Journal Entry 1: The start of a new journey, Contd.

I stepped out onto the deck of the Mercantile for the first time since boarding. The deck was largely empty save for a few crates and some scraps of paper fluttering about. The shardship was rocking gently, making its way through the deadspell storm — trying to avoid the rocky debris that littered this space. The Captain was standing at the wheel high above the deck and as soon as she noticed me she called out. “Hey Siofra, I see you’re up — finally.”

“Good morning, Captain.” I tried to be polite, though Stuvyan had soured my mood just moments ago. Surely the Captain would be fine with me enjoying the rest of the trip.

“Siofra, would you kindly help me with a slight problem?”

“What?”

“I said, would you kindly help me with a small problem? I dropped my navigational charts and cannot leave the wheel — pick them up for me if you can!”

The Captain had a slight grin on her face. I cannot explain why I had the urge to follow through with her task, but I went about it without complaint. It seems the bits of paper I saw fluttering about the deck before were the dropped charts, running them down was simple enough.

It was when I reached down to pick up the last chart that I saw something peculiuar in the storm. Something large was headed this way, was it another rock?

 

 I could hear the flap of wings and soon the enormous shadow emerged on the starboard side towards the bow, with an deafening shriek it attacked our ship.

 

“Get up here!” The Captain was shouting at me. I barely dodged a swipe of the beast’s wings before running up to the captain’s platform.

“What is that thing?!” I asked, in as calm a manner as possible.

“It’s just some ancient enemy, from before the Great Collapse. Look, I have to try and keep us away from that thing as much as possible — you have to get down there and fight off any attacks.”

“WHAT?! Do you see how big that is? I’m barely a recruit!” Calm had left the shardship by now.

The Captain looked me in the eyes then, I could see a trace of fear in them. “We have no options. YOU are the only person on board equipped to fight, if you don’t do it we WILL die.” The Captains words were true, I knew it but I still did not like it.

“Fine. I’ll get down there, but you BETTER keep this ship going — if I get thrown off into the storm I’m going to haunt you forever!” I tried to sound as threatening as possible, but the Captain could not help but laugh. I guess I should work on my intimidation skills.

Back on deck the beast was still trying to attack us, the ship sailing easily around the floating debris while dodging. I readied my sabre for what was to come. It seems what was to come was not what I had planned — the beast did not decide to face me directly.

Before I knew what was happening the beast was spawning odd creatures — winged horrors that carried blades in both hands. “Scythehands!” I heard the Captain shout, “you have to take them out!”

“Easier said then done…” I mumbled to myself. I’ve never fought creatures like these — though I have heard tales of them. Many people have died to their blades in the past.

 

The first few scythehands went down easy, they were young still — inexperienced. Wave after wave of them appeared from within the beast and I cut them all down, fighting for survival. Before long the adult scythehands were sent to face me — larger and more experienced than the young, I had a real fight now. The steel of our weapons crashed upon each other, my light clothing working to my advantage to help me nimbly dodge their incoming attacks. They could not hit me now, I would not let them. The blood of scythehands soon made the deck slick, almost slipping caused an opening for their attacks and I felt the blade catch my left shoulder — cutting deep to the bone.

I stifled a scream, instead turning it into a shout of anger as I cut down the last two scythehands with a single sweep — their wings shearing off in a spurt of blood and shrieks. It seems I had won.

I looked up at the Captain, to show a smile that I was alright when I noticed a look of terror on her face. “GET OFF THE DECK!” She shouted, but she was too late. I turned around just in time to see the green, nauseous gas being spewed by the beast — covering the deck and myself. I blacked out.

******

“Hey, she’s coming to.” The words were a whisper as I slowly opened my eyes, my head was killing me. “You took quite a hit there, I wasn’t sure anyone could live through an attack like that. You’re either amazingly lucky or just amazingly resilient.” The Captain was standing over me as I weakly rose from the bed.

“What happened? I remember the beast attacked, the scythehands… then something…” I realized now that it was not just my head that hurt, but my whole body — a shock of pain from my shoulder shook any haze of sleep left in me.

“You were poisoned by that beast, nearly died too. If it wasn’t for the help that arrived you would be dead.”

“Help? That ship you were looking for?”

“Aye, they took that beast down and brought some medicine for you. We’ve already finished supplying them and we’ll be heading into Hawksmouth soon. You were out for a few days there.” The Captain smiled and patted me on my good shoulder. “You should come up on deck and see them off. It’s quite a sight to see a shardship of their class.”

I was still a bit shaky, but I made the walk to the deck easily enough. It was well worth it.

 

 ”We’re approaching Hawksmouth, get ready to dock!” The Captain shouted, relief echoed in her voice.

Parliament came into view in front of us, it would only be a few minutes till we docked.

“Hawksmouth… Finally, my adventures can begin!”