by Logan Jacobs
“Hey, Ben?” Jemma gasped. “You’re gonna want to take a look at this.”
I ran over to the long-legged Niralope woman and looked down at the ground where she pointed.
There, in the sand, was a thin bone whose end had been shaved down to a thin point.
Some sort of weapon?
I bent down on one knee and picked up the strange artifact, and much to my surprise, there was more of it underneath the sand. As I pulled the bone out, a thin, tattered strip of leathery material came with it, and on the other side of said leathery material was another sharpened bone, and then another one after that.
Suddenly, it dawned on me what I was looking at.
“It’s a fan blade,” I chuckled in disbelief. “It’s way too tattered right now to be of any use, but look at how it’s built. I bet if it were in perfect condition, you could fold it up and tuck it away in a sheath or even in your pocket until you were ready for battle.”
“Who would fight with such a weapon?” Mira cringed. “There’s no distance to it, and it doesn’t appear to be sturdy whatsoever. How would that even hold up in a battle?”
“These things are actually really deadly,” I admitted. “I mean, I’ve never actually seen one used in real life, but I’ve seen enough martial arts movies to know just how useful they can be.”
“How?” Nadir asked, and she looked as equally confused as Mira. “They’re so tiny. Do you throw them at your enemy?”
“Nope.” I shook my head. “They’re strictly hand-to-hand. Usually, you see them used by people who are fast and light on their feet, people who fight acrobatically with a lot of twirls and twists.”
“So… they dance?” Lezan snorted. “How threatening.”
“You say that now,” I laughed, “but just wait till you see one of these in action. In the movies, a well-trained fighter can take on a person with a sword or a spear and win with ease.”
“Woooow,” Arrick breathed, and his eyes were aglow with excitement.
“I’ll believe that when I see it,” Mira scoffed.
“Now, the question is, who does that belong to?” Jonas interjected. “It’s not a weapon I’ve ever seen the orcs use.”
“It’s definitely not from the orcs,” I agreed. “They don’t use bone and whatever the hell this other material is. Plus, they’re about the least graceful fighters I’ve ever seen. They’d probably fall flat on their fat asses if they ever tried to even do a single twirl.”
Arrick giggled at the visual, but then he quickly cleared his throat and tried to act “regal” once more.
“If they’re not the orcs’, and they’re not ours…” Jemma trailed off. “Then who do they belong to?”
All eight of us turned toward the forest and looked at it inquisitively. We didn’t know what awaited us inside of the thick foliage of the jungle, but one thing was for sure.
There was somebody else on this island.
I just hoped they were friend, and not foe.
Chapter Six
“Well,” I mused as I continued to observe the fan-blade in my hands. “If previous experiences are anything to go off, I’d imagine these weapons belong to the race of people who live on this island. Or, at least, people who did live here at some point. We need to do a little more investigating.”
The eight of us spent the next twenty minutes or so scouring the beach for any more signs of life, but our search yielded little results, since the sandy landscape was mostly littered with broken shells, driftwood, and the occasional beached jellyfish.
“I found something!” Mira announced eventually, and all of us converged onto her position.
The warrior woman pointed down at the sand proudly as she smiled from ear to ear, and sure enough, down on the dark brown sand were two sets of footprints, clear as day.
One set was clearly larger than the other by almost three whole shoe sizes. It appeared to be the imprint of some sort of boot with a platform heel, and the depth of its impression told me it was made by a being that was very heavy. The other set was the polar opposite, and it looked like bare human feet whose gait was much quicker than their lumbering opponent. Whoever the second pair belonged to, they ran in quick strides and appeared to be way lighter than their pursuer.
The footprints ran on for a few more feet, up until there was a spot where we found a large, round imprint in the sand. Afterwards, the boots continued on into the jungle, but the bare footprints ceased.
“Whatever happened here, one thing is clear,” Sela muttered. “The person with the boots caught its target.”
My throat swelled with sorrow at the thought. This was something we’d seen happen way too many times before, and the story was always the same. There would be a peaceful island out at the sea, with a large population of native folks who were just going about minding their own business when a bunch of asshole orcs came along, and the muscly green bastards would then kill all the men and try to kidnap the women.
It looked like our new island was no exception to this story.
“Do you think it was orcs?” Jemma frowned.
“I don’t know who else it could be,” I replied. “I’ve yet to run across any other race of people who wear boots on their feet, but the orcs definitely do. Plus, this whole situation matches their M.O.”
“Their what?” Nadir asked with a furrowed brow. “Their ‘mow’? Is that a sound they make?”
“It’s an acronym for modus operandi,” I explained to the crew. “Or method of operation. On my world, it’s another way of saying their ‘calling card’ or their ‘habit.’ This definitely fits within those parameters.”
“Then the orcs could still be out there,” Jemma noted in a stern tone.
“Or out there.” Sela pointed back to the ocean. “If they have been to this island before, then they could surely be back at any moment.”
“At least our ship would blend in, given it’s a stolen orc vessel,” I chuckled. “Maybe it’s a good thing Isla hasn’t gotten around to making us a jolly roger yet after all.”
“The stealthiness of our vessel does us no good if they can see us plain and clear out here on the beach,” Mira added. “If we want to truly stay hidden, then we can’t set up camp out here.”
“Wait just a moment…” Sela argued as she stepped forward and put her hands on her moss-green hips. “Are you seriously suggesting we set up camp in the jungle? On an island we know nothing about?”
“There are no good options, Sela.” Mira’s golden eyes narrowed. “Unlike some of us, Ben knows how to actually make the best out of a bad situation.”
The two dragonkin warriors stared each other down, but I just rolled my eyes. Since day one, these two had been in some sort of competition for my love and the honor of sharing my bed. I’d slept with both of them already, but they still bickered like an old married couple.
I needed to quell this situation, and fast, but first, we needed to figure out what we were doing for this camp situation.
“What say you, Draco Rex?” Jonas’ voice cut through the tension.
“Mira’s right.” I nodded. “It’s a no-win situation. If we stay out on the beach, we run the risk of being discovered very easily. The jungle would give us way more places to hide our camp, but I can almost guarantee it’s full of foreign, strange creatures, some of which will want to eat us for dinner. Basically, it’s a ‘pick your poison’ situation… Still, I think we should go into the jungle. That way, if we do run across any orcs, we at least have a chance of staying hidden from their view. Also, to be perfectly blunt, we’re not going to find anything we need out on an open beach. If we want to snag the right wood or even materials to build a shelter, we’re going to have to go into the jungle eventually anyways.”
“Draco Rex has spoken.” Mira’s eyes shone with smugness. “We shall go into the jungle.”
“When Malkey and Tirian are finished,” Jemma reminded us all. “I wouldn’t dream of going exploring without our dragons at our side.”
/> So, we all took a short rest as we sat along the shoreline and watched the dragons continue their game. Malkey shot out at least six more geysers of water, and I was starting to wonder if those leaks were even worse than I’d originally thought. However, soon afterwards, we saw the large figure of a copper water dragon pop back up onto the deck, shuffle over the side, and hop down into the water.
Malkey then bounded through the shallows like an oversized Labrador coming out to greet his owners, while Tirian gracefully floated through the sky behind him.
Told you I wasn’t going to miss, Tirian taunted his friend. How many streams did I hit? All of them, right?
Yeah, yeah… Malkey retorted. It was only because I couldn’t see where I was spraying. Next time, when I’m on solid ground, I’ll make sure you don’t hit a single one.
“Awwww.” Jemma grinned as she watched the two beasts approach. “It looks like my little guy just made a new friend.”
The second the dragons got up to the beach, we filled them in on what was going on. Then, once we were all prepped and ready to go, we headed off toward the jungle.
Nadir, Lezan, and I went first, because we all had large slashing weapons that could be used to cut down foliage in our way. Jonas and Arrick were at the center of the group, since they were the two members of our crew with the weakest fighting skills, and the two dragons brought up the rear.
Aside from the flora’s unusual size, there was something about this place’s climate that just felt a bit… different. The air was horrifically wet and humid, and there was a constant drone of trilling bugs all around us. Not to mention, the ground here in the forest was wet and sloppy, almost like we were walking through a permanent marshland. The humidity of this place, mixed with the constant action of cutting through foliage and sloshing through the wet mud, caused my shirt to become drenched in sweat, and I had to stop constantly to take a sip of water to keep from dehydrating.
Then there was the fact that, despite all the sounds of the chirping birds and the trilling insects, we’d yet to see a single life form. It was like something straight out of a horror film, where you had a constant sensation of being watched but couldn’t see your pursuers.
We continued on for another hour, until we finally decided to take a rest in a small clearing. We all plopped down onto fallen trees and rocks and then gulped down a bunch of the water in our seashell casks.
“This might actually be a perfect spot to set up camp,” Mira noted as she wiped a bit of sweat from her brow. “There’s a lot of natural ground space here, so we wouldn’t have to do much clearing. We’re also fairly deep into the forest, far off the main drag of the beach. I doubt we’ll find a safer spot on this island.”
“Uhhh… I wouldn’t be so sure,” Jemma breathed in a trembling voice, and the Niralope woman was frozen with fear as she nodded over toward a small pile just on the perimeter of the clearing.
So, Arrick and I both wandered over, knelt down, and began to check it out.
“Holy shit!” my son gasped. “Are those bones?”
“First off, language,” I warned. “But, yeah… I think they are.”
“Sorry, Dad,” Arrick apologized, but then he leaned forward eagerly. “What do you think it is? A graveyard?”
There were bones of several small creatures littered in with hunks of torn leaves, snapped branches, and what appeared to be some sort of primitive pottery, and I instantly recognized what we’d stumbled upon.
“Hardly,” I chuckled and shook my head. “It’s a trash pile, son. This is where the residents of this island probably brought their waste and buried it so other animals wouldn’t be able to pick up on its scent.”
The other animals must not have that strong of a nose, Tirian gagged. Because I can smell it way too well.
“But if they bury it,” Arrick pondered aloud, “why is it all sitting here in a pile on top of the ground?”
“Probably because whoever made it had to leave in a hurry,” I explained. “Or they may not be around anymore. Either way, they didn’t get a chance to bury their last few remnants of trash.”
“I think that all but confirms it was the orcs,” Jonas sighed. “The signs are all here. The boot print… The broken weapons… And now a trash pile left in a hurry? I don’t know what else could have happened.”
“I don’t know, exactly,” Lezan admitted with a gasp, and then the multicolor-haired woman pointed up to the sky. “But I think I might know where we can get more answers.”
We all followed her finger up into the canopy of the forest, and my jaw hit the floor at what we saw.
There, literally attached to the underside of the massive, waxy leaves, were several manmade structures. They appeared brown and rough, as if they had been made out of a very grainy stucco, and it was hard to judge from this distance, but it was pretty clear the buildings were large enough to accommodate a full-grown person. Each of the structures was also connected together with bridges made out of lush green vines and some sort of flat wood, and there were four of the hanging pathways in total.
“I think I know where the trash came from,” I chuckled. “We need to get up there and see if anyone’s home. And if not, then we need to see if there’s anything we can scrounge for our journey back home.”
“We’ll check to make sure the coast is clear,” Jemma parroted my saying, and then she telepathically called out for her dragon companion.
Tirian floated down, landed on the ground, and bowed so his bondmate could climb aboard. Then, once Jemma was snugly on his back, Tirian rose up into the sky and slowly approached the hanging village from below.
Not to be outdone, Nadir and Lezan both scurried over, sank their claws into a nearby tree, and began to climb up with ease.
“Show offs,” I joked as I came over to the same trunk, and then I turned to the two other men in my party. “How are your climbing skills, either of you?”
“I can climb anything!” Arrick stated as he puffed out his chest proudly. “Just watch!”
My son ran over, grabbed the lowest branch, and hoisted himself up onto it. Then he began a systematic climb via the series of branches that sprung out of the tree trunk like monkey bars.
“I’ll admit,” Jonas sighed, “my climbing skills are subpar.”
“That’s not a problem,” I promised the old man. “Malkey?”
Without missing a beat, the copper-scaled dragon dashed over, picked up Jonas by the back of his shirt, and then began to ascend the tree. It was actually pretty funny to watch them go, since Jonas’ face was frozen in a look of pure terror. Meanwhile, Malkey was bounding up the small branches with little effort, though each one shook heavily under his weight and threatened to snap at any moment.
“Last one up has to take first watch tonight!” Mira cackled as she took a running jump onto the first branch.
Sela rolled her eyes at the challenge, but I knew she wasn’t going to back down. Instead, a half-smile rose up onto her face as she took off after Mira and began to ascend the tree.
I brought up the rear of the group, and I made sure I took my time as I climbed. If a branch broke or somebody came tumbling down, I wanted to be there to try and catch them. Thankfully, though, my worries were completely unfounded, and we were at the canopy level in no time at all.
Now that we were up close to the village, I could see the structures hanging from the leaves were bulbus ovals that were flat at the very bottom and connected to the waxy green foliage with a thick stem at the top. The buildings varied in color. Some were the same green as the leaves they inhabited, though with a much smoother surface than the other structures. Others appeared to have a bit more wear and tear, and their walls looked brown and rough.
One thing was for sure… Whoever built these things didn’t know much about geometry. Literally all of them were shaped in a rough oval, though their shapes were all unique and inorganic.
Since we had just scaled a random tree, there was a pretty large gap in between where we stoo
d and the first hanging structure, and as I looked around for some sort of platform or ladder, it dawned on me that there was nothing.
“How the fuck do these people even live up here?” I questioned. “There’s no way they would make themselves needlessly jump and risk their lives just to get into their dwellings.”
“You don’t know that,” Nadir mused. “Maybe this is an island full of people who love to get the pleasurable, thrilling sensation of facing down certain death and conquering it?”
That was the absolute last thing we needed. An island full of adrenaline junkies.
“Are you sure that will hold our weight?” Mira pondered as we inspected the hanging building.
“It looks pretty sturdy at the top,” Jemma noted as she and Tirian hovered a full three-hundred sixty degrees around the structure’s stem. “I’m not sure if I’d want either of the dragons to try and test it out, but it should be able to handle the weight of the rest of us.”
“Then it’s time to answer the big question…” Lezan grinned devilishly. “Who wants to try and make the jump first?”
Without hesitation, Arrick began to bounce up and down. “I’ll do it! I’ll make the jump.”
“Noooooooo, no.” I shook my head.
I promised Nerissa I’d protect our son, and letting him be the first to make a potentially deadly ten-foot jump was absolutely not the best way to do that. I could see the disappointment in my son’s gray eyes when I told him “no,” but it wasn’t something I was willing to risk.
“I’ll do it,” Nadir suggested with a nonchalant shrug. “Lezan and I have both made much further jumps in the past.”
“Are you sure?” I asked as I looked down at the forest floor, which had to be at least one hundred feet below us at this point.
“Somebody’s got to do it.” The dark-haired Coonag woman grinned. “May as well be me, right?”
We watched with bated breath as Nadir took a few steps back on her branch, straightened out her ringed tail for balance, and then ran full speed toward the building. She leapt into the air a few feet from the edge of the branch and spread out her hands, and she soared gracefully over the massive drop. The structure wobbled just a bit when Nadir landed safely inside of its open door, and then the Coonag woman let out a battle cry of victory.
