Word Count: 3,810
"Alex, wake up," Amber said for the sixth time. Groggily, Alex waved a hand at her. He had been up all night, dizzy from the motion of the boat. He just wanted more sleep, but Amber seemed persistent to get him up. Luckily, she seemed to have quieted. Happily, Alex wiggled further under the blankets.
Something smacked the back of his head.
"Ow," he muttered, sitting up and finally opening his eyes. Amber was moving her mouth like she was talking, but not saying anything.
"¿Qué estás diciendo?" He asked groggily, rubbing the back of his head.
What are you saying?
Amber looked deeply offended, like she might smack him again. Her mouth moved faster. No noise came out. Curious, Alex held his hand out to her again, intending to hear her. Immediately, he regretted it.
"-pendejo! And you wanna ask me ¿Qué estás dicie-? What does it sound like I'm saying? Did you go deaf overnight?" Amber finished.
-stupid!
+100 EXP
"Sorry! I'm sorry," Alex blinked hard, rubbing his eyes, "I actually couldn't hear you. I think I bent sound on accident."
Amber folded her arms, "You mean to tell me you've gotten so good at using your air powers that you can manipulate sound to go some other direction?"
"I think so?" Alex blinked more, "I don't know, man, I just woke up."
"Yeah, whatever. Get your butt out of bed, breakfast is served. Jamie is making everyone omelets," Amber said after a brief pause. She looked Alex up and down with a flat expression and then left.
Outside the mess hall, Elijah was pacing back and forth by the door, shaking his hands vigorously.
"Hey, hey, what happened? D' you need help?" Alex asked, walking a little faster to get to him sooner.
"No," Elijah replied shortly.
"Do you wanna tell me what happened? You don't have to, but you can," Alex offered.
"Too many people, too much noise, and I can't feel the- it sounds like static," Elijah shook his head.
"What sounds like static?" Alex asked calmly.
"When I can hear the ground, now I hear the ocean but I don't have water powers and it sounds like static. Well, I can't literally hear it, but it just- I can-" Elijah struggled to put the feeling into words.
"It's okay. I think I know what you mean. Are you hungry?" Alejandro continued. Elijah paused, stopped walking, and nodded.
"Okay. Do you want me to bring you out a plate so you can eat out here?" Alejandro asked. Elijah nodded again.
"Cool," Alex nodded back, stepping closer to the door. Elijah grabbed his wrist. Alex turned back to him. They locked eyes, and then Elijah looked away, but didn't let go. Alex nodded in understanding.
"You're welcome," he smiled. Elijah nodded and let go. Alex walked into the mess hall.
They ate their breakfasts together in silence out on the deck.
As they approached land again, everyone came out on the deck to say their goodbyes. Every member of the crew shook everyone's hands, some were giving hugs, and they all seemed genuinely sad to see them go.
"It's not often we get to see real players. We're a bit...out of the way, so we often miss it when players pass through," Lucy sighed, "We do our own quests, but it does get a bit lonely."
"Yeah, I'm sure. At least you get to travel, though," Elijah shrugged, "I know some people who have been stuck in the same tiny village for the whole time this game has been out."
"Oh, yes, we've had many adventures, and for that, we're grateful. But our quests are dangerous, and with few people, none of which can level up, it gets tough," Lucy huffed.
"Is that from one of your adventures?" Alejandro asked curiously, pointing to the necklace Lucy wore. It was a piece of twine with some beads on it, but the main pendant was a shark tooth. 'A shark with a tooth that size has to have been bigger than a megladon,' Alejandro thought.
"Yes. Melody had a run-in with a sea monster, we don't know what kind. It has very few teeth, but the few it has are deadly. Melody was lucky to only be stuck with one," Lucy explained, picking at the tooth now.
"What happened?" Alex asked, leaning forward.
"I fell in the water during a storm and was bitten by a creature that preys during the storms, when it knew there would be people thrown overboard. I have boosted eyesight, so I was able to see the creature as it approached, but I wasn't fast enough to stop it from attacking. I was only fast enough to kick it when it did attack. Its tooth came out in my leg. Luckily, for all the times that had happened to us at that point, someone falling overboard in rough waters, we had a procedure, and I was able to get back onboard," Melody said, pulling up her pant leg to reveal a large scar on her shin.
"So then why did Lucy get the tooth?" Alex asked.
"I wanted it, and I'm the nurse-slash-carpenter," Lucy shrugged.
"Nurse and carpenter? That sounds like a weird combination," Alex thought aloud. Lucy pantomimed picking up a saw, and then used that invisible saw on Melody's leg. Alex winced.
"Oh. Gross. Okay, I get the picture," he nodded. Somewhere behind him, Amber laughed.
When they arrived on shore, everyone said goodbye again, and Joan and the group gave the crew of the Adira their thanks many times over. Elijah bowed one last time to Maggie, who smiled brightly and bowed back.
Joan was the first back on the ground, sighing in relief and finding his balance quickly. Then Alex and Eva, who were quick to support Eli, who had to get used to the feeling of the ground again. He covered his ears immediately, and Alex and Eva each linked elbows with him to keep him standing. Amber was last, walking behind everyone to keep an eye out and make sure everyone was okay.
The sand went on for awhile, leading them into a jungle-looking forest. The trees looked like palm trees, but with spikier trunks. Instead of coconuts, vines grew around the trunks with fruits that looked yellow-orange and vaguely citrus-y. The ground was uneven, becoming half sand and half twigs and leaves. There were little puddles and pools here and there, seemingly void of life. Somewhere distant, Alejandro heard a waterfall.
Elijah began to walk on his own after awhile, once they were well into the trees.
"I feel so much life, so many things moving, but I can't see anything," he observed, squinting.
"And I haven't seen or sensed anything invisible, so that can't be it," Amber nodded.
"Well, keep an eye out anyway. Players can often go...missing in these areas," Joan grumbled, head on a swivel.
"That sounds super comforting!" Alex joked with wide eyes and an uncertain smile. Joan shrugged.
"I hear a waterfall, can we go? Fresh water sounds really good right about now," Alejandro asked about ten minutes later.
"Lead the way," Joan gestured.
It didn't take very long, and it was hardly out of the way at all. Alex followed the sound of rushing water to a cove where the trees cleared to a mini beach. The sand was fine and nearly white. The water was extremely clear, not that deep-looking, smooth, large stones at the bottom. The waterfall fell over a rock wall. Behind the waterfall looked to be a shallow cave. It was peaceful, and the loud sound of the rushing water made everything else quiet in comparison. Some butterflies and birds flew by. Everyone stripped out of their large coats and boots, stepping into the water. Joan and Amber dipped their feet, everyone else jumped in.
Alex swam with his eyes closed, all the way to the rocks on the other side. He propped himself up on a ledge close to the water, right next to the waterfall. He could see behind the water from where he was sitting: the cave was small, dark, and it smelled horrible. He grimaced. But ever curious, he walked in that direction anyway.
Just enough to be able to see, soft light filled the cave as soon as Alex stepped behind the waterfall. It smelled strongly of fish and something rotten, which was strange, considering Alex had not seen any animals in the water.
A shadow of a person sat by the far cave wall.
"Hello?" Alejandro called. He stepped closer to get a better look.
"Oh, Elijah. Hey, I didn't see you come over here," Alex greeted, once he had squinted enough to figure out who was sitting now a foot away from him. Alex began to sit down as well.
Elijah crossed his arms and turned away.
"Um...okay. Did I do something? Whatever it was, I apologize," Alex furrowed his eyebrows. He was still met with silence.
"Alejandro?" Joan called, entering the cave, "Oh. There you are."
"Yeah, I'm here. And Eli," Alex waved as much as possible so Joan might see him in the dark.
"Wh-What?" Joan asked, taking a step back.
"What 'what'?" Alex replied.
"Elijah was just on the shore with me. He said he was going to go look around for a bit," Joan said quickly, "Alejandro, that is not Elijah. Get over here, now."
Alejandro's eyes widened and he scrambled to his feet just in time for the creature, whatever it was, not to grab him. It screeched, human form de-transforming into scales, crawling quickly out of the cave and into the water. Despite the water being crystal clear, the creature could no longer be seen.
Joan stared in shock. Alex made a run for it, jumping into the water as well. He opened his eyes this time, and then crawled back on surface as soon as possible.
"What did you do that for?" Joan scolded worriedly, rushing over to help him back out of the water.
"We can't see them! They're not- the water isn't clear!" Alex scrubbed at his eyes, scrambling back to his feet, "The water is actually super murky, and it goes super far down. There's literally seaweed down there. And I saw tons of things moving. The water we see from the surface is an illusion. It's fake. Something's down there."
"What? No no no, Evalyn is in there," Joan's breathing picked up pace.
"We have to get back, somehow," Alex said, "and we have to get her back."
"Alejandro, listen to me, I know what you're thinking. Do not play hero. I need you to swim back to shore as fast as you can. I'll see you there," Joan said, and made a dive for the water. Unhappy but unwilling to rebel, Alex dove in after him and swam as fast as his body would let him. Every time he thought he felt anything brush him, he swam faster. He tripped his way back onto the sand, coughing and swaying a bit.
Real Elijah, who had just returned from his little expedition, looked quite confused.
"Dude, what happened?" he asked, stepping closer and grabbing Alex's shoulders to help hold him still.
"There's- and they look like you! And they're sea monsters! Dude it had teeth like- and I saw it underwater, it's not real-" Alex babbled, turning back, "We have to save Evalyn!"
"Evalyn? What happened to Evalyn? She's fine, I just saw her swimming," Elijah frowned.
"No, because it's not her! They look like us but they're not," Alex urged, "If you see Evalyn, do not interact with her unless she's with Joan."
Elijah nodded, letting go of Alex and taking several steps back from the water. He looked around anxiously, waiting for his friends to resurface.
"Hey, where's Amber?" Elijah asked.
"Oh shoot...we thought she was with you. I don't see her," Alex ran a hand through his wet hair.
"She must be with- look! There," Elijah exclaimed, rushing to help his friends out of the water as soon as they began to emerge.
"Talk, we need to know it's you," Alex demanded immediately.
"It's us! It's us," Joan sputtered, taking off his soaked shirt and tossing it aside. Steam rose off of Amber as she took in deep breaths. Evalyn seemed fine, but disoriented.
"What was that? What happened?" Eli asked.
"Well, I jumped in, and I was totally going to just wash off, but when I opened my eyes, I noticed that the water was definitely not how it looked from the surface. I saw this thing- it was mermaid-shaped, but with scales on the whole body, and...scarier- and it saw that I saw it, so it grabbed me by the ankles and dragged me down," Evalyn lifted her pants, where her ankles were bleeding, "And then I was joined by Amber, and then Joan a little bit later. They were holding us at the bottom, there were tons of them there, and some of them transformed into us and swam away. I was able to make an air pocket for us, but I didn't know if they were going to eat us or tear us to shreds or what."
"And then one of them came toward me, so I kinda lashed out and accidentally boiled some of the water around me. They all totally scampered after that," Amber shrugged, "I think they're afraid, now."
"And I can't help but wonder why they trapped us in the first place. They had enough time to eat us, but they didn't. They just kept us down and transformed. What was the purpose of that?" Joan pondered.
"Maybe they thought we were someone else?" Alex suggested.
"That very well may be. But who on this realm could they have thought we were?" Joan asked.
"I don't know. But what if that was all defensive? The one I was with saw me enter the cave and transformed so I wouldn't know it was a monster. It wasn't going to interact with me until I intimidated it and you started yelling. We entered their lagoon, and then managed to hurt them back even if they managed to drag us under. If someone broke into my house and hurt me once I thought I had trapped them, I'd be freaked out, too. And then they transformed into us, because they didn't want anyone else to find out they were there. I think that was totally on us," Alex thought aloud, glancing sorrowfully back at the water.
"That was...extremely intelligent. I've never come here with players before, so it makes sense that they're used to being undisturbed by unsuspecting travelers. But that doesn't answer the question of why they're so defensive. Nobody ever comes this way. If they wanted to lure people in, they'd be in a more obvious spot. But if their goal isn't to hurt or kill people, then why did they try?" Joan asked.
"Not to ignore your question, but does anyone else hear people coming over h-"
"I know getting back in the water right now is the last thing we all want, but everyone needs to swim to the cave, now," Amber whispered loudly, diving back in. Joan nodded and followed, and then Alex and Eva, and Eli (as hesitantly as possible, being the only one who had not encountered one of these monsters yet).
In their haste, they managed to all make it to the cave.
"What are we-"
Amber cut Elijah off, holding a finger to her mouth in a shhhh gesture.
"I know I heard people here," a man said. Through the waterfall, the group saw distorted figures of men on horses approach the beach. There were about five horses, six guards total, a regal-looking Man (the one talking), and someone who looked like a guard, but fancier.
"Show yourselves," he demanded in a loud voice. He had the kind of English accent that sounded like someone impersonating an English person. It just sounded entitled; the voice of a man who had never been rejected once in his whole life.
There was silence from the group, Alex literally holding a hand over his mouth to make sure he wouldn't say anything.
"Show yourselves!" he demanded again, louder. His voice boomed, but it sounded like he was lowering his pitch on purpose to sound more intimidating.
"Fine. We'll do this the hard way. Jean, Pierre, you two are going for a swim. I believe our little friends are hiding," he ordered. Two of the guards reluctantly took their heaviest armor off and waded in to their knees before going for it.
Joan and the group watched intently, huddled together as far back as possible to avoid being seen. Slowly, silently, one of the creatures crawled out of the water and into the cave with them. It bared its sharp teeth, snake eyes slimming. It lowered itself further to the ground, like cats do before pouncing. Elijah put his hands up. Joan, then everyone else, did the same.
Slowly, Eli walked closer. The creature transformed into Elijah, copying his movement. It looked scared, but having not seen Elijah before, it crawled closer anyway.
"What are you doing!" Joan hissed.
Elijah held his hand out, like one does for a high-five. The monster did the same, and moved closer untilt their hands touched. Eli closed his eyes, vulnerable. Only a moment later, he winced and flinched back. The monster was startled, but not frightened.
"Guys, they're scared," Eli whispered to the group.
"How do you know that?" Amber asked.
Elijah held his hand out again. The monster took it. The fear that the creature withheld spread to Eli. He could feel it in his chest. Elijah put his free hand on his own chest, then pointed to the same spot on the monster's chest, then to the guards. The monster nodded slowly.
"It's the guards. They're afraid of the royal guard," Eli whispered to the group, "They're magical, so the royals are hunting them down. That's what those guys are here for."
Joan knew better than to question powers he didn't understand. Elijah seemed sure, which was rare, so Joan chose to listen and believe.
"Okay. Then we need to get those guards out of here, and then we need to be on our own way," Joan nodded.
"I can hear you!" the Man who had been giving orders shouted, "Behind the waterfall! Guards, get them!"
Everyone but the Man in command and the fancy-guard man standing next to his horse took off their heaviest armor and jumped in.
The Man waited a few minutes. He did not see his guards emerge by the waterfall. Frowning deeply, he pulled out a fragment of a stone. He held it at the lagoon. The surface water wobbled. Joan and the group watched as the lagoon lost the illusion of shallow, clear water. Its true murky color showed through. The Man could see some of his guards being dragged into the seaweed and lower.
"The palace staff have powers?" Amber whispered incredulously.
"I didn't think so," Joan's eyes were wide and fearful.
"We've been fooled! I knew there was magic in this area," the Man shouted, "Show yourselves or face my wrath!"
The monster transformed back into itself and lowered toward the ground again, scared.
"Come get us, coward!" Alejandro yelled.
"Dude! What was that about?" Evalyn whisper-yelled, smacking Alex hard in the arm.
"Let the two biggest guys get in the lake! The sea monsters seem to have this under control," Alex replied.
As expected, the last guard and the Man got in the water.
They were not caught. With daggers, they slashed at anything that tried to grab them. The sea monster still in the cave looked terrified. Evalyn made a motion like she was closing a window, and the waterfall came down at least twice as hard, like a dam had been broken.
The Man and the guard struggled immensely to get in the cave because of it. The Man kept falling back under every time he got a grip. Evalyn doubled her efforts.
The guard slipped around the side, and the monster immediately launched at him. He had red paint on the top half of his face, which was smeared and running from being in the water. The bottom half was covered by a bandana, clinging to his nose and chin. He did his very best to pry the creature off of him. Amber, Eva, and Joan looked like they wanted to attack, but the guard and the monster were wrestling so much, it would be impossible to hit one and not the other.
Elijah knew they couldn't escape the way they had come. They could risk being caught by more guards. He ran to the very back of the cave, splayed his hands on the rock, and pushed. A door-sized chunk of rock receded the more he pushed, until he had made a small room.
"Guys! Get in!" Elijah yelled. The guard ripped the monster off him and threw it into the waterfall, where it was pushed deep into the water. Everyone ran into the new tunnel in the cave, Elijah making sure everyone was there before he kicked the side of the inner wall and the top of the cave began to collapse. He only got to see the guard's shocked face and the Man just barely getting out of the waterfall before the rock that fell caged them in. The guard made eye contact with Elijah. His eyes were yellow, wide, and confused. Even as the rock door completely shut, Elijah felt as if those eyes were looking straight through him. But now, he and the group were stuck in pitch black, in a cramped space, breathing heavily.
"What now?" Evalyn asked.
"Who's this?" Elijah asked, reaching out and taking someone's arm.
"Amber," Amber replied.
"Great. Amber, grab someone," Elijah instructed.
"Who's this?" Amber asked as she reached out.
"Joan."
"Evalyn."
"Alejandro."
"Great. Grab the shoulders of the person who grabbed you. I'm gonna keep pushing until we get out of here," Elijah said, turning to the direction he was pretty sure was forward, and pushing again. The stone made a scraping sound as it gave way.
Eventually, they reached sunlight again. Elijah fell forward onto his face when the stone gave way, falling onto soft grass. Amber stumbled over him, barely stopping herself from crushing him. Joan tripped a bit, but didn't fall. Evalyn and Alejandro stepped out after him. Everyone squinted.
"Where are we?" Elijah asked, rubbing his head.
"I would say East Arbran," Joan said, eyes scanning their new scenery.
"So...what was that?" Alejandro asked, shaking his limbs, which were still damp.
"I told you, the royal family sends people out to collect magic. Those guards were going to either kill those creatures and harness their magic, or capture them and make them do royal dirty work with their magic," Joan sighed, "They did end up killing a couple. They probably did end up gaining magic from that encounter.
"That sucks," Alejandro huffed.
"Yeah, it really does," Amber agreed, wringing her hair out.
"And that's what we're here for. So let's find a good place to stop, get some rest, and get back on the road as soon as possible," Joan advised.