Lilian came over to give both Turtle and I a job.
“You,” she said, while Belkross finished setting up her tent and Paco cooked demon-bird eggs for dinner. She held up a furry coconut. She pointed at it and then farther down the beach. “Belkross says there are more over there. Go get some more. Go get coconuts.”
Turtle and I stared at her.
And then at each other. “Wanna go get coconuts?” I asked.
“Sure, whatever,” he yawned. And so our next adventure began. Belkross was right. We eventually came upon a tall, skinny tree. Long, flat leaves sprouted from the top. I squinted and spotted at least six, full-grown coconuts. Without needing to be asked, Turtle swung his tail and slammed it into the tree’s trunk. Thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk! Coconuts fell all around us, along with a few of the tree’s leaves. “Neat,” I said. I grabbed the leave’s branch with my teeth while Turtle rolled the coconuts onto it. I then dragged are treasures back over towards camp, with Turtle standing by to make sure none of the coconuts rolled off of the leaf.
We stopped just outside the tent, and I made a muffled hee-haw.
Lilian poked her head out, saw me, saw Turtle, and then the coconuts.
“Huh?!” she exclaimed, looking both impressed and perplexed. Maybe she hadn’t expected us to manage to get so many? “Well, alright then…”
Belkross returned with driftwood to help Paco make shelter. Together they ended up making makeshift huts around Nakoda and Alton. Fire raging, shelter made, food cooked, we all finally settled in by sunset. I stayed close to Nakoda. By this point, Tuttle and Paco were sleeping up against each other, leaving me no one to talk to. It was drizzling but the worst of the rain was yet to come.
It was a little after dark had fallen when Nakoda finally stirred from his sleep. Groaning, he sat up, touching his cheeks. “My mouth tastes like blood,” he muttered groggily.
“Oh, Nakoda, you’re awake,” Lilian called over. She’d been sitting at the mouth of the tent, feeding wood to the fire. “You should come over and help me move all of this into a fire pit so that we don’t have to worry about it going out while we sleep, or if the rain gets worse.”
“But…” Nakoda pointed at his still partly swollen face. “My face…’
“You don’t need your face to dig,” Lilian replied. “We have to keep this fire safe so that nobody gets hurt. Belkross is gone, hunting. Between you and me, you’re stronger.”
Nakoda blinked sleepily at her and then raised a finger. “I will do it!” he declared. “BUT I want something in return: knowledge.”
Both Lilian and I tilted our head, unsure where this was going.
“Alright,” she said carefully, “but it depends on whether or not I can give it to you.”
“Deal.” Despite his groggy, puffy state, Nakoda managed to make quick work of moving the fire over into a pit. By the end of it he was sweaty and covered in soot. He took off his helmet, set it aside and ran a gloved hand through his sweaty green hair. He then touched the cloth tied around his forehead self-consciously.
Ah, I thought. I think I know where he’s going with this.
Finally, he undid the cloth and set it aside, revealing his scarred forehead. The mark was still red, refusing to heal despite it having been months since his “battle” against Shod-Soon. “You seem to be witchy and have magicy stuffy stuff. Would you be able to tell me what this symbol on my head means?”
Lilian leaned in towards him, looking thoughtful. “It seems to have some lingering effect on you. It refuses to heal?” Nakoda nodded. “It might be tethering you to whoever branded you and might flare up whenever they’re in close proximity. It may be removable, there are spells that can do that, but I can’t perform them, unfortunately. Especially since I’m not sure if it’s actually a curse or not.”
She studied the mark further and then sighed. “I don’t recognize that sigil. But that might just be because I don’t have a lot of outside-world experience. I grew up sheltered, without much outside contact. That’s why I’m out here. To get some adventure.” She glanced towards the jungle. “But even then, the family hired a bodyguard for me.”
“You said this thing is linking me to the person who did it,” Nakoda murmured, touching his chin.
“Maybe,” she said. “Or maybe the object used on you. Maybe it links you to it so that they can find you…?” She shrugged.
Nakoda tried to not look too disappointed as he put both the cloth and his helmet back on. He stood up and bowed awkwardly. “Well, thank you! It was more than I had before.” He then distracted himself by tending to the fire, shifting the wood here and there. I watched him work, sharing in his frustration. He was just as desperate to find his father as I was to find Mom. That mark on his head was our only real lead…
“Who are you people?”
We all turned towards the voice.
Alton had stumbled to his feet, touching his stomach.
“Where am I?” he demanded.
Lilian immediately shot to her feet, hands held up in peace. “You’re safe-”
“That’s his hat!” Alton pointed over towards Paco and Turtle. The lizard was wearing the hat we’d found, along with the scarves. Why? Because it was funny, apparently. “He’s here! He betrayed us all!”
Alton’s knees were wobbling, his breathing coming out in violent spurts. “He…He stranded us here on purpose! He’s gone insane!”
There was a metallic click. Paco was awake, and he was holding one of his guns across his lap, hammer pulled back. He wasn’t pointing it at Alton, though. Not yet at least.
Lilian glanced at him at then back at Alton. “Just calm down,” she told the first mate, “before we’re forced to restrain you. If you really push us, we’ll feed you to the giant lizard.”
“Actually no!” Nakoda spoke up, hopping in between them. He told Alton beseechingly. “She might do that, I don’t know, but I would never hurt you.”
“Yeah,” Paco supplied, “because he’s emergency rations.”
“Stop it, Paco! Okay, Mr. Alton, me and Paco and Turtle found you on the ship. You were being attacked by a crab vampire or something, but we took care of it-”
“I took care of it,” Paco interjected.
“-so now let’s all just calm down and,” and Nakoda pointed over to a nearby pot, “eat some soup. Okay? That way we can all regroup and decide on the best way not to die.”
Alton stared down at the little Rider, eyes brimming with distrust…
And then he walked away, towards the water. He stood there, speaking to no one, staring at the sea. Not that he could really see much of anything. Thanks to the storm clouds, there was no moon or stars. The surface of the ocean was little more than rippling darkness. Finally, Alton sat down, looking to be focusing on calming his breathing.
Paco walked over and told Nakoda, “You should get him back towards the fire before he gets sick again.” He handed him a coconut. “Here. A peace offering.”
“Good idea!” Nakoda stabbed a hole into the coconut using his spear and ventured over to Alton. Alton tensed once he heard the halfling coming. Nakoda set the coconut on the ground by him and then sat down, though mindful to give the sailor space. Hesitantly, Alton reached over and grabbed the coconut.
“You need to drink it,” Nakoda said gently. “Get your strength back up. And after that I think it’s better that you stay close to us.”
“Why should I trust you?” Alton asked gruffly.
“Because I’m a Rider of the Wing,” Nakoda answered. “Er, well, just a squire, but still! We help wayward travelers and those who can’t help themselves. And you look lonely, and like you need help. So I’m gonna help you.”
Alton stared at him for a moment, before then slurping down the coconut’s contents. He tossed the husk away and then followed Nakoda back towards the fire. It was only then that I realized that Belkross had returned, standing by Lilian protectively.
Alton sat back on the bedroll and glanced over at Turtle. Or really, Kovack’s hat. “Okay, um, so introductions…? I saw y’all briefly on the ship, but…again…who are you people?”
Lilian took the lead, introducing everyone (except Nakoda who had already done so), and then said, “Listen, we don’t have to trust each other, but we do need to work together to stay alive. If you’re good in a fight, we could use you.”
“We’ll all need to be good in a fight,” Alton replied dryly, “Since we’re currently stranded on Smuggler’s Shiv.” He touched his head. “I’m so confused. Kovack…He was a good man…At least I thought he was. So when I noticed we’d changed course, towards Shiv, I called him out and…” He gestured to his stomach. “Well, that earned me a blade to the belly.”
“Go back a step,” Paco said, looking interested. “You called this place Smuggler’s Shiv. What do you know about it?”
“This place is the eater of many ships and crews. It’s notoriously haunted and full of dangerous creatures.” Alton laughed bitterly. “Kovack basically crashed us into Hell.”
#
I was nudged awake by Turtle. Mercifully, he didn’t use his tail, otherwise he might’ve broken a few of my bones. Blinking sleep out of my eyes, I saw that the sky was now completely grey, almost black, with storm clouds looming over us. It still smelled like rain, but it had yet to fall as Paco had predicted. It might have been smarter to hold tight where we were and try to wait out the storm, but Lilian and Belkross went to work on breaking down their tent as soon as Paco woke them up. With Nakoda and Alton still recovering from the respective poisons they’d been exposed to, we kept to the shore. Nakoda offered for me to drag Alton along using the bedroll, but the first mate refused and walked alongside us. He was still a bit clammy, his knuckles white as he gripped the sword that Belkross had lent him. He also wasn’t much of conversationalist, no matter how hard Nakoda tried. With Turtle carrying Paco at the rear of the group, I also didn’t have anyone to talk to beyond a few snorts here and there whenever Nakoda asked me a question.
Overall, the morning was uneventful.
Until we found the giant, screaming crab.
We heard it a long time before it actually came into view. A booming moaning sound like that of a dying whale resonated through the air. But there were more sounds underneath it. I strained my ears and made out shrieking laughter coming from multiple sources. Hearing all of this, everyone readied their weapons. Except for Lilian, who instead engulfed her hands with dark flames, preparing to unleash them at a moment’s notice.
We finally trudged over a tall dune and saw the source of all the commotion. A giant, orange crab was being bullied by a pack of tan-furred monkeys. The monkeys jumped on its back, threw rocks at its scarred shell, and were generally just being a bunch of assholes. Even after the crab managed to get a claw down in time to smash one of the monkeys to a bloody pulp, they kept on laughing.
“RATS!” the crab moaned, “I’MA KILL Y’ALL!!!!”
The monkeys ducked in and stole organs and bits of meat from their dead friend, and then scurried away, back into the jungle. But not before one of them squatted, pooped, and then flung it at the crab, hitting one of its eyestalks dead center.
The crab continued to curse long after they were gone.
“So…do I shoot it?” Paco asked no one in particular.
Lilian dismissed her flames and raised a hand. “Hold on a moment,” she said, squinting. “Isn’t there something…off about that crab?”
“Besides the fact that it can talk?” Alton replied dryly, which earned him a dark look from her.
I tilted my head and took a closer look at the crab’s body. Its coloring was…muted. Old and weathered. Its lower body was also nearly completely submerged in sand. I took a few steps forward, eying for wayward monkeys as I went. Trusting me, Nakoda didn’t argue, and Alton stayed by our side, though the others kept their distance as they followed. There were ropes wrapped around the crab’s claws, along with pieces of wood and metal. And where the mouth should have been, there was door exactly like the kind one might find on a ship. Now that we were so close, the moaning voice took on an echoing tone. It wasn’t the crab talking-it’d likely been long dead by this point-but the person who now called the giant corpse home.
Nakoda hesitated and then declared, “My name’s Nakoda Drake, Rider of the Wing. What’s your name?”
Alton shot him an amused look while holding his sword up in case the “crab” decided to attack. Instead the person inside screamed, their voice enhanced by the crab, “EH?! GO AWAY! AIN’T GOT NO TREASURE! NO NOTHING! PEZOCK’S GOT NOTHING FOR YOU! ISLAND’S BIG ENOUGH FOR THE BOTH OF US, SO SCRAM! DON’T MAKE ME HURT YOU!”
“We mean you no harm, Mr. Pezock,” Lilian called out hurriedly. “We’re simply in search of information and fresh water-”
“AIN’T SHARING!” Pezock barked.
“So you do have water then?” she pressed.
“NOT FOR YOU!”
“Really feels like I should start shooting,” Paco whispered loudly. He already had his rifle aimed at the ropes that controlled one of the crab’s claws.
Smart, I thought. Take those away, then hit the ones on the other claw, and Pezock couldn’t smash us.
“Please, Mr. Pezock,” Nakoda pleaded. “We need water. Is there something you need? Something that we can do for you?”
“…MONKEYS.”
“Huh?”
“BRING ME DEAD MONKEYS!” Pezock bellowed. “SIX OF ‘EM! THAT SHOULD SEND THE MESSAGE TO THE REST OF THE RAT’S NEST NOT TO FUCK WITH PEZOCK! FOR SIX MONKEYS, YOU GET TWO CASKS OF WATER. THAT’S MY PRICE. IF YA’LL DON’T LIKE IT, SCRAM!”
He refused to talk further, no matter how much Nakoda or Lilian pressed him for more information. Finally, we regrouped a ways from the crab, closer to the jungle’s edge. Lilian ran a hand through her hair and sighed. “I’d rather not make an enemy of him,” she told the group. “We need that water. And he might have valuable information about the island.”
“Or seen Kovack,” Alton growled.
“Six monkeys,” Paco said with a shrug. “Could be fun.”
With seemingly no other choice, we all reentered the jungle, following after the monkeys. Yet, while everyone else had quickly agreed to monkey-murder, Nakoda looked troubled. “What’s on your mind, little man?” Alton asked, scanning the treetops for our prey.
“This doesn’t feel right,” Nakoda confessed. “Just going to their home and murdering them. We did it to those birds, and the snakes, too. But not on purpose those times!” He shook his head dejectedly. “This is their home. We don’t have to be the monkeys’ enemy. We could be their friends.”
“But we need to be the talking crab’s friends,” Lilian pointed out. “We get water and info from being his friends. What do we get from being the monkeys’?”
“Poop?” Paco supplied helpfully. He then quickly held up his hand. “Shhhhh!”
Everyone stopped walking and fell silent. Very slowly, Paco brought his rifle up, took aim. Everyone else followed his line of sight, towards the treetops. Like the lizard birds, the monkeys had built nests. Most of them were empty.
Most of them.
A baby monkey sat in one to my right, munching obliviously on a small chunk of meat.
Alton immediately rushed in to cover a horrified Nakoda’s mouth but by then Paco had already taken the shot. The baby monkey had opened its mouth wide for another bite. It received a bullet to the back of the throat instead. The impact sent the baby slamming backwards into the tree, smashing the back of its skull against wood, staining with brain.
“And that’s one,” Paco laughed.
HOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!
Booming howls erupted through the trees, sending bird flying. Within seconds we were surrounded on all sides by full-grown, (rightfully) pissed off monkeys. One of them was larger, with darker fur than the others. The pack leader, probably. He and the others leapt at us and-
#
-And Belkross finished piling monkey corpses onto the bedroll and Turtle’s back and we headed back to Pezock. “Pretty,” Lilian murmured as we walked, holding up a silver locket in front of her face. We’d found small treasures like it up in the monkeys’ nests. Mostly coins and useless knickknacks. Lilian finally managed to open the locket and frowned. “Alton?”
“Yes?” he grunted.
“Does the name Aeshamara ring any bells? Pertaining to what you’ve heard about Smuggler’s Shiv, I mean.”
“No. Why?”
“Because we just found her locket.” She closed the locket and pocketed it inside her coat. “Oh, well. She was pretty. Probably didn’t stay that way for long in a place like this.”
“If you say so,” Alton said noncommittedly. He glanced sideways at Nakoda. The little Rider’s lance was drenched in blood. Monkey blood. “You okay?’
“I’m fine,” Nakoda sniffed.
“That was a pretty good kill back there. How you speared two of their skulls together. You’re a monkey-murdering-machine-”
“I don’t wanna talk about it. Ever.”
Alton shrugged. “Well, let’s hope crab-man keeps his end of the deal.”
“Oh, he better,” Lilian replied to which Belkross chuckled darkly. Those two can be really creepy sometimes…
We eventually made it back to the crab. “Mr. Pezock!” Nakoda called out, his voice still a little shaky. “We got the, um, stuff.”
At first Pezock gave no sign he’d heard, and his crab remained completely still. But then there were the various sounds of planks being pulled off and cranks turning, and the door opened partway. A yellow beak poked out cautiously. Pezock then poked his whole head through. He was a black-feathered bird man with a bandana wrapped around his head. His beady eyes glanced back and forth, studying the group, before finally falling on the corpses. “Rats,” he snickered, pointing at them with a long, curved and barbed sword. “Ha-ha! Good luck flinging shit at Pezock in Hell, rats! Good luck!”
Lilian pointedly coughed into her fist, gaining the bird man’s attention. “The water,” she reminded him.
“Eh? Ah!”
He then slipped back into the crab and slammed the door in our faces.
“Told you I should of shot him,” Paco half-yawned.
The door slid partway open again and Pezock hastily set two caskets outside. “Here. Pezock keeps his promises. Now leave him alone. Scram!”
“Wait!” Nakoda cried.
Pezock froze.
“A deal’s a deal,” he began to say.
“Are you out here all alone?” Nakoda asked.
“Pezock needs no one. Man-eaters or Shadow don’t come this far north. Or the grey rot. Pezock is safe. Alone. Here…Alone…Forever.”
Nakoda frowned. He dismounted me, stabbed his lance into the sand, and began marching over to the crab. I nudged him with my snout. “It’s okay, Don,” he whispered. “Trust me.”
Sighing inwardly, I let him go. He approached the door, hands held up in peace-
Pezock’s sword shot out. He pressed its tip into Nakoda’s neck, forcing his chin up.
“Don’t make me hurt you, child,” Pezock told Nakoda, his voice a trembling whisper.
Unfazed, the halfling asked, smiling warmly, “It’s still early. Do you wanna have breakfast with us?”
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