Episode 2
The detour
The brig, as it was promised, would sail the waves of the ocean for seven days and six nights, yet the girl's motivation broke right at the sunrise of the fourth day. Even before that, she had realized that this harsh kind of transportation was not made for her to endure. Ágnes' first day at work was spent with carrying crates and tying them down inside of the hold, however the weak knots quickly came undone by the push of a strong wave, so another unforgiving tying session had follow. The third day was the most peaceful, but the captain was true to his words, and so the girl was issued only with a minimal amount of daily supplies, barely enough not to starve or stay hydrated. She felt tired and weak; her once strong resolve was fading away.
On the fourth day, when the waves had calmed down, she was ordered to wash up the deck. It was a rather large ship compared to the ones she saw at the port, with two gigantic masts reaching towards the sky in an attempt to tear down the clouds. That was her perspective at the very least, as her body was nothing more than a flea to this huge vessel. She has thought that the sun would set long before her work would be even half done. Whatever hard job it might have been, she has had a suspicion, that there was just no purpose for what she was doing. She only got that old, dusty rag into her hands so that she would not be a simple nuisance who is lazing around the clock. Weakened and roasted under the hot sun, she staggered to the rails on the port side of the ship. She has lain down on the wood with her chest, removing her body's weight from her tired legs.
Staring at a faraway island in the fading distance, Ágnes was startled by the sound of the huge splash that the anchor has made. Looking over her left shoulder, she saw the hard-working sailors, who were already lowering the rowboats down onto the water, with a huge grin on their faces.
"Are we porting?" she asked curiously, lifting her right eyebrow. It's not even the end of the promised week!
"Restocking." The captain appeared so suddenly behind her, that Ágnes almost jumped straight off the deck. "That island over there has lots of sweet fruits, which we often sell for a nice profit boost. Would you perhaps be interested in helping them out?" he smiled while pointing at the crew. "Of course, whatever loots you may grab a hold onto; we'll let you keep a portion of it, as payment."
Ágnes instantly considered the offer. She either stays here and continues to scrub this rotten piece of wood, or takes some leisure time on a tropical island, with a possible chance for more food on the plate tonight... Hundreds of thoughts and plans have flown through her mind, as she imagined herself on that warm, relaxing and sandy beach.
"Or..." The man slowly bent down for the ripped, wet textile piece, and he put it once again into the hands of his diligent worker. "You could just stay aboard for some extra coin instead."
The girl did not need to think any more on the matter, she immediately chose the relaxing vacation - which she thought she deserved quite well - and took a step to the away crew that will be setting their foot on the island. Unfortunately, she took too long of a wait even as it was, and the two boats were already down between the waves, and so were the men. Every time they were passing on this route, the crew chose five willing sailors per boat to forage for twenty crates of the juiciest and sweetest food they can just find there, but the lineup of volunteers never really changed.
A quiet laughter could have been heard from away team, as they looked upon the girl who was cluelessly standing above them.
"How will I ever get down there?" asked herself Ágnes in a worrying tone.
"Well, there'd be a quick solution!" exclaimed the first mate, who was now standing besides her. Most of the time he too went foraging with his mates, as the leader of the operation, but this time he just did not feel like stepping down from the ship. He then put his hand on Ágnes' shoulder. "You know how to swim?"
" Well, yes..." she answered sheepishly."...but I don't see wh-"
She did not even finish her own sentence by the time she had found herself floating in mid-air, with the solid ground robbed away from her. She let out scared shriek by instinct, then, only in matter of seconds, the waves have swallowed her body as a whole. The splash she made was greater than that of the anchor's, but the loud laughter that had engulfed the ship was something even bigger. Every sailor, from the ship to the boats, who saw the hilarious event were laughing at the girl's unfortunate turn of events, and no one considered pulling her out of the water just yet. The first mate was the one who enjoyed it the most, but the cheerful smile on his face froze in an instant, as he came to notice two strong grips on his arm.
"I presume you are able to swim too, right, Daniel?" asked the captain in a fury, then with a strong spin he threw the man right after the girl.
Ágnes came to the surface and spit out the salty water, which have invaded her mouth. She tried to take a breath but did not have time to do so, as she immediately had to swim away in order to avoid her ill-wisher crashing down upon her fragile body. She was no cushion! The second splash cut short the scream of Dan, and it was more than enough to wet the whole away team, who were just sitting around comfortably. They immediately rowed towards him and tried to pull out their struggling friend.
Meanwhile, the girl swiftly swam around them, unnoticed, and crawled up upon one of the boats from behind. Before the crew could even realize what was happening, it was already too late... Ágnes hit them from every direction with the wet, dirty rag she scrubbed the deck with, every lazy bastard got his own share... chest, hands, legs, but it seemed that Ágnes' favorite spot was the face, as some of the men who have suffered her wrath could attest. The captain joyfully overlooked the amusing event from above, and after a few seconds, he warned his crew, that if anyone even touches the girl, all of them will get a permanent vacation on that god-forsaken island as a reward, no exceptions.
The group, now grown to twelve people in number, set off for the island. One of the boats had the first mate sitting on the front bench; his happy expression was taken over by grumpiness. He felt betrayed, as it was his own captain who has ashamed him in front of everyone. His best friend for all these years! Moreover, for what? A stowaway girl? He let out a sigh before sweeping the water out of his black, short and curly hair, directly onto the men sitting behind him. Of course it was on purpose, because he could still hear them laughing on him. On the other ship that was ahead of them, Ágnes was also sitting at the front, all alone, ready to smack anyone in the face with the rag, who tries to turn around while she gets rid of the water in her clothes. She was enjoying the protection she got from the captain, and it was also helpful that none of the sailors ever considered going against the will of the old salt.
As time has passed, the sun rose even higher on the eternal sky, indicating that noon would soon arrive. Sadly, this also meant that by the time the crew had reached the land, all of them, even Ágnes, were as dry as the grub that their cook puts on the table. The average temperature was on the rise from day to day, which was a very unusual phenomenon even though they were already deep into the summer. As soon as the boats have stopped, everyone jumped out onto the sandy beach, and without hesitation, rushed straight under the cool shades of the palm trees.
Rested and relieved, the men began their work. A few of them unloaded the wooden crates from the boats, then rowed back to the ship for more, while the rest have separated into two groups and began their search for the prized loot. Naturally, the first mate did not even move an inch from the comfortable bed of leaves on the ground. Daniel was twirling his short hair around, cooling himself with his bandana at the same time. The heat was killing him. Honestly, he wouldn't have minded working, in the usual sense, as he was quite fond of these small adventures, but the weather was in no mood of showing any mercy.
The girl was sitting right beside him, although he did not mind it... or... it's not like he could do anything about it. Ágnes got no job whatsoever; no one told her what to do, so she was just spending her time, looking around aimlessly. Getting bored as time passed by, she decided to take a look around and explore this new, amazing world. She stood up from the fallen leaves and walked down onto the shoreline, deciding on her own to catch up with one of groups that had went along with the beach. The feeling of the soft, wet, yet somehow burning hot sand that was under her bare feet felt really great for her. At last, solid ground! Well, more or less solid... No longer had she stood on the cold, wooden planks. Oh, how she yearned for this gift of life, to once again be connected to Mother Earth, even if it was only for a short period of time.
Somehow, she felt herself lighter, more joyful than ever before these past few days. Her smile did not fade away even after she finally caught up with the team, who were already busy cutting off strange green orbs from the tall trees. They were more than surprised by that happy expression the girl was sporting, but since they all had work to do, they simply could not care less about it. Pretending how she doesn't even exists, the sailors continued to climb up the tall trees for the wealthy harvest awaiting them.
Ágnes easily noticed their mean attitude, but her response was the same as theirs towards her. Without a single word, she too tried to climb one of trees, to show these men that she is not to be taken lightly. If she were to reach the top, then they would regret dissing her and would probably accept her as part of the crew. Well, that was the supposed plan, but she could not climb up one inch on the clean and smooth surface of the trees, as there was nothing to grab hold onto! Disappointed and easily given up after a brief laughter from the sailors, she sat down to watch them work instead. To her surprise, she found an already fallen fruit under the palm tree right next to her, eliminating the need of climbing altogether.
She did not know what is that, never even encountered one where she lives, but... the captain had said that they would be harvesting fruits, which meant that this thing must be edible. With a moment of hesitation behind her, she bit into the hard, green skin of the orb, however, she merely scratched its surface, as it was way too hard for her teeth to penetrate.
"Blimey! What ye be doing, lass?" shouted one of the sailors from atop of a tree, as he saw the disgust on the girl's face, holding a damn coconut in her hands.
"Is this a fruit?!" freaked out Ágnes, while trying to desperately scrape off the horrible aftertaste from her teeth and tongue.
"Addled!" laughed another. He could not believe his own eyes! For someone to actually do that... "It is a coconut! That green husk is inedible! It must be peeled first, then the shell beneath it be broken up, to get to the tasty insides." said, as he kept on laughing.
The girl did not stay for one second longer. She ran to the shoreline at an instant to wash out that horrible taste from her mouth. Even the salty nature of the ocean's water felt like a bliss, compared to that sour "thing" she just bit into. As she reached into the water for the third time, she noticed something strange floating just above the bed of beautiful small rocks. It was a paper, more precisely, an old map. She gently took it out, afraid that it might tear even at the smallest of breeze, and put it down onto the hot sand in attempt to dry it.
The ink had already smeared, but she could still make out the picture from the lines and circles. Without a doubt, it was the map of an island, but to her shock, not just any of it. She could clearly see that the shoreline depicted on the map was that very same area she was kneeling on right now. Did it fall from the ship, perhaps? Anyway, from what she could see on the map, there was a strange marking just next to her position, inside the forest. She may have not been able read the writing anymore, but the marking made some kind of a strange resemblance to a temple of sorts. Maybe ten or even just five minutes of walk through the thick woods and-
"Oy!" A deep voice broke the silence that had befallen on the girl. One of the men got alerted to the fact, that she was lying motionlessly in the sand. "Is everything all right?"
Ágnes got so startled by the sudden call that she accidentally ripped apart the fragile paper, and its wet remains were all but consumed by the thirsty sand below.
"...No..." she muttered in defeated tone, facing the guilt for the destruction she had so easily accomplished.
She stood up, let out a disappointed sigh and swept down the fine sand from her red clothes. Furious at the sailors, she headed back to the landing site. Nonetheless, even though the map was now destroyed, she still remembered what she saw on it. As the unbearable curiosity grew inside of her, she glanced over to the rows of trees to her right and concluded that if she were to enter the forest from this point and continue in on a straight line, she would eventually reach the marked site. This was a choice she had to make on her own, but since exploring the woods soundly beat idly burning under the sun by a huge punch, the decision was outright obvious. She let out a playful smile, and when nobody was looking at her, ran headlong into the depths of the island.
The ground beneath her feet was now much more similar to her. The wet, black earth, full of leaves and small branches... it felt almost the same as the forest she used to hang out in as a child, however, this place was much more dense and overgrown, making travel difficult. Hot, damp air had surrounded her, so breathing was a hard challenge to overcome. She got dizzy; the only thing that could have been considered good news was the fact the sun could not reach her with its deadly rays.
She was just about to give in and turn back, when she pulled aside the last batch of leaves that had blocked her path. What she found on the other side was something of a beauty! A clear meadow that was covered in lowly cut grass and blooming flowers, accompanied by the sound of peacefully singing birds. Oddly enough, it was no jungle terrain, but she couldn't care less about that at the moment. She ran out into the open and lain down on the grass, enjoying the now great air and the relaxing atmosphere. The sun was directly above her now, though it did not burn her skin. On the contrary, its light was warm here, almost seducingly comfortable. Ágnes felt like she was once again at home.
Nostalgia filled her mind, but the sweet memories were all got washed away by something even more so out of place, than this whole meadow. At the end of the field, she came to notice a huge pile of heavy stones and rocks. If she had to guess, it was a crumbled building. The temple, she assumed, but that was not the reason of her surprise. At the base of the pile, she saw a man sitting with his back against the rocks. He was motionless, yet kept on staring at the girl in front of him. Ágnes stepped closer, almost within reach of him, and to her horror, she found out the reason for the man's unusual behavior. He was dead.
Not just dead... What was sitting before Ágnes was a complete human skeleton, wearing the clothes of a captain of some sort. A brown tricorn and a rather large jacket, which was decorated with numerous pins and sashes, brown loose pants and fancy boots... all of them without a single tear, a single scratch to make note of. The whole set appeared to be brand new, yet the remains of the man were all dusty and old, one would guess that it was decades old. Never minding how it was still intact, Ágnes, seeing her very first skeleton in her life, stepped even closer, as the feeling of curiosity once again overcame her body.
She had found a small notebook next to the corpse, which read "Diary of Sir Ecleston". Even this small book appeared to have resisted the destructive nature of time, which somehow no longer surprised the girl, as she came to expect it at this point. She felt the courage rushing through her blood, as she grew more and more accustomed to the scene. Something around her was sucking out the fear from her mind, the doubt and the sense of danger until she was no longer afraid.
Opening up the book it was the distinguishable scent of the ocean that first reached her senses. The handwriting was also poor. Ágnes could read well, her mother have taught her at home every day, but from this text in front of her, she could only understand one or two words, while she kept on turning the pages. The lines were shaking, rushed; it must have been written with great anxiety. The further she paged in the book the more unreadable it got, until all of a sudden it stopped with a single line. The date of the last entry strengthened her suspicions... it have been only two days, since this man's story got cut short. Finally, the feeling of overwhelming dread again took over the girl, combating the fake illusion of strength that was given to her. The owner of this book was, without a doubt, the one who was sitting in front of her right now. But just what happened to him? Ágnes decided to take another shot with the diary and paged up the last entry however unreadable it is, in order to find some answers to her questions.
"Fourth week on the ocean... we will reach our destination by morning, but I can only hope, that they won't catch up to us. Simone, Mackie and June have already died of their injuries... (...) ...morning wasn't fruiting. As we close in on the island... (...) ...the map fell into the ocean. (...) ...we ported at the southwest side, but without the map, it will be hard to find the... (...). They are close... Breck and Lucas fell. Only I left to..."
The girl suddenly got the shivers. She sensed that someone was watching her every move, and the knowledge of what have happened to this man did not pair up well with this feeling. She turned around and was just about to head back, away from this scary place once and for all, when she noticed some kind of a blue light to shine up from behind her, turning this world's every color into the hue of the skies. She looked back over her shoulder and to her shock, it was the skull of the skeleton itself, which let out this unsettling light. Ágnes did not know what to think, what to do. It must a trick, she thought, as such phenomenon is not possible, but her curious personality got the better of her one too many times already. Bit by bit she stepped back to the remains, quietly, looking around just in case she will see anyone lurking in the surrounding tree lines.
The blue light slowly grew in volume, more and more bewitching, charming the girl. Ágnes leaned in to the face of the remains, looking through the empty eye sockets in order to find the source of the light, but not even a single second had passed, when she found an inhumanly strong, demonic grip on her frail neck. The skeleton, which had been lying deceptively under the guise of the dead, suddenly came to life. Ágnes could not free herself of the terrifying opponent, the only thing she could do besides desperately gasping for air, was to watch as the otherworldly creature opened up its dark jaws, revealing the azure colored flames beneath it.
With a strong push, Ágnes found herself on the ground with the enemy above, looking down on her like a bloodthirsty predator. The only voice that could be heard were the painful growls of the girl, as the being slowly tightened its deadly grip, breaking a few small blood vessels in her skin. The skeleton made no sound. Its bones did not rattle, its mouth gave no voice... it was the silent Death incarnate. Flames sprouted from its empty mouth, as it raised its right arm above the head of the prey. The unnatural fire then spread from the skull and engulfed the raised arm in its azure cloak. For a split second, the image of her own dead body appeared before Ágnes' eyes. She tried to struggle, desperately seeking for a way to set herself free, but the corpse, surprising for its slim built, did not give in for any attempt of a counterattack.
As the Death reached down for her face with its burning hand, Ágnes tried to block its reach with the book she had in her right hand. This attempt also failed to produce any lasting effects, as the ghoul roughly snatched the book out the weak hand, then, in matter of blinks, the diary vanished in the blue flames, its ashes spread over the young body below.
With the destruction of the only "weapon" she had at her disposal, the only option left for Ágnes was to keep on struggling for her life, in which through she had managed to kick out a small bone knife from one of pockets of the coat the skeleton wore. Her mind grew dark with every passing second, due to the denial of the precious air from her lungs, and thick fog has descended on her vision. The merciless grip around her neck tightened once more, as the creature realized that its prey was too stubborn to die. The flaming right hand closed in on her face to give her the last touch of death.
Even so, in a last bit of effort, Ágnes managed to reach out for the fallen knife on the ground, and with a solid grip on its handle, she stabbed the creature in the skull, forcing the bone blade through its thin temple. The weapon had reached the central light and at an instant, immeasurable pain struck the creature of Death. The being tried to stand up, voicelessly screaming at its demise, grasping its head out of pure agony, but eventually all of the lights have faded into the nothingness, and the skeleton crumbled apart, lifeless. Ágnes was lying helplessly and frozen on the ground, watching the clear blue skies above her with empty and dull eyes, as dust and bones covered her body. Her heart was beating like crazy; her mind could not accept the event that had happened here.
On the beach, the men had already finished the foraging and were only waiting for Ágnes to finally show up her face. The first mate did not deny his feelings, he openly stated that they should just leave without her, but the majority had decided to give the girl some more time, and if she were nowhere to be found even after that, they would go and search for her. After all, even Daniel had to understand, that no girl meant an angry captain, and none of them were keen on that.
Five minutes have passed, then ten, fifteen at last, but not a single soul appeared from anywhere. They were just about to separate into two groups to search for her, one led by Daniel himself, when one of them noticed her dark silhouette at the end of the beach. She was just stumbling forwards, broken and unnatural; with an unblinking stare in her eyes, that was lost in the distance without a reason.
The sailors rushed to her without hesitation, concerned about her. They kept on asking what's happened to her, but she did not give an answer. Her very words were too scared to come out, afraid of the Death that might still haunt her. The crew helped the girl to the boats where the first mate was awaiting her. Daniel couldn't even imagine what and how could push someone into that terrific state of mind, and almost got sick just by looking at the unnatural bruises around her neck. The man's surprising concern finally broke her defenses. Ágnes lost all of her strength and knelt down into the water, bursting into an unstoppable cry. She could finally scream all she wanted; nothing denied her now of the fresh air needed to do so.
Daniel took a step away from her, and then did a quick headcount on his team. Everyone was accounted for, no one missing. Even so, one of them had to be the one, who did this outrageous attack on the girl. No, that is not possible he immediately eradicated that thought. They are a family, everyone knows everyone more than their own mother. It couldn't have been any of these men, he swore his own soul on that, but the other option of a third party was all the more frightening.
"This will be hard to explain to the captain."
When night had befallen on them, Ágnes was leaning on the rails at the stern of the ship, as she used to do so, looking back on the path where they came from. The dark sky swiftly merged with the ocean at the horizon. Had it not for the bright stars to show the way, it was possible that one could not separate the two planes. She took deep breaths and tried to clear out the haze from her mind, to calm her head. However... memories are hard to forget. The gentle breeze swept her red hair ahead into her face, as she looked down upon the knife in her hand. A simple, sharpened, white shark teeth, mounted on a carven, wooden grip, tightly laced around with some old textile rope... She still could not believe that it was this mere trinket that had saved her life...
"Ágnes!" shouted the captain from the lower deck, as he was climbing up the stairs. "Are you up there? Is everything all right?"
"Y-yes!" answered the girl in a hurry, surprised by the man's presence "I am feeling a lot better now, thank you..."
The captain looked around.
"You should go to sleep, it's already too late" he smiled. "You had a very long day. I don't know what happened there on the island, but if you have anything to say-"
"No, it is all right!" Ágnes cut into his words, to avoid any unfortunate implications. "I don't remember anything anyway... "
She lied, again, just as how she did this whole afternoon, but even she did not know why. It was as if something inside of her was forcing her not to tell the truth.
The man let out a disappointed sigh. He already regretted sending her down onto that island. If it weren't for that decision then... Moreover, he knows not what to do about that injury she had sustained. At first he though that someone had assaulted her, but he trusts his men enough to believe in their words... besides... those kinds of bruises are unlike anything that a human can be capable of inflicting.
"Well, anyway " he shrugged. " If you get into bed fast enough, you might not have to work tomorrow one bit!" offered the captain, which the girl then happily accepted. Smile appeared on her weary, tired face, thanks to this great news. She stabbed the knife into the railing's wood and then ran off to secure herself a bed at last. The captain, amused by this sudden outburst of joy, laughed a little, and then followed her downstairs, to meet up with his crew, leaving the navigation of the ship in the hands of the night shift.
The sky was clear for the rest of the night, thousands of stars shone brightly. The calm light has reached everything, from the smallest holes on the deck to the sparkling sails above them... and even the bone knife that was sticking out of the wood, unnoticed, glowing in a faint red hue, as it was feeding upon the rays of the full white moon.