Suddenly, Kiva could hear the hum of a power engine below them, the boat careening back to the left to right itself. Of course. The boat had graviturgy woven into its planks to keep it afloat even with large sections missing. However, for critical instances, they also had a motor to make sure it stayed afloat. Trenton stood still, balancing his body perfectly straight as the boat tilted to a normal orientation, setting everyone down when they could lie without slipping.

“Trenton?” Garrote prodded, moving to his feet.

Trenton offered no acknowledgment to Garrote’s comment, his eyes flickering, the light and tattoos leaving his body. The moment the light faded completely, he collapsed, his whole body falling as if he had just suddenly shut down. Garrote reached out his arm, bringing Trenton to a stop with his magic before he hit the ground, gently lowering his body into a comfortable sleeping position.

With the threat of the fight dealt with, the crewmates slowly started pooling out onto the deck, their sullen gazes surveying the situation and preparing emergency fixes. Hopefully the boat hadn't taken too much damage. Kiva wasn’t familiar with sailing, but with so many holes and broken boards, it was hard to imagine they’d be moving any time soon, if they could even get the boat moving again. The generator wouldn’t last forever, so any fixes they intended to make would need to be with all due haste. Not to mention there was no telling how much of their valuable cargo was still in one piece. Half of the point was selling the cargo they were carrying to afford ship repairs. At this rate, they wouldn’t even have a ship left by the time they made it to Dasellium. Although, that was assuming they even made it to Dasellium. It was their very first encounter and already things were looking grim. Kiva pulled herself out of own head, deciding to focus on the current moment rather than everything that could have gone wrong. They were alive. That would have to do for now.

Everyone there had a mix of different emotions plaguing them in this moment, the water leaving the lot of them cold and shivering. Garrote looked a bit stunned, but that quickly lost ground to a rather pleased expression. He was probably thinking about his kill earlier. It was pretty fancy. Millie looked traumatized, scared senseless and clinging close to Kiva’s chest. No wonder, fights in general are tough, but seeing someone gutted in front of you was never an easy sight to get past. Kiva was generally just relieved, glad they were still floating and especially glad they were still alive. Trenton was, well, unconscious. And finally Leo, who seemed to be the most torn up of the lot of them. His brow was twisted in furious knots, his eyes wide, and his hands clutching his face. Was it fear? No, that didn’t look right. Whatever it was, he was grappling with hard.

“You alright, Leo?” Garrote asked, pulling himself out of his self praise to do something a bit more proactive. But Leo didn’t respond. Instead, he simply shook his head, scooping down to gingerly pick up Trenton, walking the both of them below deck. Garrote looked over at Kiva, his eyebrows raised. “What’s the deal with him?”

Kiva shrugged, still slowly rocking Millie in a vain attempt to calm her, “I’ve known him just about as long as you have. Let’s give them some peace. They’ve gone through a lot already.”

“Yeah, that’s…fair. I don’t suppose you’d understand what was going on with Trenton, then, either.”

Kiva shook her head, “No idea. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”

“Seems like there’s always something interesting going on with this group. Whatever,” Garrote shrugged, “I’ll just ask him whenever he wakes back up. What I really want to know is where the hell Walibeld is,” Garrote said, looking around and rubbing the back of his neck. “I thought he was supposed to be on the boat, but the second a fight breaks out he’s nowhere to be seen.”

“Yeah it’s weird. Do you think-” Kiva started, yelling across the boat cutting her off.

“What do you mean an infant!? That thing was massive! And where the hell is Clint!?” Jarlis was shouting from somewhere at the back of the ship. The men crowding around them cleared, allowing Jarlis and Walibeld into the center of the ship where their group was standing. Jarlis stood there tapping his foot, his arms crossed while someone fetched a box for him to stand on.

Stolen novel; please report.

“Where were you?” Garrote whispered to Walibeld, who had sidled in next to them. He was absolutely drenched with both water and blood. It was difficult to tell if the blood was his own or not, but Kiva highly doubted it was. “Trenton took that thing out all on his own!”

“An adiathan. That’s what it was. It’s what Jarlis was warning you about earlier. The one that attacked the boat was the child to a much larger, much stronger, adiathan. The adults aren't supposed to nest in water this shallow, so I was a little taken aback. I had my hands full the whole time you were fighting. I’m glad Trenton was able to take it out, but,” Walibeld sighed, rolling his neck, “that could have been a lot worse. If the adult had gotten near the boat, everyone here would be dead several times over.”

Garrote opened his mouth to say something, but Jarlis, now standing on the box stack to peer over the crowd, cut him off, “We’ll start emergency repairs immediately. All qualified and able hands, report to the foreman immediately. And, we’ll keep the injured in the first sleeping bay for the time being. If we’re quick, we can continue this voyage with minimal losses. Now,” he looked out across the crowd, his eyes boring into them, “where is Clint? I haven't seen him anywhere.”

All of the men grumbled, looking around at each other to see if anyone had any pertinent information. It seemed that practically no one had been able to keep an eye on him in the chaos of the battle. Finally, one of the sailors piped up, a shrill little man with a squeaky voice, “Captain! I last saw Clint climbing onto the beast with that Trenton boy!”

Jarlis sat there for a second, taking in the reality of the situation. Trenton had already surfaced alone, which meant that Clint was dead. There was no other explanation. Wasting time scouring the sea for him could put everyone else at danger, too. They needed to move forward. The captain's face spasmed, a mix of grief and anger clearly splayed across his face for everyone to see. But he didn’t have the luxury of time to grieve. That would have to wait for a more private moment. The captain's face hardened, his expression settling into one of absolute authority.

“Get moving! You have your orders!” Jarlis shouted, standing stock still while everyone jumped to obey him. He was crying silently, tears streaming down his face as he looked out across the sea. Him and Clint must have been pretty close. When he had properly composed himself, the captain stepped down from the boxes to form a little circle with their group, his chief mate worming his way in. He wiped the tears from his eyes, his voice shaking only slightly, “Explain it to me again.”

“The adiathan that attacked the boat was an infant. There was a much larger one, an adult, that I dealt with. It was difficult to fight in the water, so it was all I could do to keep it away from the boat,” Walibeld said.

“I didn’t even know adults could get this far north,” the chief mate pitched in.

“They can’t. They’re far too big to swim in waters this shallow. By my best estimate, it would’ve had to have been placed manually. It looked like it had been stuck there for some days when I saw it. I figure our enemies are trying to intercept us, veil or Bloody I can’t be sure–potentially both,” Walibeld replied, rather calm for the severity of his words.

Jarlis sat there, arms crossed, brow furrowed, stroking his chin. Finally, opening his mouth he responded, “But how do they know where you are? A couple days ago would mean you weren't even in Wyrm’s Perch yet.”

“The only person I told of our path was Geren. It’s possible their spies in Dasellium somehow got ahold of the information from him, but I don’t think that’s the case. He wouldn’t be so careless. I sent you the message two weeks ago of the path we planned to take, back when we were staying with Rema. If someone intercepted the message, or you have a rat, then word could’ve gotten out in time for them to set this up,” Walibeld said. Jarlis looked over at his chief mate, who simply shrugged.

“A rat…well, it doesn’t matter in any case. We’re likely sailing right into a trap later up the Liafer no matter what measures we take, not like we can just turn around,” Jarlis said, practically muttering to himself.

“Focus on your crew. I’ll focus on protecting the ship. They can’t put deep sea creatures in the Liafer itself, so their options are more limited with this failure. I can’t imagine there’s anything they can do at this point that I won’t be able to handle,” Walibeld said, confident in his words.

“Right, right. I’ll look into it. C’mon, we need to talk this over,” Jarlis said to his chief mate, the two of them making their way to Jarlis’s quarters.

Walibeld stood there, looking up at the sky, “I’ll need some to think about this. Take some time to relax. You’ll need it,” he said, walking off towards the front of the ship, leaving Garrote, Kiva, and Millie there alone.

“We should get some rest,” Kiva said, looking over at Garrote.

“Yeah…right. I don’t think the sleeping bay assignments matter much anymore. We can sleep together,” Garrote said.

The three of them found some intact beds below decks where they were able to rest through the night undisturbed, Leo and Trenton nowhere to be seen. Millie was still shocked, shivering, and terrified most of the night, so she slept with Kiva for comfort in the absence of Trenton.