by Logan Jacobs
The breath caught in my throat as I froze and slowly turned my head to see the strawberry blonde safely perched in the tree right next to the one she’d been in.
“Oh, my gods,” I gasped.
“I leapt into this tree when it started to fall,” the blonde explained.
For a second, I was so overcome with gratitude that she was alive, I was completely speechless.
“Thank the gods,” Mira cried out and echoed my own thoughts.
Ainsley climbed down from the tree and landed softly onto the sand, then walked around the monster I’d just killed to inspect it, but before she could I dashed up to her and wrapped the beautiful blonde in a tight hug.
“Are you okay?” I murmured into her hair.
“Yes,” she breathed.
“Have you ever seen something like this before?” I asked her as I pointed at the dead monster.
“No.” Ainsley shook her head. “I’ve heard legends of sea creatures that could walk on land, but they were passed down from the oldest in our tribe, the ones who are no longer with us. I never believed they were actually true.”
“I have never heard of this,” Mira growled, and she stared down at the corpse with fury.
“We have some creatures like this back where I’m from, but they’re a quarter of this size,” I told them. “If this is going to be a regular thing, it’s definitely not safe for anyone to stay on this island without proper protection.”
“Hopefully, the women will see it the same way you do.” Ainsley nodded. “Let us get back. I am sure everyone is terrified.”
We jogged back through the forest so we could get to the village quickly. The moment we climbed through the branches of the tree and onto the main platform, a cheer of joy and relief went up throughout the village.
“Oh, thank the Goddess!” Jemma exclaimed, and the thin woman ran up and wrapped each of us in a tight hug.
Sarayah and Nima also came up to hug us, and many of the women patted us in thanks and congratulations.
“What was that creature?” Sarayah demanded. “Does anyone know?”
Silence fell over the crowd, and all eyes turned toward Ainsley, the wisest of them all. Clearly, none of the women had a good answer.
“I believe it is a creature of the old legends,” Ainsley replied. “And if creatures of the old legends do exist, we are no longer safe on this island.”
“But why now?” another woman named Bryn asked. “If the creatures of legend have stayed hidden for so long, why have they now started reappearing?”
Ainsley opened her mouth, but no words came. Then she turned clear blue eyes on me in search of an answer.
But I didn’t exactly have one. This world was still too new and alien for me to be able to figure out why the hell some monster that was supposed to be just a story had decided to resurface and wreak havoc on the people I loved.
“I don’t know why that thing came back, if it’s really been gone for as long as you say,” I replied honestly. “But if it came out and attacked, then there are probably others that will do the same. Now, more than ever, I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to stay here by yourselves. You couldn’t have defeated that thing. Hell, I almost didn’t defeat it.”
Once again, the women fell silent as they considered my words.
“Ben is right,” Sarayah finally said, to my absolute surprise.
“Yes.” Bryn nodded. “I agree.”
A chorus of “yes”es popped up from the crowd, and all of the women began to nod their heads in agreement.
“So, does this mean you guys will come with me?” I asked as my heart skipped a beat in my chest.
Again, all of the women nodded and agreed.
“Well, then, it looks like we have some work to do.” Mira grinned.
“We do,” I laughed as an equally wide smile spread across my face. “I want to gather all of our supplies first, and then we’ll get you guys sea ready.”
Despite the women’s nerves about sailing to a new island, all of them agreed readily. We decided to start harvesting lumber the next day, and then we would take the rest of the day to relax and prepare for what was ahead.
“Mira, we should come up with a training plan,” I told the warrior. “I want to go back down to the ship and figure out how we’re going to get it off the beach and out onto the open water.”
“Good idea.” She nodded.
“Jemma and I will harvest all of the fully grown vegetables,” Ainsley remarked. “I will have the rest of the women hunt some more meat and dry it over the fire. We will need much more than three tarrels worth to feed us on this journey.”
“Good idea,” I told her.
Mira and I climbed back down to the forest floor and started to walk through the forest, headed toward the opposite beach, where the orc ship was docked.
“This island is peaceful,” Mira sighed. “It makes me sad to leave it but excited to be home once more.”
“I bet you we’ll find a ton more peaceful islands,” I told her as I slipped my hand into hers. “What do you think we’ll find out there?”
“I don’t know.” Mira’s gold eyes glittered in excitement as she imagined what the other islands might have in store for us. “Our people used to sail the seas, a long time ago. There are many stories about what is out there, from monsters to people, but it is hard to tell fact from fiction nowadays.”
“Do you know what happened?” I asked. “Why did they stop sailing? You guys don’t have any boats.”
“I am not sure.” The warrior shrugged. “It was many thousands of years ago now. Jonas might know the answer for you.”
I wondered what had happened to make Mira’s ancestors stick to the land. The negative part of me wondered if there had been so many terrifying monsters they realized it was way too damn dangerous to sail the blue ocean, but even so, I knew that would never stop me.
Monsters or not, I loved the sea, and there were people out there who needed my help. Women who were under the reign of the orcs, who had lost their men and had no way to fight off the intruders. Jonas may have told me it was my destiny, but even if he hadn’t, I knew I’d still want to sail the sea and help out the other islands.
Mira and I enjoyed the calm stroll toward the far beach. I gazed at the beautiful flowers and plants that dotted the landscape, and I watched as the animals traversed the forest floor, unafraid of Mira and me. We even encountered a fycan, with its golden coat and large black eyes. The big cat crossed our path near the beach, but didn’t even come within five feet of us. Mira and I both froze when we saw it, with our hands on our swords and ready to chop off its head if it tried to attack us, but the cat did no such thing. It just paused, looked at us, and then went on its way.
The orcs really had tried to ruin the entire island, those fuckers. I was starting to understand how the women had lived so peacefully and never needed to kill anything before the bastards came. The forest here wasn’t filled with creatures that preyed on the women. The danger had come from another island far away.
Mira and I made it to the old orc encampment about ten minutes later. Decaying bodies were strewn across the sand and dirt, twisted and mangled with death. Many of them had already been scoured for meat by the creatures that inhabited the forest.
“Let’s see what the hell is inside these huts,” I told her.
We split up and wandered around the little camp, with its well made buildings and filth. The entire place smelled like shit and vomit, with a slight hint of coppery blood in the air. In addition to being absolute assholes, the orcs clearly didn’t know very much about hygiene and health.
I opened the crude wooden door to the hut the orc leaders had lived in and was instantly hit with the stench of rotting flesh.
“Gross,” I muttered. I pulled my tunic up to cover my nose and try to stave off a little bit of the stink as I searched for the culprit.
A dead warg laid in the far corner of the bare room, with an arm and a leg ripped off barba
rically, and a giant hole in its face where the flesh had rotted away.
I’d started to realize just how little the wargs had to do with the orc invaders. They were nothing more than slaves to them, just like the deer women would have been if Mira and I hadn’t helped them.
The rest of the room was pretty bland and bare. Four grimy mattresses surrounded the fire in a crude circle, and a piece of semi-cooked meat was skewered on a spike over the long dead fire. A few stubby swords laid around, but they looked much less sharp and indestructible than our sea glass swords, so I left them there.
There wasn’t much in the orc cabins that seemed useful. I’d hoped there might be a map of some sort to tell us where their home island was, but I searched every hut and couldn’t find one. I wanted to know which island those bastards called home as soon as I could. I might not have had an army yet, but the moment I did, I would destroy them with the utmost pleasure.
“Anything interesting?” I asked Mira when she emerged from the final hut.
“No.” She shook her head. “But I have discovered those fuckers of mothers do not know how to clean anything. The insides of those huts were absolutely filthy.”
“Tell me about it,” I sighed and turned toward the massive ship. “Now, how the hell are we going to get this thing out onto the ocean?”
Mira and I walked over to inspect the ship again and take note of the design.
The ship was massive, like Jack Sparrow’s in Pirates of the Caribbean. It was a hundred and fifty foot long schooner tall ship with one mast closer to the bow, one in the center, and one at the stern. There were two levels, and a raised platform on the upper deck where the enormous steering wheel was. The large wheel sat on a raised deck near the stern which controlled the rudder, and the mainsail, jib, and ropes were all in place and whole. Two canons sat on both the starboard and port side of the ship, and there was a ladder down the starboard side that led to the sand below. The hull was a little bit damaged from the beaching, but nothing serious enough to make me worry we might take on water out on the open ocean.
“How do you think we can get it off the sand?” Mira asked.
The orcs had grounded the ship in a desperate attempt to win a battle they were already destined to lose, but now that the ship was ours, I was worried about hull damage. I couldn’t see anything from the inside of the lower decks, and the ship was way too massive for the fifty of us to try and lift, so the only way we could know for sure was to get it into the water again.
“We’ll have to wait until the tide is high and the wind is on our side,” I finally said. “If we can get it to float enough and open the sail right at the perfect time, and the wind hits our sails at the exact right angle, we might just have a chance.”
“So, many factors have to be absolutely perfect?” Mira chuckled.
“We’ve done it before,” I laughed. “Do you know when the next full moon is? The tides will be higher, then.”
“I believe the moon was black six nights ago,” Mira replied.
Perfect. So, I had about eight days to turn the thin deer women into a strong ship’s crew. It would be hard, but I knew they could do it. If I’d learned anything about the women, it was that once they set their minds to something, they did it.
“I think we’ve got ourselves a plan.” I grinned at Mira. “Tomorrow, we’ll harvest as much lumber as we can. And then after that, the training starts. I’ll have to teach you guys how to sail a pirate ship.”
With that decided, we headed back to the village, which was an absolute sight to be seen.
The women ran about, some with vegetables in their hands, others with tree bark cloth, and still others with sacks filled with meat, both raw and dried.
It appeared the preparations had started.
“Ben!” Ainsley grinned when I came up into the trees. “Do you have a plan?”
“I do,” I told her. “We need to wait until the next full moon, where the tide will be at its highest, for it to work. When the water gets high enough, it’ll help propel us back off the sand and into the ocean.”
“Wonderful,” the blonde replied. “Do you know when that will be?”
“Eight days, give or take.” I shrugged. “Which means we’ve got eight days to whip you all into shape.”
“We have already been hard at work with the preparations,” Theora informed me as she strode up to our little group. “A few of the women are still out on a hunt, and we are preparing as much dried meat and fruit as we can for the journey.”
“The journey shouldn’t be too long,” I told her. “Maybe a few days, at most.”
With the amount of preparation the women were in the midst of, it looked like they thought we might be out on the open ocean for months on end.
“Of course.” Theora nodded. “We just want to make sure we are prepared. We do not know what we will encounter over there.”
“An island full of badasses,” Mira assured her with a grin. “And plenty of food for all of you to eat. What we do not have, though, is lumber and clay.”
“Ben, shall we gather lumber and place it on the ship for you?” Ainsley suggested.
“Let’s get everyone who is not preparing a bunch of doomsday meat and head to the beach near the boat. I have a few ideas.”
Ainsley laughed at my exaggerated statement, but she gathered the women who weren’t either in the cook tent, or on the platform in the midst of making new clothes, and they followed Mira and me back down to the beach.
First, I showed them how to take apart the huts the orcs had built, and I instructed them to be careful not to get cut or snagged on any of the nails. We tried to save as many as possible, since metalworking was still a piece of technology I didn’t have the means to make, but many of the nails had been placed so poorly that they came away bent and twisted.
We dismantled each little hut, though, and loaded the precut wood onto the ship. No one else was going to use the crude little cabins, and I figured the more pre-cut wood we had, the better.
Once the semi circle of huts were gone, and the salvageable wood loaded onto the ship, Mira, Ainsley, and I climbed aboard the vessel to grab saws for all of the women.
“This place is eerie,” Ainsley murmured as she peered around the underbelly of the orc ship.
Once again, I saw her hand cup her flat belly, and I wondered if it was a subconscious move, or if her natural instincts were trying to tell her something.
“The saws are this way.” Mira tried to steer Ainsley toward the little room where we’d found the tools and away from the rows of cages we knew were back there, but the blonde had already started to explore.
“Oh, my Goddess!” Ainsley gasped as she stepped into the room full of crude, horrible cells.
Tears pooled in her eyes, and her full upper lip trembled as she looked around.
I followed her gaze and couldn’t help but shudder as I saw the room for a second time. The cells seemed more terrifying, and the disgusting purpose of them made my blood pulse with the most intense anger I’d ever felt. I could only imagine how many poor, terrified women had been shoved into these cells and taken on a journey to a new island, where they were used and abused like they were nothing.
If there had been an orc within a hundred feet of me, I would have ripped its head from its body faster than lightning could strike a tree.
Ainsley spun around and buried her face into my chest, too traumatized by the sight in front of her to do anything more than take in short, stilted breaths. I wrapped my arms around her and held the slim woman as she, too, tried to wipe the awful pictures from her mind.
“They could have taken Kella in one of these,” Ainsley murmured. “They could have taken all of us. That’s why this ship was coming here.”
Kella, Ainsley’s sister, had been a prisoner in the orc encampment before we’d been able to rescue her, and she’d been kept in a cage that resembled the ones on the ship.
Thankfully, the orcs hadn’t shoved Kella into one of these
cages on their vessel and ripped her from her island completely.
“But they didn’t take her or any of you,” I reassured Ainsley softly. “And we’ll take her home with us, to a place where she’ll never have to feel fear like that again.”
“Thank you, Ben,” Ainsley whispered as she took one last deep, shuddery breath before she stepped back and wiped the last tear from her blue eyes.
Then Ainsley nodded at me, and we turned back toward the room opposite the jail, where well-made, but primitive, saws lined the walls. The tools had flat metal blades with sharp teeth and had been tied to wooden handles with thin, twine-like rope.
“What are these?” Ainsley asked as she tilted her head curiously.
“They’ll help us cut through the trunks of the trees, and then chop the wood into different sized pieces,” I explained to her.
We gathered a few saws each, and then went back down to the beach, where twenty of the village women waited anxiously.
I showed them all how to pick the right tree to saw through, not too tall or wide, but not skinny, either. Then I had Mira, Ainsley, and Jemma help me demonstrate how a team of four or five women could start to saw through the base of the trunk. I made sure they all understood how to choose the direction the tree would fall in and aim the trees toward the sand rather than the forest.
“And when it’s pretty wobbly, and you’ve almost cut through most of the trunk, be careful that it doesn’t fall on you,” I warned the women.
Once they had learned how to fell a tree, we split off into about five groups, and each felled three trees together. Then we sawed off the branches and split the trunks into five foot long sections, which were then cut into quarters to make transport easier. I wanted to wait to cut the wood any further, though, so the bark stayed on and helped to protect it from any damage. Plus, when we got back to Mira’s island, the deer women could show the dragonkin women how they made tough cloth from the tree bark.
When the wood was all ready, we started an assembly line of sorts to get it onto the ship. Mira and I climbed aboard and used the pulley system the ship already possessed to haul the lumber up the side. Then we piled it below the deck, in those awful cells. They were good for something, at least.