Mark of the Magi
Chapter 7
(part A)
By
Lily of Trust
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Disclaimers: Not mine. Damn. Steal the idea and I come after you with a blunt object.
Two days of R&R (rest and irecuperation/i) found the four young men at sea once again. The party's return to the village had been created with shock, incredulity, and no little hysterical relief. Now free of the Serpent's threat, the fishing boats had ventured into deep-water to trawl, returning with an enormous catch. The villagers threw a huge celebration that lasted through that night and the next. For one reason or another, none of the five who had fought the creature chose to participate. Seiji, Nasuti and Shin suffered from severe energy burn-out, not to mention their physical injuries, and mostly sat off to side and watched the festivities. Shu still nursed a monstrous headache, which bright lights and loud noises only aggravated. He knew better than to add a hangover to the mix. Seiji took the opportunity to fill the larger man in on his newly awakened talents, and confessed to deliberately shocking them awake. After a few moments of thoughtful silence, Shu admitted that it had been for the best, and he didn't blame the Magi for what he had done.
Touma surprised all three of his companions by choosing to forego the party. Aside from a few bruised ribs, he was in remarkably good shape, and yet he avoided the music, laughter, and liquor like the plague. Why exactly that was, none of the other men thought to ask.
They set out to sea as soon as they were well enough to make the journey. Nasuti personally saw to both the healing of their wounds and the replenishing of their supplies. Though she never asked them to prolong their stay, her eyes and voice held a certain sadness at the leaving.
"Just remember," She said as she stood on the dock in the pre-dawn mist, watching as Shin adjusted the sails and Shu carefully undid the heavy knots that moored the skiff to the pier. "This place still owes you a large debt. A boat and a little food is hardly thanks enough for what you've done. If you're ever in the vicinity again, and in need of help, please don't hesitate to come to us."
"We'll keep that in mind Lady," Shin smiled. The sails unfurled with a sharp crack of wind on oiled canvas, straining outward along with the breeze. "Although I don't think we'll be heading back this way any time soon."
"Oh, we'll meet again," Nasuti chuckled, a knowing quirk to her lips. "I've seen it."
"If you say so," Touma stifled a yawn and waved to the witch. "Take care of yourself."
The woman's waving silhouette faded into the fog, just as the first muffled sounds of the village waking drifted on the salt laden air.
For a time, no one felt the need to speak. Seiji leaned against the port-side railing and watched the glassy black water slide away from the side of the craft. Shin joined Shu at the tiller, scrutinizing a map of the coastline Nasuti had added to their gear. Touma yawned again and leaned back against the cabin building, obviously struggling to remain awake.
"The fog should burn off after sunrise," Shin said quietly, his voice muffled by the thick mists. "We'll stick to the coast 'til then, and find get our bearings once the visibility's improved."
"Sounds like a plan to me," Touma agreed. "You won't be needing me, will you? I'd really like to catch a little more sleep before sun-up."
"I think we can handle navigating without you," Seiji spoke up, "The same goes for you, Shu. Your mind hasn't recovered from the power backlash as yet."
Shu cracked a sheepish smile and rubbed the back of his neck. "I wasn't going to say anything if you needed me here...but my aching head would appreciate the break."
"Go ahead," The blonde assured him. "The real headache begins after you've recuperated."
Shin groaned. "Oh for the love of...you aren't actually going to put him through that training routine so soon are you?!"
"Newly Awakened, it will most likely be easier for him to handle than it was for you, as you were aware of your talents for years."
By that point, Touma and Shu had retreated to the cabin, stifling yawns as they went.
The morning wore on, long past the point where the rising sun should have scorched away the fog. The blanketing mists seemed to grow thicker and more opaque, if anything. Shin fidgeted uneasily at the tiller, wondering why he felt so edgy. It wasn't just the fog, although that on its own made conditions dangerous for sailing, but rather there was something out there that set his nerves on edge. Or maybe a lack of something...
That thought triggered a realization. For some time now, he hadn't heard the familiar sound of waves slapping against the rock of the coastline. Sometime during the hours, they had drifted farther off course and out to sea!
"Seiji!" He called, hurrying towards the prow of the boat. "We have to drop anchor now! It's too hazardous to continue on. We may already be completely lost."
"I had a feeling this would happen," The Magi sighed as they went to lower the heavy iron anchor. "You're the sailor; do we have any chance of regaining our previous route?"
"I think it's likely. I doubt we've been drifting for too long-" Shin paused in wrestling with the barnacle encrusted chain and looked up out into the fog. He frowned absently, his head tilting to the side a fraction. Seiji noticed his sudden shift in attention, and glanced upwards, following his line of sight.
"What do you hear?" He breathed softly, recognizing the sudden taught look to Shin's stance as a listening posture.
"...Creaking...like rope and wood...but it's wrong somehow..." The smaller man leaned forward to better hear the faint strains of sound. "I would say another ship, but it's missing all the other noises..."
Something huge and dark suddenly loomed up out of the fog. Both men caught a brief glimpse of an immense wall made up of varying shades of black and brown, before the skiff crashed into the behemoth.
The impact sent both of them careening wildly. Seiji slammed into the corner of the cabin, the back of his head cracking dangerously loud against the wood. Shin had the sense to tuck himself into a ball, and found himself sprawled across Seiji's lap, blinking stars from his eyes. His right shoulder ached fiercely, evidence that he had banged it up or rolled on it wrong during the collision. Realizing where exactly he had landed, he pushed himself up and turned to get a better look at Seiji. The blonde man seemed to be only semi-conscious. His eyes were halfway open, but blurred and faraway.
"Are you hurt?" Shin asked somewhat breathlessly, struggling to suck air into his battered lungs.
"Just a bump," Seiji replied dazedly. He reached up to touch the back of his head, wincing and pulling it away as his fingers brushed over a tender lump. He brought the hand up before his face, regarding it with bemused surprise. Dark crimson stained pale skin, trickling down the back of his fingers and wrist.
Shin was vaguely aware of noises from the cabin below as he stared in horror at the blood. He took Seiji by the shoulders and carefully leaned him away from the wall. Vivid ruby matted together clumps of gold, making a mess of the back of the Magi's head. It probably looked worse than it really was; head wounds always bled more freely than others. What truly concerned Shin was the extremely likely possibility of a concussion.
"What the hell's going on up here?!" Touma's sleepy, but nonetheless irritated, voice came as he reached the top of the steps. "You ran us aground, didn't you?!"
"We're nowhere near the shore," Shin looked up and glared at him. "We've drifted in the fog. To be honest, I don't know iwhat/i we hit."
Shu fingered the dent Seiji's skull had left in the wood, and grimaced. "Speaking of hit...we'd better bind that wound."
Touma took one look at the blood and blanched. "Right. You two do that. I'll see how badly the skiff's damaged."
"Blood didn't seem to bother you before," Shu said as he headed back into the cabin to retrieve an aid kit.
"That was during a fight. Things tend to get messy with blades and blunt objects flying around. It's the every day stuff that turns my stomach," The thief said shortly, padding towards the prow, now a tangle of jagged spars of wood. He picked his way around splinters, wishing he'd thought to put something on his feet.
The front end of the little craft had slammed head-on into a much, much larger ship. Touma frowned and leaned over the small gap of empty space between the boat and the obstacle, and pressed his hand against it. Barnacles the size of his fist encrusted the algae-slimed planks. He might not have known much about things nautical, but he was fairly certain that one didn't allow things like that to grow on the hull. Touma tilted his head back and peered up through the fog. Above, tattered sails snapped and billowed, though the air was utterly still. From somewhere within the ship came the groaning of aged wood, echoing on and on.
His eyes caught on a faint flash of color. Touma leaned precariously over the starboard railing, noticing scrolling words painted onto the wood in flaking gilt. As best he could tell, it read:
VA-S--R
He nearly overbalanced and fell into the ocean. As it was, Touma let out a shocked squawk, teetered dangerously for a moment or two, and finally plopped onto his backside on the deck.
Shin looked up from winding the strip of linen around Seiji's head as Touma tore back towards them. He blinked in surprise at the expression of near-panic on the thief's face.
"What, what is it?!" He demanded.
"W-we hit..." The blue-haired man had gone ghostly pale, seeming like nothing more than a wraith against the fog. "The V-Vassaar."
"The iwhat?!/i" Shin dropped the roll of bandage, "That's not possible! It's a legend, a myth!"
"Apparently not," Touma said dryly, recovering his composure.
"What's a 'Vassaar'?" Seiji asked, his voice a little steadier than it had been. His eyes still slid in and out of focus, but he remained coherent enough to follow their conversation.
"A ghost ship," Touma told him, voice deepening ominously. "Supposedly, hundreds of years ago, coastal villages were terrorized by a fleet of pirates, lead by the black warship Malacaster. The Royal Navy's attempts to stop them were crushed, so the King, in a fit of desperation, enlisted the help of a Marauder Captain and his ship, the Vassaar, promising him a fortune if he could solve the problem. The man agreed, and hunted down the leader of the pirates. There followed a high seas naval battle that could be heard for miles around. No one's sure who won, for both ships disappeared into thin air. The rest of the pirate fleet, now leaderless, disbanded."
"Legend has it that both the Malacaster and the Vassaar drift forever as ghost ships," Shin finished for him, tying off the bandage. "I always thought that the story was just that....but now?"
"A ghost ship, especially one so ancient, should not be solid enough to crash into," Seiji pointed out, adjusting the wrap.
Touma ignored him. "This bodes ill. I wonder what becomes of boats that encounter ghost ships?"
"I hate to be the bearer of even worse news," Shu said, emerging onto the deck. His trousers were soaked from the knee down, and dripped as he walked. "But we seem to be sinking."
Shin and Touma stared at him for a moment, then looked to each other.
"Options?" Shu asked, leaning against the cabin.
"...The way I see it, we've got two choices," Touma said slowly. "We can either jump overboard and swim for shore,"
"But we don't know which way shore iis/i," Shin argued.
"iOR,/i" Touma continued as though he hadn't been interrupted. "We can climb aboard the Vassaar and wait for the fog to lift."
"Not much of a choice, is it?" Shin stood and headed towards the cabin. "I'll salvage what I can. Touma, do you think you can scale the side of the ship and lower down a rope or something for the rest of us?"
"You're talking to the best second story man in Kichis," Touma nodded, quickly sorting through the debris littering the deck for a length of rope. "How do you propose to get ihim/i up the rope?" He jerked a thumb towards Seiji. The Magi sat with his head in his hands, breaths coming shallow and erratic.
"I can carry him, or hoist him up," Shu offered. "He's tall, but he doesn't look like he weighs much."
"Good, stay with him and keep him awake. I really don't like the look of that lump...he might have a concussion," Shin advised before vanishing below decks. Touma coiled up the rope and shouldered it. He and Shu exchanged a grave nod before he turned and headed towards the collision site.
The huge, curving side of the Vassaar was slick with algae and rot. Fortunately, centuries of drifting as sea had contributed to the growth of fist-sized barnacles. The shelly lumps provided him with convenient hand and foot-holds. He'd had harder climbs up the side of tenement buildings.
Hand-over-hand, Touma swarmed up towards the railing, which was gradually coming into view. In short order, he pulled himself up over the decaying beam of wood, making a disgusted face as part of it crumbled into a spongy blackish mess in the palm of his hand. He dropped the rope to the planks underfoot, and looked about himself. The main deck stretched before him for about fifty feet, and away to either side for perhaps a hundred. There had once been three main masts, but two of them had broken away, leaving jagged stubs poking up out of the deck itself. Only the center one remained, trailing bits of rigging like lank strands of hair. Touma tilted his head back and tried to make out the crow's nest, but the mists were too concealing. He could just discern the outline of the Captain's cabin to his left, though it, too, was mostly obscured by fog. Eerily enough, there was a faint pearlescent gleam to the mist. Touma shivered and turned away from it.
His curiosity was ibegging/i for the chance to look around, but at the moment he was more concerned with finding something to secure the rope to. An empty iron lantern bracket, mostly rusted through but still sound, protruded from one of the on-deck cabins. He swiftly looped the rope around it and tied a secure knot as tightly as he could manage.
"Shu! Are you down there?" He hollered over the side of the ship. From below came a muffled response. "Heads up!" Touma tossed the free end of the rope down towards the skiff. It hung in the air for a moment before gravity pulled it down, the resistance of the air causing it to slither and hiss as it fell out of sight. The length of it hung slack for a moment before suddenly springing taut. It shuddered slightly as Shu climbed hand-over-hand up the Vassaar. Touma caught hold of the rope and leaned back, adding his own weight to the effort.
In a few moments, a hand grasped at the crumbling railing. There came a noise of distaste, and Shu's head and shoulders came into view. Seiji was slung over his shoulder, still only semi-conscious. Touma reached over and grabbed Shu by the shoulder, helping him the rest of the way up.
"Tough climb?" He asked as the other man settled Seiji back against the cabin. Shu nodded and turned to look back down at the rapidly sinking boat.
"Shin's still down there. He was salvaging as much of our supplies as he could when I left."
The rope gave a sudden jerk, catching their attention. Shin's voice came faintly from below.
"I'm tying the packs on! Pull it up and then toss the rope back down to me!"
"Are you alright down there?" Touma shouted as Shu began to pull the line up, grunting in surprise at the weight.
"I'm up to my knees in saltwater. Wait much longer and I'll be treading it."
"Point taken," Touma took a step back as three packs clunked down onto the deck near Shu's feet. He quickly undid the professional knots Shin had tied and threw the rope back over the side. "Grab ahold!"
There came a faint splashing noise before the line gave a quiver. Shu took a deep breath, bunched his shoulders up, and gave a mighty haul on the rope. A muffled yelp and a "Whoa, wait!" could be heard as he quickly pulled it in. A few moments later Shin scrambled over the edge, glaring at his friend as he unwound the hemp from his wrist.
"You nearly wrenched my arm out of its socket," He said flatly. Shu frowned in concern at the red marks scoring the younger man's wrist, struck by a sudden pang of deja-vu.
"That was much easier than it should have been," He replied finally, "You don't weigh nearly enough."
"I'm fine," Shin said, standing and looking around. An involuntary shiver clawed its way up his spine. He couldn't have imagined a more perfect setting for a 'ghost ship'.
"Well," Touma said, almost as though he had read Shin's mind. "At least the 'ghost' part of the legend seems to be false." He reached into his pocket and withdrew the now-familiar worry stone.
"Yeah, seems to be," Shu crossed his arms over his chest and leaned sideways against the railing, watching as the mast of their skiff disappeared beneath the waves. "But how long are we going to be stuck on this barge? For all we know, it could be drifting further out to sea. By the time the fog lifts, we could be even more lost than we are now!"
"It's better than drowning," Shin reminded him, kneeling by Seiji to check the dressing. The Magi stirred, a little more sense coming into his eyes as he blinked owlishly up at him.
"Something...about this place...." He said slowly "Feels...wrong."
"Whatever it is, we can survive it for a few hours," Shu assured him, spreading his hands to indicate the ship. "There's no need to worry so mu-iUnnh!/i" He staggered suddenly, and looked downward to stare at the curved tip of a cutlass protruding from his side. The other three followed his gaze, blinking in horrified fascination. No blood flowed from the wound, and the blade itself seemed to be transparent. Shu gritted his teeth and hissed softly as a wave of deathly cold swept through his chest, like a glacier's lifeblood flowing through his veins.
"Shu, behind you!" Shin cried, looking up from the phantom sword at the spectral figure standing behind the big man. Clad in a corsair's tattered finery, bangles and bracelets adorned his arms, and large hoops hung from his earlobes. Pits of flickering black flame occupied the eye sockets in a lean, hungry looking face.
Touma recovered before the rest. He reached towards their packs, grasping the protruding hilt of Seiji's sword and drawing it from its sheath within. The corsair yanked his cutlass loose from Shu's side and moved to face the thief. He brought it down over his head in a vicious slash, and Touma raised the Magi's blade to block the strike. To the surprise of Shin and Shu, the ghost-sword actually connected with the real one, sending sparks of multicolored fire flaring on the dim air. Touma stepped to the side, knocking away the cutlass, and ran the pirate through with a thrust that looked almost practiced. A look of shock spread over the ghost's face; it fell back a few steps, its image wavering unsteadily for a moment before vanishing.
"...What the HELL?!" Shin stared incredulously at Touma, who returned the sword to its scabbard and shrugged.
"I figured if it had belonged to a Magi for so long, it might actually be some good against ghostly weapons," He explained. Seiji nodded carefully in approval at his logic, and then looked to Shu, who was carefully feeling over the non-wound in his side.
"Phantom weapons can only do you true harm if you believe they exist," He said, his voice still a little unsteady. "Leave it alone. Your body is fine. Your mind merely thinks you should be hurt."
"You talk too much for an injured man," Shu muttered, casting furtive glances about him. "If this ship really is haunted, we can't stay here!"
"What do you propose we do? Jump overboard and strike out for shore?" Touma asked sardonically. "In case you've forgotten, some of us ican't/i swim!" He jerked a thumb to his chest and gestured towards Seiji with his free hand.
"We can't exactly stay either," Shin frowned, setting his back against the reassuringly real wood of the cabin. "Not if that was an example of what's to be found here."
"It didn't hurt us, so where's the harm?" Touma shrugged.
"The harm is that by staying too long in this surreal environment, we will eventually lose our grip on reality, and become much like those spirits," Seiji spoke up. "I have a feeling that the fog will not lift. I think it travels around the ship itself."
"It is a little strange that the weather shifted when it did," Shin said thoughtfully, "But what makes you so sure?"
"I can feel a cloud of magic hovering over this place, the remnants of a very powerful spellcasting," The Magi lifted his head to look at his student, though the effort seemed to be almost too much for him. "Very foul magic. It is that more than anything which keeps me off my feet."
"Alright, let's assume this is all the result of some spell," Touma hopped up onto the railing and perched there, looking over the other three. "How do we put a stop to it and get back to the real world?"
"A spell could not survive for as long as your legends say this ghost-ship has roamed without some sort of physical anchor," Seiji frowned, pinching the bridge of his nose to ward off the ache in the back of his head. "We must find it and destroy it."
"Fighting our way through a horde of ghosts?!" Shu touched a hand to his side and scowled. "And the longer we're here, I'm guessing the more damage they'll be able to do to us."
"You're more perceptive than I gave you credit for," Seiji nodded.
"That means 'yes'." Touma translated, hopping off the railing and scooping up one of the packs. "I think the best place to start looking would be the Captain's cabin."
Shu followed his example, grabbing up the other two knapsacks. Shin pulled one of Seiji's arms around his shoulders and helped the blonde man to his feet. They both staggered a little, but managed to walk despite the strange distribution of weight.
"I'm sorry," Seiji murmured into Shin's ear, "For being such a burden when you least need one."
"You're no burden," The slight young man replied with forced lightness. "You were injured on accident, it's not your fault." He tightened his arm around taller man's waist as he slipped a little, his head settling onto Shin's shoulder. "But it'd be easier if you could walk on your own."
"It's the spell..." Seiji screwed his eyes shut and turned his face into Shin's neck, as though trying to escape some noxious odor or vision. "We must be getting closer, for it to affect me so."
By that point, they were nearing the middle mast, the center point of the ship. The boards beneath their feet groaned ominously with every step, threatening to give way after centuries of rot. The outlines of the Captain's quarters were gradually becoming more defined as the fog fell away before their eyes.
"I wonder where our ghostly friends got to?" Touma looked about himself as he toyed nervously with his worry-stone. "It seems strange that we should only meet ione/i."
"I think 'lucky' would be the better word," Shu grumbled, unable to shake the goosebumps crawling up his arms. The fierce cold that had entered his body from the phantom wound didn't seem to be dissipating. Instead, the chill almost felt as though it was spreading up towards his shoulder. "Would you just put that rock away? You're starting to annoy me."
Touma opened his mouth for a retort that never came. The air around them began to waver and shimmer, as though they were trapped within a heat mirage. The fog melted away, replaced by the scorching high-noon sun. The light seemed to bring changes to the Vassaar; the two missing masts suddenly came into view, once again whole and sound. The rigging reattached itself to the posts and sails. The holes gaping in the deck closed up, the wood looking once again well used, but lacking of decay.
"What in-?" Shu started to ask, but was suddenly drowned out by a mass roar of human voices. People appeared all around them, big as life and twice as real. Corsairs in their wild, clashing colors, and pirates in their more drab, worn clothing, clashed over swords, hooks, maces, and wickedly curved daggers. They hacked and slashed at one another, heedless of damage or death. Blood spurted from rent wounds, spattering onto the deck and making the footing treacherous. More men in pirate garb swarmed up over the side of the ship, their weapons held between clenched teeth. Combatants went down screaming on all sides, but strangely enough, none of them seemed to take any notice of the four bewildered men in their midst.
"What's going on?!" Shin shouted over the din. One of the corsairs near him stumbled backwards, pierced through the throat by a thrown dagger. The dying man fell right through him, still clutching at the hideous wound as though he could hold the spraying blood in by will alone. Shin gasped in shock as all the heat seemed to leak right out of his body, the breath snatched from his lungs by the chill. His knees buckled, the combined burden of both his own weight and Seiji's pulling him downward towards the ghost puddled around his feet.
Then both Touma and Shu were there. The thief grabbed hold of Shin and hauled him back to his feet, while Shu kept Seiji standing. Touma ducked a wild swing from another phantom and looked to the other three.
"I think we're reliving the Vassaar's last battle!" He yelled. "It's some part of the spell, look!" He nodded towards their goal, the Captain's cabin. It alone remained untouched by the transformation that had overtaken the ship; it still hunkered down in shadow, crumbling and desolate. "If we can reach it, we should be able to escape this madness!"
"Then let's hurry!" Shu said grimly. "Get out that sword Touma; if running through these ghosts does that" He nodded towards Shin, "Then we can't take that chance."
Touma nodded once and drew the weapon from the pack he carried. It took on a glow of its own, brighter than the sham sunlight that lit up the air around them. Still the specters took no notice, too caught up in the battle they had been fighting endlessly for centuries. Shin stepped away from the blue haired thief, still shaking all over, but determined to make the run.
There came a lull in the fighting; a brief glimpse of an open space between them and the cabin. Half stumbling, half running, they broke through the violently struggling crowd. They reached the cabin door, but couldn't take the time to stop and open it, so Shu threw his weight behind his free shoulder and slammed through the wood. It swung open with minimal resistance, sending him lurching into the room as his momentum carried him onward. Touma, still supporting Shin, broke through a half second later. He pushed the dazed young man against the wall, whirled around and slammed the door shut behind him. He leaned his bead back against the fungi-moist wood and panted for breath.
"Interesting," Came a deep, wryly amused voice, "No one's ever managed to make it past the Ghosts' Battle. I wonder then, what kind of men you are to withstand the chilling touch of phantom flesh."
((AN: Eh heh...hey. I know I really took my time with this one, and I really don't have any excuses other than the death of my inspiration. It's rotting under my bed somewhere.
I only meant for the whole ghost-ship thing to take a chapter, but like so many other things, it seems to have run away with me, so I'm splitting this into two parts. The second should be much, much shorter than this. I couldn't continue without turning this into a fifteen page chapter, and NOBODY has time to sit down and read that all in one go. So why put this up? Partly to motivate myself into working some more (review, reveiw!) and partly to prove that I haven't shoved this fic off into some dusty corner. Really, I haven't! Here's to hoping that Khisanth meant it when she said she could wait for chapters like these ^_^;; Eh heh...
Oh dear Lord! Risa was bad enough, but now Angel's getting involved!!! *buckles on her crash helmet* I'm REALLY SORRY this took so long! I am I am! Don't hurt me!!!! Note to self: Make Risa cry...Sadly, Nasuti has ended her cameo. She's needed where she is, but I may bring her back in later, as it suits me. Next on the Cameo list is....No, I'm not telling. ^_^ I'm glad their personalities are turning out so realistically. They're always...interesting to write for. Screw the canon, this is more fun! You can't hurt me with that thing Angel, I know too much ^^ The whole Duo affair for instance....Mwah!
Woo hah! I'm going to corrupt Ninxa to the Yaoi side! Well, maybe not quite, but at least I can 'build up her tolerance' for it. *rubs her hands together and cackles diabolically* OH! I meant to give Shadow of a Rose credit last time for figuring out who the Serpent would be, but it totally slipped my mind! b^_^d Two thumbs up to you! Many thanks to Robin Gurl for THREE reviews...wow, did my count ever go up.
Kar-chan...perhaps you ought to catch some more sleep o.O That can't be healthy...And as for Ryo, Reona and MaryD *grins* You'll have to see. He isn't coming in for quite a while, but I bet you can figure out what I'm gonna do with him. ~_^
MAJOR kudos to Ruby (and almost every RPG I've ever played on PS ^_^;; ) For the ghost-ship idea. *TackleGlomps Ruby* You majorly saved my arse, even if your suggestions for shounen ai action were a little...weeeelll.... She also drew me this AMAZING picture of Naaza-as-Sea-Serpent, but since I don't have anywhere to link it from, I can't show you guys!! Ruby, let them see it!
And that's my long list of thanks. Did I forget anyone? Lordee I hope not...))