A Fairy Went to Sea, Sea, Sea

With a fire in his belly, Reyan went to teach the filthy pirates a lesson about leaving his friends in a lurch. The humans wondered what he could do without his magic, but there was no way to stop Reyan once he flew away. 

As the fairy neared the pirate ship, the water began to roil. The swells, which had already been growing, became erratic and capped with white.

Those aboard The Freiheit were forced to hold on to the railing or be thrown from their feet. Brinn was barely able to keep herself and Aurora upright without vomiting. 

The pirates aboard Little Bess were even less fortunate. The water around them became a whirlpool as something lifted out of the deep. A mighty horn pierced the hull of the pirate ship and continued through the deck in a rain of splintered wood. 

The pristine ivory resembled that of a unicorn, twisting on itself until it came to a deadly point.

Zeng and his men watched in horror as the piercing spire wrecked their ship followed by a sudden onrush of water. But the horn did not stop. It continued pressing upward until the entirety of the Little Bess was lifted into the air. 

Just when the pirates thought their terror could not be matched, the horn came fully out of the water to reveal the monster to which it belonged. 

A giant whale, if it could be called that, continued its upward leap with its mouth opened wide. Row and rows of razor-sharp teeth sat below the massive horn which doubled as the creature's nose. There was nothing the pirates could do.

Unable to bear up under the upward thrust of the Sea Monster's horn, Little Bess cracked in two. Half the ship tumbled into the creature's gaping maw and the other half shattered as it crashed against the unforgiving surface of the water. 

Having thrust half of its body from the water, the beast ceased its upward motion. The creature's massive form momentarily blocked out the afternoon sun for The Freiheit before beginning its catastrophic descent. 

It turned and leaned to its left. 

"The Infallible!" Aurora screamed. 

"Not for long," Brinn gritted her teeth. 

The crash of the smallest ship being crushed was drowned out by the sound of rushing waves. 

"Hold on tight!" Schwinn bellowed over the deafening roar. 

In the few seconds before the impending doom, Brinn grabbed a rope and lashed herself and Aurora to the closest mast. She held tight to her knife in case she should need to cut them loose at a moment's notice.

The wall of water hit the two remaining ships in a sudden, overwhelming burst. The wave cast by the whale-like monster rammed into the side of The Freiheit like a hammer. 

The ship keeled over, threatening to completely flip. The world stayed suspended at a vertical angle to the water for an interminable amount of time. 

Then, the dip in the back of the wave bobbed the ship upright. The swell behind it was large but not as daunting as the first, and the ones after it were less and less fierce. 

Finally, the water settled into its normal rhythm like it had never been disturbed. 

Brinn cut herself and Aurora free from the mast. They were sopping wet, but alive. 

"Is everyone alright? Does anyone need attention?" Rafa slid around on deck trying to help others. There was a cut on his brow but it did not seem to be serious. Sav also tried to pick her way through the chaos to see if she could help. 

The sailors and soldiers seemed dazed, but they began to recover any of the people and things that had washed overboard. For now, it seemed no additional people had lost their lives when the wave hit their ship. Aurora hoped the same was true for her other men on the second boat. 

Eventually, the Empress and Brinn joined Schwinn, Devrim, and Nurlan in looking at the horizon.

In the distance, the wreckage was profound. Both Little Bess and The Infallible were nothing more than a patchwork of debris dotting the water. A few of the pirates were floating among them.

"We cannot save them even if we wanted to," the Captain shook his head. "They took out our rudder before that thing attacked and the wave finished it off." 

"Do you think that thing will come back?" Aurora hesitated to ask the question. 

"I've no idea. Ask the intrepid hero..." Schwinn's sarcastic remark was aimed at the hovering fairy overhead. 

Noticing everyone looking at him, he slowly descended. His mood was somber. "I have helped get as many back aboard as I could. "I did a broad sweep but did not see anyone else. Should I keep looking?" 

The fairy's muted tone and pale complexion startled Aurora. She shook her head. "You look exhausted. Maybe you should take a rest. Someone bring him some water...if we have any."

"Water we have. Food will be a little more tricky. Really, fairy, I wish I had known what you were going to do." Schwinn rubbed his head, already missing his lost hat.

"It wouldn't have changed anything," Reyan shrugged. He plopped down on the deck and leaned against the railing as someone handed him a waterskin.

Schwinn furrowed his brow, frustrated. "We could have told you to wait until Little Bess was farther away or at least tied down more of the things on deck. That thing nearly took us out along with the pirates." 

The Fairy spit his water all over the already-soaked deck. He shivered. "What exactly do you think I did over there?" 

"You said you were going to teach those pirates a lesson and then called forth that monster to gobble them whole," Brinn answered with a mix of derision and awe. "It was a bold move." 

"I did no such thing!" Reyan flung his hands in the air, nearly losing the water skin to his enthusiasm. "I went over to pierce that floating bladder of theirs so they couldn't do that 'woe is me, I'm sinking' trick again. Maybe slash their sails and make them dead in the water also. I had nothing to do with that creature of the deep attacking the pirates and taking them under. I did tell it to go away when it nearly got me with that horn of a nose. It seemed to listen, or at least it got its fill of pirates and was done." 

"Wait, if you didn't call that thing..." Schwinn's frustration turned to concern. "Then it could come back."

"We need to get out of here." Nurlan blew out his cheeks. "Has Lucky had a chance to examine the rudder?" 

Like a pup who has just heard his name, Lucky came skittering across the wet deck, sliding to a stop in front of the group. He pushed his wet hair from his face, sending a spray of droplets through the air.

"Report. What is the status of the rudder?" The stalwart Captain cut straight to the chase. 

"There is no rudder. At least none that is still attached to the boat. I'm a magician when it comes to boats, but I need something to repair. There's nothing there at all. I'm sorry, Captain." Lucky saluted Schwinn. "I can check the other boat, but I do not see one on her either from this angle." 

"Go and check anyway, please," Schwinn needed to be sure. "Thank you, sailor." 

"What do we do?" Devrim waited until the young man was out of earshot before posing the question. The group circled tightly around the Captain hoping for any piece of good news. 

"We have a few oars. With time, we might be able to fashion them into something that will help steer. I doubt just rowing will get us very far out here." Schwinn mused. "The other option is to hope the wind takes us somewhere and we can get supplies there. We will raise a distress flag and hope we run across actual fishermen down here." 

A cold feeling settled among them. It was more than just the icy water penetrating their bones. They were stranded without any land in sight. Hope was dwindling.

"What do you think caused that thing to come in the first place?" Aurora mused. "I cannot shake the feeling that something called it..."

A moment later, the Empress got her answer. A haunting song filled the air.

"Come with me, to the sea..."