Awaken, Child. Your age arrives.
The voice filled me up, forcing me back to consciousness, and, funnily enough, kept me from drowning. Terrible déjà vu hit me as I forced my eyes open. The water was tinged green, but I was able to get my eyes to adjust enough to spot Nakoda, floating a little bit away, unconscious. He was close enough for me to swim over and nudge him with my snout. He stirred awake. His eyes bulged and bubbles burst from his mouth as he instinctively tried to scream. He saw me and clamped his hands over his mouth. He swam over and grabbed ahold of my saddle. As he did so, I looked up. The surface was a little over ten feet above us. By this point by lungs were screaming at me. With my brother back in the saddle, I swam frantically upwards.
“Gaaaaah!” Nakoda exclaimed the instant both our heads broke the surface. I was too busy gulping in air to join him. I heard voices further above us, but it wasn’t until my lungs stopped screaming that I turned to look. I found myself staring up at a fishing boat. Despite its large size, it’d definitely seen better days. It was a miracle that it was floating at all. A young man with bright orange hair was pointing down at Nakoda and me while tugging on the sleeve of an older man with matching hair.
“Look, Dad!” the boy cried. It took my brain a moment to realize that he wasn’t speaking the common tongue in Golarion. He pointed past us. “There’s more of ‘em!”
The sound of gasps and cries of alarm rang out. I turned and did a headcount. Lilian. Sapphire. Paco, still riding atop Turtle. The last two to emerge were Salim and Alton. The latter was unconscious, his human arm draped across Salim’s shoulders. I looked beyond the group. The ship was gone, along with all of Smuggler’s Shiv, probably. The monstrous core had sucked us up and puked us back out, dropping us into a lake surrounded by jungle. The fauna was blue-green in tone, and the water was deep green.
There was a loud splash from something hitting the water. The red-headed man had flung a thick net overboard. Nakoda and I were the closest to it. Nakoda climbed into my saddle, and I swam over to the net. He grabbed it and climbed up onto the ship. He, the man, and the boy kept the net steady as the rest of the group climbed it. Well, most of the group.
They managed to get Alton up with combined help from Salim, Nakoda, and Paco, but that still left Turtle and me in the water. I had to stick my legs through the holes in the net. Lilian had to summon a pony to help hoist me up and into the boat. I then helped the creature repeat the process for Turtle. As I helped, I overheard Lilian thank the man, the apparent captain of this ugly boat.
“I’m afraid that I don’t understand you,” he replied regrettably. He was a tall, weathered fellow. Both his and the boy’s clothes were made from various types of animal hides. I spotted the tips of pointed ears poking through the hair. Elves, probably.
Nakoda and I had encountered more than a few throughout our journeys. Most couldn’t help but be a little condescending to the little Rider. Others were the most passive aggressive pricks I’d ever met.
This elf pressed a calloused hand to his chest and said, “Revalynd Yggdrafield.” He used the same hand to gesture to the boy standing a little behind him. “My son, Wyrlynd Yggdrafield.”
Lilian repeated the names before turning to Sapphire, “He doesn’t understand common, does he? Elven, right? I’m a little rusty…”
Sapphire nodded. “We can use either Chrys or I to translate.” She turned to Revalynd and smiled gently. “Hello, Revalynd. My name is Sapphire Requiem. I can translate for both parties.” Chrys, who’d been riding on her back, poked his head out. Wyrlynd’s eyes went wide. “This is Chrys. We can also use him.” She gestured to Lilian. “And Lilian here can understand, but she isn’t fluent.”
“Yet,” Lilian interjected. “Give me a few hours to shake the rust.”
Revalynd studied Sapphire’s face, searching. His expression was cautious. When she simply continued to smile back at him, he relaxed, if only a little. By that point Turtle was finally back up on the ship. Lilian dismissed her pony. Revalynd stared at the spot where it had just been, looking troubled by the overt display of magic. Finally, he said to no one in particular, “I suppose then that you are not from Qabarat? Much less Sovyrian.”
Sapphire’s smile slipped a little. “Negative. I have not heard of either location. You see, unfortunately, my memory is a bit incomplete at the moment.”
“Father,” the boy, Wyrlynd, spoke up, leaning against the railings, “it’s breaking apart!”
We all turned. I made out pieces of metal jutting out of the water. One released sparks before collapsing in on itself and sinking beneath the surface. Revalynd grimaced. He raked a hand through his hair before shooting our group another glance.
“Well, it worked once,” he said. “Did its job. Maybe…So, if not Qabarat or Sovyrian, where else on Castrovel do you originate from?”
Castrovel? I mused to myself, noticing Lilian’s eyes go wide, if only for a moment.
“Hang on there, Alton,” Nakoda said pleadingly. He clearly wasn’t listening to the current conversation. He and Salim were caring for the bloodstained man. They’d torn open his ruined shirt to check for injury. The mutated shark fin ended at the exact place where Kovack had cut off Alton’s arm, but I spotted tiny grey fins popping up here and there, on his chest, neck, and face. The mutation was spreading. Slowly, but still…
Alton’s eyes darted back and forth beneath his eyelids. Whatever nightmare he was having, it wasn’t a slow-paced one. He clenched and unclenched his human fist, as if trying to catch something only he could see.
“We’re actually not supposed to be on this planet,” Lilian told Revalynd.
Wait! Castrovel’s a totally different planet?!
She then lied, “We’re interdimensional traders, you see. We operate between planes. Whatever ritual you and your son performed interfered with ours.”
I noticed Sapphire frown at the lie, but she bit her tongue.
Revalynd’s eyes shot up, disappearing into his hair. “Interdimensional…? Then…then if this worked, if we refine the process, we may be able to connect to the elf gates in Sovyrian! Or the one in Qabarat!”
The spark of hope in his eyes sent a pang of guilt through me. If Lilian felt similarly she didn’t show it. “Maybe,” she said noncommittally. “It was just a not-so-happy accident on our part.”
Revalynd nodded before calling out, “Wyrlynd, go below deck and retrieve some of our rations for our guests.” The boy hurried to do as he was told. He yanked open a panel on deck and hopped through. Revalynd took a step back, towards the front of the ship. “I need to get this boat in motion if we’re to dock before dark. We have a lot of ground to cover after that. Let me know if you need anything.”
Once he was gone, disappearing through a door to what I assumed was the captain’s quarters or something like it, Lilian turned to Paco. “Once the stars are out, confirm to me if they’re not quite right. I’m pretty sure that we’re not on Golarion anymore, but it’s better to check than be sorry.”
“Will do,” he said, unfazed by the news that we were now on a different planet.
Nakoda looked up. He turned away from Alton and looked across the boat, to Lilian. “Are we in trouble?”
She went over to him, grabbed him by the arm, and led him away from the rest of the group. I trotted over. She shot me a quick smile before telling the little Rider, “I think we stopped something bad.”
“You mean Alton stopped something bad,” he interjected proudly.
“…Sure. Let’s go with that. At least, something was about to explode and kill all of us, and that got stopped.” She showed him her hands. “It could have been worse. I’m not sure, but because we stopped it, in retaliation it sent us somewhere else…Somewhere here. I’ve only heard about Castrovel in stories, and not ones that I remember vividly. But one thing is clear: we’re very, very, VERY far from home now.”
“Cool, alright, okay,” Nakoda replied amiably. Lilian visibly relaxed. Maybe she’d been expecting her to freak out. Instead, he jerked a thumb over his shoulder, at the door that Revalynd had disappeared through. “That guy, Revalynd, seems nice. So, he’ll take us back to his home, where we’ll fix Alton, change his arm back to normal, and hey!”
Nakoda spun around and declared to the rest of our companions, “Guys, we did it! We got off Smuggler’s Shiv!”
“Yay,” Paco retorted sarcastically, taking pieces of dried meat from Wyrlynd. One for himself, Turtle, and a soaked Shivers.
The boat got going, making rumbling noises as it went. Every shudder made the hairs on my body stand on end. A short time passed before Revalynd reappeared and gestured for us to join him. Lilian took him up on the offer, as did Paco and Salim. Nakoda took over looking after Alton while Sapphire seemed distracted by the boat, or really the parts used to put it together. I followed after Lilian and poked my head into a small room with a captain’s wheel at its center. A large map was pinned with screws to the nearby wall. It showed four continents, each position towards each corner of the map, though I did spot more landmasses positioned farther north.
Revalynd was standing next to the map. He gestured to all of us and then reached up and tapped a finger at the top right continent. “Asana,” he said. “That’s where we are now.”
“What is west?” Salim asked. Chrys had also flown in into the room to act as translator. The little dragon repeated the question in Revalynd’s tongue.
“Many things,” Revalynd answered. “The Ocean of Mists. Qabarat. The Sea Crown-”
“Before we focus on what this planet has to offer,” Lilian interjected, “we need to get our bearings. Supplies. Medical supplies. And information on how to get back home-”
It was her turn to be cut off a startled scream, and the thumping of feet striking the deck. I turned just in time to watch Wyrlynd sprinting at Sapphire. “DIE, FORCES SCUM!” he screamed, a knife raised in one hand.
Sapphire, likely on instinct, just stepped to the side.
He hit the railing and went up and over, hitting the water with a loud splash.
Revalynd rushed to the wheel and yanked a lever on its side. The boat screamed to a halt, grumpily floating in place. I had to take a step back to let Lilian, Paco, and Salim rush through the doorway, then followed by Revalynd. I kept my eyes on the elf man, getting my magic ready in case he tried something like his son.
“I’M GONNA GET YOU!” Wyrlynd was screaming. We’d drifted a ways from him, but at least he knew how to swim. “THERE’S NOTHING YOU SCUM CAN DO TO STOP US! IT WORKED! THE GATE WORKED! AND WE’RE GONNA CONNECT IT ALL, YOU-YOU FORCES SPY!”
Rifle at the ready, Paco stepped up to the railing and trained his gun on the boy. Seeing this, Revalynd cried out desperately, “Please! Stop!”
Ignoring him, Paco glanced with one eye over at Sapphire questioningly. She held up her hands and shrugged, at an utter loss. Lilian studied her face briefly before turning to Revalynd. “What is your son screaming about?”
“I promise to explain,” he said, eyes still fixed on Paco. His gaze was darkening, becoming near predatory. “But first, please, call off your marksman. For all our sakes.”
Lilian shouted out something to Paco, speaking in a language that I didn’t understand, but he apparently did. The sound of it made me cringe. Each vocalization out of her mouth sounded wrong to my ears. He shouted something back, speaking the same tongue.
And then, while they argued, Nakoda bolted across the deck of the boat and leapt over into the water. “I got ya, buddy!” he told a startled Wyrlynd, swimming over to the elven boy.
Out of the corner of my eye I spotted Salim (retaking his place by Alton’s side) roll his eyes. I couldn’t blame him.
Bang!
A gunshot rang out. Paco had shot into the water.
“There are monsters in the water!” Lilian shrieked, very un-Lilian-like, taking several steps back.
“No!” Revalynd snapped. Was it my imagination or was he getting bigger? “There aren’t!”
But to his (and my) surprise, a large salamander-like creature floated to the surface not three feet from where Nakoda and Wyrlynd were swimming. Or really, where Wyrlynd was swimming. Nakoda was hanging onto him, waving his lance around to protect the boy from the “monsters”.
While they squabbled, Wyrlynd screamed out to his father, “You see, Dad! They’re with the Forces! We can’t trust them! They probably hacked your gate! And w-were sent here to spy on-!”
BANG!
Paco shot again. Another salamander, three times the size of the first (maybe its mother?) appeared. Its skull had been split open by the bullet. “Food’s covered,” Paco declared, looking smug. Seeing the giant corpse, Wyrlynd flat-out panicked. He’d lost the knife in the fall, so he just slapped repeatedly at Nakoda.
“Knock him out,” Salim called over to Nakoda, sounding amused. “You’re even more useless if you drown as well, Drake.”
Looking regretful, Nakoda had no choice but to do just that. With a loud thunk he slammed the side of his lance across the back of Wyrlynd’s head. The boy released a cat-like yelp before falling unconscious against him.
After that, things calmed down, if only for a few minutes. At Paco’s insistence, after fishing the boys out of the water, we also used ropes to hoist the dead mama salamander up onto the boat. And there, hanging from its fat tail, we found one familiar, and drenched, mercenary.
“Mr. Belkross!” Nakoda gasped, eyes going wide as the man leapt aboard. “When did you get here!”
“I was running through the building beneath the lighthouse and suddenly I’m here,” Belkross grunted, annoyed. He stepped over to Lilian’s side. “There’s a rush of water and then I’m opening my eyes, floating in a lake.”
“Oh.”
Nakoda glanced over at the elves. Revalynd had set his son down where he could keep an eye on him. Remaining crouched, he regarded us, his face as hard as stone. Nakoda gulped before telling Belkross, “Just so you’re caught up, those nice people are-uh, were-helping us. The boy fell into the water, started panicking, and I had to,” he held up his lance, “thump him.” He then used it to point at Alton. “And Alton’s part shark now.”
Belkross grunted, amused.
“Revalynd,” Lilian said, leading the mercenary over to him, “this is Belkross, my guardian. And we’d both like to speak to you. Privately.”
Revalynd hesitated before then picking up his son and walking away into the map room. He left the door open behind him. Lilian and Belkross followed, and the latter did close the door. This left the rest of us (sans Alton) to exchange bewildered glances. Nakoda squeezed water out of his bandana as he looked up at me, said, “Wow, Don. A whole new world! Our luck’s something else, huh?”
Tell me about it, I sighed inwardly. Out loud, as my brother and I stood beneath an alien sky, I could only snort once in reply.