Previous Chapter
Index
Next Chapter
Chapter 25
From Deep Within the Sea
Melli’s skipper, piloted by Sal, sailed across the raging sea. Frost stood vigilant at its bow with a grappling hook in hand, and Free hung on for dear life.
The skipper’s headlights did little to illuminate the way ahead, but they were guided by the faint light of the New Gold’s lanterns and a strange honey-colored flash that had appeared a few seconds before.
They were close to reaching the New Gold, only a little further…
“What’s the plan again?” Free asked.
“We’ll hook onto the ship and I’ll talk to Lav,” Sal replied.
“And my job?”
“Stay on the boat in case something goes—”
Suddenly a tentacle shot out of the water and wrapped around the New Gold, bringing it up into the air—right in front of the head of a kraken, its luminous eye locking onto the New Gold. A swarm of more tentacles followed shortly after the first appeared.
The skipper weaved between the kraken’s arms—they were a few feet away from the New Gold now, yet it was impossible to reach… by normal means.
Frost wrapped the grappling hook around their shoulder and let out a cascade of snowflakes—letting the wind carry the snow to a tentacle, freezing it in place, then, jumping and catching onto it with their knife. Next, Frost kicked off the tentacle—launching towards the New Gold, catching on it rim, and vaulting onto the deck.
Frost quickly took in the situation then acted—slicing the tentacle coiled around the ship, forcing it to uncoil and let the ship drop back onto the sea.
The kraken darted its focus to Frost, Frost fixed their stance and readied their knife in response.
“Go, get the others—I will keep it occupied," Frost said to Foxx and Lav before dashing off the bow and leaping onto the kraken’s head.
“I’ll get Poppy, you get Clary,” Lav took Foxx’s scarf off her arm and headed for the quarter deck.
“Your arm,” The blood on Foxx’s scarf dissipated.
“Don’t worry about me, I’ll dress it up at the quarter deck!”
“Ok.”
Foxx went to the bow, where Clary was starting at Frost in pure amazement.
“Ice bombs—that’s something I've only seen northerners do!” Clary put her finger to her chin, “Maybe it’s the adrenaline, but if they can, I wonder if I can…”
“Follow,” Foxx said.
“One sec—I need to try this while the inspiration’s hot,” Clary moved a puddle into the air then squeezed her hand close—the water dropped back to the ground. She tried that again and was met with the same result.
“We must go.”
“One more try, you never catch fish with the first two—”
Foxx swept Clary up and onto his tail and jumped back—A tentacle hitting where she would have been if Foxx didn't intervene.
Meanwhile, at the quarter deck, Lav took out a med kit from a chest next to the helm—spraying her wound with disinfectant and quickly bandaging it.
“Doesn’t that hurt?” Poppy said.
“Like shell—let's move,” Lav grabbed Poppy’s hand.
“I can’t believe it’s ending like this.”
“I’m not happy either, but there’s not much we can—” Lav noticed the bell atop the crow’s nest swaying back and forth, silently ringing. She let go of Poppy’s hand, “You go, I’ll catch up.”
“I’m not going without you.”
“Trust me,” Lav smirked. “I caused this, I’ll get us out of this. Be ready to ditch that skippy when it’s time.”
Before Poppy could reply, Lav had already jumped back down to the deck—dashing towards the crow’s nest.
At the same time, Sal and Free arrived at the portside of the New Gold just in time for Foxx and Clary to hop onto the skipper.
“Where’s Lav and Poppy?” Sal asked, then spotted Lav climbing up the crow’s nest. “Sis!” Sal ran onto the New Gold, now below Lav, “Come down from there!”
Lav continued to climb—
“Lavender.”
For a moment, Lav hesitated—
Out of nowhere a tentacle slammed down in between Lav and Sal, cracking the deck’s hull and splitting the New Gold in two, creating a wide divide.
Foxx leaped into action, using his tail to restore Sal’s balance. Frost took notice of how the situation had changed—leaping off the kraken to catch Lav before the crow’s nest fell. However, halfway through, the kraken swung at Frost—they froze the arm just before it hit them, but in the process lost too much strength and momentum, falling short of the crow’s nest.
Clary quickly shaped the water below Frost, making a platform that caught and brought them to the skipper.
Free—knowing that Poppy was still on the boat and Lav was moments away from a watery grave—transformed his hair into wings, they ripped out of the sides of his cowl.
The rain burned his hard light shell, “Foxx, get Poppy!”
Free flew to Lav as Foxx brought Poppy and Sal back to the boat. The extreme winds worked against Free, but he jumped fast enough to overcome it—too fast.
When he reached the already unstable crow’s nest, the force of him grabbing onto it snapped it.
“Kid!” Free extended his hand to Lav.
Lav grabbed Free’s hand, he tried to leap off the pole of the crow’s nest but with Lav weighing him down—he didn’t have enough speed to go against the wind. Lav and Free flew back into the basket of the crow’s nest.
The crow’s nest dropped into the sea; the waves took it far from the New Gold.
“Kid, quick—how close is shore?”
“A few knots, maybe—if we had a sail the wind would take us there fast," Lav replied.
A sail? Where would they get a sail? Free couldn’t use his raincoat, that would make things worse, and Lav’s jacket wasn’t suitable—
Free had a horrible idea.
“If we had a sail, how long would it be before we hit land?”
“Two minutes tops.”
“I can-I can handle that,” Free’s wings melded together then wrapped around the pole that extended from the basket of the crow’s nest. Like thread weaved into cloth—Free’s wings shined brightly for a moment and transformed into a sail. The rest of his body became notably thinner.
“How did you—”
“Eyes on the water,” Free was doing his best to keep cool as rain poured down on him, each droplet hurting more than the last. “I need you to direct me, I’ve never been a sail before—nor sailed away from a kraken!” Free turned towards where the rest were and yelled, “I got this—get out of here before stuff gets worse!”
Foxx readied to go after Lav and Free, Sal unfurled her wings—
“Do not endanger yourselves,” Frost gritted their teeth. “We have to go.”
Foxx’s fur dimmed to a grayish yellow.
Sal’s feathers puffed, I can’t-I don’t—”
“Trust—” Frost coughed out black coolant, “Free.”
Previous Chapter
Index
Next Chapter