On the morning of the sixth day with dawn still a few hours away, peril struck “The Saber Chaser”. A series of unnatural swells more than fifty feet tall suddenly rolled into the ship’s flank. Luckily the seasoned helmsman was able to guide the nose of the ship into the first one, climbing over it before plummeting down the back of it with terrifying speed.
Agitha and Zell were startled awake by the violent lurching and shouts of the crew as they rushed to their posts. Agitha moved with speed and purpose, quickly fetching her pack and retrieving three small pearl sized objects from a smaller velvet pouch. She immediately took Merc by the snout and pushed one of them into his mouth and then held his mouth closed until he swallowed. She then gave one to Zell and ordered him to swallow it. He didn’t hesitate, and Agitha finally swallowed the third one.
“They’re enchanted to make you float. We need to get to the door leading to the deck. Pack on and weapons secure in twenty seconds. Move.” Agitha was using a voice Zell hadn’t yet heard. It was that of a military commander, and it cut through all chaos.
Zell was ready to go in twenty seconds. They waited at the top of the stairs as the ship was rocked by wave after wave. At Agitha’s instruction Zell held tightly to one side of Merc’s leather harness while she held the other.
“We do not let go. If I give the word, exit fast and watch your feet. We make straight for the back of the ship so it can’t roll over us.” She said clearly.
Thankfully, the crew was able to keep the battered vessel upright and the series of strange swells eventually subsided. Agitha breathed a sigh as she released Merc’s armor and walked tentatively onto the deck.
“How on earth did you keep us upright?” She hailed the exhausted looking Captain Fargis.
“I hired a genius helmsman and somebody that speaks shark.” He replied, leaning heavily against the mast.
“The sharks helped?” Zell asked. “How?”
“They helped keep our nose to the swells and the pressure low. When they swim down it makes us bottom heavy and harder to tip.”
“They’re demanding a few extra barrels of mackerel by the way.” Ruthar added
“As much as they can eat.” Fargis assured. “I wonder what in the world brought on those swells on a clear night like that, I suppose an earthquake or underwater volcano perhaps?”
“How far were we pushed off course?” Agitha asked
“Not far. We’ll make the heavy cove in a few hours so you may as well stay packed.” Fargis replied.
Agitha nodded in confirmation and led Zell and Merc back down to the cabin.
“You’re so much like your mom it’s scary.” Agitha finally said after a few minutes of reflection.
“You sound like my dad.” Zell replied, never comfortable with compliments from Agitha.
“It’s a great thing.” Agitha clarified. “Sharpening under pressure isn’t something that comes naturally to many people.”
“I just don’t ever want to be one of those hysterical people scattering and trampling each other. It’s a pretty embarrassing look.” Zell started jokingly but quickly changed his tone. “It’s because I trust you. You might be a grumpy, jaded, binge drinking sadist but there’s not another person in the world I would rather have looking out for me.”
“You’re not wrong Bait. You are not wrong. Now try to rest a little, the real fun starts today.” Agitha advised as she climbed into her own hammock.
The Saber Chaser skipped along the coastline on schedule, and as the sun climbed toward its peak in the sky the two peninsulas which marked The Heavy Cove appeared on the horizon.
The crew guided the ship with the assistance of the saberfins around the sharp coral and near enough to land to drop the small row boats which would escort the passengers to shore.
Agitha paid Fargis the agreed upon fee along with a handsome bonus for the speed and expert handling of what could have been a serious disaster. As the coins clinked into the captain’s palm a strange thing happened. Gravity seemed to reverse and everyone had the sensation of falling as an odd receding roar filled the air. The sea around the boat and in the cove had suddenly disappeared.
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The ship suddenly lurched to the side, and all on the deck were suddenly rolling toward the side railing as the ship began to tip over. Agitha grabbed Zell and leaped free of the railing to roll in the wet sand and sharp exposed coral. The surprisingly nimble captain also cleared the falling boat as did most of the crew.
A quick glance around told Fargis all he needed to know. The sudden recession of the water could typically only mean one thing.
“Run for your lives to the shore! Tsunami incoming!” He led the wild sprint with Agitha, Zell, and Merc easily keeping pace.
Zell dared a backward glance and saw Ruthar desperately hacking at the ropes which bound the thrashing saberfins to the ship. He slowed and Agitha yanked him forward.
“His choice!” She shouted, understanding the hesitation.
Zell put his head down and continued to run all the way to the shore with tears streaming down his cheeks. Once there, they all scrambled up the steep rocky cliff which towered over the coastline. They crested the top just in time to turn and see a sight only beheld once a century. Beyond the unnaturally dry cove where the sea still churned an island seemed to be emerging from the water.
It took several seconds for any of them to process that it wasn’t an island at all, but a head the size of an island.
It’s skin was green and white coral, which grew in great spires from above the great unblinking orange eye to form a crown. Next came the shoulders as it took another long stride toward the beach. None witnessing it could manage a sound. Even Agitha whom had seen so much over her three centuries of life was shocked into silence.
Too soon, the living calamity was in reach of The Saber Chaser. It was still to its waist in water as one of its four great pincers reached out, just ahead of the giant wave rushing in to reclaim the cove. The second before the tsunami struck the floundered ship, the claw tangled the harnessed sharks by their ropes. With no effort it lifted them along with the entire ship above the incoming wave.
The ship could not take the strain for long and the nose gave way. The ship instantly disappeared into the rushing wave, and the Coral Titan lifted its four-shark meal above its gaping maw like a marionette of tiny sardines before swallowing them all in one gulp.
Unable to progress onto land with its great bulk and still depleted energy, the undisputed monarch of the ocean turned and began to recede into the rising water from whence it came.
The wave struck the cliff a second later, blasting a wall of water high into the air and knocking most of the crew back several feet.
As the spray settled, an eerie calm settled over the cove. Looking over the cliff, they spotted the wreckage of The Saber Chase. The broken remains of the hull were now capsized and wedged between two large boulders on the shore.
In subdued silence, the crew climbed down the cliff to better survey the wreckage. Zell searched desperately but there was no sign of Ruthar. He frantically overturned large chunks of wreckage and scanned the coastline for an hour before he spotted something in the sand that made him drop to his knees, sobbing in defeat. It was a certain pouch, filled with the most holy peanuts in the universe.
“The Coral Titan is awake?” Fargis asked, bewildered and sitting on a broken piece of his livelihood.
“It’s about forty years early.” Agitha answered, trying to recall the time frame of the last time she heard of the monstrosity’s revival.
“There would normally be a centennial celebration where fishing fleets from the empire and kingdom would come with great offerings in hopes of it simply gorging itself and returning to its slumber.” One of the seven remaining crew members who was familiar with the topic added.
“With it being awake like this with no warning or preparation, the Imperial Sea just became a killing field.” Agitha tossed a small rock into the water as she spoke.
“I think I can safely say we’re retired, boys. We’ll give Ruthar and Cogey two days to resurface, and build a pyre for Fat Mick. After that we’ll get prepared for our overland trip to the lizardman city, and hopefully catch a caravan to Vinia.” Fargis dusted off his jacket and stood up as he finished speaking.
He was answered with somber nods.
“The journey through the marsh is pretty much suicide for you guys, right?” Agitha asked the captain.
“What choice do we have?” Fargis answered back, somewhat defensively.
“I have some suggestions.” Agitha tilted her head and paused to organize her thoughts.
“Build a base camp here under my protection using the materials from the ship. There’s more than enough fruit, fresh water and wild game to sustain us all over the summer and preserve for a long journey. Bait will end his training with a real live escort quest and you all return through the marshes safely with us. You’re gonna retire anyways so why not have a tropical vacation now?” Agitha laid out her idea to the wide eyed captain with a reassuring smile.
“What a fascinating woman you are.” Fargis mused. “Well let’s hold it to a vote. All in favor of building camp in paradise instead of trudging through troll infested marshes say ‘aye’.”
Seven hands raised and seven voices agreed.
“Well let’s get to it. Busy hands make dry eyes!” With that the Captain and Agitha began planning the task of extracting the usable parts of the wreckage to a clearing further inland and safely away from the treacherous beach.
Zell was somber, not wanting to believe that the mage he had befriended could die so easily but not seeing any way he could have survived the attack or the violent tsunami. He decided to focus on helping salvage the ship and threw himself into the task with a single minded vigor that quickly earned him the respect of the grizzled crew.
They used improvised rigging, ingenuity and alot of borrowed strength from the three adventurers to free the nearly intact cabin from between the rocks. They then dragged it using cut sections of the ship’s mast as rollers to the designated clearing.
By nightfall, they had cleared an area just beyond the treeline, and built an effective if not comfortable base camp. Zell had worked hard, but could not account for his extreme weariness. It was nothing compared to his work with the dwarves, yet he felt thoroughly exhausted as though he had been carrying a great weight all day.
Agitha looked similarly beat, as did Merc.
“Why are we so exhausted?” He finally asked Agitha as he collapsed onto a stool near the crackling campfire just after dusk.
“The Heavy Cove is the gateway into The Tear.” Agitha said, not seeing any reason to hide the surprise any longer. “Here and in the rainforest beyond, an anomaly within reality itself causes your mana to have physical weight. The closer you get to the source of it, the heavier it becomes. Mana is evenly dispersed throughout your body, so everything becomes more difficult even stuff like blinking and sleeping. Basically it’s the ultimate training ground. The more mana you have, the harder it becomes to simply exist. This is where your mother, Kel, and all of my other pupils gained their great physical strength and cultivated their mana.”
Zell’s eyes grew to the size of teacups. In spite of the devastating day and the knots in his belly, Zell could not imagine a place more amazingly perfect to leap toward his goals.
“Try to rest up. You have your first mission tomorrow morning.” Agitha raised a hand to halt further questions. “You’ll be on your own to discover and learn about The Tear.”
Zell stood up and walked to the cabin shelter, noticing the heavy feeling of his entire body acutely now that he had been made aware of it.
Sleep was elusive and broken that night. Strange howls and roars echoed through the rainforest from time to time and each sound caused Zell to snap awake clutching the hilt of his gladius. Even with Agitha and Merc keeping watch, Zell could not relax.
He attempted to meditate which dragged his mind to memories of Rin, his meditation mentor and significant other. With a homesick heart and troubled mind, Zell’s exhaustion drove him to fitful sleep just a few short hours before sunrise.