Chapter 5 - Z

"Yurick?" He wasn't responding. I was so nervous. "It's that poison, isn't it?" God Damned spider crabs! "I'll go see if there is something that can help." I kissed his forehead and put his dagger in his hand. I couldn't lose him. Not now, not ever.

As I stood I heard him mumble, "Oh, right. Because there is really going to be some conveniently placed antidote on a ship that wrecked over 14 years ago." How was he able to be sarcastic if he could barely even bat an eyelid? I rolled my eyes and ran down the hall and up a later. At the top you would have never guessed what I found conveniently placed in a box. An antidote. I went back down to him as quickly as I could and had to sort of force feed it to him. After a few minutes he muttered, "What the hell? This ship is too weird." I laughed at that, thankful that he was getting back to normal. I love magic… it works quickly and effectively.

I helped him to his feet. "Don't underestimate the power of coincidence." He let out a fake laugh accompanied by a smug face. "So what are we doing here anyway?"

"It's a private matter." His face was straight and he didn't seem like he was going to reveal anything.

"Why am I even here if you're not even going to tell me what we're doing?" I wanted to know. He didn't really talk to me anymore. I was wondering if there was something wrong.

"I don't remember inviting you. In fact, I strictly remember saying that I was going to do this myself," he snapped.

"Yurick," I reached for his hand, but missed as he turned around quickly, looking up at the ceiling.

"Did you hear that? There is someone above us. Two." He had this weird way of sensing people, or should I say creatures, but I heard it, too. Then I heard a scream. It was a girl. Then the ceiling fell in and, surely enough, two people came crashing down. It was Dagran and Mirania.

"What are you two doing here?" I asked him.

"Following you two. It's not safe to wonder by yourselves." If he was following us the whole time, did he just not give shit when my boy was poisoned or when we were being attacked by giant spider crab things? Great plan, Dagran. He asked the same question that I had asked only moments before; what were we doing here. Still, Yurick didn't answer. I shrugged. "Well, we need to find a way out of here," he said matter-of-factly.

"Not yet. I'm not done here." Yurick stared intently between the floor and Dagran, who nodded reluctantly.

Dagran and Yurick took the door to the left and Mirania and I took the door to the right. After a few hallways we ended up in the same place. This was the deck. But why was it enclosed? What type of ship was this? Yurick walked over to the front of the room and put a hand on a plaque that was nailed onto a platform. He sighed.

"What's going on?"I asked him.

He took a moment. "It's my father's ship." He sighed again. "I was told rumours that when my island was under attack he fled like a coward. I couldn't believe it. I still don't know and that's why I've been looking for it." We all went to console him.

"Do you want to look around some more then?" I kind of wanted him to say yes and for us to be alone again, but I kind of wanted to go back to the ship. He nodded. I smiled. But then Dagran decided that he was coming, too. Great. We followed him around for a while up stairs and around halls. Finally, we found the Captain's room. The skeleton and clothes were still intact.

"Dad!" Yurick ran to the bone man on the floor. I felt like a part of him hoped that the thing would move. The thought was a little creepy. On the floor next to his bone hands were an old book and a small sword. Yurick picked up the book and started thumbing through it. "This is it. This is his last entry. They didn't flee. They were on their way back and were attacked. They didn't have any more useful supplies; they were completely out of food." He closed the book, pocketed it, and turned towards us, but mostly Dagran. "Thank you for allowing me to come out here. Now I know."

"So can we leave now?" Dagran turned around. I pushed his shoulder. "What? I'm just trying to get back to the crew." We left more or less the way we came and headed back to the ship.

Yurick grabbed my arm as I started to follow my brother. "Hold on." I strayed back a little for him. "Thank you for coming with me. I couldn't have done this without you." He kissed my cheek then ran to catch up to Mirania, who was with Dagran.

Back at the ship I found Calista on the bridge. She was chatting with some of the crew. She's fine. I wound my way through people to the back room where Yurick was. He smiled when he saw me. I couldn't help myself. I kissed him the same way I had done on this same ship earlier today. We spent the rest of the night together as we sailed back to the castle.