by Conny Conway
Too quiet for Balor, which enjoyed himself of the agonies and horrors of tortured souls.
“Boo.” He whispered into the darkness.
Immediately a flash of fire lit the corner only to be extinguished right away by the moisture in the air, a thick chain scrambled metallically and a groan followed, so filled with misery it would have broken a God’s heart, but not Balor’s.
“You are alive, worm!” The tyrant stated.
The tormented creature didn’t answer.
“You better be. Soon, very soon, you will do my bidding, then we will break to the surface, feign off the few humans strong enough to do so and feast on their flesh. Soon, worm, you’ll bring me the victory over the worlds. Soon, worm. Then you will be released.”
Still the creature didn’t answer, but again it tried to spew fire and again it was doused before it could do any harm to the Tyrant.
“Save your flames for the above, worm.” Balor chuckled and his eye filled up with moisture again.
He could taste the monster’s pain, smell its blood from thousands of wounds bored into the scales by the tiny, black beings living in this corner of the dungeons.
The creature inhaled sharply as the sharp little teeth drilled through its scales, reaching the unprotected skin, sinking the teeth deeply into the creature, thousands of those little devils ate it alive, until they hit the muscle tissue.
A protecting poison resided in it and the little parasites died. It was almost comical how their appetite killed them.
The chain clanged again, the creature must have turned its head away from Balor, he smirked, thought himself sly having created such a restrain for the worm.
The devil fleas to keep it weak, the moisture to snuff out its fiery breath, the cursed chain to keep it safe for Balor and the darkness to blind it from light, keeping it confused to its surroundings.
Satisfied the King wandered back to his throne, by now a fae warrior was chained to the wooden frame, holding the tall fairy in place, a fire was burning brightly close by, in its middle several iron in all shapes heated to red hot, awaited the skin to be singed.
Balor moved onto the chair, his leg was draped over one armrest.
He plucked a handful of eyeballs out of the bowl on the table next to his throne, bit hard on one of the orbs, it exploded in his mouth and the juices ran down of the corners of his mouth.
He licked his lips with his horned tongue and grunted in pleasure.
Marcus wasn’t sure how Balor would take the news a zombie bird had just delivered.
Though it didn’t really matter, the details had to be delivered to the king.
“My liege, we just received news about the outcasts.”
Even after thousands of years his Roman accent still rolled over his tongue and gave his voice a little softness, which he cursed. He wasn’t ooey-gooey soft. He was a gladiator, now he was the general of the dark army, the right hand of the king of the underworld.
Balor shifted his red eye to the Roman, but kept quiet, knowing the Gladiator would give him the news without his command.
“They are stranded at the Beach of bones. They have no way to cross the ocean of fears.”
So far so good, Marcus thought, but that was also good news, he recognized Balor’s satisfaction as the king clicked his tongue in delight.
“And it seems they are starting to diminish. One of them is dying.”
Another smack of the tongue.
“Hope it’s not the frigging Demigod, I need him to steer the worm.”
“No, it’s not Lann. It’s the unicorn offspring.”
A growl of the Tyrant warned Marcus to choose his words wisely.
“If the infant dies, its parent will follow. Once it is gone the druid will return to the giant. Without the druid, they’ll have no means of finding food in the wild. The human will starve. If she doesn’t die of dehydration or madness if she’ll drink from the ocean’s salty water.”
Another growl initiated from the monstrous demon.
Though this time it was more subsided.
“Keep me posted.” the low whisper was filled with danger.
The morning dawned and the campfire had diminished to small ambers.
All of the companions were exhausted, kept vigil next to the infant unicorn. As the second moon set and the orange sun rose, dipping the white sands into a gentle yellow, Lann stood by the water, stretched his stiff limps, gazing over the sea, in the distance he saw small white caps, no land in sight.
He searched for answers, how to save the babe, how to continue their journey, how to cross the ocean, the ocean itself, what was it called, where were they? But no answer came, no elucidation.
He turned warily to walk back to his friends, feeling cold to the core as if his fire was suffocated by the burden of the tribulations in front of them.
He had just taken his first step as he heard a splash and a whimsical squeak, followed by a cackled laughter it seemed. More water splashed as Lann turned startled to the shore
A beautiful dolphin laid more on the sand than in the water. It cackled again.
Lann shook his head in disbelief.
“How did you get there, Buddy?”
He walked toward the animal, crouched, and petted the silvery head.
The dolphin’s eyes were filled with sorrow.
Hesitantly Lann stood up, not to threaten the mammal walked into the water next to it, gently shoving it back into the water, turned it around and watched it swim away.
Again he was on his way to return to his group as he heard another cackle, more water sloshing.
When he turned he saw three more dolphins beached at the shoreline.
He went to the closest one, pushed it back into the water, steering it in the right direction, out to sea.
He did the same with the next dolphin and he heard more cackling sounds.
Ten or more dolphins lay in the sand. What was going on?
He called out to Shiloh and Derwa for help. The women jumped up measured the situation with one look, Shiloh informed the druid about the happenings. Shiloh ran into the waters, turning one of the mammals, smiling about the saving of one of them when the cackling and the water spraying increased and turned deafening.
More dolphins beached themselves.
Derwa stumbled into the waves, blindly feeling for one of the distressed animals.
Willie shot also forward, he floated next to the druidess and directed her hands. They worked as a team to save those precious ocean dwellers.
As far as the eyes could see the beach was covered with the ocean animals. Lann, Shiloh, Derwa and Willie worked hard to free the pod, turning each one back to the sea toward the horizon.
Sebastian also joined them, but he worked slow, favoring his still burned hands.
In the meantime Xylophia watched her infant’s silver hooves turn pitch black. Whiplash sat on the broad back of the unicorn, trying to give her confidence that her babe would pull through.
The black sneaked up the legs of the baby unicorn, a slight glimmer of orange in the deep black, most likely from the sun.
Startled Xylophia and Whiplash watched how the darkness spread over the body of the infant, more and faster with each heartbeat.
For each dolphin Derwa saved, two more beached on the shore.
They were working for hours to save the mammals.
Exhaustion spread into the young druids muscles. Her breath became labored. The orange sun beat hot on her shoulders, she slipped, fell into the waves not for the first time, but this time she hit her head on a producing stone.
This time she didn’t get up right away. She floated face down in the waves.
The black had spread over the stomach and the hint legs.
Neither Xylophia nor Whiplash had ever seen a unicorn dying, was this how it would be?
The Adult beast whinnied in sorrow.
The part of the beach, where Lann was shoving the dolphins back into the salty water, started to become less
crowded of the mammals, was that a good sign?
The golden warrior had not slowed down so far in the effort of saving the silvery animals, but his muscles cramped, his despair shrank and hope for those beautiful creatures grew.
Shiloh had first fought panicked against the beaching, but with each dolphin she shoved into the right direction, she grew more calmly, more confident they could do it.
She too had seen that fewer animals populated the sandy shore.
Light.
It was really light as she could see it herself.
She knew it wasn’t true, knew she would see something soon to come true and she dreaded it, knowing that she would not be able to change, what she would see.
The light grew dimmer, became twilight in which dead things crawled, flew and swam, then the scenery changed.
She saw foot prints in black sand, saw small fiery hooves, heard a scream and blood spattered, turned her clear vision into a red veil. Then it was dark again.
Someone smacked repeatedly on the back of her head.
She couldn’t breathe, everywhere was water.
She turned, felt water residing and gasped for air.
This time someone smacked her on her temple.
“Wake up, Derwa, wake up. You’ll drown and that would make him sad.” Again a smack on her forehead.
“Woman, wake up. Oh, how he wishes he had real arms to pick you up, to get you out of the water. Wake up, Derwa.”
Before another smack could hit her she groaned.
“I’m awake.” she sputtered.
The whole infant was black now except the white heart on its forehead.
Shiloh felt empty, but happy, they had saved all of the dolphins, she dropped where she stood, saltwater cooling her burned arms.
She was tired to the bones, but her eyes shone with the brightness of life itself. Lann turned the last mammal, then moved his exerted body to the female and also dropped into the water. His lips curved into a tired smile.
“We did it.”
Chapter 13
Darkness engulfed the company.
The small campfire, which Sebastian had lit, was too small to stab the darkness.
Even Willie’s light was a little more than a small flicker.
The wisp was hoarse from directing Derwa and from yelling her back to consciousness.
Everyone was spent and slept, all except Xylophia, which still sat by her baby, now black, but breathing, in fact the breathing had become less labored.
Another pair of eyes shot open in the shadowiness. The owner of them listened to the even breaths of the others.
Gently he spoke the unicorn’s name, but she didn’t respond, too intend to will the baby back to life.
He got up, walked to the shoreline.
“Lewe non, Pwason. Here, Fishy Fish.” He spoke in his Creole accent. “Nwa Pwason an, tou blan Pwason tout Pwason femen pa.” He chanted. And sure enough after he repeated one more time, “Black Fish, white Fish, and any fish close by.” a small black and blue Angelfish swam to Sebastian. The brown man crouched down, with his pocket knife he killed the tiny swimming jewel, applied the oil, the dust and his blood, whispered , “ Mwen command ou pou yo reveye yo fe m’of.! Swim to Balor, tell him still no way for them to cross the oseyan, and le infante no better, but black now. Now swim, Pwason, fast. Swim to Balor.”
He opened his bi,g burned hand and released the small fish with its dead eyes. He sauntered back to the small, sleeping troop.
Before he reached his mark, the wind picked up, more and faster it blew, the ocean started to churn, the breakers hitting the shore manifested from small white caps to waves, higher and higher they rose, meanwhile sea foam formed on the shoreline, first light grey and sluggish, then deep green and thick like a carpet.
The sound of wind and water grew, woke the sleepers, which rubbed their eyes, unbelieving that the calm sea had turned into the wild hurricane driven ocean.
Clouds grew thicker, lightning lid up the dark skies, both moons hidden by the dark billows.
Cold rain poured down as the heavens opened.
Thunder clashed, more lightning illuminated the night, the sea.
Sand blew up, blinding the life forms, huddled together for protection around the comatose unicorn.
The weather, water and sands grew wilder, the ocean emanated a soft light radiance, which intensified by the seconds until it lid the night as bright as day, without the orange sun.
Sebastian closed his eyes, blinded by the brightness.
The sea roared, then the water split.
A bright, dazzling figure emerged from the depth.
It was a male form, huge, bright, silver and blue, hair as white as snow covered the glorious face with eyes that changes the color from blue to green to blue and so on, just like the waves of the ocean.
The nose was a little peeked at its tip, a white beard covered the smooth cheeks and upper lip, the lower lip was flawless, smooth, and brown instead of pink.
The torso was bare, the shoulders muscular the same for the lower arms and hands in which he held a trident, and the lower body was hidden by the churning sea.
The weather and sea calmed.
“Greetings. “His voice was surprisingly gentle and low, but clearly to hear.
Awestruck the friends nodded, Sebastian’s eyes still clutched close tightly.
“I am Poseidon and I came to repay a debt.” The God exclaimed. No one doubted his words.
“You broke the curse by saving my dolphins this cycle. Therefore I owe you. How can I repay your effort?”
Without hesitation the three humans said in one voice “Safe the baby unicorn.”
Poseidon shook his head sadly.
“I can’t, the babe’s soul is in my brother’s hand. It’s up to him if it will be led to the elysian fields, if it stays in Hades or if it will be send back into the body.”
They all fell silent, including the God.
“Besides his life we have no need.” Derwa spoke silently.
“Uhm um.” Poseidon cleared his throat. “You’re not by any chance stranded on the beach of bones?”
Lann lifted his brow.
“You don’t need a vessel to cross the ocean?” The God winked at Shiloh. “Don’t you want to beat Balor at his own game and get out of the nine hells alive to request your immortality?”
Then he turned to Derwa. “And you, little druid, don’t you want back what he took from you? Don’t you want to get your eyes back? Two flying creatures, which don’t dream of heroism? How odd.” Poseidon spoke to the Matagot and the Willow wisp. His swirling eyes amused.
They darkened as he turned his head to Sebastian. “There is no doubt, you will harvest what you have sown, Creole.” Those words rumbled of the lips like a gentle growl, dangerous and dark, knowing.
“You could help us with getting us across the water?”
“Just say the word, winged Warrior.”
Lann turned to his companion and the women nodded.
“So be it.” Poseidon thundered.
The weather howled and the sea boiled.
Poseidon turned and submerged back to the depth, the waters drifted together and sea foam blew onto the beach, dark grey interwoven with the sea grass, the water and the wind wove a carpet, thick and soft, sturdy, floating where the water hit the land, growing more in width, length and thickness.
The storm abided, the water calmed and the sea foam raft floated nearby, waiting to transport its passengers safely across the ocean.
Lann stepped gingerly on the raft, testing its sea worthiness
. The soft step turned into jumping up and down, then he knelt on it, tried to tear it apart.
But it held, not even one fiber had wiggled out of place.
He went to the circle of friends, took Derwa’s small hand and led her onto the raft, where he made her sit down in the middle.
He returned again to their camp. Picked up the black infant and hauled it aboard. Tenderly he placed
its head into the druids lap, she held it softly and her fingers stroke the shiny mane.
Xylophia had trotted right behind the warrior and even though the water scared her, she boarded the raft, laid down next to the infant unicorn, and muzzled it lovingly, but the colt stayed unconscious.
Next Lann led Shiloh on the raft, first panic wanted to strike her, but once her foot touched the soft but tightly woven raft she relaxed, giggled even how soft their vessel felt.
Whiplash zoomed over their heads, then settled as usual on the woman’s shoulder. The wisp wasn’t too sure about this trip, after all water was his worst enemy, but the prospect of eating the yummy on daily basis for the rest of his life… How could he deny that.
Lann beckoned Sebastian to join them.
The Creole shivered and shook his head.
“Sebastian, come on, we don’t have time for that.”
“No, Creoles do like water, but water surrounded by land, not open water.”
“Last chance for you to complete your quest to get help for your people.”
Lann’s golden eyes flickered in aggravation, he was not willing to let one person shatter their escape.
“Mon dieu.” Sebastian muttered, hesitantly he stepped onto the floating carpet.
His eyes now black and wide, the pupils were extremely dilated, but he bit his lip as he moved further onto the raft. He sat down next to Derwa and the infant.
Like magic the carpet floated away from the shoreline, the further it got into deep water the faster it went. The fibers stayed knotted.
“We should name our raft.” Shiloh said.
“What?” Sebastian looked at her as she was deft.
“We should name it.” She countered. “In my world it’s custom to name our ships.”
“This is no ship.” The brown man bit out through clenched teeth.” This is death trap.”
“How could you say that? This is a gift of Poseidon himself.” She retorted heatedly.
“Mon dieu, do not say he is so all powerful.”
“But he is. He is the God of the oceans, the ruler of the creatures beneath.”
Lann laid his warm hand on her and shook his head, as if to say this debate wasn’t worth it.
