Chapter 9
As the waves crashed and smashed on the beach the next morning, a magnificent amber glow emerged to the north, just above the horizon. The clouds were tinged with green, and the early morning sun was blood red. The sky appeared to have been recolored.
The Adeady people swarmed the shore, inspecting the debris and seizing everything they felt valuable. Whystry and Captain Akari's squad mates dashed through the crowd and leaped onto a tiny rock. He was now higher than the mob picking among the boxes, sails, and crushed barrels on the shore. Captain Akari, Captain of the Port, trailed after, much more sore from the night before's fall. In a modest surf, the Nwar lay broken open a hundred yards from the coast.
"Gentlemen, ladies, we are in the middle of a big tragedy. Many wonderful men have died aboard this vessel, and we must bury the dead. Let us not become the unknown's tomb." As Akari pondered who these individuals were and where they came from, it was evident that he talked with feigned worry. The crowd gathered around him, muttering and moaning.
Gafford raised his voice even higher.
"As the head of the village in Adeady, I have the authority to ask if we can gather some resources that will be beneficial to the village."
"The remaining home goods and meals are yours; for the other stuff, we will check them first before giving them to Elder Gafford," Akari said to Gafford.
"The whole world belongs to you, Hytac," a little lad in the throng cried, his boots dangling over his neck. People who were laughing retreated behind a large man.
The man lifted him up in the air by the collar of his ripped and ragged clothing. The child kicked his shins as the collar ripped and the cloth split around his neck. "Put me down, you insane guy!" he shouted.
The guy twisted him around by the scruff of his neck, let go, and the child sagged to the sand, slipping and tumbling backwards into a rock pool immediately in front of the Elder.
"That's enough, he's just a young man who doesn't know what he's doing, just let it go," Elder Gafford and Captain Akari agreed.
He screamed, "Raze Thundra!" "I should have known it would be you, but don't worry, these hytacs are far superior to your departed brother, who is a hytac who flees the combat." The audience chuckled as the youngster rose to his feet and dusted the moist sand from the back of his pants. He turned and started walking away. The elder kept speaking.
while Whystry and Florance set out to find the youngster and console him
The elder smiled as he spoke to his villagers, but his expression was shuttered and secretive.
"Why do they constantly claim my brother is a coward? He even battled those demons with all his might; my brother even saved several villagers; that's why he left the battle field and went back and fought the enemies," Raze murmured.
"Ignore them; they don't know what really happened and are too stubborn to find out; they are the ones who lose; if all of them got involved in those happenings like before, they wouldn't have appeared at the battlefield, and they would begin to flee for their own lives," Whystry responded to Raze as they followed him. He hadn't planned to say; the words just came out of his mouth.
Raze took a smooth, round stone from the sand.
"Hey, sir! Looking at this stone, isn't it a strange one?" Raze asked.
"Let's see, Florance, what do you think?" Whystry inquired.
"Uhm, I don't sure that's a regular stone; maybe we should bring it to the Captain," Florance answered.
Whystry said, "Raze? That's your name, right? Why don't you come with us to the quarters and live there so you can be with us in the hytacs?"
A guy speaks out, pointing out the one Hytac member who is sitting in the stone. "Ignore these little vermin; he is simply too lazy to work and too stubborn to want to. When all he has is the bread handout, he'll be the one who suffers." The crowd applauded, and Lisboa thrust his chest out. His ears started to shine, and he twitched his nose with delight.
As he drew back his arm, closed one eye, and pointed a large stone towards Lisboa, the guy took up a large stone.
"Be off with you, man; this isn't the place or the way; leave me alone and our organization's work, or you'll end up somewhere else."
"I'll be gone, but remember my words, that man has a plan, and it's not from God," Lisboa said to the man. "It'll cost each of you more than your life," Lisboa added to the man.
"He may throw stones, but he will discover that I can cast shadows," Gafford replied quietly to the guy. "It won't be long before the shadows descend on his life."
The guy turned and proceeded over the shingle towards a finger of mud and shale that protruded from the cliff into the sea, dividing the port from Adeady's boundary. He climbed the shale, over the rock, and into the wood's protection. His rage boiled inside him, and he choked up the tears he didn't want to shed. Kervhim is the name of the individual.
Kervhim Lastimos had reached the age of thirty. He had spent his entire life in Adeady, never venturing out to other islands or countries. When he was a youngster, his father was lost at sea in a terrible storm. During the Zealots' raid, his mother and two siblings were killed.
With such events in his life, he became despondent, which is why he was enraged with everyone in the hamlet, especially the hytacs. As a result of that logic, Elder Gafford discovers a means to be near to Kervhim in order to transform him into something different.
Kervhim was well aware that none of the locals would venture near the cave. He dashed down the path and into the trees. The path to the shore was a modest incline. Soon, the forest cover would give way, allowing him to see Adeady.
Suddenly, he heard scratching against the wood, similar to the sound of a giant animal sharpening its claws. It rasped and chafed at the bark of a tree further up the cliff to his right.
He stared but saw nothing. Even though Kervhim knew there were no wild dogs in these forests, the sound came back, this time from behind him and closer. Whatever it was, it walked from tree to tree, scratching each one. It sounded like a farm cat clawing for mice at the barn door, but this time it was a much louder and larger beast.
He shrugged and drew his ripped collar up against the wind blowing through the trees. He then heard a scream. It was a scream that nearly burst his ears and snatched his breath away. Kervhim began to flee to the caverns in terror.
Whatever was following him was closing in. The cliff path was slick from the early frost, and he sprinted downhill harder and faster, jumping over the knots of tree roots that broke through the road. The trail splits twenty yards ahead. It led to the beach and the caves on the right, then to the top of the mountain and the sea on the left. He caught the bow of a little sapling, which threw him around and into the beach walk.
"I'll never be captured, by man or beast," he chuckled to himself.
He heard the cry again in front of him, barely a few steps down the walkway. Huge, invisible claws rasped madly at the wood, digging deep holes into sensitive flesh and ripping the bark of an oak tree to his left. The brightness of day was being turned into a deep black all around him, pulled into a terrible shape that now obstructed his escape. The sun's light was being snatched from the sky and drawn into a black shadow. a shadow that gradually and methodically began to adopt the shape of a massive black beast.
Kervhim's feet were glued to the earth by terror, and beads of sweat poured down his brow. The beast continued to gain shape and form, becoming nearly solid in appearance and towering over him. As the pulsing shadow stretched out to him, an aura of power engulfed him.
Kervhim could feel his vitality and life being drained from him. A dense mist engulfed him, warping him tighter and tighter. His eyes were heavy, and all he wanted to do was sleep. He began to dream with his eyes open, but he could no longer see or hear the world. Disfigured faces in dark cowls lurched at him, laughing and chattering through shattered teeth. In his trance, he felt as if the mist were lifting him off his feet. He couldn't breathe because a black hand was gripping his body so firmly. On the night of the tremendous storm, he saw his father in his dream. He was struggling in the sea as waves smashed over him, dragging him further and deeper into the depths.
He noticed something reaching out to him through the darkness.
"Come to me, Kervhim. Come to me. "Take my hand; it will release you from the darkness," his deceased father said. "Fight, Kervhim, like I instructed you how to fight."
Kervhim only lifted his hand, resisting the thick black threads of mist that grabbed him in his frailty.
"I can't... I need to sleep. He had no power. He was being emptied of his life as the shadow thing whirled around him, tying him tighter and tighter.
A loud, tremendous explosion erupted. The cloud dissipated, and Kervhim arms fell to his sides. He could see the sky, the water, and finally the cliff. He was plummeting a hundred feet to the rocks below.
The sea swallowed him quickly, and the ice-cold water burned on his flesh. He fell further and deeper, surrounded by the whirling green of seaweed. He could feel his lungs filling with oxygen as he lashed out violently with his arms and legs, fighting for the surface and the crisp October air. He couldn't, though. His feet got entangled in the seaweed that covered the stony bottom. He held his breath for as long as he could, until his lungs were on the verge of collapsing. He closed his eyes and breathed out until he couldn't take any more breaths, knowing there was no oxygen to breathe in. He gave up and lay down in the surf. His lengthy hair hid his face like a wet mask.
Kervhim awoke from his slumber in his hob cave. In the night, a warm fire burned, and the aroma of grilled fish welcomed him. His clothing was drying on the wall as a result of the heat from the fire.
"How?" he said slowly, his gaze wandering across the cave he'd lived in for the last few months.
"Who?" There was a crunching sound on the shingles in the cave's mouth, and footsteps moved towards him. A black shadow grew larger as it glided across the cave's wall. Kervhim went back behind the tattered gray blanket and concealed his face.
"Are you awake?" It was more of a statement than a question. Kervhim cautiously drew the blanket away from his face and looked into the eyes of a man with deep dark complexion and long hair curled into shoulder-length locks gleaming with oil drips.
"Who are...?" But Kervhim was cut off by the man's silky voice, who answered in faultless terms.
"I am an Umbreytt." When I saw you fall into the sea, I knew you were in trouble. "I plucked you from the weed," he said peacefully. "Welcome to my home," he whispered, pausing to smile. "The endless darkness." His brilliant eyes darted about the fire-lit cave.
"This isn't your home," Kervhim yelled. "An umbreytt? Wait, I heard it before," Kervhim said quietly, puzzled.
Kervhim witnessed the man he saw transform into a monster known as Labdon, and then back into the Elder of Adeady known as Gafford.