Duskenhill Harbor was still at least a day down the coast, we haven't been near land since we left a couple days ago from Míol Mór. Something about watching blurbos, whales, and other sea life fly under the water's surface made me feel like it was the calm before the storm. The crew around us all had duties to perform, and honestly I felt useless. I tried a few times to offer my help with jobs only to be turned down. Valandria later explained that the guild's navy trained for years for their place on a ship. Was there anything they didn't train their life away for?
Bellator and I were sitting on deck at a makeshift table and chairs studying a map of the north. The fact that the Island of Nef was at the base of awakened religion, stories of stories about it, didn't hide the fact that we actually knew nothing about it. It was only said that the northern part of our world was the closest we could get to the gods. The temple of Nef on the island was where the gods lived when they visited our realm. Except any information of its location has never been taught. At least not to me or Bellator. As we studied the map doubt grew in my mind. It was a giant frozen terrain, and getting lost was a very real possibility.
"Look at this," Mabe pointed to a thin waterway line that splits from the main coast that flows a few miles into land, after that the sea and land is frozen so it's hard to tell where the sea ends and the land begins. "It looks like a small trench from the main coast that goes inland. Think the captain would be willing to check this out before we land?" He asked Valandria.
"I don't see why not. It is however close to Kló, and would take us in a different direction than Frosinn Villtur, Ketil may not be willing to go there as he has already stated" Valandria said.
"Let's ask him then." I said. "No point in risking our lives in the north if its not needed."
Bellator picked up the map and rolled it neatly, tucking it into the inside pocket of the cloak he had one. The three were going to find the captain in his cabin, walking along the deck, I noticed something moving in the water beside the ship. It was long and black, a whale-like body except it had what I thought might be tentacles coming from the sides of the creature's head. I slowly leaned over the railing of the ship to look at it better when the sea creatures tail broke the surface of the water, it appeared almost like the tail of a whale as well, but it was cover with boned spikes, the tail coming down with a slamming splash into the water beside the ship pushing us starboard.
What the hell is it? I thought to myself, as Valandria and Bellator joined me looking over the edge, trying to find out what this creature was.
"That thing is going to sink us if it hits us any more!" I yelled.
Mabe gave a small yell and jumped form Bellator's shoulder down to a sealed barrel and squeezed into the hole on the top, hiding himself away.
The crew was already in motion, moving the ship away from the beast. Captain Ketil came out from the cabin in a rush ordering the men into action.
"Drop the sails, use a wind spell and push us away!" He ordered.
A team of dryad sailors dropped the sails and secured the lines, while another group of men ready themselves to cast wind into the sail the moment they were ready.
A second later the ship started to move away from the beast to put some distance, the sea creature not giving up was in pursuit not giving up on its prey.
Valandria, Bellator and I moved towards the captain as he was climbing the stairs of the cabin towards the wheel when the beast slammed itself against the side of the ship.
"Prepare to hit it with the spears!" He ordered the crew
"What is it, captain?" Valandria asked urgently.
"A damn threat to the ship, obviously!" He shouted at her, "Now prepare yourself to take action!"
Valandria nodded and took up a long whaling spear, she ran to one of the masts of the ship securing a rope which she tied around her waist tightly. She ran to the rail and prepared herself to attack the sea creature.
As the crew did as they were told, I made sure my gear was secured to my body. I was not letting another beast, sea or land, try to stop me now.
I was watching the crew get to their positions, arming themselves with the same long metal spears, these were tied off on the ends with ropes secured to hooks on the ship. I had seen these used for whale and shark hunting, I could only pray they would be enough for this beast.
I gave a great sigh of annoyance as the monster slammed the port side again, sending me into the port rail again, knocking the ship hard with a cracking sound as a few boards on the prow of the ship bent. I raised my hands in the air in front of me, and pushed it away through the water from our vessel. The creature could be heard moaning in objection to being moved from its target, splashing around in protest. It was hard to keep control over the beast's movements and I lost control of the magic, the beast turned and headed back to the ship.
Bellator chucked a metal spear through the air towards the beast as we moved away, guiding it with a fast wind sending it hard into the side of the beast, making no difference in its speed as it pierced its skin, it continued back towards us.
"LOSE YOUR SPEARS, PORT SIDE!" Yelled captain Ketil, "LOSE YOUR SPEARS, PORT SIDE!" The crew officers repeated down the deck.
A volley of spears vaulted through the air like speeding arrows towards the side of the monster. They landed into the beast's body, head, and tail. It moaned in pain as the dryads pulled the spears back out of the beast towards the boat, tearing its flesh as they came out. The spears gliding through the water back to the boat as they are pulled in. Once they reached the side of the boat they were pulled back up and collected by the men and women ready to be thrown once again.
The beast, catching up to the ship again, disappeared into the deeper water. We waited for it to resurface, still blowing wind into the sails so we could continue our retreat from this monster of the sea.
The bottom of the ship was suddenly hit, sending us all to our feet as the ship buckled to the port side. The beast had smashed into the bottom of the starboard side where we were unable to see it.
"WATER!" A crew member from the belly of the ship. "WATER!"
"Repair the ship! Stop the water! Get us to shore!" The captain commanded.
The ship turned for the shore and we sailed quickly for safety. Again the monster surfaced in the water, thrashing its tail against the starboard side again, the boned spiked piercing the side of the ship this time.
I started to worry, what the hell could I do? I stumbled to the railing of the ship to have the beast in my sight. I closed my eyes and reached out magically for the heart of the beast, with my free hand I grasped the air as if the heart was in my hand and squeezed as tightly as I could. The beast stopped and gave a screaming type moan thrashing around in the water, as its heart was being crushed. I didn't stop. I squeezed my hand together so hard my finger nails were digging into the palm. When the creature finally stopped completely, no movement, no sound I released my grip. Breathing hard I turned to find Capital Ketil staring at me.
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"What did you do?" He asked me.
"Does it matter?" I responded to him, standing straight and started for my cabin provided below deck.
Reaching my bunk I burst through the door shutting it behind me breathing heavily. I felt weak, weaker than I had before when using magic from Aadi. That monster, when I touched its heart all I felt was confusion and fear. It was frightened, and had been asleep for centuries. A beast from the first days. It was attacking us out of fear, and I killed it. Albeit I had little choice of the matter as the panicked and scared creature was destroying our vessel. A knocking at the door startled me as I was deep in thought about the poor beast.
Bellator walked in and closed the door behind him.
"They will tow the beast to shore and examine it better. Salvage what they can from it, probably. Are you alright?" He asked me.
"No, no I am not alright. That animal was scared, and lost. I felt it as it died. It doesn't belong here." I told him.
"That is to say the least. How many more of them there are is what worries me. Crossing the sea to the north will take weeks." He crossed the room and took me into his arms. "Kaida," He breathed out heavily, "I fear it's going to take us a lot longer than we wanted to get to the temple."
Sighing I knew he was right. "I know, but how else do we get there? I do not know how to send us there the way Vala or Sigurd could. You know that." I said
"Well, you couldn't before anyways." He said to me,
"You think I should try? What if we end up in some other realm? Or in two for that matter? I don't think I can do that. I'm sorry." I told him.
As it was our ship was badly damaged and we still needed to get as close to shore as we could to repair. The captain was in his own cabin rummaging through scrolls and books with Valandria trying to understand what it was exactly that had attacked us. When Bellator and I entered the deck cabin to join them, he spun around and stared at me.
"What have you found?" I asked, looking at Captain Ketil, confused by his reaction towards me.
"Nothing yet, but if you can continue using magic the way you do, we may not need to worry." He said to me,
"No, I can't. That beast was scared and lost, it isn't supposed to be here. I could feel its fear as it died. It didn't attack us out of spite." I told Ketil.
"I can't imagine it was supposed to be here, I have been sailing for a long, long time and have never once seen such a beast in the entire sea." He walked over to a scroll and brought it over to the table laying it out for us to see.
"Look, this beast here looks similar but not accurate, this scroll is more than five hundred years old, it contains the evolution of sea animals. As far as I can tell, it dates back earlier than what we have recorded." He told us. "We will dissect the animal at the shore. I want to see the biology of it."
"Sure, you do what you want with that thing, but we need to continue north when the ship has been fixed." Valandria ordered. "We also want to go here, Captain." She reached towards Bellator for the map they were looking at earlier. Laying it out and pointing to the thin water passage we found leading into land. Mabe sitting quietly on her shoulder wrapped up in her hair as if it was nest, peaking out listening to us speak speechless for once.
"That's close to Kló. I told you, that place is not a good spot." He argued.
"Regardless, it is where we must go. This waterway leads into the land." She pointed out. "Doesn't it seem strange that when everything else is frozen there is a single flowing waterway?" She questioned him.
"Kló will probably have some kind of control on it. We should be prepared." Ketil said. "Fine, let's fix the ship and get back on track." He agreed.
A while later we reached a spot close enough to shore where the dryadalis sailors were rowing to shore to collect materials for the repairs. On the shore they had a work space set up so they could move faster with more space. Bellator and I went to shore for some hunting. We were going to need extra food, and this is a way I can contribute without being around the hassle of the ship repairs that I had no knowledge of.
"Do you think these creatures are waking up because of Amaia?" I asked Bellator.
"Absolutely, I do." He said. "Why else would they have been pulled from their slumber? The fire worms, now this boney whale type beast. There is probably more happening all around this land and, Kaida, we can not stop everything."
He was right, how could we? I couldn't help but feel responsible for the terror that was spreading across the lands. If I had gotten to Kai faster I could have ran my sword through his face and saved everyone a lot of trouble. I really hated that man.
We spent the day on land searching for deer and other animals we could use for meat. We didn't catch anything, not a squirrel crossed our path or a bird flying over us. It was like the animals were simply gone from the coast. It was strange to be in the forest without birds as if they knew something had changed. Was the world objecting to Amaia's presence?
"We might as well return to the ship, we are doing no good out here looking for animals that have moved on." Bellator said to me.
"Yeah, let's hope the fishermen had better luck than us." I said.
As we were headed back to the row boat we stored on a rocky ledge on the shore we noticed a group of children through the trees.
"Look, there." I nodded in their direction, Bellator following my sight.
"I see no adults." Bellator said.
"Neither do I." I started to walk towards the children making sure my blade was secured so I would not frighten them.
Walking out from the trees behind the group of children, five of them, they turned to look at us, a smaller one giving a whimper in fear.
"It's alright, you are okay." I put my hands up to show them I meant no threat and kneeled down in front of one I thought to be the oldest, a boy no more than ten or eleven years of age.
"Are you alone out here? All five of you?" I asked the boy.
"Yes." Was all he said as the other four hid behind him.
"We are going to the next village, Yole." A girl probably just younger than the boy I was kneeling in front of. She stepped out and stood tall. She was carrying a sword that was much too big for her.
"Is that your fathers sword?" I asked her.
"My mothers. She's dead. Everyone is dead." She said to me,
"What are your names?" Bellator asked her.
"Why? What difference does it make?" The boy said to Bellator.
"Plenty, much can be said with a name. I am Bellator, of Perifrey." He held out his arm for the boy in greeting.
The boy looked at Bellator, his eyebrows creased with thought. "Mattias." He introduced himself, taking his wrist.
Turning to the girl he motioned towards her, "This is Siggy, we are going to the village of Von to find help. Our Village was attacked by men claiming the Magus said we were against the gods, and planning a war. But we were not!"
The girl nodded. "Yes, My mother, Ludmilla, was the leader of our village Tage, she would never do such a thing!"
I rested my hand on her shoulder and nodded. "Yes, You have made your mother proud, I'm sure." I turned towards Mattias and pulled my shield off my back. My fathers shield.
"Take this, Mattias. It will protect you. Work together to stay safe. Use your magic as you need. Water, food. Use it, the gods will not mind, They will watch over you." They better I thought to myself. I pulled open my pack and passed the three smaller children the bread I had along with whatever provisions I had stashed, Bellator doing the same.
I stood and nodded, wrapping my cloak around two of the smaller ones, Bellator the other with his own. "A fine group of warriors. Now go with haste, be safe, be brave."
They thanked us for what we could provide them with and left the way they were headed towards Von.
"What is happening around the land?" I asked out loud. "I wish I knew everything, anything really. We know nothing. We are blindly traveling around, hoping we are right about Kai's whereabouts!" Seeing the children alone, scared and hungry in the woods angered me. How many more were there stumbling around the forests trying to find safe sanctuary after kai's men murdered their families?
I turned and started back to the boat. Bellator beside me, knowing I was upset.
"They will be fine, they are determined." He said as he took up my hand. I nodded agreeing with him.