It took a few more tries to get Weiss to agree, they had to explain to her the whole plan step by step and make her believe that this was the best time to go. They managed to drag her out of her room and then slowly headed down to the back of the castle where the pond was.
"I hear someone coming," whispered Emily when they had reached the bottom corridor, her fox ears rotating towards the front. Vanessa could also hear the footsteps now, they couldn't let Weiss get seen, she was too scared and wouldn't be able to lie.
"You guys go hide in that room, I'll distract them and then you can run to the pond," said Vanessa.
"What about you?" asked Emily.
"Wait for me there, I'll come later, If I don't come in time then go without me," said Vanessa. Emily was about to protest but Vanessa stopped her as the footsteps got closer and pushed them in the room behind them.
Vanessa stepped away from the room and walked forward normally towards the corner, she turned the corner and stopped right in front of two barbarian guards who stopped a little alarmed too. The barbarians weren't like she had assumed they would be, she had pictured them to be uncivilized men who wore shabby torn clothes and carried clubs around. But they were nothing like that, they looked exactly like humans, they wore proper clothes and talked normally. They looked like humans just from a different continent, but their eyes, were what distinguished them from not just humans but any sane creature. All of them had crazy eyes, you could just tell by a glance that they were unhinged inside somewhere.
"Look who it is, Gorge, isn't she the lion girl Ditry was talking about he saw once, I had been hoping to catch a glance of you, and I have to say even in this dim light you are something to look at," said one of the man and they laughed.
"What were you doing out here in the middle of the night?" asked Gorge.
"I was feeling unwell stuck in my room, thought I would get some fresh air in the garden," she said slowly.
"Fresh air huh?" they looked at each other and then started talking to each other slowly. But they didn't realize that Vanessa's hearing was much better than a normal human.
"What do you wanna do with her?"
"We can't chief has ordered not to do anything yet,"
"Oh come on, we are the only ones following all these stupid orders, I know the others don't follow, Stan was boasting about fucking a goat girl yesterday,"
"and just look at her, we have been out on the sea for months, and god knows when we'll be back home to our wives, you don't think they fuck around behind our back,"
"Shut up, I guess we can fool around a little,"
"That's my man, let's find a nice spot,"
"Come with us, we know a nice place where you can get fresh air, you shouldn't roam around here alone, we are the nice ones but if any of the other guards catch you," said Gorge and they took Vanessa in the other direction. Vanessa went along, hoping Emily would not follow and go to the pond. She heard the door open and two sets of feet ran to the back of the castle and sighed, at least their plan would be completed, now she had to worry about how she was going to get out of this mess.
They took her to a small secluded room, it was a storage room for all the kitchen supplies Vanessa observed.
"Now, I suppose you are smart and old enough to know why we brought you here, so it would be better for you to just do as we tell you to, we just want to have a little fun and relieve some stress, and if you help us out we will make sure you are never troubled by anyone else," said the guards.
"What do you want me to do?" asked Vanessa.
"Let's start by taking off those clothes, we want to see those big tits," said the guard almost drooling with lust now.
Vanessa composed herself, she needed to do as they said, but the other more feral part inside her was getting angry, but she couldn't attack these men, if they went missing the others would know something was going on and the barbarian mages had sinister powers, her one wrong step could result in thousands of others suffering for her. She slowly started unbuttoning her shirt and then removed it to let her tits fall free.
She stood there calmly as they feasted their eyes on her and then they moved closer and grabbed her heavy tits, both holding and groping one. This was too much for her, she didn't even realize her beast was taking over and in a blinding haze of fury she hurred muffled screams and roars, next when she came back to control she was standing in the same room, with her claws and fangs bloody and the men lying on the floor bleeding.
"Oh god, what have I done?" she exclaimed, she left the room locked it behind her in a hurry, and ran to the pond. Emily and Weiss were still waiting they looked alarmed when they saw the blood on her.
"Did you?" Emily guesses what had happened.
"Let's get to the warehouse, I have looked at the map, I might know where they are keeping James, we'll deal with this later," said Emily, and the three girls turned into their other forms and jumped in the water.
Ron and Fiona were both standing at the railing watching the sea as the city grew smaller and smaller on the horizon. They had never been on a boat so they were more fascinated than the rest of them.
"I wonder who was the first one, who thought of building a boat and traveling so far away from solid land," said Fiona.
"It is pretty epic, so much water everywhere, it's like a completely different world," said Ron. Their departure from the dock had been fine so far, the wind had picked up substantially and the waves were still rising high and almost reaching the railing where they were standing, it was like riding a giant beast, the boat was moving around like a living being, but the crew and everyone else looked perfectly normal and calm.
Rin was again sleeping somewhere on the top of the boat, Derek, Isanna, and Marty were chatting about their academy years.
"I am going back to my room, I think I am getting a little seasick," said Ron and went back to his room.
He was feeling a little weird, the change in the environment was much deeper for her. He was used to being on land where there was a little metal in the earth and it had become a constant presence of comfort in his mind. After so many years the sudden change in that feeling had him rattled a little, he closed his eyes and tried to focus his mind again, he wondered if he could extend his senses to as far as the bottom of the sea and feel the drowned ships at the bottom.
After some time, he heard the door open and his mother came in.
"Where have you been? Did you have dinner, Marty got a special dinner prepared for us," she said coming in.
"I don't feel like eating," he answered.
"Are you seasick? It takes a little bit of time for some people to adjust to the sea," Ron heard with a surprise Marty's voice, and next the man entered the room himself.
"I am not seasick," said Ron hiding his annoyance.
"Well let's get drinking then, I took out my best rum for you Isanna," said Marty holding up a bottle of rum and some glasses.
"I told you later, didn't I?" Isanna said.
"Oh come on, you know Derek doesn't drink and it's no fun without company, we still have so much to talk about from the old days," he said opening the bottle and filling the glasses.
"Would you like one Ron?" he then asked looking at him.
"No, he doesn't drink, does he?" Isanna interjected.
"I am old now Mom, and I have with the guys at the tower a couple of times," he said.
"Yeah, I guess you are right, I just forget sometimes since I wasn't around when you did?" she said.
"I still can't believe you are a mother now?" said Marty.
"Did you never get married?" she asked taking the glass from him.
"No, never find the right one," he said.
Their conversations progressed, Ron quietly sipped his glass and got drunk the boring conversations progressed, he fell asleep soon.