Paradise Cracked

by Jeff Hook

  So Karugo would have to protect him.

  He enveloped his fist in fire and the worry left him, replaced by determination and a thrill that would have been unthinkable back on Tandoku Island. He was going to protect Ishū, and he was going to feel awesome doing it. He ran toward the creature, jumping over a limb, pulling back his fist, and going straight for one of the many eyes. They were perfectly fist-sized, and eye-level with Karugo, as if they were made to receive his punch.

  A tentacle swatted him out of the way.

  Karugo hit the wood of the cabin and heard something crack. Pain flooded his left shoulder and he barely hobbled back to his feet before dizziness and the shifting boat made him stumble and crash to the deck once more; he tried catching himself with his left arm, but that sent waves of pain through it, and he soon let it lie limply at his side.

  He got to his knees, balancing himself with his right arm, and then back to his feet. His feet and his right arm were still good. He could land a punch… if he could get past the tentacles.

  ——

  Freddy circled the cœurbrute, sword drawn. He’d seen these before with his super, watched them from the safety of the ship, dreaded the day that one rose to devour their ship. Still, nothing had prepared him for seeing the thing up close, for smelling it, for hearing the strange garbled clicking sound it made.

  It slapped down Karugo, leaving five tentacles free to torment everyone else on the ship. That was one for him, one for Ishū, one for Hishano, and two for Jack… but Ishū lay uselessly on the floor, quivering, and the lazy idiot Hishano was somehow still sleeping. So that was three tentacles for Jack and two for himself.

  He couldn’t even attack from behind, because there was no behind. The creature had six eyes, each of which was placed halfway between a pair of tentacles. They alternated being placed high and low on the body, so the creature could view every bit of the space around it.

  A tentacle snaked toward Freddy and he stuck the sharp edge of his sword out, ready to slice the tip should it go farther. It feinted to the right of the blade, and Freddy pivoted to keep his sword blade separating himself from the tentacle… while another tentacle from the other side swung rapidly toward him. He ducked, felt the rush of air over his head, smelled the stench of the depths. It was like a blooming sea poison tree combined with salted fish.

  The swinging tentacle barely missed Freddy’s head, instead hitting the back of his sword and knocking it out of his hands. It clattered to the deck. He dove after it and the first tentacle smacked him on the back, knocking him to the floor and taking his breath away.

  He scrambled away, gasping for air and clutching his sword.

  ——

  Jack hacked at the beast, yet his stroke was deftly avoided. The tentacle pulled back out of reach, scrunched up next to the face, lying flat with an eye on either side.

  He pushed forward to continue his attack, but saw the tentacles flying at him from either side and stepped back. This thing had six tentacles. Getting hurt while injuring only one of them was a bad deal, especially if the other people on this ship were as useless in battle as they seemed.

  Freddy might have learned the stars and memorized half the map, but he’d still never been in a real sea battle before, and the rest… the ‘fight’ they’d had on the shores of the island had hardly been worthy of the name. Their only use was keeping the beast occupied until it figured out they were no threat.

  Then Jack would really be in trouble.

  Before that happened he had to figure out some way to strike this thing down.

  He had some throwing knives, his cutlass, and… that was it. Against six tentacles.

  Somehow, he now had the beast’s full attention. Three eyes focused in on him. What had happened to his distractions?

  He stepped back, slipped on a slime-covered patch of wood, and barely caught himself by slamming his sword point-first into the deck. He got to his feet, yanked the sword back out, but before he could swing it again, a tentacle reached over and shoved him back into the railing. It splintered from the force — any harder and Jack would have fallen backward into the big wet.

  They were all taken out.

  Every single one of them was injured or otherwise out of commission, and the beast hadn’t even taken a hit.

  ——

  The creature took a bite out of the deck and munched happily for a moment. Was that what it had come here to do? To eat their ship?

  Karugo watched in horror as it chewed and chewed, then took another chunk out of the deck. While he stayed still he was safe. Maybe it would get bored after a while. Get full. Go back to the ocean and leave them alone with a slightly busted ship.

  But it wasn’t to be.

  The beast headed toward Ishū.

  ——

  The source of the screaming in his head had finally made itself clear: it was the yellow-green creature sprawled upon his dinner. He knew of these creatures that guarded each meal, and he’d expected the sharpened metal wielded by the black and white ones, but the tactics of these yellow-green ones were a surprise.

  Screaming into his mind as a defense strategy? He would have stories to tell when he returned to the depths.

  But the novelty had worn off, and after he’d taken the edge off his hunger with those first few bites his priority became clear: kill the screamer.

  He moved toward the prone creature. It wriggled like a worm, as disgusting as it was defenseless.

  The other yellow-green creature jumped in front of it. Did that one not have an injured top-tentacle? These guardians usually stopped fighting once one tentacle was destroyed, but this one was standing there, defiant.

  Fine. He would destroy it completely.

  ——

  Hishano sprung awake from his much-needed nap. His power could diminish fatigue, but it wasn’t a perfect substitute for rest.

  There was bumping up there, and somehow he and the makeshift bedding around him had gotten wet.

  What was Karugo up to this time?

  He heard a crash, then a scream. Was that Karugo? Hishano sprinted up the stairs and saw the rest of the crew strewn about, and Karugo in the grip of some enormous, wet, slimy tentacle monster.

  “Hey, you!” he screamed. “Stop being mean to my friend! Let’s be friends instead!”

  The thing turned towards him curiously. It dropped Karugo! It had worked! Hurrah!

  “Be gentler setting him down next time!” said Hishano.

  Now it was coming up to thank Hishano for setting it straight! It was so nice to save the world. He had thought he’d be saving humans, but it was nice to save a creature too. How many other creatures were there out here that he could save?

  Oh cool, the thing was giving him a hug around his leg with one of its tentacles!

  But it wasn’t a hug, Hishano realized belatedly.

  The creature pulled him up into the air then slammed him, repeatedly, against the deck.

  ——-

  Hishano bounced against the deck, barely getting enough time to catch his breath before being lifted and slammed down again.

  This was, by far, the worst hug he had ever received.

  But it got worse! The creature got hold with another tentacle, this one wrapped around his arm, and started pulling the two limbs apart. Ow! His power kept healing the rips in his shoulder and hip joints, but the pressure kept on growing as the creature got increasingly frustrated.

  Could he save the world missing two limbs? How would he contribute to the island if he was crippled? He had to get out of this.

  He noticed movement at the edge of his vision.

  Fire.

  ——

  Karugo picked himself up, feeling every bit of damage that had been dealt to him. In addition to his left shoulder, his shin was battered and turning blue, and his right ankle twinged with pain whenever he put weight on it.

  Didn’t matter. That six-armed idiot fish was going to die.

  He set himself on fire, covering eve
rything but his feet in flames. Energy rose within him, a more subdued version of what had happened on the day the sky broke, and for a time he could ignore the pain in his body.

  It was time to destroy.

  Karugo ran at the monster. Would the creature be brave enough to knock him away if he was on fire? Two of its tentacles were distracted, so he ran toward that side. Not only would it be easier to hit there, but his actions would probably make the thing drop Hishano. No one knew what the limits of Hishano’s healing power were, but this was not the way to find out.

  He jumped over the one tentacle in his way, bounced off of it, and grabbed one of the pair that was ripping apart Hishano. Steam rose, hot enough that it would burn any normal person. He wrapped both arms and legs around the thing in a death grip, ignoring the pain from his injured limbs, and soon he could smell charred flesh. A second tentacle slapped him, causing crushing pain everywhere it hit. How long did he have to stay here until this tentacle was useless? And there were five more of these?

  They just might die out here, before ever seeing the world’s other islands.

  The second tentacle smashed into him again, causing him to howl but not to let go. He looked up and saw with satisfaction that Hishano was no longer being pulled apart violently, and the tip of the tentacle Karugo was holding onto was flailing uselessly. He let go and dropped down… but then his right ankle collapsed and he fell onto his side.

  A sword sliced through the other tentacle that had held Hishano, and his fellow islander dropped to the ground. He could see Jack’s grim face behind where the tentacle had once been.

  “Are you okay?” Hishano yelled at Karugo. Then, at the monster: “Why are you so mean?! You hurt my friend!”

  Hishano jumped up on the burned tentacle and got his mouth right next to the creature’s eye. Perfect punching position. But Hishano didn’t understand fighting, so instead of punching out the monster’s eye and tipping the battle in their favor, he yelled at the creature. “WHY?!?!?”

  Three of the four remaining tentacles came at him. Karugo was too broken to do anything useful. Ishū still lay on the floor, spasming.

  Jack could fight, but after slicing through the tentacle he’d retreated and was being held off by one tentacle.

  Where was Freddy?

  Hishano backed up, showing at least enough intelligence to get away from the beast, but he was running out of room — he was almost to the railing that Jack had nearly knocked off the ship.

  Then it would be the beast against Jack.

  And then they’d all be dead.

  ——

  Freddy huddled below decks, clutching his sword, staring through the hole the cœurbrute had chewed through the deck and waiting for it to make a mistake.

  It was the first time he missed Sam’s government pirate crew. They would have killed the sea monster, not screamed platitudes at it like that idiot Hishano.

  He waited, prepared, kept himself steady against the rocking of the waves; Jack had gotten shocked enough to release his power, so their boat tumbled about on the water like any other. Freddy hoped he could get to the end of the battle without throwing up.

  The creature moved above, creating a shadow through the smaller slits between the floorboards — none, alas, that were big enough to stick a sword through with any force.

  Then it came. His chance.

  The creature moved above the hole it had chewed in the deck and Freddy stabbed upward.

  There was no scream, no gasp, only a soft, hideous clicking sound and a deluge of indigo blood that poured down upon him as he pushed the sword upward and held on for dear life.

  ——

  Jack took advantage of the thing’s hesitation and lunged forward, lopping off another tentacle. It tried to run but seemed stuck to one spot on the ground.

  He took off another tentacle.

  How did these beasts show fear? He didn’t wait around to find out. He strafed to the side of its body that had no usable tentacles left. The burnt one flopped around desperately but could provide no defense as Jack stabbed deep into one of its unblinking eyes. When he pulled his sword out he tried to avoid looking at the blade; he’d gotten used to human blood but even his stomach had limits.

  He stabbed it again, and again, until it stopped moving.

  He’d killed his first cœurbrute.

  16

  Aftermath

  Once the thing stopped twitching, Karugo could finally relax.

  “Relax” being relative; more like focus on how badly he was hurt, but it was better than trying to figure out how not to die. The battle had been thrilling, but… ow. Probably not worth the pain. If it weren’t for the two outer devils, they would’ve all been killed.

  Hishano tended to Ishū. The older man seemed as if he was just waking up from a bad dream, and the two of them went downstairs. Neither was physically harmed — Ishū because he hadn’t been hit and Hishano because he’d healed so fast.

  Freddy was covered in blue moltfryn blood. Somehow, Jack didn’t have a single drop on him. The battle hadn’t been easy for them, but they’d handled themselves far better than any of the islanders would have. Were they typical for people from outside the island?

  Jack leaned against a barrel and looked at Karugo. “You did okay, kid. You got potential.”

  Yes! That battle had been worth all the pain! “You think so?”

  “You’re not trained, that’s for sure, but you’re the type. You’re fierce,” the man said with an approving grin.

  “Fierce… like a wild animal?” Wasn’t being like an animal bad?

  “Yeah,” said Jack enthusiastically. “You’ve got that hair, you’ve got the moves, and you’ve got the spirit. You’re totally an animal. Stick with us and in two years people will be singing your praises from one end of the sea to the other.”

  Karugo would have danced for joy if he thought his ankle could stand it. Everything that people had always hated about him, this guy saw as good. His recklessness, his anger, his hair… there was only one other person in the world who had ever praised him like this.

  “You remind me of my grandpa,” Karugo said admiringly.

  Jack groaned. “If I wasn’t so tired I’d come over there and beat you until you took that back.”

  What? Jack had just said that Karugo had potential and now he was threatening violence? Karugo pulled his legs and arms into himself, trying to protect the parts that were already hurt. He didn’t want them hit again.

  “Oh come on… you really are a sheltered lot, aren’t ya? I’m not actually gonna hurt you. I’m not Syldris.”

  Karugo opened up his posture again tentatively, keeping a wary eye on the pirate. The two pirates, especially Jack, acted nothing like islanders, and that was refreshing. It also made it hard to tell what they were trying to communicate, since they sometimes said the opposite of what they meant and then laughed.

  Still, they believed in him in a way that no one except his grandpa had ever done.

  “Will people really be singing my praises?” he asked timidly. It was really too much to hope for, and he thought maybe they were playing one of their jokes on him. At least he was used to how the islanders disliked him. To be disliked in a new way… well, he’d get used to it.

  He held his breath.

  “If you play it right,” said Jack slowly. “You gotta train. You gotta get strong. Follow me and one day every single person back on that island will wish they’d been nicer to you.”

  Karugo couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “You mean you’ll train me?”

  “You got it.”

  “Yeah! Let’s train!”

  Jack raised his eyebrows. “Okay, okay, we’ll do it in the morning.”

  What? But Jack had just promised to train him. What was he supposed to do until morning? What if they got to an island and the pirates left without training him?

  Karugo walked awkwardly over toward the other man, favoring his good ankle and hoping that the talk of beatin
gs was really just a joke. “Why not now?”

  Jack groaned. “I suppose stubbornness can be a virtue.” He composed himself and put on a more accepting, less chagrined face. “Look at your leg. That ankle is swollen to the depths. Do you really think you’re going to get much training done on that thing? And your shoulder… that arm’s not gonna do much for months. Only one-handed fighting for you. The best thing for you right now is to heal… and then we can turn you into a vicious, well-respected killer later.”

  Karugo wanted to object, but he couldn’t think of any way to deny what Jack had said.

  He went downstairs to his bunk and lay down, still wearing clothes covered with blood and bits of charred moltfryn flesh, and almost immediately fell asleep.

  ——

  “I didn’t think they would smell that bad,” said Freddy.

  “That’s what surprised you?” asked Jack.

  “I watch them all the time. I’m sure glad it was just a little one. Barely a tenth the size of the biggest cœurbrute… although the big ones probably wouldn’t bother with a ship this small.”

  Jack shook his head. “No wonder you’re always so scared.”

  They’d all gone to bed early the previous night, but now the three adults were cleaning the deck in the bright morning air. Jack was cutting the beast’s flesh into manageable sizes, maybe to roast on sticks over Karugo’s arms. Ishū was mopping up the deck, trying to get the blue stains out of the wood, and Freddy was attempting to reinforce their mast. There were some wicked cracks in it from the battle, and a hard wind with full sails might just topple it.

  The two kids were still sleeping. Even Sink 'em Sam would have a heart after a battle like that, letting the newcomers and the injured — in this case, the same two people — recover.