“Let’s fucking go!” Hillanter cheered, punching the air. The rest of the crew were cheering as well, as they sailed away from the castle, still visible from the boat. Zunci is jumping up and down, screaming to the sky about how they were even lucky to pull that off.
“When you said you were fast, Yunga, I didn’t even know you were that fast!” Zunci said.
“You basically just teleport.” Shug jokes.
“Thanks.” Yunga laughed. “It’s something I’ve mastered ever since I was fourteen.”
“Where did it come from?” Shug asked.
“Don’t know. I’ve always just sorta had this power.”
“Didn’t your parents ever tell you?”
“No, they most likely knew, but they just refused to tell me.”
“That sucks.”
“Enough of that talk!” Hillanter came out of the captain's cabin with a huge barrel filled with a beer called Klinker, and a bunch of mugs. “Grab a drink! We deserve it!” Hillanter placed the barrel down, put the mug under the tap it had, poured himself a drink, and gulped it down. “Anyone else want one?”
“Fuck yeah!” Zunci came running over, pulling the mug from Hillanter’s hand, put it under the tap and slammed it down, and completely swallowed the drink until the mug was completely dry.
“I’ll get one I guess.” Yunga said, walking over to the barrel.
“I’m fine.” Shanta said.
“I’ll pass.” Brentha said.
“Might as well.” Shug walked over to the barrel.
All four of them took mighty swigs of the Krinker. Having a nice conversation with all of the crew, laughing and joking along, as the ship sailed along the sea.
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An hour has passed and they’ve been sailing along the sea with no apparent goal in mind. No destination to go to, just drifting off wherever God takes them. Shug and Brentha were on top of the crow’s nest of the ship as Yunga and Zunci were just sitting down on the deck, Hillanter was at the steering wheel, and Shanta was inside the captain’s cabin.
“Yunga?” Zunci said to get her attention.
“Yeah?” Yunga responded.
“Why did we even go out to sea again and not just get away on land.”
“Well, even if we did manage to escape, we would be worse off as we would have no supplies whatsoever. So I knew this ship wasn’t fully unpacked yet, and that it wouldn’t be left guarded.”
“Wow, that’s smart of you.”
“Thanks.”
“Guys!” Shanta shouted from the captain’s cabin. “You need to come in here!” Yunga and Zunci get up and rush into the captain’s cabin, swinging the door open. Shanta was right next to a water pump. The water pump takes water from the sea and pumps it into a barrel on the ship. Inside the barrel was a disdainful yellow that tainted the water. It looked very disgusting.
“What the fuck is that?” Yunga said in disgust.
“That’s what I was gonna ask you.” Shanta said.
“Well I have no idea what that is.” Yunga started to cover her noise due to the stench, and so did Zunci. Yunga put a lid on the barrel.
“This is bad.” Yunga said, with her nose still covered. “Let’s get to the deck.” Yunga, Zunci and Shanta, go back onto the deck and look at the water around them. The water was all tainted yellow, with the stench of a rotten egg and burning fossil fuels.
“Yunga!” Shug yelled from on top of the crows nest, also covering his nose. “There’s something in the water around us!”
“I know that already! Why didn’t you report it earlier!” Yunga yelled back.
“Because it just suddenly appeared, like out of nowhere. The water didn’t look this bad five minutes ago!”
“Grrr.” Yunga gritted her teeth. “Hillanter! Turn the ship and get us out of here.”
“I can’t!” Hillanter said.
“What!?”
“The wheel isn’t doing anything! I think the water has got something to do with it!”
“There’s an island up ahead!” Zunci was at the front of the boat pointing. “We’re coming up close on it! We need to slow down.”
“Lower the sails now!” Yunga commanded. Shug comes sliding down the ladder to help lower the sails, Brentha joins behind him. Hillanter jumped off from the wheel and onto the deck to lower the sails.
The sails get lowered pretty quickly and Zunci rushes over to the anchor to throw it down and throws it down, Yunga and Shanta rush over there to help, lifting the anchor up just in time for it to hit the sea floor below, making the boat slide and stop.
Everyone on the ship gets thrown around from the ship turning and the anchor dragging along the seafloor, just in time before the ship crashes into the tropical island. The ship stopped right before it hit the runup onto the island.
Everyone gets up from being tossed around, and looks at the island they have just stopped in front of. It was a beautiful tropical island, with lots of palm trees and a beautiful shore, with waves crashing into it. It looked baren, like it had never been touched by anyone. A little yellow stream of liquid is coming from the deep jungle within the island.
Yunga looked out at the island, alongside Zunci. Strangely, the stench from the water is now completely gone and replaced with a nice and pleasing cherry smell.
“Shug!” Hillanter shouted. “Should’ve known that you would not be able to do your job again! How do you miss spotting the huge giant island right in front of us! Not even counting that! How do you miss the yellow stains all around us!”
“I was looking out!” Shug retorted. “I’m telling you that island and water just appeared out of nowhere!”
“Excuses, Excuses.”
“No! He’s telling the truth.” Brentha snapped back. “I was looking out as well, and there was literally nothing ahead of us five minutes ago! I’m telling you guys the truth!”
“Then what the fuck is going on!?”
“Calm down Hillanter.” Yunga said. “It’s fine, it’s not like we crashed into the island. We’re fine.”
“No we’re not fine!” Hillanter exclaimed. “The steering wheel to the ship won’t turn!”
“Shit.” Yunga said. “I forgot about that.”
“So unless we get that fixed, we ain’t going anywhere.”
“Dammit.” Yunga looked back at the island. “What the fuck do we do now?”
“Hillanter.” Shanta said to get his attention.
“Yeah?” Hillanter responded.
“You said that most likely the water is causing the steering wheel to not turn.”
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s the cause of it. I could turn the wheel just fine, but as soon as I smelt that awful stench, the wheel basically locked in place. I couldn’t really do anything with it.”
“Shit.”
“Do you know what this is?”
“It’s a little spell that mages use all the time to trap ships in place so they can raid them. Though, I’m not sure why they would use it here, and not out in the open waters. So this place has got to be a base for them.”
“Really?”
“Yes, the water you see is just a type of liquid they cast into water that only affects the ship’s steering wheel. It’s only used by guild’s and cults. So I have no idea why this would be here.”
“So we basically have to go in there and take out what’s causing this?” Shug said.
“Basically.” Shanta said. “If not then we’ll just be stranded on this island.”
“Alright then, let’s get this over with. Bring the weapons you brought with you.” Yunga commanded, going into the living quarters and grabbing the sword she stole. Hillanter and the others followed, except for Brentha, who had brought nothing along with her.
They all carefully get off the boat and land on the beach, the hot sand burning underneath their feet. Shug helps Brentha get off of the boat, and land softly on the beach. The yellow stream leading into the ocean was flowing quite rapidly, the water swishing and sloshing in the current and splashing onto the beach, only ro evaporate.
Yunga and the rest of the crew walk up to the beginning of the stream, and look up as it leads deeper into the jungle.
“Alright, let’s follow it.” Yunga takes the lead, charging forward up the stream and into the jungle. The others follow.
They trekked through the jungle, following the stream that seemed like it went on forever and ever. Hiking up little hills, and also swatting off bugs that would go near them. The sun beamed down on them, many of them covered in sweat and dirt.
After about twenty minutes of just straight hiking and little talking, only popping the occasional grunt or maybe even complaint. Many of them come from Brentha herself, as she isn’t very used to this. They happen to stumble upon a breakthrough after a brutal walk.
The stream then separated into three different streams, that all spreaded off into different directions, straight, left, then right. They all take a moment to breathe and relax, then to ask the next big question.
“So what now?” Shanta asked. “Do we split up?”
“That’s kinda what our situation is going to be.” Yunga responded. “It’ll be the best way to cover most ground and make sure we don’t waste our time going down every individual stream all together.”
“Then it’s settled.”
“Yep. So, who’s going with who?” Yunga looked at the rest of the sweaty crew.
“Me and Brentha will take the right one.” Shug said, surprisingly fast.
“Alright, ummm. Zunci and I will take the straight stream.”
“So me and Shanta are stuck together.” Hillanter said.
“Yep, hopefully that’s good.”
“No, it’s fine.”
“Alright, before we part, let’s give some means of communication between us. Just in case one of you guys is in danger. Shug, since you have a rifle, just fire it off into the air if you ever get in a tough situation. Shanta, you can do some magic thing or whatever fits. Zunci will also shoot up in the air if anything happens. Everybody got that?”
They all respond with a confident “Yes!” As they begin to split up and go their ways up the stream, giving one another a goodbye and good luck.
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Yunga and Zunci were still in the position they were earlier, but now with just fewer people. Trekking through jungle leaves, hot sun beaming down on them, and the sweat getting in their eyes.
“How big was this island when we first arrived?” Zunci asked.
“It didn’t look that big.” Yunga said. “It just looked like an average sized island. Now it feels like I’m exploring the whole of Mintlantica again.”
“Again?”
“Yeah, during my teen years I was all alone. Just wandering around the whole land. Living off of scrapes, hell it’s even the reason why I’m here in the first place.”
“Damn, I lived like that for a while as well.”
“Really? I guess we do have something in common.”
“Though it was only for a few months, unlike you. But I know how it feels.”
“Weren’t you caught doing a black market deal? How’d that even happen?”
“Well, ever since my dad’s estate just crumbled to the ground, he was caught and executed for doing under the table deals with the black market. I ran away and hid out for the most part-”
“Wait, was your dad Hunter Hermich? The head of Hermich market?”
“Yep.”
“No wonder your name sounded so familiar. Interesting, I was wondering what happened to them, they were the market I stole from the most.”
“It was pretty easy to steal from us, we didn’t have that much security anyways.” Zunci let out a faint giggle.
“What’s so funny?” Yunga asked.
“Nothing, nothing at all.” Zunci said.
“Come on, tell me. I’m curious.”
“It’s crazy that I’m really talking to an Elantra pirate, that’s all.”
“Don’t get all nervous, besides, not a lot of people even know of my existence in the first place. I’m not a celebrity.”
“I know, it’s still crazy to think about.”
As they are walking Yunga slips and tumbles down a sheer and steep drop, stumbling down a hill.
“Yunga!” Zunci cried out. Yunga rolled and landed at the foot of a lake, a huge lake in fact. It was filled with all of that yellow water stuff, and there seemed to be no other source that the water was coming from. The lake just sat there dormant.
Zunci slid down the hill and helped Yunga to her feet. “You ok?” Zunci asked.
“Yeah.” Yunga grunted. “Didn’t expect it to drop like that out of nowhere. Maybe I should look where I’m going.”
“Good idea.” Yunga and Zunci look out over the lake. “Holy shit, is this where that yellow water is coming from? It doesn’t even smell that bad as when we came here.”
“I don’t think so.” Yunga said. “Because look at the lake closer. There’s literally no current, and besides.” Yunga pointed at the hill they just fell down. “It doesn’t make sense that the current is going uphill like that with the lake being as stable as it is.”
“Then is this just like a landfill for this stuff? It’s too circular to be natural, this has to be man made or whatever. It’s just not natural.”
“Don’t know, but there’s something much bigger here than we thought.”
“Is there another stream we can follow?”
“Doesn’t look like it.”
A shot rings out from over the jungle, some birds fly out of trees and bushes, and a scream is heard by Yunga and Zunci as they snap their heads in the direction it came from.
“Shit, the only other person with a rifle is Shug, what the fuck happened?” Yunga said, startled.
“Let’s figure it out!” Zunci said. They rush over the steep hill, barely getting over it and then run down the stream to try and get back to Shug and Brentha.
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Shanta and Hillanter have a clear opening, barely any trees or bushes they have to push past through. The stream is barely running as they walk beside it, getting slower and slower every step they take. They mainly walk in silence, with the natural sounds of the jungle and footsteps, the dirt crunching underneath their feet, along with leaves and twigs.
“How old are you?” Shanta asked randomly.
“What?” Hillanter said.
“I asked how old you are.”
“Why do you even care?”
“I’m just curious. I know that your species can live for up to two hundred years. Just want to know.”
“Well you don’t get to know.”
“What’s with the sudden hostility? I just asked for your age.”
“Shut up and keep walking. Don’t want to talk to you right now.”
Hillanter pushed past Shanta, who was in front of him, and walked at a much faster pace. “What’s going on with you?” Shanta asked. “Did I do something to piss you off?”
“No.” Hillanter said.
“Then what’s the big deal?”
“Nothing.”
“No, there’s gotta be something, I can sense it.”
“I just don't want to be here, that’s all.”
“No one wants to be here, but you don’t see anyone else whining about it. So suck it up, you’re a man aren’t you?”
Hillanter turned around in one fell swoop and picked Shanta up by her robe, and was now up in front of her face. “Say that one more time and I’ll drop you so fast!”
“Struck nerve there, didn't I?” Shanta said in a cocky tone.
“Shut the fuck up.” Hillanter let go and dropped Shanta to the ground, landing on her bottom, getting even more dirt on her robe.
Hillanter keeps walking forward as Shanta helps herself up by patting the extra dirt off of her, and then continues on trekking through the jungle. Hillanter is far up ahead when he just stops randomly in his tracks. Hillanter has come across a little sewer grate that is spewing out the yellow water.
“Welp, I think I found where the yellow water is coming from.” Hillanter said. Shanta came up from behind him and looked at the sewer grate.
“Damn, it’s spewing out like crazy. I wonder what’s producing it?” Shatna pondered.
“Can’t you figure it out? You know magic and stuff like that.”
“I would’ve, but something here is not letting me. It’s like a spell has engulfed this whole island. Most likely a spellfield.”
“A spellfield?”
“It’s like a magical barrier that doesn’t allow mages or any other magic users from casting magic within it. Only powerful mages or wizards are strong enough to even cast it. So whoever is here, is probably a person we shouldn’t mess with.”
“But we have to, unless we're gonna be stuck on this island.”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
A shot rings out from the other side of them, rather close to them, followed by a scream.
“Where the fuck did that come from!?” Hillanter said.
“It sounded like it came from our right.” Shanta said.
“Isn’t that where Shug and Brentha are!?”
“Yep, let’s get there now!”
“Shug, always getting himself in trouble.” Hillanter and Shanta take off sprinting back upstream to get there as fast as they can.
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Shug and Brentha continue walking up their stream. The stream has constant twists and turns, at some parts it gets bigger, then very slim at some points, then back to normal size. A very unnatural movement for a normal stream of water to consist of. Shug and Brentha are walking side by side with each other.
“What do you think we’ll find?” Brentha asked Shug.
“Hopefully something not dangerous.” Shug responded.
“Yeah, me too.” They walk in silence for a little bit.
“Shug, can I tell you something?” Brentha asked.
“Sure, you can tell me anything.” Shug said.
“I don’t think I properly thanked you for saving me back there.”
“Oh, you don’t need to do that.”
“But It doesn’t feel right. It’s not the right etiquette, I feel like you’re not really appreciated for doing it.”
“I told you it’s fine. I feel fine. I don't do these good things for the validation of others. I do them because it’s the right thing.”
“Aw you’re so cute.”
Shug blushes a little. “Thanks.”
“Though.” Brentha said. “I’m not sure why you went out of your way to save me. I was kind of mean to you on the boat before you went back into the castle. I thought surely you’d leave me behind.”
“You’d think I’d leave you behind just because you were a little harsh?” Shug said. “I’m not the kinda guy to hold a grudge over that. Even if that didn’t happen, the way your father treats you is horrific, and thought you deserved a better life.”
“Man, you really are a nice guy.”
“I try to be, for the most part. Sometimes my kindness is all in vain. When I lived by myself a lot, I was giving out my rations to people, while I starved. Then one day, some people came up to me and beat me up because I didn’t have any food for them, they almost killed me. The only thing that stopped them was because some guards were walking by. I recovered a full month later.”
“Damn, I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
“It was the majority of my life. But I still kept my head up high.”
“Wait.” Brentha pointed ahead of them. There was a stone structure where the yellow water stopped at, there was a little grate that was spewing out that yellow water. There were five stone pillars that circled around a little cave entrance.
“Holy shit.” Shug said. “Looks like we actually found the source of it.”
“Should we check it out, or get the others?” Brentha said.
“We should at least look a little deeper. Then we’ll go tell the others.”
Shug walked up to the pillars and peered around them, making sure there wasn’t anybody else there. Once he was sure, he stepped out from the pillar, with Brentha close behind him. Shug tiptoed to the cave entrance, and peered inside. It was very dark, so dark that it felt like he was closing his eyes. He picked up a pebble on the ground and tossed it in. The pebble bounced off the stone and then wasn’t heard again. Actually, the pebble did something, but it sounded very far away and it echoed. It sounded like it was dropped from a building and hit the ground.
“How deep is this cave?” Shug thought.
“Shug.” Brentha said.
“Yeah.” Shug responded, still looking into the cave.
“Look behind you!” She grabbed Shug by the shoulders and spun him around to face the stone pillars. There were about fifty rats from that town Quint that they faced, all crowding behind them.
“Oh, shit!” Shug screamed, drawing out his rifle to point at them. He put his finger on the trigger and shot, the bullet whizzing by Brentha and into the head of a rat , his head exploding and the blood splattering on the other rats around them. The rats all backed up and Brentha screamed.
“Get the fuck back!” Shug yelled at the other rats, though he knew that they didn’t understand him. Brentha hid behind Shug. The rats then started to prance up, like they were about to charge. “Shit!” Shug shot off another round, blowing another rat's head off.
The rats didn’t stop and they started charging, Shug kept shooting, taking another one down then missing.
“Move!” Shug grabbed Brentha by her arm and dragged her as he fled out of the way from the cave to dodge the rats. The rats began clawing at them, mainly hitting Shug’s left leg, leaving scratch marks all over it. It started to bleed as they got out of the way of the main onslaught.
“Run!” Shug shouted out as he tried stepping on his left leg, but fell to the ground, dropping the rifle as he hit the ground.
“Shug!” Brentha cried out, as the rats were closing in on them for round two.
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Yunga and Zunci make it back to the fork where they meet up with Hillanter and Shanta, who are not too far behind.
“Guys! You heard the shot too right!?” Yunga said, as Hillanter and Shanta caught up to them.
“Yeah! Shug and Brentha are in trouble.” Hillanter responded back.
“Let’s not sit around and talk! We need to hurry!” Zunci said, as she kept running up the stream that Shug and Brentha took. The others rushed too, running up the twisty and windy stream. Along the way they hear four more shots ring out and a cry for Shug. The sound was really close as they turned the corner, they saw the stone pillars,the rats charging directly at them, Shug on the ground, the rifle right at Brentha’s feet.
Yunga drew her sword and rushed in, zooming in and striking multiple rats sending them flying, and cutting up multiple of them, she hit the ground and stumbled around, she still can’t get the landing right. But that didn’t matter, she saved Shug for now, but more rats are focused on him.
Hillanter draws his sword and stands in front of Shug. He slashes some rats before they become overwhelming and he has to back off. He throws Shug to be in a safer spot and grabs Brentha, and the rifle on the ground to get out of the way of the charge.Hillanter tosses the rifle to Shanta.
Shanta takes the rifle and aims it at the oncoming horde, takes aim, and fires blowing the brains out of a rat. Zunci takes a shot and hits another rat, killing it. The horde starts to slow down, and Yunga comes from behind slashing at the rats, to draw their attention, but they bat off Yunga, forcing her to pull back.
“We’re not going to be able to take these guys on!” Hillanter shouted out. “We need to pull back there’s just too many of them.” Brentha, Shanta, and Zunci all back up, as the rats charge towards them.
Shant’s leg slips into the stream and she stumbles a little bit. She gets a weird feeling in her chest when she hits the water. “No way.” She said in disbelief, kneeling down.
“What are you doing?” Brentha asked.
“I’m gonna try to cast a spell, step back.” Shanta responded, with her eyes closed. A little white circle appears around her and Brentha gasps.
A huge rumbling shakes up the entire island, and a huge thundercloud hovers the entire island, appearing randomly in the sky. The rumbling stops and a huge flash goes off. Lightning strikes the remainder of rats, burning them up and creating an explosion as well. Sending everybody flying back and up in the air, also destroying the stone pillars and cave entrance.
Shanta flies back and lands right next to Hillanter, Zunci, and Brentha. Shug is nowhere to be seen and Yunga is also.
“What the fuck was that!? I thought you couldn’t cast magic!” Hillanter screamed.
“”I can’t.” Shanta said.
“The what the fuck just happened!”
“I don’t know. For some reason that water just enhanced my magic power. I didn’t mean for the spell to be that strong.”
“Ow! My head hurts.” Brentha said, rubbing her head.
“That water is something different. We’re facing off against a grand wizard.” Shanta said under her breath.
“A grand wizard?” Hillanter said, in confusion. “Is that bad?”
“More than bad. We’re completely fucked."234Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTz8urUC9ci
