Teeth in the Water

“...and honestly how dare he not believe me, because I know I killed a captain and he should’ve known what I’m capable of!”

Guy heaved a sigh at the helm as Oda perched on a barrel behind him, working herself up for another bout of ranting. It was late Wednesday night and she’d been ticked since the morning before.

“Oda-”

“No! I’m sick of people doubting me! Is it just because I’m small? I’m just as tall as you are, Guy, and everyone believes you!”

She was so mad she didn’t notice him shift uncomfortably.

“There’s nothing more infuriating-” another big word that she enjoyed- “than people not taking me for my word! I know what I’ve seen and done and honestly…”

Her tirade trailed off as something caught her eye in the moonlight. It was rather like a shark’s fin, only bigger and rockier and uglier and there were a lot of them. As she watched, they rose higher and higher, forming a small mountain rising out of the sea, streams of water running from its sides and shining in the light of the moon.

“Hey, what’s that?” She pointed.

Guy glanced over his shoulder then did a hard double take. “What in hells?”

They watched the thing match the ship’s pace, deceptively fast despite its hulking mass. It didn’t move closer but it certainly wasn’t leaving.

“What should we do?” Oda asked in a loud whisper.

Guy shook his head, uncertain. He kept the Dawn on the same heading, and didn’t order the mages on deck to stop casting wind into the sails. Despite the new development, reaching Tralco was still their first priority.

“If we ignore it will it go away maybe?”

“It’s not moving toward us.” Guy answered, “So for now, we keep on and leave it alone.”

It didn’t, in fact, leave them alone. The small mountain began to circle the Dawn, coming closer and closer with each slow pass.

“I’m getting the others.” Oda whispered to Guy. She crept below decks and immediately counteracted her own sneakiness by pounding on Ides’s door. Then, she threw open the door to the cabin she shared with the girls.

“Wake up!” She hissed, pulling the blanket off Blank’s bed. Pina’s head popped up from where it rested on Blank’s shoulder and she chittered menacingly. “There’s something out there you need to see!”

Blank rolled over and propped herself up. “Okay, I’m awake, I’m up.”

“Hurry then!” Oda ordered. “This is really super crazy and important!”

“I’m hurrying!” She fumbled with her boots and sleep-heavy fingers. She glanced up through a curtain of tangled hair. “Aren’t you going to wake her up too?”

Oda checked over her shoulder. She was still mad at Rue for being a Zandeer wannabe. The whole time Oda was trying to make friends with someone who almost betrayed them. “No,” she replied, peeved. “She can sleep through it and we’ll have a cool story about it later that she’ll be totally jealous of.”

“I’ll get back to sleep faster if you leave.” Rue grumbled, half-awake.

“We are.” Oda shot back, and was rewarded with a grunt from the pile of blankets.

On deck, the monstrous mountain was closer, and now Oda could see a long neck and a heavy head, a sharp, stubby beak, and four legs that jutted out to the sides of the mountainous back.

“What in the world is that?” She asked, eyes wide.

“Dragon turtle.” Ides said, coming up behind her and Blank. “I thought they were extinct.”

“It looks hurt.” Blank murmured. The monster’s shell was cracked, something Oda hadn’t noticed at a distance. Everything about it looked… dried out; old and chipping away like a piece of pottery left outside in the summer sun.

Ides looked uneasy. “And it keeps getting closer.”

Apparently, Guy thought so too. A shrill whistle alerted the crew, who came above in record time, armed and ready. The ballistae were immediately manned and ready for action. In the chaos, Oda spotted Rue, who had finally decided to roll out of bed, tightening the ties of her armor and looking up in awe at the dragon. The whole ship was quiet, sizing up the situation and waiting for Guy’s signal.

Blank had walked away, closer to the front of the ship, so Oda stuck close to Ides. The unease grew as the dragon drew closer, now no more than fifty feet away. Ides’s eyes flashed silver. “Undead,” he growled, “it has to be Zandeer.”

Oda dashed to take the news to the helm, where Guy was speaking into a sending stone. “Vev, something big is heading your way.”

The Dawn rounded a small spur of the coastline and the lights of Tralco blazed out in the darkness. Too bright. The city was burning.

The stone in Guy’s hands hissed. The sounds of screams and fighting echoed out of it, and Vev’s voice was dark. “Something’s already here.”

The dragon reared back its head and let out a deafening roar.

A brilliant light slammed into the giant beast’s bulky neck followed closely by a torrent of flames. Oda leapt onto an outcropping in the wood wall and looked. Blank and Rue stood together at the bow, Rue slapping out a rogue lick of fire on Blank’s arm while the tiefling stared daggers at her. The monster shuddered under the fury of the twin attacks, churning the water around it into an angry boil.

Oda drew her bow and aimed for the milky dead eye. In the darkness she couldn’t be sure if she’d hit or not. But as good a bowman as she was, she’d be surprised if she missed. The creature shook its head like it was shooing a fly.

The ship’s ballistae fired, one bolt hitting and burying itself deep in the spot where the monster’s arm jutted out from its shell. The dragon turtle veered away and roared. A white cloud poured from its mouth, trapping Blank, Rue, and a few of the nearest crew members in a hurricane of scalding water and steam. Oda wanted to run down and help, but Ides was closer. He pulled the girls to their feet and as he did so, his paws radiated with a golden light. Oda nodded to herself. Helping each other- just like a party should. Blank was motioning to the ballistae, and walked over, placing her hand on a bolt. Whatever she’d intended to do with it backfired, and a poof of light and not much else happened.

Suddenly, black lightning erupted from Blank’s body, so violent it didn’t even look like she was controlling it. It must’ve been the wild magic Oda heard her talking about the other day. But Oda had thought that only meant an occasional feather beard. Now wasn’t the time to ponder. The lightning had struck the dragon turtle, and smoke rose from its splintering shell. She loosed a few more shots into the cracked carapace.

A furious wall of fire blasted the monster and it gave a deep, pained wail. Rue slowly lowered her hands, shaking off the embers that clung to her fingertips.

The dragon turtle began to sink. Oda drew slowly, aiming for the eye again. She struck true, and the monster collapsed into the shallow water of Tralco Port with a groan that shook the deck under her paws. A cheer went up from the crew.

“Brace yourselves!” Guy shouted. The Dawn had not let up its careening pace and it rammed into the charred ruins of the docks, grinding to a halt with a horrible scraping sound, tilting precariously to starboard.

The crew began to jump ship, landing on a small pier that miraculously didn’t disintegrate under their feet, and racing into the city. Oda ran up to her friends. “Where to, party?” They were bound to be needed in the most important place.

“The mansion.” Ides said. “Vev and Dolip.”

Guy met them as they jumped down to the dock. Little puffs of ash as they landed one by one tickled Oda’s whiskers.

“We need to split up, cover as much of the city as possible.”

“We’re going to the mansion!” Oda pointed to Ides and herself.

Guy nodded. “As am I. The rest of you!” He addressed the remaining crew. “Fight hard! For Tralco!”

“For Tralco!” They echoed, voices rising like the fire in their veins.

Oda whirled, her cloak snapping wildly in the wind, and ran for the city.

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They were expected on the bridge. Seven pirates stood in the open, a clear challenge for anyone stupid enough to try and make it past them to the governor’s mansion. In the orange glow of the city-wide fire, Ides drew his sword and stalked forward. An arrow flew over his head and dropped one of the mages before the magic swirling over his hands could even leave his fingers. Oda disappeared behind the decorative capstones at the end of the bridge, bow in hand.

Ides ducked a swinging cutlass and landed a punch on a grunt that cracked the sucker’s skull before he even knew what hit him. He dodged an overshot fireball and glanced back as Guy cried out, caught in the fringes of the explosion.

The leader, a muscular elf with a Zandeer tattoo peeking out of his open shirt, stalked forward to engage Ides, letting out a scream that radiated an aura of pure intimidation. Ides shook his head, trying to clear it, but the sound stuck; bouncing around his skull until it nearly drove him into a panic. The remaining four opponents danced around the reach of his longsword and ran towards Guy.

It took precious seconds for Ides to resist the scream, and he lunged blindly forward, grappling the leader before he could swing the heavy warhammer. In the shuffle, he lost his sword but his opponent was forced to drop his weapon. Now it was down to size, and Ides had the clear advantage. But the elf was faster, and it was all he could do to keep him subdued.

Two of the pirates fell with arrows through their throats. Oda was on the prowl. Then the caster was down. Guy was getting farther away, stranded and now flanked at the head of the bridge. Ides couldn’t get to a position where he could land a hit without sacrificing the grapple. Straining, he twisted around, willing Oda to read his mind. If he could just give her a clear target…

An arrow zipped through the smoke and buried itself deep in the elf’s chest, right above his tattoo. Ides shoved him away and drew his dagger. He sank it deep into the man’s stomach and a flash of radiance exploded from the blade. The body crumpled to the ground, a mere husk on the stones.

Oda popped out from behind the parapet. “That was awesome! Let’s go!” She threw her bow over her shoulder and sped over the bridge, weaving through the bodies with ease.

Ides looked back. Guy was fending off at least three Zandeer, the last of the bridge grunts and two newcomers, cut off and slowly backing into a side street.

“Go!” Guy yelled. “I’ll be fine!”

Ides hesitated. The thought of leaving a good man behind haunted him.

“Go!”

Guy knew how to hold his own. He’d survived the war- he could handle some egotistical pirates. Ides, despite the guilt that leaked into his gut, turned for the mansion, hope and dread fighting in his mind for what might lay within.

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Blank pointed to Rue, the nearest capable person with a weapon. “You’re with me.” They raced through the east commons, following the sounds of fighting that seemed to echo down every street. What was left of the Radiant Dawn crew broke off down alleys and sideways, chasing down skirmishes in tight corners. Blank kept running, she needed an open fight to be any help. Rue kept pace behind her.

They skidded hot around a corner. A large fountain in a cobblestoned square set the scene as six townsguard fended off almost twice their numbers. Bodies lay scattered over the ground, and the fountain’s base was taking on a pinkish hue.

Several Zandeer men whirled to face the new threat, and that was all the invitation Blank needed. Bringing her palms together, she imagined her hands like flintstones, shearing bright blue sparks into the air. She willed the sparks into darts and with a sharp flick of her hand, sent the little missiles blazing through the air and hit the closest two pirates as they pounded over the cobblestones.

A mote of angry orange fire roared over her shoulder and consumed a third pirate. Rue nodded tersely to Blank.

The satisfaction was short-lived. A jolt of wild magic yanked Blank sideways, and she flinched as the surge exploded from her and Rue screamed. Turning to survey the damage, she watched helplessly as Rue’s hands fell to the ground, severed at the wrist. In the blink of an eye, new ones grew back in perfect condition.

A yell snapped her back to the situation at hand and she cast the same spell of bright, whistling intensity at a pirate who was rushing them.

“Blank?!” Rue squawked. She pointed to the hands on the ground. They were balancing on fingertips like big spiders, and as Rue waggled her fingers at them, they mirrored the motion.

“I can’t help it!” She shouted back, barely managing to hold back a second wave of magic roiling under her skin.

Rue seemed to adjust quickly enough, scooping up the newly independent hands and flinging them at a duo of running pirates. “Hey! Catch these hands!” They flew into the pirate’s faces, clinging to their skin like angry squid. The men yelled and clawed at their assailants as the fingers gouged into their eyes.

Blank blasted another pirate and he fell at the feet of a townguard. With no immediate other threat, she kept a spell twisting over her wrist like a bracelet, and turned back to Rue, morbidly curious.

One man swung his cutlass wildly, blinded by monstrosity covering his nose and eyes. Blank almost gagged as the hand wriggled deeper, digging into his eye sockets as blood poured like tears. He dropped his cutlass and raked at the hand.

Rue sent a firebolt into the other blinded man, and he fell in a smouldering heap. Her severed right hand extracted itself from the corpse's face and reached out, tripping a Zandeer newcomer before Blank could react. He fell and kicked at his armless attacker, shouting startled profanities. Rue ran a sword through the tripped man and with a dark glare, stared down the last staggering pirate, flicking her finger in command. A shock of lightning imploded out of the rogue hand, frying whatever life he had left in him. He fell on his downed companions in a gruesome pile at Rue’s feet.

The newly autonomous hands relaxed as the two girls scanned the square. The surviving townsguard were already regrouping, counting over the dead and hastily binding wounds. The sounds of fighting had faded somewhat, but the battle for Tralco was still raging throughout the city.

Blank openly stared as Rue whistled and the hands came skittering over, swarming up her sides and perching on her shoulders like two hideous bloodsoaked, parrots. “I-” Should she apologize? It was an accident. She couldn’t control it.

A man from the Dawn ran into the square, in search of another fight if the blood on his clothes was any indication. He reared back as he got closer, gawking at the hands on Rue’s shoulders. “Have you always been able to do that?” Rue cast a baffled look back at Blank and they both shrugged helplessly.

A fireball roared over their heads, exploding against a rooftop in a storm of sparks.

Rue wiped her sword clean on a dead man’s torn shirtsleeve. “Ready for round two?”

Not if her wild magic kept acting up like that. Blank could handle the consequences centering on herself, but seeing it able to affect and possibly hurt her friends, that worried her. She nodded mutely.

“Let’s go.”

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Thanks for reading! My Vocal presence might get a bit scant over the next few months as I adjust to some life changes, but rest assured, this will still be updated monthly!

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ICYMI: Part 16