Isle of the Ape

by Jason Halstead

  Chapter 20

  "We'll wait—" Taldar said to the gathered companions until Mordrim cut him off.

  The dwarf slammed the shaft of his hammer into the deck and said, "You'll be waiting until we get back, be it a day or a month!"

  Taldar stared down at the warrior and nodded his head.

  "I mean it." Mordrim glowered at him. "You left once ere you should have. You do that again and I'll swim back and drown you with my bare hands!"

  Taldar glanced at his crew. "The first man who whines about wanting to leave swims home."

  Grunts and nods were his response.

  Mordrim nodded and turned towards the longboat that had already been lowered beside the Kraken. Garrick let his gaze rake across the crew. He considered adding a few words but in the end let his silence be the message he needed. He stepped into the boat and moved to balance it in the water opposite of where the dwarf, priest, and wizard already sat.

  Mordrim reached for a set of oars but Garrick's chuckle stopped him. "Best let Karthor on those."

  Mordrim's eyes narrowed. "My arms will work long after yours fall off."

  The barbarian shrugged and pushed away from the Kraken. As soon as the boat had cleared enough distance, he dipped his oars in and rowed with long and powerful strokes. Mordrim lowered his and tried to keep up, though his shorter arms made for shorter strokes. He made up for it with speed, which only drove Garrick to dig deeper into the water and lengthen his own stroke.

  After only a few minutes, the boat beached on the sand with enough force to send Kar stumbling out of his seat and into the one ahead of him. Karthor chuckled and shook his head while the wizard spat out, "Save anything for whatever horrors befall our friends?"

  Garrick rolled his shoulders and grinned. Mordrim cracked his neck and then his knuckles. Both had sweat glistening on their brows and were breathing heavy. "Just getting started," Mordrim said before he hopped out of the boat and splashed the final few feet to shore.

  Garrick followed and the two of them pulled the boat up the beach over a dozen feet as the captain suggested. They were midway between high and low tide and didn't need a storm or rogue wave washing it away.

  "Well, we're here. Now what?" Kar asked. "Should we just start shouting and making a nuisance of ourselves and see if they come running?"

  "Is the island really haunted?" Garrick asked.

  "I hardly think so," the wizard responded. "A spirit without flesh is exceedingly rare."

  "So what makes the noise they was talking about?" the barbarian challenged.

  "By 'they' you mean the sailors? A superstitious lot, sailors. There are many inexplicable things in the world, be they wondrous and fantastical or dreadful and terrifying, but they pale in comparison to the fanciful imaginations of the seafaring man."

  Garrick blinked and then scowled at the wizard. His hands balled into fists and he opened his mouth to speak, but Karthor intervened. "My father has spent several months immersed in his studies and research. He loses touch with the rest of the world rather easily and forgets that we need answers and help, not more questions to ponder."

  Kar frowned. "Perhaps, but this island does seem to provide some remarkable opportunities for study. Especially if it's been free of contact by humans for some time."

  Karthor shook his head and sighed. "I understand why Tristam was always yelling at you now."

  "He nagged like an old woman," Kar muttered. "But you were asking about the moaning or wailing, as they put it. It could be a magical device or perhaps a horn or other instrument mimicking a musical device. Perhaps it's the wind blowing through some natural formation? Or, I suppose, it is possible—if unlikely—that there is some ghostly or otherwise supernatural creature responsible for it. I do seem to recall reading something about a banshee one time."

  "The wind seems most likely," Karthor cut his father off. "Let's head inland and see if we can find high ground. Who knows what we might see."

  "It gets higher up there." Mordrim pointed up away from the beach where tall grass and palm trees grew.

  "Everything's higher to you," Garrick joked and took the lead.

  "Are short jokes really all you've got?" Mordrim complained as he followed the tall northerner.

  Garrick grinned back at him and said, "Going after the low-hanging fruit first."

  Kar snickered and Karthor groaned at the barbarian's wit.

  They'd barely entered the grass when Garrick's eyes narrowed. He slowed down and drew his great sword. The others readied their weapons and spells and fell quiet as he moved quietly through the grass. In a few minutes, the others wrinkled their noses at the smell of death that reached them.

  Garrick walked through the weeds and used his sword to push aside the grass that hid the remains of an animal. Flies buzzed around it and rose in a cloud when he disturbed them.

  "Pig," Kar said when he saw the corpse. "Dead a few days, I think."

  Garrick looked around the beast and then knelt to look closer. "Hunters did this," he said.

  "How can you tell?"

  "Its belly was cut open to dress it out."

  "Wild animals go for the innards and soft flesh first," Kar said. "Just because it's got no guts doesn't mean a hunter killed it."

  "No," Garrick agreed, "but a smooth cut from ribs to crotch does."

  Kar leaned over to see where Garrick pointed. The flesh had been nibbled and torn but even with the damage it was obvious that the boar's skin had been slit. Kar nodded and stepped back.

  "If it was a hunter, why not take the entire beast?" Mordrim asked.

  "Boar this size weighs more than you," Garrick said. The barbarian held up his hand to forestall the dwarf's irate response. "More than me, too. It'd take a couple of men to carry it; otherwise, I'd dress it and quarter it to take it back."

  "Whoever did this didn't bother," Karthor said. "But a hunter would know all of this."

  Garrick pointed at the broken spine of the boar. "This was killed by a sword, not an arrow or spear. No hunter stalks his prey with a sword."

  "So which is it?" Mordrim demanded. "Hunter or not?"

  "I've never hunted boar before," Garrick said. "Are they aggressive?"

  "You're asking a healer, a wizard, and a miner," Karthor pointed out.

  "I've read that they'll attack if surprised or threatened," Kar spoke out and surprised his son.

  "I expected as much," Garrick said. "My guess is someone surprised the boar and it attacked. They fought—see how there's some broken grass around here? Then they separated enough for the man to draw his sword and kill it."

  "And the dressing?" Kar pressed.

  "The best meat in any beast is the back straps," Garrick said with a shrug. "If I only need a meal for a few people, that's what I'd go for. They're missing, but I can't tell if animals have eaten them or if they were cut out."

  Kar nodded. "Well done."

  Garrick glared at the wizard. "You already knew all this?"

  "No," Kar chuckled and shook his head. "I'm commending your analytical thinking in deducing the likely skirmish and results."

  "Bah! Was it Alto or not?" Mordrim asked.

  Garrick shrugged. "He's got a sword and he'd know to go for the best meat. I'd say it was; the sailors even said they came this way."

  "Good enough for me," Mordrim said. "Now let's leave this rotting beast to the buzzards and be off."

  Garrick looked around and saw birds resting in the palm trees nearby. He hadn't noticed them until now; he'd been distracted by the smell. The hunter turned away, ashamed of his oversight, and proceeded along the path through the weeds that led away from the beach.

  They found the remains of the campfire in the abandoned village a short while later. The sun was past its zenith and beginning its plunge into the west, casting their shadows ahead of them as they finished searching the village and turned to the abandoned road that led into the jungle.

  "We need a tracker," Kar muttered.

  "Garrick's found the
path thus far," Mordrim snapped at the wizard.

  Garrick glanced at the ground and then nodded. "Aye, but I'm no tracker. I can trail a bleeding animal but little more."

  "Does it really matter?" Karthor asked. He pointed at the distant castle sitting on top of the cliff. "I wager they went there."

  "The road heads that way," Mordrim seconded.

  Rather than waste energy on words, Garrick started down the road. They passed by the tropical fruit-bearing trees as they walked, drawing strange looks from Garrick at the brightly colored food.

  "Bananas, pineapple, and oranges," Kar rattled off as they walked. "If they died, it's not for lack of food."

  Mordrim scowled at the wizard. "Nobody's talking about dying."

  Kar held up his hands. "Calm down, good dwarf. I meant there's food in abundance here, be it unroasted pig or a fruit salad."

  "Be silent," Karthor warned. "We don't know what threats there are and you're loud enough to wake the dead."

  "I hardly think our talking is louder than Mordrim's armor."

  "Bring 'em on," the dwarf sneered. "I'm not afraid of a few wild pigs!"

  "I've never seen one, but I've heard they look like dwarven women," Garrick offered.

  "You've seen one," Mordrim growled. "At the camp where Rockwood will be built. The dwarf at the end of the table."

  "That was a woman?" Garrick gasped.

  "Fine beard she had, too." Mordrim sighed.

  Garrick stared at the dwarf and then glanced at the other two. "You guys go on. I'll catch up. I'm going to be sick behind those trees."

  "Hey!" Mordrim snapped.

  Garrick chuckled and looked for support from the others. Karthor was frowning and Kar was looking with exaggerated interest at the trees ahead of them, although the wizard did have a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Fine," Garrick admitted. "I didn't know she was a she, but I'll confess she didn't look like a pig."

  Mordrim grunted at the minor victory.

  "Of course, if the pig had longer whiskers…"

  Mordrim shifted his hammer into a two-handed grip and harrumphed. Garrick smirked at the dwarf but let the conversation die. The priest was right; they needed to be quiet. He led the group into the jungle as quietly as the dwarf and the priest's heavy armor would allow.

  Once inside the tropical forest, the sounds seemed louder. The air no longer stirred, causing the northern man to sweat. He loosened his hide tunic, wishing he could strip it off and let what air there was touch his skin.

  The cry of a bird jerked Garrick's attention to a tree. The colorful bird leapt from the fork in the tree and spread its wings to fly off through the forest. He was dazzled by the play of colorful feathers on the bird as it flew through the beams of sunlight that broke through the jungle canopy.

  Garrick wrenched his eyes from the bird and turned back to look to his left. He started to reach for a looped vine hanging from a tree when he realized it wasn't right. It was too smooth. Garrick followed the vine until he saw the head of the mottled brown and green snake. He scowled and shuddered, and then stepped to the side and continued forward.

  All around them as they walked, the birds and insects of the forest chirped, squeaked, and buzzed. Garrick found himself slapping at the stinging and biting insects as they landed on his arms or face. It reminded him of his homeland in the midsummer when the black flies would swarm.

  The road curved through the jungle and rose up and over small hills and bowls. After they'd walked for more than an hour and lost several pounds in sweat and blood, they followed the road around a curve to the right and saw light shining at the end of it. Excited at the prospect of escaping the jungle, Garrick lengthened his stride.

  He paused at the jungle exit and stared at the grass-filled clearing ahead of him. Mordrim stepped beside him and swore under his breath, echoing Garrick's awe. Shadows from the forest stretched halfway across the clearing. The road continued through it, though it ran along the southern edge to their right.

  Amid the field of grass, they could see where it had been torn up in places to reveal random brown splotches amid the green. Garrick saw two shapes mixed in the grass, preventing him from identifying them beyond something that looked like a snake. A giant snake, not like the medium-sized one he'd nearly grabbed in the forest. For all he knew, the field was littered with the creatures.

  He wasn't the only one looking for the crawlers. Karthor and Kar joined him. Both father and son stared with their mouths hanging open. A massive ape was running around the field and tearing it apart with one hand while the other arm was held to its side.

  "What is that?" Garrick blurted out louder than he meant to.

  "Ape," Mordrim answered.

  Kar nodded and added, "Aye, it's an ape. Looks like a gorilla, but not like any I've ever seen before!"

  "You've seen a lot of apes before?" Karthor asked.

  Kar shrugged. "A few, not many."

  "Mordrim?" Karthor asked.

  "They inhabit the jungles south of the Khalalid River, in jungles near where my people mine the hills," he said. "But none like this. He's bigger and hairier than even Garrick!"

  Garrick grunted, still too stunned to take offense at the jibe.

  "She," Kar said. "Notice the lack of anatomy."

  The ape had stopped pounding the clearing and was now standing still while her shoulders rose and fell. True to the wizard's word, she was lacking in the necessary equipment to be called a male. Well over a hundred yards away, she spread her lips and roared. Her arm pounded the ground and then she started to move, loping along on her hind feet and her good arm. A single awkward stride moved her faster than even Garrick could run, which was a problem since she was coming straight at them.

  "Bananas!" Mordrim cried as she bore down on them. "They love bananas!"

  "They don't make a banana big enough for her," Kar mused. "I suggest you try your hammer instead."

  Garrick grabbed his sword in both hands and stood ready. He'd killed a giant once—how different could an ape be?