Ball of Nothing

The otter assigned to be Zero and Truen's teacher was a young otter who introduced himself as Docky's disciple and a captain of a ship. In terms of commanding a vessel, nobody was better than Ottley when navigating rough waters.

"This scar on my back," Ottley removed his shirt to show the doctor and his archer pal, "came from saving my comrade."

Zero frowned. That didn't look like it was done by a blade or a whip. The scar ran all the way from Ottley's left shoulder to his right hip. There were many jagged edges, some deeper than other places. More interestingly, Zero noticed how there were circular patterns at two places. What could have caused such an injury?

"The sea is a merciless place, sometimes more so than on land. There are two things you must learn to fear at sea. The first is starvation and the second is the Kraken. Not even Queen Leah knows how to deal with the King of the Sea."

Zero's eyes lit up in understanding. "Was that done by a Kraken?"

Ottley laughed and put his shirt back on. "Kraken? No, that was done by a sea monster. We too thought that it was a Kraken. However, there was no way we would be able to escape if it truly was the Kraken. According to the legends, the Kraken would bring a lightning storm before it appeared to swallow the ship whole. The sea monster we faced wasn't big enough to do it, although it certainly was terrifying enough to break our sails and rudder, leaving us drifting for months."

Zero felt bad for these otters. Sailors have it rough.

"How did you escape?" he asked.

Ottley smiles sardonically. "Escape? We didn't. We were rescued."

Curious, even Truen's ears twitched. Ottley didn't know what to say to the two sea greenhorns. He didn't want to dampen their hopes, but the truth was, nobody could win against mother nature.

"The sea monster only left us alone because an even bigger sea monster appeared. Our ship was sent to drift for months. Some of my brothers died, and we didn't have many resources. Thankfully, we otters are good swimmers, so we could still find some food from the sea to sustain ourselves until help arrived in the form of sea nomads. They led us to a lawless village at the edge of Derby Desert where we repaired our ship to sail back."

After listening to Ottley's story, Zero became interested. He wanted to know more about the adventures Ottley experienced at sea. Unlike the tales of adventurers who slew monsters, took on quests and participated in wars, the stories from the unknown sea were a lot more interesting. Not many books on Earth contained information about sea adventures. Even Sedna's creations back on Amarania were a lot more interesting than the ones Zero have seen during his adventures.

"Now that you understand the unpredictableness and dangers of the sea let's start with your first lesson. All seafarers must be comfortable with water. You don't have to remove your clothes, but you should remove all weapons and armour. Salt will damage metal creations fairly quickly."

Truen quickly popped two pills from the bottle Zero transferred to their share inventory yesterday. Seeing the sea made him feel ill, and the wood elf wondered if this was a psychological thing. He never saw the sea in his past life, and seeing such a huge moving body of water made him slightly nervous. It wasn't the same as flying through the air either. How absurd!

Ottley didn't notice the nervousness building inside Truen and explained to them the most important thing for land dwellers who wish to travel by sea was to overcome the fear of water.

"You will be submerging yourselves underwater for the first part of today's lesson. We will stay closer to shore for the time being, but we will head further out into the sea as we continue with lessons. You need to get used to being in the water with no way for your legs to touch land."

Zero had no problem diving and remaining underwater. He didn't need to breathe, so this was easy. Ottley was impressed by how Zero took to the water like a fish. Although the doctor wasn't able to swim properly, he wasn't afraid to venture deeper and play with the waves, letting it take him back to shore.

On the other hand, the wood elf was struggling a lot.

"We're not here to take a salty shower," Ottley blinked when Truen briefly put his face into the water and jumped up the moment his face touched the water.

It was already the fifth time, but Truen wouldn't stay fully submerged under the water for more than ten counts. He was always in such a hurry to get out of it and would backpedal closer to land subconsciously. It was difficult.

Truen apologised and tried to put a lid over his irrational panic. He took a look at Zero jumping and diving into the newest wave. The shriek of laughter sounded very distant to Truen. He looked at the water once more and swallowed hard. It shouldn't be any different from taking a dip in the lake or bathing in a river, but Truen couldn't do it for some reason.

Ottley studied his students. Zero had no problems adapting to sea life. However, it would take a lot more work to convert Truen into an outstanding seaman. He should have known that wood elves would find this harder than humans. After all, they were raised in the forest, extremely attuned to the trees and mountains. It just wasn't something they couldn't overcome easily.

Listening to the sound of waves crashing onto the shore, Truen looked at the huge body of water in the distance. Not being able to see what was going to happen scared him more than the thought of plummeting to his death from ten thousand feet above.

"I'll try again," he collected his courage once more to challenge the water, and Ottley nodded.

Secretly, the sea otter was rooting for the archer. It took a real man to challenge his fears repeatedly to overcome them. Maybe by the time these two students graduated from him, Ottley might find the courage he lacked to command a vessel as a captain again.