9. Depths of Terror

"Hold your positions!" The ship surges in the water, rolling across the waves like a bird in a storm, yet the air is calm, the sky clear of clouds. The mountains rise on all sides of the wide canal, their steep cliffs unnaturally cut into, and we are engulfed in the shadow of those giants while terrors from beyond assail us. The sea spills onto the deck, splashing across the planks and engulfing my ankles of cold. Inhuman screams fill the space between myself and my companions; the weapon in my hand shakes and threatens to slip from my grip. My heart is racing and I haven't a clue what to do.

The creatures are not attacking me. When I move toward their monstrous shadows, they pull back and move towards the princess and the captain, who are pinned in the hold. The old man and myself try to move towards them, but the creatures from the deep continue to rise out of the water and move toward them.

Suddenly an idea occurs to me.

"Galuf!" My voice is barely audible under the roaring of the waves, the splintering of the ship as pieces of it are slowly broken off by tentacles and teeth, but the old man turns back to look at me, his face in grim desperation of a man who has nothing to live for and yet continues to fight.

"Take these!" I take the two daggers I had found on the bodies of the black goblins that attacked us in the tower. What the black goblins were doing so far from the mountains of the south was unknown to me, but their daggers were exquisitely designed, with long curved blades they use to gut their victims and return to the shadows where they live. I toss the daggers to the old warrior.

"Follow my lead!" I sheath my sword, an elegant long blade I recently purchased from Tule, and draw two more of the daggers I looted from the goblins. I planned to sell them, but I'm glad I didn't. Gripping the two weapons in each hand, I rush forward and leap onto the sea creatures stink-slime rubbery back. I raise my arms just as I am jumping and thrust the two blades into the spine of the creature. It roars in pain, tries to shake me off, but the daggers are too far in. Quickly I twist my wrist and remove one of the blades, and following in momentum, strike higher, release the lower blade and raise myself higher. The creature lets out a deep bellow of anger, but I see the girls on the other side. They are struggling with the whipping flesh, the princess behind the captain, and the captain bravely holding them off, though covered in bruises and cuts.

I am barely over when I see the old man vault over the creature, expertly tumbling to the ground, throwing the daggers onto the deck, and drawing his impressive long knife. He snarls and joins the captain in fighting off the creatures. He amazes me.

So we are sitting in the center of the ship, covered in black and red blood. At this point in our lives, we aren't even sure which blood is whose, ours or the creatures. We are still in shock.

The ship continues down the canal, but we are careful not to make a sound, were the creatures to surface again and seek food. This was why the canal was closed. When Zok gave me the key (and I question his motives, for he seemed quite aroused when he spoke of protecting the princess from the dangers present in canal), I thought little of it. But now, I hope they keep it closed. From where these creatures have come, not even the mystery of the now-broken crystal can answer.

In my mind, memories swirl. I see a hundred faces, remember a hundred lives, and yet none of it makes any sense. When I touched the broken crystal we found at the top of the tower, I was flooded with a thousand images, and I am only now beginning to make sense of it. I don't know if I am more powerful now than I was before, but I am different; we all are.

There was no way the captain could have stayed with his crew after the crystal. We have been changed irrevocably, and there is no going back. Fate has given us a twisted bargain, and oh, how I wish I could give it all back.

I worry for the princess and her disposition. The rest of us have been hardened by life - we have all taken our pound of flesh from the world; even the old man I can see in brief moments, for while he claims he doesn't remember, he seems to have more wisdom in this that any of us. But the princess, she is suffering worse than the others, and having just seen her father's ghost, I question whether she will make the night of this dark journey.

-Bartz