Nakoda looked the man up and down and then said, because of course he did, “Hello. I’m Nakoda Drake, Rider of-”
“I don’t care,” Seaweed Man interrupted him, tossing the dagger away and retrieving his bow.
“Um. Okay,” the little Rider said, taken aback. “So, uh, what’s your name?”
Seaweed Man ignored him. “Come,” he said, returning his attention to the ship. Instead of being repulsed, there was an intense hunger in his eyes. It reminded me of Direwolf. The great wolf had only partnered with my mother because there had been a common enemy to fight. And right now our group and Seaweed Man’s shared enemy happened to be the Gray God and his moldy minions. “The day grows late.”
“But,” Nakoda said, “your name…?”
“Drake, shhhh,” Lilian reprimanded him. She then told Seaweed Man, her eyes slits, “Look, I don’t care what your name is. If you have intentions to attack these things,” she gestured to the downed Gray, “on the ship, we need to do the same. If we can all work together, great. If not, stay out of our way.”
Seaweed Man shrugged a shoulder. “Well, you all clearly don’t have what I seek on any of your persons. But at least part of it is on that ship.” There was a hungry drawl to his words as he said next, “I can feel it…”
“As long as what you seek isn’t the leader of these fungus things, I don’t care,” Lilian replied dryly.
“No, no, I have no desire for fungus.”
“Well, alright then. So will you fight with us against these Grays so as to be able to board that ship?” Lilian pressed. “It benefits everyone, really. You get what you’re looking for. We kill what we need to kill. And everyone can then leave this disgusting place.”
“That was our original plan,” Seaweed Man murmured, though more to himself.
Our? I thought. Being near him made every hair on my body stand on end. Again, he was a predator in pale (if green-tinged) human skin.
Above me, I heard Nakoda whisper to himself, his voice drenched with shock and shame, “Oh My Desna…I don’t think I like him very much…” He then quickly shook his head and straightened up. “So what’s the plan?”
No guards heading our way for the moment,” Alton called over, hunkered low by the stalk field’s edge. He stuck his head out just enough so as to be able to glance back and forth without risking being seen. “Think we got some time before another makes the rounds or they figure out their mate’s missing.”
“Even so, we shouldn’t push our luck,” Belkross grunted. “But if we hit them, we should do it before it grows too late in the day, and we can make it back to the dryad before nightfall.”
Nakoda gaped at him. “I think that’s the longest sentence you’ve ever said, Mr. Belkross!”
The mercenary simply grunted in reply.
Seaweed Man stepped closer to Alton, not too far away from the original position he’d been in before assaulting the first Gray. “They’re not very smart. I was just going to lure them out slowly. One at a time.”
Lilian touched her chin thoughtfully. “If we all pick a target, we could do it your way and speed things up.”
“What’s the count?” Alton asked Seaweed Man. “How many Grays have you spotted?”
“Not counting the one I just took care of? Seven,” the strange man replied. “Two or three always go around, patrolling the boarders. Though others go off, past the stalks, looking for tributes for their master. Yet the majority always stay aboard that ship. On deck, at least. From my, and now our position, it’s impossible to know how many more call that wreckage home.”
“We should at least try and whittle their numbers down so that we stand the best chance at possessing numerical advantage,” Lilian said, to which the others either nodded or shrugged. Except Paco, who’d begun to doze off while she spoke.
Using his lance, Nakoda very gently nudged him awake.
The tiefling jerked upright. “Huh? What?” He blinked repeatedly at Nakoda and then asked irritably, “What do you want?”
Nakoda pointed towards the ship. “Apparently there are at least seven Grays on the ship. How good are you with that big gun? Could you hit one of them from here?”
In answer, before anyone could stop him, Paco readied his rifle.
Aimed and-
BOOM!
The gunshot echoed through the gray lands like a bomb going off. Despite my shock, I still hurried forward to see if he made the shot. Sure enough, one of the Grays up on the ship’s deck toppled off and hit the ground, now missing the upper half of his head.
The others all turned towards our group’s hiding spot.
And then they started screaming unintelligibly and climbed down off the ship. Those already on the ground bolted towards us, their spears raised. Thanks to their short legs, we still had time to get ready for their assault.
“Just for the record,” Paco mused aloud while the others glared at him, “I blame Nakoda.” Then, before the little Rider could argue, he got off another shot, hitting the Gray who’d managed to cover the most ground. Again, the gunshot felt as loud as cannon blast. The bullet knocked the Gray a few feet back onto its back.
With Paco’s gunshot still ringing in my ears, I almost didn’t notice Lilian reaching over and placing a hand on Belkross’ arm. A surge of dark-tinted energy flared from her hands and covered his entire body, coming together into a semi-transparent suit of armor. He grunted his appreciation before charging out of the stalks, towards the incoming enemy. Alton followed his lead. Together, using their swords, the mercenary and the first mate met two of the Grays head on.
A third Gray leapt out from behind the stalks to Seaweed Man’s left. It must have been the other sentry already doing the rounds. It slammed its spear sideways, into the strange man’s side. Seaweed Man managed to swivel on the back of one foot, making it more of a glancing blow. It cut off pieces of his seaweed suit but didn’t draw blood.
“Come om, Don!” Nakoda cried, nudging my sides with his legs.
But he was pointedly pointing away from the currently-being-attacked Seaweed Man, towards the ship instead.
Wow, I thought, impressed. It really is possible for him not to like someone.
So, with that in mind, I charged out of the stalks, towards the ship. I rushed past Belkross and Alton and the Grays they were fighting. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted the tip of Nakoda’s lance, lining up with an approaching Gray.
Nakoda rammed his lance into the monster’s torso, goring him. He then using my momentum to ram him down into the ground, grinding his body into the dirt and leaving a trail of grayed organs in our wake.
My charge took us nearly all the way to the ship. This close, I spotted one lone Gray still up on deck. The creature stared down at us and then retreated into the ship.
“Oi! Mates!” Nakoda and I turned. Alton was hurrying over to us. He was covered in blood, but thankfully, going by the color, it looked to be the Gray’s he’d been fighting and not his own. Beyond him, I spotted Lilian setting fire to a pile of wriggling corpses. It seemed that everyone (including Seaweed Man) had managed just fine without Nakoda and me. I’m sure my brother was just thrilled to see that.
A second passed, allowing me to catch my breath.
Thump!
Thump!
THUMP!
With everything going on, adrenaline pounding through my skull, I’d actually managed to drown out the unnatural, giant heartbeat. But not now. Not this close to the ship. This close, I didn’t just hear it, but felt each reverberation shoot up my legs and run up my spine. My animal instincts screamed at me to run away. Fast. NOW!
After all the Grays were dismembered and burned (including the ones Paco had initially shot and Seaweed Man had ambushed) the group met around the ship to decide on our next move. Though, considering every inch of this thing was cored in grayed grime and ropes of fungus, we all still kept a healthy distance. Sure enough, the ship’s hull had been rammed into the ground. Despite their clear attempts to try and fix it, or cover it up with fungus, there were deep cracks running across it in several directions.
“We could try climbing,” Alton offered.
“Hold that thought.” Seaweed Man took a knee next to one of the larger cracks. He held up his hand. A wispy shadow formed above it. The shade was spherical in shape, but the edges were constantly shifting.
“Huh,” Paco said, eyes narrowed at the shade.
Seaweed Man spoke a word I didn’t understand, and the shade flew from his hand and through the crack. When next he opened his eyes, his eyes were the exact same shade of black as the shade’s “body.” “…The hull has been hollowed out,” he spoke, as if in a trance. The rest of the group had to lean in so as to be able to hear him over the constant thumping. “It seems that the ship either landed or was purposely dragged on top of the mouth of a cavern. The Grays use ropes to climb up onto the deck proper…but I don’t see any. They must have escaped down into the hole…”
Seaweed Man called the shade back. It returned to his hand and disappeared. He then stood up, eyes back to normal.
Nakoda hopped off of me and went over to inspect the crack. He knocked his fist against the ship, maybe testing its durability, and then called over his shoulder, “Between me, Don, Turtle, and maybe Mr. Belkross, we should be able to break this open big enough to go inside.”
Lilian nodded. She then turned to Turtle, “You think you can do that, Turtle? Give it a few good hits with your tail?”
He blinked sleepily at her. He then waddled over and struck at the ship with surprising ferocity. To the point that he didn’t need anybody else’s help. Eventually, the crack had splintered to the point that a small section of the side of the ship caved in. It was big enough that, as long as kept my head low, even I could pass through it. As much as my animal instincts screamed at me to stop, I waited for Nakoda to climb back into my saddle and then ventured inside.
All the while, the Gray God’s heartbeat thundered in my ears.
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