Chapter 180: Going For A Walk

Ugh, my head felt like someone had just kicked it with a frozen boot. The blood was pounding in my ears and just cracking my eyes made my brain hurt even more. What happened last night?

I opened my eyes to find my bed filled with clothed wives spread out. What? What the hell? It was just me and...oh that's right! When we got more wine, the girls asked to join us! I looked over and saw the table filled with empty bottles and partially filled glasses of red and white wine. Ugh, that's where this… uh-oh!

I hopped out of bed and ran for the bathroom, a room with a toilet and that was all. After I finished puking up what was left of last night's wings that were all over the room in half-eaten boxes. The place looked like some huge party had just happened, and maybe it did, I was having trouble trying to string the rest of the night together after we went and got the wine.

There was Nika, Tamika, Dalmia, Elise, Nuwari, and even Tescelle were in the bed. I decided that I would leave them be. I grabbed a change of clothes, and headed up to the top deck; my head was still hurting something fierce and I wasn't feeling good like I had just been run over four times.

Up on the deck, I was surprised to see there was Kyra, Alex, and Wendy up top with the kids, so I went over to see them but got pushed away by Kyra.

"Uck, go bath, you smell like you have bathed in alcohol! You're lucky you didn't wake your daughter last night, or you would have woken up a lot worse off than you are!" Kyra said, both she and Kyla were glaring at me, figures, taking right after mom.

"Fine, I was going anyway, just wanted to come and see all my cute kids! Oh, and their angry mothers!"

"Git!" The three of them shouted at me, pointing at the side of the ship.

I put my hands up with the clothes in hand and walked away. Even that little turd Kyla was shaking her finger at me, which made me roll my eyes. I instantly regretted the action, as it kicked the headache back into gear. 

I dropped my clothes on a crate and looked out at the open water, I could just see a rocky shoreline in the distance. I looked down at the water, and shivered, thinking about how cold it was going to be. Then I looked back at my glowering wives, ya, the water looked more inviting, so I stripped and then dove off the side of the boat.

I crashed into the water, my dive was less dive and more of a violent connection of man and water since my hands were not together. It was like diving face-first into the water, but it was still very refreshing, and I could feel some of the tension leaking away from me. I burst up from the water and then was almost hit with something that fell from above.

"Hey! Watch what you're throwing at me!"

"It's just soap, you stink! Don't come back until you are clean!" Alex yelled over the edge to me.

I looked around and noticed a floating piece of wood with string and a lump of white soap about it. I grabbed the bar and scrubbed with unbridled fury to get the stink off me, and was almost rubbed completely red by the time I was done. I climbed back up to the top and Kyra was waiting with a towel for me and Kyla in her arms.

"See? Now daddy doesn't smell like a bar! And now Daddy can take you, so mommy can get something done around here!"

I toweled off and got changed quickly, then I took Kyla with me to give Kyra a break. Honestly, we were on vacation, what did she need to do? I knew better than to ask, I'm sure there was something, or maybe she just wanted some of her time. It didn't matter, Kyla would just come for a walk with me to go see the captain.

Seeing me back on deck, the two boys from yesterday fell in behind me. I glanced back and was about to tell them to go find something to do, but decided against it. They could just follow me around and have some time off from the captain and other deckhands.

I walked up to the top deck, where the captain was standing, talking with his helmsman. Seeing me come up the stairs, I was given a very respectful bow, so I returned it in kind. I wasn't the type to have someone place themself lower than me; as long as they knew what I was trying to do and went along with the idea, I would treat everyone equally.

"Cap, how's it going up here? Any more trouble from the trees?"

"No, they won't catch us now, but they will make it into port around the same time as us," the captain said as he watched Kyla squirm in my arms.

"How far from the port are we?"

"Less than half a day, we will make it to the Port of Gracia before the evening meal, giving you all time to get lifted up to your rooms."

"Lifted?"

"Hmm? You have never been to the Port of Gracia? Well, it's the main port but in order to get on to the island, you have to take a ride in another type of ship. You are from the lower parts of Bjrothrone, so I expect you haven't seen many flying ships yet, have you? No? They are a sight to see! Most of them are used only by Firesti and The Crashing Wave Empire, some other countries do use them, but few and far."

"Nice! I really wanted to see how they worked! What else do you know about the Tri-Island?"

"Well, not much more than your average person, but I don't usually go to the top side of the island. Normally we just drop folks, and cargo off, and then head up to the next stop, and we will be doing that again. Still, we will see each other in two weeks when you return," The captain said with a smile, that faded quickly as he jabbed the Helmsman, who was nodding off.

"Two weeks?! I thought it was one week?"

"No, I have it written down in my office. I can take you down to go look if you would like, but I am almost positive that your wife Alexcoria, said the date would be in two weeks."

"Oh, I don't doubt you, I just was told something different, bah! Okay, thanks, Cap! I need to go find out what's brewing with these damn women!"

Kyla and I stormed back to where The three women were sitting around a blanket that had been stretched out. The children were all rolling around, so I put Kyla down with them and she went over to Fenli and attempted to start pulling her little wings. Kyra scooped her up and then glared at me, holding the child back out to me.

"Hold on, I will take her back, but what is this about two weeks! Wasn't this supposed to be a week-long vacation?"

"Calm down, you need the break, and if I would have told you how long it was off the hop, you would have refused. You need to take a break and you will! Now take Lydia with you as well!" Alex said, picking up our daughter and handing her to me.

I wanted to argue, seriously, I was trying to take over the world, and now we were going on a two-week vacation that was actually sixteen and a half days! Ugh, I thought vacations were supposed to relax you, not put me under more stress!

"You do know what I am trying to do right? Or has everyone just forgotten that?" I was a little bit upset at this point.

I had been more than lenient about this trip, and now it just seemed like I was getting taken advantage of. Part of me wanted just to jump out of the boat and run back to land then Dreams. At least I could fucking get something done while they did whatever the fuck they wanted. 

"Hyde?" Alex asked, but I didn't look at her or the other two, nor did I take the kids.

"I will meet you at the port, I'm going for a walk."

I didn't wait, I was getting madder and madder as the seconds crept by. I ran and jumped off the edge and cracked my Gates wide open, hitting the water running. I was tired of them going behind my back for my sake, but without asking me if I wanted that. I guess it didn't matter at this point, I was already neck-deep in the shit, and it was only going to get deeper, but I didn't have to like it.

I ran directly at the massive cliffs that covered the shoreline with no place to dock a ship or even get up, but that wouldn't stop me. I curved my approach to keep from smashing into the wall face first and grabbed a ledge, almost ripping my arm off and breaking the ledge, but my fury made me slam my other hand into the stone and start scaling the cliff face.

When I reached the top, there was a forest in front of me, and I could hear some large growling noises coming from within it. Looks like something had heard me coming, but that was just what I wanted. Time to go hit something.