It should come as no surprise that Tony got to â€“ nearly to â€“ Aborline more on threats than on gold. Heâ€™d booked passage on what he thought was probably no better than a pirate ship through a middleman with a very apprehensive captain. What kept him from being stripped of all valuables was probably more to do with the menâ€™s fear of being cooked rather than any good grace on their part. And none of this concerned the half-dragon in the least. So be it. As long as the result was the same â€“ not being stolen from and dumped overboard â€“ what did it really matter?<br/><br/>The crew of Eleraâ€™s Virtue lowered a rowboat to let Tony off to shore while the early morning fog was just beginning to come in. They seemed not to mind losing one of them; he was expected to row ashore himself. But it was not an impossible task. The shore was neither particularly rocky nor were there any cliffs.<br/><br/>Knowing Aborline was little more than a stop on the way, the Captainâ€™s insistence that he not go into the port proper didnâ€™t bother Tony. It would probably be best to avoid anyone he wasnâ€™t doing business with anyway.<br/><br/>So he was relegated to walking, skirting the little town by a narrow margin, through farmland where the only ones to see him were field hands whose wild tales would be taken as napping on the job.<br/><br/>As heâ€™d planned, he would go into the town long enough to purchase supplies and then be on his way. If he went in the front gate, he could lie and say heâ€™d walked the whole way â€“ they might even believe him if he said he flew. Yes the guards would probably watch him closely, but maybe he could get more recent news from this side of the world.<br/><br/>And this was Tonyâ€™s state of mind as he put one foot in front of the other automatically.