Chapter 46

The next morning when Ron woke up, he found the room empty, there was a slight chill in the air and an unnerving quietness. He went up to the deck to see whether everyone was still sleeping, but the crew was present like usual and going about doing their work, only for some odd reason none of them were talking. He thought it might just be one of those moments when everybody stops speaking around you simultaneously, he headed to the upper deck where he saw everyone standing near the railing looking down at the water, and they were too really quiet and talking in whispers. He approached the railing beside Isanna and looked down at the seawater, what he saw froze him to the spot, a monster leviathan ten times the size of the ship was sailing past them, its scales were just below the surface of the water and so it was difficult to comprehend the actual size of the beast but still it's shear length was astonishing. His breath stuck in his throat, Fiona came beside him and whispered.

"It's sleeping, aren't they amazing?" she asked.

"They are so big!" he couldn't help but exclaim.

"Marty says he has seen even bigger, " she said.

"Why isn't it attacking us?" asked Ron.

"Because it's sleeping right now, they sleep for weeks, the sailors have maps and time charts to tell them which path to take and when they are like a little killer island floating around, " she said.

"Yeah, little, why is everyone whispering though?" asked Ash.

"They have very good hearing and they are very territorial, Marty has a group of witches in the bottom hull of the ship, they are making the movement of the ship quieter by using magic continuously, " said Fiona.

"If this thing wakes up, it will destroy the whole ship in a single hit from its tail," said Ron.

"It's the glaciers we need to worry about, " said Isanna and pointed ahead to where the ship and the beast were both headed, in the horizon there was a white glacier, it was like a mountain and was even wider than the leviathan.

"We need to reach the glacier before the beast and take a sharp right, there is a strong current region beyond it, which will take us directly to our destination, but the leviathan is also headed for the glacier, " said Isanna.

"It will collide with the glacier if it doesn't wake up, " said Ron.

"Yes, and after colliding it will wake up and we don't want to be around for that, " said Isanna.

"Then why aren't we speeding up?" asked Ron a little alarmed.

"We are, we can't speed up too much or it will wake up anyways from the engine noise, It's all up to Marty's calculation, with the speed and the distance, he thinks we will escape the collision by about two minutes, and should be fine, he has done these sorts of things before, " said Fiona.

"I didn't know numbers would be involved in sailing, " said Ron.

"Yeah well not everyone can become a ship captain especially if you want to travel this far, there's plenty of mind work involved too, " said Isanna.

"Yeah well, let's hope, Marty wasn't too hungover from yesterday and miscalculated the distance, " Ron muttered under his breath.

None of them could leave the railing and stop looking at the approaching glacier they were too nervous to not look, even Rin perched on the mast was focused on the scene and not sleeping for once.

"You guys can come and have breakfast, we won't reach the glacier for another hour or so, it only looks like it's close because it's too big, come and have some food first, " Marty came up to finally asked them to get away from the railing.

Just then as they all turned after seeing that indeed the glacier hadn't come much closer, a crew member came running to Marty pointing at something on the opposite side of the ship.

They all turned to look at the same time, another ship approaching them from the horizon. Right now it was just a dot in the blue sea and sky.

"Get my far glass," Marty ordered the man and he brought a tube-shaped copper instrument, Derek had also from somewhere produced a similar thing but his was much shinier and in better condition.

"It's Jafar's ship, but what is he doing sailing this far South, " Marty wondered aloud.

"Vice-captain says that he's coming fast, full steam, he will reach us soon," said the man.

"Yeah, he is coming fast that idiot, doesn't he know there are leviathans in the sea, but of course, he does only last month I heard he hired a group of witches, " said Marty.

"There's someone at the deck, looking at us too, " Derek spoke then.

"Your glass must be better than mine, I can only see the ship," said Marty.

"I can only see a glint flashing, it must be a far glass, " said Derek.

"Well they are too far for now we don't need to worry about them now, maybe once he sees the leviathan when he gets closer he'll slow down, " said Marty.

"But if he doesn't, his ship will wake up the leviathan," said Derek.

"He isn't that stup..., " What Marty was about to say they couldn't hear because the next moment an arrow flew past them, right between the group missing some of them by inches, it hit the deck with a loud thump, and dodged deep in the wood.

They all immediately crouched down, keeping their heads below the railing.

"Fuck me, that bitch really likes showing off, " said Isanna.

"Head inside the deck one by one, keep your head low, just because she can't see us, doesn't mean she can't hit us, " said Derek, and they all one by one left the upper deck, arrows came in regular intervals, she hit in all the sections of the boat, she was trying to catch them off guard.

"What do we do now? They will wake up the leviathan like this, they don't care about their own lives either, " said Isanna.

"They must have hijacked Jafar's ship then, he would never do something so stupid," said Marty.

"We need to take care of them before they get too close, Nefar is too crazy, he is like a hungry beast full of bloodlust, he will sink both the boats just to kill me, " said Derek.

"We can't go any faster or the leviathan will wake up, " said Marty.

"What do the witches exactly do to not wake the leviathan?" asked Derek.

"Come on, I will show you, " said Derek and took them to the bottom most part of the ship where they had never been because of the excessive smell and noise.

"There is a hole in the bottom of the ship, most of them have it who don't want to die by a beast, the witches stand around it and start chanting continuously to calm the waters, this keeps them protected and focused and they can work from the inside of the sheep and much closer to the problem, " said Derek.

"How come water doesn't come in then?" asked Isanna.

"Yeah well that's the most expensive part of the ship, it's a sort of membrane over the hole, dwarves make it, it doesn't let the water in, but you can through anything else through it just not water, sometimes the witches have to put their hands in the water to improve their connection, we throw trash out of it too sometimes it's pretty amazing, you'll see, " said Marty and opened the door to the hull.