Chapter 01 of Wayward Ranger by J Scott Miles

Aidan didn’t normally put much stock in omens or portents. Similarly, he’d never troubled himself much with the myriad gods or their machinations. He wasn’t even sure he believed any of them existed. He’d certainly never seen evidence of them, nor noticed any useful return on the candles he occasionally burned or offerings he occasionally made to one of them or another.

But as the deck of the three-masted ship pitched in the turbulent blue-green water, and the angry clouds roiled overhead, he couldn’t help wondering if it was a sign from the gods themselves that his decision to become an adventurer was going to be more fraught than he’d initially realized.

He wasn’t regretting joining his new party, but he lamented they had to take a ship to the Untamed Lands instead of an enchanted airship or using a portal like most adventurers. That was the way of things, though. He and his team couldn’t afford an airship, and the adventurer’s guild reserved their portals for members.

Aidan and his party were not yet guild members, thus they had no access to the guild’s portals. But in order to become members, they had to complete the guild’s induction quest, which could only be done on the Untamed Lands. It was a catch-twenty-two Aidan suspected was in place on purpose. The Guild sought to ensure perspective members truly wanted to earn their badges, and making recruits travel to the Untamed Lands the most dangerous and uncomfortable way possible was just the first step in that process.

Aidan gasped as the vessel heaved and another wave of nausea crashed over him. “Damn it, a ranger belongs in the forest, not out here on the open ocean.”

“What’s that you say, lad? You talkin’ to yourself again?” One of the weathered old seamen, who was going about his work as if there was nothing unnatural at all about the violent rolling of the deck, asked with a laugh. “Never seen a man quite so green as you. An orc and a goblin, yes, but never a man.”

Aidan bit back the scathing retort he had ready and instead lunged for the side-rail so he could lean over and retch for at least the hundredth time that morning.

The seaman, accompanied by a chorus of his sun-beaten barefoot companions, laughed as he swatted Aidan on the back. “The sea, she sure do thank ya for feeding her dear fishes the way ya are. Mighty generous of ya.”

They’d been at sea for a fortnight already, and by all estimates, they had at least that long to go before they reached the Untamed Lands. The first ten days had gone by without difficulty. The weather and seas were calm, and a single anti-nausea potion per day had sufficed to keep Aidan’s meals down and his guts from writhing.

Then, over the last four days, the waves had grown from shallow rolling knolls to towering hills, and the skies had filled with thunderheads. He’d run through the rest of his potions in a single day after that, and none of the other members of his new adventuring party were willing to part with any of theirs.

As a tenth-level ranger newly released from his master’s tutelage, joining a party had been only one of his available choices, but it had been by far the most appealing.

“Aidan, you’re a man grown,” Ranger Dallen had said. “I’ve taught you what I can, and it’s time for you to find your own stretch of forest to manage and protect. Or, if you must, keep to the fool notion of becoming an adventurer. Whichever you decide is up to you, but your time here with me has ended.”

And just like that, only a week after his nineteenth naming-day, Aidan found himself on his own. So, instead of going back home to his ma and da, he answered the first pinned parchment, on the first announcement board, in the first inn of the first town he came to.

It had been fortuitous to find a team looking for a ranged damage dealer to round out their ranks so quickly. And it hadn’t bothered Aidan at all that none of the party members were veterans, the highest just level fourteen, or that none of them had been across the wide Emerald Sea to the vast expanse of the Untamed Lands before. He was eager to prove himself and begin gaining real experience from worthy foes, the likes of which could no longer be found over most of the settled kingdoms. And it doesn’t hurt that our team’s rogue is really cute. Or that our fire mage is beautiful as well, although she is surprisingly frigid and already involved with the bard.

They were all looking forward to reaching Redemption Bay and starting their new lives, and Aidan was especially looking forward to seeing what enhancements he could purchase with the upgrade-points he’d saved would be. The wilds of the Untamed Lands promised rare enhancement wellsprings that could no longer be found in the settled kingdoms.

Aidan doubled over the railing again, heaving, and watching the ocean’s roiling gray surface recede away, then come rushing back toward him. A fine cold mist of salt spray covered his face as the ship surged into the waves, causing him to sputter.

As he hung over the side-rail, he saw movement beneath him. Just a fleeting shadow in the murky depths, but he was good at spotting movement amongst deep shadows.

“What was that?” he asked, as he staggered back from the rail. “There’s something moving under the water below us.”

“What’d ya see, boy? It weren’t a mermaid, were it?” The salty old seaman laughed. “If it were, I’ll split her with ya. I’ll take the lovely top half, and you can have the fishy bottom. How’s that sound?”

“That was no mermaid,” Aidan said emphatically, as he wiped his mouth clean on his sleeve.

“Not a mermaid, he says. Like the lad here would know a—” Whatever else the seaman was about to say to his companions who were all having a good laugh at Aidan’s expense, was cut short when an orange and red tentacle thicker than an average man’s thigh launched itself from the depths and crashed down with a wet smack onto the deck.

“Kraken!” the seaman screamed.

Chaos erupted across the ship as more men took up the call and more tentacles snaked their way up onto the deck.

Aidan’s heart leapt into his throat as fear gripped him at the word Kraken, but at least his nausea was forgotten. He jerked his curved kukri blades from their sheaths strapped along his thighs and prepared himself for battle.

He usually preferred his bow in hand and a full quiver on his back during a fight or hunt, but this battle had closed to melee distance in an instant and his blades were by far the best option he had at hand. There’s no time to go down below and retrieve my bow, or anything else. Blades are what I have, so blades are what I’ll use, and if I’m going to die, I’m going to die swinging.

He lashed out at the nearest tree-trunk-sized tentacle, cutting into it with his blade, but the thing just continued to wave in a wild arc that sent him sprawling across the damp deck boards.

Overhead, one of the ship’s two large masts groaned as several of the beast’s tentacles grabbed onto it and pulled. The groans quickly turned to loud pops. Then the mast broke, and the thing came crashing down, covering the deck in broken wood, rope, and a jumble of limp sailcloth.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

From the rear of the ship, a spurt of flame arced out into the air, scorching one of the Kraken’s limbs. Aidan hoped that meant the rest of his adventuring party had come up from their cabins and joined the fight. That prospect gave him hope until, a moment later, to his horror, he saw his party’s rogue snatched off the deck and carried over the side into the churning waves.

“Gods be merciful,” he said as he picked himself up and went after another writhing tentacle with his knives. I hope she can get away from that thing before she drowns or is eaten.

A notification flashed across his vision that one of his party members was dead.

“Damn. I hope that wasn’t for her.”

Aidan redoubled his efforts, hacking and slashing at the tentacle closest to him, as the sounds of more breaking timber filled his ears, along with the screams of sailors. He was swatted down again and grabbed by the rubbery sucker-lined limb, but he managed to fight his way free before it could secure him the way it had their rogue.

Despite the best efforts of his young adventuring party and the ship’s crew, it wasn’t long before the vessel began to list.

As Aidan sliced into the Kraken’s limb again with his blades, the tentacle came up sharply, catching him mid-chest and batting him skyward. The breath rushed from his lungs as he pinwheeled through the air, the world flashing in a blur around him, and then the wave’s icy grip enveloped him as he crashed into the sea.

Disoriented from the brief flight and none-too-gentle splashdown into the cold water, Aidan struggled to get his bearings, but his lungs were already screaming at him for breath. He was an excellent swimmer, but he wasn’t dressed for swimming, and he felt as though his strokes and kicks did little good as he tried to right himself.

Shedding his cloak and boots freed his movement some, but not enough. Panic gripped him as he struggled to orient himself. The saltwater stung his eyes, but he kept them open, hoping he’d see something that would tell him which direction was up and which way to swim.

The longer he thrashed, the worse his lungs burned and the more desperate he became. Quicker than he expected, darkness crept in around the edges of his vision. His ears began to ring and his chest spasmed as his body tried to override his senses and gasp for breath.

Gods, please don’t let me die like this. I’m not even to the Untamed Lands yet.

He didn’t know exactly who he was pleading to. He could honestly only name a few of the gods beyond those in the upper echelons of the seemingly endless pantheon. I’ll be better, though. I swear it. If one of you helps me, I’ll believe. I’ll be devoted. I’ll pledge my service, burn candles, make offerings, and do whatever it is devoted people do.

Somewhere within the shrill ringing in his ears, he heard a giggle. As the oddly out-of-place giggle turned to sweet joyous laughter and overtook the ringing in his mind, Aidan thought he recognized the voice. I think that’s the serving girl from the tavern Ranger Dallen and I visited on my fifteenth naming day. I’ll never forget her. She gave me my first kiss. And a little more.

Then he felt the woman’s lips against his, as real and tangible as they’d been that night all those years ago. Aidan was certain he was hallucinating from lack of air, and he thrashed harder, but he still didn’t know which way was up, and he was rapidly losing strength.

The barmaid’s ethereal lips left his, and she whispered to him in her sweet, mirthful voice. “I’ve never been mistaken for a barmaid before, but I don’t mind. Barmaids are some of my most devoted, even if they rarely realize it’s me they’re worshiping. But on this day, I heard your plea, Aidan Atchison, and I accept your offer of devotion and fealty. I’ll extend you a hand and a blessing, but I’ll expect your devotion henceforth. Such direct intervention will undoubtedly anger the others, but I’m terribly bored, and you’re too adorable and full of promise to watch perish in this way.”

Then, as the imagined words faded from his ears, something thick, round, and rubbery collided with Aidan’s ribs. The thing dragged him through the water, and it took a moment for his air-starved mind to work out what was happening, but when he did, he wanted to scream. The Kraken’s found me. Why couldn’t I have just drowned or kept on hallucinating?

His body doubled over the tentacle pushing him through the water, and he felt rings of sucker-teeth as wide as his palm bite into his forearms on its underside. He waited for the thing to wrap him up and drag him into its waiting maw, but it didn’t, and after a few terrifying moments, his head broke the water’s surface.

His shrieking lungs forced his mouth open to greedily suck in life-giving air. As he gasped and the darkness receded from his vision, he slid off the tentacle as it continued on in an arc out of the water toward the ship.

Fragments of the doomed vessel littered the waves, and Aidan grabbed onto the nearest thing he could find to help keep himself afloat. Thirty yards away, the ship floundered, one mast broken and the other ablaze. The Kraken’s tentacles continued to roam the deck, ripping chunks from the ship where it could and every so often finding a lingering crewman to wrap up and drag overboard.

It didn’t take long for the ruined ship to sink beneath the waves.

Aidan watched helplessly from his floating debris, listening and watching for signs of life other than himself and the Kraken. But there was nothing, and eventually even the Kraken’s roving tentacles disappeared back into the depths.

For a long while, he remained as motionless as possible, not wanting to draw any attention, just in case the Kraken was still around and interested in finishing the job it started. Eventually, however, he could no longer bear the frigid water, and he began collecting more pieces of flotsam that littered the towering waves to cobble together a crude raft.

The first spell he’d purchased with his earned upgrade-points as an apprentice ranger was Internal Warmth. Usually on cold nights in the forest, casting it once or twice on himself, while lying beneath his cloak, was plenty to keep him comfortable.

Shivering there on his raft with the ominous dark clouds above, and waves threatening to topple him at every turn, he doubted he had enough mana in his limited internal mana pool to keep himself alive through the coming night.

He chuckled. I narrowly survived drowning, and a Kraken attack, only to die out here from cold and exposure.

He still couldn’t understand why the Kraken hadn’t wrapped him up and eaten him when it had the chance. Was it luck? It was certainly lucky its tentacle hit me when it did. Whether it meant to or not, it saved me from drowning.

He remembered the barmaid’s voice and the words she’d spoken during his hallucination, but he couldn’t bring himself to believe that had anything to do with his survival.

Closing his eyes, he cast Internal Warmth and felt a trickle of blissful heat flow through him. He was also aware of his woefully small mana pool draining, but he couldn’t do anything about that. It would refill in its own time, and until it did, he wouldn’t be able to cast Internal Warmth, or any other spell, again. So, I’d better enjoy this heat while it lasts.

As he basked in the temporary bliss of being warm, he summoned his status-sheet. In his mind’s eye he read through the notifications he’d ignored earlier, and as he’d suspected from the lack of other survivors in the water, his entire party was dead. His heart sank at the confirmation.

He hadn’t known them long, and he’d really only connected with the rogue. He and she had hit it off immediately. They hadn’t been a couple or anything close, even though they’d shared each other’s bed a few times. But we were friends. Or becoming friends. Who knows what might have happened between us if we’d known each other longer?

The deep melancholy of the moment dragged at him, and Aidan forced his thoughts on to other things to keep from dwelling on the rogue. If my party is all gone, what does that mean? What happens to our quest? Am I still on the hook for that?

Before joining the group, he’d only been in a party with his old mentor Ranger Dallen and he’d never given too much thought to the nuance of how parties worked. Mentally scrolling down through his status-sheet, he found where his party had previously been listed.

Party: None.

With that confirmed, he scrolled further to the quests section.

Quests: Untamed Lands Fledgling quest: Stage one: Reach Redemption Bay and check in at the guildhall.

Well, it appears I’m still expected to finish the quest on my own. At least that means I haven’t incurred any penalty for failing to complete it.

But when he checked his experience and unspent upgrade-point tallies, his heart sank further. Shit, I lost a good chunk of my experience and most of my unspent upgrade-points. If it’s not because I failed the quest, then it must be the death penalty for losing party members.

He laughed bitterly to himself through chattering teeth as the cold ocean water and the icy wind conspired to drain the warmth his spell had provided and suck the life from him. Right now, bearing the full brunt of their death penalties is the least of my problems. In another few hours out here, none of that’s going to matter at all.