[centre][h1]The Journey to Tendlepog: Chapter 3[/h1][/centre] The shrine they erected for Ashalla displayed the wonderful skill of the carpenters aboard, Qiang Yi thought. Due to spatial constraints, they sadly could not make it larger, but they made due with a one metre tall carven effigy made to resemble her awestriking appearance: It started thin at the bottom, then grew in width and bulk until a humanoid female form sprouted with its arms raised to the sky. It has no clear face, but its skin was etched with wavy lines and sea motifs. Hopefully, it would have been satisfactory in her eyes. It had made sense to place it at the bow - should they encounter her again, it would be the first thing she would see. No loss in appealing to the gods, the crew had reasoned. This quite literal figurehead would guide them along the shore of the Dragon’s Foot as surely as Her Holiness Ashalla herself would have. Qiang Yi stood at the bow, admiring the figurehead as well as the surrounding ocean. He had spoken the truth in his poem - the sea truly did mirror, if not, dared he say, outmatch the rivers. There was a sobering monotony to it, yet a luring mysticism. “I pray there will be more trips after this,” he said to no one in particular. “Yes, it -is- quite a sight, cap’n.” Qiang Yi turned around. Zeng En, the quartermaster and a servant of the Strong, gave him a wink as he crossed his arms over his chest. “I reckon you’ll be sent on numerous voyages like this ‘un.” Qiang Yi gave him a wry smile. “I would, actually, though the waves do make it difficult to write poetry.” Zeng En smirked back and gave him a gentle pat on the shoulder. “You’ll get used to it, cap’n. I, for one, love it ‘ere. Don’t get me wrong, the work aboard Jiangzhou is rewardin’ and all, but…” He sucked in a lungful of sea air. “This sensation of discovery - this joy in my spirit; these, I will miss when we return to Jiangzhou.” Qiang Yi gave him a warm smile. “Then we must insist that His Lordship send more gifts.” Zeng En nodded. “Now pardon me, if you would,” he said, “My fresh air break is over, I’m afraid, so below deck again, I go.” “Of course,” replied Qiang Yi. The two bowed to one another and Zeng En walked off. Qiang Yi stared ahead again. Yes, magnificent waters. Oh, he should just grab his brush and a page and start writing about the fantastic motifs as sea meets shore and-- Wait, where was the shore? Qiang Yi shot a glance eastward. In the distance, he saw some faint green and the simplistic glitter of snow atop a very, very distant Xishan. He stormed up to the helmspost in a hurry. “Zhen-zhen! What’s our course?!” he boomed. The first mate quickened to, nearly lobbing her book overboard. “D-due north as usual, captain!” she said obediently. “Yes, I realise that, but -why- are we so far away from the shore?!” Qiang Yi replied furiously. “No need to yell, captain. We had to avoid some reefs earlier, so we turned a little far portside. Not to worry, though!” She dragged the tiller to the left, sending the ship back towards the shore. “There! That wasn’t so hard, right?” “Silence your smug, Zhen-zhen. You are the helmsman - you are supposed to keep the course, not--!” A pulse went through the water and brushed against the ship - very distant, but ominously audible. “Did you hear something?” Qiang Yi asked. Zhen-zhen nodded, her face draining of colour. [hr] As Galbar’s lands had grown wonderous from the works of gods, day’s turning to night and back again in an never ending cycle, so too, had something grown in the ocean. Now almost forgotten, save for those few that remembered. Many had perished to cannibalism, and lack of food, but the few who survived had been rewarded with delicacies of the living. Growing fat and mighty. That hunger they held, was as deep and vast as the ocean, and would never end. Not until they were all but dead. Now, something unfathomably old swam in the deep, heralded by the ethereal beauty of starlight. Such a light beckoned all that would look upon it, for it’s glow was but temptation, and it had found something new. Something with [i]souls[/i]. It let out another rumble from it’s maw. The pulse ran through the water again, much, much closer now. [hr] The pulse nearly shook the crew members off balance. Heads were beginning to turn and voices began to whimper. Qiang Yi boomed orders in every direction: “Bring out oars! Furl the stern sail, it slows us down! Faster, people, we need to MOVE!” Servants ran, tripped, slipped, crawled - the deck was a chaotic mess as oars were brought out and put to use. The panic caused uneven distribution of oars on each side, inciting Zhen-zhen to call for support at the helmspost to keep the ship from setting a course into deeper sea. “Equal number of oars on each side! Less flight, more fight!” she shouted angrily. Even as the rowers distributed themselves equally on each side, the ship could not seem to pick up speed quickly enough. Meanwhile, Qiang Yi went below deck with Zeng En and began to look for any weapons. “What tools can we sacrifice in a crisis, Zeng En?” Qiang Yi said, digging desperately through a toolbox. “If necessary, we can repurpose the saws into axes - the hammers should function well as is.” “Anything with reach?” Qiang Yi asked and grabbed a [url=https://www.amazon.com/SUIZAN-Japanese-Ryoba-Double-Edge/dp/B01MU9XB1W]saw[/url]. Zeng En threw him a wooden pole. “Grab a knife and sharpen this - or tie the knife to it. Either way, arm those that ain’t rowin’ or furlin’ the sails,” Zeng En said. Qiang Yi nodded and ran upstairs. “There are weapons below,” he boomed. “If you aren’t working the oars, the helm or the sails, arm yourselves!” He stepped to the side to allow the remaining crew members to descend below deck. Then Qiang Yi stepped over to the stern to see if he could spot the pursuer. It was large, larger than even the ship, and grotesquely foul. The leviathan swam in circles under the boat, as if trying to figure out what the creature it hungered for was. The leviathan’s light, beautiful as ever, glowed softly in the deep. Ever so alluring… Qiang Yi spotted the light. My… Was there no end to the beauty of the ocean? He dropped his axe and leaned forward over the railing. Maybe he could get a closer loo-- With a solid tug, he was pulled back on deck. Zhen-zhen and two others held him by the ribbon about his waist. “Captain, are you insane?!” Zhen-zhen screamed at him. “... But… But the light…” “Huuuh?! Light?! Have you gone panic blind or something?!” “No, there-... There was a-...” Qiang Yi pointed weakly to the railing. “Oh! How nice, there was a light. Did you also see the shadow that is TWICE AS BIG AS THE DAMN SHIP?!” Zhen-zhen slapped him across the head from behind and pushed him to his feet. “Grab your saw and keep the crew safe, captain! Make sure they don’t fall for the same trick you did!” Qiang Yi staggered over to railing, over which he saw what was unmistakably a black blot below them - or more specifically, a part of one. He gasped through his teeth, snatched his saw off the floor and sprinted down to the deck, nearly tripping down the stairs. “Everyone! Keep away from the railing! Rowers, double, no, TRIPLE time!” The rowers struggled against the pain as they tugged the oar back and forth as fast as they could. The creature brushed itself against the ship with two long tentacles. The vibrations through the ship sent similar chills through the spines of the increasingly panicky crew. It continued it’s almost lethargic like pace, now swimming wide circles below the ship. It then suddenly broke this circling and swam off. Qiang Yi and Zeng En stormed over to the railing and stuck their heads over the side. “Wh-where did it go?” Qiang Yi said in a shivering voice. Zeng En squeezed the handle of his hammer. “I don’t know, but we’re likely not out of the woods yet. Keep up the speed, people! We’ll be safe once we reach coastal waters.” The coast was not too far away now. Xishan stabbed the sky dome in the distance, and the green forests of the central Foot began to break through the fog pouring out of the Saluran Mendidih. In the distance to the north were the faint marks of a second continent. The water should not be too deep here. Perhaps… Perhaps they had made it. From the port side of the ship, out in the deeper waters, something broke the water’s surface. First it was the beautiful glow, stifled by the blue sky but still dangerous nonetheless, then behind that long stalk of flesh, came a massive mouth full of rows and rows of sharp teeth, that were about the size of the servants themselves. And those teeth, were coming right for the ship. The crew burst into screams. Some collapsed to the floor and curled up as if that would help them. Others began to row faster than the rest, striking into the oars in front of and behind them. Zeng En and a group ran to the stern, roaring their fanatical war cries and praises to Shengshi, as if it would be their last. Qiang Yi stood frozen on deck, clutching his saw. As he saw the jaws approaching, he felt his lips and knees quiver in unison. This could not be how their journey would end. They hadn’t even made it to the Kick, damn it! “CAPTAIN!” The call snapped him out of his shock and he saw a frantically waving Zhen-zhen at the helmspost towards the stern, flanked by several others throwing improvised harpoons at the monster. Qiang Yi could not gather himself in time, but time was something he did not have. He stormed downstairs and grabbed a new armfull of wooden poles, bringing them up to the stern in a rush. There, Zeng En took them in his arms and gave them to Li Shan, who proceeded to sharpen them swiftly with his knife. Zeng En picked up a newly sharpened pole, tested its weight and sent it in an arc towards the glowing eyes of the horrendous beast behind them. “The eyes! Aim for the eyes!” he roared at his companions. The creature, struck by several harpoons, dove under water. Blood began to flow, staining the waters inky black. The leviathan, scraped the bottom of the boat with its body. The water was getting shallower, and with it, the prey was escaping. With a burst of speed, the creature began another attack, and this time, was unphased by the harpoons. That was until, something sharp punctured it’s left eye. There was a sickening sound, almost like a pop, then the creature bellowed. The air it sent out was rank with rot and the creature slammed into the ship before disappearing into the black waters. The ship was cast several hundreds of metres forward, the cracks of breaking wood and whistles of flying splinters sounding from the stern like a lethal orchestra. All the crew members there were flung forward over the edge of the railing, the fortunate ones crashing to the deck in front. The unfortunate ones… Hammering steps against wood. Qiang Yi lifted his dizzy head off the stair step. Below him laid another bundle of wooden poles. He blinked, squeezing his eyes together as he painfully pulled his arm out from under the poles. It had nearly been severed as his body weight, spurred on by the momentum of the ship, had pressed it between the stairs and the poles. Thankfully, the arm reformed into its regular shape, his ripped sleeve being the only casualty. He quickly staggered to his feet and sprinted back up. He ascended to find that the ship had stopped moving, and all around him were crewmates running to and fro with tools, materials, water and sand. Wait, sand? Qiang Yi turned to his right and gasped, dropping the wooden poles. Zhen-zhen laid clutching her stumped arm next to a sandy puddle. A little further away, Li Shan was attended to by two others, one who was slowly giving him water from a cup and another who was patting sand over the slowly regrowing legs. Zeng En laid broken against the railing above, his body reduced to a singular, mushy blob that four crewmates desperately tried to save with water and sand. Qiang Yi was pushed to the side by two crewmates charging up the stairs carrying a stretcher, upon which laid what he assumed where the clothes and partial body of Wang Huangxia. Qiang Yi stood in shock, his lips forming sentences, yet his voice failing to give sound to them. He laid his eyes on Zhen-zhen again, only to notice that she was glaring back. “C-... Captain,” she hissed through the agony. Qiang Yi hurried over and uncorked his water gourd, putting it to her lips. Her skin had begun to crack. “Shh… Drink now, the beast is gone.” Zhen-zhen’s pained eyes began to swell, tears bubbling up despite her lack of fluids. “I-... I’m s-s-sorry, c-captain,” she whimpered. “Th-this is all my-...” Qiang Yi shook his head and silenced her with the water gourd. “No, no… Don’t worry about that, Zhen-zhen… Just drink and live.” Zhen-zhen’s quivering lips spilled a lot of the water, but she eventually managed to properly drink. Qiang Yi looked around. “Somebody give me a report! Is it still after us?! How is the crew?! How is the ship?!” One of the Noble servants, one Qiang Yi knew as Fa Ye, stepped up hurriedly and bowed. “Captain, the beast has stopped chasing us, but not without a heavily toll. Our crew has suffered heavy casualties, with eight crew members severely wounded, ten minorly wounded and four missing. We-... We saw clothes on the water surface behind us… We fear they may have swam ahead of us…” Fa Ye lowered her head; Qiang Yi did, as well. “What about the ship?” the captain asked. “There has been a breach under deck towards the stern. Luckily, the pump and tank seem to be functional, still, but we are still trying to repair the breach below. However, the saltwater is making it difficult. As misfortune would have it, the rudder was also damaged.” Qiang Yi looked somberly down at his lap in which Zhen-zhen laid, exhausted from all the pain. He then looked up and noticed the foreign woods on the shore. “Where are we?” he asked. “The lands are foreign, yet we did not drift far. We therefore estimate that we have made it to the Kick.” Qiang Yi felt a clump form in his throat, one of both sorrow and joy. He looked down at the sleeping Zhen-zhen. “Did you hear that, Zhen-zhen? We made it to the Kick. We’re almost halfway there!” The first mate remained unresponsive. Qiang Yi felt his skin moisten. He looked up at Fa Ye. “Have someone tend to her. I will see to the rest of the ship.” “Yes, captain,” Fa Ye said and called over some help. Qiang Yi carefully lowered Zhen-zhen’s head to the floor and stood up. He walked over to the bow and looked at the figurehead. Luckily, the tribute to Ashalla had not suffered any damages, it would seem. He raised his head at scanned the empty forest behind the beach ahead. It was eerie, a forest with no life - yet perhaps also a blessing in disguise. “Fa Ye!” he called. After a moment, the girl came running over, dusting her hands free of excess sand. “Yes, captain?” she answered with a bow. “Have the carpenters use what materials we have left to repair the ship. If we do not have enough, we will acquire some from the Kick.” “Of course, captain,” Fa Ye said and ran off to spread the word. Qiang Yi looked back down at the figurehead. Would she hear him if he prayed, he wondered. Would Shengshi hear them if they prayed? Qiang Yi got down on his knees at the bow and prostrated himself. “O Holiest spirit of the Sea, Ashalla. Your grace and power are second to none in the ocean - as such, this servant asks that Your sacred boon follows us still as our voyage progresses. Thank You for everything.” Had she heard him, he wondered again. If she could, then he had to pray to Shengshi, as well. “O lord of rivers and host of hosts, Shengshi, much has happened since this voyage began. We have seen much that we could not even have fathomed of back home, and among that, there has been great suffering. This servant cannot lie, Your Lordship - it feels fear, dreadful fear. This servant is uncertain of what to do, Your Lordship. Please, if it may be so insolent, this servant asks You to offer it counsel.” Nothing happened. Qiang Yi felt his heart sink and sat back up, letting out a sigh. “Is this Your Holiness way of saying that we are on our own?” he mused somberly. He got to his feet, bowed to the figurehead and turned to attend to the ship. [hr] Atop of the floating palace of Jiangzhou, in the central tower overlooking the endless green jungle, the snake plucked a melancholic melody on his guzheng. His heart felt heavy, but he knew that he could not stand in the way of what was to be among the first great accomplishments of mortal life. “I am sorry, my most loyal servant,” the snake said in a shivering voice. He felt something in the corner of his eye and wiped it away. “I trust you do be able to do this by yourselves. If I am right, you will be historical; if I am wrong…” His harp sounded a sharp crescendo. “Then I am the worst lord in this world.” [hider=That One Where The Ship Sails Into Terror] The servants construct a shrine to Ashalla, putting it at the front of the ship to appeal to her if they ever meet again. During this time, they sail out into deeper water, away from the coast of Dragon’s Foot. The Xishan Mountains are but a blimp on the horizon Qiang Yi does not like this and tells Zhen-zhen to sail back towards land. All of a sudden a soft pulse hits the boat, and then shit hits the fan. A Leviathan Angler hungered for their souls, and the crew begin to freak. As the leviathan gets closer, Qiang Yi looks over the side, and views the beautiful light of the Leviathan and almost loses himself before his loyal crewmates grab him and pull him back on deck. After this, Qiang Yi tells everyone to row faster and to arm themselves in case of attack. The leviathan then swims off, leaving paranoia behind. After a quick moment of reprieve, the leviathan is spotted off the port side, and coming in fast, teeth on full display. This prompts the crew to throw makeshift harpoons, trying to skewer it. The Leviathan breaks off its attack, now very pissed off. It swims away again, but comes back- this time faster. With a lucky throw, Zeng En manages to throw a harpoon into the leviathans eye. This promptly kicks the fight out of the creature, but it still manages to collide with the ship, causing severe damage. Qiang Yi wakes up a while after the crash, finding his crew decimated and his closest companions within inches of their lives. After things calm down, Qiang Yi issues orders and then prays to Ashalla in thanks. Then to Shengshi, asking for counsel, but only receives silence from their Lord. Now upon the shores of the Kick, they were alone. [/hider] [hider=The journey so far…] [img]https://i.imgur.com/c6gZuXN.png[/img] [/hider]