Chapter 6: The Dark Island
"Ren, what happened?!" Niddler's voice was the next to reach him. It wasn't long before Ioz and Niddler were by his side and looking into his eyes. Ren remained standing at the helm, gripping the wheel in his hands, but he blinked and felt his balance and focus return. At least this time he managed to remain on his feet.
"Ren, can you hear us?"
Ren spoke softly, his voice gradually coming back to him between breaths shown in the cool, night air. "I can hear you both fine. I'm okay."
"Just what were you telling to stay away from you?" Ioz demanded, but in a low voice.
Ren didn't think it was wise to say everything that Nadjia had spoken to him, but he drew a deep breath. "It came and went, the same dark power from the caves at Parat. Whatever it was…the compass reacted to it and chased it off." It wasn't the whole truth, but it was enough of such to make Ioz's face turn from surprise to anger, while Niddler shared a sense of unspoken understanding and concern. Ren had relaxed his hold on the wheel of the ship - the waters were calm and easy to steer with the light current of the waves. There wasn't any sign of Dark Water - let alone dark magic - ahead. He noted that if it weren't for the arresting pain, he might have dreamed it on his own.
Tula came rushing on the deck, and she approached the three as if she were out of breath and held her hand to her forehead. "I felt an evil presence just now on the ship; I don't know what it was, but it paralyzed my powers…and me as well! Did anything happen?"
"I think you just missed it, Tula. Whatever it was, it also tried to attack Ren just now." Ioz said, his lip turned in a curt snarl. "Ever since we left that island, nothing but trouble has followed us. Bloth's men included."
Tula frowned. "What in the moons of Mer would that magic want with Ren?" When Ioz and Niddler gave her questioning looks, she spoke about the conversation that occurred between her and Ren earlier that evening. By that time, Ioz had decided to take the wheel from Ren, and allowed Ren, exhausted, to sit on deck beside Niddler, while Tula sat on one of the stairwells. After Ioz heard the whole story, he cursed under his breath.
"I'm fine with dealing with enemies I can see in front of my own eyes, but this? That's twice we've dealt with the same trickery…particularly with Ren in the middle of it all, I don't like it. It's pure witchcraft."
"I wouldn't go that far, Ioz, but I think it may have to do with the treasures and where we're going -The Dark Island."
Tula's eyebrows rose at the Ren's mention of the island. "The Dark Island? That story only exists in tales on the sea."
"Whatever attacked you must have replaced your brain with sea squid. The Dark Island is a pirate's tale - appears only under a full moon and is covered in Dark Water. Said the only things walking its shores are those of the dead. If we weren't fools in believing the island exists, then we'd be fools to sail toward it if we saw it!"
"I'm not crazy in believing it exists. I know that's where we'll find the next treasure. If we can somehow find a way to get there."
"I don't think any of us think you're crazy, Ren. But it is an old tale, and even with that, the island's never been located…on ANY map." Tula explained.
"Well, now that I think about it, the legend did say a significant treasure worth among any measured value would be there. I just didn't think it would be one of the Treasures of Rule, assuming Ren's right."
"Ioz, I thought you said you didn't believe in the Dark Island." Niddler eyed him suspiciously.
"No one ever said that a pirate can't dream. The only difference is knowing the dream from the reality. For many years, I longed to have treasure that would make me rich beyond wealth itself…and I still know many tales of treasure that I've pursued on the sea. Most turned out to be junk, but ah, what adventures there were. Yet these eyes and ears know tales from fairytales. The Dark Island story even existed from when I was a lad. No one's ever found it, and even if it were, no one's ever been alive to tell the story beyond its bare bones."
"I'm still confused." Niddler sunk down in a slouch while patting his belly. He looked at Ren with a concerned expression, so forlorn that Ren pinched his wing to snap him out of it. "Hey!" Niddler stated in protest.
"It's not as bad as you think it is. I think I'm starting to understand it a little more but only on what the Oracle told us and luck. I think we'll need that and more…if we reach that island any time soon."
It was at that moment when the compass started to glow again, this time more prominently and Ren stood to his feet to figure out the direction it oriented. Tula and Niddler stood, and as Ren ran to the front of the helm, so did they. All of them looked on the horizon to see Ren's compass outlining the shape of what seemed to be a dark shoreline, and the moon's glow no longer shown on the water, only a coasts with sand as black as coal, barren thin trees, and a long stretch of thorns leading up along a hill laden terrain to a temple at the apex of the island.
"Please tell me that's not the Dark Island…tell me we didn't find it that fast." Niddler said, as his face gradually lowered against the sight of the island. Niddler heard the sound of a loud growl that made him screech in fear. Tula stood beside Ren, just as taken by the sight of the dark mist that swirled around it. Sure enough, the island seemed to have its share of dark water along one side of it.
"It…can't be." Ioz said, his hands gripping the wheel as he looked in awe of the scene, the wind blowing his hair back across his face. "Never in my travels over the twenty seas have I seen such a sinister place. It's as if the devil himself walked here and cursed it to its bones."
"I don't like the look of it either, but the 10th treasure is here…somewhere. And whatever it was that crossed paths with us earlier…there's a chance it might be here too." Ren said, though a melancholic tone struck resoundingly in his voice.
***
Ren and Ioz were the first to step from the deck of the Wraith onto the dead land of the Dark Island. Ioz's boots crunched against the blackened grass and as he examined the sandy shoreline, he backed tentatively away from a few patches of murky, bubbling water that he saw.
"Chungo Lungo, it's as bad as we encountered on Andorrus, before it was restored." Ioz bumped into the bare bark of the tree, hitting the back of his head and rubbing where he bumped it with his hand.
"No…I think it's worse. It looks like it's been dead for more than just many moons." Ren touched the bark of one tree, and a large section of it crumbled into dust, scattering to the ground. "Did the Dark Water do this? It looks like the life of this island's been sucked dry, let alone dying or dead."
Niddler walked around cautiously, avoiding patches of bubbling water and ducking under branches as he walked. "No minga melons, no pooka-looka pies, no food or anywhere to go. I hate this place already." At that moment, he heard large screech erupting from the distance, which made Niddler swiftly fly to Ren's side. "Ren, we need to get off this Island now, it's too dangerous. I hear a beast somewhere on this island, and it's so close. It might eat us alive."
"I don't hear any jitatan beast, monkey bird. I think the sea has clogged your ears and trapped something between them."
"Wait." Ren held out one of his hands, standing just on the inside of the forest before it opened out to the beach, where a large open area of sand panned out in a semi-circle before meeting with the sea. Ren definitely heard something like a wind rushing fervently, but he couldn't tell where it originated, or where the low screech originated. "Something…is really here. I can't see it, but I think it's close."
"I don't sense or hear anything." Tula said softly, though Ren caught a bit of frustration in her tone, and Ren knew her concern without much other notation: Tula couldn't use her ecomancer powers on the island. Ren looked above his head into the misty sky, covering his eyes with one hand as he tried to look where the light of the moon shone. The mist was dark, thick, almost as if a grand fire had smoldered into clouds of ash and hung in remnants within the air. He didn't dare take a deep breath, knowing the air above him already looked intimidating enough.
Ioz marched ahead of Ren. "I'm not waiting around this island more than I have to. Let's find the treasure and get out of here while we still have our hides." He walked ahead, crossing the plain beach and looking around for any patches of Dark Water. Ren followed Ioz, but at a distance, he could hear the groans grow louder from above him, but the mist prevented him from seeing too far above, let alone the night sky and the dimness of the Moon. Niddler flew out of the shadows of the trees, and Tula followed him as they all headed north, to a clearing that led to a staircase leading up the mountain. As Ioz reached the stony steps, his boots clanking against the rock, a loud screech erupted from above them, a piercing cry that broke through the mist and rattled the distant trees.
"You want to say something to me, Ioz?" Ren said slyly, but his eyes looked upward cautiously as he tried to pinpoint the source of the sound, and as Ioz stopped dead in his steps.
"If you think I'm apologizing for not hearing a jitatan thing before, you'd better have another thought." Ioz didn't look at Ren, but he pulled out his sword and his eyes cautiously searched the skies as they walked further up the mountain. Tula had caught up to Ren and Ioz, while Niddler lagged behind, cautiously flying low and close to the three. They had walked about midway up the mountain, to a clearing framed by trees and an old water fountain, but as Tula looked upon it, she noticed it was filled to the brim with a dark substance.
"Dark Water! Stay back!"
The four of them looked as the Dark Water bubbled around the fountain, but it never bubbled over or lashed out from where it rested.
"At least it can't harm us from over here." Niddler said.
"Let's go around it and continue up. I don't know what we'll find up here, but the compass still points north, towards the top of the mountain." Ren held the compass between his right index finger and thumb, as the stream of blue light continued faintly upward."
"Ugh, how long do we have to walk, my feet are already tired enough as it is." Ioz said, while stretching his legs.
"I'm surprised; I didn't think you'd be out of shape." Tula smiled as she walked ahead of Ioz, while giving him a nudge on the shoulder as she passed.
"Not you too, Tula. I'm not owing either of you any favors. Not on this island, nor when we're off."
As they walked past the fountain to another set of stairs, the screech rang loudly, so much that the four had to cover their own ears accordingly.
"Noy jitat, what is that sound? A beast?" Tula said, hands still cautiously over her ears
"Sounds like a bird…or something else." Ren said hesitantly, but he was the first to see the shadow from overhead, in a fluid slow motion as it passed over his eyes. The silhouette of a giant wing grazed effortlessly in the dim moonlight, over the fountain behind them at a glance, and Ren's eyes followed upward to the hazy sky, to see a large beast, which looked something like a giant bat, with webbed wings. The two sets of wings, two on its arms, and two along its clawed feet, made it look like a menacing creature that resembled a bat meeting a butterfly and a gargoyle. It was only when Ren saw its feet reach out that he saw its intended target, and it seemed that the target noticed Ren's horrified glance, just before looking up at the beast.
"Ren! Help!"
Niddler was caught swiftly into the claws of the creature as it screeched loudly, its left foot clenching tightly around Niddler's wings and body. Niddler shrieked in agonizing pain and fear, and some of his feathers fluttered to the ground as the creature took off. Tula and Ioz turned around to see Ren bolting backward, and the beast flying swiftly from where they stood, towards the area from where they had come. Ren, instead of running down the stony steps, chose to kick off on the slick sides of the stairway and slid at a pace that was about even with the flying beast.
"Niddler, hold on!"
Ren knew he had to find some manner to catch the beast, so he did the first thing that came to mind - he leapt onto the beast's right leg, clutching it as tightly as he could, and wrapping his own legs around it, his feet atop one of the talons. The flying beast was caught off-guard, lowering its altitude as Ren had impact with it.
Tula and Ioz had followed Ren to the stairway and ran down the steps, stopping just as Ren had leapt to the beast.
"Ren, are you crazy? You'll fall, let go!" Ioz shouted, but Ren didn't seem to respond. The winged beast didn't stay at a low altitude for long, and it might have been just as well that Ren hadn't let go at that point, because it flew with such ease and speed that he couldn't tell how fast he was moving until he opened his eyes, and could feel himself sailing through the night sky around the island, while his lungs filled with the putrid air that hovered above the island. He couldn't speak, much less move as the beast writhed, but he held on as tightly as he could, knowing well that if he fell from this height, he would surely meet a quick end.
He shut his eyes again as the beast swirled around, and struggled to move the leg that Ren held on, but to no avail, the only thing it could move was its talons, which couldn't grasp at Ren, but the creature quickly learned that it had other talons to use, and it was at the same moment that Ren opened his eyes caught on to the beast's intentions. He decided that he had to act fast or the beast would likely skewer him. As the winged creature raised its left claw to strike Ren, the young prince held up the compass, so that its blue ray aimed straight at the beast's eye, causing it to shriek in pain.
At that moment, it released its grip on Niddler, and Ren saw his winged friend tumbling to the island in a freefall.
"Niddler!"
The creature realized its folly, but still held one talon over his eye while diving for its lost prey, and Ren decided that it would be a good time to blind the beast in both eyes. He held the compass up again and its blue light streamed into the creature's second eye. By this point, the creature howled in pain again, and Ren noticed that something was oozing from both eyes, something he couldn't make out until the glint of the moon revealed something that shook his senses at the sight.
"Dark Water….the creature…is bleeding Dark Water?!"
***
Ioz and Tula stared into the sky, the wind picking up in intensity and the mist above their heads making it hard to see what was going on above their heads. Ioz tried to focus though the mist, but found it such an impossible task that he swore under his breath.
"Has Ren lost his mind?! That creature will drag him and the monkey bird into the abyss along with it; we can't do anything down here!"
"Ioz, we'd better head up the mountain, and we'd better do it fast. There may be a way to help Ren and Niddler if we can get past all this mist." Tula turned on her heel and started running up the mountain stairs again, past the Dark Water fountain. Ioz ran at a pace that accompanied her well, but he complained as their feet hit the aging stone steps.
"And who's to say that creature won't be meeting us at the top of the mountain, along with some other jitatan rogue? You said yourself that some dark force is at work on this island."
"True, but did you ever stop to think that creature might be guarding something we're not supposed to reach?"
"The treasure?"
"Exactly. If we can get past it, then we should be able to find the treasure, and Ren mentioned it led somewhere at the top of this mountain."
"You're not making sense, Tula. That creature doesn't look like it's defending the treasure."
"It's not defending the treasure at all. It's keeping us from reaching it on purpose, as if it doesn't want anyone to find it. I wouldn't doubt that creature is one of the Darkdweller's minions."
"But if it doesn't want anyone to find the treasure, why doesn't it just take the treasure for itself? Does it even know where the treasure is?"
"We'll find out once we get there." Tula said as she rolled her eyes.
***
Niddler could feel himself falling at a rate that he couldn't keep up with at first. He knew that the creature had released him, and he knew that Ren had called out to him, but he didn't see where Ren was - his eyes had been closed the whole time, as the creature had closed over his wings and body, he could feel that a few of his feathers were missing, but surprisingly, other than a cramped wing, he only felt sore and not injured.
"I've gotta get myself flying again or else who knows what I'll land on." The monkey bird opened his eyes to see himself spiraling through some thick, smoky clouds, but used his wings, albeit sore, to propel him above the smoke. He held his breath long enough to emerge from the clouds and look around. The sky was much clearer over the water, and he could see the moon a lot better above the island. Shaking his head of the idle thoughts, he looked around for any sign of the creature, and saw it wringing about, while holding its eyes for some reason. Niddler couldn't get a good look from where he hovered, but he wasn't very apt to approach the beast until he saw it trying to claw at something by its leg.
"What kind of itch does that thing have anyway? Wait…that's Ren! He's on its leg. I gotta act quickly!"
Niddler flew as fast as he could, without much of a plan on mind, but he could see the beast was fighting off streams of blue light, which struck Niddler as being from none other than Ren's compass. Apparently, he was having the upper hand with the beast, and that made him more confident as he flew to the scene. Since leaving Parat, Niddler hadn't really had much time to talk with Ren about everything that had happened, and felt guilty that he didn't understand, much less know much about how to respond to his friend's fate, but he wouldn't let anything happen to Ren as long as he had something to say about it.
"Ren, are you there?"
Ren seemed to look up and smiled with relief when he saw Niddler flying close. "You're okay, thank Kunda!"
"Of course, thanks to you…though you're not exactly in the best position right now."
"You think you can carry me down to the island? This beast won't last too long for distractions."
"Sure thing, the sooner we get out of here the better!" Niddler used his claws to take Ren safely from the creature's leg as it held its eyes in pain. Ren continued to hold his compass steady, aimed at the beast, but he noticed that it started dangerously swinging its arms while blinded, so he had to avert the treasure long enough for Niddler to start diving, and both held their breaths through the thick fog before coming back near the Island.
What they found…was not the same side of the Island from whence they came, and Niddler spurned around, confused because they could see the very top of the mountain from the other side.
"Ioz and Tula are definitely behind where we are now…unless they headed up the other side of the mountain already." Niddler said as he surveyed the landscape. "That beast took us flying all kinds of directions-I thought I was doomed."
"Not to mention it's somewhere above our heads looking for us. I think the compass bought us time, but if it recovers, we'd better have the next treasure of Rule in our hands before it comes back, or at least in a position to defend ourselves."
"Where is it showing now, Ren?"
Ren closed his eyes and opened them again as the stream of light pointed north. "Right at the top of the mountain, let's head there and see what we find."
Niddler rubbed his eyes and focused on the shoreline on this part of the mountain. It didn't seem as degenerated as the way they came from the Wraith, as most of the trees on this part still had leaves and the beach had sand the color of the moon. The moon also seemed to favor this side of the island much more, as the light spilled over the trees, the beach, not as cloaked in mist.
"Why's this side of the island more spiffy than the other? We should have just come from the other way if we knew this. Still dreary, but at least it looks a lot safer." Niddler said haughtily as he carried Ren towards the top.
Ren looked around the part of the island Niddler had pointed out, having a sense of subdued awe as he took in the different atmosphere. "I don't know. The more I look upon this part and compare it to the other, something doesn't seem right."
"I don't think there was anything 'right' about this island to begin with."
Ren laughed. "I guess so…the only theory I have is that it would have to do with the treasure of Rule we're seeking."
Niddler gulped. "Somehow, I don't think I want to know what happens if we find it. Because if we do…what's going to happen to this Island…and to us?"