Kolyma's Spirit sailed swiftly on the open seas. It wasn't a large boat, but it was tough, speedy, and according to the crew, the best they'd ever sailed on. The boat sailed smoothly along.
It was a smooth ride to Kolyma. It took them only two days to cross the seas. At high noon on the second day, Jasper heard a sailor shout, "Land ho!" from the crows nest. He took out his telescope and scanned the horizon. As he faced southeast, he could see a large chunk of green straight ahead.
Just as he was putting his telescope away again in his pack, he heard a deafening roar surround the ship. From nowhere, storm clouds had appeared. Thunder rumbled, lightning crackled, and waves hit against the sides of the boat, tossing and turning it. The deck was suddenly filled with water. It was all Jasper could do to hang on to the side of the boat and hold on to his pack.
By now, Jasper was completely soaked. He could hear a strange noise ahead of him… whish-whirl-whirl whish-whirl-whirl.
A whirlpool lay just ahead of the ship's path. Just as the ship entered the vortex of doom, Jasper flipped over the rim of the ship and slid down the side. He held his breath as he plunged into the water. He felt chilled to the bone. Colder than he had ever been. Colder even than when, in the dead of winter, he had to go to town to buy food for his family.
Then his life flashed before his eyes. It had been a simple life, except for the first ten years of it when he had gone to live with his godfather, Crispinophur and learned a bit of magic.
I'm going to die, he thought. I can't survive.
He plunged deeper into the darkness.
That's funny. Why am I still sinking?
Suddenly, it felt as if he was falling through air instead of water. He opened his eyes slowly, and then breathed out in disbelief as he realized that he was falling through a twilit sky now. He began to fall slower and slower, until eventually he realized he was no longer falling. With his pack back on his shoulder (though he had been sure he had lost it in the vortex) he took a step forward onto solid ground. He felt dizzy after the strange storm. He began to sway back and forth, and then he collapsed in between two roots of an oak tree.
Sorry this chapter was so short--I promise they'll get much longer as the story progresses.