Daccat's Final Testament
By Matty J Rad
Daccat leaned on the rock in the middle of the island. It was hardly big enough to hold him and the splinters of his wrecked lifeboat.
"So this is where it ends? The end of the great Daccat, the plunderer of enough treasure to buy Nasr, the heroic and fearsome legend, and the explorer of all six moons, ends on this miserable little island north of Valua. Nobody will witness a glorious death in battle, a sad and respectful funeral, or commemorative celebration. I am going to die here," he thought.
He had just finished hiding away his note and his coin in the misleading titanic chest. The comical joke lost its humor as he sat on the lump of an island with the giant stone in the middle. After hiding it, Daccat ordered his crew to sail due west, where they had encountered five heavy-clad Valuan ships gunning for revenge on the countless ships he looted. His crew fought long and hard, and even sunk three of the enemy ships, but eventually they took their toll and his ship sank into deep sky. The crew escaped in lifeboats, of course; but Daccat, always the last to leave the ship, had his own lifeboat that got severely damaged from shrapnel and debris coming from the ship. As he left the sinking boat, his lifeboat slowly lost altitude, and the island he now sat on was the only place that he would have made it to.
The sun was setting in front of Daccat, turning the sky a bright orange.
"How anticlimactic," he thought.
Daccat sat for a long while, battered, bruised, cut, and weakened from the encounter. He needed a doctor, but that was out of the question. He didn't even have the strength to stand.
Daccat peered into the sunset and slowly his life's memories flashed one by one through his mind, especially the good ones. It suddenly stuck him that all his happy memories were in the sky.
"You really don't appreciate it until you think about it," he thought. "I've always sailed the sky happily, but I never really recognized how much it meant. It's always given me adventure, always given me something interesting and new to see, always something amazing and worthwhile." His bitterness towards a quiet death changed to happiness as he was able to reflect on what everything meant to him.
Life slowly began to fade from Daccat. He began to become light-headed. But suddenly a silver looper floated around the corner of the rock he was leaning against. It turned around, startled by Daccat's presence, and almost ran away as loopers so often do when they feel threatened, but it hesitated. The young looper realized that Daccat, near death, was no threat to it.
Daccat eyed the looper, wondering why it had not run. It cautiously approached him, and realized that he was dying. It floated in silence for a moment, curious to see how Daccat would react. Daccat saw that the looper had no intention of running, and marveled at how it could be. Every time he had encountered one in the skies it cast a few magic spells and ran away.
"The skies, even this close to death, still don't cease to amaze me. What could you want little looper?" he asked it.
The looper felt more comfortable, seeing that Daccat was in no position to attack, and went within arms length. It sensed that he wouldn't live for more than a few more minutes. It was the first time the looper had ever encountered an animal of a different species that wasn't hostile, and it wanted to help Daccat in any way that it could, for kindness, or rather, not reacting with hostility, was something it wanted to preserve. The looper, silver, and still in its infant stages, cast some simple green magic on Daccat.
A small surge of life flowed back into him. "The wonders never cease. First the looper is bold enough to greet me, and then heal me. The skies and the moons have truly blessed me, even in my dying moments."
He still would not have long to live, and he realized this. The looper was not strong enough to support him, but he was grateful all the same.
"Thank you looper; you've given me one last wonder."
Daccat felt an overwhelming appreciation for skies, and all it had given him. He struggled to his feet. With the last energy the looper gave him, and slipped out a dagger from his boot, which he always kept in any case.
The looper floated back a good three meters, but remained watchful.
"Oh no looper, I wouldn't hurt you after what you've given me."
Daccat turned around and faced the rock, carving his final testament to the world in its surface.
He wrote:
"Though my body may age and the sun may set, the soul of a sailor still burns inside me. As long as I can dream I shall travel the skies. As long as there are skies, my journey shall continue."
He sank to his knees facing the sunset. His last breath escaped him, smiling.
His crew found his body several days later, and gave him a proper burial under the silver moon.
END (for those of you who don't understand, Daccat carved the philosophy stone discovery north of Valua after hiding his coin on his hidden island)