.
"What do you think? A stick or your fancy carved necklace hold enough magic to make a portal about large enough for a person. You think a big old boat is gonna fit through?" Jimmy gave him a look of disgust as if he'd thought better of Roland's intelligence and was now regretting it.
"But you can make portals bigger with… more herb-treated wood?" Roland pressed, determined not to let Jimmy's judgmental attitude dissuade him from learning more about the mechanics of inter-world travel.
"O'course. In theory. Never tried it myself. Never had need to," Jimmy shrugged.
"Does the wood need to be from the other world?" Haf joined in the conversation, turning from a brief aside he had with the navigator confirming that their position was quite close to where Haf's ship had re-entered the world on the last voyage.
"That's the best way. Things want to get back to where they're from. Best to have the thing from one place and you from the other. The herbs're kind of like a bridge-opener." Jimmy eyed the Commodore as if resenting handing out his knowledge for free.
"Then let us hope they have forests," Haf smiled slightly.
"Are you wanting to travel back and forth, even after capturing Edmar?" Roland squinted at his uncle.
"The world of the pink sky holds many useful things and rare animals. Though I do not like the idea of using the Leviathan as unwilling beasts of burden, if we can travel without needing their aid, it would be prudent and profitable to do so. Who knows what medicines, materials, and wonderful things might be discovered?" Haf laid out his argument logically enough that Roland had a hard time arguing against it.
"But the Void… surely we shouldn't provide it with any opportunities to get to other places," He cringed.
"It already has the opportunity. It will spend its long life searching for what it can do with or without my help," Haf said. "The difference between me and a stranger is that I'm aware, and will take what measures I can to avoid letting the creature accomplish its goals."
Roland nodded, but still felt some trepidation. Why couldn't everyone be content and happy in their own world, in their own home? He simply didn't understand. Adventure was fine, but he would much prefer a simple life with his wife and children.
"What are the other places we might get pulled into? Is there anything in particular we should brace for?" Roland asked.
Haf studied him, and Jimmy, for a moment before responding.
"The Pink Sky world is the most common one. The largest dangers there are the gargoyles and the whirlpools, which can pull a ship under, but the latter are usually seen well in advance and avoided. The second most common world is where water constantly falls from the sky in great sheets. It is dark there, with a sky that glows a strange green. The sea is a dark purple. There are no particular hazards there as long as the falling water is avoided. It churns the waves into a turbulent and dangerous affair.
"The other most likely place is a world full of white mist on all sides. The water is not visible, and neither is the sky. It is difficult to navigate, and very sparse in resources from what we can tell. As for other worlds, the reports in our records show varying descriptions of possible others scattered across our history, mostly leaving those three worlds to go elsewhere before the method of cutting the rope to get home was implemented.
"Sometimes the stay is so brief it is hard to tell one from another, or separate the information. The three worlds I described are the only ones I have been to." Haf finished his explanation as he watched Roland and Jimmy's faces.
One was thoughtful, the other calculating.
"I might like that mist world best, if we can get there," Jimmy tried.
"That's not what this is about," Roland looked sharply at the little man. The quarter-halfing shrugged.
"Not like we can choose anyway. So my preference don't exactly matter, does it?"
"Then why say it at all?" Roland rubbed his temple.
"Maybe I believe in fate, or something similar." Jimmy eyed him warily.
"Lower the nets!" Haf called to the crew, interrupting the argument. Before they had left, he had cut the remaining pieces of treated net into quarters: One piece for each of the three ships, and one left in Ceto in case more could be discerned from its examination.
Jimmy maintained an unimpressed expression, but his eyes nonetheless followed the nearest net as it was flung over the side of the ship, enough to soak in the water but not so deep that it would catch anything. Roland noticed the little man's grip on his knapsack never wavered.
"Have you ever seen a whale, Jimmy?" Roland realized he knew very little of the extent of the quarter-halfling's life experience.
"I seen plenty o' things in my time." Jimmy replied enigmatically.
"Me neither," Roland smirked, earning a bored and slightly condescending stare.
Haf was alternating scanning the surface of the surrounding water and flicking his gaze up towards the tense barrowmen on the masts high above their heads. All was anxious silence for several minutes.
"This is what I would call anti-climatic." Jimmy complained, spitting over the side of the ship.
"The sea is vast. Unless something was very close, we will have to wait for it to get here," Haf spoke as one explaining something to a dimwitted child: slowly, and overly kindly.
"I know," Jimmy rolled his eyes. "Just hate waitin."
"Patience is a virtue of the best fishermen," Haf replied sagely, earning another eye roll from Jimmy.
"Never had to be too patient in the lake. Caught what I wanted, ate it, sold the rest. Nothing to it."
"Has anyone ever told you that you talk a lot, Jimmy?" Roland asked as he stared out at the sea. The man was being downright social with all the conversation he was having.
"Sweet Mama Millicent used to tell me to hold my tongue around civilized folk," Jimmy pressed his hand to his heart briefly, "but seein' as there aren't exactly any here, didn't think that advice applied."
"Cute joke," Roland glanced at Jimmy before turning back to the sea.
"Call anything about me cute again and we're going to have a problem," Jimmy warned.
"I'll keep that in mind," Roland sighed. Bickering was beneath him. He should be above this kind of back and forth.
He closed his eyes and pressed away the irritation he felt. He turned to Haf instead.
"What should we do while we–" Roland began to ask, when a shout from the barrowman interrupted.
"WHALES!" The word was cried out in earnest.
Roland frowned, recalling his lessons from Haf. "Isn't he normally supposed to call the direction where he sees it?"
Haf's eyes were on the barrowman, who looked near panic.
"Everywhere! They're coming from every–" His frantic words were out of character, and cut off as the ship was hit, hard, seemingly from directly underneath. The whole crew shifted as if a sudden earthquake had rocked them.
Except Haf, who stayed steady except to place one calm hand on the helm.
"Steady," He said to the helmsman, who shook off the fright and straightened his shoulders.
"Yes, Sir." He responded.
The sailors were all about their tasks, prepared at the sides with long spears called harpoons to strike at any whales that came within view. The rope-men were standing at the ready, eyes peeled for the first sign of Leviathan.
Roland breathed deeply and widened his stance to stay steady in case of another whale strike. He didn't have to wait long. A hit from the stern gave a mighty CRACK as the ship jolted forward. The helmsman was wrenched to the side as the ship's wheel yanked him hard clockwise.
"Sir, it hit the rudder," The helmsman said, a little needlessly.
"Any damage?" Haf asked in a grave tone.
The helmsman turned the wheel with trepidation. It spun freely, with none of the resistance it had moments before.
"It's… useless sir. It must have been snapped clean off." The man swallowed.
Roland thought he knew the implications of the matter, but when a glance revealed that even Jimmy had turned pale, he reconsidered whether he had fully absorbed the seriousness of the situation.
As the center ship, they were meant to have been sheltered from the brunt of any whale attacks, but one well-aimed charge had rendered them unable to control the ship's direction with any real accuracy.
Despite the noise and chaos around them, a tense silence permeated the men standing together around the helm.
A hopeful call yelled out from above.
Apparently the barrowman had not observed the damage done by the last strike and was concentrating on his role.
"LEVIATHAN APPROACHING THE STARBOARD BOW!" His voice rang out.
Haf stepped rapidly forward.
"ROPES READY!" He called, almost redundantly. The eager ropemen were already leaning out over the railing to spot the creature and take aim.
"READY!" Came the reply in unison.
"AIM AND ROPE AT WILL!" Haf called.
Roland had learned a lot about the roping contraption. Similar to a large crossbow, it could sling the giant rope a considerable distance but required precise aim to loop around one of the giant creature's horns.
Doing it with three ships simultaneously was unprecedented, and dangerous. If the creature took any sudden turns, the ships could be dashed into one another and demolished in the sea.
They could be left in the debris of the Wave Skimmer, the crews all lost to the fate of their kinsmen.