THE fog was so thick that Ryan couldn't see ten feet in front of him, but it was only when he was at the edge of the ship, he could see everything in the ship just fine-which was kind of weird. As Christie said, no conventional navigation equipment worked. They were well and truly lost.
"If this is any indication, I'd say we're skirting the veil." Jasmine said
"I think I've got this thing figured out," Christie said, holding aestyrometer.
She'd spent hours since they left port combing over the device, studying it and learning the language of fate.
Jax was with them, he barked again, "He says that if we manage to survive by some insane chance, he'd love to tell you more stories of your mom in her youth." Christie translated.
"Really," Ryan replied,
"Okay" Jasmine said, "We can't thank you enough for this,"
"He says think nothing of it, he owes Ryan's mom more than he could repay, this is the least he could do." Christie translated.
"We're approaching the splinter realm," Christie said, reading the aestyrometer,
"We'll do this part on our own," Jasmine said to Jax, "you'll hang back and wait for our return,"
It was at that moment when several members of the crew came onto the deck, holding weapons.
Jax barked, and Ryan didn't need a translation to know he meant, what is the meaning of this?
"Captain, this is madness." Said his first officer, "Taking these crows aboard is one thing, but, this?" he gestured around at the mist that engulfed the ship, "This is madness, these kids have a death wish and they're trying to bring the Excellence down with them. I've tried to talk sense into you, but it seems you are too wrapped up in your own matters to care about what's best for your crew. So that is why I'm taking command."
"This is a mutiny!" Ryan realized
"Well, at least the boy ain't stupid." The officer said, "So, captain, because of the respect we have for you, I'm going to give you two choices; either you surrender the ship to me, or we take the ship by force and throw you overboard, what'll it—?"
He didn't get a chance to finish as he disappeared off the side of the ship.
The crew looked around stunned by the abrupt silence, then it happened again. A flash of black shot over the side and dragged another crewman over in less than a second.
"Away from the sides." Ryan ordered
The crewmen huddled together in the middle while Ryan ran down the stairs to the captains' cabin, where he found Riot growling at a window. When Riot saw him, he wagged his shaggy tail then ran to him, Ryan picked him up and put him in his backpack, leaving the zip open, so Riot could stick his head out, like a baby carrier backpack.
Then he ran back to meet the others. The crew had thinned out some more. So far, Jasmine, Christie and Simon were okay and Jax was also there. On instinct, Ryan drew Draxonn, his danger sense instantly alerting him.
The monster rose up from the water, it looked like a cross between a giant squid, a giant turtle and one of those bottom-feeding fish with the glowing bulb at their forehead and the wide snapping jaws with rows of flesh rending teeth. And it was massive, it would easily be able to snap the Excellence in two, with its many, many tendrils. It roared a loud screeching roar, its four red eyes fixed on them.
"What the hell is that thing?"
"A kraken!" Christie said in frightened awe.
As Ryan rose up, he held tightly onto his sword, through his panic, he realized that he could feel a buzzing through his body. He was afraid it would be another magik misfire, but then something clicked in his mind. Ryan raised his sword not sure what would happen, but he pictured what he wanted in his mind and a sigil appeared in the air above him.
An arc of lightning shot out from the clouds, hitting the kraken head on. The monster roared as its bulb started to glow and spark, shooting a blast of electricity back at the ship. Somehow, the electricity went towards Ryan and as it hit him, he expected to be killed on impact, but he raised his sword to intercept, and was surprised when he found that first; he was still alive, and second; the electricity crackled around him.
He looked at the others, they were just as stunned as he was. He raised his hands at the monster and a massive blast of electricity shot back towards the monster. The blast hit it in its second right eye. The kraken roared, in pain? Anger? Ryan wasn't sure. Its blasted eye smoked and oozed glowing greenish slime.
The monster glared at them.
"We need to leave, now." Ryan said
"That thing has its sights on us." One of the crewmen said.
"While it has eyes." Ryan said
"What are you thinking?" Christie said
Ryan looked at his hands, "I took out one of its eyes, why don't I take out the remaining three? Once its blinded, it can't see us, right? I mean, unless it has some sort of psychic vision thing. Does it?"
Christie shook her head, "No, it doesn't."
"If you can take out that thing, you'll have the eternal respect of the crew of the Excellence." Said a crewman
"You'll need all the help you can get," Jasmine said,
"No offence Jasmine, but that crossbow might not have the reach," Ryan said
Jasmine rolled her eyes, she reached into one of the larger pockets at the back of her belt and pulled out a red and gray composite bow. Multiple strings ran through a series of pulleys that looked like miniature spoke wheels. Along the polished leather grip, stenciled in bronze the name ARTEMYSIA, and was studded with dials and buttons and a scope. From another pouch on her belt, she pulled out an arrow.
"That's an Artemis-series composite bow." Simon said looking at the bow, "That's some top-of-the-line equipment."
Jasmine nodded, "Ryan, when you're ready, I'll cover you."
Ryan nodded back, "Right, I'm off."
"But how are you going to get close enough to attack?" Christie asked
"I have no idea, yet. But give me a minute, I'll figure something out."
"That's totally reassuring." Jasmine said
Ryan smiled, "Don't worry, I'm sure I'll figure out a way to fry that things eyes out, don't you—"
He had forgotten that the kraken had hundreds of tendrils. One of those tendrils wrapped around Ryan's leg and snatched him up.
Ryan was heading up so fast he only had enough time to think; crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap!
After the sixteenth crap, Ryan assessed his situation. Somehow, his backpack was on the deck of the Excellence, he was on his own from here. He drew Draxonn, but before he could do anything, a huge mass of steel snatched him from the monsters' tentacles.
He looked at the guardian, it was the average eight-foot height, its armor was gleaming with the glowing yellow aura coming from its power orb in its chest, it's head was shaped as a Corinthian helmet with the plume made of a razor sharp blade, like a battleaxe Mohawk. It was thin, for a guardian and had a jet pack on its back. The guardian flew Ryan around the monster as it swung its huge arms and tentacles to try and swat them out of the sky. Then, an arrow with a glowing red tip, flew past them, embedding itself in the creatures' neck and exploded. Ryan looked down and saw Jasmine with her bow, he nodded to her, then tried to do that lightning thing again. After about five minutes, the kraken's face was riddled with scorch marks and oozing injuries from the arrows and Ryan's attacks, but its remaining eyes were still fine, and fixed on them.
As Ryan was flying close for a dive, the kraken opened its huge mouth and let loose a blast of pure stink [it smelt like if a mountain of food were left in the desert to rot for a hundred days]. The smell made Ryan gag and almost lose consciousness. He glanced into the monsters' giant maw, it was rows and rows of large, jagged, flesh-rending crusty teeth, with pieces of its food still stuck between its teeth. The kraken shot tentacles at them, the guardian swerved, but hit another set of tentacles. The force of impact knocked Ryan off the guardian as the tentacles ripped it to pieces.
As he fell, he thought again; crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap! Then, tentacles wrapped around him and hauled him up to the krakens face, where its three eyes were looking at him. The monster opened its mouth again, and this time, Ryan did lose consciousness. As everything went fuzzy, all Ryan saw were green bolts firing at the monster's face. With the last of his strength, he screamed, calling on all the energy within him. Lightning rained down on the beast, the monster roared and let him go and Ryan fell, then, everything went dark.
… )]≥( …
Ryan shot up as ice cold water splashed on his face. He looked around, breathing deeply, they were still in the fog, but the monster was gone, as was the ship. Around him was Jasmine, Simon, and Christie, and they were on a small fishing boat.
"What happened?" he asked, "where's the ship?"
"You passed out from the kraken's poisonous breath after you called a massive lightning storm and fried the beast," Christie explained, "the ship continued to shoot at the wounded monster for good measure and chased it away, then we fished you out of the sea."
"The ship was damaged after the attack," Simon said, "so they hung back to do repairs, while we went on ahead."
"Here Ryan, this is yours." Christie handed Ryan his backpack, but she kept Riot in her arms, "he's so cute."
"What's out next move?" Ryan asked
"We're on our way," Jasmine said, "we'll be passing into the splinter realm soon."
Earlier
After they had chased off the kraken, Ryan had been taken to the infirmary for a check-up, so Jasmine and the others went to get some rest before they headed out.
As soon as her head hit the pillow, she was out. In her dream, she found herself on an island with rocky shores littered with ship wrecks, the sand on the beach was glossy black and the rocks looked like blades, far above was a crumbling temple built on top of the mountain. She was in Graveyard Island, in front of her laid the graveyard of ships and far above was the temple of the Pure One, all the stories and myths she'd heard about this place always mentioned a graveyard of ships and a temple of darkness.
To her right, was a huge ship, which had plowed right through the graveyard and had been beached by the foot of the mountain. Its hull was cracked open and rusted, the name of the vessel faded, but Jasmine could still make out the word, Diablo. Her dream-self took a step towards it and the ship started to groan and rattle, strong winds tugging at its torn sails. The closer Jasmine got to the ship, the colder she felt, as if there was something so dark and cold inside the ship, that it drained the warmth and light from its surrounding.
She then found herself on the deck of the ship, now she could hear a silent whisper, the things it said, so dark and sinister, she wanted to run away crying. Instead, she took a deep breath and willed her dream self to move forward towards the whispering. She entered the darkness and continued walking on. She could feel something moving around her, like a billion insects all skittering on the walls. She continued down until she found herself in a large room, the roof had caved in and moonlight shone down on a podium, on it was an open scroll on it was some sort of inscription, but before she could see what it was, her dream faded, and she found herself in a deep cavern, the floor was scattered with bones, a sarcophagus was to the side and a faded inscription was scribbled on the ground.
Then, she saw a dark figure at the other end of the cavern, she willed herself to move towards it. As she got close, she saw it was Ryan.
"What are you doing here?" She asked
"Can't you hear them?" He replied. Jasmine didn't know what he was talking about, the cavern was silent, echoing every sound.
"Ryan, what are you talking about?"
"Listen" he said, "they're all over."
"Ryan, I can't hear anything."
Ryan looked at her, "why can I hear them then?"
"I don't know, this isn't normal."
"What?"
"Sharing a dream, it's never been done, our subconscious cannot meet, not like this."
Ryan looked up
"Ryan, what are they saying?"
"They are saying that the vessel approaches, and the last component is here."
Just then, Ryan and the cavern started to fade, then, everything went white.
Jasmine shot up from her bunk, breathing deep.
… )]≥( …
After the dream Christie had had, she was more and more certain they were going on a one-way trip.
They were in the small motorboat Jax had lent them pressing on into the misty void before them. She had only been vaguely aware when they crossed over into the splinter realm, and soon they found the island ahead of them, shrouded in the gloom. Christie wasn't too happy about that.
Everything seemed calm, too calm. After all the trouble they had in normal waters, these were dangerous waters, Christie could almost feel all the monstrous presence swimming and swirling underneath their ship, all those ravagers, hungry for blood, being held at bay by some mysterious force. That just made Christie more nervous. Something wanted them to come to the island, and that usually meant that it would not end well.
When they were about half a mile out, they saw the first wreck. It was a Spanish galleon that had been split down the middle. They sailed past it, navigating through huge wrecks, but the closer they got, the more scared Christie got.
She tried not to imaging whatever could've done that to those huge ships suddenly taking an interest in their little dinghy, Simon was next to her, and caught her attention when he asked, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." She lied, "Just feeling chilly."
"I know, something feels off about this whole thing." Simon said, "The current seems to constantly be shifting us away from the debris."
She nodded, whispering to him "I had a disturbing dream."
He looked at her concerned, "Well, if it is worse than the one I had,"
"I saw Ryan and I…" She said a tear rolling down her cheek
"Isn't that what you want?" Simon asked
She shook her head, "No, we were in complete darkness and something was around us, eating at our spirit, eating us."
"That sounds harsh." Simon said
"What about you?" Christie asked, "What did you dream of?"
Simon took a deep breath, "in my dream… Ryan was on kneeling in front of someone, about to die."
"What about us, what did we do?"
Simon shook his head, "I didn't see anyone else, just Ryan, kneeling in front of this guy, like he'd been defeated"
Christie took a shaky breath, "With the frequency of dreams I've been having, I get the feelings that fate is moving around us, weaving us into some great tapestry,"
"I didn't know you were into divination?" Simon said
"I've spent hours learning how to read the aestyrometer," Christie pointed out, "anyway, if this stuff we dreamed about is true, then we need to take action against it."
"Defying fate never seems to end well," Simon said, "but as someone who reads an aestyrometer, you may have a better chance than most."
Christie smiled, "Simon, you're a good friend."
"Alright," Jasmine said, from the steering, "this is going to get bumpy."
The closer they got to the island, the rougher the ride became. More than once they could hear the sound of rocks scraping loudly against the bottom of their boat. At one point, their boat almost capsized after skidding on a particularly large rock that took them out of the water. Eventually though, they managed to get the boat ashore.
As they stepped off the boat, Ryan complained about how his shoes had been constantly getting wet during this whole trip and now they were sandy.
"Guys," Christie said, trying to get everyone's attention, "I… I'm not sure why, but—"
"You feel like there is something very wrong about this place?" Ryan guessed
"Yeah."
"We all have the same feeling, Christie." Jasmine said
"We need to be very cautious, because I think it's more than just that, like the entire island is evil."
"It wouldn't be interesting if it wasn't" Ryan joked
"Simon, what do you think?" Jasmine asked
"Huh? Sorry, I was thinking about something I had a dream about."
"What was it?"
"It something about this place, there was a story going on about this island I heard somewhere."
"Was it bad?" Ryan asked
"Very."
"Oh, joy." Ryan said sarcastically
With that they continued towards the possible island of their doom.