Chapter 6: The Elwin Sea.
The cold wind touches my skin as my hair flutters with it. The deck was filled with sweaty, busy sailors and some fully armored soldiers from the Magicae country. The strong wind flowed into the sail as the ship was pushed fast going east. The deck was big, enough for about 40 crew members, soldiers included. The dignified captain Stratford was at the helm, guiding the ship towards its destination. It has been 2 days since we left Barrsons Harbor, and the trip should take 5 at most. The Owl’s Wings, What an interesting name, I thought to myself. The mascot for the country of Magicae was an owl. Owls were usually the go-to familiar of wizards. Chelsea always wanted one, and the Issak and Goodwin would always tell her: “When you reach adult age, you can get your own money and buy yourself one.” Maybe I should try to get her one after I have found her. I looked at the battle-ax on my lap. The rune symbol was that of strength. After the fight with Johnathan’s mercenary, I have been testing out the magic inside the blade. I closed my eyes and focused on the blade, as I feel my body getting lighter and lighter. I have come to the conclusion that the blade can change the mass of the user to some extent. I put the blade back behind my shoulder as I stood up. Standing on the edge of the ship, I could feel that I was missing home. Ironically, I have always wanted to act on my own and travel the world. I could not see anything past the sea. It was just water and water. I felt a certain anxious feeling. The Elwin Sea was not exactly known to be peaceful. Pirates and strange monsters lurked here, waiting for any victims they could get their hands on. One of the books that I brought with me was “The Dictionary of Monsters” by Leoyarus Summermight. Here, multiple different sea creatures were described. The most common sea monsters are usually the charming Mermaids and the ship-wrecking Colossal Octopuses, and others. The book also describes rare monsters like Giant Birds or Sirens and other uncommon creatures.
Pirates and monsters were not exactly on my worry list, however. The sky was haunted with gray clouds. I could only hope that the captain is good at dealing with storms. I greeted the captain as I walked up to the helm.
“The weather isn’t exactly in our favor.”
“We will be fine. We should get there before the storm hits.” He said to me.
He had a worried look on his face as he said that, and that just added to my anxiety. When I first came aboard, he told me to never go below deck in the storage area. I wonder what is he hiding down there.
“What harbor are we going to in Magicae?” I asked him attentively.
“Crescent Moon, in the city of Lunae Lumen,” He said with a sharp tone.
He kept on tapping his food on the floor. I had a feeling I was annoying him so I went back to the main deck.
Eventually, night came. The sailors went into one room below the deck while the soldiers slept on the hammocks. I slept on the floor on the deck, as there was no place for me. The sky was filled with clouds, more than I remembered seeing in the morning. The captain was the last person that left the deck. The captain had his own cabin, which he never let anyone inside. The silence of the night felt peaceful. As I looked up to the sky while slowly falling asleep, I felt a little more at peace than I was before. I drifted off to sleep as the silence of the night consumed me.
Something dropped on my face. When I opened my eyes, the sky was still dark. It was raining viciously, with lightning and thunders soaring in the sky. Some of the soldiers have woken up and got out of their hammocks. I could hear footsteps running below the deck. The captain and several crew members eventually bolted through the door and got to the other side of the deck. The captain quickly gets on the helm and yelled out orders to his crew. I looked around to see if there was anything that I could help with. There was a man that was struggling to deploy the anchor. I needed to get that anchor down so that the ship’s bow points to the wind. The anchor would help to prevent the ship from capsizing no matter where the wind blew. I went to the man and helped him get the anchor down. We both managed to drop the heavy anchor into the sea. I thought we were a bit safe as the captain seemed to have the situation under control, but it was when a soldier screamed out in pain that I knew the storm was the least of my worries. I could not see the sea monsters as it was too dark outside, I just knew that we were under attack. The sailor that I was with suddenly got knocked onto the air and disappeared into the darkness. Flying monsters, I was thinking until I heard one of them diving at me. I caught a glimpse of the monster. It had a yellow beak and angry eyes. Giant Eagles. Another sailor right in front of me was knocked into the air again. Multiple Giant Eagles. I looked to Captain Stratford, as he was still focused on directing the ship. I ran as fast as I could to the helm.
“GIANT EAGLES” I yelled to the captain
“I HAVE EYES, THANK YOU. PROTECT ME WHILE I CONTROL THIS SHIP” He yelled on top of his lungs back at me.
I saw the gigantic birds snatch 2 soldiers, and I felt a sense of fear over me. I needed to be able to see if I wanted to fight off these monstrous creatures. I took my battle-ax and made my body lighter. The blue light of the shining rune gave me some light. The giant eagles seemed to have noticed the light as well, as I saw both of them diving at me. I slashed my ax at the first eagle that came at me, I could not see very well, but it felt like that I have hit something. One of the giant eagles got knocked down behind me, with its wings bleeding. I saw 2 soldiers running up the deck with their swords out, wanting to finish that bird. One of them saw me and tried to tell me something. Before I could hear it, I heard the other bird coming at me and knocked me into the air. It grabbed its legs tightly on my body, but I was able to secure my arms. I held my battle-ax and tried to slash it on air, but it dropped me before I could do it. I was barely able to grab on the edge of the ship before I fell into the ocean. My ax dropped from my hand but I was able to grab it with my left arm. The strain hurt my right arm so much I thought it was going to separate from my body. I used my ax to make myself considerably lighter, and pulled myself up to the deck again. Because my body was light, the ax felt too heavy for me to handle, so I used it to get back to normal. The scene on the deck was like a nightmare. There were bodies everywhere, blood stained the once clean deck. The survivors are running around like maniacs, panicking, not knowing what to do. The captain is trying to give orders to the remaining crew members to no prevail, and there was still one more monster to deal with. I used my ax again, making myself heavier so that the rune would shine and I could use the ax with more force. The bird noticed me again, as it dived down faster than most people could perceive. But I was focused, and I used all the strength in my body to cut that eagle down. The giant eagle’s head flew off its neck, as its blood spilled all over the deck. Afterward, I lied down on my back, as that was the first fight against flying monsters that I ever fought. The storm was still going on, but I had faith in the captain that he could get everything under control. And before long, the Owl’s Wings finally survived the storm.
