by Zoey Rivera
“Keep up, old man,” Chris bellowed.
Lorcan smirked in response. At thirty two, Lorcan was a good seven years younger than Chris. However, despite his age, Chris was far from leaving his prime. He maintained himself for battle, so Lorcan expected nothing less from his friend. He worked hard to keep up with his advances on the sea beast.
He hacked and stabbed, racing toward the creature. Something was glistening on the small man’s skin, Lorcan couldn't decide if it was water or sweat but he figured it was more likely a combination of the two. His arms were starting to tense up from the amount of hacking he was doing. He would have to change techniques if he was going to keep this up for much longer.
How much health could a creature this large have? It must be substantial. Would blades even be enough?
They would have to be.
Chris yelled over to him to catch his attention.
“I’ll make an opening, you make a break for it,” Chris ordered.
“Aye,” Lorcan called back.
He focused his advance on the creature’s head and awaited the signal from Chris. He screamed as his blades tore into the slimy tentacles of the sea heathen, removing the limb from it’s body. The beast cried out a screeching wail as it was wounded.
A gooey gelatinous eye peeked out of the water to see what had disarmed it. The eye alone was nearly the size of their vessel, there was no telling how big the rest of the creature was. The only thing Lorcan knew for sure was that he has never seen a beast like this in all his years sailing across the Blacksalt sea.
It began to focus all its attention on Chris as he fled away in the opposite direction, away from Lorcan and the Willow. Lorcan took this opening to mount the head of the creature. The slimy moist texture of the flesh was difficult to cling onto but the bone-like spikes protruding out of the head were easy enough to use as platforms along the beast.
There was no time to try and identify the creature but Lorcan would have to take a shot and assume it was like its smaller brethren and a solid stab to the head would be enough to bring the creature down. He couldn’t see through the exterior of it but he could feel the creature’s pulse as he was leaned against its body.
He climbed to the top of the sea monster, between its eyes and raised his machetes to stab into it. His body completely exposed, he was knocked off the creature and thrown into the water by a lightning strike. The creature was enraged and began slamming back at the ship again. Lorcan surfaced and looked over at Chris. Why wasn’t the creature attacking Chris?
Suddenly a realization hit Lorcan and his head snapped toward the ship. More lightning bolts. Catherine.
He began paddling as fast as he could toward the ship. Stupid girl was going to get them all killed. Chris continued hacking away at the creature, trying to draw its attention back to him in vain. It was clearly focused on the magic user onboard.
Lorcan was able once more to catch a tentacle as it lifted out of the water and ride it as it slammed onto the ship. On impact, Lorcan bounced off the limb and slammed across the deck. He forced himself to stand and raced toward Catherine, carelessly shooting attack after attack at the creature. He swooped her off her feet and tossed her into two of the crew members.
“Get her below deck!” he ordered. The men dragged her away without question.
“But I can help!” Catherine squirmed in the men’s arms as she tried to release herself to fight beside everyone else.
“No, you can’t,” Lorcan yelled to her, taking his eyes off the creature for a split second.
“Look out!” Catherine screamed.
A tentacle smacked into Lorcan from behind and knocked the air out of him. Before he knew it, he was back in the air again and was being carried closer and closer to the creature. Lorcan tried to move but the speed the arm was moving kept him glued to it. Suddenly, he was submerged and he could see the entire creature.
It was so much larger than he or Chris could have ever anticipated. The eye that they had seen surface was only one of potentially a hundred riddled along the creature. The hundred eyes that were now staring at him. The creature let out a gurgling screech. Exposing its pincers and terrifying abyss of a mouth to Lorcan. In shock of the intimidating form of the abomination, he felt himself start to let out the breath he was holding. He hastily began swimming for the surface. He had always been a strong swimmer but against a creature like this, he was almost certain that it wouldn’t be enough.
He noticed a buoy on the surface and raced toward it in a futile attempt to escape the beast. Another splash of something falling into the water caught Lorcan’s eye in his peripheral vision. He was too focused on the buoy to mind whatever driftwood had submerged. He surfaced and clung onto the float as he was lifted quickly back onboard. One of the cabin boys was screaming over the edge as Lorcan coughed and tried to regain his breath.
Samuel floated under the water, trying to think up the next part of his plan. He knew that he needed to get the focus of the creature away from the big man but he hadn’t completely thought through past jumping into the water and attacking the monster. Now that he was nearly face-to-face with the beast though, he hadn’t even done anything past falling into the water and getting the beast’s attention.
He swam toward the creature, seeing a violet colored jewel at the center of what seemed to be it’s body or head. Samuel had never been the one to form the plans, that had always been Robert’s job in their duo. He was more the act then think of the two.
The creature let out another horrific shriek and it snapped his body into autopilot. He scrambled toward the ship. As soon as he broke the surface, he saw Robert calling out over the edge, trying to lower him a rope. His body was barely staying afloat so he couldn’t quite make out what Robert was yelling. He grabbed onto the rope and began struggling to climb. His arms weak and his body sore, he began his ascent. The ship kept tilting from the creature’s assaults. Causing Samuel to slam repeatedly into the ship’s walls as he climbed. Until finally, his arms gave out and he fell back into the sea.
Robert cried out for his brother but was quickly pulled away from the edge by the other men as another tentacle swept across the ship. He struggled against the others trying to throw himself off the edge with his twin. Maybe, just maybe, he could save him. Logically he knew it was a stupid idea but he didn’t care. He just needed to save his brother.
“Stay down dammit, he’s gone,” one of the other boys said to him as they dragged him off.
“No, I can still get him,” he insisted.
The boy slapped him hard across the face, “No, you can’t.”
He was right. Robert stood himself up and followed his crewmates to maintaining the ship. His brother was gone and there was nothing he could do to save him now. The only thing that mattered was saving himself and what crew was left on the Willow.
Out in the sea, Chris sprinted up along one of the tentacles, challenging the creature once more and dove off the side to submerge himself so that he could see the whole of the beast. His eyes were met with the same horror that Lorcan’s had seen. He scanned the area and saw Samuel’s limp form descending to the abyss.
Another one lost.
He didn’t bother with swimming after him, he had to deal with the creature before any more lives were lost. He quickly surfaced to catch a breath, then paddled toward the beast. His muscles tensing as he stroked. He unsheathed his machetes and began slicing away at the beast. Red liquid tainting the water around him and obscuring his vision. A tentacle shoots out of the misty water and wraps Chris into its grip, sinking him further into the abyss. He unleashed a series of forceful stabs into the hand but the creature was unfazed and focused on consuming him.
As Chris was being drawn close into the creature he managed to sink his blades into its upper lip right beneath its jewel. Clearly enraging the beast, Chris seized the split second of the monster loosening its grip around him and frees himself. Wielding his machetes above his head once more he slammed the blades down
into the beast’s jewel. Shattering it to pieces. The beast fell limp and began floating lifeless toward the surface.
Everyone stood anxiously at the edge of the ship waiting to see if their Captain would surface. The monster’s corpse broke the water’s edge and Chris along with it. Clearly gasping for air.
But alive.
A loot screen appeared in front of Chris. He sorted through his earnings and would evenly disperse it among the surviving crew. He made his way back aboard the Willow.
Once he was on the ship, Erik brought him a rag and a health potion to regain back some of his health points but not very many. It would take a lot of rest and light work to really heal after a battle like that.
He took a swig of the potion, trying to gulp it down before the ooze-like texture registered on his palate. He may have taken more than his fair share of these over the years, but that didn’t make it any easier to deal with. He would much prefer getting one of the liquid potions, if only they were cheaper like the oozes.
Robert came out from behind the crowd of crewmen and rushed straight toward Catherine. His eyes hateful and burning with tears. His face was red with fury.
“YOU, THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT,” Robert screamed at Catherine.
“What?” Catherine was startled at the sudden attack.
He lunged at her but Chris grabbed him before he could get to her. She stepped back in fear. His nostrils flared as he cursed and swore at her. She was only trying to help.
“Calm down,” Chris spoke firmly. “She didn’t send a bloody sea beast after us. That is just a risk you take sailing the blacksalt.”
Robert puffed his chest out in anger, still attempting to struggle out of the captain’s grip. “No, she’s Elite. I’m sure she planned it like that. She got my brother killed and nearly killed you as well. I say to hell with her. Let’s toss her off the ship. I don’t care what happens to her.”
He managed to break one arm free and attempted to reach to grab her, Catherine ran behind Lorcan as a human shield. She stayed in his shadow, white-faced in terror. What was going on?
“I didn’t call for a sea monster, I just want to open a restaurant in Hallifax. I don’t want to die getting there,” she said. Her voice broke as she said this. Tears burning her eyes at the accusations and curses.
“No, you don’t! You want adventure and you think this is all a game,” Robert spat at her as he spoke. “That’s why you came out of hiding and started attacking the beast with magic right as he was about to kill the thing the first time. Don’t try and hide it, we all know it was you. None of us have the money to afford magics like that.”
“I was just trying to help. I thought he was in trouble,” Catherine’s eyes welled up with tears as she defended her actions.
She knew what she saw and she knew in her heart that Lorcan needed her help. How was she supposed to know that he would be okay? She didn’t understand why they were so mad. Why wouldn’t they want all the help they could get during a fight? They were clearly outnumbered. She was just sitting around doing nothing while they all risked their lives. Why wouldn’t they let her help them?
“I told you to stay in your room, Catherine,” Lorcan’s voice came out calm but firm. He wasn’t mad or disappointed in her. His voice did have a frustrated tone to it though.
“I know, but—” Catherine’s words tapered off as she looked Lorcan in the eyes. They seemed so gentle. She hadn’t expected that from him at a time like this.
“If I die, I die. That’s it. You putting yourself in harm’s way puts me in more of a risk than me putting my own neck on the line. Because if you do something stupid like that and die, and somehow I manage to survive, I’ll be dead by daylight,” Lorcan said with eyes unshaking into hers.
“But if I can stop both of us from dying, shouldn't I try and help?” Catherine asked meekly.
“No,” Lorcan said.
A long silence spread across the ship. Even Robert stood there silently embracing the inevitable. It was hard to think of sometimes. The hopelessness of Eden. He was right though. If one didn't know what they were doing, by jumping into a battle, all they were doing would be putting another’s life further in danger while risking their own as well. It was a futile gesture.
“I'm sorry,” Catherine softly apologized. Her head slumped down to her chest.
Robert looked over at her, helpless and small. She looked as if she was about to cry.
Stupid elite.
What reason did she have to cry?
None.
Chapter 4
Life on the ship continued on somewhat normally after that incident. Everyone resumed their old duties almost as if the incident had never happened. Chris and Lorcan recovered a lot quicker than expected, either that or the two men put on brave faces while working through agonizing pain. Robert was willing to bet the latter.
Robert was seated alone at a table in the corner of the dining hall staring out a window. He didn't notice Chris pulling up a seat in front of him.
“The two of them aren't that different, you know,” Chris’s voice snapped Robert back to reality.
“What?” Robert asked.
“They both acted impulsively and outside of their zone of knowledge,” Chris continued. “Your brother was just the unlucky one. Catherine could have easily died out there as well.”
His heart sank at the mention of his brother, probably to meet him at the bottom of the ocean. He looked over at the young woman seated by Lorcan. He knew it was a stupid action his brother had chosen to take. Samuel never thought through his actions. That was what made him the perfect companion. He would never question, he just did as Robert said.
“I know, Captain,” Robert said.
“Good. We’ll be arriving at the ports outside the Mir Forest in a few moments. I'll be giving you your pay if your journey ends with us there. If not, we could always use another man aboard to keep this old girl running,” Chris offered.
“I need to think it through but I feel like I may stay,” Robert said.
It wasn’t like he had anywhere else to go. He was initially going to come up with a plan once he and Samuel arrived at the ports, wherever the ship landed but now he felt like this ship was the only thing left attaching him to his brother. He may have sounded hesitant to the Captain but he knew in his heart that he was fully intending on staying.
“Aye,” Chris ruffled Roberts hair and moved on to the next table. He couldn't wrap his mind around Chris’s positive attitude. But maybe with more time aboard, it would run off on him, even just a minuscule amount would do.
It was late once they finally reached the ports. It was a lot smaller and quieter than that of the lively docks of Crithm. There were no people bustling to try and sneak aboard the ship or people at all for that matter. Just a clear empty dock and a Forest’s edge. Catherine could feel a tense chill in the air.
“What is this place?” Catherine asked, clung to Lorcan’s side.
“The Mir Forest. I’ve only been through here once in my time in Eden but I know a fair deal about it,” Lorcan said. He had never been fond of Central Yonta or the Mir Forest, but Anna was. She would tell him stories of The Mir Forest back when she dreamt of being a travelling bard. She would be so happy if she were here.
“I think I’ve seen brief scenes with the Mir Forest in it but seeing it in person is so much different,” Catherine’s voice was more meek than usual.
Lorcan lifted a brow and looked down at her. She stepped out fearless to a giant sea beast, but cowered at a tree line?
Strange girl.
“They call the Mir Forest, The Mir. And I was told once that everything in there is possessed by some other worldly power, above us all but most likely beneath the developers of Eden. If you believe that the creators of Eden made something that powerful into the game. Some people theorize that it is their consciousnesses. What you believe all depends on your faith in Eden,” Lorcan’s eyes looked as if he was the one listening to his speech instead of givi
ng it.
Catherine stared up at him in awe. Imagining the mythical creatures and dangers ahead. This was clearly the adventure and excitement she was looking for. Yet, she couldn’t express that to Lorcan.
“What do you believe?” Catherine asked.
“Me? I believe what I’ve seen and lived through,” Lorcan responded. “I believe in the rocks and trees around me. I believe in every pale pixelated inch of this world.”
“So you believe in rocks?” Catherine tilted her head.
“I believe in reality,” Lorcan clarified.
“But none of this is real. This is a virtual reality world that you log in and out of. How can you say that you believe in reality knowing that this is all a simulation?”
Lorcan smiled softly down to her. Catherine’s heart skipped a beat. This was the first time Lorcan had honestly smiled at her. He looked at her with such sad, honest eyes.
“Tell me, what makes this simulation any different than reality? You’re alive. I’m alive. There is life around us. And if I were to die, I would die in the other world as well. Every part of this world is connected to who I am in the real world. So what makes this any different than that?”
“I guess,” Catherine’s voice sounded unsure of itself,” I guess you’re right.”
She hadn’t considered any of that. She had always looked at Eden under the impression of it being a virtual reality world. It was always just a form of entertainment. It wasn’t life. It was supposed to be fun. It was supposed to be an adventure. Like they showed on the monitors.
But what if it wasn’t like that?
“I know I’m right, that’s why I believe it,” Lorcan focused his gaze back forward as they neared the Mir.
“If this world is no different than reality, can I meet you there too?” Catherine asked.
Lorcan momentarily looked down at her and considered this question. Why did this feel different to him, her meeting him in the real world after spending so much time together in Eden? It really shouldn’t but it did.
