The Cost of Carelessness

After securing Tera’s promise to help, Jensen sent her back to her father’s side with Reigen, the girl obviously worn out after everything that had happened, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes as he led her away. By the time Jensen and I were finished making our plan, the sun was already starting to crest over the horizon.

The idea was simple enough: we would regroup that evening, have the girl lure the kraken out, and absorb it into the fishbowl artifact of Jensen’s. If all went well, we would hopefully bring things to a peaceful conclusion. The issue was whatever might happen afterwards. Once the bandits realized the girl was a tamer, it was very likely that they would try to coerce her into siding with them, to use her powers to their advantage. All we could really do was wait and see how they might react.

In the meantime, I returned to the dockhouse to get some rest. As I reached for the doorknob, it suddenly flew open, and Rill nearly plowed into me as she rushed through the doorway. We both started, eyes wide, and snorted as we realized what had just happened.

“Oh, hey Leo! I’m just on my way to swap places with Lassan…I may have overslept a little” she explained, with an abashed chuckle.

“In that case,” I mused, “could you pass along a message for me?”

“Sure, what’s up?”

I quickly explained the situation, telling her about the meeting with Tera and Jensen, as well as Tera’s unique ability. “Also, it’d be for the best if you could try to keep all this as quiet as possible. There’s no telling what might happen if those bandits catch wind of all this and try to interfere.”

Rill nodded, absorbing all the information I had told her. “A tamer, huh? I didn’t even know an ability like that existed! But alright, I’ll fill the others in. Go and get some rest! We’ll take care of things out here, so don’t worry about a thing.”

Reassured by her words, I smiled wearily. I had not even realized how tense I was until right at that moment, as I felt a weight lift from my shoulders. That’s right. I’m not in this alone. The others are plenty capable of taking care of things as well.

Rill waved as she hurried off, and I returned the gesture. As she rounded the corner, I glanced towards the far edge of the building. It had only been for an instant, but I was sure that I had felt the familiar impression of being watched just then. I strained my hearing to its limit, but beyond the creaking of the ship in the harbor and the cry of birds futilely searching the lake for a meal, I could hear nothing. Could it have been my imagination? I wondered, and shrugged it off, my mind too focused on sleep to follow it any further.

***

I awoke a few hours before dark, and ate a sparse meal of crusty bread and salted meat. It was not nearly enough to fill me up, but better than nothing, and I felt some of my strength returning as I chewed the tough jerky. This had better work, I thought to myself, If not, the people here really are going to starve to death. I shuddered to think of what ends the bandits might go to once the food actually did run out.

With several hours left until I was supposed to meet with Jensen, I really had nothing to do but to wait, and because of that I began to feel rather antsy. In an attempt to work off some of my nervous energy, I walked out to the tiny lawn at the rear of the dockhouse and spent some time practicing with my sword, quickly falling into a rhythm as I trampled down the tall grass. Eventually I decided to take a break, wiping the sweat out of my eyes as I glanced up to find Rill watching me, sitting cross-legged on a nearby crate, resting her chin on a fist.

“How long have you been there?” I wondered, once again astounded by her ability to go unnoticed.

She shrugged, yawning as she replied, “I dunno, maybe an hour or so? You’re getting better, by the way. Pretty soon you might even be able to beat up Lassan!”

I laughed bashfully at her praise. “Well, I still can’t hold a candle to your skills.”

“I’d offer to give you some pointers,” she said, grinning deviously, “but to be honest, my body just sort of moves on its own. I’m starting to understand it a bit, but I doubt I could really teach you anything useful, yet. If you don’t mind getting beat up, we could always give it a try, though.”

“Maybe some other time,” I chuckled, holding up a hand defensively. After seeing how she treated the others in their sparring bouts, I knew that she was quite serious about that last part.

“Ah, there you are!” Said a familiar voice from behind us, and we both turned to see Jensen, who added, “It’s about time. I’ve sent Reigen to retrieve the girl. Are you ready?”

I glanced at the sky to see that it was, indeed, beginning to turn dark. Guess I was out here longer than I thought. I exchanged a look with Rill before nodding that I was, and we both followed the man around to the front of the building. But before we could go anywhere, a flustered Reigen came bounding down the street, waving his arms fervently.

“Boss, there’s trouble!” He exclaimed breathlessly, stopping in front of us and panting heavily. His face was bright red; he must have sprinted all the way from the inn, an impressive feat for a man of his size.

Jensen frowned and asked, “What is it now? Those damned bandits again?”

Reigen nodded and swallowed hard before explaining, “Y-yeah. Somehow, they found out about the girl, and launched an attack on the inn just before I got there! The adventurers managed to fend them off, but in the chaos, they managed to nab the girl!”

“This is bad,” Jensen said, and I was suddenly reminded of the strange sensation I had felt after talking to Rill earlier that morning, clenching my jaw in frustration as I realized, Dammit, there really was someone there!

Just then, a moan from the docks filled the air, a low rumble that I recognized. We all exchanged a look, and Rill said fervently, “We should hurry! There’s no telling what they might be planning to do with her!”

Jensen and I both bolted, rocketing ahead of the others as we rushed towards the docks. I quickly gained a bit of a lead, and within moments I had cleared the rows of storage buildings and came within sight of the water’s edge, where I spotted a large group of maybe two dozen men gathered around the familiar form of their leader, Nervin. As I drew closer, some of the men took notice and turned to face me, but so too did I begin to understand the situation.

Nervin held up the bound form of Tera, tied up tightly and gagged with thick rope, almost using her as a shield against the towering form of the kraken which seemed to be both furious and hesitant, clearly wanting to save the girl but also afraid of harming her.

In the slowly fading light, I finally got a good look at the creature, which was quite unlike anything I had ever seen. It was similar to a massive octopus, covered in dark gray fur, with tentacles that were each tipped with a nearly three-foot-long, scythe-like talon, as dark as night itself. Four large eyes glistened with a deep-set intelligence as it scanned the crowd, as if it were searching for a way to save the girl.

I skidded to a halt before the group, Jensen and Rill catching up shortly thereafter. Nervin finally noticed our arrival, and half-turned towards us, still keeping a wary eye on the beast in front of him. He laughed triumphantly, spreading his arms wide and declaring, “So you finally make your grand appearance, Jensen, King of the Seas! Well, you’re too late. Who could have known the cause of all our problems was an inexperienced tamer that can’t control her own pet! Hah!” He accented his rough laugh by shaking the clearly distraught Tera, eliciting a bellow from the kraken, which half-lunged forward before pulling back, still hesitant to attack.

“Stop this foolishness, Nervin!” Jensen ordered in a steely voice, “We have the situation under control. Let the girl go, and we can resolve this whole ordeal peacefully.”

Nervin barked another laugh and exclaimed, “You have the situation under control, really? It sure doesn’t look that way to me! In case you haven’t noticed, I have the girl, and I’m sure Marik will be very keen to have her powers on our side. The way I see it, you only have one choice; take your blasted crew and head back to the sea, old man! Before things get messy.”

The man beside me took a deep breath before responding, telling Nervin levelly, “Unless you can somehow contain the beast, it’s going to continue disrupting the ecosystem of the lake. Soon enough you’ll all starve to death! Only we can prevent that.”

Nervin scoffed loudly. “To hell with the local ecosystem! Once Marik learns we’ve secured a tamer and her tamed beast, I’m sure he’ll be willing to divert plenty of resources to keep us going. As for the townsfolk…who cares? Let ‘em starve, I say!”

I could hear Jensen's knuckles creak as he clenched his fists in rage beside me. “I’ve heard enough!” he snapped back, his voice like a thunderclap in the air. “I’ve put up with you lot and your antics for months, because I wanted to avoid a confrontation with the Bandit King himself. But now, I don’t care anymore. We’re going to put an end to this tonight, one way or another! You can either release the girl and leave on your own terms, or start picking out your graves!”

Nervin chuckled at the suggestion, turning into manic laughter. At long last, he calmed down and bellowed, “I was hoping you’d say that! Oh, how I’ve waited for this day!” Drawing one of the twin, long-bladed daggers at his belt, he held it to the girl’s throat and turned towards the kraken, telling it, “If you don’t want your little friend here to get hurt, you’d better take care of those four quickly…before my hand slips.”

The kraken eyed him warily, before turning its gaze upon us. I turned to see that Reigen had finally caught up to us, as the monster bellowed and leapt out of the water, straight towards our party!

Jensen wasted no time flying into action, his signature fillet knife sword appearing out of thin air in his hand as he expertly parried a flurry of talons directed at him. At the same time, he called, “Leo, you’re with me! We’ll hold the beast off for as long as we can without killing it. Meanwhile, you two free the girl!”

I exchanged a look with Rill, who smiled reassuringly despite all the color having drained from her face. I was hesitant to leave her, but it seemed that I had no choice. All I could do was focus on my own fight, and trust that she could handle herself, with Reigen’s help.

I drew my wooden blade and jumped forward to help the old man defend against the monster’s onslaught. One way or another, Lakeside’s fate would be decided right here, tonight.