by Logan Jacobs
Chapter One
The splash of the waves against the wood, along with the gentle rocking of the raft as it glided along the inky black waters of the ocean, was almost enough to lull me to sleep. Mira was next to me, and her soft breaths blew hot air over my exposed knees as I sat crisscross, in the center of the raft.
We’d been on this journey for just over a day, and our raft was headed toward the closest island with the help of the soft breeze. I’d volunteered to take the first watch when the sun started to go down, and Mira had attempted to protest, of course, but I’d insisted.
The beautiful, jade haired warrior needed sleep. She’d sat alert through the entire first day of our journey, and her eyes had been drooping with exhaustion by the end of the day. Sailing on the ocean was new to her, and she apparently hadn’t wanted to miss a single thing.
Either that, or she was too worried some giant sea creature would up and attack us out of nowhere, no matter how many times I’d assured her the ocean waters were clear.
The dragon-kin woman was hung up on all the legends she’d grown up hearing, of monstrous beasts that lived in the murky depths. I, on the other hand, figured there were no such monsters, since those fucking orc pirates seemed to have such an easy time traversing the waters.
I’d finally managed to convince her she was a whole lot more useful when she was well-rested, and she’d reluctantly closed her eyes, only to drift off to sleep moments later.
So, I was awake in the middle of the night, and I stared out over the vast ocean. In the distance, I could see the dark black mass that was our destination, but I had no idea what to expect. Marella had said I’d find beautiful women with long, long, long legs, but that wasn’t the most useful of information. Hell, I didn’t even know if we’d be able to speak the same language.
Wouldn’t that be a shit show? For me to get to this island I was supposed to save, only to find I couldn’t say a single word to any of the inhabitants there.
Suddenly, the sound of something slapping against the water yanked me out of my thoughts. I whipped around so quickly I shook Mira from her sleep, and then I faced the direction where the sound had come from.
It was too big to have come from any of the jumping fish we’d encountered so far. Those things were all fairly small, but they made barely a sound when they plopped back into the water.
This had sounded like a slap, though, as if something as big as a shark had leapt from the water and fallen back in.
“What’s wrong?” Mira asked as she rubbed her eyes and sat up blearily.
“I think I heard something,” I whispered back, but I didn’t dare take my eyes off the black waters in front of me.
Then there was another loud splash.
Only this time, it came from behind me.
“Ben, turn around,” Mira ordered quietly.
I slowly glanced at her expression, and I took in her wide eyes and frozen posture for a brief moment before I turned around fully and followed her gaze.
One single, long tentacle rose up out of the water about five feet away, and then it smacked back down with enough power to create a wave that splashed over the edge of our raft.
Well, shit.
I had absolutely no idea what kind of creature that tentacle belonged to, but I sure as hell didn’t want to find out. My encounter with that strange walking shark in my first days in this new world was enough ocean adventuring for me.
“Stay absolutely still,” I murmured to the warrior by my side.
Mira didn’t need my input, though. I didn’t think she could move if she wanted to.
Neither could I, for that matter. I was stock still, with my eyes focused on the place where that tentacle had disappeared under the water.
Seconds passed.
Nothing happened.
The water grew still again, and the dark night was unmarred by any large sea creature. I was about ready to let go of the breath I’d held when, all of a sudden, that huge tentacle reappeared.
It shot up out of the water with a bang and crashed back down on the edge of our raft. The entire thing was nearly completely upended, and it was all Mira and I could do to hold on and reach for our swords, which were never more than an arm’s length away from either of us.
“Shit!” I shouted when a second tentacle joined the first, and the new appendage rocked the raft once again as it slammed down on the far edge.
Both tentacles were holding on now, and they had our tiny little craft tilted up at such an angle I knew if I went after them, I’d likely be tossed into the ocean.
As much as I hadn’t wanted to meet the owner of those massive tentacles, I had a feeling we were about to.
With a giant roar, a head suddenly popped up out of the black water, and then the tentacles launched the beast’s body upward to land right in the middle of our craft.
“What is that thing?” Mira screamed.
It was nearly impossible to completely see in the black of the night, but it looked like some sort of giant squid. The monster was at least eight feet long, with a pair of bulbous yellow eyes, six tentacles, and a mouth that opened to reveal a set of shiny, sharp teeth every time it roared.
“No fucking clue!” I yelled back.
In the exact same instance, the monster let out a lion-like roar and made a hail Mary attempt to knock me off the raft with one of its limbs.
The thing swung toward me, and I barely had a chance to register the tentacle was nearly as thick as an entire human body, but then I was forced to tuck and roll out of its way before I could be thrown into the ocean to be eaten by whatever other creatures lurked in the depths.
Mira was also in her own battle with a tentacle. The creature had an advantage over us, since it had about four more arms than either of us, but that didn’t mean we would be going down tonight.
A second tentacle barreled through the air toward me, but this time, I was prepared. I sucked in a breath and raised my sword, only to bring it down in a chopping motion as soon as the slimy, cold appendage got anywhere near me.
With a yell, I sliced clean through the tentacle, about three quarters of the way between the tip and the body.
Blood and guts spewed from the chopped limb and coated me in a disgusting layer of slime, but I was rewarded for my efforts by the pained screech that flew out of the squid’s mouth when it lost one of its precious limbs.
“Ha!” Mira yelled as she copied my motion and chopped off a tentacle of her own. “Take that!”
The two dismembered limbs laid on our deck and oozed black liquid, but the squid didn’t even bother to retreat. Instead, it turned its bulbous yellow eyes on me, bared its razor-sharp teeth, and started across the deck of the raft with a maniacal fervor. The thing moved in this strange, unsettling way, with its remaining tentacles slapping the wood as they moved in a wave-like motion.
As the beast advanced, I could just barely see behind it, where the raft had been damaged as it climbed aboard.
Shit. That would not be an easy fix.
I didn’t have too much time to dwell on it, though, because the beast was determined. It barreled toward me with a vengeance, and I could see and hear wood splintering and breaking underneath it as it did.
I hadn’t exactly built this thing with monster attacks in mind.
Behind the creature, Mira gave a holler, and I heard her blade slice through the air as I readied my own.
My briefly thought out plan was to just stab the monster with a swift, hard jab.
Finally, we a high-pitched screech, the creature flew across the raft at me, and I shoved my sword forward with all my might, right into the squishy flesh of its massive head.
And nothing happened.
I barely had time to
register the ineffectiveness of my deep stab before the mass of slimy, wet skin smacked into me. Then the two of us shot overboard and into the cold depths of the water.
“Ben!” I heard Mira scream right before I was yanked under.
A thick tentacle wrapped around my waist as I thrashed about and tried to get eyes on my newfound enemy.
It was too dark, though, and I couldn’t see a thing. I was only aware that this massive tentacle was ready to take me down into the murky depths of the ocean, starve my lungs of oxygen, and drown me.
But as I struggled with the beast, I realized my lungs weren’t burning, and I remembered I wasn’t human anymore. I was water dragon-kin, and I could hold my breath for an incredible amount of time.
So, I clung to my sword as I twisted in the squid’s grip and felt around for the meat of the tentacle. Once my hand collided with solid flesh, I gripped my sea glass sword, sliced through the water with every ounce of strength in me, and cut the tentacle free of its nasty owner.
Despite the thick water slowing down my movement, my blade was sharp and my arms were strong, so I heard the squelch as my blade cut through the appendage, followed by a roar from the monster.
Instantly, the squid thing whipped its massive head around, and I was now faced with those ugly yellow eyes. They were the only thing I could see in the black ocean waters, but I focused in on them.
Another tentacle attempted to wrap around my body again, but I mustered every last ounce of strength in me to shove my sword right between those terrible eyes, straight into whatever tiny little brain this monster possessed.
My efforts were rewarded.
The squid’s eyes went wide, and the mouth opened in a scream that was never heard, because every piece of its body went limp.
After a moment, I yanked my sword out, and the massive beast started to sink down to the bottom of the ocean, since its corpse was too heavy and dense to float.
That was all I had in me. My lungs were getting tight at this point, and my arms burned from the effort of wrestling with that kraken mother fucker, so I gave the water one powerful kick and sent myself straight up to the surface.
The oxygen was so welcome I all but gulped it in the moment I broke the ocean’s surface. I was feet away from the raft, and I could see Mira’s back as she kneeled over the opposite edge and searched for any sign of me.
“Hey!” I yelled and waved an arm to get her attention.
I started to swim over to her, and relief flooded her pretty features when she turned to see me.
“Thank the gods,” the warrior sighed. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine, but I can’t say as much for our tentacled friend,” I said as I reached the raft to pull myself up.
“You are so powerful. You defeated the beast in its own domain.”
“I got lucky,” I snickered.
Mira nodded as she helped me up, and it was only then that I was able to assess the damage to our humble raft. The mast had been yanked out, and it was now probably somewhere in the waters. Half the raft was destroyed, with cracked wood pieces that stuck up at odd angles, and the entire left side dipped dangerously low in the water.
In short, the thing was ruined.
“Well, there was a monster for you,” I joked as I hauled myself out of the water and onto the wet wood.
“I believe, then, that the words ‘Mira, you were right’ should be coming out of your mouth,” the warrior teased.
“Mira, you were right,” I sighed and rolled my eyes.
“I supposed this raft won’t be of much use once we actually get to the island,” the warrior pointed out.
“No, I don’t think it will,” I groaned and swiped the wet hair out of my eyes. “Let’s grab our oars and paddle the rest of the way. I don’t see how we’ll get there, otherwise.”
It took the rest of the night, and four very tired arms, but we finally made it to our destination.
Just barely.
“Now we really are like Captain Jack Sparrow in the first movie,” I chuckled as we stepped off our nearly sunken raft and onto white, soft sandy shores.
The sun had just started to peek over the horizon, and a light breeze had picked up. It was a picturesque sight, and I could barely believe I’d almost been pulled down into Davy Jones’ Locker by a giant squid beast just hours ago.
“Who is Captain Jack Sparrow?” Mira asked as her brow furrowed curiously. “And what’s a movie?”
“That’s a lot to explain right now,” I laughed, and I nearly collapsed on the warm sand as soon as I was out of reach of the soft waves.
Exhaustion didn’t even begin to describe what I felt. One monster fight and a few hours of rowing could really take it out of a guy. Even if he was a badass dragon-man.
“Ben, you can sleep,” Mira told me with a smile. “I’ll keep watch.”
I could barely find the energy to protest. I thought I got half a word out before sleep overtook me, and I sank into black nothingness.
But not the scary kind of black nothingness, like the ocean I’d nearly died in. The good kind.
I woke up a few hours later, when the sun was high in the sky, to the peaceful sound of waves as they lapped against the shore. For a moment, I almost thought it was one of my first days in the new world, back when I ate fresh coconut and thought I was still on planet Earth.
“Morning, sleepyhead,” Mira chuckled as I sat up slowly.
The beautiful warrior was a perfect reminder that I’d come very far since my first days here. Her short green hair, shaved on one side of her head to expose her fin-like ear, was wavy from the saltwater filled air. The sun glinted majestically off her scales and deep yellow skin, and she looked up at me with golden eyes.
“Hey.” I gave her a lopsided smile. “What’s that?”
The warrior held some sort of leaf in her hand, and she cupped it gently, like it was a baby she didn’t want to wake.
“Water,” she informed me as she held it out for me to see. “I climbed one of those trees and found it in the leaves. I am sure it’s from the sky, so it’s safe to drink.”
I gladly took the leaf from her and drank in the cool, clean liquid. It definitely tasted like fresh rainwater, so after I hydrated myself, I took a moment to look around at our new surroundings.
About fifty feet behind us, the sandy shore turned into a dense forest filled with red-barked trees that looked like a cross between a redwood and an evergreen tree. The foliage was so dense it was hard to see more than a few feet into the forest, and I glanced down the coastline to find the tree line seemed to run the length of the entire island. The ground was mostly flat, but toward the middle of the island, I could see a huge mountain loomed above us, not unlike the one on our home island.
I wasn’t completely sure how large the place was, but if I were to guess, I figured it was about fifty square miles.
“Have you seen anything?” I asked Mira.
“Not a thing.” She shook her head. “I know Marella said this place was populated, but I think we may need to explore deeper into the forest to know that for sure.”
“I agree,” I replied, “but let’s find something to eat first. And inspect that raft.”
The raft, it turned out, was absolutely a goner. We’d lost one of our salvaged rowboats, which had served as pontoons, and therefore the entire thing was tilted. Beyond that, most of the wood pieces were either splintered or completely destroyed, and I hadn’t brought nearly enough extras to fix the entire craft.
Plus, I didn’t really want to sail on something so fragile again. One run in with a giant squid was enough for me. There could be any number of enormous creatures out there, and some of them might be a hell of a lot larger. I sure as hell didn’t want to run into some sort of crocodile on steroids in a tiny little raft.
“Well, this was fun while it lasted,” Mira sighed as she picked up the only salvageable thing on the raft, which was, thankfully, our sack of weapons. We still had our bows and arrows, our
swords, the knife Nerissa had given me, and the sea glass saw meant for harvesting wood.
“We can use this to spear some fish, and then we’ll make a fire,” I told the warrior as I yanked out a particularly sharp piece of broken wood. The tip on the end was sharp enough to slice through skin.
“Good idea.” Mira nodded and yanked off a piece of wood for her own use.
Then the two of us waded out into the shallow waters of the ocean and paused as we waited for the fish to come back.
Slowly, a few bright blue fish I recognized as edible swam lazily over in our direction. Both of us waited for the right moment, and then we snapped our makeshift spears down and impaled the creatures right through their centers.
“Haha! Gotcha,” I exclaimed. I raised my spear up out of the water and waited as the fish flopped around for a few more seconds, and Mira did the same.
Once our fish were dead, Mira found a smooth rock to scale and gut them on, and I started to build the fire.
I wandered just a few feet into the forest where I found dry detritus and a few good-sized sticks to use, and then carried them back out to the beach. I planned to go for a more in-depth search as soon as we were both fed and Mira had a bit of time to get some rest.
We built up a small fire, but made sure it didn’t get too large, since I didn’t want to attract any attention until we were able to get our bearings a little bit better.
While the fish roasted, Mira climbed up into one of the strange trees to retrieve another leaf filled with water for us to share.
The leaves were strange. They were thick, veiny, and a dark green color, and they seemed to have been perfectly formed to hold in the rainwater.
I assumed, since many of the leaves were filled with water, that it must rain fairly often on this island, despite the fact that it hardly ever rained outside of storm season on our home island.
We ate the fish plain and drank the water as we stared at the forest behind us.
“What do you think is in there?” Mira asked as she squinted at the trees.
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “Some sort of people who have extremely long legs. And probably some monsters. Maybe a vortex, or ghosts.”