Chapter 1
REVIVAL
PART 1 - Wings of Cowardice
Thirteen Treasures of ancient time, Thirteen Lessons of Rule in rhyme. To find the jewels in secret places, Follow where the Compass faces. If returned from the shore beyond, A new day dawns for Octopon. But if they fall into evil hands, Darkness descends on all the lands. For these riches, Two shall vie. In the realm of Dark Water where the Treasures lie.
The beam of dawn peered through the portholes of the cabin on the Wraith, awaking a young man from his slumber. In his dreams he recited the ancient poem that Alomar taught to him from the Abbey of Galdebar. For what reason he could not explain, it stuck in his mind. He would always be able to remember it perfectly whether he wanted to, or not. His mind stirred with visions and images of the previous events within his repose. Ren reached for his father's heirloom sword and secured it in his hand as he strolled outside to check the ship.
The regal youth was greeted by the familiar scarlet-feathered companion. "You're awake Ren." Niddler indifferently mumbled, munching soundly on a half-cracked minga-melon.
"I see you are too, Niddler. How's the ship?" Ren diverged to mosey around at his surroundings. They were not docked very far from land. He could see the deep foliage of the rural border on the island of Kalinda. The morning light shone, calm and peaceful. It was almost mysterious, skipping through the forests. It was early, not yet sunup even, shades of blue still persisted in the canopy of the new sky. He could scout nothing of worry on the horizon. Niddler seemed preoccupied, Ren was not earning a response. "I see you're enjoying your breakfast, Niddler." He followed up his query.
"Oh! Uh, sorry, the Wraith has been fine, nothing has bothered the ship for as long as I've been out here." Niddler would be startled out of his own trancing tempo, he paused his chomping to grant Ren reply.
"Good. We need to head to town soon, we're running low on food and supplies." Ren stilled to embrace the Compass in his fist, gazing out to the location it endured to point in. "If we stay here much longer, I might need to get some form of live." The handsome captain mused languidly, a direful frequency for staying afloat percolating his leadership.
"I don't see why we just can't find the other Treasures and come back to this one. It's giving us so much trouble." Niddler persuasively reasoned. He nibbled what remained of the fruit off of a minga-melon seed, eying it with scrutiny and then strayed back up. "I mean, Bloth is still out there, right?" He finished up his criticism.
"I'm sure he is, but we can't leave, Niddler. I have a feeling this is the Treasure we need to find next, and the Compass wouldn't point that way if he found it. I just need to figure out what the Compass is trying to tell us. Besides, since the Wave, Ioz and Tula are still out there somewhere. We can't just give up on the idea of finding them again." Ren curtailed his formulation, leaning off the boundary of the ship. He stroked his coarse chin with his fingers, now feeling the developed rough. He had grown taller now, his hair was longer since the start of the Quest. He watched the wind flapping the Wrath's flag over his head. It was the same tapestry that he and the devoted crew had decorated with their hands connected, in the way they always cheered when readying for the next adventure the tide would bring. Though the awning had been torn, it survived remarkably well for all it had gone through. The circle was still visible and unbroken. It had almost been a year, and weeks after the Great Wave. He did not know what happened between the time when he, Ioz and Tula had escaped from Bloth and the Constrictus and the time when he and Niddler came to, shipwrecked just off the isle of Kalinda. In retrospective, it seemed his journey led to Kalinda after all. The Wraith still was intact but it had needed much repair, which vitiated a few weeks. The Treasures were becoming more difficult to find. Only recently did he resume pursuing the 9th Treasure and he could not find out why the Compass beam stopped when he drifted too far out to sea.
"The Eyes of the Fallen Captain! If we go that way, our ship is sunk!" Niddler would be alarmed to a spooked garble at a flare up of two burning eyes in the clouds over the waterline. He gorged a Bentaar-pear inside his cheeks.
"That is just a legend, Niddler. Anyway, we won't be setting out until we restock. Considering we just bought full provisions of fruit yesterday, I'd say there isn't going to be much gold left on this Quest without Ioz around to keep us on our toes." Ren visibly lamented, he kept heart though his soul was weary.
"I suppose that makes sense." Niddler knew Ren was right, and though he was not sure about Ioz, he missed Tula. He liked having her around, she was always warm and gentle to him. Unlike Ioz, who always became irate with him for one reason or another. Despite this fact, he too wanted to see both of them again.
"Right. So we need to head to town." Ren stolidly stated, swaying from his on-looking perspective and moving to steer the cutwater closer to land.
The streets of Kalinda were flooded with people buying and selling...sometimes stealing. It's taverns grew full and bustling at all junctures. Onlookers communed and chatted amongst themselves as Ren and Niddler roamed through the marketplace. The two did not carry vast gold on them, so they wouldn't likely be a target for thievery, not that many people did try to steal from them in the following weeks.
"Hey, is that the guy who survived the Great Wave?" The chap in front of a shop gossiped.
"Huh? Yeah, that's him alright, I hear he's the Son of King Primus too. Really amazing." The owner debunked with a boisterous whisper, too loud to ignore.
"Really..." The customer dazed. He was eying the passing prince and making sure to get a good look at Ren's ensemble.
"You're quite popular, Ren." Niddler meekly hummed, staying close to his leader.
"It's a good thing that I am, otherwise I doubt these merchants would be so generous." Ren beamed with a grin of satisfaction, dangling a bag stuffed with goodies and supplies. Some of the items were even gifts from strangers, all kinds of odds and ends the two did not know what to do with, and probably would not even need. It wasn't any surprise that Ren had been the talk of the town in recent time, being not only the Son of the great King Primus, but also having survived the Great Wave that was visible from the measly seaside-town, most of the other surrounding towns as well. Indeed, the heir was procuring quite a reputation. "Anyway, Niddler, I think we have enough for the moment. We should head back soon." Ren motioned to Niddler trotting at his side. On the road back to the Wraith, they passed the tavern that Niddler could not enter and it did not matter much, because Ren settled no business there anyway.
"Wait! Son of Primus!" Shouted a man calling after Ren. He looked young in appearance.
"Yes? I am Prince Ren, Son of King Primus." Ren answered back, wavering toward and boggling at the stranger with curiosity.
"You seek the Treasures of Rule, correct?" The snoop inquired.
"I do. What do you mean to ask me?" Ren quizzically asked the confronting person, confounded by the sudden interruption.
"The next Treasure that you seek...it's someplace you wouldn't expect. It's hidden...concealed! By danger...danger!" The strange, and now hysterical guest warned. His expression of frenzy made him come off to be slightly crazy.
"What do you mean, Danger, and how do you know of this?" Ren pried of this harbinger, now seeming to be more puzzled and suspicious by the brash encounter.
"I can see many things, believe me! You won't find it on any map!" The odd and unbalanced visitor told.
Niddler did not like where this conversation veered to, not trusting the man. "Hey! I'll have you know, the Prince of Octopon happens to be very busy! Take your inane ramblings to someone who cares to listen!" Niddler swiveled to him in a dignified and bossy air. He pushed and pulled at Ren, wanting to go. "Come on Ren! I don't trust him!" He hauled on the prince's arm, giving a chatter and a nudge.
"Niddler, stop it!" Ren aggravatingly freed himself from the monkeybird, who squawked in response. He deliberated for an instant, wondering who this person may be and where he might be getting his facts. "Did you know my father? How do you know about the Thirteen Treasures of Rule?" Ren eyed the individual closely, lucid blues showing a combination of interest and perplexity.
"I can't say...but please trust-here, take this!" The stranger hurried out as if he could sparsely talk. He handed Ren an old and tattered scroll, which the boy cautiously accepted. The man ran off as quickly as he had engaged.
"Hey, wait!" Ren called back, he prepared to run after but the oddball sprang so apace that any shadow had already vanished.
Niddler squawked in a frenzy, pursing his feathers. "What a load of borca-paste." Niddler switched to Ren, inspecting the parchment his comrade had just received. "What is it, anyway?" He challenged with remote eagerness.
Ren opened the scroll. "It appears to be a map of this area. The location where the Compass indicated is marked on it, and there's something else...but it seems to be in some, unusual writing." Ren squinted as he picked apart the map with his resolve. "That's it, that's it, Niddler! I've got it!" The exuberant regal announced, his bright gaze dazzled with revelation.
"Got it? Got what, Ren?" Niddler cawed with interest, rubbernecking up at Ren.
"No time to waste, Niddler! Fly me back to the Wraith!" Ren delighted with anticipation, his face shone with the zeal for the Quest.
"Can't we walk back, we're carrying so much." Niddler complained, being opposed to physical exercise. He realized however, that when Ren discovered or figured something out, he was unshakable and required to act on it right then and there. "Fine, but you better let me in on this, and I want some extra minga-melons when we get back." The monkeybird reluctantly hovered up to position himself on the aristocrat's shoulders.
"I promise I'll tell you as soon as we get to the Wraith." Ren positively assured the monkeybird and retained the document under one arm, carrying the essential loot with the other. He smirked as he visualized schemes inside his head. The wind extended no resistance as they took off under the hot midday-sun.
Ren's feet touched down on the speedy vessel as Niddler flapped to the jetty of the ship for a respite. Ren expeditiously commenced the packing away of the items, barely glancing at the stock to make sure it all was there. He then filed up to the stout flight of steps that curved to the chief level of the Wraith and sat down, drawing out the map. The sanguine-feathered monkeybird already shuffled with no delay to the food section of the hold to claim a juicy minga-melon. They had not yet cast off.
Niddler began feasting as he patted over to Ren, his monkeybird feet tapping all the way. "So tell me Ren, what does it say?" With a stuffed beak the brightly colored hybrid probed to leisure.
"It means, even though we need to go back, we'll need to take a detour from a different direction. So that's why we couldn't find it before." Ren pensively garbled, fixated on the map and the ancient jargon as if coming upon an understanding. He was vague however, so it sounded more like he was thinking aloud.
"What does that mean? Go back where, Ren?" Niddler ceased his chomping to peek up at the youthful captain, demanding a response.
Ren instead bolted upward from where he was seated and sped to cut the line to shore. "We need to go to Arakna island." Ren stood and focused right on Niddler as he said those words, which would carry his dictate with surety. He held his sword at his periphery and then slipped it into his waist strap, he grasped a ditty with the other hand and scorched up the stairs to the wheel. He began steering off.
For a moment, what Ren expounded hadn't fully set-in with Niddler. "Arakna...what?" With puzzlement the monkeybird questioned. Then, it all came rushing back. "Arakna island?!" He coughed up a nibble of ripened melon-flesh. He flew over, screeching out a doubletake as he gripped his partially devoured meal and fluttered in front of Ren's face so he could be seen. "Ren, tell me you didn't just say we're going to the island of the caves of giant spiders that almost killed and ate us alive last time! No-no-no-no-no-no-no!" Niddler squawked and chattered in panic, wings beating mile-an-instant.
"We have to Niddler. The Compass points there." Ren stated purposefully, palming the Compass and shifting into the frequency the glittering ray shot out to. "It's the only location that makes any sense on this map." He judged as he unrolled the charting once more, guiding through the sea with one hand.
"It didn't point there before!" Niddler argued to unflappable wits. "Let me check this map again, I think you're reading it wrong." Niddler forcefully snatched the map from Ren, toting his melon under the other arm.
"Niddler, stop it!" Ren furrowed, grabbing the map back from his monkeybird protester. "The reason I think it didn't point there before is because it Is normal to arrive from the opposite direction of the island. For some reason, the Compass is only responding if we go to the berm of the island, which means there must be something else within our reach. Perhaps even at the center or underneath. The words on the map are written in the area just South." Ren carefully examined the article with a scrunched leer.
"Ren I think we need to go back to shore...we don't have enough supplies. Besides, we need fire and we don't have anything to light our torches with." Niddler confidently puffed, thinking this notion would change the determined prince's mind but then found it was soon shot down.
"Yes we do." Ren returned by upholding a satchel of cindersand given to him as a present from one of the townspeople. "This should be plenty enough to make our way through the caves." He smiled with pride.
Niddler whooshed in closer, trying to think of a viable retort. "Well..." Niddler briefly paused as he could not ponder and then he flew shortly to snap the portable map away again in frustration, being a sore loser. In an instant, a blade speared his half-eaten fruit, prying it out of his paws. "Hey! That's my minga-melon!" He squawked and chattered with rebellion, the blond teenager maintained it out of his reach.
"Niddler stop being so afraid or we won't be able to claim the Treasure, neither will we be able to find Ioz and Tula. We can't let Bloth get to the Treasure before us. If the dark water swallows everything, there won't be anything left. How long do you think you'll be able to eat minga-melons without minga-trees? You can carry the torch or you can stay on the ship." Ren sighed, frustrated about having to argue but felt as if he at last won the monkeybird over. He forked over the melon, which his friend salvaged. He took back his map.
Niddler pouted, he did not want to do either. "I don't want to be on the ship, what if Bloth finds us?" The avian whined. He was afraid he might drop the torch if he needed to take charge of it. "And fire and monkeybirds...don't get along." The fluff of his wings drooped when he finished complaining.
"Then you can stay close or on my back when we get there, but make sure you're quiet." Ren offered to end the disagreement. He lobbed a stare at the unwilling mess of feathers who perched on the rail nearby, comforting in a rind with both anxiety and anticipation. He roved onward, occasionally breaking to consult the map as he prevailed.
"Why can't anything ever be simple?" Niddler bellyached. He bore up from his melon and then succumbed, finishing it and making sure to consume all of it.
PART 2 - The Downfall of Trade
The sun drew high in the sky as an imposing ship made route across a vast stretch of sea. On its deck, an exchange of words and events was taking place.
"Twist my soul! That boy and his blasted ship of fools can't elude me forever! Mantus!" Bloth's growling voice boomed over the bridge of the Maelstrom as he addressed his commanding officer, peering through a looking-glass at the nearing port-city. He beat his enormous fist against the rock-solid edge of the huge platform.
"We'll be in Kalinda by high-sun, Milord." Mantus collectedly provided, prolonging to navigate the huge vessel that was the Maelstrom. With a tilt he was approaching the zone of the defenseless district. His boss became ever more hostile in his blood-lust for Ren, ever since the incident of The Great Wave. By fortune they had weathered, mostly intact with few of Bloth's crew lost in the waves. The Maelstrom received the least of the damage in the aftermath, being virtually impenetrable to almost everything. The current seemed to have fallen out from underneath the ship, letting it down easy. Whether this had been Morpho's doing or some coincidence was not known. Despite this fact, the immense cruiser would be knocked greatly off-course in the opposite aim intended, almost to the shores of Janda. The Maelstrom required only a few repairs, but repairs still. This only served to further fuel the gargantuan Captain's rage, from the soles on his clobbering feet and to the shoulders spikes of his green cape.
"Good. I want you to prepare me several squadrons of our elite men to accompany me. If I can't find the Wraith's wreckage, then I'm going to find the boy's whereabouts...personally." Bloth barked the order to his second-in-command, laying emphasis on the last word uttered from his abhorrent mouth. His goldenrod eye distended with sinister intentions on the town quite-pure in comparison.
"Yes, Lord Bloth." Mantus obliged obediently and adjusted sight at the evil lord in surprise, cocking an eyebrow. This was a command he rarely heard torpedoed from his captain's arsenal. He diverged back to steering, it would merely be a little longer before they would disembark.
In the town of Kalinda many onlookers watched an object in the distance, at first echoing of a wayward cloud. It then began to take its shape. Bones protruding from a taut face that melded the front of the vessel, growing out of the mist. "It's the Maelstrom!" Only one phrase from a spectator sent the entire town into dismay, the streets filled with people screaming and running for refuge. The heralding crusher advanced at an extraordinary speed, bearing down upon its target only in the few moments after it had been spotted on the horizon.
Bloth paced back and forth along the planking, waiting to arrive. His crew dared not come disturb him with the exception of a half-braindead Konk, who learned his lesson swiftly after being kicked several lengths from where he stood. Mantus held the controls, about to give the men the order to dock. Bloth vised his sword at guard, preparing with the multifold ruffians from his surrounding assembly. "We're in port, Bloth!" Mantus finally announced. The anticipation had decidedly been too much.
"Excellent." No sooner did the commander issue the word to drop anchor and pull out the board than did the leviathan-sized Captain march enraged down the ramp of the warship and into the affright port with his vicious minions in tow. There were a small number of the men leading dagrons behind. He and his looters tore through the market, destroying anything in the path. Slashing through stands and pavilions with no regard for the poor or innocent. Many cries were heard from those unlucky enough to cross blades with the pillaging brigade. Others, trying hard to duck out-of-the-way, were silent. He entered one of the taverns, busting the door open from the hinge. "Where is the Son of Primus?" Bloth's roar was of bloodcurdling hostility as the frightened goers sunk behind tables and chairs. He scanned around the place with his probing eye, grunting bitterly under lurid breath. He set his sights on a bystander whom he hooked up by the shoulder, lifting up and off the ground. "Where is he?!" Bloth crashed at the innocent and daunted man.
The man chosen as Bloth's victim had indeed encountered Ren in town as everyone had and like many he favored the young prince, even close to considering him an honorable acquaintance, if not a friend. "I-I don't know, Bloth!" The patron choked out, violently afraid.
"You lie. You'll tell me now!" Bloth's alert words were ominous as he eyed the petrified groveler. Mentally, he tore down defenses.
"But...the Son of Primus is good! He's a friend!" The good fool spoke bravely, a little too bravely.
Bloth appeared wrathful but he bellowed a laugh, feeling amused at the denizen's boldness. "Now, now, dear man. What matters more, the goodness of a boy who is not here or the goodness of the man who holds your life in his hand, decent old-fellow?" He poised to survey his company of termagant raiders, who snorted and jeered in reaction. He cleaved his severing blade over the man's head, stilly biding to bring it down. "Or would you like me to take you back to my ship and feed you to my Constrictus?" The cacophonous blackguard intimidated, internally spiking his prey straight in the eye. Several of the innfolk were doing their best to stay covered, not a single one of them wanting to be Pirate Lord's next quarry.
"No! I wouldn't like that Bloth!" The tramp gathered a cough, pulling himself together. "I don't know where the boy is. I know he sometimes comes to the market and he survived the Great Wave." He paused to breathe and continued. "He seems to be flying solo with only a monkeybird of red with him." The hapless man exhaled. "That's all I know!" The informant obeyed the indomitable cutthroat, his squeal treble and pleading. He shook in his upset and tried to catch a breeze, not wishing to know what would become of him next.
"Ah." Bloth raised a finger to ponder this new information for a fraction.
The man grew too terrified and awestruck to speak, then he loosened his tongue and began to beg. "Can you please...let me-" The coward started to finish but was crumbled.
Bloth glared at him with repugnancy, knowing the succedent thing about to be asked, one eye collecting. "Bah! Worthless!" He growled, launching the man a substantial length of at least three tables into the wall of the saloon. The paltry victim wailed, experiencing the sensation that he would meet his end after the scuff, but he survived the impact. Bloth and his crew packed toward the door to leave, the frequenters of the tavern waited needlessly long to stir.
Behind a table in the inn hid another patron who had given Ren the map. "This is not good." The soul of imminence mumbled under a silent respire. "Must find the meaning of The Surge from Northern Skies..." He revivified his promise.
Bloth left the pub and headed back for the Maelstrom. "Bloth, I know another method of finding the Son of Primus." Before a halfway point to his destination, the slither of a corruption summoned him. Morpho had evidently followed him into town, concealed and robed.
Bloth's amber glim widened. "What business brings you here, Morpho?" The Captain quelled his ire and directed attention upon his insidious ally. That phrase made him skeptical.
"I can locate where the boy may be headed, through my Master of The Dark Water, The Dark Dweller." Morpho whispered from underneath an opaque cloak, shadows disappeared from his obscure form as he slipped forward. Bloth ordered his company back.
"Why did you not mention this to me before, Morpho?" Bloth inquired with discretion, browsing his subject intently. He kept his temper in check.
"My Master knows where his powers can't reach, those places are being blocked by the Treasures of Rule. With the eight of them found and pooling in Octopon, we have a sense where the other five may be, and the Son of Primus will transit those areas." Morpho explained with a peculiar sound, hiding the deformed portion of his facade under the dark shroud.
Bloth detracted to contemplate, plying a finger to his chin in consideration. "Very well Morpho. Come, join me." The wicked Captain trawled his way to the dagrons, mounting one and ushering for the slime-bodied abnormality to take the other. They talked grotesque deals in private as they returned to the freighter.
"Mantus! Set course for Arakna island!" Bloth's pursuit boomed through the sky above as he flew in on a bulky dagron near to the plateau of the deck, the veiled disciple piloted one at his side.
"For where, Milord?!" Mantus, who kept watch on deck, stared with inflated eyes and trembled out at his employer, who just issued him the second unusual directive of the day.
"Did I not make myself clear, Mantus?" The contemptuous pirate resounded back to the cohort.
"You heard him! Anchor up!" The commander snapped the order at several of the subordinates.
The Pirate Lord's flying beast drove up and out of range of the cronies on the Maelstrom below. "Morpho, this plan had better work. That wretched boy and his abominable crew nearly had me ripped to shreds, even during the blasted seaquake!" Bloth's dagron virtually touched the clouds before circling and preparing to come in for a landing.
"If I hadn't interfered, you would have been, Bloth, but you need not worry, you are very important to the Dark Dweller. Together we will eliminate the Son of Primus!" The snakelike fanatic spewed, his despise shone in a burning scorn. Before the reptiles came at rest, the Captain eyed him with a gut unease.
Ren and Niddler sailed in the direction of the dangerous land for a distant time, the sun had started to go down and twilight spilled over the shoreline.
"Ren, are we there yet? Ohhh...my stomach hurts, I shouldn't have eaten so many melons..." The monkeybird all but doubled-over in pain. Though he was aware he often overate when he worried, he had really overdone it this time. He flopped on down across the board with a thud, curling into a fetal position like a monkeybird Biperian-egg.
"We should be there soon. Look!" Ren signaled on his enthralled guidance as he pendulated his Compass, it was shining toward the direction they were headed but just a bit short of its mission. "This must be it, it has to be pointing to some part of the island we can't see. According to this map, we should continue going forward. Past the Compass beam." Ren instructed as the schooner shuttled farther into the darkening sky.
"Does it point to anything that can stop a stomach-ache?" Niddler groaned as he was carelessly overstuffed and regrettable on the floor.
Ren glanced at Niddler, lowering his eyebrows in concern and resumed steering. "Courage, Niddler, we're going to need to start searching as soon as we touch ground." The Wraith pulled farther inward of the atoll, but the glow of the Compass had disappeared as if they were on top of it. "It can't be far." He ascertained his premonition.
"Ohhh..." Niddler ached but managed to pick himself up. Suddenly, the bow heaved and he was pommeled to his back. He squawked. "That was uncalled for!" He lifted up his head in travail.
"Noy jitat! I think we hit something, Niddler!" Ren clattered to the edge of the seacraft. They had indeed hit something, though he could not tell what it was. He now saw the rim of the island on the verging distance. The keel was parked on a narrow strip of sand. "This must be what the Compass is pointing to." He jumped down from the railing, being sure the surface was flat. He kicked it with his boots, but all he felt was some impenetrable mass. "We need to dock here." He affirmed with temerity, pacing through the twilight dust to the landmass that was under his feet.
The monkeybird, who was only partially listening to the boy through his pains, didn't volunteer. "Ok Ren, let me know when we're ready to leave." Niddler unwittingly griped. Not wanting to move, he stayed continuously sprawled-out and incapacitated on the deck.
"Come here, Niddler!" The regent ordered in reply as he worked the sail to subside. He was fooling with the rope and perusing for something to secure the ship to.
"Coming Ren!" The monkeybird pulled himself together, whining as he paddled in the direction of the young man's call. "I think I'm gonna be sick." He impolitely fussed, being ever over-dramatic as he rested next to his adventurous friend.
Ren had tried stabbing the hard terrace with his blade but to no avail, it would not budge. "There's something under here but it looks like we'll need to find another way in." Ren pensively murmured, gathering his equipment from the small pack he had brought off the vessel. He pulled out a torch for lighting and some cindersand. He lit the torch with the intent on walking to the rocky brink of the island, which focused into view in the area beyond. "We may have to go through the entrance we did before." He intelligently deduced the dilemma. The sun continued to set quickly, only a thin line of red light remained on the horizon.
"Awk!" Niddler squawked. Pouncing up on the prince's back, he stalled to remain close to the torch. "Please be careful..." The cowardly avian transmit in a worried tone as Ren hiked toward the corridor of the cave on the otherside of the terrain.
Niddler adhered to Ren like the last shelf of overhang that would prevent his tumble into an ocean of darkwater-swallowing sea-monsters, and on a stomach full of Draja-fruit. It did not seem to bother Ren. Niddler was a bit heavy and it slowed him down marginally, but the avian was not too much of an ordeal for him to carry. Ren plowed on, almost entering the cave as he noticed something looming on the vista. Something was expanding. At first it was vague, but he instantly recognized the features a few moments after it emerged. Ren uttered the first instance of the nearly forgotten words he had not mentioned in weeks. "The Maelstrom!" The adolescent hero's eyes showed an awed determination. He ducked behind a rock near the inlet of the cave.
Niddler chattered. "Like this couldn't get any worse...what do we do now, Ren? He's going to find us here...and ohhh my aching stomach!" Niddler reeled in discomfort and stress, anxiety overtaking him.
"We get a jump on him and hope he doesn't see us! Be quiet!" Ren clamped his hand over the mouth of the noisy monkeybird, shushing him. He then scampered for the cave entryway, entering the murky and grody tunnel. He glimpsed back for a mere crinkle of a brow to see the Maelstrom only just elapsing to the seaboard. The lit flame was the only thing that showed through the impeccable blackness.
Niddler shied his head under his master's long ponytail, providing a safe haven for the frightened monkeybird's spirit. He tried to fade as much as possible, clinging close to the light but holding just far enough away from it so that it wouldn't singe his feathers. He understood that fire meant safety in this dangerous destination. He sensed it started to peeve Ren, but the boy did not say anything. "This place is even creepier when it's dark out. I wish I was back home..." Niddler pitifully trembled out, hanging on his bronzed companion as if for dear life.
Ren explored the gloomy chamber with shifting eyes. "We'll be fine as long as we keep the torch lit, we've been lucky so fa-" The prince was cut off by an eight-legged beast coming down on them from an adhesive line, dripping thick and acidic goo from the pincers that formed its mouth. It let out a high-pitched scream as it attempted to wrap its spiny legs around the startled youth, and it would have, had he not swiped the blazing heat at the threatening webspinner.
"Ren look out!" The monkeybird shrilled, evading behind the regality's head as the lad swung the flare in a full spin at the droves of web-creatures that leapt at them from all directions. The piercing squeals may have frightened him even more than the spiders themselves.
"So maybe I underestimated how many of them were here." The spry prince gulped as his daunt skylights watched up in horror at the neverending stream of huge arachnids flowing down from the ceiling of the grotto.
"Mantus! Prepare to dock!" The nefarious Captain gave his orders as he paced across the floorboards. He scoured at his surroundings. The seaside was dark, so was the cave. Everything was dark. Only the sliver of luminosity from what lingered of the dual crescent-moons of Merr shone through obscurity. Several of his marauders who gathered in preparation to leave the destroyer carted flares lapped high, giving the already ominous warship a perilous, red-orange glow in the night. He delighted toward his objective. "By the two moons, I'll make that boy suffer if I have to ravage every island on Merr!" The infamous lord gnarled as he starred into the everpresent isolation, his own lit flicker held at the ready.
"We'll be ready as soon as Strand finishes fumbling with the anchor." Mantus directed his attention to the four-armed humanoid pushing the voluminous anchor over the hull of the relic. "Drop it already, you brainless-filth!" The commander rapt with annoyance at the subordinate.
"I've got it! I've got it!" The quadrate thug struggled with a rat's squeal to lift the anchor with a few other pirates, carrying it in arms. He at last chucked it over the fringe, alleviating his rodent face. It hit the deep as a league of the men at Bloth's disposal pulled out the board.
"Onward! To the blood of the Prince!" Bloth thundered at his troops, who were slamming way down the ramp. Burning torches poured into the mouth of the hollow.
The immense swarm of oversized spiders pursued a terrified prince and his monkeybird through the buried tunnels of the cave. They flew past several dryrotted skeletons, partially or completely consumed by the treacherous webbing.
"Awk! Ren, help! I'm going to drop it!" Niddler desperately yawped, floundering with the torch that somehow ended up in his possession. No longer piggybacking, he swung the beacon around wildly at the spawning mob. He was bumbling and clumsy, almost flailing it. The lad then snatched it up and spun both the torch and his blade with dexterity, slashing back at the penetrating wall of sticky limbs.
Ren backed up farther into the recesses. He started to become overwhelmed as he chopped away. Niddler loitered close and now embraced his leg. "We just have to hold them back, there has to be a clearing soon." The blond-haired pioneer strained to catch his breath through choked exhales. From running and fighting, even he began to feel himself loosing stamina.
"We should have gone back and tried to find another way in." Niddler gushed the noise of a distressed squawk. "Do we even know where the Compass is pointing?" He cowered and shook, clutching his friend's leg. They were slowly being moved backward, they would be forced endlessly into the dreary caverns.
Ren impaled another spider, which shrieked and retreated. He veered a glance apropos of the way they came in, seeing a copper luster splintering around the bend. His eyes jolted in reaction. Voices came and though he could not make them out, deep sounding grunts and growls echoed through the contour along with the jeers and occasional frightened screams. "Chungo lungo! We can't, Niddler! Bloth's got us cornered! Ay jitata!" Angstful, Ren swore outloud but quiet enough. He tried to catch his air. He stabbed at another advancing screamer and ran boundlessly into the grim dwelling, grasping the monkeybird's primate-hand after he had bounced back up on Ren's shoulders.
"This is going to end well." Niddler whined terrifically, emitting a last mimic of sarcasm before they made for the void like the winds of the sea.
Bloth and his troublemakers marched through the cave and met the same number of spiders, only with far less trouble due to profuse lamps and numbers. Only the hooligans forming the outskirts of the group would need to worry about the evil spinners. The surplus of injured spiders lay on sides of the cavern, some only lost legs and were advancing on the cutthroat masse. "Torment my eyes!" The Pirate Lord avouched. He raised his lethal blade over an approaching vermin which possessed only five legs, and dealt it a fatal blow. He boosted up the beast by one of its remaining feelers, examining it. "Our prince has been here, Konk." He smiled cleverly, curdling a promise of sorrow. Gawking ahead, he saw more picked-off spiders in his path. "And he's going to lead us right to him!" He grunted as he wrought the handle of his pyre, lurching it at more of the approaching bane.
"Konk hope we find Ren soon, Bloth. Konk don't like giant spiders!" The fat pig-of-a-pirate sliced at an eightleg coming close to him and cowered, hiding behind his boss. "Ow!" He hollered out with a yelp. The irritated captain growled as he kicked the short man off his pegleg.
"That's right, just to the end of this tunnel!" Ren and Niddler ran with the sustaining energy that was left in them. "Niddler, I might need you to fly us out of here." He weakly asserted to the monkeybird, who was now unaided in escape but still ambulatory. The two surmounted to a temporal break in activity. Ren stopped to regulate his toiling lungs.
"I don't think I can, Ren, the ceiling is too low, and those things are still after us." Niddler mournfully refuted and quit, mooring to Ren's leg as an azure stone gleamed in the epitome.
"The Compass!" Ren attended to the revival of the prismatic gem around his neck, looping it in hand. It motioned to the very end of the way, almost reached. The spiders appeared either to have all crawled out of their holes, or stopped hunting them. "Now let's just hope the Treasure is nearby and there's another way out of here." Ren gave into a pant and picked up his feet, trudging onward to follow the beam. Niddler kept proximately behind.
The mates breached upon a chamber at the end of the tunnelway, from it emanated a green brightness out of a hole in the floor of the crag. "There's something glowing!" The monkeybird squealed ecstatically, fluttering to the fountain of the prominence. Ren ascended after.
"You're right Niddler! This must be it! Now we can-" The teen of flaxen locks was cut off by a dangling spider aiming to attack, which he achieved a whisk of his blade at but before he could, the grandeur eightleg fell limp. He could detect the sound of a razor scoring into it.
"You mean this is it for you!" The chilling invoke filled the air. Ren cut to its source, flashing his metal, which met with one much larger than his own. One impact and the blade was torn out of all sweep as a foot stepped on it. Then the bundle of crimson wings charged into flight, an angry primate-bird incised at the offender's face with scrappy claws until several arrows rolled out of the same direction. Feathers stuck to the wall. The net lobbed down and from the vibrant ball-of-fluff ensued dramatic screeches. Ren somersaulted in an attempted dodge but was surrounded by ripping weapons barbed at his throat. "Tie them, and make sure they can't escape." The zooming sword pointed toward both, the indomitable brute's frown contorted into a smile.
The rope bound the two heroes tightly against each other. "I knew something like this was going to happen." The unavailingly-plumed avian differed in opinion as he glanced tenderly at his friend stuck in the same mire as he was, but then quieted at the overshadowing hostility of their captor.
"I have you now, my foolhardy Prince! Thanks to you, the Compass is mine at last, and the 9th Treasure of Rule is too." The lordly and remorseless Bloth gloated as he polished Ren's keen crystal. He unclenched a fist and let a mangled spiderleg drop to the ground.
"Nice to see you again too, Bloth." The wearied boy's words were dripping in disgusted mordacity.
"I told you we should have given those spiders a proper send-off." Niddler craned his neck opposite to appropriately wisecrack, whispering his point to the conjoined Ren.
"Retrieve the Treasure!" The vile Captain instructed, pointing to the chosen units of his crew and giving Ren a sneer.
Several men scattered to bung to the direction of the glow. "Bloth! The hole is too small for us to go through, it's being blocked by something!" The lead surveyor informed, gyring toward his boss.
"What?!" Bloth yelled, taken aback and infuriated. Ren mustered a smirk and a restrained snicker, which caught the attention of the evil one but he only glanced and cycled back to his legion. "Bah! Then we'll have to make room." He turned from the lackey, glaring wickedly at his prisoners. "As for you..." Before he could finish, he stunted at the phenomenon of ruination upon him, a flood of spiders were pouring down from the high crest of the catacomb and attacking all of Bloth's minions. The raider troop swung their torches, and to no avail. The creatures agilely dodged the fire and climbed up their victims, attempting to encase them in deadly spidersilk. Astoundingly, it had only taken a few moments before they were consumed. Some scoundrels dropped their blaze, unable to hold on. The horde was on them, bombarding as if enamored with their new quarry. Three of them were on Bloth and attempting to wrap him up as he panicked, slicing with his sword and the light. The Compass jilted to the ground from off of his neck.
"Noy jitat! Retreat!" Bloth called for his bandits, some of which were already making for the exit and others were being tread on. He bounded toward the opening of the cavern where he imprisoned his captives and with one final act of vengeance then a nasty gnarl, torched one of the bleached skeletons wrapped in silk, throwing it in front of where Ren and Niddler were tied. Despise consummated in his pitilessly staring eye before he escalated completely out of the cavern. Through the flames Ren and the monkeybird saw two forms, one of which pitched to the ground. Then a hand reached out to retrieve the Compass, only visible as it would be hued with a brilliant-blue glisten through the fire.
Some time following, a heralding freighter carried way into a conventional marina.
"Leave! Yo ho! To Janda-town we go!" The ecstatic crew from Bloth's warship cheered, at last docking at the port city of cheater's riches.
"'Ey, wait for me!" Another straggler joined the cluster, chunking skinless potatoes.
"Only real Maelstrom men go to Drakkle's." The scratchy blademaster insisted with the point of a rangy finger. He fetched a hefty bag of plenteous wealth under arm.
"You and Strand are the only mateys who say that, Mantus. Drakkle's ale taste like sea-water, and you know it." His helm of horns facing Mantus, an ox of a marauder sonorously disagreed.
"Then go to Zoolie's with Konk, wench-tongued larva." The swordsman scoffed with a turn of a hand. "Come, Vlor. At Drakkle's waits our fortune." With the cast of a sable mane and a lip of misconduct, the tradesman greedily caromed ahead.
"Ay', Mant' it c'n't wait, ya dirty-ol'd seadog! Th's time I'm o't fer 'yer lifesavins'. Aarrgh!" Vlor gnarled before signaling with a jubilant salute, and chased after Mantus down the gangplank. With hankering eyes of turquoise and a salivating avidity, the balding steel-wielder watched Mantus haul the spoils halfway until the periwinkle garb ceased to swoosh.
"Avast, Mantus! No Janda-town for you, we have to propose our next move, and you are not allowed leave until our inventory from Kalinda has been accounted for!" Bloth's grunting summon halted the commander, Mantus formed a scowl as he trudged back to the deck with crossed arms.
"Ahh'r shoot, what'm I go'na do wih this gold? N'yone wanna be t'mporary barman-friend-forever? I's bet wit' yerr!" The green-vested swordsman piddled around the board until he was joined by the previous bovine-brute. Vlor promenade away with his new buddy.
"I be, Vlor! We go to Zoolie's! Rotten luck Mant' got babooned, that stockpile of 'his could buy m'y way off this bucket." The oxen warrior expressed as he strolled off to town with the clean-topped raider.
"Inventory is Vlor's ward." Mantus humbly advised, he glowered with steel at the disappearing blade-rogue. "What plans are there to create now? The underworld of Arakna is enigmatic. To obtain the Treasure means to annex the entire interior, which is impossible." The strategist argued the idiocy of their plotting, swinging a palm.
"Of course, Mantus, and I know just how to do it. I've been waiting for this day." Bloth chuckled into the night. Mantus had strolled toward the inventory sector when his tracks halted. "Mantus, I have another mission for you when we port at Bentaar." The Captain's summon strayed.
"Someone in the Bentaar Quin-village is in need of a marooning. Who, Lord Bloth?" Mantus cut around as he answered the call, curiously loosening his sword from the clip.
"Who do you think? Find our Lady's daughter." The Pirate Lord enforced his impetuous plans. "By the way, Mantus, don't bring them back to the Maelstrom. I don't need any more of...those kind of bones, nor do I need skulls to tell their heads apart. For the evils of Avadasia's Abyss, have a drink and eat a good meal while you're there. Enjoy yourself. Get your vitamins, and take your sword with you. We'll arrive within the moons." He lumbered to his quarters but not before tossing his loyal commander a reduced sum of gold. "One more thing, Mantus. When we meet again, make sure you give Grimrot his equipment. By the Abyss, send Nimbo." He swallowed a drink before an afterthought at one bowing archer and a living skeleton behind his gangling taskmaster.
"Aye, Nimbo is recharged, Commander." Degea clad in violet-and-rose advanced while informing her master of the status on a new recruit.
"Yes, Lord Bloth." Mantus collected his pay and bounced slippery eyes to count, then an unpredicted smile covered his qualms of stingy coins.