Shadow Kingdom

by N. A. Oberheide

  The table was peppered with the noise of conversations here and there, bowls and cups clanking about. Naurus ate rather quickly, so he finished off his bowl as most others were still taking their time. He also noticed at the end of the table that Morra wasn’t there anymore, which he could have sworn she was just a few minutes ago. He turned to Tauny, who was just poking at his bowl at this point.

  “Hey bud, did you see where Morra went off to? I thought she was supposed to be here the whole time with us.” Naurus asked. Tauny perked up, and looked down the table then turned back to Naurus.

  “I don’t really know. I wish I didn’t have to sit here either.”

  Naurus wasn’t really sure what to make of that, but Tauny didn’t look too happy to be there either way. He decided to not press the matter as it wasn’t a big deal. After a few more minutes, Morra came back down the stairs.

  “Well I hope you all have enjoyed each other’s company down here. Now everyone finish up, then take your dishes to the washing bucket. Come back over here to the sleeping quarters and I will assign you your beds.” She ordered, and soon enough everyone had finished that up.

  She led the crew through a set of wooden doors that separated the sleeping quarters from the mess area. In here, hammocks were hung from the ceiling and walls in a bunked configuration, two stacked over each other to maximize space. Naurus was eventually assigned his hammock on top of Tauny’s and was assigned a footlocker as well. He put his pouch of Ektor’s vials in there, next to the spare set of clothes they were all given. Once that was all situated, Morra let them back up to the main deck and stood on the quarterdeck at the steering wheel, barking orders every which way to get the ship unmoored and ready to set sail.

  Naurus was tasked with helping to pull up the gangplank. Once that was done the moorings were freed and the sails were dropped. They were on their way, and Naurus leaned on the gunwale, taking in the sights of Astrania slowly fading into the distance. He could easily make out the foundry belching smoke as much as it ever had before and noticed that some other sort of brick building seemed to be getting built near it as well. It had been many years since he was out in the open waters as his parents used to take him on deep sea fishing trips but those had become increasingly more dangerous and expensive in recent years. Naurus took the time to enjoy the sunrise as the ship he was on came ever closer to the mouth of the semicircular bay that corralled all the ships that were in port.

  Once they cleared the bay, nothing but the Ever-Reaching Waters lay out before them. The square-rigged sails were dropped, and their mission had officially begun. Naurus soon moved up near the bowsprit to get some peace from the busy main deck, but he realized he wasn’t alone there either. He looked over to see Tauny leaning over next to him.

  "So...you ever been out here before?" Naurus asked.

  "No. This isn't very fun, it's just a bunch of water!" Tauny lamented, making Naurus snort with laughter.

  "Well you see there's land somewhere out here. I think we're supposed to do something important here, do you remember?" Naurus inquired, realizing he blanked out when Morra was giving the mission briefing earlier that morning.

  "Yeah, I didn't catch much. Something about interdicting something. Some feel good patriotic bullshit, I hope whatever's out there just parleys with us. I hate fighting..." Tauny spat out, clearly not in the best of spirits.

  "Don't worry bud! I think we will be fine. Who could ever defeat us? We ruled the waves, remember?" Naurus tried to bring his spirits up with some enthusiasm.

  "Yeah...ruled. Something out there doesn't like us. I can't exactly blame them given our history. Oh well, here I am. Cannon fodder for the King." Tauny walked away immediately after saying that.

  Naurus couldn't exactly make sense of why Tauny was so pessimistic, he puzzled trying to figure out what to say to his gunnery mate while staring out at the expanse of sea before him. The glassy blue water was somewhat trance inducing. Naurus didn't realize how long he had been spaced out, daydreaming about being involved in epic tales of adventures like he heard growing up about the heroes of old. Naurus stood up to stretch and yawn, twisting his back to produce a satisfying pop, only to realize he was looking directly at Morra's chest. He looked up to see her intense gaze piercing through him as it was suddenly dawning on him he had no idea how long she had been there.

  "Enjoying the view, Naurus?"

  "Y-yes ma'am! Orders, commodore?" Naurus asked and snapped to attention, thinking he was about to be reprimanded for slacking.

  "No, at ease sailor. Do you care to tell me about the contraband you smuggled into your footlocker this morning?"

  "Uh, what? I have no such thing that would violate the Royal Forces Code of Conduct!"

  "Naurus, just what need do you have for this?" She produced the pouch and flipped it open to reveal the four vials contained therein.

  "It's just medicine, I uh...have a little illness if you will. Nothing out of the ordinary, ma'am!"

  Morra scanned him up and down, finally resting her eyes on his for a few seconds that felt like a few minutes to him.

  "An attempt at humor, perhaps?" She said sardonically while thrusting the pouch to hang over the waters below. "I'll give you one more chance."

  "Uh...well you see...I uh—"

  "Spit it out!" She commanded.

  "I... I'll just show you." Naurus meekly said as he unwrapped the blood token and showed Morra his palm. She looked confused for a moment then glowered at him.

  "I almost wish I never asked." She muttered as she thrust the pouch back into his chest and walked away.

  Naurus took a deep sigh of relief but at the same time wondered if he would be reprimanded later or if Morra knew what that sigil meant off hand. He wrapped his palm back up and decided to do his best to look busy and not draw the ire of Morra any more than he had. The rest of the day was fairly uneventful, but it was all so new to Naurus the hours just passed him by. Night fell, and he was feeling quite tired. Getting into the hammock was a bit more of a chore than he thought it would be, but finally managed to make in. The ship started rocking as they started hitting some choppy water, rocking him in his hammock. He felt strange, like a giant baby in an even larger wooden hammock. The sounds of his shipmates farting and snoring quickly brought him back down to reality however. He finally managed to fall asleep.

  He was rousted from his slumber before he knew it and groggily made his way over for another delicious breakfast of oat porridge. This time he made sure to pay attention to Morra's briefing so he had some idea of what was going on. She mentioned that they were going to stop by for a welfare check on an old trading post on the now contested outskirts of their territorial waters. This post was on a small island called simply The Rock owing to its painfully simple geography. This island served as a port of call and had something of a military purpose as it had great vantage points to observe the surrounding seas. Once the briefing was over, they cleaned up and were ordered up top to receive their duties for the day.

  "Naurus, you're on day watch. Get up to the crow's nest and ring the bell if you see any land or ships. We should arrive at our destination by mid-day. Now make haste!" Morra ordered.

  Naurus scampered up the ladder on the main mast, realizing that he never really climbed up something so tall before. He made sure not to look down as he wasn't all that fond of heights to begin with. Once up there he grabbed the spyglass out of its box and scanned the horizon which currently was nothing but foggy water. Soon, the morning sun burned off the fog however, and the strong tailwinds took the ship briskly along. The water was choppy however and Naurus realized soon that he ate just a little too much as his stomach felt like it was trying to backflip. The rocking ship and ensuing nausea became unbearable. He forgot all about seasickness and decided it would be best to climb back down before he made a mess up there. Once down he beelined to the gunwale and leaned over, promptly chumming the waters.

  "Don't got your sea legs yet, eh?" Morra quipped from behind him
.

  "Yeah, I'll be fine..." He heaved again.

  "Well once that’s out of your system, report back up there. We're getting into hot zones, we need sharp eyes up there!" She said, referring to known skirmishes that had happened out here in recent months.

  Naurus made his way back up to the crow's nest and resumed his watch. The sun was in high noon before he knew it, and his stomach was roaring with hunger after being emptied prematurely earlier. He rang the heavily oxidized bronze bell once to signal general attention.

  "Yes, sailor?" Morra looked up and asked from her wheel.

  "Permission to come down for food, commodore?" He yelled back.

  "Denied. We need a constant watch. I'll send for someone to bring you some rations." She coolly replied.

  Within a few minutes, he felt someone climbing up the main mast. He looked down to see Tauny coming up with a bag of what was hopefully some decent food. Naurus helped him up and looked in the bag to find some water, dried fruits, nuts, and jerked beef. Certainly not a feast, but it felt like one in his barren stomach. They quietly munched together, when Tauny suddenly piped up.

  "It's so peaceful up here. If only the rest of the ship could be so peaceful."

  "Yeah it is, you're right. It is pretty noisy down there. Not a big fan of ships I take it?" Naurus half-jokingly asked.

  "Nah not really. I lost my parents in a boating accident when I was just a whelp. My grandparents raised me instead, but now they are old and decrepit. Maybe I'll join ma and pa in a watery grave soon enough." Tauny sullenly replied.

  "Don't talk like that gunny. This is a whole new adventure! We can forget about all of our troubles even if just for a bit out here. Who knows, maybe we'll capture a nice prize!" Naurus nudged him, eliciting a smirk from his gunnery mate.

  "Yeah, I guess I forgot about that. Well I need to get back to my duties. At least you seem to actually care about me for a change. I'll see you around." Tauny said before making his way back down to the deck.

  Naurus continued his watch, dutifully scanning the horizon for anything of interest. It wasn't long before he noticed some gulls circling around the ship and seemingly following it along. Off in the distance, through his binoculars he finally picked up a rocky precipice looming into view. He rang the bell thrice to signal land spotted.

  "Sailor, report!" Morra shouted.

  "Commodore, there is land off the port side! Looks like a rocky island!" He shouted back.

  "Good job, that’s The Rock then. Now keep your eyes peeled for any other ships around while we make way over there. If you don’t like the cut of their jib, you know what to do." She replied back, then barking a few orders at the officers next the wheel with her.

  Naurus scanned the horizon all around him looking for any strange ships. Indeed, all Astranian vessels had square jibs, while hostile ships tended to have triangular jibs and sails in most cases, or so he was told. Soon enough they drew up to The Rock, and it dawned on Naurus this was a much smaller island than he had imagined. On top of the rocky hill in the center of it was an old fort abutting a well weathered lighthouse. It was scarred from many battles but it was hard to tell how recently any of the damage may have been acquired. Down the slope, a small village was visible, with no docking facilities for a ship as large as theirs. Naurus could tell how shallow the water was getting by how green the water was, indeed it was almost translucent.

  "Drop anchor!" Morra commanded, and soon enough the anchor was dropped and the ship was stayed. She motioned for Naurus to come down from his perch as well. Once he was down, he was directed to get onboard one of the jolly boats as he was to be going on shore. Morra climbed into another one, so about half the crew was crammed into these jolly boats and half would stay back as anchor watch. Soon enough they were lowered from the davits and were rowing their way towards the village on shore, following Morra's boat. Naurus soon realized that this place wasn’t anything like back home. The building roofs were all thatched out of palm leaves and walls were built of rough stacked rocks. The docks were rather poorly maintained and built of clearly imported wood. They finally pulled up, lashed their boats to the rusty moorings, and made their way down the creaky dock.

  Naurus noticed the indifference the people showed as their crew passed them by. They were very well tanned and seemed rather rough around the edges. Their women looked quite literally like diamonds in the rough. The natives seemed to be tolerating their presence more than anything, but Naurus figured their crew had a good reason to be here so he made his way along the half-rotted dock like everyone else. At the end of the dock Morra hailed an older man who looked to be something of an authority figure there, dressed up in a silk robe and wearing some rings and chains too. Naurus couldn’t really understand what they were talking about, their voices being too hushed to make out in the back of the group where he was. After their brief conversation, Morra motioned the group to follow her.

  They walked along the shore to a more secluded area down the beach. Naurus couldn’t help but notice how warm and soft the sands were here compared to the rocky beaches of the Dominion. He played around in the sand with his feet until Morra called for attention and everyone snapped to.

  “Sailors listen up! I was just told that corsairs have been increasingly aggressive in these waters and have even come ashore for looting and pillaging. This is unacceptable for a protected Astranian territory such as this to endure. We will stay on our boat at anchor here tonight until the next ship of the Grand Flotilla arrives sometime tomorrow with a fresh contingent to repair and reinforce the fort. If you would like to walk around and stretch your legs go ahead, we will set back to the ship in an hour. Any questions?” She briefed nonchalantly.

  Nobody piped up with any questions. It was quite obvious that they were either bait or a deterrent at this point. All of this depended on if and when any hostile forces did arrive. Naurus decided to spend his little bit of free time walking around the village and seeing if anything interesting was hidden about. What appeared to be old blood stains dotted some walls and cobble stone walkways that wound between buildings. He made his way to a small sandy field beyond the village, where hastily dug graves were obviously marked by their cairns. Naurus wasn’t sure if these were for friend or foe, but he turned back to try to find something a little more joyous to discover. The few locals he bumped into made no real acknowledgement to his friendly greetings asides from a quick nod as they went about their day. The economy seemed mainly based on fishing with some odd trade shops and a tavern attached to an inn.

  Naurus found an open market deeper into the heart of the village. It wasn’t terribly large, no larger than the main deck of their ship. In it was all sorts of baubles and trinkets, weapons and armor, potions and books, food and drink. Naurus had never seen such a variety of merchandise in one place. The shop keepers eyed him with some suspicion as he walked around and carefully studied everything that looked interesting. He wanted a trinket to take home as a souvenir and reached for his coin pouch. His hand found nothing but air. Damnit! I’m broke until I get my deployment pay! He lamented to himself, turning around and sulking off from the little old shopkeeper whose eyes had lit up then were snuffed out as her potential customer suddenly walked away.

  He had a little more time, so he made his way over to the tavern. The sign was so rotted and weathered that he couldn’t even read it and just barely made out the outline of the top half of a frothing tankard. He pulled open the creaky door, and stepped in, only to notice shouting from a circle of men in the middle of the floor surrounding two combatants fighting bare knuckles. A scraggly man standing a bit back from the crowd locked eyes with Naurus and beckoned him over. Nope, not my crowd. He thought to himself as he turned and walked back out the door. Outside, he looked across the docks and noticed his ship mates starting to mingle around the jolly boats, a few trickling in here and there from in the village. Naurus made his way back over too just as Morra arrived.

  They boarded onto the boats and made the
ir way back to HRF Skywind. Once back on board, Morra gathered the rest of the crew there to relay what she had been told and what the plan was. Since they had to spend a night at anchor, everyone was afforded some shore leave, but had to be back by dusk. Naurus knew nothing over there was worth seeing especially as he was penniless, but some others on the ship gladly took the opportunity to go ashore and see what fun they could try to find but unbeknownst to them little was to be had. This island was rather depressing, which disappointed Naurus as this wasn’t quite the adventure he had hoped for yet. Perhaps he had unrealistic expectations, but he put in the back of his mind as he knew he just had to make it back to Astrania in one piece and hopefully find a solution to his curse with the help of Ektor.

  Naurus paced around the main deck, bored but anxious too as the specter of a possible engagement loomed in his mind. He walked out up the bowsprit, precariously balancing himself as the round beam not only angled upward but was moving around as waves buffeted the ship. He realized this was probably not going to end well as he wasn’t exactly acrobatic, those genes must not have passed down to him. He aborted his attempt to get to the tip of the bowsprit and started making his way back down. He noticed Tauny standing there looking at him with a smirk on his face. Once Naurus was back on the deck, Tauny gave him a round of slow applause.

  “Bravo gunny, trying to impress the commodore? Or perhaps the cute natives over yonder?” Tauny asked with a healthy dollop of sarcasm.

  “Yeah yeah, the commodore probably wouldn’t care if I went overboard anywho. And no, the women on that island would probably mop the deck with her. Have you seen those women? They must have hands like stone!” Naurus replied. They both shared a good chuckle.