Chapter One,

A strangely clear sky

Cody woke up naked. This was unusual as he normally slept in his boxer shorts and a tee shirt to help preserve his modesty should his roommate or her guests stumble into his room looking for the toilet in the middle of the night. Other than being suddenly disrobed he had a strange realization. He didn't remember going to bed the night before. It wasn't one of those fuzzy mornings where you know you had too much to drink the night before and barely know who you are in the morning, let alone where you are. It was more like he had blacked out and suddenly came too in a new strange place.

The first thing he noticed was the taste in his mouth. Salt. It was peculiar. Either he had been crying in his sleep, or he was on a beach. The sounds confirmed the latter.

Beneath him he could feel the sand against his bare back. It was cold. The sand around him had been baked in the sun and was warm to the touch but beneath him was cold.

“I must have been lying here for a while.”

He muttered as he sat up taking in his surroundings. As he opened his eyes and tried to rub the blurriness from them he was suddenly struck by the scene before him. The world around him was strikingly vivid. The sand underneath him looked as though there were flecks of gold in it, making it shine with a brilliance seen only in photoshopped vacation images.

The ocean was a clear blue with a hint of green. The waves lapped calmly against the beach in front of him. The more he stared, the more he began to notice it was bigger than before. Somehow the ocean in front of him was wider and more vast than he had ever seen before. It had almost no curve to it. He turned his head sideways just to see if he could find the curve to the ocean but he couldn't make out the horizon. It was as if the surface of the sea faded into mist the farther out he looked. The palm tree above him must have been 40 feet tall, and the fronds gave him shade from the beautifully bright sun.

The sun! In the sky above he could see that it was massive! Standing and shading his eyes, he looked at it and found it wasn’t blindingly bright. Cody looked into the deep orange of the local star and estimated it took up twice as much space in the sky as Sol back on earth. He then noticed the rings of this new world cutting the heavens in two like a brilliant road to the stars. He stood, transfixed by the strangely clear sky and saw that the local star wasn't the only one he could see in the daylight. Other stars were visible. Not as pinpricks like on earth. But as blue lights drawing shapes and runes on the fabric of reality itself.

At the edge of his hearing he could make out what sounded like footsteps in the distance. Though his mind told him to turn and face the potential threat, his focus remained on the sky.

“This world must be in a star cluster. The stars I can see in the daylight must be giants. Even if they were less than a lightyear away they wouldn't be so starkly visible in the daylight.”

Beyond the waves gently crashing against the shore not twenty paces away he heard the footsteps slow from running to a stop.

“Pretty isn't it?” said a gruff voice behind Cody. “We call it Aphrodite. We thought it was fitting as most newcomers comment on its beauty within their first day.”

Surprised at the newcomer’s appearance, Cody turned around and stumbled backwards. Simultaneously trying to cover himself with his hands and get a read on the stranger in front of him. He was a tall, lith man with black hair cropped at shoulder level save for his bangs which were cut above his eyebrows. He wore a lavish black and white coat that went below his knees and had a slit down the middle in front and back to preserve mobility. In his right hand was a sword. Long and thin, with a guard that wrapped from the top of the hilt to the bottom. It was a saber. A single handed sword made for cutting and in his other hand he held some clothes and a pair of boots out to me

. “Come with me young man. You are in danger out here.”

“W-who the hell are you?” Cody stammered, “Where the fuck am I? Wh-”

“Quiet.”

He tossed the clothes to me. He looked like a man on a mission. Not in the sense of someone trying to accomplish something, but of a man wary of danger lurking behind every tree. Hiding in every shadow.

“It is dangerous out here. Put those on and we will make our way to my camp. You were dropped far from civilization. You are lucky I found you before the monsters did."

Cody caught the clothes and started pulling on the trousers. They were brown with a simple rope belt. As he began to pull on the white loose button down shirt he asked, “monsters? What do you mean by that?”

The stranger looked at Cody as though he were a child asking particularly stupid questions. “I mean there are monsters out here. Spider-monkeys, Fortress crabs, Turtlegators, you name it. Not to mention the Sirens in Alabaster Bay. They don't usually patrol this close to the beach but too many people have died by writing them off completely.”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

As he spoke, the man pulled a flintlock pistol with alien runes on the length of the barrel. With his thumb he turned a dial that was behind the hammer and the runes shifted into red words that whilst still alien, were completely comprehensible. ‘Scattershot, Fire’ they read.

After quickly buttoning his shirt Cody wiped the sand off his feet and shoved them into the boots the man provided.

“Hurry up, I haven't got all day,” said the stranger.

As Cody fiddled with the buckle on his boot he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. He looked up and in the trees the man had emerged from came a screech. The stranger took a stance in front of Cody, as if to protect him.

Cody, finally finished with the buckle on his boots, stood and tried to get a look at the treeline where the sound emerged from.

What the hell was that? Cody thought to himself. Was that a monster like the man mentioned? How will I defend myself if he's outnumbered?

Red eyes glinted in the late afternoon sun. From the treeline emerged a creature. There, standing less than 4 feet tall was a child. She was no more than 60 feet away from the two men. Her hair was matted and her dress was tattered. She wore no shoes as she limped down the beach.

Cody began forward in an attempt to help the obviously distraught little girl.

“Wait.” said the stranger, “We don't know what it is.”

“What do you mean?” Cody shouted as he continued forward, “whatever made that noise could be right behind her we have to help her!”

A whoosh from behind Cody and suddenly the stranger in front of him. Sword outstretched towards his throat. He stumbled to a stop not a centimeter too soon. Cody felt cold steel graze against his throat. He looked at the stranger who had stopped his advance. While standing directly between Cody and the girl, the man simultaneously held the blade to Cody and his pistol was aimed at the girl.

Is this monster going to shoot her? What should I do? I have to help!

He saw the stranger's spine straighten. His eyes flashed with blue as they dilated. A look of disassociation briefly crossed his face. Suddenly, with a shocked look replacing the previous stoick one, his grip on the sword loosened. He took a fearful step back and lowered the pistol in his left hand.

“Drowned,” he whispered, “this isn't good. Don't make a sound. Let it walk to the ocean.”

As he said this he took a position such that the little girl would not walk behind him.

Cody, not knowing what else to do, followed suit. The girl stumbled her way down the beach. Cody noticed her hands were not right. Strangely bulky with sharp edges He realized that they were not hands but claws!

Suddenly a horrible song emanated from deep within the drowned girl. Low and reverberating it began to tear at the walls of Cody’s mind. A horrible cacophony filled with regret and pain. Cody had never heard a more pitiable sound in his life. Her voice was an instrument for someone else. No. Something else. It continued far longer than it should have. Slowly growing louder and higher in pitch. Somehow the reverberations of her voice mixed with the alien tones told a story. As if in a dream Cody saw the world from a child's perspective.

The girl's name was Sophia. Her mother was a teacher and her father was a scholar. She was too young to know them by their names. They were just mom and dad to her.

She had a wonderful if small life. Taking care of her little sister for a time while her parents were working. Playing with the family dog when her chores were done. One night, Sophia snuck out of the house to play by the river in the moonlight. The dog, Max, not having been trained better, played with her. Through the garden they ran, down to the cellar then by the river.

While running along the river, Sophia slipped on a moss covered rock and hit her head. Now unconscious, she was unable to prevent herself from slipping into the water.

While the scene played out in his head Sophia's scream grew louder and louder. Soon it reached its crescendo. And suddenly all the noise morphed into a coherent, human cry. The cry of a hurt, lost and sad little girl.

Cody’s stomach dropped. Suddenly he knew this poor little girl's fate. She knew it too. Sophia had been cursed. Drowned in a river. Body unclaimed. Burial rights unspoken. Her soul no longer belonged to her but to the waters that took her. She walks to the center of the ocean. There along with the other drowned, her tears will provide the waters we sail upon. And the salt of the sea.

Cody was distraught. In such a short time this world displayed beauty beyond description and pain beyond comparison. He stood perfectly still as the drowned girl, Sophia, walked past both men. As she passed he saw the arms of the little girl were covered in a chiten-esc material. As though she were wearing gauntlets made from a crab. She sobbed softly as she stumbled towards the ocean. Cody could see the tears were flowing down her face. Seeing such a small innocent girl in this state was more pain than he had ever felt before. Worse yet, the cry she let out was not a cry for help. It was a warning. It said “You have failed to save this soul. It is now mine. Let her pass or risk the wrath of Rhulaos. God of the ocean.”

The little girl was still visible until suddenly her head dropped below the waters. Rhulaos had claimed her. The beautiful visage of an ocean larger than life now ruined by the pain of a little girl who made one mistake and now had to live a cursed life. The life of the Drowned.

Is this how the world works here? What kind of god would claim the soul of a child? Was that my fate should I have drowned at high tide?

The thought burned in Cody's stomach until he could take it no longer.

Cody stumbled over to the tree. He fell to his knees and vomited. “Come” said the stranger with a concerned look on his face. As Cody wiped his mouth, the stranger reached his hand out to Cody

“You have much to learn. And you look like you could use a drink.”