Reason to Fight

The alpha reared back its long neck and struck forward, nearly skewering them both in its jaws. Rolling to his right, Lucius managed to dodge the teeth but was forced to scramble away from the sweeping clawed wing that tried to impale him. He could vaguely make out Astora roving around the alpha’s left, her body a blur of color and flashing steel as she carved deep furrows into the wyvern’s flank. Enraged, the alpha turned its fury on Astora, attempting to overwhelm her with a barrage of fangs and claw, but met with little success. A shallow cut along her arm was the only indication that there had been a fight at all, and it only served to fire her up more.

Hearty laughter rolled from the depths of Astora’s chest as she furiously contended with the alpha, delivering blow after blow and slipping between the flurry of claws as if she were made of smoke. Her movements were so confident and hypnotizing that Lucius couldn’t tear his eyes away. This turned out to be a poor decision, as he had forgotten that wyverns have tails, but the wyvern hadn’t forgotten about him. The thick tail crashed into his side and threw him across the deck, crushing the wind from his lungs and likely cracking a rib. He gasped in pain as he hit the rail, bright lights flashing in his eyes from the dual impact. Groaning from both pain and embarrassment, he blinked the lights from his vision and seethed at the unequal effort being put into the fight. Loathing bubbled up from within him, not just because of his inability to be useful in combat, but mostly because he had watched others pull weight far greater than necessary while he had done little more than the bare minimum.

“Maybe I should just stay out of it. Astora will handle this for sure, I’ll just get in her way…”

You lack passion. A strong fighter must also have a strong heart.

Blacktern’s scathing review reverberated in his head, briefly eclipsing the self-doubt long enough for him to reflect. She had praised his technical skills, which seemed to him to be highly unusual for her type of person, but had called him passionless. Dazed, confused and surrounded by danger, his brain decided that this was the right time to try and puzzle it out.

“When was the last time I was in an actual fight? Was I ever in one? Except for that bastard Salerius, all of my combat trials were neat and orderly. Nobody ever got seriously hurt, nobody ever died. I’ve never had to risk my life for anyone. Or anything.”

But this time was different. Death lingered overhead like a thundercloud, ready to burst at any time. Everyone aboard the Wavecutter was fighting for their lives, and the lives of everyone around them. Even Hana had stood against the onslaught and drawn blood for others, despite only knowing a couple of them at all. Everyone was giving it their all. Everyone, except Lucius.

Fury kindled deep within his heart as he forced himself to stand, all but forgotten by the wyvern alpha. More blood dripped from its scaly body, but it was slowly gaining superiority over Captain Astora, who was starting to show signs of exhaustion. That spark of rage flared as he clenched the hilts of his weapons so tightly that his knuckles turned white, and he willed it to burn out his fear.

His fear of running straight into the whirlwind of claws and fangs wasn’t fully gone, not a by a long shot. Dampened as it was, he could still command his body to move and obey. Throwing aside all fear and consideration for his bodily health, Lucius charged forward at the wyvern’s rear. As the saying went, better late then not at all, or so he wanted to say.

With the wyvern distracted, Lucius had unimpeded access as he made his approach. Remembering how his rapier skated off the wyvern’s scales previously, he stowed it away in favor of the smaller but thicker dagger. Hearing his footsteps approaching, the alpha swung its tail in a wide arc, but this time Lucius was wise to the move. Leaping over the heavy appendage, Lucius pushed further in, sliding underneath the backswing, and then catapulting himself onto the alpha’s back. They wyvern, not appreciating someone clambering onto its back, tried to shake him off by violently throwing itself from side to side. Lucius clung onto one of its back spikes for dear life, using the spines to pull himself farther up the creature’s back towards its head.

Perhaps aware of what Lucius was attempting to do, the wyvern flared its wings out wide, preparing to launch itself into the air and deal with him that way. Astora, who was laughing at Lucius’ audacious play, swung into action,

“Oh no ya don’t! We’ll be dealin’ with ya right here, ya shimmery bastard!” With tremendous force, Astora swung both scimitars in matching arcs, connecting with the bone at the base of its right wing, severing large portions of the webbing that allowed it to take flight. The alpha roared in pain and lashed out with frightening speed, clamping its deadly jaws straight into Astora’s shoulder.

That spark within his chest roared to a fever pitch upon seeing Astora stumble away, her arm a bloody mess. With a cry of rage, Lucius swung forward from the alpha’s spine and wrapped his arm around one of the horns atop its head. The alpha reared back to try and throw him again, which was exactly what he was hoping for. Summoning all his might, Lucius drove the dagger into the wyvern’s right eye all the way up the hilt and twisted. The creature’s roar of pain was cut short as the dagger reached its brain, and it collapsed to the deck, motionless.

Leaping away from the corpse of the wyvern alpha, Lucius ran towards where Astora had slumped down against the wheel, her left arm hanging uselessly by her side as bright red blood flowed freely from the wound left by the wyvern’s fangs. By the time he reached her, he could already tell that she was in bad shape. Her skin was pale and she was sweating profusely, her body shuddering occasionally as if reacting to extreme cold. Beneath the ripped shreds of her outfit, Lucius caught hints of darkened veins, obvious signs of poison that was now coursing through her body. Dread doused the fire within, leaving nothing but an empty abyss. Lucius was no doctor, but he knew a bad injury when he saw one.

Astora’s eyes blinked slowly, focusing and unfocusing as she drifted towards unconsciousness. Lucius shouted at her to try and keep her awake, “Captain! Captain! Stay with me here! Don’t fall asleep!”

A bit of a smile struggled to find its way up through the pain that wracked her, “Hey kid, guess ya won, huh? Nice…real nice…and tha rest?” He looked up and over to the rest of the Wavecutter and saw the remaining wyverns taking to the sky and flying off towards the thing strip on the horizon that signaled land,

“They’re leaving. We should be safe now, so just hang on a bit! We can take care of this!” Her head lolled from side to side, “Sorry kid, no dice. By the time we get to port, I’ll be long gone…too bad…seem’s like ya were just gettin’ good…”

Hurried steps drew his attention, and he twisted about to see Blacktern ascend the stairs. She was drenched in the blackish blood that the wyverns had spilled, but she seemed to be no worse for wear. Upon seeing Astora, her calm demeanor fractured as she dropped to her knees, grasping Astora’s hand in her own. The dying captain turned her head towards the sensation, though her dull eyes could not see who it was,

“Neiha…that’s you, isn’t it? I can tell…yer hands are always so gentle with me…”

Blacktern shot Lucius a death glare, her eyes ablaze with such raw emotion that he felt he might burn to cinders. He silently understood and agreed to keep her revelation a secret, it was the least he could do.

Was that really it? Is this all they could do but sit about and wait for Astora to die? “No, Absolutely not! I refuse to just accept this!”

“Blacktern!” The first mate turned on him, visibly on the verge of breaking down and only holding back due to the dignity of her station. If there was a way to avert these tears, then he was going to take it, no matter how irresponsible it was,

“Blackterm, you need to grab Hana, now! I’d go, but you’re faster!”

She stared at him with no small amount of indignation, which he understood to a degree. He was asking her to leave her beloved at the moment of her passing, after all. He could only hope that he was getting across how important this was without taking time to explain,

“Please! If you get her, she can save Astora!” He had no way of knowing if his plan would work or not, but this was the only chance she had. Galvanized by this tiny shred of hope, Blacktern took off like an arrow from a bow, leaving him alone with the dying woman.

Astora chuckled through bloody phlegm, “That girl, eh? She’s a real looker that one…yer damn lucky kid…” He forced a smile, not knowing if she could see him or not, “I’d feel luckier if you weren’t flirting with her all the time. No offense, Captain.”

A little sigh of amusement escaped her blue lips, “Then ya should fight for her more. Lotsa bad folk out there like me who do lots worse to get her. Trust me kid…if ya want somethin’, or someone, bad enough, ya gotta fight hard. ‘Sides, nothin’ wrong with bein’ a little possessive. Lets her know that she’s wanted…”

Lucius wasn’t exactly sure about that last part, but he assumed it was rude to disagree with someone who was inches from death. He was saved from awkward silence by the hurried return of Blacktern, who was dragging Hana along by the wrist. It seemed that she hadn’t even bothered to ask Hana to come along, but given the circumstance he felt that Hana would forgive her. A horrified gasp escaped Hana as she drew closer and fully took in the captain’s mangled form, which drew a weak response from Astora,

“Hey now…it ain’t that bad sweetheart…I’ll be just fine. Maybe just a little kiss’ll help ease me on my way…. heh.”

Blacktern resumed her position at Astora’s side and quietly murmured to Lucius, “I did as you asked, now do whatever needs to be done. Quickly. She is already unconscious…” A small commotion was beginning to form just out of sight below the quarterdeck, as some of the crew was starting to catch on that something was wrong. Lucius knelt as well, prompting Hana to do the same. Astora’s breathing had slowed to nearly a crawl and her eyes had closed completely, it was clear her end was nearly at hand. He turned to Hana,

“Can you heal her?”

Her eyes flicked down to Astora and then back to him, concern mixing with sorrow and nervousness, “I…I have no idea. Some others I managed to fix up quietly, but the worst they had were scratches and cuts! This…I…I don’t…”

Lucius reached out and placed his hand on top of hers, causing her to jump slightly at the sudden touch, “I’ve seen you do amazing things that you didn’t think you could do before. It doesn’t matter how impossible something is, all that matters is that you want to accomplish it. That desire alone will be enough to carry you through.” She blinked at him in surprise, “Wow Lucius, that was…very profound.”

A wry grin spread over his face, “Thanks. My old tutor told me that once, and I’m only now starting to figure out what he meant by it. So, what do you think? Can you try the impossible?” She breathed deeply, then threw back her hood to reveal her pointed ears while her tail fluffed out from underneath her cloak,

“If I’m going to try this, I may as well be comfortable, you know?”

Lucius shot a glance towards Blacktern to see if she had reacted to Hana’s features, but understandably, her full attention was focused elsewhere. A low hum began to build from deep within her chest as a faint golden glow began to swirl in the middle of her palms. The humming increased in tempo in accordance with the pulsing light from her hands, growing in intensity as the melody grew more fervent. Hana placed her hands directly over the wound in Astora’s shoulder, then exhaled loudly as she seemed to physically push the light straight into her body. The glow slowly faded, and they waited with bated breath for any sign of reaction. Blacktern was so focused on Astora’s still form she didn’t even respond to the odd treatment that was applied, or either of them for that matter. Several heartbeats went by where nothing seemed to happen, then Lucius noticed that the deep puncture marks on her shoulder and upper arm had vanished.

They looked on in amazement as the color began to return to Astora’s face and her chest rose and fell once more. Blacktern allowed her mask to fall ever so slightly as she squeezed her captain’s hand hard, a few tears of quiet relief leaking from the corner of her eyes. One of Astora’s eyes blinked slowly open,

“Oi, I don’t remember allowin’ ya ta cry over me.”

Blacktern smile contained the most genuine emotion that Lucius had ever seen her shown, and it was the purest expression of her adoration for her love, “Aye aye, Captain. It is…wonderful to have you back with us.”

Astora smiled in kind and raised a finger to wipe away some of the tears that had fallen down her cheek, “Glad to be back, my beautiful little blackbird.” Lucius shook his head to hide his own relieved grin, then stood to give the pair a little bit of privacy. Hana likewise made to stand, but lost her balance and slipped to the deck. Turning quickly about he grabbed her underneath her shoulders, stopping her from hitting her head just in time.

Deciding to stay there for a bit, Hana leaned back against his chest, breathing heavily from obvious exertion. He leaned over her and squeezed her shoulders, whispering quietly into her ear, “That was amazing. I knew you had it in you.” He felt a shiver run through her body as her cheeks flushed a bright red, “Hmph! Of course I could do it! Do you need reminding of how exquisite and incredible I am?” She flipped up her hood to cover herself, then muttered quietly, “Thanks though…”

He chuckled gently and looked out over the rest of the ship, where the crew was busy tossing some of the wyvern corpses overboard and starting to assess the damage done to their ship.

“Looks like we managed to avoid a real disaster. Any issues with the injured in the hold?” Hana gave him a tired look, “No, they’re all fine. They’ll certainly hurt for a few days, but they should all recover. I don’t know about the captain though, she really was on the brink…”

“But she’s not now, is she? Seems like you really pulled off an honest to gods miracle.”

The words were barely out of his mouth when the wind died completely, and even the waves went totally still. Everyone aboard was suddenly alert, their heads looking this way and that trying to determine what had just happened. Astora struggled to get to her feet, even with Blacktern’s help, clinging to the wheel for support,

“A doldrum? Here? Impossible…there’s no way…what’s our status!?”

One of the sailors began to run forward to answer his captain, only to be splattered against the mast by a long tendril that erupted from the water’s depths. A second sailor was wrapped up and pulled into the inky water mere moments later, so quickly that nobody had time to even scream. Those that remained on board could only stare dumbfounded as the sea boiled and erupted in a column of white foam, heralding the arrival of a massive creature from the deepest depths.

A huge, serpentine creature reared up as high as the crows nest, its body as thick as four oak trees which supported a large triangular head, upon which were seated four massive eyes that trained on the stricken ship. The mouth split open to reveal rows of teeth that dripped with brine and saliva, while four long tendrils sprouted from beneath the waves around it, suggesting that the main body was still unseen. Astora breathed out in reverent awe and fear,

“An Abyssal Greatwyrm…I thought they were a myth…”

Lucius could only stare up at the creature as all hope fled him, leaving him an empty husk. Despite all of their efforts, it seemed that Hana’s prediction had come true.

Death had come to the Wavecutter.