6. Attack
The Captain turns his head this way and that, his nerves on high alert. This forest was having him panic slightly. He had no idea what to expect and even though this was thrilling, it was also quite nerve-racking.
"This weather is getting to me," Cain says as he continues to slash his way through the forest, his sword cutting through the vines like water. His movements were getting slower as the sun gets higher above their heads. None of them knew how long they'd been walking through the forest for, but it had felt like a while.
"Same," the Captain says.
He looks down at his feet, his shoes soaked in dirt and loose grub. Sweat was flowing down his face like a waterfall with nothing to keep him dehydrated. His black hair was sticking to his face and making this venture through the forest even harder to see.
"We could be spending all day on this island cutting through endless forest," Cain says.
"Or we may find something else," Henry says in an optimistic way.
Cain rolls his eyes, "I doubt it, I have a feeling that this is going to take a while."
"Do you now?" the Captain asks with a soft laugh.
"Aye, I have a feeling that this forest will take us all day just to get to the other side of the island and then we'll be left camping on the beach."
"Wouldn't that be great," Henry says sarcastically with a sigh. The Captain turns around to see Henry sliding a hand through his red hair and Marcus dragging his heels at the back, his head bent down in thought.
"I hate camping, it reminds me too much of my village life."
"Village life was great," the Captain says in defence. "I can still remember it till this day."
"Oh I can remember it clearly," Cain says sarcastically.
The Captain rolls his eyes, "You never had a village life."
"I know, but I did live in a village for a few months while my father had us kidnap a village," Cain replies with a sigh. "Oh those days."
"I still remember the first day you found me...," the Captain says with a smile at the memory glazing over his mind.
"Worst day of my life," Cain says with a chuckle. "My sister went crazy over you."
The Captain's heart tightens at the mention of Cain's sister. She'd been beautiful and hypnotised the Captain into doing anything. But back then he hadn't been the captain, she had. Well... more like the Captain's best mate, who had been her father.
"Yeah," the Captain replies back simply. "I remember her."
"She was absolutely-"
Suddenly Cain falls to the ground in a ear-slipping scream. His legs give way as he falls to the ground, his face landing in the dirt. Henry immediately attends to Cain while Marcus and the Captain grab their swords, their eyes looking around the area in order to find the source of Cain's fall.
"Cain," Henry says, rolling him onto his back.
Cain screams at the movement. "IT HURTS!!"
Henry looks from Cain's face and then all the way down to his leg. His pants had been slashed open with blood dripping from the wound. Gently, Henry grabs at the material around the wound and tries to lift it up as carefully as he could. Cain winces at the action that Henry performs. Eventually Henry had detangled the material from the blood to reveal three long scratches etched into Cain's skin.
"Ow," Cain groans, his eyes looking down at the wound.
"Captain," Henry says.
The Captain was busy trying to look around and find the source of the incident, when he was asked to look down at Cain's wound. Cain gives another loud agonising scream, his head lifting backwards to scream into the sky. Slowly, the Captain turns from looking amongst the trees and down at Cain's wound. Henry was knelt before Cain's leg, his hand holding up the material from the wound. The Captain's face instantly pales as he looks at the wound seeping blood down Cain's leg and onto the ground.
"We need to get him back to the ship," the Captain orders.
"Aye," Henry says.
"What was it?" Marcus asks.
"I wouldn't know," the Captain says as he stares at the wound. What sort of creature could do that much damage?
The answer was shortly answered when a loud hissing sort of noise sounds from behind them. Together they all look behind them to see a creature with scaly skin, long claws pawing into the ground and a long tail with three daggered spikes on the end. It was raised in the air, looking like it was about to strike out at them. Its red eyes were pointed in a glare at them all as it stands there, staring at them all. It had a long-ish sized body with a long snout like face.
"Marcus...," the Captain says in a whisper. "Help Henry pick Cain up. We'll need to keep going into the forest."
Marcus swallows his drying throat. "Aye sir."
Slowly Marcus moves from his ridged standing position and over to Cain. Together Henry and Marcus lift Cain into their arms gently. Cain groans in pain. The creature hisses at the motion and the Captain gets ready with his sword.
"Get moving," the Captain says with a hiss. Seconds later the Captain hears the leaves being moved as Marcus and Henry walk through the forest.
HIIIIS!
The creature lunges out at the Captain, causing him to move aside. He stumbles on the spot as the creature is already getting ready to swing his tail around. Its white scales glisten in the sunlight as it gets ready to swing its tail right at the Captain. But before it could the Captain readies himself in order to strike back. By now Marcus and Henry were out of sight and running through the forest with Cain in their arms.
HISSS!
It swings its tail right at the Captains feet. He jumps in the air to avoid it, but was unprepared for the second hit and was sent flying to the ground from trying to avoid the second hit. His head hits the ground and causes his head to spin around for a while. The creature automatically rounds the Captain, its tail flickering sideways.
The Captain lays still, his sword landing a few inches away from his fingertips. He plans an idea in his head in order to get out of this situation, otherwise he was going to get hit by the creature just like Cain had, leaving him vulnerable. The creature circles the Captain with a flickering tail, leaving the Captain to pant on the spot. He looks up at the sky, counting the seconds in his head. Any second now he was going to hit him, he just needed to wait for the exact moment to hit him.
Before he knew it the creature was swinging his tail at the Captain's face but before it could reach his eyes the Captain swings his sword around and slices it right off. The creature howls and yelps in pain, black blood spinning from his tail. Instantly the Captain takes the opportunity and gets to his feet. He takes one more look at the wounded creature before running off after Henry and Marcus through the forest.
The Captain runs through the vines, dirt and trees, scratches hitting him from every angle. He tries to shelter his face with his arms over his face, but it wasn't much use if you couldn't see anything from it. His heart pounds as he runs as fast as he could into the forest. He had no idea which direction he was going, hell he didn't even know if he was following Marcus and Henry, all he knew was that he needed to get away from that creature, whatever it was.
Hiss!!
The Captain turns around to find five more creatures the exact same scuttling through the forest, their tails high in the air and their noises radiating through the air.
"Shit!" the Captain curses under his breath. He doubles his speed through the forest and prays that he doesn't fall over.
He jumps over the trees, dodges the scrubs and ducks under the vines that hang in his way. Sweat was covering him from head to toe by now but he didn't care, he just needed to get out of here without getting injured.
"CAPTAIN!"
The sound of Henry's voice reaches the Captains ears. He looks around the area and finds Henry, Marcus and Cain ahead of him. They were rushing as quickly as they could with Cain in their arms. The Captain acknowledges them by waving at them to continue.
Suddenly the Captain stops running and turns around in order to stop the creatures from injuring Henry, Marcus and Cain. He spins around on the spot, his sword swinging around with him. It touches the skin of one of the creatures that had launched itself off a branch and jumped at him. The Captain hadn't been expecting it and so he was glad that he'd spun around when he had.
He quickly finishes off the first creature by drilling his sword into its chest, leaving it to hiss one last time. Black blood was splattered over his face and coasted his sword. The creatures may only be around the size of a middle sized dog, but they were deadly enough to kill.
Wiping the sweat from his brow the Captain swings his sword at the second one, which dodges the sword the first time before getting cut in the side of the face the second time. It yelps and stumbles backwards at being blinded in the right eye from the sword. The Captain quickly puts it out of its agony and pushes his sword into the creatures head.
Two down... three more to go...
The third one was smarter and stops before the Captain with its long tongue hissing out at him, its two big fangs directed at him. It had its tail in the air as a sort of warning that was clearly read to the Captain. He lunges out at the creature which skips the side and then swings its tail at the Captain, cutting the Captain in the ankle. The Captain hisses in pain at the wound and tries not to stumble from the sudden pain. The second creature was running off around the Captain and after Henry and Marcus, which had the Captain panicking slightly. The first creature was crawling up a tree with its four clawed feet, it's body low to the tree and its face pointed upwards.
But before it could get any closer the Captain swings its sword at it which causes it to drop to the ground on its back. For a few seconds it fumbles on its back, its four legs left hanging in the air. The third creature hissing at the Captain and then lunges out at the Captain again. The Captain, luckily, jumps over the swinging tail and, while still in the air, he swings his sword over his head and right down into the centre of the creature. Without another sound it was silent within seconds.
When the Captain lands on his feet again he wasn't expecting the pain that shoots up his leg. He stumbles on the spot and before he knew it he was back on the ground, but this time he had landed on his stomach, his arms placed out before him in order to soften the fall.
By this time the creature was back on its feet and glaring its red eyes at the Captain. It advances at the Captain with slow movements, black blood flowing from its back. The Captain watches it as it nears, its tail in the air and readying to strike out. From the position the Captain had landed in he knew that he wasn't getting up any time soon due to the pain racing up his leg in jolts. Instead he tries to catch his breath before trying anything, otherwise he was just going to injure himself.
Behind him, he could hear Henry and Marcus tackle the creature, hissing and screams rising into the sky. The Captain wishes that he could help them, but knew that he wasn't going to be much help with his leg bleeding and wounded.
Hiiiis!
The creature makes one more step towards the Captain before slithering its tongue out of its mouth and striking down at the Captain.
BANG!
The Captain had closed his eyes in order to escape the blast of the creature, but slowly opens them when the pain of the creature doesn't reach him. When his eyes were open he looks down at the creature alongside him, its mouth hanging open and it's legs twitching slightly. The Captain automatically scuttles away on the ground away from it and looks around the area in order to find the source of the dead creature.
BANG!
Another gunshot rings throughout the sky and the Captain watches as Henry and Marcus stare down at the now dead creature before their feet. Panting they all look around the area in order to find their rescuer.
Seconds later five men walk through the clearing with their guns pointed at them all. One man stands before the Captain with his gun pointed down at him, the black barrel of the gun looking menacing and deadly. Gasping the Captain tries to remain calm.
"Who are you?" the man asks.
"I... I'm Captain Hunter."
The man frowns as if the name triggered a memory within him and then starts to lower his gun slowly.
"I'm sorry but you don't look anything like Captain Hunter."
The man says as he puts his gun back in his uniform pocket. The Captain looks over at Henry and Marcus through the clearing who had their arms up in surrender.
"PUT YOUR GUNS AWAY!" the man says, noticing the Captains motions. "They're Captain Hunter's boys."
"Who are you?" the Captain asks as a sigh of relief passes through him. He looks up at the man, waiting for a response.
"I'm Prince Nash," he says with a smile. "We heard some disturbance through the forest."
"Right...," the Captain says.
Before the Captain could come up with a response, Nash holds a hand down at the Captain, asking for him to take hold of it.
"I see you've been hit," Nash says, nodding his head towards the Captains ankle.
"Aye," the Captain says with a wince at the wound. He then takes the helping hand of Nash and it pulled against his side. Nash swings the Captain's arm over his shoulder before walking him through the clearing and into the area Henry, Marcus and Cain were in.
"Help him up," Nash says, indicating his actions to his men to help Cain up. Two men walk over to Cain and pull him up onto his feet, before creating a chair for Cain to sit on with their arms locked together. Cain winces at the movement of his leg.
"What were they?" the Captain asks Nash.
"They were Meela, deadly creatures mind you."
"No kidding," the Captain scoffs.
"Seeing that you and your friends got hit, I suggest we get you treated, otherwise you'll die within twenty-four hours."
"They're poisonous!?" Cain says in alarm.
"I'm afraid so," Nash says. "But I know a great wizard who will take care of you both."
"Thank you," the Captain says as Cain makes dramatic noises of himself dying.
"No, I don't want to die, I'm too young and beautiful," Cain says.
"Let's head home, this party has ended shorter than we'd hoped," Nash says.
His five men nod before heading in the direction they'd appeared from moments ago.
"Party?" Marcus asks as he follows behind the men.
"Yes, it was my bachelor party before I got married tonight."
The Captain feels his cheeks go red at the embarrassment of ruining this guy's party.
"I'm so sorry," the Captain says as they follow behind the soldiers.
"No problem," Nash says, waving it away.
mkU