by Logan Jacobs
The ghost appraised us with two dark, yet calm eyes. There was no trace of wickedness in him, the way there had been in Tarun’s singular eye. I also noticed this ghost didn’t seem to have rotted away at all, and every bit of him was completely intact.
This made me wonder if he was really the same sort of ghost at all. If he was, I didn’t see how he couldn’t have rotted away over all the centuries.
I also hazarded a guess this man was an early ancestor of the dragonkin women, which made sense, since I’d already assumed the strange, orc like crew aboard the maldungs were merely ancestors of the orcs. Apparently, they came from an entire line of invaders.
“Who are you?” the ghost finally asked, and his voice was loud and thick, yet warm, almost like melted caramel against my eardrums.
“I could ask you the same thing,” I replied as I brandished my sword. “Are you a maldung, too?”
That word seemed to calm this ghost down, and he started to float backward as he shook his head.
“No,” he replied darkly. “I would never get into bed with those traitors. Am I to assume they have come back, and that is why you are at my pond?”
“Yes.” I nodded. “My name is Ben. I am the Draco Rex of a new civilization. We have been threatened by the maldungs, and our village elder told us to come to this pond. He said the waters will allow us to fight the maldungs off.”
“Your elder was correct,” the ghost rumbled. “I am Crel. I was appointed by the gods to guard these waters until the one who would defeat the maldungs came to drink from its depths. I have been waiting for you, Ben, for a very long time.”
“I would imagine,” I chuckled a little hysterically as my pulse finally slowed. “Has anyone before us ever tried to drink from this pond?”
“Once,” Crel responded. “Many centuries ago, after our world had sunk and the new species rose from its depths. But she was not the one to defeat the maldungs.”
“What happened to her?” Mira asked.
Crel shifted one eye to gaze at her, while the other remained locked onto me.
“She died,” he said simply. “These waters have been enchanted to kill anyone who would not use them for the right intentions.”
“Oh, that’s great,” I muttered as my stomach flipped over itself. Even though I knew I had the best intentions, I definitely didn’t want to hear the drink I was about to imbue could potentially kill me.
“It is.” Crel nodded, and he seemed to have missed my tone.
“Listen, Crel, we’re fighting three ships of maldungs right now,” I explained. “I’m not going to be the only one drinking this. Is there a way to make sure it’s safe for everyone?”
Crel eyed me again for another moment, as if he wanted to make sure I hadn’t lied to him, before he crooked one finger and beckoned me forward.
“Come,” he ordered.
I hesitantly stepped forward. I might have been batshit crazy sometimes, but I still knew damn well to be wary of ghosts, no matter how well intentioned they might seem.
I stopped just in front of Crel, where the seemingly invisible barrier appeared to be, and stared up at the ghost. He had at least a foot and a half on me, and I wondered if that was his ghostly form, or if his people really had been this tall.
“You are not from this world,” he mused as his gaze dragged over me slowly. “And yet, you are meant to save it.”
“Uh, yeah,” I muttered and nodded. “The whole conquering mindset didn’t exactly end with the guys who turned into maldungs. They sort of gave birth to an entire line of monsters that think they own everything.”
“I see,” Crel hummed, and I felt it reverberate through my chest.
Suddenly, one spindly, freezing cold finger came forward and buried itself into my chest. All I could feel was ice in my veins, and it felt like even my cells had crystallized and frozen over.
Until suddenly, the sensation was gone.
“Any water you bring your people will not kill them,” Crel informed me. “Even if they do not have the purest of intentions. But, be wary of who you give the water to, Draco Rex. In the hands of the maldungs, it could do even further damage.”
“Got it,” I whispered and exhaled a sharp breath.
And just like that, Crel was gone.
“Even for this world, that was insane,” I breathed as I turned toward Mira.
The warrior nodded blankly as she stared at the pool with an awestruck expression. “Things are never dull when I am with you, my king.”
“Happy to keep things interesting,” I snorted. “Now, give me a coconut bowl.”
Quickly, the warrior and I worked to fill up all four coconut bowls with water from the pond. Crel didn’t appear again, though I was almost certain I saw his ghostly form watching us from the dark depths of the pond, where it mingled with the ocean.
“Ghosts and ghost ships.” Mira shook her head. “You brought the craziness with you, my king, that is for sure.”
“You think this is crazy?” I laughed. “This is your world. Imagine how I feel!”
As soon as we’d filled all four coconuts up, Theora and Jemma tossed a vine down through the hole and hoisted Mira and me up, one by one.
“What happened down there?” Jemma asked as she stared at us with wide eyes and bounced on her toes. “We heard a strange voice, but we could not see a thing!”
“Trust me, you don’t want to know,” I muttered as I turned to look out over the well lit jungle top. From halfway up the mountain, I could just barely see the ocean. The blue water was nothing but a strip along the edge of the island, but on that strip, I could see three ghostly white ships that had decided to make their grand reappearance.
It seemed it was showtime.
“What now, my king?” Theora asked.
“We have to go, now,” I replied in an urgent tone. “The maldungs are back.”
Nobody questioned me, and the four of us took off at breakneck speeds back down the mountain and through the jungle. But even without a single break, not even a jog, it still took us a few hours to get back to the palace.
Still, I thanked the gods for the otherworldly stamina the women and I possessed.
When we arrived, the village was already awash with activity as women raced back and forth. Some of the dragon women had sea glass swords while most of the deer women carried their spears in hand, and the air was hot and heavy with nerves and attempted preparation. The truth of it all, though, was none of them had any idea how to prepare for an enemy that even I hadn’t been able to fight.
The four of us couldn’t spare a moment to try and reassure anyone, though, so we raced through the village and up the palace steps. We ran on nothing but pure adrenaline, but it was enough to get us through as we slid through the doorway of the kitchen and came upon Jonas, Talise, and Hali all huddled over a giant pot.
“We … got … the water,” I huffed out. Even with my dragonkin strength and endurance, multiple hours worth of running had gotten to me, and I doubled over on my knees as I held my pack out for anyone to take and unload the coconuts from it.
Mira was doubled over just as I was, and even Theora and Jemma had slid to the floor in exhaustion.
“The antidote is ready,” Hali told us.
Talise spun about, grabbed cups of water for each of us, unloaded the other women’s packs, and tried to fan us to the best of her ability. Which really wasn’t much considering the air outside and inside was hot and muggy.
“We will set aside enough for the four of you to take,” Jonas said. “And the rest, Ben, you may use however you need to. Remember, anything you touch once you have drank water from the pond will enter the same plane as the maldungs.”
“So, please do not touch any of us once you have had your drink,” Talise added with a nervous smile.
I finally felt like I could catch my breath, and that my lungs weren’t screaming like a newborn baby, so I inhaled sharply and looked up at Jonas.
“We’re going to make explod
ing arrows,” I told the old man. “I need as many arrows as you all can get your hands on, and I need leaves.”
Talise and Hali hurried to retrieve what I needed, while everyone else looked at me with a mixture of awe and confusion.
As soon as the women returned with the supplies, I demonstrated exactly what I meant.
I cut the leaves into tiny squares about an inch all the way around, and the waxy surface would hold in the liquid so it didn’t leak or soak through. Once the leaves had been cut into squares, I dropped a small bit of the antidote onto the center and wrapped it in the leaf like a tiny hobo package. Then I used some of Talise’s leftover tar to glue it onto the arrowhead, just below the sharp point. The arrows would have the tiny sack of antidote right at the tip, and they’d explode on impact like a water balloon and cover the ghosts in potion.
Those fuckers wouldn’t stand a chance.
“We get on the same plane as the ghosts,” I explained to the group, “and then we shoot them with an arrow. The arrow explodes with the force of impact, they’re covered in antidote, and its bye bye ghost man.”
“Ben, that is the most brilliant plan you have had yet,” Mira breathed with wide gold eyes.
“I like to think so,” I chuckled.
“You must be careful,” Jonas warned. “If you attempt to use the antidote while in your human form, it will have no effect. On you, or anyone else.”
“Got it.” I nodded.
“I will put some away into some vials,” Talise added, “so you will have an antidote when you are finished.”
Quickly, we worked to make the exploding arrows until all four of us had about fifty in our quivers, which would be enough to take down the majority of the maldung’s crews. At this point, my plan was to use the remaining antidote and dump it all over the ship.
I hadn’t quite figured the logistics of that out yet, but I had faith we’d be successful when we got to it. As long as the maldungs’ ships lacked most of their crew, I had a pretty good feeling about the fight.
“They are almost at the beach!” one of the women out in the hallway screamed.
“It’s go time, ladies,” I said to my three companions, and I looked around at Theora, Jemma, and Mira, who all wore determined looks on their faces and quivers full of exploding arrows.
“Wait, you did not think you could battle ghosts without me, did you, Draco Rex?” Sela called from the doorway.
The blue-haired warrior smirked at me as she swaggered into the kitchen, covered head to toe in armor, and with a bow and quiver strapped to her back. She swiped up the remaining extra arrows we had made and then turned to me, suddenly serious.
“They blew up the hut my mother used to live in,” she murmured. “I will not stand by and let them get away with that.”
“Of course not.” I nodded. “You are welcome to join our battle.”
“Be safe, my granddaughter,” Jonas said as he placed his hand on Sela’s shoulder.
“Can the three of you round everyone up and get them into the castle?” I asked Talise, Jonas, and Hali. “I don’t want anyone living out there.”
“Of course,” Jonas assured me.
“Take the dragons with you,” Mira added. “They will help keep you safe.”
The three nodded to her and then rushed off to get the rest of the village inside the castle walls, which would hopefully remain safe from the maldungs.
“I estimate they are about twenty minutes away from the shore,” Sela told us as we waited in silence and listened to the commotion pass through the castle. “We do not have much time to prepare.”
When we heard the thick door at the very back of the castle slam shut, the five of us picked up the coconuts, and Sela huddled close to Mira so they could share one.
“Well, ladies, drink up,” I said as my heart began to pound with adrenaline.
With that, we downed the water from the pond in a few gulps.
And then we waited.
Less than a minute passed before I started to feel the effects of the cursed pond water. All of a sudden, my body felt lighter, like it was completely weightless. I could no longer feel my feet on the ground, and it seemed like nothing at all tethered me to the world anymore. I had a feeling that if I wanted to, I could have pushed off from the ground and floated away in an instant.
I turned to glance at the women to see if they felt just as strange as I did, but what I saw nearly made my eyes bulge out of my head.
They were ghosts. Even though I’d expected the change, to see it in action was a completely new kind of shock. Jemma and Theora’s pale skin was now translucent, and the color had drained from Mira and Sela’s features. Despite the fact that Sela stood in front of the antidote pot, and her body should have blocked it from my view, I could very clearly see the pot behind her. It was a little bit grainy, as if I looked at it through a few mirrors, but it was there nonetheless.
“Oh, my gods,” Mira breathed. “We are ghosts.”
The warrior took a surprised and careful step forward, and she nearly sprang up all the way to the ceiling.
It appeared it would even be different for us to walk.
Cautiously, I tried out a step of my own, more prepared for the strange, weightless feeling that attacked me as soon as I stepped. I was pretty sure this was what astronauts on the moon had to feel like when they took their first steps in the new, strange gravity.
“Come on,” I told the women. “Let’s get down to the beach and try to take them down as soon as we can. Sela and Theora, I want the two of you to take the vat of antidote up to the balcony outside of Nerissa’s room. We’ll try to drive the ships toward you. When we do, pour the antidote over it the best you can.”
“Yes, my king.” Sela nodded.
Then Jemma, Mira, and I dashed out of the palace and down through the village.
Sure enough, the three ghost ships were just about to arrive on the beach when we skidded onto the sand.
Tarun ran up to the bow of the ship and grinned maniacally down at the three of us.
“So, you’ve decided to level the playing field,” he sneered. “How idiotic of you. I take it you met my old friend Crel, then?”
“He sends his regards,” I yelled back. “He hopes you die today.”
“Unlikely,” Tarun cackled like a cartoon villain.
In a move that mirrored one I’d seen Tarun do the first day we’d met, I pushed off from the ground and floated right up to the deck of his massive ship.
That sensation was the strangest one I’d ever encountered. It almost felt like some giant hand had pinched the back of my shirt and lifted me straight up into the air.
I landed on the deck a little less gracefully than I intended, but I couldn’t help but feel shocked when I felt it beneath my feet, as solid as real wood.
Tarun’s single eye went wide, and he backed up as he spotted the loaded arrows in my quiver.
“Get him!” he yelled at his crew.
Tarun, though, was clearly a coward, because he retreated as far away as he possibly could get while his crew descended upon me like a pack of wolves.
I glanced to the side just long enough to see Mira and Jemma follow my lead with the other two ships. The fearless serpent warrior rushed the deck, while the deer woman floated up into a nearby palm tree on the edge of the sand and began to take aim.
I didn’t have much time to watch them, though, because I had about eight rotting, nasty ghosts on my ass with a wish for my death.
So, in one fluid motion, I unsheathed my sword and yanked an arrow from my quiver.
The first blow came from a ghost on my right, with only half the normal amount of teeth in his mouth and a sword that was so blunted it looked like it would take more than one stab to kill a man.
Which could be good or bad, depending on how I looked at it. I had a feeling, though, that the ghost used the blade to hack his enemies to bits and relished in their cries of agony.
But as I caught his sword blow with m
y own, now ghostly, sea glass sword, I shoved the arrow up and into his midsection. I grinned at the pop it made as the bag of antidote exploded within him, but I drew my hand back quickly to make sure I didn’t touch even a drop of the stuff. Jonas hadn’t said how powerful it was, but I’d come to know anything the old soothsayer made was absolutely filled with power.
Now, I just hoped this antidote worked the way I wanted it to.
As the arrow exploded the bright red antidote all throughout the ghostly figure, his eyes went wide. For a split second, his skin turned from pale, translucent white to a strange, muddled brown, but then, it cracked apart as chunks of it started to rot and fall away, too old to hold up anymore.
“No!” the monster gasped, just before he dissolved into a pool of gooey, rotted innards and chunky, dead flesh. His remains, now on the plane of the living, fell through the ghostly floorboards of the ship and splattered across the sand below.
I didn’t have more than a moment to bask in the satisfaction of his death, though, because I had to turn around to stop the blow of another ghostly attacker. I spun around and ducked under his sword, only to come face to face with a second, sharper sword that hailed from a third attacker.
Suddenly, I was involved in a game of duck and avoid. Seven different blades came at me from all different angles, and it was all I could do to block their blows and avoid getting myself sliced or stabbed. I wasn’t exactly sure what the rules would be if I happened to receive a deadly wound from one of their swords, but I sure as hell didn’t want to find out.
One of the maldungs managed to get a blow in, though, and I bit back a yelp as a sharp blade sliced a red hot cut along my back.
Clearly, their swords could do some damage now that I was a ghost, too.
So, I angrily spun around and stabbed a loaded arrow straight through my attacker’s eye.
Or, actually, his eye socket, since both of his eyes had long ago rotted away.