5 – Through the Storm – The Anomaly

Fierce winds buffeted us as we entered the domain of the Anomaly. The Whizzing Arrow dipped precariously as it crested a wave, then fell so suddenly that for a moment I felt weightless. Kornos yelled, and I wrapped my arms around the mast. I couldn’t even look back to check on my friend.

Our boat hit the water at an angle, and I heard the hull groan in protest.

Lightning crashed down around us, illuminating the chaos we had found ourselves in. More immediately relevant was the wave that rushed towards us from starboard. I screamed to Kornos, “WAVE! STARBOARD!” and he immediately cursed and started pulling hard on the rudder, roaring with strength as he tried to steer us away from a direct hit, which would surely sink us.

Another flash of lightning illuminated the wave. Too close. We weren’t going to make it.

Then I remembered what Kornos had told me about Ashaollo’s blessing. Out of time and options, I blindly groped for a power I hadn’t yet explored. The next moment, it clicked, and the ocean bent to my will. A force slammed against the starboard side of the boat, followed by another shove astern, which propelled us away from the watery wall of death.

Kornos’s screams turned to whoops of joy, as did mine, as the wave crashed and dissipated behind us. For the moment, we were safe, so I turned and shared a smile with my friend.

With my command over the currents and the steady hands of Kornos guiding our ship, we made it through the rest of the storm without any more scares like the first.

In front of us laid the border of the Anomaly proper – a dense wall of slowly rotating cloud and fog that ensconced the tumor of warped reality.

We made it.

“Ready?” I asked Kornos.

“Ha!” he barked out a laugh, “I should be ask’n you that! Didn’t think you had it in ya!”

I grinned, and with a chuckle I said, “Well, neither did I!” I ran a hand through my rain-drenched hair. “Let’s go.”

***

The cloud wall was more than just an interesting phenomenon, it was a demarcation that separated realities. The moment we passed into the fog, the waves calmed, the wind settled down to a comfortable breeze, and the sounds of thunder ceased.

As we sailed further, my anticipation and anxiety built in equal measure. What levels of challenges would we face? Would treasure just fall into our laps, or would we have to brave treacherous, surreal environments and deadly creatures to reach even the most pitiful of rewards? We had less than two weeks to find whatever we could and make our way back to Niu. I could only pray to the Leviathans for fortune to be on our side.

Maybe not to Ashaollo since luck didn’t seem to be in his wheelhouse.

Whatever I had prepared myself for, it wasn’t this.

“By all the gods…” Kornos said in pure awe.

I couldn’t even nod. My eyes were wide, unable to breath, as I took in the beautiful, terrifying, wonderous sights.

It was as if an island had exploded, the scene frozen in time. Chunks of land, large and small, were scattered throughout the sky, thousands of feet in the air, floating at all angles. However, life thrived on each and every one. Flora grew as if each island had its own gravity. I saw an upside down tree with leaves that fell up, coating the ground/ceiling around it. Movement on another island, one that was at a near ninety-degree angle, caught my eye, and I saw a creature – just a blur – running across a clearing. Connecting several islands and weaving around others was a stream of water – a river, I realized, where, with my improved eyesight, I swear I saw fish traveling its length.

Above, the sky was clear, the sun directly overhead the eye of the storm. Outside of the Anomaly, not minutes before, the sun had only just risen past the horizon. Either the time of day here was offset, or it was eternally midday. I leaned towards the latter; the perfect position of the sun was just too conveniently placed to say we entered at just the right moment.

Below, I saw a titanic hole in the planet, an abyss so wide it utterly dwarfed the colony I had grown up in. Much to my relief it had not consumed all solid ground in the Anomaly. There were patches of land where we could beach our ship. Some were closer to floating islands than others, so I pointed those out to Kornos, and he steered us towards one of them.

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I belatedly realized that the Anomaly was far, far more spacious on the inside than it was on the outside. That wasn’t too much a surprise, as that was a well-documented, common phenomenon for Anomalies. In fact, it was rare to encounter an Anomaly that didn’t muck with its interior footprint.

I wanted to practice my ability some more, but when I went to pull up a current to speed us along, my head throbbed. I clutched at it and groaned, drawing Kornos’s attention.

“Hey, take it easy, you really pushed yourself earlier,” he said. I grunted in response, and he continued, “Yeah, actually, I’m impressed with how long you held out for. It took me more than a year to get to where you are now.”

That got me thinking, though not for but a moment, because my headache was quickly developing into a migraine. I groaned louder, and Kornos clicked his tongue in response. “Yeah, it’ll get worse before it gets better. Don’t worry, it’ll go away in an hour or so. Probably.”

I kicked weakly at his shin, though he stepped out of the way and laughed. “Feisty, aren’t we?” he joked at my expense.

Maybe if I landed a hit I’d feel better.

He toned down his jovial attitude and adopted a more caring one, and said, “Just relax and ride it out, I’ll handle things from here. We’ll need about that long to reach our destination, anyways.”

I curled up on the floor of the boat, one arm over my eyes, the other around my head, having bunched up my coat around my ears to block out sound. Every sensation made the pain worse, and my mouth and throat felt dry, my stomach emptied. Despite me never even having hinted so, Kornos stuck a canteen in my face, which I eagerly accepted and took slow sips from. I laid back down and endured the pain.

A rumble was followed by the sensation of being tugged. Kornos must have been dragging the boat ashore. I yawned as I sat up and stretched my limbs. I must’ve fallen asleep at some point, mercifully.

I got to my feet and surveyed our surroundings.

We were on a pristine beach of sparkling white and pink sand devoid of shells, rocks, or other bits that would be painful to step on with bare feet. The waves lapped gently at the shore. The beach extended out about a hundred feet from a dense forest – almost a jungle from how treacherous it looked to be to navigate. Beyond that was the lip of the abyss, where just a handful of feet up from the edge was a floating island, the far side tilted up, and the close side tilted down. That would be our starting point for our adventure. Just how we would navigate these islands was up in the air, no pun intended.

Turning my attention back to the beach, I thought it was the perfect, idyllic beach, complete with a stretch of shallow water perfect for lounging around in.

Well, if you didn’t count the creatures hiding just beneath the surface.

With the wristband on my left wrist, I could sense half a dozen entities buried under less than a foot of sand. Ambush predators, probably some Anomalous crab-type creature, if I had to guess. Crabs were awful things, what with their claws and spindly, insect-like legs. I shuddered at the thought.

Kornos was plodding around in the sand, boots off, enjoying the feeling of the warmth between his toes. I couldn’t blame him; I desperately wanted to peel off these drenched coverings and get into something dry. Blessedly, I had the foresight to buy a set of plain clothes at the general store the other night. In fact, I noticed Kornos had already changed while I was out. So, while he was distracted, I did so as well. While the blessing would probably prevent us from getting a cold, no one enjoys walking around in soggy clothes.

I finished pulling on my shirt just as Kornos hopped aboard. I acknowledged him with a nod and started to gather my belongings. I emptied my bag of thaums out onto the deck and filled it with a selection of utilitarian pieces; thaums that produced light or heat, reinforced or weakened, and ones that produced cold or preserved. There was plenty of room left over for whatever we might find. I fashioned a small pack out of cloth and forged it with a thaum of durability. I stuck the thaumatic devices I created during our trip in it. Lastly, I belted on the cutlass and its sheath.

Kornos had a pack on his back as well, this one empty but forged with durability and preservation. He would be handling our provisions and doing the Leviathan’s share of combat.

“You sure you don’t need a breather, Kornos?” I asked him. He hadn’t shown signs of exhaustion, and neither had I now that I thought about it. Plus, with his earring, he was probably doing better than me.

He shook his head, “Naw.” Then he paused, and his eyes widened a bit, and his mouth pulled up into a sly smile. “That’s the first time you’ve actually said my name, you know.”

That was true.

I tried to put a bit of levity in my voice as I replied, “Oh, I guess so. Sorry, I’m a bit of a strange one, I know.”

“Eh, kinda,” he smiled facetiously. “But really, I don’t mind.”

“You don’t?” I asked, not really having believed him, despite him having been so trustworthy. I hadn’t met a single person who hadn’t given me a funny look when I did something strange or odd in their eyes. Their looks of pity and discomfort didn’t offend me anymore; I was used to it. But it still hurt a little.

“Nope. I reckon, people all got their differences, and I’m not the type to give a rat’s butt about that. So what if you’re not like most people? That’s what makes you, you, Vincent,” he said, ending his declaration with a hand on my shoulder.

I felt tears well up, but held them back. Maybe Kornos would be fine with it, understand it even, but I didn’t want to be someone who cried at the slightest bit of sympathy. I puffed out my chest in pride and gratitude, instead.

He continued, “And anyone who treats my friends like they’ve got something wrong with ‘em, they can take a long walk off a short pier for all I care.”

I smiled, and tapped him on the chest with my fist. “Thanks, Ko. I mean it.”

“No problem, Vin,” he said. He turned back towards the Anomaly and said, “Now, where should we start first?”