The Captain's Stand

by Kat Mandu

  “Was that an evil laugh?” Tray asked, looking at him dubiously.

  “More like a chuckle,” he replied with a smile. “Now then, any idea on our ‘native’ friends?” he asked.

  “So far, nothing. Kareem sent out,” James paused to let out a small hiss, “Flutters the bat to see if she could find them.” He looked as if he were going to die just saying it.

  “But that bat is so cool!” Richard exclaimed with a smirk. Whether it was for the bat or the discomfort it caused James, no one could tell for certain.

  “So, still ‘anging around?” a familiar voice asked, breaking up the conversation. Richard turned to see Conan, standing in all his glory, with what appeared to be a longer-barreled pistol. It rest in the crook of his arm, barrel pointed down.

  “Sadly, we won’t be able to leave everything a bit cleaner then when we left it. Besides, I have a few debts to collect on, you see. There is a man who owes me for ma time working for him. And he’s being rather difficult to retrieve from,” Richard explained.

  “You sound like someone who is caught in the act of something. I am not too concerned about you leaving so soon,” Conan said. “Been busy, I see. I take it you are taking this to a bit of an extreme as well.”

  “If you can afford it, why nae put the fear of God into your enemies?” Richard replied with a shrug.

  “I may just stick around to see this work of pyrotechnics,” he chortled, a grin on his face. The amusement fell from his face to be replaced with bewilderment when he noticed Spark. “Is that a fairy?”

  “Um, yes. And I have a name as well,” she said indignantly.

  “I would be careful with her. Their ability to bend time and space with wishes would be coveted by many, if she has the ability,” Conan mused. “Even her size alone would be an interest. After the boom we had about two decades ago, anyone with more than two brain cells to rub together has been trying to figure out how magical creatures tick,” he informed. The tone he used seemed to send a shiver down Spark’s spine.

  “Anyone I should know about?” Richard asked, smile and cocksure attitude vanished with what Conan implied.

  “I ‘ave been keeping to myself so, no I don’t. But if she plans on going out into the human world, keep anything that seems magical out of sight,” he warned, glancing at Richard. “Also, your bat is returning and I do believe you shall be dealing with some of the ‘ahem’ locals much sooner than you intended. I would recommend setting up that ship of yours with what little crew you have,” he added.

  Richard spotted Flutters flapping back through the air. Kareem rushed out of the wooded jungle a moment later like a bat out of hell. Richard glanced back around to see that Conan had vanished entirely. His gaze hit everyone but nobody was sure that the man had vanished.

  “Bad news, Captain,” Kareem panted. The bat landed on his coat, gripping the cloth and hanging from his left shoulder.

  “I take it someone is getting to the party a bit early?” Richard asked, lips twitching downwards.

  “Afraid so, sir. Do you want to – “

  “I have a very specific reason behind the explosives. We need to clear them out as quickly as possible. We may be able to use this to our advantage, if we can handle this quick enough,” he said, feeling the gears in his mind turning.

  “Are you sure? The group is about twice the size of our full crew,” Kareem added.

  “Only twice you say?” Boss asked, raising one eyebrow. He drew both spiked weapons, allowing them to dangle in his hands.

  “And here I thought it was going to be an issue,” Madison added, pulling the shield from her back and drawing her sword.

  “Let’s nae take too many chances. The ship is moving back. If anything gets too hairy, you know what to do,” Richard ordered, straightening his back and taking a more military-like stance.

  “Aye!” came the unanimous cry. Richard felt his pride swell with the group’s unity.

  “And to think we pretty much met on less then savory circumstances,” he thought to himself, noticing Spark flying towards the sky. “What are you up to?” he asked, concerned she was going to disappear.

  “You wouldn’t mind letting me handle this, would you?” she asked, shifting to full size and landing beside him. Richard raised an eyebrow at her request. “I do have a bit of pent up aggression and would love to show that I am capable of a lot more than a single wish every thousand years or so,” she mentioned, resting one hand on her hip.

  “Alright, let’s see what the newest member can do. Take Jill with you; but if anything happens to her, it’s on your head,” he said. Spark nodded, whistling and shrinking back down. Jill came running and together, they rushed off from Kareem’s entrance point.

  “You think she can handle it?” Boss asked, a bit bummed that it wasn’t him rushing off to meet the enemy.

  “Nae sure. We haven’t really see what she is capable of. But I am nae going to take any chances. Get ready; the cover could always use a test run if something gets past her,” Richard replied. The small group immediately headed to the outer area around the altar. A good amount of brush had been collected near it and they jumped into the cover, drawing their own weapons and readying for a fight.

  Chapter 22 Parasite From Hell

  The sun was just beginning to set in the distance when Spark heard a gentle rustle. The bright foliage was almost a sea of green on the jungle floor. If anyone was walking here, their steps would have to be careful. It appeared that someone could slip on something unforeseen.

  A face slid out of the leaves, tanned skin painted with dirt. But there was no way he could be mistaken for anything other than a Northeasterner. He motioned swiftly with his hand and a large group of people – each dressed in torn and dirty clothes from different nationalities – slowly stood up a bit. They bent low to avoid being seen but picked up a fair amount of speed.

  “There is a small group already at the altar. And we have a good opening since we outnumber them almost four to one,” a very hushed voice said. He suddenly fell silent, barely moving a muscle while their leader simply turned his head. He poked at him gingerly and the body just crumpled to the ground. Everyone swiftly brought up their weapons, eyes darting around them. One man went straight to inspecting his comrade.

  “Sir, he’s dead,” he replied, lifting his ear from corpse’s chest.

  “He did it! The leader of blood and dirt, he was the closest!” one man cried out, holding his spear accusingly. Spark could see his eyes shifting at those nearest him and he quickly pressed the spear against his body as if terrified that someone would try and steal it from his grasp.

  “I did not. There is no blood; he simply dropped dead,” the leader replied.

  “Lies.” It was only word to come unanimously from the group, each beginning to glare at the leader. “He was hungry, he’s a cannibal!” someone cried out. But the words died on their lips as he fell to the forest floor in a lifeless heap. The jungle became unnaturally quiet. The rag-tag group of insane castaways didn’t dare move save for their eyes. They looked at the man in their center warily, fearing that he could kill without even needing to move.

  “He’s a demon!” one yelled out. The leader opened his mouth to retort.

  “Ton ma I!” the leaded cried. Practically everyone leapt back in fear. “No, gniong si tahw dnatsredun t’nod!” he cried. Someone else launched a spear, hitting him square in the chest. With no warning whatsoever, the group swarmed him. They were climbing and cutting and he fell wailing to forest floor. His arm twitched above the pile, as if reaching for someone to pull him out. Then one of the attackers dropped on top of the body and everyone jerked back, cautiously eyeing those around them.

  “He did it, it was him!” a voice shouted, randomly pointing to one of the other attackers. “I saw it! He did it – he did a weird hand motion thing!” he shouted.

  “No, it was you! You are demon hexer!” someone else called. Voices picked up around the group, with people randomly picking side.<
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  Spark landed delicately on a tree branch, glancing down at the group below her. She had been scouting the island out for a little while. The groups – if they could be called that – were about as nutty as Elf nut bread. But this island – even without them – was lethal all on it’s own. There were man-eating plants and quick sand being the worst of the threats. Beyond that was poison berries and deadly hungry wildlife.

  “You have my sympathy,” she said, bowing her head as she became the size of a normal human. By now the attackers had scattered and the only remaining person nearly messed himself when she approached, hand outstretched. A short sword appeared in her hand and she cut the man’s spear in half, stalking towards him. She snatched the leader by his coat, slicing her sword through his heart in one blow and ending his misery.

  “Thank you,” he whispered, grunting a bit when she eased him to the ground. She reached out gently and closed his eyes, trying to ignore the way his fingers twitched lifelessly. She jumped slightly at the motion but relaxed when it didn’t happen again.

  Jill barked, rushing towards the fairy but pausing in the rainbow shadow reflecting on the ground from the leaf-like wings. She wagged her tail, moving closer and rubbing against her hand.

  “You’re late,” Spark stated simply, standing to her feet and crossing her arms. There was a disapproving look on her face. She sighed, glancing back at the body beside her. There was some sort of black substance beginning to ooze out and onto the ground. “A Mors!” she cried, leaping to the air. A bright light enveloped her hands black blob began to boil and fry beneath it. It exploded, crisping the foliage nearby. But the creature wasn’t destroyed and soon, it was joined by equally small pieces.

  “Oh, dear, this is not good!” Spark sighed, tightening her fists before blasting it again. The creature only seemed to squirm while flakes began to fall away from it. It lashed out, tossing parts of it’s body back at Spark. She dodged quickly while Jill snarled, baring her fangs at the creature but refusing to get close to it.

  Spark flew off, leaving Jill’s bark to echo around the area. The blob-like creature seemed to gurgle and it forced it’s way back into the corpse through the eyes, mouth and nose while an eerie almost-giggle sounded from it.

  “So not good!” Spark cried, watching the body lurch upward, strings of black ooze streaking from neck wounds acquired from the attackers. The strings were about as big as a needle but more than enough to support the body and anchor itself to a tree. It dangled there for a second, the quivering body looking more like a hanging than a reanimated corpse.

  She blasted the corpse with light but the magic merely snapped whatever was holding it in the air. That appeared to be of no matter for the creature created more strings to keep it from falling. Spark noticed that the eyes had turned black and twisted smile appeared on the face while veins became pronounced and black. Right then, Jill leaped out of a bush, managing to snag the corpse’s foot. The force of her attack pulled the strings taut. Jill refused to let go, snarling through her mouthful of dead flesh. The creature retaliated, sending cords spinning around the body while Spark simply stared at the sword she had drawn.

  “I really wish I was able to do more than just summon light magic. And this damn short sword!” she swore in frustration. The black ooze abruptly arched out of the back, emerging as a pair of dripping wings. “Oh, that is just not fair,” Spark breathed angrily, jaw tensing and wings dropping ever so slightly. Spark started when the undead creature shot into the air and reached right for her. One hand closed around her arm while Jill dropped to the ground.

  Spark broke free of it’s grasp and zipped into the trees. It loosed tendrils after her and she retaliated by blasting it with light magic. She was trying to hit the parts that were not being protected by the corpse.

  “I was better off with the damn live ones!” she cursed, eyes going wide when she noticed a large tendril diving towards her. She changed directions as fast as she could but loss of speed allowed it to curl around her ankle. She let loose a beam of magical energy, smirking when she saw it vaporizing. But the smile vanished when she realized that it actually hadn’t been dealt with. With a quick thought, she closed her wings, shrunk down and dropped through the foliage, hitting a few leaves on the way down before landing on a tiny branch.

  When she glanced up, she saw more of the black tendrils trailing down after her. She grimaced, raising her hands and releasing more magic from her fingertips. The tendrils retreated and a calm smile appeared on her face.

  “Wait, where is the rest of it?” she asked, nearly shrieking when something latched onto her ankle again. Before she could attack with more magic, another tendril wrapped around her wrist and as fast as a whip, her wings were pinned to her sides. Her flight was cut off as a tendril wrapped around her arms and torso before moving down to wrap around her long legs. Spark was slowly brought towards the undead fiend, who seemed to be lowering itself down to the fairy’s eye level.

  “I have not run out of options yet!” she hissed, growing back to normal proportions. The tendrils merely adjusted around her larger form. With a simple smirk, she shrunk back down before the creature could do anything and dropped from its grasp. She tried to open her wings and the smirk fell from her face. The creature’s tendrils had left a sticky residue on her wings, practically gluing them together. Spark rolled on the grass, firing off light as fast as possible before bolting through the leaves and tall grass.

  She got knocked off her feet when a hand cupped over her body. The face it belonged to looked as if it’s decomposition had been sped up tenfold and when it lowered closer to Spark, she noticed dark pits for it’s eyes. Spark wriggled, trying to regain normal size but found that each of her limbs was now being pulled in different directions by the monster’s tendrils. With horror-filled eyes, she noticed a long black tongue dangling from it’s mouth.

  “No!” she screamed, redoubling her efforts to get away. She managed to regain her size but at the cost of her mobility. The corpse was mere inches from her face. Her nose wrinkled while she tried her damnedest to get away.

  There was loud bang echoing through the area and Spark twitched. But it wasn’t the noise that startled her. Instead, it was the splattering of black substance from a shattered skull above her. When she looked past the ruined corpse, she saw Richard with sword in hand hacking at the torso. His cutlass cleaved the body in half and she noticed her restraints gain slack. One blast of light magic evaporated the restraints on her hand.

  The corpse flopped on top of her and she cried out in a mix of disgust and humiliation. Richard simply kicked the pieces off her before grabbing onto her dress. As Richard pulled her away from ground, the creature reformed itself and he leapt back. Spark began firing off her magic at anything that even resembled a moving shadow. If it moved, it got fried.

  “What the hell is that?” Richard demanded, watching the creature latch onto another corpse. Within seconds, the body rose up, snapping eerily to it’s new height. He released the fairy for a second to pull out his other pistol. With a swift aim, he took the head clean off. “Well, that’s surprising. I must have hit the spine or something,” he mused to himself. But the corpse kept moving towards him.

  “It’s a Mors – a remnant of black magic. If someone uses enough of it, sometimes it can become partially sentient,” Spark told him.

  “What does it want?”

  “It’s, um, like a leech for light. They’re normally harmless to humans unless if you have some skill in light magic,” she explained, twisting her hands in the folds of her dress.

  “Wait, you can do magic?” he asked, turning to look at her.

  “Of course I can, you idiot. Did you think I built that ship by hand?” she asked. By then, the creature began to creep out of the corpse. Without hesitation, Spark began to blast at it once more; she wanted to clean it up as much as possible.

  “This whole island is a damn death trap,” Richard growled. “I am beginning to think that setting up any op
eration here is a stupid idea and that Conan is a nut for staying as well,” he sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. After a moment, he began to reload his pistol, glancing around while a group of pirates moved into the area. But they weren’t pirates from Brendan’s crew.

  “What was all the screaming about?” Boss asked, pausing to glance around. He made a face at the bodies littering the clearing.

  “The bodies had a – shoot, what do you call something that lives off of another?” Spark asked, keeping her eyes focused on the ground.

  “A parasite,” Conan supplied.

  “That will work. A parasite was living in the bodies of these men,” she explained, watching as everyone appeared to wince at the mere thought.

  “I would like to examine a corpse, if that’s alright,” Conan said. He knelt down, looking the most recent body over completely. “Well, someone had some fun with the pistol. Did it leave an exit wound?” he asked, noting the missing head and frowning slightly.

  “Yes, out of his neck at the base of the spine,” Spark replied.

  “Interesting, I may need a – ah,” he said, trailing off when he pulled out a magnifying glass.

  “If you’re looking for some of the black goo – for lack of a better word – it’s still holding her wings together,” Richard pointed out, jerking a thumb towards Spark. Her wings were still firmly glued together, despite her best efforts in the moment of quiet.

  “That’s disgusting,” Kareem said, leaning away from her while Conan dropped the body. He completely forgot about it in his haste to inspect Spark’s wings and the substance still there. She shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot while Conan looked at every detail on her wings.

  “Boss, this may be a bit risky, but I want these bodies burned. If Conan gives you any grief, let him have it and the consequences. And keep an eye out for anything that looks like a liquid shadow,” Richard warned in a hushed voice.