Even Gods Charge Tolls?

In the age of wooden sailing ships, voyages across the sea had no extra propulsion beyond the basic power of sails and currents—even in this world of magic and Hextech. At least, the medium-sized sailboat Annie had bought had only three main and fore sails, along with a dozen or so auxiliary sails of different sizes. There was nothing else to power it.

So there was no way it could sail quickly while towing the enormous corpse of a sea monster behind it, floating on the surface! With only the side wind and currents to help, the ship could only drag its prize slowly south toward the Serpent Isles.

"!!"

"Is that... land?!"

"Rep..."

"Rep-Reporting, Captain!"

"I think... I think we've reached the waters off the northwestern corner of the Serpent Isles... If we keep heading south, we should reach the entrance to Bilgewater Harbor in half a day at most, before midnight."

As night was about to fall and the red sun on the distant horizon sank slowly toward the sea, another sailor had taken over the lookout's post. Thin and nimble, he peered southeast through a spyglass from the crow's nest for a long while before calling down an uncertain report to the little girl mage captain on deck—The one who terrified them all.

To be honest, if he had a choice, he wouldn't have wanted to be perched up so high, staring into the distance. With the ship rocking from side to side under the waves, he couldn't shake the feeling that he might fall at any moment, either plummeting onto the deck or crashing into the water and nearly drowning.

But there was no choice. Once he had been selected, he had to grit his teeth and climb into the lookout's nest.

Their previous lookout had