preparing to cast off or even bring their supplies on board.
"It is a joke among humans that dwarves don't like to travel on the open sea," Skharr noted cheerfully. "And it’s interesting to see that a few rumors of your people still hold true in you."
"Fuck off."
He grinned and raised the sail. The dinghy moved faster than the barge and they sailed rapidly out of the delta toward the island, where the waves began to increase in size.
Skharr had been at sea in smaller craft before, but Brahgen didn't seem to react well to the way the dinghy was buffeted by the waves.
"Dwarves…were never meant…to be on water," the dwarf muttered and shook his head. His face had taken on an uncomfortable shade of green.
The barbarian could understand and so quelled the instinct to mock him for the moment, at least until they were on dry land.
The waters calmed somewhat as they approached the island, and as the sun continued to rise in the sky, it became more difficult to see it due to a thick mist that seeped slowly over the area. The wind calmed to the point where the sail no longer propelled them any farther, and with Brahgen still trying to keep his stomach contents down, it fell to Skharr to row them through the mist-covered waters.
Eventually, his companion recovered somewhat and his gaze flicked around to inspect their surroundings.
"I didn't see this mist when we were coming in," the dwarf commented after a while.
"Me neither. It might have been a reaction to our arrival."
"Magic?"
"Possibly. Or it could simply be that the island is plagued by mists coming in over the sea."
It wasn't a pleasant situation to be all but blind, but he still had a rough idea of where they were going, if only from the movement of the sea around them. They now approached dry land, and when he peered into the water, he could see the bottom rising gently with each stroke of the oars.
The dinghy stopped suddenly and he whipped around. It felt like they had struck a rock, and while the jagged edges they had hit might have seemed as hard as stone, it was suddenly clear that it was wood reinforced with steel.
He snapped his hands to his weapons, but he could see movement on the ship they had collided with and bows strung with arrows already pointed at them. The fact that they hadn't been fired at yet was an interesting development and it meant they needed to be incredibly careful how they acted over the next few minutes if they wanted to survive.
"Raise your hands and make no sudden movements," he told Brahgen quietly.
Contrary to his instruction, the dwarf leaned over the side of the boat and heaved loudly.
Skharr closed his eyes and waited for the twang of bowstrings that would indicate their imminent demise, but none came. Instead, a loud clanking was heard as hooks caught on the side of the dinghy and began to pull them around.
Once they were dragged to the port side of the ship, a rope was dropped for them.
"I don't think I can climb that," the youth declared weakly.
"I'll lift you," he answered and after a few attempts, he managed to heave the dwarf up the side without tipping the dinghy. The fact that he still couldn't hear any sounds of violence coming from those on the vessel meant they hadn’t encountered a tribe that intended to kill them out of hand.
He climbed up the rope, pulled himself carefully over the side, and immediately raised his hands to show no sign of aggression. There were at least a dozen crossbows pointed at both him and his companion, as well as numerous spears. The orcs on board looked larger than their kin from the deserts and wore garments in dark-green shades that almost helped them to disappear in the mist.
The ship itself was larger than Skharr had thought at first—at least twenty paces from bow to stern with oars positioned on the sides and a mast that was currently lowered along the deck. How they had managed to move so silently along the water was a mystery he had no time to ponder.
One of the orcs stepped forward. She was taller than her sailors and wore intricately designed mail armor. A sturdy steel helm also set her aside from the others, who mostly wore padded armor if they wore any at all.
She carried a heavy scimitar on her hip but it wasn't drawn when