After Kewari spoke, the rest of the crew started yelling over each other. The wall of sound quickly gave Malysseus a headache, given how he’d spent the last hour or so. First, he sent his Mana reservoirs plummeting. Right after that, he recovered his Mana as quickly as possible. His concentration and willpower were shot for the day, and the noise wasn’t helping.

“If you don’t start speaking to me one at a time,” Malysseus said at a normal volume, “I’m going to start slapping people.” He went and sat with his back against a tree as the yelling within the clearing transitioned to whispering. The people who had heard him were spreading the word to shut up. Malysseus closed his eyes, trying to filter out the sounds as the uproar died.

Finally, feeling the blessing of minor relief for his aching head, he said, “Gurten, my old friend. What can I do for you?”

“What was that creature?” Gurten asked, keeping his volume pleasantly low. The other crew members leaned forward to hear what was going on. Except for Kewari. When Gurten didn’t get an immediate response, he added, “That monster that was chasing us.”

Malysseus obviously remembered the creature he was battling for his life with. He took deep breaths as his body passively restored tiny fractions of Mana. The slower influx of Mana felt good.

“That was a cyclops. We don’t have them in Maripolos or the Kingdom, but I’ve heard of them before. There have only been two killed in the history of my home country. Each time they were killed, it took four notable figures—heroes of the Kingdom: a knight, a mage, a healer, and an archer.”

“What happens if they don’t have four heroes?” Gurten asked.

“People die,” Malysseus said softly. “Or they escape. Leave their homes and find a place somewhere else. The archer was killed in an unlucky wild swing during the second kill. These monsters use trees like bats. He was crushed by a tree after shooting the cyclops in the eye.” He didn’t like to think about the situation because he knew they were missing a mage. And it was all his fault.

The members around the semi-circle listening to the Captain all paid a moment of silence for some hero they never knew. The sea was a tough place to be. Most sailors knew someone who was lost at sea. All of these sailors knew one: Uro. Eventually, Marcus broke the silence.

“What do you want us to do, Captain?” he asked.

Malysseus sighed. Directing anger and frustration at his crew wasn’t proper behavior for a Captain. And it wasn’t going to help them, let alone himself. Even still, he’d only had a spare three seconds to think since escaping from the cyclops himself. He didn’t have a plan yet.

“Gather everything together,” he said. “We’ll leave here soon, but I need a minute to think.”

Malysseus closed his eyes again, grateful no one from the crew came to bother him while he thought. The cyclops was obviously dangerous. He had no clue how practical his magic would be in a violent battle. All his effort in the previous encounter went into trying to stop the creature. He utilized whatever defensive spells popped into his head. He wasn’t sure how powerful of an attack he would need to pierce the creature’s thick skin.

He did know better than to try more fire spells since the spell had just slid off the cyclops’ chest. Arcane magic still seemed like the best bet, but crystal magic might be useful. Or maybe an offensive application of mist magic, surrounding the cyclops entirely.

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As he considered the possibilities, he heard the rustling of someone sitting down next to him. He felt the warmth as they leaned against him. Only one person in the crew would do something like that.

“Hey, Kewari,” Malysseus said gently.

“Hey yourself,” she replied happily. They sat together for a few minutes as the crew gathered all the supplies they had haphazardly thrown around the clearing. Kewari leaned against Malysseus as they sat. She broke the silence again, “We’ve only been here a day, and the expedition isn’t getting any easier. Do you have any idea what we’re looking for?”

“Still no,” Malysseus said, chuckling to prevent his anger from rising. “I’m not sure if the cyclops lived or was summoned here. It could have been brought here to protect something. I don’t know. What came first, the cyclops or the thing worth finding?”

“Cyclops,” they said at the same time, laughing together. Their mirth was interrupted by Marcus.

“Did you… sorry to interrupt, Captain,” he said awkwardly, flushing as though he was interrupting something important. “But did you have a plan?”

“Of course I did,” Malysseus said, opening his eyes and standing up. He offered Kewari his hand, helping her to her feet. She eyed him suspiciously since he had just confirmed his lack of a plan to her. “I’ve had a plan the whole time.”

The crew stared at him expectantly.

He looked around at everyone with mock surprise on his face. “My goodness! Not only do you want me to devise a plan,” he said, leaning dramatically towards the half circle of sailors. “You expect me to be able to explain it?”

The crew stared at him expectantly—again.

“Very well, very well,” Malysseus said dismissively, gesturing his hands as if trying to quiet down the completely silent crew. “Eric, you’re skinny and can probably climb a tree. Climb one of these trees and see if you can get eyes on the cyclops. If we’re going to move forward, we need to track our enemy. We should head back to base camp, but we don’t want to draw a cyclops back there.”

“And when we get there, we’ll focus on making the camp more defensible?” Gurten asked.

“It’s a cyclops,” Malysseus said, “not an army. It’s going to smash through any defenses we create. No, not defensible. But we can make it a little homier, build a dock, and bring the ship in so the other men can join us. We’re going to be here a while.”

The crew’s response was mixed. Several more adventurous members were looking forward to a lengthy stay on an island beach. Most of the remainder were anxious to get back home. The remainder of the remainder was Kewari, who Malysseus always had difficulty getting a read on.

The crew started helping Eric climb one of the gigantic trees, which was more complex than simply climbing a tree. He used a pair of daggers to climb up the tree, relying on Malysseus’ magic to catch him in the event of a fall. Any spatulas they might use to pry Eric off the ground were still on the ship, so Malysseus took his job as ground support very seriously.

Which means he—obviously—decided to have a smoke while they waited. By the time Eric climbed up, ten minutes had already passed. It took him another few minutes to search. He climbed down much faster, hopping the last dozen feet and saving his knees with a roll. As he stood up, dusting himself off, he addressed Captain Malysseus.

“Couldn’t you have just built me some steps from rock to climb up, sir? Or an ice slide to come back down?”

“Sure,” Malysseus agreed, “but where’s the fun in that? Now, tell us what you learned.”

Eric looked way more disappointed at the lack of an ice slide than was expected from a grown man sailor. “Well, it looks like the cyclops is moving away from base camp. I’m not sure what drew it to us, but we must have stumbled into its territory. If we head back the way we came, we should be in the clear.”

“Should be, Eric?” Malysseus asked rhetorically. “Or are we in the clear?” He asked the second question with his I’m-a-serious-Captain tone.

“Our paths will not converge,” Eric agreed.

Nodding, Malysseus rubbed his hands together, enthused to make it back to base camp and get another shot at practicing Arcane magic. Something in his instincts told him the least known form of magic held secrets to defeating the cyclops. After all, legendary magic was the best way to destroy a mythical creature.

The crew, staring at Malysseus again, jumped as he yelled.

“I’m getting real sick at this whole staring at me thing,” he said, pointing his cigar at them in accusation.

With a playful smile, he added, “Let’s get out of here.”