This is it! We’re really going!

Trying to shove every bit of worry away, she glanced back once at the stairs and waved, not sure whether Papa could see her or not, and she hurried over the plank onto the ship. The plank wobbled beneath her, and she felt Pixit’s anxiousness like bubbles inside her as they walked onboard.

«Setting out on our adventure sounded a lot easier when I was still in my egg. Are storm beasts really supposed to travel by boat?»

Mina wondered if she should ask someone where she was supposed to go. She felt like she was the only one on the ship who didn’t know exactly what she was supposed to be doing.

«Mina?» Pixit sounded nervous, a buzzy kind of feeling in her head. «It’s all made of wood.» His tail was sparking harder, with embers boring themselves into the wooden deck.

“Excuse me, ma’am?” Mina asked one of the sailors.

But the sailor hurried past without hearing her and climbed one of the masts. She released a hook, and a sail billowed out. Mina felt the wind blow harder, and the sail puffed like a shirt on the laundry line.

The captain called, “Watch the rigging! Careful now! Ease her into the stream! That’s it—​and someone get that lightning baby onto the rubber! What are you thinking, girl? Ships are flammable!”

Jumping, Mina realized he was shouting the last at her. Onto the rubber? What did that mean? She spun in the circle, hoping it would become clear.

“This way,” a sailor barked at her—​the one who had passed her a second ago, now down from the mast. Pixit and Mina trotted after her, across the deck to some steps. “Honestly, why don’t they teach you how to travel before they expect you to journey?” She then gave them a smile and softened her voice. “Not your fault you don’t know. You’re a skittish one, aren’t you? Especially for a lightning guardian. You sure you’re with the right beast?” The sailor’s voice was lightly teasing, but the words struck Mina right in the heart.

She was sure, but she couldn’t seem to find the words to say it.

“Keep your sparky friend down there on the black, and he won’t do any harm. It’s safe for his kind. You’ll be the second stop, after the city.” She was back climbing the ropes to one of the crossbeams as soon as she finished her speech.

“Thank you,” Mina said, albeit too softly for the sailor to hear. “And I’m sure.”