by M H Ryan
“Ditto,” Cass said.
“Okay, yeah, I’ve wondered as well, but…you know…you don’t just ask someone about their sex organs. It just seems like some interspecies taboo thing,” I said.
Aubrey rolled her eyes. “So, what do you got down there, little mermaid?”
“I’ve seen you girls going to the bathroom and showering. I believe I have the same kind of organ. I haven’t seen his, though, so I don’t know if he is like the males of my kind.”
Shaya looked at my crouch.
“Show her,” Aubrey said. The girls stared at her. “What? This is an educational moment, grow the fuck up, ladies.” Her smile crept in over her sincerity of a biological study.
Eliza leaned past Sherri, and now all the girls were looking at my shorts.
“Fuck it,” I said and pulled down my shorts and underwear.
What the hell, most of the girls had seen it by now anyway—no time to be shy in this world.
Hanna gasped and looked away. Shaya, on the other hand, kneeled down and looked at it with curiosity.
“It gets bigger?” Shaya asked.
“Yeah,” Emma said. “A lot bigger. You just got to get him going.”
“Whoa, it’s getting bigger right now,” Shaya said with a chuckle.
“Okay, show’s over,” I said and pulled my shorts back up.
Some of the girls made small sounds of disappointment, and some laughed.
“I believe we are compatible, Jack,” Shaya said.
“Okay, great,” I said, buttoning my shorts. “Now that we have an anatomy show and tell, can we get back to Lyra and them?”
She glanced once more at my shorts and took a deep breath before looking into my eyes. I had thought of Shaya and wondered it might be like to be with someone so different, but I put it in one of those never-going-to happen boxes…until now. She was vying for me, she said so herself, and even though I heard it, I found it hard to believe. She was a princess mermaid-type woman that was stunning and exotic and everything I might have had a fantasy about as a younger man reading monster-girl books come to life right in front of me. I had to take a deep breath as I stared at her, wondering what that small amount of clothing hid down there and what she would feel like…
“I don’t know much,” Shaya said, her lips thinning. “If my dad was here…he knew so much, but to speak of such things would cause us pain, and it also would draw the attention of the king. Or we thought it would. That is why we took Emma to the farthest side of this world, hoping to be free of him. We were stupid in thinking that. The king is everywhere.” She looked at the deck and then back up to me.
“I wish I could have gotten to know him. And your brother,” I said.
“My dad was special. My brother was an idiot,” Shaya said. “One of the few things my dad told me was that there were secrets held in all the islands but especially ones that the king sealed up and put a guardian before it.”
“Like Ben?” Benji asked.
“Yes, he was one, but also the pilot you mentioned.”
“Danforth,” I said, recalling the journal that I still had in one of the bags.
“Yes.”
“What’s a dead body going to protect?” Kara asked.
“We don’t know, but we knew keeping it in place meant keeping the monster inside at bay. It was one of our tasks,” Shaya said.
“That was you outside that night?” I asked. “I sensed you guys out there.”
“We were there, yes, watching you, and what we saw made my dad go against everything we knew and convinced us to let you disturb the seal,” Shaya said.
“Wow,” I said, remembering them out there. “I thought I was going crazy, just like Danforth had in his journal.”
“You’re not crazy, Jack. Your women won’t allow that,” Shaya said, and looked back at the girls. “They are amazing, and all the more reason I need to warn you about these seals. Each one is supposed to hold an entity that the king has buried for some reason or another. They could be dangerous.”
The first seal, I felt something deep down, a definite intelligence and an ancient being, but I wasn’t as strong then. When I got to the second seal, below Ben’s, I felt a deeper connection—one so strong it nearly trapped me under the water. Benji had broken me away, but I hadn’t exactly lost that connected feeling.
I looked to the sky, half expecting the woman to be there floating above me. Murrack wasn’t there, but I still felt her, as if she was always there.
“Well, if the king was trying to seal something up, maybe breaking these seals will help us,” Eliza said. “I hadn’t understood the complexity of them, but as I listen to Shaya, I think I do. He fears them. He must. I think they are important to us.”
“I think one of them is with me right now,” I said and glanced up—still an empty sky.
“I’ve felt her as well,” Emma said. “She’s attached herself to Jack in some way. I’m not sure how or why, though.”
“Murrack,” Shaya said. “She’s Lyra’s sister.”
“What are they?” Hanna asked.
“They are these islands—or part of them. Not sure beyond that,” Shaya said. “But we were tasked with keeping an eye on them. To make sure if they did break loose, we’d send a messenger.”
“And did you?” I asked.
“What? Send a messenger? No. My father believed in you, Jack. I believe in you.”
“I believe in all of us,” I said.
“I want to know more about this creature that has attached itself to Jack,” Hanna said.
Shaya glared at Hanna before taking a deep breath and smoothing her wicked expression out.
“She’s a deceiver—”
“Island!” Sherri yelled from the front of the boat.
Benji handed me the scope, and I looked through it. At a distance of a couple of miles, I made out the island. Large enough to be like Snake Island, where we rescued Cass, and with enough greenery to match it. Not jungle-like, but with massive trees reaching hundreds of feet up. Their branches hung out past the island and over the waters, giving the island a mushroom shape.
Motion in the trees drew my attention, but we were too far away for me to make anything out in detail, but something was definitely moving in the trees.
“Eliza?” I asked.
“This is the place,” Eliza said.
“Okay then, ladies, let’s get ready to make a landing.”
The girls rushed to action, grabbing weapons and taking positions around the craft. The wind gusted and pushed us faster toward the island.
Chapter 32
Monkeys.
The same kind of monkey that Lyra had used to contact me through in the shallow waters back home, a power that had astounded me. That monkey had become human-like when it struggled to speak clearly to me. These monkeys had the same appearance, but they were wild in the eyes and lacked that intelligent spark the other one had. Not that there wasn’t anything peculiar going on with them.
They weren’t moving. At least not much. They were all in the trees, looking down on us as Luna neared the brown-colored beach.
“This is disturbing,” Hanna said.
“Disturbing as a kumquat-licking competition,” Emma said.
“Exactly. What she said,” Aubrey said, as if Emma had made perfect sense.
The trees were all large, with massive trunks leading to large branches breaking off in all directions, none of which started any lower than twenty feet off the ground. This allowed us to see deeper into the forest until the brush overtook our purview a couple of hundred feet in. The ground had a scattering of brown and yellow leaves, not unlike those of an oak tree, but bigger and flatter.
Up close, I sensed the predators in the trees. There were more than I could see, and they covered much of the visible island. There were plenty of other creatures as well—a mixture of low-level predators and insects. There was something deeper in the island, that wasn’t the monkey but just as many. It gave me a faint feel
ing that had multiplicity that could have been a hundred or only one. They felt…deceitful, like a trap.
The monkeys, on the other hand, felt much like they looked—observers. They were curious but not overly so. Mostly they were patient. I wasn’t sure what they were waiting for, but I didn’t like it. I didn’t like any of it.
“The sky,” Aubrey said. “It’s brighter here.”
“Holy shit, you’re right,” Cass said.
“I don’t like this place,” Carmen said, holding herself. “Freaking monkeys are staring at me like I’m some kind of meal.”
“They are vicious predators,” Hanna said. “Much stronger, tougher, and faster than us. If they attacked right now, there is little we could do to stop it. I’m counting nearly a hundred near us.”
“Shut up, Hanna,” Benji hissed. “You’re going to scare Eliza.”
“These are the things that killed my dad,” Eliza said. “I’m not scared of them. They should be scared of me.” She nearly screamed the last sentence, and we all stared a beat.
“Damn,” Aubrey said. “I’m scared of you.”
“We know what to do, just be ready for it if they attack,” I said.
The boat slid onto the beach sand and came to an abrupt stop.
“I used to love watching the chimps and gorillas at the zoo,” Sherri said. “They are like us in so many ways.”
“We share 99% of our DNA with them,” Hanna said. “They are deeply social, and somewhere in here is their alpha.” She looked around as if searching for it. “There, in the tree with the three females.”
I spotted the male, large and showing some signs of aging, with hints of gray around his face.
“How can you tell?” I asked.
“They keep glancing at him, and he holds the only females that I can see,” Hanna said. “If we need to, kill him first. It might give us the chance we need to escape.”
“I’m not pulling some Harambe,” Benji said, holding onto her bow with a nocked arrow. “That shit had me crying.”
“What’s a Harambe?” Eliza asked.
“A kid fell into a gorilla pit, and they felt as if they had no choice but to shoot the gorilla to save the kid. Gorilla’s name was Harambe,” Sherri said.
“Oh,” Eliza said as if she understood, but it was clear she did not.
“They prize exotic animals like these where we come from and put them on display for you to visit. It was like killing something beautiful and rare,” Hanna explained.
Eliza covered her mouth and spoke between her fingers in a gasp, “Like if we had to kill Moshe.”
“Sort of,” Sherri said.
“Moshe, the sea cat you guys have as a pet?” Hanna asked.
“Yes, she’s so amazing. Did we tell you the story about Moshe versus the whale?” Benji asked.
“I hope she and our chickens are okay,” Eliza said.
“Jesus H. Christ, we have a canopy of creepy primates here, people,” Aubrey said. “And someone to rescue. Can we focus?”
“Agreed,” I said. “Tie up the sail, but not enough that we can’t make a quick exit. Hanna, I think you should be packing for this trip.”
“What?” Hanna said, as if I broke her train of thought. “Oh, my fire, yes, let me see…”
Hanna grabbed some things from a nearby drybag and got to work.
I turned my attention to the alpha, making eye contact with the beast. It snarled at me, showing off two large fangs that would tear through our flesh like nothing. I didn’t want to control the beast—doing so and failing might cause a complete riot, and the seawater wasn’t a safe escape route, as these beasts were aquatic as well. Hanna was right—if things went to shit, we’d be in trouble.
A nudge in the right direction might give the alpha a reason to leave us alone. I reached out and felt the slick mind of the creature and gave it the idea that we should be left alone and that we weren’t a danger to it. It sank into the creature with ease as if it was already thinking the very thing. Then I let it go.
The alpha seemed confused, letting out a barking sound—three quick bursts of noise from it and then silence.
I felt a shift in the entire troop, a calming, and I hoped that would be enough to let us get our friend and get out.
“Okay, I think I got the alpha to agree to leave us alone. Let’s get off the boat,” I said, climbing over the railing and jumping down to the sand.
The sand felt coarse, with larger grains of sand. It might have bothered my old, soft feet, but felt pleasant underneath the leather I had formed. Kara landed right next to me and kneeled, touching the sand in her hand.
She looked up at me with a shocked expression.
“Nothing…wait, there’s something…” Kara said, not making much sense. “It’s good and bad in almost equal parts. They cancel each other out almost completely. Jack, this island is at war with itself. No, the darkness in this island is the more powerful force. I feel it now, eating at the goodness here. I fear this island may end up going bad.”
“She’s not wrong,” Eliza said, landing on the sand near Kara. “I sense the divide as well.”
“Great insight, ladies,” Aubrey said, rolling her eyes. “We can die or not. It’s good or bad. Why don’t we just do a good old grab and go, shall we? Now, can one of you, Nosferatu's, show me the way to our friend?”
“I think you mean Nostradamus,” Hanna corrected.
“Correct me again, Hanna, I dare you,” Aubrey said, raising her muscular arm.
“Please,” Hanna said. “Just because chess is my sport doesn’t mean I didn’t study the fighting styles of Marudin of the Shakdu Temple. You wouldn’t get past my first move.”
The monkeys hooted and hollered, jumping on the branches and shaking the leaves to the floor. They were all staring at Hanna and Aubrey.
“Stop it,” I said, raising an open hand toward them. “You’re stirring up the natives.”
The monkey's anxiety had risen as the girls argued. Now they were calming down.
“Somehow, we are affecting them,” I said. “So, let’s keep it calm and friendly. If we start fighting, they might start fighting.”
“Interesting,” Hanna said. “It must be when you connected with the alpha. A connection might have been formed.”
I didn’t like the idea of being connected to them, but it was better than fighting them.
“Can I just stay on the boat?” Carmen asked.
“No,” I said, and she pouted her way down to the sand with the rest of us. “I want an O formation around Emma and Carmen. Carmen, if we encounter anything, bubble it first. We’ll ask questions later.”
“Okay,” Emma said, holding her bat on one shoulder and extending her free hand to Carmen.
Carmen took Emma’s hand, and we formed a circle around them.
“Eliza?” I asked. “Stick with me up front and guide us.”
“She’s that way,” Eliza said and pointed ahead.
“Stick close together,” I said, and we walked under the first tree.
The monkeys stayed in the trees and didn’t move, except for their eyes on us. The soft sound of the wind blowing through the massive trees, mixed with the steady sound of the waves, rolling in and out, dominated the otherwise quiet forest.
“This is like that Disney ride, where those faces follow you as you go by,” Benji said.
“I was thinking the same damn thing,” Aubrey said. “Creepy little hairy bastards. If I wasn’t so weak right now, I’d tornado these things into space.”
Sherri smiled and waved to them. “I don’t know. It’s like we have adoring fans, which we will have, once we get back. Can you even imagine the stories we’ll have? This place is way better than Disneyland or any amusement park.” She kept waving and smiling, as if we were on a float.
“She’s nuts,” Cass said, and the girls eyed her. “Kidding. I’m kidding.”
The sand gave away to hard-packed dirt. The leaves crunched under our feet as we walked closer to the c
enter of the island. About fifty feet into the forest, I realized that the blocked view wasn’t just from the bushes—there was a large hill rising near the middle of the island. It rose as high as the trees and was covered in green plants, moss, and bushes.
“There’s a cave ahead,” Benji said, extending her hand out.
“Wow, you can feel that kind of stuff now?” I asked.
“Yeah. Well, more like the lack of stone in a place, a void around it, like a hole in the wall,” Benji said, trying to explain her talent. “I sort of learned it back at Ben’s place.”
A gust of wind kicked up, and little white things floated out from the bushes. As one floated by my face, I recognized them as dandelions seeds, floating to find a new home. One landed on the arm and then disappeared or dissolved.
A rustling of a large bush drew my attention, and I crouched down, expecting something horrific to come out and attack us. I only sensed something faint and distant. They must be in the cave Benji mentioned.
A human arm poked through the bush and pushed down one side of it as a second arm pushed the other side, making the opening wide enough for the women to appear behind it. She took a step out from the bush and I heard one of the girls gasp.
The woman wore a sheer, white silk dress that clung to her body, reaching just below her hips. One raised arm might bring it up high enough to see it all. She touched her hip, sliding her hand to the edge of the fabric and pinching the end, almost teasing it up a hair. Everything about her oozed sexiness, from the way she moved her slender hands next to her narrow waist, to the way she stepped, crossing her leg in front of the other. The motions tightened and loosened the dress, giving moments where her breasts and nipples would show through. Young looking but not as youthful as the girls, late twenties, with full features, not unlike Jessica Alba. Her brown hair came down in soft waves, reaching her shoulders. By nearly all appearances, she was human-looking, except for the eyes.
They were golden and glowed, unlike anything I’d seen. I knew that this wasn’t one of the missing girls. We made eye contact, and she offered a small smile, flirty even. I might have obeyed this unreal women’s every desire for the chance to be between those smooth, silky legs.
