Nakoda Drake tries so hard. That’s both the best and worst thing about my foster brother.
It soon became apparent that we had no idea what we were doing. Even after a year of searching, the best we could do was return to Nakoda’s Auntie Oli’s home. The small shack was deserted, every surface covered in dust, including the letter pinned by a knife to the back of the door. She had apparently already heard of her brother, Duralim’s, abduction and gone off to search for him and the other Riders herself.
“Wonder if she knows I escaped,” Nakoda mused aloud, pocketing the letter. “Don’t really think she’d care, though, Don,” There was a wooden paddle resting against the corner of the far room, almost ominously. Nakoda shot it a troubled look before climbing back up onto my saddle. “She was always more of a spanker than a hugger.”
And so, with no clues or Auntie Oli, we ventured across the continent. And…Again, Nakoda tries. So. Hard.
The best way to explain it is like this: he tries to help everyone and because of that helps no one. Ask the cabbage merchant, the hibernating bear, the genie, the dhampir paladin, the pouty gunslinger, the man selling a box of babies, and that ice giant Nakoda somehow completely accidently tricked into setting himself on fire would all testify.
Nakoda.
Tries.
But, as much as I’ve come to love him, there’s no denying that the little Rider of the Wing is gods-damned cursed.
So, it was with GREAT trepidation, that I boarded the large transport ship known as the Jenivere. Nakoda had found a lead on a known slaving group called the Aspis Consortium. Maybe they were the people who’d kidnapped Mom and Nakoda’s dad. At least, that was the hope. The Jenivere would be making port at a city that was rumored to be one of the Consortium’s hotspots. So, using the money we got from accidently, indirectly setting that giant on fire, Nakoda got us safe passage.
The crew of the ship had converted one of the cargo holds into a makeshift stable. On our way across deck, towards it, I spotted the ship’s captain, Captain Kovack, and his first mate, Alton, discussing the ship’s route with a dark-skinned woman wearing many colorful scarves. Beyond them was a pale blonde-haired girl in a red, long coat leaning against the railing and gazing out towards the sea, looking mildly annoyed that the ship hadn’t cast off already. There were dozens of more humans or humanoids, some passengers, but mostly sun-tanned sailors. By this point, after all our travels, I’d gotten used to being around humans, but I stayed close to Nakoda regardless. Better to pretend that I was a dumb animal. The only reason why Nakoda and I had survived most of our adventures was because most enemies tended to underestimate me because of my looks and him because of his size and cheerful disposition.
“Ugh,” he said, wrapping an arm around his stomach as we followed a sailor down to the stables. “Stop doubling up on me, Don.”
“Heh,” the sailor said over his shoulder. “No sea legs?”
“My legs? I can see ‘em just fine,” Nakoda declared groggily. He looked down. “…All four of ‘em.”
This should be interesting, I sighed as we entered the stables proper. We weren’t the first ones to arrive. A short man with red skin and horns and wearing a poncho was lying against the far wall, a wide brim hat pulled down over his eyes. Next to him, also asleep, was a giant, tan lizard with a flat turtle-like shell and a tail that ended with a bulb similar in shape to the ball of a flail. The strange duo’s snores filled the room. Nakoda pretended to lead me to the nearest stable and then ran back through the door, hands clasped tightly over his mouth.
“Poor little fella,” the sailor commented. He glanced over at me. “You’re an ugly beast, ain’t ya?”
Somethings never change, I thought, settling down in the bed of hay spread out across the floor. Unlike Nakoda, I found the rocking of the ship to be almost soothing. I felt it when the ship finally set sail. Even then, neither the sleeping man nor his lizard stirred, and Nakoda only made a handful of very quick visits to make sure I was okay. Maybe that last part was for the best. The trip would go a lot easier if I didn’t have to spend the whole time in a room smelling like vomit.
Two days passed where I almost convinced myself that this time would be different. That we’d get where we were going to as planned, and (Nakoda’s constant sea sickness aside) we’d come out of this unscathed.
Sigh…
One minute I was lazing about, munching on apples from a sack Nakoda had bought me.
And then the second minute arrived, and freezing sea water was suddenly gushing into the stables. My neighbors (who’d spent the entirety of the past two days sleeping) finally stirred, only to be pulled under by the water. I hee-hawed for Nakoda and then everything went dark.
And then green.
The pulsing green light made me blink sleep and sand out of my eyes. Body aching and cold, I tried to move it. I was lying on my side, my back and belly covered in sand. I shook my head a little, trying to shake it off, as well as trying to get my eyes and mind to focus, to understand what it was seeing. I was lying across a beach. It was night out. And a ghostly, green mist was pouring out of the water and slinking across the shore towards me. Layers of the mist wrapped around each other, became transparent, humanoid hands. It was only then that I became aware of the whispers.
Join the crew…Join the crew…
I flinched back and tried to get my feet under me. Only for the whispers to suddenly dissolve into frustrated hissing. The ghostly hands untied themselves and the mists disappeared back into the ocean just in time for dawn.
…I…am so confused, I thought, but I gladly accepted the rising sun’s warmth as I glanced around. Nakoda!
The little Rider had washed up only a little ways down the beach to my right, lying on his stomach. Other than one of his legs being wrapped in seaweed, he looked unhurt. Teeth still chattering from the cold, I managed to get up and trot over to him. I leaned down and nudged his head to the side. Face covered in moist sand, he whimpered, “I’ma save you, Dad…I’ma-” And then he sneezed himself awake, blowing sand back until my face.
I gave a disgruntled snort, taking a step back.
“D-Donkiote?” he said, rubbing at his eyes. “What are you doing in the latrine-?”
His question was cut off by a woman’s scream, followed quickly by the crack of a gunshot. The sounds shocked Nakoda back onto his feet. I gave him just enough time to swing back up onto my saddle before rushing across the beach, towards the noise. Nakoda’s metal lance entered my vision as he leaned forward and lined it up by my head. He’d gotten better at keeping it steady over the past year. It also helped that I didn’t jostle as badly as a full-grown horse would’ve. His small size also didn’t put too much pressure on my back, allowing me to retain stamina from carrying him around everywhere. We were each other’s porridges: just right.
My stable-neighbors came into view. Both of them were up, with the horned man taking shots at their attackers using a rifle. Said attackers were large, pink scorpion-crabs that scuttled about the beach. One of them was attacking the lizard while another-
There was a flash of red-tinged light and an eagle suddenly appeared, diving through the sky. One of the crabs had sprung forward, attacking the blonde-haired girl I’d seen on deck. The eagle intercepted the crab, raking its talons across crab’s face, deep enough to make blood and goop pour out.
Was the eagle the girl’s pet? Had she made it out of magic?
I had just enough time to think those questions before a sweet serenade of sound suddenly filled the air. It filled my ears, making my eyes flutter and filled my muscles with lethargy…
“What are you doing, Don!” Nakoda cried. “Don’t slow down! Speed up!”
His voice managed to break the trance, allowing me to focus. I quickly found the source of the sound. Horn-Man had taken a hand off his rifle and aimed it towards the crabs. Ripples extended from his fingertips, filling the surrounding air with lullaby-inducing magic. The nearest crab to him twitched and then went still, seemingly asleep. Another one had shaken off the spell like I had and pushed on, clacking its pincers menacingly. It leapt at horn-man, stinger at the ready.
The eagle dove in, as if to intercept again.
And was immediately put to sleep by Horn-Man’s magic. Its limp form crashed into the crab’s body. They tumbled sideways in a heap of shell and feathers. Right next to the lizard. Without hesitation, the lizard swung its ball-like tail down across both creatures. The eagle went pop, disappearing with a flash of light, and the crab was reduced to pieces held together by ligaments of flesh and muscle.
All of the remaining crabs except for the one that Horn-Man had put to sleep retreated back into the ocean. Probably just wanting to contribute some, Nakoda started repeatedly stabbing the sleeping crab. “Don’t worry!” he called out to Horn-Man and the blonde girl. “I got it!”
“What are you doing?!” Horn-Man exclaimed. “Stop! Stop stabbing it! You’re ruining the meat!”
Nakoda stopped stabbing, looking guilty. I trotted around the corpse and over to Horn-Man and the lizard, eyeing the former’s rifle warily. “Uh, so, I’m confused,” Nakoda said, loud enough so that the approaching girl could hear him. “The last thing I remember is puking, and then vomiting, and then barfing and then…” He gestured with his bloodied lance to our surroundings. “Do you guys know what’s going-?”
“Hold that thought,” said Horn-Man. He holstered his rifle across his back and then threw back his poncho. Two belts crisscrossed across the front of his pants. One was decorated with a holstered pistol. The other had a long, twitching sack. Horn-Man undid the rope keeping the sack partly closed, and the twitching head of rat-like dog emerged. The thing was so ugly, I immediately felt better about myself. The dog’s bulbous eyes looked ready to pop out of their sockets, and part of its left ear had been bitten off.
“There, there, Shivers,” Horn-Man said, petting the dog’s head affectionately. “There, there.”
“Okay, that thing is hideous,” the girl called over. She hung a bit back and then glanced over her shoulder. It was only then that I noticed that the beach ended roughly fifty feet away, being taken over by thick jungle. The beach itself seemed to continue onward, along the coast, but it rimmed the jungle of…well, wherever it was we were now.
“I don’t want to puke in front of you,” the girl continued. “So I’ll be back.” And with that she marched towards the thick, overhanging trees.
“She seems nice,” Nakoda mused, and then, “Hey, what are you doing?”
“What’s it look like?” Horn-Man had begun gathering stray sticks that had washed up onto the shore. His lizard soon lumbered over, carrying a few of them in its mouth. “Plenty of crab meat to eat. Though we would have more if you didn’t stab that last one so much.”
“Hey!” Nakoda said defensively, hopping off of me. “I was just trying to make sure it didn’t hurt your…Um…” He pointed at Shivers. “What is that? I’ve seen plenty of animals, but that thing is-”
“Shivers,” Horn-Man finished, striking flint across the pile of wood. Maybe it was magic, but he managed to get a fire going within minutes.
“Is that a type of animal?” Nakoda asked.
“It’s Shivers,” Horn-Man said insistently.
“Is it magic?”
“No, it’s Shivers.”
“What’s the point of having it?”
Looking annoyed, Horn-Man pointed at me with the flint. “What’s the point of having that?”
“I can ride that-I mean, him!” Nakoda shot me a guilty look. I thumped him in the butt with my left hoof, but not too hard. Yet my attention was elsewhere. The blonde-girl was returning. And she had a friend.
It was a man. Or at least, shaped like one. Very tall, he wore many layers of faded, dark clothing, a singed, brimmed hat, and scarves pulled up across the lower half of his face. The bit of his face that I could see was pale, and his eyes were dark. He carried a sword, its metal reflecting the light from the rising sun. The girl walked in his shadow, following, not unlike a baby duckling trailing behind her mother. Or, in this case, father.
Despite the stranger’s frightening appearance, and drawn sword, Nakoda, being Nakoda, ventured over to say hi. “Hey, sir!” he said. “Are you okay? Were you attacked by crabs, too?”
“No,” answered the stranger with a deep, yet smooth voice, “I was stuck in a tree. I don’t know how I got there. I had a hole in my leg. But I’m better now.”
“…Um, okay,” Nakoda said, looking very confused. The stranger was obviously lying, but there was no way for me to tell my brother. This language barrier is still a pain in the ass. Nakoda continued, “How did you get here?”
“How did you get here?” the stranger shot back.
“That’s what I wanna know!” Nakoda exclaimed, exasperated. He then offered his hand to the stranger easily twice his size, “But I’m glad you’re okay. I’m Nakoda Drake, squire of the Riders of the Wing. And you are…?”
“Nothing more than a mercenary,” the stranger answered, not taking his hand. “But you can call me Belkross. That’s all you need to know.”
Sheepishly, Nakoda lowered the hand and turned to the girl, still standing partly hidden behind Belkross. He blushed slightly as he bowed, and asked, “And you, ma’am?”
The girl studied him for a moment before taking a step forward, standing side by side with the mercenary. “My name is Lilian. Belkross was hired to protect me during my time abroad. And that hasn’t changed, even given our current situation.”
Seemingly oblivious to her implied threat, Nakoda smiled. “Pleasure to meet you both.” He turned and called over to Horn-Man, who by this point had a pan set up across the fire, crab meat cooking. “And what’s your name?”
“What?” Horn-Man called back.
“Your name!”
“Oh, that,” Horn-Man yawned. His lizard settled into the sand behind him. Horn-Man sat up against him, yawned, “Paco Bel Grande,” and went back to sleep.
Nakoda turned back to Lilian and Belkross. “He’s working-or was working-on food. We should probably look over everybody’s supplies, though. See what we’ve got in terms of rations, otherwise we’ll probably have to eat his Shivers.” He leaned in. “And if it tastes as ugly as it looks, it might be our last resort, if you know what I mean.” With that, he plopped down by the fire, grabbed some crab off the pan, and began eating contently.
At least his sea sickness is gone, I mentally chuckled, going over to him. He offered me a piece. It wasn’t bad. Not apples, but not bad.
“Excuse me,” Lilian said suddenly, walking past the fire, towards the water. “But before everybody gets comfortable, maybe we should go check that out.”
She pointed. Sure enough, now that the sun was fully up, I spotted the wreckage of a ship rammed up against tall, jagged cliffs.
The Jenivere.
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