Art:AADM/Second round/The Crimson Crew

The Short
= The Entry = The flaming sloop came careening down the side of the furious volcano pursued by a torrent of blazing hellfire. Katya had to ask herself just how this happened. Katya closed her eyes and tried to remember as the smoke and ash from the volcano began to work their deadly art on her lungs.

"Hey, what's that, Katya?" Grey asked while looking over Katya's shoulder at a strange map that she was looking over.

"It's a map, smarty," Katya retorted.

"I can see that, but I've never heard of that place."

"Komasara?"

"Yeah. Don't tell me you have.  I've been around the world and I've never even heard of that island." Grey glowered.

Katya laughed. "Nope, I haven't ever heard of it either. I just wanted to see if I could get your feathers all ruffled.  It worked too."

Grey scowled at Katya, but he could never stay angry with her for long. "How did you come by that map, anyway?" He asked.

"Well, I took the war frig out last night because I heard at the inn that there was a merchant ship leaving port who's hold was stocked with sassafras. I couldn't let such an opportunity pass.

"It was a wonderful haul. After I was done looting the ship's hold, I moved on to the map case to see if they had any charts I could use or if I could discern their normal shipping route so that I could intercept them in the future.  What I found, was this map and I've been pouring over it all night."

"So, have you figured out where the island is?" Grey asked.

"Sorta. I know it's somewhere directly south of Hook Shelf, but it looks like it's really far south." Katya tore her gaze from the map and looked at Grey. "What do you think? Should we try for the island?  If so, how many should we take with us?"

Grey thought for a moment, and then replied, "I think we should take a sloop. They are small, fast, easy to repair, and if there is any good loot on that island, there will be fewer people to split it with." Grey's eyes flashed with laughter, and Katya realized that the last comment was a joke.

"So, who should we ask to come with us?" Katya asked.

"I'm happy you have included me in this adventure for once. I think we should ask Jinna, Renton, Rhima, Black Jay, and Terjon.  They are the best fighters on the ocean and the best sailors too."

"Sounds like a plan. You go round them up and I'll get the ship ready.  Bring everyone to the Spellbinding Dragon and we'll set off today."

While Grey rounded everyone up, Katya spent her time getting enough rum, food, water, and cannon balls onto the ship. The Spellbinding Dragon was her pride and joy. It had been a gift many years ago and had been through many battles with her. Katya stroked the railing lovingly. "Keep us safe, Dragon" she whispered to the ship.

Within the hour, the crew began arriving. When everyone was on board, Katya shoved off from Admiral Island. The trip to Hook Shelf was filled with battle, and everyone enjoyed the booty that came pouring in. At Hook Shelf, Katya readjusted to wheel to put them on course for Komasara. As she did, she felt a chill pierce her body, leaving her feeling as though someone had walked over her grave. Ignoring the feeling, she continued in the direction of the distant island. At first, everyone tensed in anticipation for another fight. Not a single ship sailed on these calm seas. It was as if some god had swept the ocean clear of any living thing. The water was like glass, even though the wind blew strongly enough.

The battle tenseness slowly changed to just plain old tenseness. While at stations, the crew began to look around as though something was watching them. Jinna was looking over the side of the ship when she saw a strange ripple in the water. She tried to show the strange site to Renton, but by the time he looked where she pointed, it was gone.

Day turned to night, and night turned to day before Katya spotted land ahead. The crew cheered, but quickly fell silent, as the noise seemed unnatural in this unsettling silence. By now, they should have heard the cries of seagulls, but they heard nothing.

As they drew closer to the island, a strange fog swept over the sea. With each foot nearer the island, the fog grew deeper. Soon, the fear was that they would crash upon the island rather then land there. Grey ran below decks and grabbed a candle, some spare cloth, and his bow and arrows. He quickly shredded the cloth and tied it around the heads of the arrows, and then ran back above decks with the bow and arrows and the lit candle. The crew looked at him as though he were mad, but grey calmly stepped to the bow of the ship, drew back an arrow, lit it, and then sent it flying. The crew listened and heard the hiss of water touching flame. Grey repeated this as they drew nearer the island. Finally, one struck land and lit some driftwood on fire. The crew cheered, but again fell silent as their cries were swallowed by fog.

The fog began to dissipate as if defeated, and the crew got their first good look of the island. The shoreline was sandy, but was quickly swallowed by an immense forest. Rising up from the middle of the forest was a large mountain whose summit was enveloped in cloud. What was most chilling, was the large piles of bones that lay strewn about the sandy shore; many of which appeared human.

Nervously, the crew ported the ship, gathered some supplies and set foot upon the ghastly shores. The land seemed to rock beneath them, so long had they been on board the ship.

As the crew stepped off the ship, an ominous darkness swept the island. Renton let out a gasp and stumbled backwards while pointing to the thick stand of trees directly in front of them.

"What is it?" Black Jay asked, squinting into the trees.

"Look!" Terjon exclaimed, pointing down the beach.

Grey looked to where Terjon pointed and had to blink several times to make sure he was really seeing this. The piles of bones had begun moving around, rearranging themselves and finally standing up. Now everyone knew what Renton must have seen in the trees; skeletons. There were hundreds of them and they seemed to want nothing more then to make the crew just like them.

A skeleton lunged at Jinna, grasped her by the shoulders and was about to strike when Katya tackled it and the three of them fell into the sea. Upon touching the water, the skeleton began to melt and writhe as if in great agony.

The crewmates shared a look and a half and began fighting and bashing the skeletons into the water. After long hours, there seemed to be a break in the fighting. There were still many more skeletons on the beach, but they no longer advanced. Katya quickly took stock of her companions. Grey was unconscious with a bad blow to the head, Black Jay's left arm seemed to hang useless, Jinna leaned heavily on Rhima who herself had a large gash over her eye, Terjon had some bruises and minor cuts, but he was breathing like he'd just run here from Admiral Island, and Renton had several deep gashes on his back, arms, and chest that would need attention soon. Katya herself was sporting double vision from a nice blow to the head but had simply refused to rest. Jinna and Rhima limped over to Katya, "Why have they stopped? They could finish us now!" Rhima asked.

"I don't know. Terjon, see to Grey." Katya called.

Terjon slowly stumbled over to Grey and looked him over. He took some nearby seaweed from the water and used it as a compress where Grey had been bashed on the head. The new pressure awakened Grey with a groan.

"Are we dead yet?" Grey asked Terjon.

"No, the skeletons have stopped attacking, but we don't know why," He answered.

Katya stumbled to the sea and dunked her head into the cool water. When she came up for air, her head was much clearer. She walked closer to the skeletons, raised her sword in the air and screamed, "Cowards! Fight us if you have any courage, you yellow dogs!"

Grey whispered to Terjon, "Has she gone crazy?" Terjon just shook his head.

The skeletons spoke, it seemed to come from all of them and none of them at the same time. The noise was deafening and frightening at the same time. They said, "You have defeated us, but you are not free. You have awoken a beast more terrible then we."

When the last syllable had finished resounding in the crew's heads, the skeletons all shivered and fell back into piles of bones.

Katya looked back at her crewmates, shrugged and started to make towards the ship. As she took her first step, the ground shook with a massive boom. Her eyes widened as she looked behind her and saw something very large moving towards them through the trees.

"To the ship!" She screamed.

The bedraggled companions clambered onto the ship and were about to shove off when the thing appeared. The creature was easily 20 feet tall and looked to be made out of living stone. It roared at the ship and charged them. Its speed was incredible for such a large creature. The crew quickly shoved off and attempted to catch a wind to sail into deeper waters, but the wind was going the wrong way! The creature splashed into the water that did not harm him, seized the ship in his large granite hands and took off with it towards the mountain. Katya in her fury drew her sword and hacked at the creature and the ship was shaken roughly for her efforts. Rhima quickly took Katya's sword from her and watched in horror as they came closer and closer to the mountain.

When they came to the base of the mountain, the monster stopped, tucked the sloop under one of his arms (which stank something fierce), and began chanting and waving his free hand in strange patterns. The chanting was the sound of landslides and earthquakes and rattled the bones. The chanting stopped and then what can only be described as laughter filled the air. This was not a normal laughter; it was the sound of rocks smashing together. The monster regriped the sloop in one hand, drew back and hurled the sloop up the mountain, only, it wasn't a normal mountain, it was a volcano and they were now rushing down the volcano on a river of lava. The sloop was on fire as it careened down the side of the furious volcano pursued by torrents of blazing hellfire.

Katya was snapped from her musings by Grey. "How are we going to get out of this, Katya?"