AGH, I'm so sorry that this chapter is being posted a bit late...it's been a very hectic and exciting week, which has left me little time for editing. Even now, I feel like I rushed the revisions on this one, so I apologize if there are a number of errors-if you spot any glaring ones, feel free to point them out. On the other hand, this is a rather long and climactic chapter, so I hope that makes up for any mistakes! We're nearing the end at last, so please have fun reading!
Two days after Hakuryuu's second disappearance, it began to rain. The day after that, it was still raining.
And it rained.
And it rained.
The storm had seemed to come from nowhere and from everywhere all at once. In one instant, all seemed clear, and in the next, the dark strata of great storm clouds loomed, the ominous mass of green-grey eating up the blue sky as it advanced.
For four days, it rained. It rained so much, sailors would later report, that fish would survive for hours on land after being caught thanks to the moisture in the air. So much, they would say, that after spending just moments outside one might as well leap into the sea, since they couldn't possibly get any wetter. So much, they said, that the ocean herself was even rumored to rise just a touch during those days.
Of all the seamen stranded in the harbor because of the storm, few had ever witnessed anything like it, and none had any idea of its cause. None, that is, except for the captain of the Dragoness.
Everyone on the ship had been below decks for hours, with the marked exception of their leader. After a time, Morgiana had gone searching for him and discovered him up on the main deck. Through the sound of the gale and the pelting drops of water, she called out, "Alibaba?"
Said man quickly swiveled around to look at his mate, his vision blurred by the water that fell from his drenched hair into his eyes. "Morgiana! I was just about to come and get you."
As he spoke, she noticed him fumbling with one of the ropes that fastened the ship in place. "What is it that you need?" she asked slowly.
He stood and faced her, eyes wide with an urgency bordering on the frantic. "I was planning on telling the whole crew at once. We need to leave now."
She stared at him, incredulous. "In this storm? What for?"
"Because believe it or not, I have an idea of how to stop this weather. I know it doesn't make sense now, but I promise it will later."
"But...how are you going to go anywhere when it's like this?"
"We've navigated bad storms before. Leave the rest to me." He paused suddenly to look at her. "You trust me with this, don't you?"
"Yes." And he knew that she meant it, because he had asked her the same question many times in the past, and always she had answered with the same solid conviction that she did now. "But I'm worried that the others might not."
It was now Alibaba's turn to appear disbelieving. "What are you talking about?"
As if on cue, his ears suddenly registered a thudding against the deck that differed from the monotonous drone of the pounding rain-footsteps, he realized, many of them. And as he turned around, he saw that they belonged to the entirety of his crew, coming toward him as a group. They walked slowly, almost meekly, shuffling their waterlogged shoes.
"What are you all doing up here?" he asked.
For a several moments, only the thunder answered. Then, realizing that no one else would willingly speak, Olba began, "Alibaba, we'd like to talk to you."
His brow still lined with confusion, Alibaba went with the group below the deck and out of the tempest. "Alright...let's talk."
"Were you getting ready to leave?"
"Yes, well, I know it's short notice," he said hastily. "But I was just about to go down and mention it to-"
"Alibaba," Bhrol interjected, "no one in their right mind would set sail in a storm like this."
"Yes they would! Come on, we've navigated rough weather just fine before!"
"Not like this. You know damn well there's been nothing like this."
"Are you saying you don't trust me?"
Silence. Alibaba searched the faces of his crew, desperately seeking eye contact in return, some sign that he was still respected as a leader. No one would face him.
"Alright, listen," Alibaba growled. "If there's anyone who doesn't believe that I would risk my own life well before I'd put any crew member's on the line, I invite you to get the hell of this ship right now."
Again, no one spoke.
"Three years," he murmured after a time. "Three years I've been in command of you and this ship, and you're just now telling me that you have no faith in your captain."
"We did!" Alon objected. "It's just that you've been changing!"
"Yeah!" Olba added. "Ever since Haku-"
"Don't you talk about him!"
"No, I will! Ever since Hakuryuu left you've been a goddamn mess! Brigit says she hears you pacing around for hours at night after everyone's already gone to bed! You're getting to be delirious!" He grabbed Alibaba and shook him just as another crack of thunder tore down from the heavens. "Listen to that. That's what you wanna take your crew into?!"
Alibaba stopped. For the first time in four days, he felt as though his racing mind could finally stop.
If he had been able, he would have told his crew that he knew only Hakuryuu's battle with the Great Dragon could have resulted in a storm of this magnitude. He would have said that he had been distressed all this time not because he believed Hakuryuu to be dead, but because he knew that his friend was alive and desperately struggling.
But they were right, he realized, as his cold and rain-soaked clothes clung like a caul to his skin. In any other situation, he never would have thought to attempt something so risky. And anyway, even if they did manage to conquer the storm, what could he ever hope to do to help Hakuryuu.
He opened his mouth to apologize, but the words never had a chance to come out.
Instead, a great lurching seized the ship, nearly knocking Alibaba off his feet. An small uproar arose from the startled crew as they all instinctively reached out to try to steady themselves.
Fighting to keep his balance, Alibaba sped back up to the main to deck. A fierce gale now accompanied the downpour, and waves lashed the hull.
"Alibaba! What's going-"
The thing reared up without warning. It seemed to rise endlessly, reaching high above the sea's surface, high above all of the crew, high above the mast of the ship, up and up and up.
To all others on the Dragoness, it must have seemed simply to be a great wave looming up over them. However, Alibaba was the only one able to witness the cause of the massive wall of water-the great serpent that had emerged from the ocean along with it.
Drowning out even the thunder, a great voice roared, Which one of you can see me?
The dragon did not have to wait for an answer. It saw that Alibaba alone had the ability to look it in the eyes, that only he out of all the other men could lay eyes on it. And so, as the wave crashed down on the ship, Alibaba felt teeth come down to clamp on his leg and drag him into the sea.
When Hakuryuu next regained his senses, he found that he was flying.
The stroke of realization felt rather comforting to him. Since he had spent so long in hiding, it had seemingly been ages since he'd had the chance to fly unburdened by care. He relished the familiar sensation of the wind rippling over his long body, caressing him with a pleasant coolness. The constant whooshing of the air around him filled up his eardrums with a white noise, a loud silence that obstructed any other external sounds. In that moment, the world seemed to consist of only himself and the sky.
But that was the odd part about it, he finally noticed-the sky. Though he flew, he seemed to gain no altitude. He simply watched as the dark clouds up above him seemed to move further and further away...
You're going to die.
By the time Hakuryuu pieced together the fact that he was caught in free-fall, he had already slammed into the water back-first. The dragon's enormous mass crashed through the water's surface and sent gallons skyward with the splash. Agony coursed through him like an electric shock, nearly paralyzing him, but his pained roar was stifled by the brine that flooded his airway.
Red clouds billowed up before his eyes-not storm clouds this time, but harbingers of death nonetheless. They were formed of his own blood dispersing through the water.
Well, Alibaba, here's your proof that dragons don't always live forever. At that thought, every fiber of his being ached once more for the rocking of a ship. For a clear sky. For stars. For the priceless gold in one man's eyes, the gold that had been handed out for free every time Hakuryuu looked at him.
At least he's safe from all this.
Above all, he sought rest. He did not know how long he had been fighting. He could not even discern day from night, since the roiling storm had instituted perpetual darkness.
You're going to die.
In the sea, he knew that he had no chance-though he could nearly hold his ground while fighting Gyokuen in the air, his missing eye gave him no power to fight by controlling the water, unlike her. Summoning the dregs of strength that still remained in his exhausted body, he launched himself from beneath the waves and started flying upwards. A blue flash of lightning hurtled toward him, but he dodged it and fired off several bolts of his own. But he could not accurately aim for his opponent; she had disappeared into the clouds, and though he knew that she must have been able to see him, he could not pinpoint her location.
Above the incessant bellowing of the thunder, he should not have been able to hear anything else. Above the gales and the gusts that endlessly pummeled against his ears, he should not have been able to hear anything else. Above the chaos that constituted his current reality, nothing else should have registered to him. And yet, just barely, his ear managed to catch a tiny voice-perhaps because that voice was the only thing he wanted to hear at that moment.
"Hakuryuu!"
At first, he believed that the sound was merely the product of his own exhausted mind. However, looking back towards the sea, he noticed a speck being tossed callously by the waves. The expanse of grey ocean was broken by a yellow head of hair bobbing along the surface.
Shit.
Unthinking, he dove straight down, rocketing toward Alibaba's helpless form. However, in his haste, he did not notice the great wave that leapt up to greet him as he approached the surface.
The impact of the water sent him veering off course, nearly knocking him back into the sea entirely. As he should have expected, the Great Dragon had seen him heading back towards the surface and now sought to take advantage of the opportunity.
As quickly as possible, Hakuryuu shook off the blow and began moving again towards Alibaba, his body shedding all feelings of tiredness and hurt as though they were cargo unnecessary to his mission. Though he made a concentrated effort this time to avoid the water, he still constantly found himself being lashed by the violent billows. They seemed to act as the myriad hands of the sea, attempting to pull him down and down.
At last, just as he began to believe that his battered body would stand no more, he approached his target. Hakuryuu lowered his tail toward Alibaba, and-mercifully-the young man took hold.
What the hell are you doing here?! The dragon demanded as Alibaba clambered up onto his back.
"I have a way I can help you!" The blond's voice came through muffled; the wind seemed to sweep away his words before they even left his mouth. Still, Hakuryuu sensed a peculiar elation in the man's tone.
The serpent flew off as quickly as possible, away from the center of the battle. I need to get you somewhere safe!
"No, I really have a way to help stop this!"
What could you possibly-
"Look out!"
Too late. Within seconds, their world turned black. Utterly, oppressively black.
It took Hakuryuu no time to recognize that, in the panic, they had flown into one of Gyokuen's storm clouds. It also took him to time to think of what would happen next.
'Alibaba, get in my mouth!'
"What?!"
Hakuryuu did not take the time to explain. Instead, he simply took Alibaba into his great maw, sheltering him between his jaws.
A moment later, it began.
In the part of Hakuryuu's mind that remained rational in the midst of all his fear, he knew what now caused him such pain. It was the massive hailstones within the thunderhead, being tossed about by air currents within the cloud. However, knowing the source of his misery, in this case, brought him no solace; if anything, it only reminded him of exactly how helpless he truly was.
A hundred objects seemed to strike him all at once. The huge spheres of ice attacked impersonally, anonymously, hitting him at random in the dark. In the all-consuming blackness, he had no way of detecting his assailants until they struck, making dodging the hail impossible. So blow on blow on blow came.
It took minutes for them to pass through the storm, but to Hakuryuu, each and every one of those minutes was an eternity unto itself. Each of the injuries that he had just sustained acted as a weight upon him, pulling him down from the sky.
He had known for quite some time that he would never succeed against Gyokuen. However, only at this moment did he truly grasp the imminence of his defeat. He had no hope, absolutely no hope, in battle against the Great Dragon; at the moment, he could barely battle gravity.
YOU'RE GOING TO DIE.
Suddenly, Hakuryuu sensed a slight stinging on his tongue. Compared to all the other pain he felt, this new addition felt like little more than a pinprick to him, but it still surprised him enough to prompt him to open his mouth. Alibaba, who had caused the new pang by cutting the dragon's tongue lightly with a dagger, now used the opportunity to scramble past the Hakuryuu's great teeth and climb up onto his snout.
Alibaba! You can't-!
"You're gonna have to trust me, Hakuryuu! I know now! I know why you said I'd be a great man one day!"