19 The Castaways

I had to give it up, I mean my vengeance on the crocodile. This world is truly cruel. Now that I am physically strong enough to fight with the croc, I can't actually fight it. The river systems that it lives in is too small for me, to the point where I'm being considered to be out of the water and my health drops for every second that passes. And it's not just the rivers that the Imperatosuchus live in, but all the rivers here are too small for me now, although even before I evolved I could only just barely fit through most of them. Just from leaving the lake above the waterfall to return to the large lake down the river, I had lost nearly half my health.

From what I remember, the river that leads to the ocean is much longer than the one from the waterfall. As it stands I don't think I can make it out of here right now. Actually, am I even safe if I leave the interior of the island? Can I even fit in the shallows without treading into the area Cetus roams? I wish I could just ponder this while sleeping but if I sleep here I'm sure that something will choose to mess with me. But that doesn't mean I can't just lay idle and think about this for a while.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Admiral Gram Uranel~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Admiral... Admiral... wake up, Admiral Uranel!"

*slap*

"Ugh, that hurts, Lieutenant Jaro. But that also means I'm not dead yet, or that we're both dead. So which is it?"

"I've gathered all members of the Iron Belly on a nearby cliff, well all that I could find anyways. about sixteen of us, so a little less than half the entire crew. Anyways, we're still up and kickin'. Here, take my hand, I'll help you up and guide you to the remainder of the crew."

With the Lieutenant's assistance, I manage to somehow gain a steady footing. After dusting off some of the sand from my tattered clothes I follow Lieutenant Jaro up a hill towards a cliff where about half my subordinates are surrounding a fire in the dusk. Just as I go to take a seat by the fire, notice a glint in the distance. The light from fire reflecting off a monster's eyes, patiently watching us.

"Hey, there's some kind of monster watching us from the forest."

"We know already, Admiral. It's been watching us for a while now. One of them killed Ensign Benny when he went out for a piss. The bloke ignored our suggestions to not go out alone. We went and killed the monsters that had attacked him. 'parently there some kind of ancient lizard-like monster. My Investigate told me they're called a Nimaptor, weak and cowardly creatures that hunt in groups that tend to target lone prey."

"His body, where is it?"

"Dunno sir, from what we saw after we heard the commotion there were three of them Nimaptors. We killed one but, they're fast little buggers I tell ya, ran off with Benny's body, most of it anyways. We managed to salvage the bloke's arm, buried it at the edge of the cliff here."

Walking up to the makeshift grave of my subordinate, I put my hands together in a small prayer in hopes that his soul finds peace. He may have been a fool till the end, but he was still my subordinate, this is the least I can do. Moving back to my spot around the fire, I begin to get the important stuff out of the way.

"So did anyone get an Inspect or Investigate off on the monster the destroyed the Iron Belly and sent us here? I recall attempting to do so, but I failed. Any of you lot succeed?"

Just by looking at the faces of my subordinates I can tell most tried and failed, as I did. but most of them seem to be looking at Warrant Officer Kollin.

"Sir! I successfully got an Investigate off, but..."

"Well, spit it out. What was the beast that shipwrecked us? How strong is it?"

"I only saw its name and a little bit of its description before losing consciousness. It's a Legendary Monster name Ikuturso. From what I can remember it supposed to roam around the deep waters that are south of this island."

"Not a lot to go off of but it's something. So what is this island anyways, you lot were up and about during the day, so what's the island look like, any idea which island we're on?"

The complexions of the crew take a turn for the worse until after a few moments later when Lieutenant Jaro speaks up.

"Admiral, you can't see it now because of the darkness, but there is a mountain that is ascending far above the clouds. It's--"

"Hold your breath, Lieutenant, that's all you need to say. Despite all my efforts to steer us away from the sight of the spire we still ended up here. If I ever see those damnable nobles again I swear to give them the good ol' one-two for sending us anywhere near this accursed island. We even lost the Iron Belly, it's the only ship in the world to be entirely made of iron. That ship alone used half the budget allocated to the navy."

I try to lighten the mood with some light conversation as we start taking turns to keep watch while the rest of us sleep. But if we really do make it off this island, I am going to slug those dang aristocrats.

The morning sun begins to rise and once everyone has gotten their time to rest we start to make our plans for the future. I bring up my experience as a shipwright giving the crew a bit more hope as I begin to draft a design for a ship in my head. But the matter of the Ikuturso will prevent an escape from our current location on the south side of the island, but what about the north?

Putting the sea monster problem aside for a moment, we decide it better to move as one large group so no one gets ambushed again and set out to look for suitable materials to build a small ship from. As we travel through the forest looking for some good wood we come across a source of fresh water, a river the flows from the island interior. Noticing something odd I stop the crew from filling their hands for a drink, despite how thirsty everyone is. The oddity slowly becomes more profound as a small pool of blood flows up to the water's surface. Looking over the edge I find a crocodile far larger than any crocodile I've ever seen before. It's slowly eating some weird large fish.

A sign of relief washes over the crew as their patience saved their hands. But the lack of freshwater is a problem before finding building materials. I lead us up the river in search of its source, eventually leading up to a large lake. But our joy over finding the source is short-lived. Just as the lake comes into view, so does the monster that resides within.

It took a couple of tries but eventually, my investigate went off. A Dragon, more specifically a Sea Dragon. Even someone like me knows that all the True Dragons died out ages ago, but here one rests, right before my eyes. Upon noticing us the Dragon rises, the lake hardly capable of containing its massive size. It turns its head toward us staring us down with its pale blue scales shimmer under the sunlight, it opens its jaw and speaks.

"Why are you here? Mankind should not be here."

My mother used to tell bedside stories about Dragons, saying that they were monsters that are both highly intelligent and capable of speech, but I had written them off as tall tales to put a child to sleep. Seems like I will have to apologise for not believing her when I meet her again in the afterlife. In her stories the Dragons had been either beast of cruelty or benevolent figures of wisdom, I hope she is the latter or I'll be seeing my mother real soon.

"Some unexpected rough waves had blown our ship off course and we've been shipwrecked here on this island. In your wise wisdom and benevolent grace, can you perhaps aid us in our quest to leave this land and return home?"

The Dragon remains silent for a minute, then one more minute passes before the Dragon speaks once more.

"From what direction did you come, north or south?"

"If my compass was to be believed we came from the south. The Legendary Monster named Ikuturso that lives there is the monster that shipwrecked us. It was a giant monster that was unusually fast.

"In the north lay the Named Monster known as Cetus, a beast similar to Ikuturso, but is much slower than the southern counterpart. I can facilitate your escape from."

It sharp and coarse voice speaks of benevolence but I feel as if there is something poisonous hidden underneath the Dragon's kind words. Unfortunately, the rest of the crew doesn't seem to notice and are completely enticed by the Dragon's offer. Reluctantly I come to an agreement with the Dragon after sharing our initial plans. It will gather the building materials for a ship and we have to expand to the river that leads to the ocean on the north side. I hope this doesn't backfire.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I just found my ticket out of here. That leader of theirs aside, the desperation in their eyes is as clear as day. Just give them a little bit of hope and manipulating them is easier than killing a baby, gullible fools.