Emily sat silently on one of the gnarled roots jutting from the smooth shore, her fingers brushing the wet bark as rain filtered down through the leaves overhead, the heavy downpour softened to a steady, trickling wash of water. Cupcake sat beside her, a watchful presence, her muzzle slick with a faint stain of blue blood. Just beyond the tree canopy’s shelter, the rocky shore lay littered with the corpses of fallen elves, each twisted in a different, telling mark of death. The air she inhaled was sharp and cold, her exhaled breath forming large, drifting plumes of steam that merged with the mist rising from the water. Beyond the shore, the whirlpool in front of the island turned in a slow, chaotic circle, its guttural churning calling out to anyone who would listen.
Whatever was causing it had to be something more than just a drain in the rock. The nearby waters churned too irregularly for that, and to make matters worse, it was growing.
When Emily had gotten to this island she immediately wanted to leave but seeing the state Cupcake was in she had them stay put for as long as she could. During that time realized why this place put her so on edge.
First, the storm thickened above their heads, and then, more so, she saw that the water level was rising gradually.
Unlike the last Island, the smaller vegetation on this one was non-existent, only the trees seemed to remain out in the open, poking out from the rock and odd intervals. Strangely the lack of other plants unnerved Emily. The rock near the shoreline was different from the other islands she’d been to. Where normally the rough stone made for an irregular landscape, the shore here seemed to have been polished to an almost volcanic shine.
Emily glanced back toward the tall peak of the mountain and noticed at about the halfway point the smooth texture seemed to taper off and the rough rock continued up the rest of the way, but it didn’t take long to put these details together.
The lack of vegetation and smooth stone could only really mean one thing.
At some point the rushing water would rise to that level and the currents would wash the rock smooth. This must have been happening for a seriously long time because by the looks of things the rock in this area was incredibly dense.
Emily started from her thoughts when Cupcake whined next to her, glancing up she saw the water had risen enough that the furthest elven corpses were already partially submerged. Their dried bodies beginning to be carried away by the tide's relentless tugging.
Sighing to herself, Emily stood and stepped out from under the tree, without the trunk's protection the wind hit her in full force, whipping strands of her hair about.
Right now, Emily had a decision to make because something was on its way and there was no stopping it.
The weather was getting so bad that there were only really two options open to her. One was to climb the mountain and find a place to hunker down. This was the safest option, but it was also a bit of a gamble. If the water did indeed rise halfway up the mountain she would be trapped up there, and who knew how long it would take to recede. With her current food supply, Emily estimated they had enough food for about two days if they pushed it.
Having gotten used to the weather up here, she knew the storm currently building in the clouds could go on for days if not weeks.
So the other option was to try and make it to a further Island before the storm hit in full force, but this also came with its own problems.
The water’s edge near Emily churned and frothed as something struck out of the waves and latched onto an elven corpse that was up its chest in the water.
Emily felt goosebumps break out over her arms as she swallowed down her disgust. The brief flash of scales before the corpse was dragged beneath the surface was all Emily needed to see to confirm her suspicions.
A tiny lake serpent had come to collect the prize Emily had left out.
Ignoring the coming storm, the second and arguably bigger problem was the threats that lurked within the lake’s depths. They had neared the core of the lake and by the looks of things were trapped amongst hundreds of smaller lake serpents. The one that that just come up to the shore was no smaller than an anaconda back on Earth, and that was obviously a young one.
It was just the tip of the iceberg down there.
By the looks of things, this whirlpool was some kind of spawning ground for the serpents, and Emily had come at the peak of their mating season. Just thinking of the numerous waves of ‘baby’ snakes down there made Emily shiver again.
She was so ready to march up the hill and wait for the storm out, but escaping from this place was objectively the better option.
There was no telling how long their mating season would last and Emily was not about to find out. Worst-case scenario they decided they weren’t happy in the water and decided to join her on land. If that happened then there was very little space for Emily to retreat too.
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From what she had seen there was no Wyrm on this peak, but that only reinforced her decision to make herself scarce.
Emily took a deep breath, her eyes fixed on the next mountain peak way off in the distance.
“When you’re moving towards your doom, keep going,” she muttered, a line of Gramp's wisdom that echoed in her ears. “If you stop, you’ll die. Keep moving, and there’s only a chance you’ll die.”
Emily was never a fan of dredging up his lessons but unfortunately, it applied here just too well.
It was a fair bit more dangerous to go out there right now, but being so near to this whirlpool felt far more of a risk.
Cupcake came to stand beside Emily, blocking a portion of the howling wind.
“You’ve got this girl, I’ll help in any way I can, but we’re going to need to get out of here. I wish I could give you just a little more time but it’s now or never,” she said patting the wolf's flank.
Emily knew the she-wolf could not parse her words but she did seem to understand the urgency she was sending through their connection.
Cupcake lowered herself to the ground, and Emily climbed on, pressing into the saddle and strapping herself there. She double-checked that everything was fastened down and then clicked her tongue.
“Alright, girl. Let’s get out of here. Run.”
The Rime wolf didn’t need any more urging, she took off along the shore, building up speed. The wind whipped about them as it pushed them from behind.
Emily had purposefully chosen a southern island that went with the direction of the wind to make it easier.
“Faster” Emily urged with both the connection and words.
Cupcake accepted the challenge and they accelerated even faster, the wind was no longer howling in their ears, instead, it ran with them, pushing them towards the dark waters.
With her legs fastened in place, Emily began casting two lift spells at once. One horizontal, the other vertical, and then releasing them on Cupcake. The magical force landed just after Cupcake launched herself into the air.
The sudden lurch of power slammed Emily back down into the saddle as they took off into the air.
The force and wind made Emily’s eyes tear up as they hurtled out over the waters. From the Rime wolf's back, she could just make out the churning lake below, and beyond that the hundreds of figures swimming through the whirlpool.
Emily wasn’t sure when the disgusting creatures had arrived but she thought their passage had been too easy up until this point. The serpents below them were of varying sizes but for the most part, they were manageable size. It didn’t take long for Emily to spot one big enough to swallow them whole. The only saving grace was that adult serpents were further down near the base of the whirlpool.
They sailed through the air and Emily attempted to keep the spell going with a stream method but soon enough their momentum slowed and they reached the zenith of their jump. With the combined wind conditions and spell, Emily was certain they had covered more than a fourth of the distance with one jump but then came the hard part.
When the water began to approach Cupcake spread out her paws to displace the impact and they went crashing down into the waters. The Rime wolf slid against the rushing lake as the force of their jump warped the surface of the water. Blood mixed with rain, and they slide across the surface like they were on a sheet of ice. Unfortunately, The serpents seemed to scent them almost immediately.
The smallest ones jumped out of the surface of the water and the already shifting waves became a chaotic spray of bodies and water.
The smaller serpents jump out of the water like piranhas chasing prey.
Emily had placed a Vital shell over Cupcake so that blocked a majority of them, but Emily had to cover the rest. She created a thin whip which she flashed around them cutting anything that approached in two. More blood spilled into the waters making the serpents even more desperate as they turned to feast on their brothers and sisters' flesh.
Cupcake was already running at full speed and Emily ignored a flash of lightning above them illuminating the clouds over a grey world.
A second whip came into being when Emily realized she would not be able to keep them at bay with just one. The crack of the blood whip was overpowered by the thunder shaking the heavens above.
Emily killed as Cupcake hopped through the air dodging the attacking serpents. Each time her paws touched down on the surface of the water, it further agitated the serpents, and soon enough the larger serpents began to head their way.
Cupcake seemed to sense they were coming and with incredible dexterous steps she danced out of reach of the mouths coming out of the water.
Pulling themselves from the depths were a couple of serpents that were comparable to the first one Emily had encountered. The difference was that she hadn’t had Cupcake last time, so when the serpents shot out of the water, the Rime wolf was already five steps ahead of them.
Emily used her blood as a scalpel, cleaving through the dorsal fins as she passed in an effort to slow them down. More dark blood mixed into the sparkling waters, and the red caught up in the whirlpool as it spiraled down the drain.
The water pushed against them, but Cupcake fought against the current, and for a while, it worked. Emily killed or maimed anything that got close, but this only seemed to make them more desperate. The serpents piled onto them like a descending storm cloud and Emily had to shift to defense. Splaying her blood out, she turned the whips into a half-dome pointing it down towards the water. Then shifted it into several dozen spikes, so that when a serpent jumped at them, it impaled itself on a thirty-centimeter skewer. Some died immediately, while others crashed back into the water around them turning it a deep red hue.
Those who were impaled but not killed on Emily's sea urchin defense only served to feed her blood and vitality, recharging her reserves, and then some. They got over halfway like this and Emily must have tempted fate too much when she laughed merrily above the sounds of thunder because things took a turn for the worse when the bloody trail they had left in their wake began to color the frothing whirlpool.
The vortex they had so carefully been skirting around suddenly shited.
One second it was happily churning away to itself and the next a sudden mass pushed up from somewhere below.
Exploding from the surface was a serpent big enough to disrupt the surrounding currents. Its mass was comparable to the Wyrm, but this alone wasn’t what made Emily’s heart sink.
Another mouth burst up from the depths directly below, just as massive. The resulting wave was far too large for Cupcake to dodge, so Emily pushed her lift spells to maximum strength, wrenching them free of the churning waters.
Lightning struck down nearby, and in that brief flash, the world seemed to stand still: a human and her wolf suspended just meters above a toothless void that could swallow a ship whole.
Blood points: 291