The Parao was a marvel of craftsmanship from monsters that had never held a hammer or a saw. In a mana deprived realm, it should have been left stranded and petrified. It kept sailing instead, throughout the dead lands, and its crew thrived.
It took almost a day for the human among them to break off the alcohols, the games and the baths that the first deck offered. A hundred other passengers, humanoid beasts seeking his favors, kept crowding him and seeing to his every needs.
He woke up the next day still giddy and lightheaded, ready to get a massage and buffet, only to slap himself awake.
Two beasts played servants for him, making his bed and clothing him. They were still praising his looks and strength when he opened the door to see more of them waiting in the hallway.
"Come to our table today!" One pleaded.
"Will you watch our duel?" Offered two others.
A batracian mocked: "What he wants is some air! Give way!"
The scents were too dizzying, the food too addictive. He was already following them back to the ballroom where more plates had been brought for them than they could hope to eat. Meat steamed whole in basins of sauce.
They were eating it with their hands, devouring and letting their fine clothes get stained. They would change them afterward anyway.
"Tell us about your feats!" The crowd asked.
"Where are you head?" Another wondered.
"I am going to save the realm!" The teenager boasted.
Honey flowed on the meatballs he would pick and eat like the others. They wanted to play tables, so one went to prepare the room. The rest followed after he came back and announced all was set.
They all moved in a wave, guided by an almost drunk human.
"You guys all look strong!" He was rambling. "When I get into a fight, I can take four guys by myself! No kidding, bring it on, four on one!"
"As expected of a human!" They praised.
Then they stopped.
At the corner, just a few meters from them, another monster had appeared. A simple greyhound, a rocky lizard with a metal skull who had frozen in fear at their sight.
All went fairly fast. The lizard fell back, only to be pursued by the upset crowd. The human following behind, still a bit lost. They were already on the beast that had cut their path and was now skimming the wall, terrified.
They hit it, forced it on the ground and started to kick and slash and its rocky scales.
"What are you even doing here you rodent! Learn your place!"
A greyhound was not small, nor did he lack in potency but that one was too scared to make a move and simply took the punishment.
"Eh. Eh! Stop!" The human finally reacted.
At his voice all broke off and let him get through. He reached the battered beast, saw him heave and exhaled himself. Around him those who had laughed with him heartily were taken aback.
They watched the human crouch and and pat the metallic skull.
"Are you alright, buddy?"
"Yes..." The greyhound answered before gasping.
"Don't speak to the human, vermin!" A lizard in the crowd lashed out. "Don't even look at him!"
"Eh, look at me."
His new pet was forcing himself to keep his eyes closed, now trembling. The absurdity of a massive rocky lizard shaking like a leaf in the ship's hallway.
But the human's hand and his calm voice broke through that fear. He looked again, saw a friendly smile on that young face.
"You can not only talk to me, what do you say we tag along for a while? You ate already?"
"I will eat if you want..."
"No no no! Get up, come on, there is a lounge right around!"
The small crowd watched him drag this monster along and just let him, speechless, unwilling to stop nor to follow him anymore.
As for the battered beast, it hid its limping until in the lounge the human showed him a divan on which to lay down. He was as obedient as a doll.
His savior made sure the door was closed before coming back and throwing himself in a nearby chair.
"I can't believe they assaulted you! What's wrong with them?!"
The greyhound did not dare contradict him.
"I'm Nzinga! Just Nzinga, no master, no title, got it? Nzinga!"
"Nzinga." He repeated, docile.
"And what's your name?"
"I am a nobody."
That made the human roll his eyes: "Nobody's a nobody! Well if you're not willing to give me a name I'll find you one! I'll call you Copain! It means... something good!"
The beast's eyes opened wide.
"You... are giving me a name?!"
"Hell yeah! Now how about you tell me why those maniacs attacked you?"
It was the simplest story and at the same time, riddled with nuances.
The Parao had a social order among monsters. There were the nobodies that labored at the bottom to keep the vessel going. Then the promised that made the nobodies work and ensured the ascended lacked for nothing. And finally the ascended that enjoyed all of the ship's amenities.
That crowd had actually been magnanimous with him. As a nobody, he had entered a forbidden deck, showed himself to the ascended and showed himself to a human.
He should have expected death.
"And how did you end up on this deck?" The human almost scolded.
"Mana..." He muttered. "I felt... mana..."
Because of the human's presence, the lower decks were in shambles. Magic had flowed in, exarcebating all of the monsters' instincts. This one had found a way to slip through and get all the way up, only to stumble at the end.
Guilty from tail to muzzle.
That made the human moan. He picked his amber pendant and talked aloud.
"Eh, bone dragon! You knew about all that didn't you?"
The mocking voice answered him immediately: "I do not care for those deluded fools' mockery of an existence. They cast away their pride as beasts in favor of costumes and pleasantries. No, their demeaning ways are foreign to me."
"You should get out more."
"So what will you do, little lamb? Doesn't this masquerade make your blood boil? Will you spill theirs in righteous anger?"
The human got up, agitated. He was still holding the pendant and, as far as the greyhound could tell, talking to himself, which left that monster on edge.
"Of course I am putting an end to this! I'll find the captain and punch him until he treats his crew better!"
"Good! Let no one stand in your path."
But that last sentence got lost. The teenager had already let go of the pendant on his neck to head back to the door, which made the greyhound panic. He feared to talk but feared letting it happen even more and so, broke of his mold.
"Wait!"
That made the human stop fast. The greyhound's confidence vaporized at his friendly gaze.
"What?"
"No... nothi... You shouldn't... It's bad..."
In other words, he was begging the human to do nothing.
First of all he dreaded to be left alone in this forbidden lounge and offered to crawl back to the lower decks. Second was how he didn't want to cause the human any trouble.
Beyond that lay a more substantive fear.
"If you end this, I will stay a nobody for the rest of my life! So please! Nzinga! Have mercy on us!"
"What the hell are you talking about? When I end this you will be free to eat all the food you want!"
"Please!"
The greyhound had jumped on the floor to prostate himself. He was weeping as much as a monster could.
"Kill me for my transgression but give the others a chance! Spare them!"
"Dude, I'm not going to kill you! Now, look at me. Eh, look at me!" He got the beast to raise his head. "Wait for me here and if an enlightened asks, tell him a human told you to! And if he doesn't listen, you maul him! Okay?"
"I will obey."
"And drop the whole obedience act, alright? I am going to the lower decks and see for myself! One way or another, I am not going to let you get bullied!"
With that, he was off.
Outside a crowd of humanoid monsters, some two dozen of them, had waited for him with concern. Their previous awe and joy had melted away.
"Master Nzinga!" One called him. "Is it true that you are protecting a nobody?"
And another: "Why would you seek his company over ours?"
"Out of my way!" The human thundered. "I don't have time for you lot!"
They dared not oppose him, opened a lane through which he stormed and followed him for a bit before abandoning their efforts. He left them and searched for a path down.
This proved tricky: the ship's hatches and stairs had been hidden behind panels and it took him some effort to find one. But he got down and immediately the realm changed.
Now the deck was full of warm sweat and oily scent. The monsters he crossed, hunched creatures that struggled on two legs, fled at his sight. There were the slaughterhouses, the sewing workshops, the carpentries and gemcutting.
They also worked on the sails and rigging but he had already seen enough and was getting lower even, to a deck whose stench had him gag for a second.
The taste of black blood.
There was a slow drum, two beats per second, that echoed through narrow hallways. They opened on vast rooms in which monsters of all shapes pulled bars around whetstones, the friction of which helped the ship's fins flow.
He didn't see much more, the sleeping grounds, feeding slots and fighting pits.
There, more hunched monsters were whipping the others. Promised that growled when a beast slowed down. They had to follow the drum's rhythm.
The human approached the closest, surprised him and grabbed the arm holding the whip.
"Yo!"
That beast, the moment he realized that a human was about to reak his arm like a twig, crumbled to his knees. He would not talk, not even look at him.
That made the teenager release the arm.
"Care to explain why you whip people?"
"I have to!" The hunched salamander monster let out. "They need to ascend!"
"Ascend? What's that have to do with whipping?"
"I failed..." The monster was breaking down, almost in a craze. "I failed to ascend and now I am too scared to try again... But they can still do it, they can still ascend! You have to let me whip them so they ascend!"
"Oy, you can't be serious..."
Around them the other monsters were looking the other way. Those with whips kept cracking, yelling around. Those pulling just followed the rhythm. Several hundreds ran themselves exhausted all day long regardless.
Willingly.
It took him a bit longer to accept it. Once the human faced that truth, he retreated back up, through the stairs and back to the opulence of the highest deck. Back to the lounge.
The ascended had forced the door open. The lounge showed traces of a short but furious fight that had left the greyhound on the precious floor, his rocky scales cracked at multiple points. Black blood covered his body and the ground.
"No, no no no no no!" The teenager threw himself at the beast's side.
He heard him breathe and stubbornly repeat: "The human... told me..."
"He will live."
That high-pitched voice had come from a corner of the room. There stood a bird wearing priestess garnments. A thin beak, eyes warded, she had colored feathers and a long scepter with small bells at the end.
The human saw her, got up and braced. He did not know yet if she had allowed this or prevented the worst.
She walked up, her warded face on him, then on the wounded greyhound.
"The human has spoken. You will ascend."
At those words the monster's eyes, under his heavy metal skull, reopened.