As the only professional with experience at sea, Lightning was duty-bound to serve as the navigator.
In fact, she was also interested in this strange barge made of strange materials.Although it looked very rough, it had all the necessary parts for a ship. As for whether it could move, she was not sure. After all, she was mostly a bystander at sea, and her father always refused her request to take the helm or raise the sail.
According to the tradition of a new ship, Lightning smashed a can of ale on the bow and then ordered to raise the sail. Carter, as the commander, was naturally unwilling to let the little girl take the position, so after she finished shouting, the Knight would always follow up with the same order.
The sails of Little Town were sewn out of animal skins, most of which were cowhide and sheepskin, mixed with some local products of Border Town, such as wolf skin and bear skin. Therefore, the colors were of different shades, brown, white, and gray, like rags that were full of patches. The sails were trapezoidal, separated by four wooden beams, and the cables passed through the iron rings at the top of the mast and hung on the deck. As long as the cable was pulled, the whole sail could be raised.
In order to make the operation as simple as possible, Little Town's front and rear sails were single sails, parallel to each other and perpendicular to the centerline. If it was a common two-masted sailboat, it would lead to very little wind, which was equivalent to losing its function. But with Vendy's ability to control the wind, this design would make the power evenly distributed on both sides of the centerline, making it easier for the helmsman to control the direction.
Seeing that the sails were raised, Lightning directed the workers on land to untie the hemp ropes. The weather was not bad at this time, with occasional snowflakes falling from the sky. Pushed by the breeze and the current, the ship slowly left the shore.
The little girl landed next to Brian and shouted: "Full right rudder!"
Carter also shouted: "Full right rudder!"
"Uh, what does full right rudder mean?" Brian scratched his head, "How many laps to the right?"
"No, turn left to the end," Lightning said with her hand on her forehead, "Forget it, I'll do it."
She forgot that this was the first time for these people to operate a sailboat, and they didn't even understand the basic meaning of the instructions. If it was a standard two-masted sailboat, she was afraid that the sails would not even be unfurled. Even with less than ten people, the stone ship was able to smoothly leave the shore. It could only be said that the design of Little Town was indeed unique.
She held the handle of the steering wheel that was even taller than her. Her feet left the ground and she turned to one side. The huge horizontal steering wheel was very heavy for ordinary women. In the absence of mechanical assistance, it was equivalent to overcoming the resistance of the water and pulling the entire iron rudder under the bottom of the ship. But all of this was not a problem for Lightning who could fly. She noticed that there was a piece under the tiller to prevent the ship from turning around. She couldn't help but be curious. She had heard that the ship was designed by His Royal Highness, so how could he know such details? Even sailors who spent most of their time at sea would not necessarily know the structure of each part of a ship.
"Sister Vendy, let the wind rise."
Standing on the roof, Vendy didn't know whether to laugh or cry. So this was the reason why His Royal Highness asked her if she had a fear of heights. Using myself to propel the boat? Thinking of the work she usually did, such as drying meat, drying clothes, and so on, she suddenly had a subtle feeling of contrast. She opened her hands and entered the state she practiced on a daily basis. She let the wind blow evenly from her feet and head, trying to make the two sides of the sails as equal as possible.
To be honest, Vendy didn't think that this seemingly simple request would be so difficult to implement.
Although she had awakened as a witch fifteen years ago, she had never tried to deeply understand and control her own power. Whether it was summoning a rapid airflow to wrap around a stone to attack the enemy, or summoning a gust of wind to sweep the enemy away, it was all a one-time release of a large amount of magic.And when dealing with chores in the camp, the wind was also sometimes strong and sometimes weak, as long as it could achieve its goal. Now thinking of Anna's serious appearance when she practiced, Vendy suddenly felt a little ashamed.
[The first thing you have to do is to repeatedly practice your ability until you fully master it – just like Anna. ]
It turned out that it wasn't a cliché.
Then I'll start from now … She took a deep breath and focused all her attention on sensing the wind.
Although the wind wasn't completely balanced, the sails were still inflated, and the continuous thrust made the mast creak, and the bow began to sway to the right.
"It actually moved," Carter exclaimed.
"His Highness made a stone into a boat, but also made it float on the water," Mr. Pine said while stroking his beard stubble, "Is there anything he can't do?"
The Little Town was getting farther and farther away from the river bank, gradually sailing in the middle of the river.
Vendy could only create wind out of thin air, but she couldn't make the original north wind disappear. Under the action of the two winds, the direction of the hull was not moving in a straight line, so she had to rely on the rudder to adjust. Lightning couldn't explain this point clearly, so she could only let Brian experience it himself. In order to let him master this feeling as soon as possible, the little girl first commanded him to change the rudder several times, feeling the relationship between the angle of rotation of the rudder and the amplitude of the bow swing, and then making further subtle adjustments.
After sailing on the Redwater River for more than half an hour, Vendy was the first one to be unable to hold on.
It wasn't because her magic was exhausted, but because her body had reached its limit.
Even if she wrapped her body like a dumpling, she still couldn't completely resist the attack of the cold wind. A thin layer of snowflakes had accumulated on her cotton hat, and her hands and feet were frozen to the point of almost losing their feeling. She stood on the roof teetering. If it wasn't for Lightning discovering something strange while cruising in the air, she might have persisted until she fainted.
Lightning quickly flew to Vendy's side, grabbed her body, and at the same time shouted for Brian to come ashore.
The latter turned the rudder to the right, and the bow slowly turned to the left. Lightning also flew down with Vendy. Although they could only feel the wind blowing on the deck, at least they could temporarily avoid the cold, so as to avoid losing body temperature too quickly. Moreover, docking was a task that required delicate control, so Lightning didn't dare to let a newcomer who had just learned how to steer operate – even if she also didn't know how to do it.
After tossing and turning, Little Town finally reached the shore, and the moment it collided with the river bank, everyone's heart jumped. The collision produced a dull sound, but fortunately it didn't seem to be a big deal. The group quickly folded the sails, and set up a gangplank to go ashore.
Fortunately, during the trial, they didn't choose to go in a straight line, but instead turned around in the wide river to practice, so Little Town didn't go too far from the starting point.