I woke up alone on the floor of Rulan’s hut, laying on the pelts and animal furs we had laid out the night before. There were voices, speaking softly, coming from the other side of the fabric hanging over the opening in the hut. So I rose up and went outside, the two voices belonged to Visra and Rulan, they broke off the conversation they were having, and Rulan gave me a warm smile and a hug.
“I didn’t want to wake you, I figured you could use some extra sleep before your journey,” Rulan said, she looked a bit sad at this, and I hugged her again and gave her an extra squeeze before letting go.
“I will miss our wrestling matches,” I say jokingly, and we both laugh lightly at this. For the first time the realization that I will not see another familiar face for a long time, perhaps never again, hits me and I throw myself at Rulan bringing her with me to the ground. I crush my lips against hers in a deep kiss that never seems to end. It finally does end, and I rise quickly, a bit embarrassed I pull Rulan up with me. “I will truly miss you, Rulan. I hope you know that I’ll miss everyone and everything on this island.
“Oh, I know, especially since you let me win last night,” she says with mock anger on her face, her hands on her hips. Her facade melts away quickly though, and she gives me a warm smile before she continues saying. “I wanted to give you this,” and she holds out a little braid of brown hair, it’s hers I realize as I get a closer look. “I wanted you yo have something to remember me by, and your people. We both found so much pleasure in my long hair I can only hope that you think of me when you see this. May I?” She says and holds the little brown braid up to my hair. I nod my approval, and with nimble fingers, Rulan quickly ties the small braid together with my hair, it now dangles at the left side of my face. I can sometimes glimpse it at the side of my vision, and I bring up my hand to touch it.
“Thank you Rulan, you are right, this will be a great reminder of our nights spent together,” I say, and I grin knowingly at her, Rulan smiles right back, knowing what I am talking about. We stand there for a while grinning at each other like idiots before a slight cough is heard and we both turn to look at Visra who is standing to the side, patiently waiting for us. I was so distracted by Rulan that I almost forgot about the elder.
“While I would normally allow two young people all the time in the world to say their goodbyes. We will be extra vulnerable while traveling to the home cave, and I would like to begin travel as soon as possible,” Visra said in her calm voice. Now that I looked around I could see Naga moving out of their houses with bags over their shoulders, gathering at the edge of the village. Both Rulan and I apologized for taking so long, and Visra started leading us towards the coast.
Once there Visra showed us the craft that I would use to get to the mainland. It looked like a bunch of roped together sticks of wood leashed on top of two hollowed out tree trunks. On top was a little lean-to made of woven grass that I could use to get out of the rain. There was also a big piece of fabric that I would use to catch the wind and steer the craft. Visra called it a Catamaran, and it was similar to what the creature with fire in its hands had used to get to our island. Rulan and I embraced one final time, “You be careful, okay, and come back to us alive,” Rulan said with tears in her eyes, I nodded furiously, drying my own tears. Visra laid a gentle hand on Rulan's shoulder and said.
“You have to let her go now. You have your own project to help me with.”
“What project?” I asked, no one had told me of this.
“Oh, right, it’s what we talked about before you woke up. The goblins dropped the red crystal before fleeing, and one of the warriors picked it up. Visra examined it, but couldn’t get any power out of it. She asked me to help her since I have been… affected by one before,” Rulan explained this made me feel a little better. If I failed to find a solution at least, I wasn’t the only hope we had anymore. We helped each other push the Catamaran into the water, and I got on.
“Remember to go towards the rising sun,” Visra said quickly before the wind caught the fabric and pushed me out to sea. I got the craft under control as Visra had shown me how to do and waved goodbye to Rulan and the elder standing on the beach until they became so small I couldn’t make them out anymore.
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The waters were calm, and the wind gentle, so I had an easy time getting used to steering the little vessel, I used ropes to turn the big canvas and the wind would push the craft in a particular direction when I was going where I wanted to I tied the ropes down and let the wind push me along. This seemed easy so far I could just make the wind do all the work for me. I looked back to where I had come from, and I could barely see the island anymore, it was just a little speck on the horizon. I thought about turning around, of abandoning this whole thing, but even if our people had found one of those crystals, there was no guarantee we could make it give us power.
I thought about what Visra had said about the creature that could make fire appear from its hands and make it rain with a snap of its fingers. What would that be like I wondered, to have such power at your fingertips, no little goblin would ever threaten us again if we could wield such power. The creature was probably a mainlander, Visra hadn’t talked to it or approached it, she had only watched it from afar as a little girl. Nalan was right when she had said that mainlanders hated us, or at least all our old stories and legends said so, could all of them make fire appear, and if it was true that they hated us how would I ever convince one to show me their power. I could capture one of them and bring it back to the island, but if they wielded such forces that could be difficult. I would figure something out. They sent me for a reason, that reason being that I was the strongest and most capable among our people. I couldn’t fail, but I would have to focus on getting there first before I made any significant decisions.
I brought out some dried fish from my pack and had a drink from my water skin. There was not much to do on the craft, and I soon got bored. Everything looked the same no matter where I looked there would only be more ocean and an empty horizon. When my tongue flickered out of my mouth, as it tended to do on its own, all I could smell was the salt of the sea and water of course. I laid down on my stomach under the lean-to and peered over the edge of the boat into the water. I could see my reflection, and I looked as bored as I felt. The water was a deep blue color and reflected everything above it. I reached out my hand to touch it, and I let it trail in the water after me.
Suddenly there was a vast shadow passing below me, and I drew my hand back quickly, rising myself up from where I had been laying, not bored anymore. It was truly humongous, and I wondered what it could be or what it could want for that matter as it followed me below the water. I worried what I would do if it toppled my little ship. I was a strong swimmer, having helped many times to dive after clams and fish alike, but I didn’t think I could swim all the way back to the island if the boat was destroyed. I wondered what other creatures could be lurking beneath the surface, there were undoubtedly sharks and dolphins, they would come into our relatively shallow bay sometimes, but I had never seen anything this huge before.
The thing moved to the side of my vessel and rose to the surface. It blew out a puff of air before submerging again, spraying me with water. If it would move to the side of the ship to surface, then it didn’t seem interested in tipping me over. If it wasn’t a danger to me, then why was it following me? This would need to be investigated, so I wrapped my tail around the mast that was holding up the canvas in the middle of the boat and then I dipped my head into the water.
A big eye turned slowly towards me, and we stared at one another for a long time, everything this creature did seemed to be slow and graceful. It had a big fin on the end of its tail that it waved up and down slowly to push itself through the water, two fins at its sides I likened to the wings of some big laborious bird, it did look like it was flying slowly through the water. I brought my head back up and grinned like a fool. I wasn’t afraid of it anymore, and I felt less lonely now that I had a travel companion.
The rest of the day was spent watching the horizon for any sign of land, the big fish stayed with me, and I spent some more time watching it with my head under the water. Soon the sun began to set behind me, and I laid down under the lean-to with a blanket thrown over me and fell asleep.
The next day I woke up to find my travel companion gone, and as if it had brought me good luck the sailing during that day got much rougher. The wind picked up blowing furiously at the little vessel. I had to change my course regularly or risk being swept in the wrong direction. The good news was that I could see land appear in front of me, the bad news was that dark clouds started forming, and It started raining furiously making it hard to see. The waves also got bigger, tossing me this way and that. I got closer and closer to land, but I could see no good place to come to shore, only cliffs, and jagged rocks. The decision was made for me, as a massive wave smashed my ship into some rocks. I could hear it splintering as I was thrown into the water. I tried to swim to the surface, but the current had me, and I was dragged bodily every which way. I must have hit my head on something as I could feel a sharp pain in my skull which made everything go black.