Wild Beast Chase (Part I)

The strikers planned to go to the coastal bridge, on their stallions. “NO! Absolutely no” Mike crossed his arms showing disapproval. “Pass him out” Strike ordered. “Hold on, Strike. You can’t do it to me. There’re many other ways…like” Mike tried to protect himself. Kaecy came closer to Mike. In an attempt to flirt. Mike blushed. “Sorry…” Kaecy whispered and gave a good hard blow to Mike’s belly, knocking him out. Kaecy grabbed him and Sabrina covered his nose with a handkerchief. “Saby, can you do it a bit faster? This moron is heavy” Kaecy hardly said. while the others giggled. “Mike and Nick will be going with me.” Strike said. All of them mounted on their four stallions. Three on Strike’s stallion and three on Knightin Gale’s stallion. The strikers arrived at the nearest hangar. “Can someone wake Mike?” Strike asked and went towards the rail-cart. “Welcome to the hangar 17, Alpha, Strike K Ace” a worker said. “Good morning.” Strike greeted. “We need to go to hangar 1. Can you adjust the pressure shot to shoot us fast enough to reach hangar 1?” Strike’s these words almost made the worker faint. “I can adjust the pressure shots but, the only one-shot maximum distance is hangar 1 to hanger 9 and hanger 9 to hanger 1!” the worker informed. “You have to visit each hangar until you reach hangar nine. I’m sorry. Even if I adjust the pressure shot, you’ll end up either in the ocean or in heaven” a worker said. “Strike, we don’t have time to visit each.” Noah said. “Excuse me…what are those?” Michael nervously raised his voice and pointed toward some weird boats. “Oh those. Those are sea-stallions. Speed as a stallion on land. But really noisy,” the worker said. “Sea-STALLIONS? You mean I am looking at SEA-STALLIONS! I can now die in peace.” Michael said and by the looks of it, he was not nervous anymore. “it was my dream to ride one. Please Strike, can we use those…?” Michael begged Strike, pulling his arm and shaking it. Sea-stallion is super speed, aerodynamic, pedal boat type. The gear system, allows a single slow pedal to generate a huge boost to the boat. The “But, it’s noisy. We should be stealthy.” Strike said. Michael smirked in an evil way. “That’s my que…” Michael whispered and ran towards the sea-stallions with wrenches and screws. He opened the hood. “Just as I read. You have to pedal. By this mechanism, the slowest pedal will give out an enormous power output.” Michael said. “English please” the girls shouted. “Huh? You giggle at me ‘cause I’m dumb. Even I got what he said.” Mike defended Michael and himself. “Oh yeah! What did he mean, smarty?” Sabrina asked. “HE SAID, we can go for a very long time, at a high speed, without getting tired paddling. WAIT. Maybe the exact mechanism is the reason for the noise!?” Mike said. The girls were burned (metaphorically. In other words, not ‘literally’). “What are you doing exactly, Michael?” Nick asked. “as I read a book about Blastrik island mechanics, these are the most inspired objects. The book mentioned how to reduce noise emission.” Michael said. “Just a couple The Strikers ~ 38 ~ of…teaks…and…DONE! If I did wrong, this will produce a ‘bang’ sound, which is normal” he said. “Do the honours?” Strike asked the worker. “Of course alpha” the worker said. He went towards the engine and checked but there was not much difference. He started the engine by paddling. Michael was right. The engine didn’t emit a noise. When the hood was closed, the vehicle was in complete stealth mode. (sound only, appearance matters). “Since you’ve chosen to use five sea-stallions, your cost will be…500 silver coins.” Worker said. “Keep these two gold coins. And keep the change.” Strike said. “Michael, you happy now?” Mike asked. “Very…actually” Michael smiled and said. “Everyone hop in. Each sea-stallion can carry two people” Mike shouted. After everyone chose and boarded their sea-stallions, they departed to the coastal bridge.

( Part one: Going backwards) 

Some hours passed, and the strikers arrived closer to the coastal bridge. But Knightin Gale’s friends didn’t notice because Blastrik island was a vast land. “why aren’t we there yet?” Kaecy yawned and it made Mike disgusted. “Check it out! The peninsula. We are there alright.” Noah said. And the strikers set aside their sea-stallions. “Mike, since you are the fastest, go and inform hangar 1, that we parked five sea-stallions to the ‘harbouring reef’ in the coastal bridge.” Knightin Gale said. “Whoa wait, I’m actually not…” Mike tried to excuse himself. “Do it Mike.” Strike ordered. “Don’t get too cocky NG.” Mike was pissed and said to stop Knightin Gale from smirking at him. “Man she’s sure quick on adjusting to islands…and memorizing.” Mike whispered to himself. “NG, what did you mention as ‘harbouring reef’?” Zumi asked. “Guess we all want to know…” Nick grinned and joined the conversation. “See what Strike doing with the sea-vines and sea-stallions.” She pointed to Strike. “Too many ‘sea’ words.” She whispered and some others giggled. “Anyway…the coral that Strike tying those vines belongs to a reef called, the harbouring-reef. It is so strong that it has never been broken. Even if a METAL ship came right-at-it, either the metal gets cut or heavily damaged.” She said with a smug. Showing off her as the smartest person in the archipelago. “Okay. You have a good memory. Don’t show off for god sakes” Nick giggled and left. “You knew all along didn’t you?” Knightin Gale was pissed a bit. “Yup. I just wanted to point out your actions” Nick laughed and left to the ship. “All hands on deck!” Strike shouted. “Here is the enlarged map of the XOULE islands.” Noah said and slammed the opened map in the middle of the deck. “why is that group of islands called one island? And why is it called XOULE?” Naomi questioned. “The word ‘Xoule’ spoken as ‘soul’. Letter ‘X’ came from when matching the capital points of each island; Saeftion to Titentiza and Shelantiya to Masolo. And the sea that goes through the islands is more shallow than the open ocean. That’s the reason it’s not an archipelago. When those sea currents, viewed in the bird’s eye, will be seen as a weirdly tilted ‘X’. the remaining letters are from the first letter of each island.” Strike gave a brief description of how the island was named.

( Part two: Venomous omnivore ) 

About two hours and a couple of minutes later, strikers arrived close to, ‘see’ the isle of Ecronz. the sea near it was so shallow, seemed to be the sea was Aquamarine, a green colour due to coral reefs. But they needed to get closer to jump onto that shallow pool.

“Strike! Turn hard to port! Maelstroms! Off the port bow to off the starboard bow.” Noah screamed Strike, holding a rope connecting to the flying jib. “How many?” Nick asked. “Maelstroms all over the ocean in the bow side. It’s not natural.” Mike screamed. Strike got sweat all over him. “Pull up the sails. All of them. Prepare the port side anchor.” Strike ordered. “What for?” Michael who was running towards the anchor probed. “We’re doing a bootleg turn.” Strike put off an evil smile. “We can’t turn back now. There must…” Knightin Gale tried to speak. “Who said we are going back?” Strike smiled at her. “you heard the captain. MOVE!” Knightin Gale supported. “Let go off the port side anchor and prepare the starboard side!” Strike yelled. The ship tends to turn too hard to port to make the ship go back to the coastal bridge, but… “weigh the portside anchor, drop the starboard anchor.” Strike ordered. They went on an S-shaped path. Avoid all maelstroms and move a bit towards the port side, while the crew and ship are unharmed. The crew sighed gladly and naturally sat down the cause of the tiredness. Strike swept his sweat. “Stand UP! Hoist all the sails.” Strike ordered back and turned the ship back to its course after passing the maelstroms.

“Fheew. That was close enough” Noah sighed. He was still at the flying jib. “Where are we headed now?” Michael asked “well, the maelstroms were in the curve ‘washed-away’ part. Guess we are moving toward the sea current, going between the isle of Ecronz and isle of Orave.” Noah looked at the bow and said. “Strike, go to the directions I say…I’ll navigate.” Noah informed Strike. “Aye aye sailor!” Strike said. “oh god” Kaecy sighed awfully. “turn slight to port. Now to starboard. Hard to Starboard. Slight to port. Again. Again” Noah kept yelling at Strike with directions. Strike keeps turning the rudder left and right each time Noah tells a direction. “Can you please be slow on direction mate?” Strike tiredly asked. “I’m sorry but…turn to port…but there are corals all over the sea current path! Turn to the right. I mean starboard” Noah answered Strike while saying directions. “Stop the ship. Let go of both anchors.” Knightin Gale shouted. “Waters are deep enough, we’ll swim” she said. Strike passed the order. “Noah, do you think you can bring the ship to the Northwest side of the isle of Lawk. There’s a harbouring reef so the ship can be stopped there safely. We’ll meet you after we did with the chimera. I hope this be a trap than meeting a horrifying chimera.” Strike told Noah. “I can if I had a navigator.” Noah asked for a navigator. “NG, can you leave a lady behind to Noah.” Strike asked Knightin Gale. “let me think…Naomi…how is your navigation skills on ship” Knightin Gale asked Naomi. “Well, it’s average. I’ll The Strikers ~ 41 ~ stay on the ship. Better than meeting a chimera I suppose.” Naomi grinned and went up to the topgallant sail of the mast in an instant. The rest of the strikers overboard the ship, carefully by the help of a ladder made of ropes. The water level is up to their necks. “If you feel your feet or foot not touching the sea floor, take a deep breath quickly, dive a bit and swim forward. CAREFULLY. It’ll be useful to we have some staffs.” Knightin Gale informed. The eight of the strikers departed to the shore of the isle of Ecronz.

Sun was about to set at the moment and the strikers were getting cold due to the evening winds. Some even sneezed. Michael and Nick went to check the surroundings as scouts. Mike, Zumi and Kaecy, went in search of some dry firewood. And they could luckily find enough to make a campfire. “HEY! We want half of those firewood” Knightin Gale said. “What for?” Strike asked. “We are soaking wet…” she hinted. “Oh! Mike give them half.” Strike told Mike. And Mike gave an exact half of the firewood they gathered. He counted and even break one stick into two, to make the share even. Nick and Michael came and reported the area is clear. The ladies went into the woods and lighted their campfire. And guys stayed on the shore and made theirs. All were half-naked because they kept their clothes near the campfire to dry them quickly. After sundown, all eight went to sleep. A few minutes later, Strike woke up for no reason. He rubbed his eyes and looked into the horizon and all he saw is the calm ocean and the moon, preparing to set. Suddenly Michael woke up. “You heard it too? I thought I was dreaming.” Strike asked Mike. They kept hearing growls and sounds of leaves crunching. They tried to ignore it and go back to sleep. Suddenly from the woods, high-pitched screams were heard and Strike heard his name was being called. Sounds like a call for help. Strike rushed to the woods. Michael wakes up the others. “Sorry for intruding.” Strike excused covering his eyes. He heard no replies so he put his hand down. The rest rushed to Strike, their eyes enlarged. The beds made connecting trees were taken down. Flaming sticks off from the fireplace. The girls were gone (with clothes). No sign of any attacks. Nick extinguished the sticks that went off the fireplace to avoid forest fire. “Mike, take a look…can you describe the situation?” Strike asked Mike. Mike swept away a few crushed leaves. There was an animal footprint. A predator. “Strike…I hate to say this…but, I guess the chimera found us before we find it” Mike looked at Strike worried. Nick and Michael gasped. “either they dead today now or still alive till tomorrow” Strike said. “Just the couple of hours to sunrise. Let’s search inside out of this island till we find them” Michael said. “Agreed” Strike said.

After the sunrise… “KNIGHTI…” Strike covered Mike’s mouth from shouting. “Are you this stupid? Don’t give out our location to the chimera.” Strike yelled whisperingly. Mike grinned. Nick and Michael sighed. “Let’s stay together. Watch all directions. Find any clue, whisper into the closest one’s ear.” Strike ordered. “Affirmative” the rest agreed. The four strikers looked in four directions and kept their backs to each other. They followed the footprints and the footprints were separated in two ways. And the last footprint before it separated, was a bit deeper than the others. “Mike, Nick, you go The Strikers ~ 42 ~ right. Michael, you and me going left.” Strike said. Michael and Nick gulped and agreed. And the strikers separated into two.

“Mike, something in my boot, stay close.” Nick said and went ahead, grabbing a large dark-coloured leaf. Mike looked and stayed alert to Nick’s blind spots. Nick removed his boots, sat down and turned the boots upside down. A couple of seashells fell off the boots. When Nick tried to put the boots on, some slimy liquid fell on his right shoulder. “Mike, please stop putting slime on me. It’s disgusting” Nick complained. “What are you talking about? I’m over here.” Mike replied. He was a few feet away from Nick from the beginning. Suddenly, “MIKE!” a fading scream from Nick. And now he disappeared into the woods. Moments later Strike and Michael heard, “LEAVE HIM ALONE …”. “That’s Mike. Let’s go.” Strike said and both of them went in the direction Mike and Nick went. Then a shadow rocketed from behind, grabbed Michael and vanished into the woods. Strike was now abandoned. Strike’s face started to cover in fury and rage of losing comrades. He drew his swords and went into the place where Michael disappeared. “Am I still not worthy? Why can’t I protect a single member of my team? Why am I still weak?” Strike thought, crushing rocks, slicing branches and leaves blocking his path.

Strike heard a child crying from up ahead. He put back his swords slowly and silently. And went to see. There was a camp of inverteds. “I need to save them. Must be kept for slave selling” Strike whispered to himself. He calmed himself and went right into them. “Hey fellas. What are you doing? It’s me Strike” Strike said in an overly friendly manner. “Who are you? I don’t recall a person named Strike came with us” An inverted spoke. “Show your left hand!” Another one stood up and ask. “Left? Oh yeah…” the previous one said. Strike took off his left-hand glove and showed his scar. The inverteds smirked and tried to draw their swords. Then out of nowhere chimera jumped onto Strike. Strike blocked the lion’s bite, from his right-hand-side scabbard. And kept rolling to avoid snake bites. “Capture the chimera!” an inverted shouted. The inverteds drew their weapons, archers fired arrows. Chimera was forced to fly. Strike grabbed the chance, stood up and drew out the emperor’s sword, making the inverteds gasp. “Leave, the chimera ALONE!” Strike shouted and swung his sword. as happened in past, the sword separated into pieces and unleashed a fear of a mad dragon. The blade, heavily injured all the inverted who tried to fight with a blade and knocked out all who tried to block it. Then after the job is done, the blade pieces are retracted into one. The sword turned lava-like texture and turned back to normal. The wonderful fact is, though the ALMOST killed all the inverteds, there was not a drop of blood or a scratch mark on the blade. Strike went towards the barred carriage with orphans. They looked scared of the beast, fire and blood. Strike broke three bars, and inclined a plank so the orphans can get off. But they were scared and didn’t The Strikers ~ 43 ~ come out. “Hey, do you have families?” Strike asked and all of them nodded. “You are free! Go back to your houses” Strike said and threw a key to unlock their chains. One child knocked on Strike’s leg and whispered into his ear when he leaned towards her; “you are my hero”. Then Strike replied, “One day, you can be a heroine, as a female version of me. Or better. Who knows?” giggled and tussled her hair. The chimera was surprised. He hinted Strike to hop on to his back, while the children went back to their houses.

Chimera took Strike to its mountain den. And there were all the strikers, but only Mike and Kaecy (what’s up with these two?) lied on the floor, slightly bleeding and sweating, looking exhausted. The snake of chimera spoke. (WHAT!?). “I’m sorry, they tried to cut me, but my reflexes poisoned them” the snake apologized. “YOU TALK!” Strike was so surprised, almost fell off the chimera in the middle of the flight. “We all can talk” said the lion and goat. “Hey boy…Hello? Now you've done it. He passed out” the snake complained to the lion and goat.

The chimera landed on the den and dropped Strike near Knightin Gale. Strike woke up after falling down. “Strike, thank god you are okay.” Michael was glad. “Like god the one who took him over here.” Chimera giggled. “You tried to kill me for no reason” Strike complained. Chimera grinned. Michael went behind the chimera. “Miss snake, I need your venom.” Michael asked. “how do you know I was a female?” snake asked. “Just a hunch” Michael replied. “I won’t share my venom into your weapons.” Snake disagreed. “It’s not for the weapons. It’s for curing them.” Michael said. “Oh…with pleasure.” Snake said. Michael covered a small mortar with a stretched cloth and asked the snake to bite the cloth. The venom from its fang drop-wise fell into the mortar. Michael gave the mortar of venom to Nick. Nick added a few of the silver-green plant leaves their dad gave, to the mortar and smashed them into liquid using a pestle. When the ingredients turned into an anti-venom solution, Nick put a few drops on Mike and Kaecy. Sabrina already treated their wounds.

“CHIMERA” Strike called out. “Yaeries, are the ones who follow your combat techniques. They’re trying to…” the chimera raised its paw and wings, ORDERING Strike to stop talking. “Conversations like these should be done with the master” Goat of the chimera spoke. “we’ll be at the sea-shore near Lamox, the sub-capital, as you humans say, of the isle of Orave. Inform all the other beasts, that I called for a grand summit. By the way, this ‘chimera’ you calling has its own name. call us Kydie.” Chimera, Kydie said. “What is this grand summit?” Knightin Gale questioned. “You’ll see,” it said.

“New mission guys, meet Noah and Naomi on the next island and meet the dragon, tell the story, meet the jersey-devil, tell the story, meet the phoenix, tell the story, attend the summit. That’s it for now” Strike elaborated. “We’ll stay here for the night.” Michael said. “What! We can’t lose any more time” Sabrina said. “I was in the army, I remember alpha saying, not launching the war until the beasts were brought to the kingdom. Since we’re stopping the inverted from capturing the beast. We have all the time we need. I’m sure. The Strikers ~ 44 ~ Trust me. Besides Mike and Kaecy should rest more” Michael spoke. Remembering all he knew bit by bit. “He makes a pretty good point, Strike” Knightin Gale said. Strike sighed and agreed with Michael’s plan, “on one condition, we leave before moonset”

“EVERYONE!” Strike shouted, thought for a bit; “wake up” he whispered. “Not only as a pirate, but you are also TERRIBLE at waking people up.” Zumi complained. All woke up, preparing themselves to meet the next beast. “I have a couple of questions here. Where are we on the island? Where should we be heading to go to the Isle of Lawk?” Knightin Gale probed Kydie. “Don’t forget ‘how’…that’s important too.” Knightin Gale looked at Mike, hinting at him to stop joking around. “You are in my, I mean, our den under the mountain. You should go to the sunset side, EAST! On foot.” Lion said. “West. You idiot carnivore. Sunsets in WEST!” The goat shouted. “Going west will help you travel as soon as you want; to the closest part of Lawk, to Ecronz. sssss” Snake said. “Seriously? But the map…” Nick tried to tell but Kydie stopped him. “in the map? This is my home island kid. I mean ‘our’…. sheez” the lion said and sighed. “Well, we’ll know where East is, in a few minutes. Let’s head out to the mountain foot. Use the time to prepare.” Strike said. “Mike, Kaecy, are you two okay?” Nick asked while lifting them up with the help of Sabrina. “My head feels weird” Kaecy said, tapping her forehead. “I FEEL funny” said Mike rapidly shaking his head with a touch of a sudden stop. Mike and Kaecy were both fully recovered due to Nick and Michael’s work. Moments later, the first light of the sun appeared. Strike looked at the sky and made a half-turn, he saw the mountain peak. “Looks like, we have to go around the mountain…Kydie, would you mind giving us a ride? Kydie?” by the time Strike looked to see Kydie, it was long gone. Strike sighed. Strike went towards Mike. “We found a time when we could really use your weapon. Let’s see how strong it is…” Strike offered his hand and Mike grabbed it. Strike took Mike to the cave entrance. He pointed towards a certain point, just above the mountainside they were facing. “Think you can shoot the scythe there?” Strike asked. Mike took a deep breath. He drew his scythe and rotated his arm as a spinning wheel (anti-clockwise direction) and slide his thumb finger over the grip of his weapon. The scythe rocketed to the point where Strike, pointed and pierced the mountain and stuck. “try retracting it…” Strike suggested. Mike tried. The scythe stuck pretty good. “Nope. It’s not coming…stuck good?” he probed. “Yeah” Strike said. “Everyone, grab the chain. I’ll go ahead. Mike, after we all get to the other side. Retracted chain so hard.” Strike ordered and winked at Mike. Mike wondered and shrugged. The strikers went to the West side of the mountain. Mike retracted the scythe, but it didn’t come to Mike. Like the exact opposite, Mike whooshed towards the scythe. Mike smashed his head into the stone. And it broke. Luckily, Mike had taken no damage after retracting the scythe. “You could’ve at least told me what you saying to me, to do.” He complained Strike. “Doesn’t say is the same as telling?”. Strike said, giggled and ignored. “Whoa! There’s the ship. Naomi and Noah done a good job.” Sabrina said. Mike stood up; shaking his legs as they were frozen. “That’s impossible. You need to learn how to make a joke The Strikers ~ 45 ~ and how to make a lie. And they are both two different things” Mike said. “Thank you for SPOILING THE FUN” Sabrina yelled. “You are very welcome” Mike bowed like a gentleman and said; pissing off Sabrina to her limit (I guess she’s short-tempered). “We can walk directly. MOVE OUT” Strike commanded. “Technically, we can’t. If there’s a huge…something, we can’t go over, we have to turn. ‘Cause it’s a … well, it’s a jungle” Zumi said. Strike, without turning his head and pointing to his right side and said … “Who said we need to while there’s a path right next to us”. The rest was questioned and they gasped not realizing it. Strike smirked. “It’s all about attention. Am I right NG?” “Again, to be exact” Knightin Gale said, “let’s go!” Knightin Gale said. They marched (not literally) towards the west using the path. It was covered with trees. A shade; giving a nice cool wind with fresh air to breathe.

To be continued