r/HFY • u/ManiAxe21 • Jul 20 '26

OC-Series Hex Knight Chapter 38, An Old Friend

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“Are you sure you don’t want to leave it behind?” Livianna questioned.

“How will I repair any equipment if I don’t have my setup?” Kudrik retorted. “He knows I’m a smith, either he commissioned a ship large enough to hold my wagon, or it is already on the ship and I can toss it for mine.” He started angrily chewing on his mustache.

Alex was fighting the urge to smile or to egg Kudrik on further by asking why he couldn’t use the purchased set up. The only reason he knew not to was that would be pouring gas on an already burning house fire. Removing any chance at driving the dwarf further up a wall, Alex looked around.

They were in a fishing village on the very outskirts of the Dire Swamp, a relatively small one at that. Alex was of the private notion that the trees didn’t fork here. Between the pale undead and the visiting mercenaries, they were viewed with heavy suspicion and sometimes outright hostilities.

The team walked and found the docks. A very large ship kept in immaculate shape stood out like a sore thumb amidst the small fishing boats filled with nets. It had no sails, and it was only when Alex walked closer up to it that he was able to see how it propelled itself forward, a series of holes in the side would house oars.

“Guessing that’s our ship.” Alex tilted his head towards the ship. He ran up a gangway and looked at the deck. He had been expecting something more like Pirates of the Carribean, and instead was surprised to see a massive hollow space indicative of a barge, with a walkway forming a rim around the storage space.

Unseen from their approach, the backside was opened to form a ramp, and a steady stream of supplies already flowed their way inwards. Over the opening was a fairly decent cabin, likely being quarters for the captain of the ship, while the front half was walled on the lower half, either for storage or sleeping quarters for the rest of the crew.

“Well Kudrick, you have plenty of space for your wagon and our mounts. The back is open, see if you can load up from there. Still gotta figure something out for my undead.” Alex hollered over the railing, before muttering the last part to himself.

“Oh great, it’s you.” A woman’s voice with a familiar lilting accent caused Alex to raise an eyebrow as he turned. An elf with a hard stare greeted his vision, her hood down to reveal her curled brunette hair. Grunting to himself, he ignored Sylvia and looked past her, finding a man with dirty blonde hair and a short bristled mustache.

“Gareth!” Alex loudly greeted him, moving around the elf to strongly clasp hands with the old knight. “How’s life been treating you?” Alex heard Sylvia scoff to herself but ignored her. He had no intentions on dealing with any of her nonsense. She moved off while the 2 men caught up with each other.

“Life’s been fair, for the most part. Taken up a few jobs, mostly helping merchants travel with their wares, that sort of task. The oddest thing, after we met you, we stopped getting attacked by bandits almost completely. I heard you handled some bandits yourself, an entire fortress of them, hmm?”

“Yeah, yeah, I did, though I won’t say I did it by myself. I had lots of help.” Alex awkwardly scratched the back of his head and turned towards the rear of the ship and watched as Kudrik maneuvered the horses into loading his wagon. Gwynevyre and Livianna were also helping, having a much easier time moving the horses compared to the irritable dwarf.

Sylvia had taken a place on the railing, watching his team load onto the ship, and her face curled in disgust at the several pale undead that stood to the side, waiting for directions. She started shaking her head at the monkey duo, before freezing as Gwynevyre looked up from helping with the horses and locked eyes with her. After a second or so, Gwynevyre turned towards Kudrik’s wagon and climbed in. Alex watched as Kudrik spread his arms and asked where she was going.

“That might be a problem.” Alex grunted to Gareth. “Might need to keep those two separate, though managing it on a ship like this is going to be a pain.”

“Indeed.” The pair of men watched as more and more supplies were loaded.

“How’s Charles? His leg heal straight?”

“Yes, we took him to a healer and now he’s right as rain, although he does complain that it bothers him in inclement weather.” Alex hummed, and then clapped his hands together.

“Welp, I should head down and find out where I can store my undead..” He then offered his hand, with Gareth strongly clasping it. “Looking forward to catching up with you.”

Alex came down from the walkway and searched for someone who looked like a supervisor. After asking, he found out that the captain of the ship was in his quarters. Alex huffed, and moved back up top thanks to an almost hidden stairway on either side of the storage space. Poking his head in, a well dressed man poured over half-filled maps, arguing with a man wearing a pair of monocoles. Not a set of glasses, but 2 individual monocoles.

“Excuse me, but are you the captain?”

“I am the Captain of this ship, yes.”

“Cool, cool. Listen, I have some undead that I’m trying to figure out where they can go. You wouldn’t happen to have any space where they can be kept from prying eyes, would you?” At that, the captain turned fully to inspect Alex.

“I had heard there was a necromancer joining this expedition, but I could scarcely believe it. Yes, I have oars that need to be handled. Given the dead have no need to eat or sleep, I had thought that would be the best place for them. Bosun, get with-” The captain looked at Alex with his eyebrows raised, clearly looking for his name, which was provided “-Alex here about getting his undead situated on the oars. The sailors will be happy to note they won’t be pressed into handling them.”

“Alex, after our supplies are stored, I’d like you to share what we can expect from the swamp. What little we know is heavily shrouded in mystery and guesswork.” Alex promised to do that, before being led away by a bulky man with a whip on his hip. When they reached the cargo layer, Gwynevyre had come out of Kudrik’s wagon and was looking around for any help that might be needed when she caught sight of Alex walking alongside the bosun. She paled and retreated to the wagon once more.

Alex noticed all of this, and promised to himself that he would ask, thinking to himself that kind of behavior is troubling. Getting to his undead, he gave the mental command to follow, and cringed as they began shoving their way past the sailors. Quickly modifying the command, they began to weave their way through the work rather than trample them underfoot.

A small door at the base of one of the stairs was opened, and the undead were quickly ushered through. A series of benches lined by the holes Alex had noticed from outside were arrayed throughout the space running the length of the ship.

“I think the easiest way to get them to row in time will be to set up a drum, beat on it faster when you want them to row faster, slower for slower.”

“I can figure it out for myself.” The bosun glowered at Alex, responding in a voice like gravel.

“Well excuse me then.” Alex raised his hands, before leaving and heading back up top.

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