Ruby made her way to the small garden hidden on the Voyager. That became an essential part of her routine over the last few days. All that she had been through made her life way more animated and chaotic than she was used to, the little calm corner she found was all she needed.

  Her husband was the one who brought her there on their 2nd day. She smiled at the recent memory; like many of the ship's crew, she knew that he was blaming himself for having her end up in such a situation. She found the thought silly though, did he think that she would have been happier separated from him? His fate and whereabouts unknown.

  Raymond was a lot of things, a gentle soul, a great cook and even a greater husband, but he wasn't the smartest man out there.

  At first, she just sat there, enjoying the peace and tranquillity, but then her boredom got to her and she started moving around, taking care of the garden. The poor thing was being forgotten by everyone, and she couldn't blame them really, they had more important things to take care of. Not her though, she was perfectly capable and willing to help.

  It was around 10 am or so, the Voyager having docked deeper into the ocean than those safer routes. She knew that they had been moving all night, heading towards Rosereef where they would restock. She wondered if a place with such a name would have some rose or flower seeds for sale, she was quite interested in taking a look at what this world had for them in that department.

  The thought of that made her feel a bit sad about her own flowers and plants. Hopefully, the hires would be taking good care of them. She didn't know what would happen to the shop when the news of their disappearance made it around, what would happen to her little piece of greenery?

  Walking to the Corner Garden, she chased away those thoughts as she focused on the matter at hand. She might have lost her shop and her plants but she had even more to take care of here, they needed just as much care as the ones back home did.

  Bloom-Mancer, that was the Class she got. Of all the Classes she was offered, it was the closest to her heart, it felt like she had just found a lost part of her soul.

  She called upon her first skill, Nurture, which did just what its name said, helped the plants grow and flourish under her care. She was so happy the first time she used it and saw some of the withering plants grow stronger and healthier. It was quite the magical moment, literally now that she considered it for a bit.

  As she went around the garden, using her skill and taking care of the plants physically, she suddenly felt something at the back of her mind. She wasn't quite familiar with the sensation yet, so it took her a while to realise what it meant, it was a system message,

  Level 2 achieved, skill selection ready,

  Ruby paused for a second after reading it. She was aware of what had happened to Captain Dan, how it proved what had been going around about getting experience through doing activities related to your Class. She just never expected that she might be the next to experience such a thing.

  Rubbing her hands together to get rid of some dirt on them, she called the skill choices she had,

  Skill choice available, you may choose 1 of the next three skills, or skip the current skill choice,

  Accelerated Growth.

  Plant Whisperer.

  Plant Manipulation.

  She sat down in one of the many benches in the Corner Garden as her mind wandered. The skill she discarded first was Accelerated Growth, which made plants grow faster. Taking into account tiers and all that, she felt that Nurture would achieve that eventually, it might not even take that many tiers. The other two skills though, she had a hard time choosing between.

  Yes, she was going to choose one of them. She knew that she needed to be careful about her skill choices, but the skills she got offered were just that interesting to her. Plant Whisperer was interesting in the sense that she always wanted to get closer to her plants and understand them more, and the skill allowed just that, as she would be able to communicate with them using it. It was extremely tempting.

  Plant manipulation was a skill that allowed her to manipulate plants. From the description, it only allowed her to manipulate how they grow and some of their movement, but from the name, she had an idea about what it could grow into in the future. Plus it seemed pretty fitting for her Class.

  Ruby sighed as she looked around her to the garden, all the plants and trees, even the grass.

  "I'm sorry sweeties." she whispered as she made her choice.

  In the end, it came down to what might be of use to the whole ship, not just her. She knew how hard everyone was working together to get the best skills or build themselves to be the most important they could be. She had to do so too, Plant Manipulation was the obvious choice when that was taken into account.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Strengthening her resolve, she made her choice.

  ***

  Nulara walked around the Voyager, she had been through quite the experience the last few days, from getting attacked by pirates, drifting on the open ocean, to becoming a fugitive, joining the crew of a weird impossible ship and finally surviving the pursuit of an ocean legend, she even wondered if she was just hallucinating all this as she drifted in the ocean.

  Her time on the Voyager was good, if a bit weird. She saw some things that she could barely start explaining. The things called phones for example, they were like an extremely intricate magical device, she was surprised to see such an object be used as a toy. The games on it were fun, but it seemed like a waste to use all that magical advancement for just that.

  The food was another thing that had been great, not even mentioning the special dinner they had a few nights ago, because it's never fair to compare anything to a specialised cooking Class, just the normal food they were having was quite interesting. It was like nothing she had before, it was so unique and tasty. The seasonings themselves were ones she didn't quite recognize too.

  The one who had been sharing all those new things with her was Mary. The old grandmotherly lady was such a comfortable presence to be around, plus she was one of the few among the crew who seemed to harbour no suspicions or distrust towards her. In contrast, the old lady seemed extremely interested in anything she had to say.

  Considering how the only other outsider was, she honestly was happy for the company and the interest. The young man was a good guy, he just seemed way more into the ship they were in and everything on it to even begin to care about anything else. But again, she just realised that she didn't actually even know his name, so maybe the problem wasn't with him alone.

  She did notice how one of the crew seemed to be quite interested in talking to her. If she didn't remember wrong, he was called Ricky. He seemed to be holding himself from doing so though.

  As an outsider, how she was being treated was kinda understandable, it was obvious that they would take time to open up to her, especially with how many secrets they seemed to be keeping. The people themselves were weird, they were oblivious about some things that should have been elementary for people who had access to such extremely strong magical artefacts.

  Knowing all that about them, and having also heard about how the Westerners had spies amongst them, she could see how they would be wary of new faces, but that didn't mean that she wasn't a bit sad.

  As she walked, she found herself in an area of the Voyager she had never been to before, something that didn't surprise her really, for a ship, the place was quite big.

  It was a full garden, with trees, flowers and plants. From time to time, when she found a place such as this, the truth about how big and different the Voyager was would make itself known.

  As she walked amidst the trees, enjoying the rare moment of tranquillity, her eyes suddenly fell on a secluded area of the garden, someone was there.

  Getting closer, she saw a woman on her knees as she worked on the dirt in that area, or more precisely, the plants there. The woman seemed to have heard someone approaching as she turned her head, a confused expression on her face.

  "Oh, sorry, for interrupting you." Nulara hurried to apologise. "I didn't mean to, I will leave, please continue."

  "No no," the woman said as she stood up, a gentle smile on her face, "You are Nulara, right? I've been seeing you around."

  "Yes, I'm Nulara." She nodded slowly. "You are... Ruby right?"

  She was glad that she met someone she knew the name of. Ruby sometimes helped Raymond, the chef who was at the Skyline most of the time. They seemed like a gentle couple who didn't judge her or the young man much, even if they showed it in different ways, Ruby in her calm gentle demeanour, and Raymond in his more energetic hearty way.

  "That is correct." she nodded. "Are you trying to find a place to relax? What do you think about this little garden?"

  "It is cosy," Nulara said honestly, "It's nice to find a place like this here."

  "Exactly." The woman smiled widely. "It's the perfect location to relax."

  "Yeah..." Nulara said as she looked around.

  "Tell me," Ruby suddenly asked after giving her a deep glance, "How are you doing? Must be quite hard for you here, isn't it?"

  "I'm doing well," she said, the truth mostly, "it's hard to get used to things, but I'm doing great."

  Seeing the lady wanting to push for more, Nulara hurried to speak, she didn't really want to go into how she was doing on the ship with someone she had just met, not yet at least.

  "We are moving again? Do you know our next destination?"

  "Rosereef." Ruby seemed to want to push some more, but she eventually just answered her question. "That's the name I've heard being thrown around. Do you know anything about it?"

  "Not much really," Nulara answered, going through her memories, "From what I've heard, it's one of those ports where some farers stop from time to time. It's not known for much really."

  "You heard nothing about some kind of black market there?" Ruby seemed to be deep in thought before asking.

  "No, I heard of no such thing," Nulara said in confusion, it was the first time she heard of that.

  "That's to be expected." Ruby comforted her. "How would a normal person know about such places?"

  Nulara opened and closed her mouth, she wondered if she should say what she had in mind. Thinking that she maybe should start exposing some of her secrets for them to do the same for her, she decided to go with it,

  "No," she said in determination, "I know such places quite well, I just never heard of this one."