Book III: Chapter 4 | Stipes Rex

Barbara is flying through the forest, tracing the path of the railway, which she can see from the sky thanks to the large groove cut through the forest leading to the shoreline.

She flies through and circles, looking for the ship, which is marked by flags and torches.

She notices that it's only about a third of the way, and she wonders if something happened or if something is wrong.

Because she had to turn around, she's coming in faster than she originally would have liked.

She starts approaching the ship and lands on the mast, which is taller than most of the trees at this point.

She sees the crew struggling to hold on to the ship.

The ship has slowed to almost a stop and is now rocking back and forth.

At the bow, she sees a log from an overturned tree caught within the rail, being pushed along.

The crew has almost stopped the ship for fear, and she sees that all of the meat on the ship has been put away.

There are only torches, and they're trying to hold on to the ship and fighting off the monsters that are rocking the ship back and forth, trying to get on top, or worse, push it over or break it.

So far, the log walls around the ship are holding.

The scene she comes to is chaos.

The elves are using shield formations with torches, their faces visible with sweat mirroring from the torches and flames, while trying to hold on as the ship was rocking them.

Barbara tries to help.

Out of instinct, she grabs a few of her darts and lunges them at the monsters, causing some to fall over.

Alexander shouts at her to stop and to come to him.

Barbara climbs down quickly and comes to Alexander and Pliny.

Alexander tells her to stop firing at them because the bodies could make a platform for the blemmy to get on top of the ship.

Barbara says that she sees that there is a log in the bow, and they say they know, and that's why they don't want to drive any further.

She asks why they can't just push it or keep plowing ahead with the bow.

Pliny explains that if they do this, they run the risk of the ship running on top of the log, which could derail the ship, or worse, cause it to break the spine of the ship.

So they've stopped for now.

The Blemmyae are getting louder, and Pompanianus notes that they can't just hold on like this forever. Then the men will be tired, the crew will be tired, and they'll be stranded because there will be no monsters left to push.

Alexander turns to Pompanianus with an idea.

“Father bring Bucephalus out.”.

His father goes down below decks, and Alexander suggests to Pliny that he will take his horse and some meat from below decks, and he will lure the monsters to attack him so that they can get the log out of the way.

Castra, who was in the middle of fighting, is asked to bring some fish below decks.

She does and asks if there's anything she can do to help.

Alexander says, "Keep staying the course, and make sure that none of the monsters get on the ship."

Castra is disappointed, but she's not going to fight when there's a matter of survival.

Barbara also gives her a glare that screams, "Why are you doing this now?"

Pampanianus comes above decks, and he brings Bucephalus.

Alexander takes Bucephalus.

He declines the torch since he's not going to need it for now and grabs some fish.

He asks Barbara to go up and cover for him, going into the trees and having the torch ready if needed.

Barbara starts climbing up the mast again and gets ready to hop to the next trees.

Bucephalus asks his father to pray to his gods for him.

Pampanianus smiles proudly and says, "They're yours too, son."

Alexander charges his horse into the sea of monsters above him on the ship, and with a jump, he climbs on top of several of the creatures, reaching the other side.

The horse walks on top of the monster's heads and jumps down from the creatures, thanks to Alexander taking a spear, stabbing one and using that creature as an off-ramp or a cushion for Bucephalus to descend safely with meat in his hand, though frankly unneeded, because the horse itself and Alexander were enticing enough.

Alexander starts to attract and lure away the blemmy before he even moves the log in the first place.

Alexander starts getting them off the ship or away from the ship and towards him, getting them attracted to him so that the ship can get a moment to resettle and regroup.

So he does this for a time.

He walks up and around the ship, leading this trail of monsters around him.

He tells Barbara to thin the herd.

Barbara complies.

Using her sling, she takes out a couple of them now that they're further away and scattered, away from the railway.

Castra wants to help as well, so she gets a bow out and starts shooting at the blemmy as well.

Alexander calls to her and asks her to swap the torch on the bow to meat.

She says, "Why?"

And Alexander just screams, "Just do it!"

And so she complies.

She swings the crane around so that the meat is facing the bow, over the torch, in front of the torch.

The blemmy start moving towards the bow of the ship and begin pushing against it, pushing the ship backwards, loosening the log from the cart.

You hear the ship rock and the springs or the spider silk threads twanging.

In fact, you even hear one or two snap.

Arachna is nervous, but she says that it should be strong enough.

She made it so that it will be able to hold.

She says this with a very nervous confidence, as if she's trying to delude herself into this.

Pliny nods.

He orders the elves that are on the outside of the ship or on the edge of the ship holding the torches to be replaced and relieved.

So some of the elves switch places with them.

The elves in the front move to the back, grabbing their bows and javelins, while the elves with the torches and shields stay in the front.

They create a formation so that the javelins are poking through the shields like an ancient phalanx.

Using this new formation, they are able to start plugging any holes in the line and using the javelins either threaten or take blemmy out with them.

But between the torches and the pokes of the javelins, the blemmy are now starting to keep their distance from the side of the boat.

Alexander, with the attention of the blemmy now focused on him, moves his horse between them and the log and through maneuvering.

As the blemmy are stumbling, they essentially stumble to the point where the log is in between them and Alexander, with a mighty push, they throw it away.

Barbara has to move out of the way as the log comes hurtling towards the tree close to where she is.

Castra tries to move the crane away from the meat crane away from the torch, so that they're no longer coming towards the bow.

As she's doing this, however, the rumble from all The Blemmiye moving towards the front of the ship causes her to stumble, and she falls off the starboard side of the front.

Alexander asks Barbara to help.

Barbara continues to pick at the blemmy that are getting close to Castra and sniping them out.

Castra, meanwhile, is trying her best not to get attacked by them, while asking the others in the ship to pull her up.

She is holding her leg in pain. But tries to hold herself up on one leg.

Alexander, with Bucephalus, runs over and is forced to dismount from Bucephalus.

Pollux throws down a rope to the ship, and through that, Alexander and Castra are able to get on.

As Alexander is pushing her up, Pompanianus rushes to the side to pull Castra up.

“Are you alright? Pliny! get over here, and look at her wounds.”

As Alexander climbs up he hear a horse scream for first time as Bucephalus is torn apart by the Blemmiye.

“Return formation!” Shouts Pliny

A line of elves form up around Alexander bearing torches as he falls to his knees, unable to watch as the swarm of hungry creatures descend upon his horse. The elves look on in terror, as its screams are snuffed out by the disgusting sounds these creatures make.

Pampanianus barks at the elves, snapping them out of this trance.

“We are not out yet. Move!”

They reset the meat on the rear of the ship and the creatures begin to push again against their own will.

Barbara flies back down to the ship to see an enraged and grieving Alexander.

He climbs to the top of the stern of the ship and with a bow, he begins firing arrows at the Blemmiye.

“Disgusting vermin, destroy anything beautiful.”

He hits one in the front of the pile, The ship rocks a little as it falls.

“I will return to this island, and I will torch it to the ground!”

“Son, cease this, you are wasting arrows. You are distressing your men.”

Pompanianus tries to put his hand on Alexander’s shoulder only for him to brush it away and keep firing.

Barbara tries to calm him.
“Alexander, we need you, please!”

He ignores her.

“I will burn this entire forest, and drive you all into the sea.”

Another 3 arrows. Another two Blemmiye.

“Alexander…”

Castra, who climbed up the stares on her hands and knees, gets up. She hobbles forward and lunges at Alexander. She embraces him in tears,

“I’m so sorry.

I was trying to help!

I didn't want you to be hurt!

I didn’t mean for him to die!”

Alexander pauses for a moment, and the storming over his face washes away. He looks down at Castra.

To Barbara's surprise, Alexander accepts the embrace and weeps with her.

She feels conflicted and can only watch as the two are locked in an embrace, she turns to Pliny.

“Father, am I still needed right now?”

He shakes his head.

"Then allow me to change and rest for a moment."

She stomps off down the stairs, going below deck.