The last white witch E-Book

Nalle Windahl

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Serie: The Saga Quadrology
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 385

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

The first book of four in the Saga Quadrology. Meet Dee who wants to reunite with her brother, but get stuck in a tense situation between vampires and werewolves. As she escapes the situation, she accidentally meets Groll, a bitter troll who hates humans. Groll will help Dee get out of his way, so he can go back at being his grumpy old self without her precense. Little do they both know that their journey has only begun. Soon, their world will face a threat greater than when the Dwarf King claimed himself lone ruler of the world. The old war between warm-bloods and cold-bloods sparks again, and there is a new Dwarf King on the throne that has the decire to unite the dwarf society and make the Dwarf kingdom great again.

Leseprobe

Did you like the art-work on the cover?

Cover image by Patrik Åkervinda. He is incredibly talented, please use your google-fu or any other search-engine-powers to find more of his work online!

Do you like the writing? (perhaps better answer that question after you have read the book!)

For more information about me (the writer) and my work, please visit my webpage: http://jnw.se/

Disclaimer

This book is self-published and has not gone through any editorial nor linguistic process. Any weird language or wording is purely because my native language is not English. I leave it to your imagination to see the language as part of this fantasy world and its story.

Please enjoy this story. I have enjoyed creating it and I hope you will love it as much as I do! Feel free to contact me through my web page.

Table of Contents

Kapitel One.

Kapitel Two.

Kapitel Three.

Kapitel Four

Kapitel Five.

Kapitel Six.

Kapitel Seven

Kapitel Eight.

Kapitel Nine.

Kapitel Ten.

Kapitel Eleven

Kapitel Twelve.

Kapitel Thirteen.

Kapitel Fourteen

Kapitel Fifteen.

Kapitel Sixteen.

Kapitel Seventeen.

Kapitel Eighteen

Kapitel Nineteen.

Kapitel Twenty.

Kapitel Twenty one.

Kapitel Twenty two.

Kapitel Twenty three

Kapitel Twenty four.

Kapitel Twenty five.

Kapitel Twenty six

Kapitel Twenty seven.

Kapitel Twenty eight.

Kapitel Twenty nine.

Kapitel Thirty

Kapitel Thirty one.

Kapitel Thirty two.

Kapitel Thirty three.

Kapitel Thirty four.

Kapitel Thirty five

Kapitel Thirty six.

Kapitel Thirty seven

Kapitel Thirty eight.

Kapitel Thirty nine.

Kapitel Forty.

Kapitel Forty one.

Kapitel Forty two (the answer without question)

Kapitel Forty three.

Kapitel Forty four.

Kapitel Forty five.

Kapitel Forty six.

Kapitel Forty seven

Kapitel Forty eight.

Kapitel Forty nine.

Kapitel Fifty.

Kapitel Fifty one

Kapitel Fifty two.

Kapitel Fifty three.

Kapitel Fifty four.

Kapitel Fifty five.

Kapitel Fifty six

Kapitel Fifty seven.

Kapitel Fifty eight

Kapitel Fifty nine.

Kapitel Sixty.

Kapitel Sixty one.

Kapitel Sixty two.

Kapitel Sixty three

Kapitel Sixty four.

Kapitel Sixty five.

Kapitel Sixty six.

Kapitel Sixty seven

Kapitel Sixty eight.

Kapitel Sixty nine.

Kapitel Seventy.

Kapitel Seventy one

Kapitel Seventy two.

Kapitel Seventy three.

Kapitel Seventy four.

Kapitel Seventy five.

Kapitel Seventy six.

Kapitel Seventy seven

Kapitel Seventy eight.

Kapitel Seventy-of-nine

Feb 80.

Kapitel Eighty one.

Kapitel Eighty two.

Kapitel Eighty three.

Kapitel Eighty four

Kapitel Eighty five.

Kapitel Eighty six

Kapitel Eighty seven.

Kapitel Eighty eight.

Kapitel Eighty nine.

Kapitel Ninety

Kapitel Ninety one.

Kapitel Ninety two.

Kapitel Ninety three.

Kapitel Ninety four

Kapitel Ninety five.

Kapitel Ninety six.

Kapitel Ninety seven

Kapitel Ninety eight.

Kapitel Ninety nine.

Kapitel One hundred.

Kapitel One hundred and one

Kapitel One hundred and two

Kapitel One hundred and three

Kapitel One hundred and four

Kapitel One hundred and five

Kapitel One hundred and six

Kapitel One hundred and seven

Kapitel One hundred and eight

Kapitel One hundred and nine

Kapitel One hundred and ten

Kapitel One one one

Kapitel One hundred and twelve

Kapitel One hundred and thirteen

Kapitel One hundred and fourteen

last one

one.

Let us challenge your imagination.

What if you were standing on a small path in a forest near the ocean. What if a heavy mist conceals the surrounding environment? The soft light from the dawn can almost not penetrate the mist, giving what could be a milky, white, and soft mist a rather cold and grey appearance.

Adding the morning cold from a typical autumn day by the ocean, makes all the tiny hairs on your body standing on edge. The chilly morning breeze runs straight through your clothes.

Your eyes are trying to adapt to the environment, but it is just too hard to do, the mist keeps moving and changing, and it is not enough light to separate the mist from actual things. Trees, the path itself, rocks, branches, bushes, everything is molded together to one unity.

Since your vision is clouded by the mist you are solely dependent on your ears. But every single sound you hear around you are hard to identify.

Is it a huge wolf or bear sneaking in the forest, looking for breakfast, or is it any kind of monster, a vampire that has an extended hunting night due to the heavy mist? An undead or a werewolf? Or could it just be cute and tiny birds jumping around on the ground making all these little noises? Your wild imagination makes you pulse rise high, so high that you can almost hear each heartbeat. Your chest is struggling heavy to fill your lungs with the cool and damp morning air without making a sound.

All your senses are impaired. Your imagination has triggered every warning signal in your entire body. You want to run, as fast as you can, down the path to reach the harbour camp and safety. Or turn back to the village. Either way as fast as you can to get out of where you are at the moment. Alone. In the forest. On the unmanned path between the village and the harbour camp. No help nearby, no rescue. Just you. And whatever is out there in the mist with you.

Lucky for you that it is not you on that path, this very moment. Unfortunately, Dee is not that lucky, because she is the one standing on the path this very moment. On the edge of panicking, which she knows is the worst thing she could do right now. If she keeps her calm, she might be able to sneak her way to the harbour camp undetected. Any being out here this morning will struggle with the mist. In a way the mist is her best friend right now. It will partly cover her smell. Both the smell of her flesh that attracts animals, werewolves and the undead, and the smell of her blood that attracts the vampires.

Dee tried not to think of any of the thousand horrible things she could meet out here. She focused on Rick. If she were lucky, today would be the day when his ship returned from the long voyage. She hoped of all her heart that today would still be that day, and that he would be on the ship.

She had not seen her brother in over a year, since he was chosen for that horrible mission by the elders.

She kept her focus. Tried to calm her breathing. Slowly started to move again along the path, trying not to make a single sound. Or at least, as little noise as humanly possible when moving along a narrow path in the middle of the forest that is rarely used.

With all senses tense and on edge she took one small step, then another, without making a single noise. All surrounding sounds kept to their pace and did not seem disturbed by her movement. Then suddenly, after ten steps or so, a branch cracked under her foot. After that, total silence. She could not tell if it was the raising panic dulling her senses, or if the forest in fact had gone silent.

Completely silent. Did she dare to stand still? Or did she dare not to stand still?

From nowhere she heard a faint whisper, so thin she could barely hear it.

“This is my mist. I wish you no harm. Go! I will protect you!”

She could not see who ever was talking to her, she dared not reply. She started to move forward again, slowly, still not able to hear a thing from the surroundings. There was indeed something supernatural about this. Who was it that whispered through the mist? It must be someone with great power. Good or evil? Her thoughts started to spin.

“One day I might call upon your help, but not now. Go my child! Hurry!”

Whoever whispered to her was obviously close, had some kind of power and could protect her from the danger in the forest. From the urgency in the voice the danger could be close. That could explain why she did not hear anything. Anyone close to her would hopefully experience the same. She started to run. Then again. Could she be running into a trap? How could she know that whoever was responsible for the mist had good intentions towards her? The world here outside the cities are cold and hard, full of evil. The villages are fairly safe. Even the various camps, like the harbour camp. But outside of that, especially at night, not a very friendly place. Especially not if you like your life and have planned to stay alive a bit longer.

Being out here was insane, Dee knew that, and by defying her father like this would have painful consequences, she knew that as well. But if there was the slightest chance that Rick was on that ship, she just had to be there when it arrived. She ran as fast as she could.

A million thoughts rushed through her head. Who had whispered in the mist? Who was powerful enough to create it? The wizards were almost extinct. And as far as she knew the few who survived the great war was hiding far south, way past the coldblooded. What service could she possibly provide to someone with powers like this? Maybe it was brilliant hunting maneuver by one of vampires of the old? But could they create the illusion of a whisper with no apparent source?

“Hurry Diane, I cannot hold them much longer! You are getting too far away! Soon you will start to hear small sounds again, then I can protect you no longer.”

Now she was in great trouble! Whoever it was knew her name! She did not know of anyone capable of doing that! What power was that?

But the voice was right. She started to hear tiny noises again. It started with her pounding heart. Her heavy breathing. Then something beside her. She kept running on the path without knowing where on the path she was. If it had been daylight and no mist, she would have recognized the surroundings, but now. No idea. How far was it to the harbour camp? Had she passed the small bridge yet? No, she did not think so, or had she? Hard to say. If she had passed the bridge, she had about a twenty-minute walk to reach the outskirts of the harbour camp. How long would that take to run? She could hear more now, she started to hear her steps on the path as she was struggling forward. For how long could she keep running? Her heart was already pounding hard in her chest, and her breathing was already fast and heavy. Could she make it?

What was that? It sounded like a werewolf howl, pretty close. There were more sounds as well. And was she imagining, or was the mist getting thinner? Yes, it was getting thinner, she could see more of the trees around the path now. She kept running, following the path left and right, up, and down. Had she taken a wrong turn somewhere? Where is that bridge? It felt like she had been out a lot longer than an hour. Normally she would have arrived at the harbour camp by that time. This mist had slowed her down, no doubt, but had she already passed the bridge?

There was the howling again. She stopped. She could see about five feet ahead now. All sounds had turned normal again, she could hear everything around her. Even see small movements in a bush here and there. Probably just the wind. Or maybe a small animal. She hoped anyway.

She started to move slow again, ears focused on every single sound, mostly scanning for the howl. It was hard to move slow again, but she dared not keep running and find herself running in to the arms of a hostile creature.

Finally, the bridge! She was on the right path! But still, a long way to go. About twenty-minute walk from safety. That would be a lot longer in this mist. Maybe an hour longer with this pace.

There was that howl again, very close this time. Chills went down her spine. She almost stopped, only to move very, very slow. Then, a sudden shift in the mist, and a silhouette of the huge werewolf, standing with its back towards her. An equally sudden shift in the mist and the silhouette was gone. She froze. back towards her. An equally sudden shift in the mist and the silhouette was gone. She froze. Unfortunately, the werewolf would not disappear that easily.

two.

The ship rolled from side to side, this storm hit them from nowhere. Even if it was not that rough it affected them all. Probably because they were so close to home. It was far from the worst storm they have seen for the past year, compared to what they had been through, this was almost a nice little Sunday trip with the family, but most other people would either shout their prayers to or curse the creator by now.

The captain had order minimal staff on deck due to the storm, so most of the crew remained under deck in their bunks, listening to all the quirks and quarks of the ship, bending to the ocean’s ever-changing will.

There were forty-eight of them as the Glory left port over a year ago. Only twenty-seven of the original crew members remained. Along the way they had gained thirteen new members, of which they already had lost four, so all in all, it was a crew of thirty-six souls that brought the Glory home. The cargo they carried could not be counted in gold or silver, nor in man hours. So, a price of twenty-five lives was a small price to pay. For all that had survived that is. For the twenty-five lost souls and their families the cargo was of little comfort.

Many wives, fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters would soon be told that their loved ones would not return.

Yesterday the captain held a short speech, stating that this would be the final day offshore, and that they would return to port either late today or tomorrow at the latest.

That was before the storm hit.

The Hawk-man on duty dared only to send out his hawk once during the storm and it seemed the storm had made them drift off course considerably, not to mention that their goal was straight into the eye of the wind. No matter how hard the sails-men worked those sails they could never take the Glory straight into the eye of the wind, they would always deviate from course. It was only natural that the steersman would choose to drift offshore rather than risking collides with underwater rocks near the coastline and it would be a terrible thing to lose both ship and cargo when the journey almost had reached its end.

They had already survived many storms, some of them far worse than this, and also a good share of sea monsters and attacks both from pirates and cold bloods.

The Hawk-man on duty glazed out in the horrid weather front. No end in sight. He dared not send his hawk on scouting mission under these terrible conditions, yet the ship was in great need of guidance. This journey had already costed him three hawks, and only two remained. Granted, this was a risk all Hawks-man took when they signed aboard a ship, but he was not too keen to lose another one, not when they were so close to home.

The steersman called to him over the hard wind, in desperate need of guidance.

Well, leave it in the hands of the creator, off with the hawk, he thought.

The hawk sprung from the Glory like an arrow straight up to the sky. It took only seconds for the Hawk man too loose it out of sight. Like always he felt a certain pride. His hawks were among the fastest and strongest. They came from a long line of hawks bred and trained by his family.

Now all he could do was wait. There was great risk in this, the biggest was for the hawk to lose track of the ship while scouting in all directions to see what lays ahead. Not only was the hawk moving, the ship was also moving and could easily be lost between the clouds and big waves. But he was confident that the hawk would return with status in a short while. He knew that the steersman was depending on him in storms and on cloudy days when they were cut off from the sun, moons and the stars. He eagerly awaited the return of his hawk.

About five more minutes passed before he heard the familiar shriek from his hawk. It had made it! He held out his hand to greet it and to give it a place to land.

He saw the steersman looking in his direction, eagerly waiting for word of status.

He began his debrief of the hawk as usual. First of was land sighting. The hawk cried and shook his head once. No land to the north. Repeated the same for south. And east. But for west the hawk nodded. Ok.

“Land due west!” he yelled to the steersman though the hard wind.

Distance? Five cries with wings to its side.

“Five short distances.” he continued.

Next was hostile movements. The hawk cried and nodded its head for all directions.

“Hostiles in all directions” he yelled, and the steersman immediately sounded the alarm.

This was a bad situation, so close to land and hostile movements in all directions. Storms was known to make sea monsters surface, but it was very unusual with sea monsters in these waters.

He did not envy the decision the steersman had to take now.

It was clear that they needed to steer off from shore to avoid stranding the ship or risk damaging it on underwater cliffs. But with sea monsters in all directions they risked being detected and attacked.

The Hawks man gave the hawk its reward, a shiny silverfish. They just loved them and could not get enough of them.

All crew on shift had now taken their stations on deck. All was armed and ready to fight.

The sails men were on station awaiting any orders from the steersman. The crew was very disciplined and drilled to perfection. The captain was very demanding but very generous when it came to share the prize money.

Suddenly there was an alarm signal coming from the rear left men, and the men arming the arrows turned their towers to meet the threat.

three.

Even if she just got a glimpse of the werewolf and it was standing with his back towards her, she knew that it could smell her presence. This was it. The end of her life. In any second, she would be torn into pieces. If she were lucky, she would be killed by the first attack, if not they would probably hear her scream of pain and agony all the way down to the harbour camp.

She braced herself, expecting the attack any moment now. There was no way she could escape this. No one could outrun a werewolf at close range. She had no weapons of any kind, no security detail, and no backup. She was alone. A howl cut through the mist, followed by a growl and heavy movement. She could hear the beast’s feet scratch the surface of the path, breaking several branches with each step.

Out of nowhere there came a howl to the left of her, and then another from the right and a little behind her. There were three of them!

Even if thoughts appear in microseconds and are processed by the brain instantly, I doubt that anyone has had so many thoughts rushing through the mind as Dee had in that moment.

The strangest thing of it all, she reflected on later, is that among all the million thoughts that rushed through her head at that moment, the most intense was the thought on how to escape. What direction was the best to try and run for it.

When there was only one, the most intense was that she was going to die and imagining the many ways it could happen. But with three monsters so close, the escape was the strongest.

Even if her body froze, and the blood in her veins along with it, and every single hair on her body, no matter how tiny or small, was standing straight out and her skin was covered with goosebumps everywhere, even then her brain was struggling to send signals to every muscle in her body to move, to run, to put up a fight. The only thing in her conscious mind was to survive.

Even if there are zero stories of any human surviving a meeting with more than one werewolf, she was determined to survive a meeting with three at close range.

The mist was still thick and concealed all the werewolves. They still howled. And even if each second lasted longer than most days, she could still register them, wondering why they did not attack. The more seconds that passed, the more she realized that the howls were not in aggression, rather of agony.

She could hear movements from all three fronts and did still not dare to move.

As time passed, she had to choke a bubble of laughter, she realized that she had not been breathing for a very long time, and for some reason it seemed fun at the moment.

Several minutes passed, or lifetimes as Dee felt it, and then the mist started to clear.

She found herself trapped between the three werewolves, all rising twice as high as herself. They were standing in a triangle with their backs towards each other, and almost in the middle of them was Dee. Seconds later she grasped why they were standing like this. In front of each monster stood five or six Vampires. All of them with silver armor plates covering almost the entire body. Only their feet, hands and face were uncovered by silver. Their armor was so beautifully crafted that they had to be crafted by the dwarf masters in the old mountain. Dee acted instantly and started to run. She could see in the corner of her eye that one of the Vampire hunters changed his focus from the beast to her, but his commander screamed something in Vampirski. Should she know Vampirski she would have understood the commanders order to keep focus on the mark. But the order came just a split second too late and the beast attacked the hunting party in front of it. At the same time, the other two attacked as well.

As Dee fled in panic straight into the forest, leaving the fighting parties behind her the mist got thicker again. She could barely see where she was going but kept on moving forward as fast as she could, trying to get as far away from all the horrible creatures behind her.

Had she met either one of them, or at least only one kind of them, she would have been dead by now. Fortunate for her that they were focusing on each other.

When thinking back, she has no idea how long she was running in the mist, or in what direction she ran. Distance, time, and direction was consumed by the mist. What she does remember was the fall. Suddenly, the ground disappeared beneath her feet. She fell, without bouncing into anything on the way down, then an equally sudden stop and she got cold and wet. Not just cold, but almost numb. Then everything faded away.

four

Close behind them, the crew of the Glory saw one of the largest sea monsters they had seen on their entire journey. It was a new kind they had not encountered before, but they recognized its type from descriptions of other seamen.

A large whaleish fish with four long arms around the face, and a wide mouth filled with teeth. It swam fast towards them, getting ready to ram them from behind, but as it came closer, the arrow-men fired their arrows with great precision, forcing the monster to dive. As soon as it had submerged, the alarm came from the front of the ship. Another monster was about to attack from the front. It was of a kind they had seen before. A great squid with its tentacles ready to grab the ship. The arrow men hurried to rotate their towers and aimed at the new threat and at the same time the entire ship made a sudden lurch to the left, almost pushing the rail below water. That must have been the first monster that attacked from beneath.

Now the captain joined on deck. Not hesitating once to give order to the towers to divide their attention on both monsters. He’d also woken the men off duty to be part in the battle and ordered one of them to take scout, something that we all knew was risky in the storm, which was why it was unmanned at the moment.

The Glory took another heavy lurch, still to the left, as if the monster knew what it was doing and calculated its attack to get the ship to take in water from one side. But then the attack came from right and at the same time the giant squid had almost reached the ship and had gotten its first wave of arrows. The arrow men quickly reloaded and was ready for a second round towards it, but now it seemed that the two monsters had seen each other and started to battle over the ship. This was a terrible situation, two big sea monsters to the right of the ship, land somewhere close to the left and a raging storm all over the place.

The captain ordered the arrow men to stand down and save arrows for further encounters but keep a high alert since the two monsters was fighting so close. At any sign of the battle coming closer, they should fire all they got to try and force the monsters away from the ship.

The scout shouted from the top of the mast, barely hearable.

“Land due left, two short distances.”

That mean that they had drifted three short distances in a very short while, partly due to the attacks of the sea monster, but even so, very close to the shore with no possibility to steer out to open water again. At least not now.

Captain and the steersman talked about turning the ship around, but it was dangerous to turn either way in this storm not taking the land nor sea monsters into account.

“Hawk man, send the hawk to scout for hostiles, I want numbers and directions”, the captain shouted and continued to the scout in the top of the mast:

“Scout, let me know of any incoming hostiles, and keep continues updates on land due west!”

Both the Hawk man and the Scout confirmed their orders.

The Hawks man released his hawk, and it flew straight as an arrow up in the sky, equally fast as the last time, only never to return to the Glory again.

“Incoming hostile due left!” shouted the Scout and the captain ordered the towers to split focus, two remained on the two fighting monsters and two towers facing the new threat.

“Incoming hostile due aft!” The captain was just about to give a new set of orders when the Scout continued:

“Two incoming hostiles due aft, one incoming due left and another one due left! Land due left, one short distance.”

The crew all gasped. Six sea monsters on one location, even if it were wise to assume that they would engage each other in battle, it was rare to see two at one time, now they were surrounded by six! And they were drifting very close to shore with no possibility to steer out to open water again.

The entire situation was a nightmare.

“Anchors! Get down below and secure the cargo!” the captain ordered and both anchors left their position at once, leaving the sails men unanchored.

The arrow men fired round after round, all concentrating on the threat closest to them. It looked like the kept the monsters at bay, but a sudden hit to the right of the ship made everybody stumble and with a terrifying scream the Scout fell of the ship into the raging water and disappeared.

Then there was another bump, and yet another, now they could all see the coastline, covered in razor sharp graphite cliffs, less than two hundred feet away. They all knew that underwater cliffs were very common outside of graphite mountains.

Then their attention got called again, a great sea snake came directly from right and opened its wide mouth.

five.

When Dee opened her eyes, she was disoriented. Had no idea where she was. She could not feel her body at first. All she could see was the treetops and the blue sky high above. When she slowly turned her head from side to side, she saw the steep mountain sides on each side of her. It took a while before her mind could process all the things she had just experienced. As far as she knew no one had survived an encounter with more than one werewolf nor with a more than a couple of vampires. And from what she could recall from all the stories and rumors from travelers and traders, she had never heard of a clash between the two clans.

As her head and brain slowly processed everything, she started to feel her body again. First, she felt cold, really cold and she shivered all the way into her bones, if that is even possible. Then she felt wet. Cold and wet, and horribly stiff. As she rose her head she could suddenly hear again. She had landed in water, slow running water, not very deep, face up. Face up. Escaped death at least twice she thought to herself as she tried to move her stiff body. It was a struggle to rise, but soon she was sitting in the water and got a good look around her. She had fallen into a ravine, probably created by this tiny water-flow, eroding the mountain through time, eating its way down. Almost no vegetation had made its way down here, could be due to lack of sunlight. It was not dark, but there was no direct sunlight coming down, and it would not be able to do so, unless the sun were standing straight above the ravine. And that would not occur more than a short while each day.

She looked up. The steep mountainside was at least 50 feet from the edge to the bottom. She was lucky to have survived that fall, so make that at least three times she had cheated death by now. She did not feel any pain in her body, only stiff and cold. She struggled a bit to get on her knees and then stood up, stretching her limbs as best as she could.

She could not hear anything but the pouring of the water. She looked back to where the water came from. A long way back, in an almost straight line, no end in sight. She turned the other way. Equally long and straight. But she figured, if the water is going somewhere, it is probably heading for the ocean, and so was she. So, if she could not climb up here, she might be able to find another way closer to the ocean. Then she started to walk along the creek.

Every inch of her body was aching, more and more for each step it seemed. She was stiff and sore all over, and if anyone had seen her, they would either pity her or laugh at her.

In fact, there was one watching. And following. Someone who did not pity her and did not laugh.

The eyes that had captured her followed her on a distance, making sure not to be revealed.

As Dee walked on in this endless eroded corridor, she thought about many things. Both the nature of the creek, how long had it taken the water to cut out a ravine like this, and how was it even possible? Where did the water come from and was, she right in her assumption that the water was leading to the ocean?

She also thought about fear. It had paralyzed her, made her blood freeze, and yet, her mind had been quite calm. It was as if the fear and the entire situation had sharpened her mind, at least in that moment. She could see details like never before, even if the mist had clouded everything, she could almost recall every hair on the body of the beasts, their movement to detail and all the little sounds they were making. Odd. Or was it just her imagination that filled in the blanks and compensated for the failure of all her senses.

Since the view did not change no matter how many steps she was taking, she kind of drifted away in her own thoughts at first, and as the number of steps grew, she moved on autopilot and the steady stream of thoughts had faded to a still nothingness.

The eyes that followed her did not miss a single step. Even if the daylight had faded and the darkness would embrace the ravine entirely any minute now, the eyes did not get tired of watching. Waiting.

When Dee came back to reality, it was completely dark around her. She did not know how long she had been walking in the dark, only that it was dark. Dark and cold. She looked up towards the sky, but either it was cloudy or the light from the stars was too weak to reach down this ravine.

She suddenly felt tired. She had not eaten anything since this morning, and it had been an eventful day, even if she had walked along the creek for the most part of the day, with no end in sight. She sat down, feeling a bit sorry for herself. Wondered if her dad missed her if he was worried. She wondered if Rick had returned only to find his sister missing. What a disaster. She should have listened to her father. He was very clear when they discussed the matter at the breakfast table, no leaving the village in this mist. But she did not listen. As always. Why, oh why, did she have to be so stubborn?

The eyes kept close watch over the human. Waited patiently. Soon.

Dee leaned toward the mountain wall. Even if it was a bit cold, it was better to lean towards the wall than to sleep on the wet ground with her entire body. It did not take long before she fell asleep.

Now the human was asleep. Now it was time.

Six.

As the sea snake attacked with full speed from the right and closed its enormous jaws around the rails of the Glory, she squeaked in every single piece of the wood that she was crafted from. The stress from the raging ocean, the storm and the sea snake tested her strength to the limit. But even with big chunks of the ship missing from the snake attack, she was still in the game.

The captain counted the men on deck. Only one sails man left at its position, all arrow men still hanging strong, his scout missing from before, the steersman still at his post. Maybe they had a chance, but it was not a big one. His only option was to leave everything in the hand of the creator. May his will be executed on this day.

With little hope he started to give orders to the remaining crew on deck. All but the steersman and the arrow men were ordered below deck, preparing for the worst. He himself stayed on deck, as a captain should, no matter what his ship was facing.

He wondered if the Anchormen had secured the cargo, and what would happen if the Glory did not make it through this. Should all his own sacrifices and the sacrifices of the men be in vain, or was there a slight chance that the cargo would reach its destination?

He often took pride in being a man of faith, but at this moment his faith was not very strong. Even so, he tried to find it. His faith had always been a source of strength, but where it used to be, he only found distrust and despair.

As the sea snake came around for a second attack he turned to the steersman and saluted him in a traditional honor salute. Hand raised with three fingers up, one for himself, one for the one he saluted and the third for the creator. Old habits were not affected by his current loss of faith.

The snake took another big bite of the Glory, leaving her severely crippled in the water. Almost nothing remained of the deck and everybody that was on deck was gone. Either they fell into the water or they were on their way down the snake's stomach.

The Glory started to take in water and the remainder of the crew started to evacuate. They all knew that the cargo was their main priority, those who made it back alive with the cargo would be well rewarded. Should any one of them return without the cargo, or at least its whereabouts, they might as well not return at all.

The Glory had been built to sustain a certain amount of attacks from pirates and sea creatures, there was a special compartment two decks below the main deck. This compartment was built to be sealed off entirely, and even if the ship were going down it could still be ejected in any direction, given that the ship was fairly intact. The only two persons that was in that compartment was the Anchormen that had gotten the order to secure the cargo. Some men were standing outside of the compartment banging its walls and, now closed openings, wanting to get in. Some tried threatening their way in, calling the two cowards and many other names I will not recite here. Others begged and prayed. All was aware that the Glory was lost. There was only one last journey for her, and none of them would like to accompany her down to the bottom of the sea.

All around the compartment the two men heard the sound of breaking wood, water flooding in, screams from their fellow shipmates, growl from the sea snake and the rage of the storm outside. The two had no clear picture of what part of the ship was less affected, so they did not know which direction they should try to release the compartment, nor when they should attempt to do so. It was always meant for the captain to be here with the cargo in case of emergency. Neither understood the captain’s choice to go down with the vessel unless he had no hope of any survivors.

Both looked to the other for encouragement and advice on what to do. Neither said anything and from the compartment came not a single sound. A ghostlike safe spot in the middle of everything. Like sitting inside a tomb while it was sealed by a disaster outside its walls.

As the sea snake engaged with the other monsters in battle the Glory took its last breath of fresh air before submerging entirely, never to return to the surface again. More good souls lost in its cause. More families that would mourn their sacrifice.

seven

Dee slept uneasy, it was hard and cold, but then again, something felt warm. And there was something bright. She was uncertain whether it all was a dream or if it was real. She felt like she was on the edge between dream and reality, where the two met and blended, unable to separate from each other. It was hard to tell what was real and what was dream. Maybe it all was a dream. Maybe she was still in her bed at home, just anxious over the possibility to meet her brother the next day, and somehow it all turned into a weird nightmare.

She could hear little noises that she did not recognize. And something that might be a fire. But more like a still fire in the fireplace than a raging fire that consumed a building. She desperately wanted to wake up to see what reality she woke up to, but she just could not force her body to wake up. Her eyes remained shut and she was still balancing on the thin edge between the two worlds. She remained there until something captured her attention. Something in the real world. A noise or a voice. She was uncertain of which.

It was still dark. But she was warm and dry. She could hear the sparking of a fire, there was no doubt in her mind. It took a while to realize we was laying down, not sitting up as when she fell asleep. Above was the darkness of the ravine and the dark, starless night-sky.

It felt strange, it was not hard and cold stone beneath her, and all the moist from the tiny creek seemed to be gone. She turned her head to the right, and there was the mountain wall, vaguely visible. She turned her head to the left and to her surprise, there was a tiny fire, almost burned out. The sound she that woke her up, and as she still was hearing, was coming from the dark, somewhere downstream from where she was. She could not see anything in the dark, only hear.

It was some kind of muttering and something else to, she could not make out what it was, but almost like someone was dragging something.

She sat up, turned her head towards the sound, but still could not see anything. Beneath her was a bed of old leaves and dry moss. The fire was located on the other riverbank, well, on the other side of the tiny stream. Even if it was tiny, the fire that is, it was still giving a lot of heat.

But what was that noise? Dee focused on the sound again, gazed out in the dark.

In a split of a second, she thought she saw a pair of shiny dots in the dark in the direction of the sound. Perhaps a pair of eyes? But she could not see them anymore, and the longer she thought about it, the more unsure she was. It could have been anything, then again, nothing at all. But the sound was there, even if it was faint at times.

As she gazed out in the dark, time seemed to stand still, but the source of the sound was not. She was sure that it kept coming closer. But time and again, she was uncertain from what direction it came. The echoes in the ravine confused her.

She sat there, wondering what made the sound. Or rather, who made the sound. Every now and then she could make out a clear word. Not necessary a word she knew, but clearly a word, which meant that it came from a sentient being. The other evidence that supported that was that she was left on a primitive bed, and that he/she/it/they had made her a fire. Not only a fire, but a fire at a safe distance. The creature(s) probably did not mean her any harm, which was a comforting thought.

She turned her head from side to side. Trying to determine what way the sound originated from. At this point, it was probably her mind playing tricks with her.

Suddenly Dee could hear a full sentence. Even if it made her feel uneasy, she welcomed it.

”Oh great! Now it is awake, stupid human!” was the muttering words she could make out. Shortly thereafter she saw a little creature coming from downstream, dragging something behind. She could not make out what it was, but it looked like something in a sack.

The creature was walking on the other side of the little stream, towards the fire. Well, since the riverbank was so small, there was not really room to walk towards something else.

The mutter continued and as it kept growing in strength, Dee felt less and less hopeful.

”Stupid, stupid human, coming down here and disturbing Groll. Like the old days. Always same filthy humans. Cannot do anything right. Leaving their stinky paths, wandering of in the great forest like they owned it. Never something good came from those filthy creatures. Arrogant and stupid. Helpless like animal babies. And stupid. That is what Groll hates the most, the stupidity! Cannot see anything for what it is, always need to evaluate everything, giving it a price. Stinking humans! Dividing, categorizing, assigning value… Should be extinct the lot of them, they should!”

Eight.