I could see that the openings for the upper level of rowers were actually quite large and both Dezba and Cenewyg jumped up and pulled themselves inside the boat as those seats were all unoccupied. My guess was those rowers were now up on the deck. From the screams and yells I started to hear as soon as they were aboard I guessed the lower row of oarsmen was now being attacked.
Stephanie followed Dezba’s path into the ship, but I just ran over and jumped as high as I could, and then grabbing onto the planks of the wooden ship with my claws I climbed up and over the side to drop down behind a group of very confused cyclops sailors who were all looking towards the rear of the boat, which was where I guessed their champion was.
His warnings proved too late however as I attacked, killing a good half dozen from behind before they realized I was not where I was supposed to be. But they got their act together rather quickly after that and the ones trying to go below decks all turned and attacked me rather fiercely.
As fights go, it was a tough one, because they were almost as strong as I was, and they had a longer reach. However, I had my champion’s speed and the ability to heal myself, though nowhere near the extent I would have had healed myself back in Fel’s sphere. I was also lucky that due to the way the ship was constructed that I only faced two or three at a time.
The view below decks was worse, there really wasn’t a lot of space down there and there were obstructions everywhere. The other three weren’t that far from me, but with all the bodies between them and me, I couldn’t see anything.
When I finally killed everything above decks, I started to attack things below decks, using the central opening that ran down the ship that gave access to the top row of oarsmen seats. I could see that Dezba and Cenewyg were fighting the local champion, both of them constrained by the lack of space and the other fighters down there. Stephanie was guarding their backs from the other fighters that were attacking, giving quite a good accounting of herself. Those below were fighting a lot better however with their champion there, and of course the local champion had access to all of his healing spells.
Suddenly I felt it, the portal! We must have still been moving from the sails of the trireme, which were still set. Stephanie looked up and saw me then, obviously having felt it as well.
“Set fire to the ship, Will!”
I nodded and ran to the back of the ship where the helmsmen sat and sure enough, there were a couple of lanterns. Dumping their oil out onto the deck I used a simple cantrip and got the oil lit then ran back to where Stephanie was. The back of the ship started to burn rather well then, the fire picking up speed quickly.
“Done!” I yelled to her and she nodded.
“Everyone retreat!” She called out and then turned and made her way back to our ship.
I did what I could to harass the ones attacking Dezba and Cenewyg to help them retreat.
“Retreat, Cen! I can handle this!” Dezba yelled.
Cenewyg nodded and started to pull back, but stumbled over something and as I watched, he fell back kicking up an oar that hit Dezba square in the back just as the cyclops champion thrust forward. Without the ability to move back and half stunned from the blow in the back, he ran her right through with his sword. She hacked at him several times before she died and I could tell he was pretty badly hurt, but he healed the worst of it as I watched.
“Your ship is on fire!” I yelled at him as he freed his sword from Dezba’s body. Cenewyg, I noticed had already scrambled back to his feet and was jumping off the ship and back onto our boat.
He looked at the fire and then back at me a moment, I could see he was torn between putting out the fire, or fighting me. I looked back and could see our boat pulling away so sheathing my swords, I ran back to the bow and dove off the side into the water. He could try to come after me if he wanted to, but three to one odds didn’t favor him and he had to be getting low on healing spells at this point.
I saw a line and I grabbed it as I came up to the surface. It was from one of the grappling hooks that had been attached to our boat. As I was pulling myself up along it, I felt it suddenly go slack and looking up I saw Cenewyg walking away from it, back turned.
“Bastard,” I swore softly and started to swim as fast as I could for the boat. It came around then and I saw the line I had tied to the back rail was still on, and Stephanie was at the wheel. I snagged that quickly and pulled myself up to the boat as fast as I could.
“Steph!” I called as I touched the stern.
“Will?” She turned and looked down at me. “Cen said you didn’t make it off.”
“He would. Give me a hand here, would you?”
She nodded and leaning over grabbed my hand and helped pull me up onboard, whatever the hull of this boat was made from, it was pretty resistant to my claws so I couldn’t use them easily, unlike the way I had on the wooden trireme.
I went and set the sails as Stephanie sailed the ship and Cenewyg looked at me with a puzzled expression. I wondered if he had seen me when he cut that line. I also wondered if that oar getting kicked up into Dezba’s back had been an accident? I resolved to lock the door on my cabin when I slept at night and not to turn my back on him anymore. If he did have plans of his own, he’d be trying to kill me soon enough. I just wondered if and when he’d try to kill Stephanie?
Twelve
“Okay, this place is weird,” I said looking at myself and then my two companions. Apparently, everyone’s ‘natural form’ in this sphere was whatever your original body was before you left home. So I was back to being a six foot guy who weighed about one hundred and eighty pounds and was in fairly good shape. This was pretty average for a young man who exercised back where I came from.
Stephanie was now about five foot even, with light blue skin, and a rather impressive bust, but also looked to be in pretty decent shape as well. I tried not to drool, she actually looked incredibly attractive.
Cenewyg however didn’t fair as well. While in decent shape, I wasn’t sure he’d be able to beat up Stephanie in a fair fight, and there was no way he’d beat me. Plus he was only an inch taller than Stephanie. I knew people were shorter back then, but I suspect he may have been even shorter than average.
“How are we supposed to get anything done like this?” Cenewyg complained yet again. “We can’t even access our champion forms here!”
“Or anything else,” Stephanie said and looked at me, “put your tongue back in, Will.”
I smiled at her, “Now I see why women rule your world!”
Stephanie sighed, but she was smiling.
“This really cocks the whole thing up,” Cenewyg complained again.
Now it was my turn to sigh, “Cen, you went through one of the nastiest wars our sphere has ever seen like that and as I understand it you did rather well.”
“Easy for you to say, you’re still tall!” He grumbled.
“Hate to tell you this, Cen, but where I came from, I was average height. Half my friends were taller than me.”
He glared at me; I started to wonder if he had issues with anyone taller than himself on top of everything else. I’d had a dean like that in college, he was all of five feet tall and the taller you were, the more he hated you. One of my dorm mates was six-foot-ten and it was all he could do to keep from being thrown out of college by the dean, and he was an ‘A’ student.
“So now what?” I asked Stephanie.
“Well, we only have food for three more days, so we need to land as soon as possible.”
“I’ve been thinking about that,” I said, “As everyone appears to worry about the food here, it’s probably best if only you eat the food we have onboard. Cen and I will be the guinea pigs, if we aren’t affected by it, then you can try it.”
“Why should I have to suffer?” Cenewyg complained.
“I think that’s a good idea, Will,” Stephanie agreed, earning me another look from Cenewyg.
“Any idea where I should head us?” I asked getting up from the table and headi
ng back above. The winds were calm but steady as was the sea so I’d locked the wheel to the mainsail and came down here to talk for a few.
“Just bring us closer to the coast and look for a good place to land. I suspect you and Cen are going to be pretty hungry by nightfall.”
“Aye, aye, Captain!” I said smiling and went do to as she said.
As I sailed I pondered what she had told us, none of our champion abilities worked here, we couldn’t heal, we couldn’t do our little cantrips, I couldn’t do the eyes and ears bit for Fel. I could feel him in the back of my mind where his presence usually lurked, but it felt muted somehow. I was very curious as to if he’d be in my dreams the next time I slept.
But this most likely meant as well that the speed increase I got whenever I was in a fight or other dangerous situation I wouldn’t be able to get here. That meant that not only would I have to rely more on my abilities, but I’d have to keep my wits about me, because I wouldn’t be clued in that something was wrong by everything around me suddenly slowing down.
“So he any good in bed now?” I teased Stephanie when she came back up to join me sometime later.
“Will,” she growled and lightly slapped me on the arm, “that’s rude.”
“Yeah well, so is he. He tried to leave me back in that last sphere.”
“You can’t be sure of that, Will,” Stephanie said softly.
“Well, he cut the line I was using to haul myself back to the boat. If I hadn’t set that other line I would have been left behind.”
“You don’t know that for sure, Will, you even said when you looked up his back was to you.”
“I also think he intentionally kicked that oar into Dezba’s back, so she’d be killed.”
Stephanie stopped and gave me a look. “Do you honestly think that?”
“I just know that I don’t trust him anymore, Steph. He knew about the Giants, yet he led us to their farm. He knew about the Cyclops yet he led you to their town. Hell, he probably knew about the cattle and the sheep, but he still got Dezba to kill one.” I shook my head and looked back at her, “If you told him to leave right now do you think he would?”
“Would you, Will?”
“Of course I would, this is your mission, you’re in charge. Besides,” I grinned at her, “I haven’t seen Darlene in months! Trust me; I’d be gone so fast you’d hear the thunderclap from the air rushing to fill the space I’d just left!”
Stephanie nodded slowly, “Yeah, you would. Plus I know you’re still in love with me.”
I blushed and looked off the bow ahead of us. “Well, yeah.”
“It’s okay, Will; I used to have feelings for Cen, but not anymore, but you? Joseph? Yeah, I still have a thing for the two of you. Too bad we sort of lost him.”
“So, see you tonight?” I teased trying to cover up my embarrassment.
“Of course, Cen won’t sleep with me like this.”
“Why not?” I said surprised, “It’s pretty damn sexy.”
“The fault,” she said grinning, “lies with him, not me.”
“Oh,” I said and tried not to smirk. Apparently Cen had other issues with this form than just his lack of height.
I found us a good harbor a couple of hours before sunset. Sailing into it, I was surprised to see that there was a small village there, but there wasn’t a dock of any sort. I did see small boats pulled up out of the water along the shore, not a lot of them, but more than a dozen.
As I got closer and dropped anchor, I noticed that the boats were all of varying designs, one was even a decent sized sailing vessel that must have either been run ashore at high tide, or blown up there by a storm.
“Well, lets get the dinghy and go ashore,” I said and went to unlash it from atop the cabin where we kept it stowed.
“Who is staying with the boat?” Cenewyg asked.
“Nobody,” Stephanie said. “Pack your gear; we may not be coming back this way.”
I was surprised but didn’t say anything about it. Maybe we weren’t going to Troy after all.
“Are you sure?” Cenewyg said obviously surprised as well.
“Of course I’m sure.”
“Help me with this, Steph?” I asked as Cenewyg went below decks.
“Sure,” she said and between the two of us, we got it lowered next to our sailboat.
We both went and got our packs, Stephanie packed most of the remaining food in hers, and splitting between Cenewyg and myself the small amount she didn’t have space for. Getting into the dinghy next, I rowed us to shore.
“Anyone else notice that almost each of the boats is of a different kind?” I asked looking at the shore.
“So?” Cenewyg asked.
“You’d expect them to mostly be the same if this is a low-tech fishing village.”
“Most of them look like they’re rotting, probably haven’t been used in ages.”
“That’s about what I’d say as well,” Stephanie said looking at the boats as we finally pulled up to the beach.
“Well, let’s go see what’s up,” I said and dragged the dinghy up past the high water mark after the others had gotten out.
I followed Steph and Cen as we walked to the village; there were plants everywhere, though almost all of them were the same kind, large green leafy plants with large flowers. Each of which had a center part that looked something like a big fat green cookie with bumps on the top.
When we got to the village, the villagers were all sitting around eating those very centers, the bumpy part turned out to be acorn-like nuts that were apparently not that hard to chew as they ate that along with the rest of the center, or seedpod I guess is what it was.
“Hi!” One of them said staggering to his feet and coming over to us, “Would you like some food?” And he offered Stephanie one of the pods.
“No, who are you?”
“Oh, I’m Ryan. I live in that hut,” he pointed off to the side. “Want to see it?”
“Sure,” she said and we all followed Ryan to his hut.
“I built it when I first got here, back when, well back when whenever it was,” he said waving his hands in the air dismissively. “A lot of folks just wait for an empty one, but it’s not that hard really.”
We went inside and to be honest, considering the mild climate, it wasn’t that bad. The frame looked like it had been made from tree limbs that had been cut to size and lashed into place. The ceiling and walls were obviously sail canvass.
The furnishings were also obviously salvaged from one of the boats out there as well, there were several chairs that looked like deck chairs, and a large bed on the far side from the door. The floor itself appeared to be woven mats of some kind of plant fiber.
“You from here, Ryan?” Stephanie asked.
“Here? Oh no, I came from an island way far away. Was out sailing with some friends and we got caught in a storm. Real bad storm. Ended up here eventually. It’s nice here, so I stayed.”
“What happened to your friends?” I asked curious.
“Well, Jen’s around here somewhere, sometimes she sleeps here with me, sometimes with someone else. Phil went for a walk one day and still hasn’t come back. Not sure where Jeri is anymore.”
“Your friend went for a walk and didn’t come back?” Stephanie asked surprised. “Why didn’t you go look for him?”
“Oh I will eventually, but he hasn’t been gone that long, so what’s the rush?”
“How long ago did he leave?”
“Uhmm, I don’t know, I was too busy building my hut to pay too much attention.”
I looked at the hut; it had been here a while, years. I looked at Steph and she shrugged at me.
“Are there any animals around here?” Cenewyg asked Ryan.
“Oh yeah, all sorts. I think. Not sure. Some people say to watch out for the striped and spotted ones.”
“Okay, I think we’ll look around a bit more,” Stephanie said.
“Oh you can sleep with me, I like blue women,” Ry
an said and smiled.
“Seen many of them then?”
“Well, no, I think you’re the first, but we get all sorts of people here. All sorts of colors.”
“See you later, Ryan,” she said and we walked out.
“Drug addict,” Cenewyg said spitting on the ground. “Saw lots of those from the war, damned opium.”
“Well, let’s see what the rest are like,” Stephanie said.
We agreed and spent the next hour walking around the village, what we found was rather strange. Everyone acted the same way as Ryan, more or less. Some could hold conversations, some really couldn’t. Some functioned well enough to light lamps as it got darker, others seemed to function only well enough to lure others off for sex.
But the strangest part was the mixture of people. I saw several of the giants here, a cyclops, humans of various ethnic origins, and a few satyrs.
“Kind of weird how many of these people just sort of ended up here,” I said looking around.
“Either they were portal walkers who came here by accident, or came with someone else, or some other accident of fate delivered them here.” Stephanie said looking around at the village, “I think once you’ve eaten one of those plants of theirs you pretty much stay here.”
“Well, now what?” Cenewyg asked looking around.
“Might as well find a place to sleep and go hunting in the morning,” Stephanie said.
“Sleep on the boat or sleep here?”
“Here is fine with me.”
We went back to Ryan’s hut; he was out like a light, so we each found a spot to put down our bedrolls and sleep.
I woke up first; I had set my bedroll so the sun would hit my eyes as soon as it came up. Reaching over I shook Stephanie awake and then got my stuff together. Cenewyg woke up while I was putting things back in my pack.
Portals of Infinity: Book Two: The God Game Page 15
