Kaden lay in the crow’s nest, curled in a ball, naked. Sweating. His feet were hooves, his lower legs, a minotaur’s. His hands were thick and heavy but his shoulders, a man’s.
“Coming up!” Trella called as she hauled herself into the nest. “You need to drink. Also, your knee looks way more hairy. Good work.”
Kaden accepted the flask she filled with [Create Water] and gulped it down. Ten days into the voyage, this was the only place he could sleep. The only place where nightmares and waking flashbacks didn’t ambush him. “I shouldn’t be stuck like this. Stuck up here. Stuck in between forms.”
He let go of [Beast Form] and his feet and hands shriveled back in minutes. “I survived the Greater Abyssinian. I beat it.”
Trella sat beside him and wrapped her cloak around herself against the wind. “You can survive and still be wounded. You almost died on this ship. You should have died. Eclipse won’t come out at all.”
It wasn’t just the ship itself, it was the slow creak, the slosh of waves, the smell of salt and wood and desperation and the weight of knowing that this was the end. Only up here, in the place he’d been safe, could Kaden sleep. The rain didn’t bother him. The wind didn’t matter.
“Kanli said to just keep focusing on the transformation, and that it would get easier. It’s not easier.”
“And you’ve been working on it a week. There’s nothing else to do,” Trella said. “Both ship crews are terrified of me because I hunted down the cargo thief. Also because I was wearing a necklace made from his fingers, so a little of that’s on me.”
That sounded like Trella. “How’s Ashi?”
“Sea sick. She’s blue from the sea mana and green from puking. She says the ship never moved on Echo Lake.” Trella brushed his forehead. “We saw a pirate scout boat today. They turned and sailed the other way.”
“Good.” Kaden looked up at the flag fluttering above the nest. A pair of green cosmic horrors which definitely didn’t resemble snakes to people who didn’t know Sara entwined on a field of white. The flag definitely represented the Horror surrounding the world and devouring it, not two snakes forming a heart. “How’s Eve?”
“Beloved. Sailors can drink all they want, Eve cures [Hungover] and they go right back to work. Did you know Trinity can work the cargo lift?” Trella asked.
Trinity had taken to sleeping in the crowded hold of the second ship, christened the “Jaqueline” after Sara’s mother. “I believe it. Didn’t know it, but Trinity is smart.”
“I have to get back to the other ship. Sara and Eve have this one, Trinity and I have the other. Skully’s down in the hold. At least his head is.”
Sara had quelled a near mutiny by shipping Skully’s giant body back to the Holding, while Kaden insisted his head shift to the spider-skull form and lurk below deck. Kaden had seen him twice at night. The undead monster climbed up the ropes to the crow’s nest and looked at Kaden before scuttling down again.
He blinked away memories.
He was not alone.
He was not trapped.
The ship was repaired and not rotting, there weren’t hordes of skeletons, just one, and it was friendly. “I’m going to keep working on [Beast Form].”
“Good. I’ll be by at dinner.” Trella stood and climbed to the top of the mast, touching the flag. “I wish there were, like, a haystack below I could dive into.”
“Why would there be a haystack on a ship?” Kaden asked.
“Because it would be cool.” She leaped, doing a dive downward, a splash echoing up a moment later.
Kaden went back to working on [Beast Form]. Hooves first, like Kanli taught him. Claws for fingers. Calves swelling as minutes became hours. The tension set in, the fear that came as he rembered being lost in the mind of Minotaur.
Never making it back to the part of his mind that was human.
Kaden let it go and closed his eyes. His temples itched, a great sign because you couldn’t grow horns without some itching. His teeth ached, also good because having his jaw jut forward didn’t come without some cost.
The transformation stopped with one arm a husky minotaur, and a thigh that had been stung by a bee or was somewhat transformed.
Night came, and Kaden ate vegetables from a bowl Trella brought and talked with her. A heavy fog remained after the last squall and the sailers were rightfully nervous. Oceanus himself could rise up and they wouldn’t see him.
Trella pulled a blanket from Inventory and lay down, putting her head on his chest. “Oooh. So hairy.”
“Not transformed,” he said with some difficulty.
And with her sleeping at his side, Kaden was able to rest.
###
He woke to the sound of shouting, the clang of steel and the cries of battle. Heavy fog had given way to driting mists, and three ships clung to the two in Kade’s fleet. Two were war ships, sleek and thin and long, with wide sails.
Trella’s crow landed on the nest. “They used an illusion to hide their approach and have giant spiders webbing the ships together. I hate to interrupt your practice but we’re neck deep in pirates.”
Kaden stood, his hooves clopping on the wood of the crows nest and gripped the edge with a thick hand. He leaped over, gripping a rope to lower himself, then dropped. If they wanted to attack his herd? They’d pay.
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Kaden landed on the back of a pirate—or a sailor, it was hard to tell with the man’s spine broken—and threw back his head to let loose a war cry.
You have used [Bahamut Bray]. Allies attack will be raised. Enemies will suffer [Fear].
A distant part of his mind basked in triumph. He’d managed the change, though it had taken days. The more immediate part of his mind wanted every intruder dead, a desire Kaden embraced.
Identifying pirates was easy, now. The pirates were the ones who screamed and ran as he thundered across the deck, flinging enemies into the water and ending his charge by goring one.
“Focus!” A man shouted. A man dressed in all black, with a fancy hat that hid his complete lack of horns. Everyone knew the best warriors had horns. “Kill the minotaur or—”
An arrow plunged into the pirate captain’s arm, letting lightning course over him.
Sara had taken advantage of the distraction and struck. She was a worthy herd-member.
Kaden found himself surrounded by pirates with short, stubby swords meant to hack and slash. He drew Remembrance. It, too, could hack. Now, the pirates rushed to retreat, holding out their weapons.
“[Big Boom]!” Ashi screamed from high above.
One pirate ship’s sails caught fire near the base. It couldn’t be easy, burning something surrounded by the sea, but Ashi continued to lash out with fireballs, targeting the ship’s sails.
“Forward!” The pirate captain shouted. “There’s no going back!”
Screams of terror rose from the other ship, then Trinity let loose a battle cry.
“Back! Go back! There’s no going forward!” someone screamed as the pirates rushed to retreat. “Cut the webbing! Don’t let the skeleton onboard! Summon the storm! Summon the storm now!”
The moment of distraction was all Kaden needed. He swung Remembrance down, using the hammer head to smash the skull of a pirate, then charged through the ring.
Stubby swords cut, but these were weak weapons, and Kaden ignored the blood, rampaging from one end of the deck to the other. A trample was as good as a gore. Breaking limbs was the new trample, and nothing beat head-butting a man in the chest to send him flying over the railing.
“Take their ship!” Sara screamed. “Kill them all. We’ll have our own fleet.”
Pirates were, in essence, full-contact negotiators, but they were also businessmen, and Sara’s cry put fear into the pirates still onboard. Faced with a hostile takeover, they sprinted for the webs, sliding down them to land on their own ship.
Running like cowards from a challenge.
Rage made Kaden’s eyes fill with red and again he unleashed [Bahamut Bray]. The big ship was cutting webs. The big ship was fleeing like a beaten hydroboar. A pirate sprinted for the railing on the other side, and Kaden, too, sprinted.
With thundering hoofbeats he stampeded toward the pirate, and when his prey leaped, Kaden couldn’t help himself. He followed, sailing into the open air to smash into the man, then falling—not into the ocean, but to a wooden deck.
A short, small ship with only two masts had moored on the other side, and pirates covered the deck. Trapped on the ship with him, they drew weapons.
There might have been fifty. There could have been a hundred. A minotaur didn’t mind being outnumbered. Battle was inevitable and defending one’s herd from predators was the right and responsibility Kaden embraced.
Lightning arced across the sky, illuminating the fog.
Kaden attacked, using Remembrance to smash and chop. It wasn’s so much being surrounded as having his pick of victims. He couldn’t dodge their attacks, only endure, but as the boat began to pitch and roll, he welcomed the sea’s anger.
Side-step a slash and grab the pirate. Use him as a [Battering Ram] to smash through five of his friends and end the dash with Remembrance leaving a gash through a man’s chest.
Then agony struck.
One of his legs almost collapsed.
A pirate had slashed, not randomly, but at the tendons on Kaden’s leg. Kaden lifted the man with one hand and smashed him through the deck, but the damage was done. These were rats, rats who outnumbered him.
A wave crashed over the side of the ship as it tilted.
Kaden caught the mast with Remembrance and hung on as it swept over. Saltwater burned in a dozen cuts. As the ship righted itself, he clung to the mast with one arm and hacked with Remembrance, cutting men’s legs.
Lightning showed the swell of another wave rising up. With only a moment, Kaden clung to the mast, wrapping his claw in the ropes.
The wave struck, going on for eternity, until Kaden’s lungs burned. He didn’t have [Resist Suffocation] in this form, and gasp for breath. Ball lightning arced above, revealing the desperate men who, like Kaden, had tied themselves to the ship.
Kaden leaped to the railing and nearly crashed through. Wood groaned and cracked as he struck it, then pulled himself along toward the nearest Pirate.
The man slashed his arm twice before Kaden’s claw closed on his throat and tossed him overboard.
“[Backstab!]” A Pirate drove a dagger deep into his back.
Kaden’s health began to plummet as he back-handed the assasin pirate and broke the man’s jaw. If his leg had been functioning, a hoof-stomp could have broken the pirate’s foot but he settled for pushing the man down until Kaden could smash him against the deck.
The skull broke before the boards did.
Lightning showed him the last three, back near the ship’s wheel. They fought to turn the ship toward oncoming waves. One never saw him. Kaden siezed him with both hands and threw him over the back.
The other drew a dagger and stabbed while Kaden punched him with heavy fists until the man’s eyes rolled back in his head.
The last had tied himself to the wheel and wept as Kaden stood and drew Remembrance. The ship pitched back and forth thrown by the squall, but Kaden brought Rembrance down with all the fury in his soul, chopping the man’s arm off and leaving it tied to the wheel.
It was a simple thing to strike him in the chin with Remembrance. The ocean could keep his body.
The storm thundered, and Kaden answered with a roar of his own, calling to his herd, a cry lost in the storm as hours passed.
Gradually, the waves slowed.
Gradually, the wind eased.
Kaden’s mind was somewhat minotaur, and he limped up and down the deck, stomping the few corpses not swept over the rails.
And time dragged out, the rage dulled. The mists thinned, and a cold sun shone down. In the distance, sails appeared like white clouds, clouds that grew larger with time.
Thirty feet away, the ship stopped and a moment later, Trella climbed aboard, dripping.
His heart knew her, and Kaden limped over to try and embrace her. She was just too short. “You killed them all by yourself? Next time, share the fun?” She said. “You’re hurt. Can you drink some of this potion for me?”
Trella gave him a potion, too small for his hands, then held it to his lips. “Good. Now, listen to me. This ship is sinking. Can minotaurs swim?”
Minotaurs, according to Kaden’s Beast memory, were champion drowners. The problem was, Kaden—all of him—didn’t want to surrender his battle with the sea. He gently, slowly began to tap.
Trella looked around. “It’s not me! It’s already sinking. Look. See that railing? Beneath that railing is water. I’m pretty sure it’s not supposed to be that far up. So, I’ll find a barrel or something. We can float over.”
Kaden roared and stamped his foot. It wasn’t code, but it sort of was.
“If it fits in Inventory, you can have it,” Trella said. “Does a ship, even a small one like this, fit? No? Leave it.”
First she didn’t want him stealing from Initiates. Now it was abandoning a damaged, sinking ship he couldn’t sail in the middle of an ocean. Kaden was a reasonable minotaur, but he had limits. He stomped back to the ship’s wheel and set his hands on it.
You have assumed control of the ship ‘Leticia’s Axe Wound of Love.’
Ship hull is at 36%.
Your ship is sinking!
[From Hell’s Heart] is active! Your ship may not sink while you grip the wheel.
Where his claws met the wheel, Kaden’s hands burned with pain like he was holding on to a red-hot pan. But minotaurs weren’t weaklings like men. The sea pushed, and Kaden pushed back.
Trella lurched as the ship rose a good six inches. “Really? Really? Fine. Sara! He’s doing something again. Throw a rope!” She turned on Kaden. “I’ll tie this ship to the Child. But you had better change back the moment it’s floating.”