George had emediatly attached the string around his wrist and found his wife dragging her back into their small home which was built into the side of the cliff away from the rest of the crew since they weren't really all that close with the other sailors. He told her about all that had happened and tied the string around her wrist gently, but also tight enough that it wouldn't fall off.
"Make sure that no one learns of this, the guy who is doing this... He radiates a kind of insane light."
His wife nodded her head thoughtfully, her husband wasn't the type of person to exaggerate a situation, in fact he was more prone to under exaggerate the state of things when explaining what had happened to him. The thought of what kind of monster that could have been that had commissioned him for the job made her feel a bit scared.
"So then what do you plan to do once this all goes down? Will we go through with our plan to settle down? And if so, where will we go?"
George smiled at his wife reassuringly, he had spent years with her and could tell that she was trying to help him calm down and think rationally about the situation which made him even happier that he had gone though the years of work just to set her free, she was the reason why he even bothered to get up in the morning after all and the last thing he wanted was for her to have a hard time of things in any way.
"Don't worry about it, the guardian said he would protect us as long as we wear the string, and even if I thought he was terrifying I could tell that he ment what he said."
He really believed the words which he was speaking, if he didn't there would be no way for him to keep his composure.
After the conversation they made their way back to their different stations in readiness for the departure, which would pull all of their resources in order to make the mission as efficient as possible. Everyone had an air of uneasiness to them as the captian ordered everyone that they were heading out. The day was a clear one, on all accounts the perfect day for sailing, and there really wasn't any real reason for either George or his wife to attend the raid, but for some reason the captian had a strange superstition that leaving anyone behind on a large expedition only led to tragedy.
As they sailed george continued to look out over the sea wondering what in the world the guardian had been planning with the strange objects George had been charged to put on the ships. The answer came to him when they were finally in sight of the target and close enough to see that there was someone on the beach who he assumed was the guardian because of his rather odd appearance. George heard a small clicking sound and turned around to see a strange black liquid began to seep through the boards of this ship and incapacitate any who it came across preventing them from moving at all. Soon everyone on the ships other than George and his wife who was one ship over was rendered completely immobile. Once it had done this it began to move once more, this time it began to drag its captives to the edge of the ship and pull them into the water below. George looked on in horror as the sailors screamed and struggled to no avail before they were fully consumed by the black liquid one by one. He couldn't take his eyes off of the sight no matter how terrifying it was, there was something about the black liquid which fully held his attention. The screams of the sailors who had been silenced, still hung in the air with an eerie silence.
The black liquid fell to the bottom of the sea onto the circle which had been carved into the earth. When it reached that point the liquid began to sink into the ground leaving behind a mass of carvings all intertwined into a strange and bizzare looking form. At first George did not understand what he was seeing, but as he looked closer he realised that the carvings were stone images of the sailors who had been swallowed by the black liquid. It was strange and he couldn't understand why the guardian had gone through such a strange method to deal with the sailors, since it was obvious that he could have just killed them all in a less showy way.
"If you're wondering why I went through all the trouble, it is simply a warning for the future. You see that work of art down there isn't just a collection of statues, it warns any who come to this area with less than steller intentions of their fate if they try anything funny."
George jumped and turned to find that the guardian was right behind him watching the same scene as he had been just moments before.
"What do you mean? Will the statues come to life or something? Are they dead?"
He couldn't help but let his questions flow as he looked back and forth between the guardian and the sea. The guardian dropped a small pebble into the water and watched it sink down until it hit the cluster of statues whose faces were warped in frozen terror. When the pebble eventually hit the statues a strange cry came from the depths and a sickening feeling swept over George which made him instinctively look over the side of the ship where he saw a sight which made his skin crawl, the statue which had been hit began to morph into a creature of complete blackness. Once it had finished morphing it swam toward the surface and quickly scaled the side of the boat to the railing, it then opened its dripping mouth and delivered a message.
"Heed my words while you still can, or the beast of darkness will come for you, and once it marks you as its prey you will never escape it's cold embrace."
The creature then dissolved into the wood of the ship out of sight. After a bit longer a small light lit up the deck of the ship before slowly fading out. George looked down and saw the shadow creature descended back to its place at the bottom of the sea.
"If it sences any hostility it will give a chance for the people to retreat before evaluating the intent of those on board. If it determines you to be a threat it will drag you down to the depths leaving behind the ship. It might seem a bit overkill, but I did promise to protect the village from sea pirates, so I can't just stop half way."
George couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if he had not been wearing the thread on his arm as he watched the guardian relay his information with such a matter of fact way, as though he were reading it off of a label for a type of food. George swallowed and glanced over to his wife who was frozen in terror on the other ship.
"So then, will you let us leave now that we know this information?"
Given the type of people he was used to dealing with, George knew the value of such information, and that made him fear that the guardian had no intention of letting them live.
"About that, unfortunately I don't think that it would be in your best interest to go to the mainland just yet since there seems to be a war on the way, and since you helped this operation go over so smoothly it would be wrong of me to just let you go through all of that, what with the child on the way. So I will offer you a sanctuary, once the child is born come to this island where you can wait out the war in relative peace. But make sure that you still have the bracelets which I have given you, or you won't be able to find the island."
The guardian handed George a small bag and smiled at him slightly, which made him shiver in terror.
"I will discuss it with my wife. Thank you for the generous offer."
After that he quickly got one of the smaller boats which were attached to the side of the ship and got his wife and some provisions and there small amount of money which they had saved. Before starting on the long treak back to the mainland.