Cliffs rose half a kilometer straight from the ocean depths. No welcoming shores or sandy beaches were in sight. Waves crashed relentlessly against a wall of brown rock. Dried salt clung to the high-water line. A colony of shellfish darkened the bottommost portion of the cliffs. Fog blocked the view of the heights as it floated in thin wisps. Dew surveyed the coast of the Tramen continent through his scope before shouting the news from the mast.
“Land ahead! The cliffs of Tramen are closing in.”
“Wake me when we go ashore,” Darrell moaned.
Darrell dared to peak over the deck, only to lay back down and watch the sky swirl above him. His palm covered his left eye as he steadied his head against the Quagmire’s rocking. Toward the storage compartment, Josh husked peanuts; when he had five, he flung them into his mouth. He leaned backward and finished chewing before throwing the shells overboard. Nadia left the cabin, climbed to the mast, and snatched the telescope from Dew. He smiled gently. The scope brought the barely visible cliffs into clearer focus. She put her hand over it to ward off the sun. Fog rolled along the cliff while the colonies of crustaceans clung as black and white splotches amidst the rocks.
“I see it. It’s almost over.”
“It’s about time we got this circus over with,” Josh said.
“We can’t get too close to the cliffs,” Dew warned.
“Why?” Nadia asked.
“The currents are treacherous. We could get pushed far back out to sea. Worse, we could get smashed against the cliffs themselves. There are whirlpools that will drag anyone who attempts to swim into the deep. These waters each unfathomable depth. Even the few beaches where a landing is possible hide deep waters. Tramen is known as the fortress continent for good reason.”
“Please Dew, don’t give up,” Nadia pleaded with hands clasped, “If anyone can get us to land safely it has to be you, and you know this means the world to me.”
Dew blushed, “I’ll try my best, but it might take a while.”
“Do you have any fours?” Darrell asked.
“Go fish,” Nadia said sleepily.
A warm gust toyed with the flaps of Nadia’s loose sleeveless shirt as she grasped her cards. Darrell didn’t get the card he needed, so his turn passed to Vestor.
“Okay, here goes,” Vestor announced, “This time I’m going to win it all. You’re all going to go home crying to mommy because the unstoppable menace has beaten you. I never hold anything back. I mean it this time. No mercy. I’m going to-”
“Would you just go already?” Darrell asked.
“Do you have any sixes?” Vestor asked.
“We played all the sixes two minutes ago,” Nadia said, forcefully poking the four sixes in Awlena’s book. “Haven’t you been paying attention to the rules? You can only ask if someone has a card you have.”
“Do I get to go fish? I wanna go fish. I wanna go fish!”
Nadia put her palms down and leaned over to Vestor until the tip of her nose was perfectly aligned with his.
“You don’t want to go fish. That’s bad.”
Awlena couldn’t help giggling, “This is your fifth game. You should understand the rules by now. You are ten years old, correct?”
“Ah, ah, of course I understand. But fishing is more fun. I went fishing all the time in the ponds outside the village and caught all sorts of things.”
“This is cards,” Nadia groaned, “It’s not the same.”
“I don’t care. I’m going to fish.”
Vestor pulled a card from the pile.
“You can’t do it like that!”
A tug of war ensued as Nadia grabbed the other end of the card. Darrell, who was also a member of the game, sat on his feet and blinked. Awlena held her cards like an outstretched fan. Vestor and Nadia pulled at the disputed card until it ripped in half. They both slid into the arranged cards to make a total mess of the game tally. The king of hearts flew into the air and blew overboard while Nadia and Vestor ended up each holding a halve of the three of diamonds. Vestor jumped back amidst the disheveled cards.
“So much for card games,” Darrell said.
“I didn’t even want to catch that,” Vestor said, throwing his halved card down, “I’ll fish these other cards instead.”
“Keep the whole deck. It’s worthless now, and trying to teach you isn’t worth the hassle.”
Nadia stood and stretched with a big yawn. A breeze cooled the slightly more golden arms. The port side of the ship faced the Tramen cliffs as it sailed a few miles off the coast. The surfaces were oddly smoothed, except for a few caves at sea level and some craggy outcropping of rocks ahead of the heights. The edges of the cliffs were still sharp, they were neither graduated nor sloped, but still plunged directly into the ocean.
“Are you sure we’re going the right way?” Nadia looked up toward Dew, “You said we’d be on shore within a few hours and it’s been a whole day already.”
“I underestimated in my haste to please you. It’ll be a little while longer until we find a suitable shore.”
Three days passed.
The unbroken line of cliffs continued in the distance. Hot, dry, winds blew from the cloudless skies of the continent. A half-eaten cooked fish sat on a plate. The afternoon sun injected its rays into any exposed skin. Nadia pulled herself above the left rail, peeked over the boat, winced after seeing more cliffs, and fell back over the deck. A dab of lip gloss eased the stinging of her sunbaked lips.
“How much longer. I’m getting a burn.”
“I suggest you rest in the cabin with the others until we find a shore.”
“If I leave it to you, I’ll be eighty by the time we land this stupid boat.”
Josh pounded the storage compartment, “I suggest we pull this boat forward and scale the cliffs. It’s the only way.”
“No way,” Vestor cried, “Take me home first.”
“The child is right,” Dew said, “Scaling the cliffs would be suicide. There are many shores that offer access to the continent. If we’re patient, we’ll come across one.”
Nadia sat up, “I don’t have that much time. I have to attend school in less than a week and there’s no way I want to spend eleventh grade as a girl. Besides, my dad can’t buffalo people forever. Someone will think my boy self is missing and get the police involved. Who knows what else could happen. We already wasted too much time in the village. Please, we can’t afford these delays.”
“I’m doing my best to navigate efficiently. The delays are nature’s work. Not mine. What are these ‘police’ you speak of?”
“They protect people from crimes and catch people who break the law. But if they have reason to believe my father did something to me because I’m missing, he’ll be in a lot of trouble.”
“You can always tell them the truth.”
“They wouldn’t believe a word of it.”
“Submit your DNA,” Josh said, “It would be the same.”
“Don’t men and women have different DNA?” Nadia asked.
“Only one chromosome, right?
“What if the spell changed my DNA in other ways?”
Josh smirked, “Even if they could prove you are who you were, they’d take you away to area 51 and study you until they found out how the change worked. Then they’ll dissect you and write about their findings in top secret documents.”
Thump.
Vester leaned over Nadia, “She fainted?”
“Must be sea-sick,” Josh said.
The blue telescope proved a rudimentary device with poor magnification by any modern standard. The strong moon provided illumination with the aid of a cloudless night. Dark water sloshed against the vessel. As far as Nadia could tell, the cliffs in the distance remained unbroken. She heard the others snoring in the cabin below, only Vestor sat outside with her. She jumped down from the mast to check on him. He sat calmly over the edge of the cabin hump and watched the ocean. He’d slept in the cabin most of the afternoon and through the early part of the evening despite her warnings and now he couldn’t sleep. She smiled at him, but left him to his own devices and climbed to the mast again. Her eyes strained through the telescope as she scanned the cliffs again.
This time, she spotted a crack in the cliff that allowed the waters of the ocean access to the interior, a natural harbor. This was her breakthrough. The narrow end of the telescope stuffed into the pocket of her jeans before she jumped to the cabin. Vestor continued to watch the ocean in the moonlight as if nothing was happening. Inside the cabin, everyone slept soundly. Awlena had her own space separate from the boys via a wooden barrier.
“I found a passage!” Nadia shouted, “I found a passage!”
Dew sat straight, Darrell opened his eyes but rolled on his stomach and attempted to ignore her. Awlena peeked from behind her improvised barrier.
“What news?” Dew asked.
“I found a passage. Everyone awake! We’re going ashore!”
“Drop anchor here then and get some rest,” Dew said, “We’ll navigate it at daybreak.”
“Why not now? Come out and see. I found it because I have to do everything. Does it upset you that much that I found it?”
Dew sighed, “Everyone is exhausted. No doubt yourself included. I don’t intend to get us killed for darkness and lack of sleep. Please, drop the anchor and get some sleep. I’ll check in the morning. You can wait a few more hours; it won’t destroy you.”
"You could at least come out and confirm it."
Silence as Nadia stood frowning at the moonlit door for a long moment.
“Fine! I guess I’ll drop anchor myself too!”
The cabin door slammed shut.
