by Hoover, Gary
Jeff nodded, feeling he understood.
“I can tell you a story of something that happened. That might help… help you make understand.”
Jeff nodded. “That would be great.”
“There wazz a boy.” Rasp looked down and fiddled with a buckle on his thick, leather shirt as he spoke. “The boy came to the castle and wazz brought to Pheerion Rex in hizz… king room while I waz there. The boy had a story. He told of a plan. The people in hizz village wanted to… make fight with Pheerion Rex.
“After we heard story, Pheerion Rex took me to a private area. He said he wanted me to take the boy to the dungeon. I azzked ‘why’. Did he think boy wazz lying? He said he didn’t know, but either way boy needed to be held so he couldn’t tell anybody else. I didn’t want to do it, but he wazz king. If I didn’t do it, another pheerion would.
“I locked boy in dungeon and then went back to Pheerion Rex. That time he told me to take a group of pheerionz.” Rasp paused and fiddled with his buckle without speaking for a while. “He want me take group of pheerionzzz and… kill everyone in village.
“I asked him why we muzzt kill. What if they not really plot? First, he get mad that I question, but then I think he want me learn. He tell me they die becauze their livezz not worth anything, so best make them dead if true or not.
“I did azz I waz told.” He paused again. “We kill them all.”
Jeff nodded. He wanted to comfort Rasp, but he wasn’t good at it. In addition, he wasn’t sure what might be comforting and what might just embarrass Rasp. Instead of doing anything, he just waited to see if Rasp would say more.
“When I get back, Pheerion Rex told me I did right. Then he tell me one more thing…”
There was a very long pause. Nearly a minute went by, and Jeff had the feeling Rasp wanted to say more, but he didn’t want to press him.
“Then he tell me,” Rasp finally said. “He want me… kill boy.”
Rasp fiddled with his buckle as if it were the most fascinating thing he had ever seen. “I ask him ‘why’, and he say boyz life not worth anything. He come from village, maybe get mad, maybe tell other people. He say best and easiezzt to juzzt kill boy.
“I go toward dungeon, but I not want kill boy. I plan to get him out, but azz I walk I see guards. I have to get pazzt more than… ” He held up all his fingers to illustrate. “That many guardzz. Maybe have kill them all. Then I think, ‘What I do then? Where I go? Pheerion Rex find me and kill me.”
He stopped fiddling with his buckle and grabbed one hand with the other then rolled them over so that his hands were squirming and clutching with nervous energy.
“When I arrive to boy, I juzzzt do what I told to do.”
Jeff realized then that pheerions could cry much like humans.
Chapter 48:
It was the best time of the day.
Dinnertime.
Dave tossed three large chunks of meat to Benji on the front deck then ducked his head and followed Jeff to join the others below.
Nahima had been stuck doing most of the cooking. Jeff and Rasp were foreigners who didn’t know enough about their host’s food to help, and nobody was adventurous enough to allow John a chance.
Dave did some cooking. He was enthusiastic about it when he did, but he could eat anything. Some things that he found delicious, the others found barely edible.
Dave sat heavily beside Jeff at the small table that folded away when not in use and smiled with anticipation. “What do we have today?” he asked.
“Beaso and nip-proms,” Nahima replied as she placed platters of meat and vegetables on the table.
Dave helped himself to a large serving of each.
Jeff waited patiently for the others to serve themselves.
“We’re getting close now,” Dave said to the group in general but with a glance toward Jeff since he knew Jeff was the most interested. “We should be hitting the river mouth in about a day and a half.” He paused to shovel food into his mouth then continued speaking as he chewed. “Our tracking beacon seems to have settled at the same castle we thought it would.”
Jeff cringed as flecks of food flew from Dave’s mouth then nodded as he took some food for himself.
There was a period of general quiet. Everybody seemed more interested in the food than conversation.
“How is it?” Nahima asked.
Jeff, Rasp and Dave all spoke over one another with various compliments.
“Not real great,” John said without looking up from his plate. The others looked at him as he continued to eat.
“Can’t you two be civil?” Jeff asked.
“Nahima probably can’t get over John killing her mother,” Dave said with a shrug.
Time seemed to slow down as Jeff looked at Dave and then Nahima.
Nahima looked from Dave to John.
John looked up from his food with a blank expression.
For a very brief moment, Jeff thought it might end there. Stunned silence filled the cabin.
Then Nahima exploded from her chair and reached for her gun, which was hanging in her gun-belt on the wall behind her. The holster was twisted at an odd angle, and she had to wrestle with it for a few seconds before she could extract it.
As she was doing that, John stood calmly, pulled out his vibrating blade and flicked it on.
“Oooops… did everybody not all already know that?” Dave asked sheepishly.
When she had her gun, Nahima whipped around and aimed it at John’s chest.
Jeff eyed his baseball bat, which was hanging about five feet away in his gun-belt. He moved slowly toward it then withdrew it cautiously and discreetly.
Nahima glared at John, and he looked calmly back at her.
At least he doesn’t have his typical grin, Jeff thought as he tucked his bat beside his leg.
“Is it true?” Nahima asked through gritted teeth.
John nodded. “But it was just business,” he said with a shrug.
Nahima was clearly furious, but she had resisted the urge to pull the trigger.
Jeff thought that was a good sign.
He eased toward John, keeping his bat hanging at his side. He put a hand on John’s shoulder and gently guided him back a bit so he could step in front of him. Once Jeff had worked his body between the two, he turned to face Nahima.
Her expression didn’t lose its edge as she faced Jeff with her gun now aimed directly at his chest.
“You knew about this, didn’t you?” she asked with a scowl.
Jeff nodded. “I’m sorry,” he said weakly, not sure what else to say.
She continued to glare, and Jeff didn’t feel at all confident that she wouldn’t shoot.
He considered raising his bat but feared it might just provoke her.
The two of them stared at each other silently. Jeff couldn’t tell exactly how much time passed as he looked into her fiery eyes, but it felt like many, many tense minutes in absolute silence.
Finally, Nahima slowly lowered the gun.
Chapter 49:
Jeff flipped to a random page in a notebook and began translating. He wasn’t finding anything interesting and didn’t expect to, but he felt guilty when he wasn’t trying to do something. He was too distracted to do anything productive and spent most of his time just staring at the pages with his father’s handwriting drifting in and out of focus. His efforts were more about fooling himself into thinking he was doing the things he needed to do than actually accomplishing anything.
There was an extremely tense, uncomfortable atmosphere hanging over the boat. They hadn’t been a real chatty group through most of the trip. They were an odd assortment of people that had been thrown together through circumstances rather than shared characteristics. Jeff hadn’t realized how much Baldwin had acted like a lynchpin holding things together until they didn’t have him anymore. Baldwin was Jeff’s friend, Nahima’s brother, and his weakness made the others feel somewhat protective and paternal toward him. Without him, the others were
too competitive, distrustful and petty to work well together. Moreover, the general monotony of the trip seemed to be another force that segregated them into a collection of people in their own worlds rather than a cohesive team.
Jeff felt he needed to do something to bring them together, but he wasn’t sure what. Even if he knew what he should do, he didn’t know if he would have the strength or ability to pull it off.
An apology. I need to start by apologizing to Nahima for not telling her the truth from the start.
He looked at Nahima who seemed immersed in her book. As he watched her, she looked up, met his eyes with hers, and shot a harsh, angry glare at him. Jeff quickly looked back down at his book and lost the small amount of courage he had briefly mustered.
He went back to trying to focus on his notebook.
Suddenly, the boat lurched and tilted violently.
“What are you doing?” Jeff snapped at Dave in an annoyed tone that was a reflexive action rather than a thought-out response.
Dave shrugged from his chair at the helm. “Felt like we hit something.”
“Hit something?” Jeff stood and looked around. There was nothing but water in all directions as far as the eye could see.
Dave turned off the engines, and the boat slowed and rocked with the waves. The others stood and scanned the water for anything unusual, but there didn’t seem to be anything except the sound of water slapping against the boat.
Jeff continued to scan and looked back in the direction they had come from. A whale maybe?
He put a hand over his eyes to shield them from the sun and squinted to try to see anything through the glare.
Then the boat began to turn – not violently but more quickly and forcefully than it would from wind or current.
Jeff pointed at a large, gray shadow just beneath the surface at the port, aft corner of the boat. “There!” Jeff said.
The others looked and then all jumped back in near unison as an enormous head broke through the water. Just the head was four feet long and two and a half feet wide. Jeff quickly realized it was a much larger variation of the plesiosaur they had seen earlier.
It opened its mouth and raked jagged teeth along the edge of the boat.
“What should we do?” Nahima asked.
“I’m thinking start the engines and get the heck out of here.” Jeff said to Dave.
Dave nodded and restarted the engines.
The boat accelerated away from the creature, which paused for a few moments, then put its head down and made several strong strokes with its fins. It quickly caught up with the boat. It swung its head against the side of the boat, and Jeff heard a cracking sound.
“I think that was the boat cracking… not his head.” he said. He ran to the cabin to fetch his bat. As he went, the creature continued to strike the boat. With each impact, the vessel lurched violently. Jeff had to concentrate to maintain balance.
As he returned with the bat, he saw that both Nahima and John were off their feet, sliding, rolling and both desperately trying to get back up.
Rasp was making his way toward the fore deck to try to calm Benji who howled a disturbing, anguished moan.
Jeff’s heart jumped as Rasp lost his footing and ended up dangling from a railing. Jeff turned to try to help Rasp but saw him pull himself back up. Jeff continued toward the aft, port corner of the boat were the plesiosaur was battering the boat. Jeff saw chunks of foam floating away from where they had been sandwiched between the ships inner and outer hulls.
That can’t be good. He could see flashes of the animal’s jagged teeth as it gnawed and butted the boat in a manic frenzy. Jeff approached cautiously with his bat raised. He was afraid he would lose his footing and be flung over the edge if he wasn’t careful.
He hit the animal on the nose with a powerful swing, and it stopped its attack abruptly. Jeff let out a relieved breath, but his relief was short-lived as the animal simply moved up to a point farther toward the front of the boat and then continued his attack. Jeff moved toward the new position but sensed something wrong and looked over his shoulder.
What he saw suddenly became more urgent than the creature’s attack.
“Stop the boat! Stop the boat!” Jeff shouted to Dave.
Chapter 50:
John was in the water and quickly shrinking into the distance as the boat charged ahead at top speed.
“Stop the boat!” Jeff continued to shout as he charged toward Dave.
Dave looked at Jeff with a puzzled expression and then looked behind the boat toward where Jeff was pointing. His eyes widened, and then he turned back toward his controls to slow and turn the boat.
As the boat slowed, the plesiosaur managed to get its head over the railing. It saw Nahima sitting and moved slowly toward her. She pushed herself away with an awkward crab-walk and was able to get out of its reach.
Jeff grabbed a floatation device and headed toward the bow as Dave guided the craft back toward John. There was a surreal feeling to the whole thing for Jeff since he was rushing to do some things then slowing to do others. That caused the world around him to go in waves of slow motion and normal speed.
The forward deck became crowded as Jeff joined Rasp and Benji.
Jeff heard the sound of gunfire and turned to see that Nahima had retrieved a gun from the cabin and fired at the plesiosaur. It seemed more confused than hurt as Nahima hit it with several shots, but it was enough to convince the creature to back off. It withdrew to a position several feet away from the boat.
They were still about fifty feet from John when Jeff heaved the floatation device toward him. It landed ten feet behind him.
Dave turned off the engines so they could focus on getting John in. Jeff pulled the rope gently until the floatation device was close enough that John was able to grab hold.
“Hang on tight!” Jeff shouted as he noticed the plesiosaur had spotted John and was heading toward him. Gotta work fast.
When John had a solid hold, Jeff started pulling.
And the rope came loose.
“Damn it! Who tied that?” Jeff asked with a tone of panic and frustration.
“Sorry,” John said from the water. “I’m not great at knots.”
“Oh… can you swim for it?” Jeff asked. The rope was floating on the water and ten feet in front of John.
John hadn’t waited for Jeff’s suggestion and had already started toward the rope. The sea creature was thirty feet away but closing fast.
“Hang on tight!” Jeff said, realizing there was no room for error that time. He pulled as fast as he could as the plesiosaur was within feet with its mouth gaping. The creature turned as Jeff yanked John away.
Jeff was relieved to see the plesiosaur was moving in slow motion but wasn’t confident that he could get John to the boat and up, over the bow in time.
By the time John was next to the boat, the creature was only fifteen feet behind. Jeff grabbed at John’s wet, slippery arms and tried to pull him up. John flailed, kicked and looked over his shoulder, but to Jeff, he looked like he was moving in slow motion. Once Jeff had a good hold, he was able to lift him up easily. In fact, he felt so light to Jeff that he ended up in the air over Jeff’s head. Jeff turned and guided him to a spot on the deck then drew his bat from his belt and turned back to face the plesiosaur.
Benji was getting in the way.
“Benji!” Jeff shouted, but Benji wasn’t paying attention as he stood and made himself as threatening as possible to the approaching creature.
Jeff cringed as the plesiosaur approached Benji with mouth open and jagged teeth showing, but Benji roared and swatted powerfully and furiously at the creature’s head before it could clamp onto him. The plesiosaur backed off and eyed Benji. Benji roared and shook his arms at it. The creature paused for several moments, then submerged and disappeared.
Chapter 51:
Jeff walked carefully toward the edge of the bow and looked over. There was no sign of the creature.
Jeff continued sca
nning the water while walking toward the rear. Rasp and John followed.
Nahima, Dave, Jeff, Rasp and John all gathered on the rear deck and each scanned the water from their respective locations.
After three or four minutes they became convinced it had left and turned to other matters.
“Are we sinking?” Jeff asked.
The boat was listing, sitting low in the water, and there was water up to their ankles.
Dave peered over the edge at the badly damaged port side. Jeff followed his lead and saw two large holes in the outer hull. As waves washed in and out of the holes, they took bits of foam with them.
“I don’t know,” Dave said with a shake of his head. “It doesn’t look good.”
“Can we repair it?” Jeff asked.
“Probably… maybe. I have some resin patch materials, but I can’t apply them underwater.”
There was silence for a minute or two as everybody stared at the damage.
“Wait a minute,” Jeff said with a smile. “We can fly.”
Dave considered that for a moment then shook his head. “We couldn’t stay in the air long enough for the patch to set.” He turned and headed toward the bridge.
He climbed the ladder and flipped a switch on the computer as Jeff followed to see what he was doing. Dave pointed to some islands on the map then pointed toward the horizon thirty degrees off the starboard side of the stern.
Jeff squinted. “I don’t see anything.”
“They’re several hours travel,” Dave said. “At a minimum… probably a good bit longer since we won’t be able to go very fast. Hopefully we can make it. It’s not far off the course we were on… before we got… distracted.”
Jeff nodded as Dave started the engines. Jeff turned and made his way carefully back down the ladder. The water in the boat, along with the debris that was floating in it sloshed to one side as they turned.
“Are we going to sink?” John asked.
Jeff shrugged. “We’re going to try to make it to some islands and make repairs there. Your guess is as good as mine regarding if we’ll make it before we sink... try to stay in the boat this time,” he added with a smile.
