CHAPTER TEN—TROUBLES
The boat was silent, save for the heavy breathing of terrified men.
“Do you see anything?” It was Mahsa, the cook who had asked the question. Another man turned from the starboard side of the boat. “Nothing!” he hissed. “We should leave here,” Ushtan said.
Shiro looked at him, saw the sweat streaming down the sides of his face as he swallowed. “Wait,” he said quietly.
“Yes,” Ali said. “The beast may leave if we are quiet.”
But Shiro wondered if they shouldn’t hunt this creature, to kill it and make sure that the army of Scorpion Guards sailing down the river even now, would not happen upon this creature.
But how to fight it? He hadn’t even seen what it was.
Suddenly the boat moved, the bow and the stern swaying up and down in the water as it was knocked about. Men screamed and shouted.
Shiro lost balance. He tried to lean back, but the force of the blow on the stern was so impactful that the bow nearly went under the water, half of the men on deck flailing for balance as they fell over into the river, Shiro along with them.
As soon as he was under, he glanced about, but through the blur and the murkiness, he saw nothing, save for the kicking, flailing limbs of his men. He surfaced and glanced about as men screamed and swam, reaching back up for the sides of the boat, their friends and allies reaching down to help them up.
Suddenly the water rose like a wave in the sea, and broke. A deluge went up with a crash. Shiro shielded his face with arm.
The water calmed, but men still shouted in alarm and fear as thick drops and mist fell from above as if they were swimming in the river during a torrential downpour. Shiro kicked his feet to stay afloat as he glanced for any sign of what caused such a ruckus.
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Someone screamed more loudly and shrilly than everyone else. The samurai glanced in that direction, up at the boat, and what he saw stole his breath away.
Another scream.
“Look out!”
The men on the boat leaned back, all of them, away from the monster, their eyes wide and their swords held in front of their faces.
“Kill it!”
“What in the name of the gods!” Ali cried.
What was perched over the side of the boat was a monstrous green and brown form, the yellow eyes like orbs the size of Shiro’s head with sideways slits. The mouth, wide and lazy, its front legs and feet webbed with crooked claws the length of a man’s forearm.
“Attack!” Shiro called. “Kill it!”
The men swung their scimitars, but most of them missed, as they were too afraid to get close to the beast. Suddenly its mouth hung open and a long red tendril came out with a sticky red mass at the end. It wrapped itself about half a dozen of the Scorpion Guards. They cried out, squirming and wriggling as the beast pulled them into its mouth where they disappeared.
Shiro sucked in a quick breath as the monster smacked its jaws, satisfied with the meal. He lunged forward, kicking his feet in the water. As he reached the side of the boat, he grasped the railing and hauled himself up into the air, summersaulted and struck out with his scimitar, but when his blade hit, it sunk into the flesh and pushed back.
Shiro screamed, flailing through the air and grunted loudly as he landed atop the weaved mats lying across the deck.
Ali howled a battle cry, striking out with his sword.
“Ali!” Shiro cried, feeling something horrible would happen to his friend.
And then the beast opened its maw and that sticky tendril—its tongue—came out, wrapped about Ali and three other men. As they screamed, Debbaku lunged forward to attack the tongue, but it sucked Ali and the others in too quickly, his blade missing its strike.
“What?!” Razul barked, from somewhere out of Shiro’s view. Then he landed in front of Shiro and slashed at the beast, but what happened to Shiro before happened to the top-tier adventurer as well, and the creature’s skin sunk in where Razul’s blade came into contact and then pushed back out, sending him twirling off the boat and into the water.
“Ali!” Shiro cried, his heart hammering inside his chest. “Ali!” He got up, but the beast jumped away from the boat, the entire vessel rocking violently as an awful cracking sound filled the air.
The samurai made to run across the deck, but the boat separated and came apart, the whole crew on the bow side of the vessel going into the water. Shiro lost his balance and fell into the greenish-brown of the Eiphr for the second time.