Rough Voyage Chapter

The waves began to get violent with the ship that was traversing across the ocean. The Lessiiv rocked about as her crew struggled to keep her from being sunken by the crushing blow of the waves. The hands of the seas grabbed and tore at the ship, water jumping onto the deck, knocked men down. As the crew tied themselves to the ship’s mast and rails their Captain dragged and pulled himself to the cabins. The storm rocked the ship so violently that it worried the whole crew, will this storm end? Have they angered the Sea Gods? Will the Gods decide their fate is death in the high seas? Is their precious cargo okay?

The captain desperately pulled himself to the cabins to ensure the safety of their important passenger. “Keep her steady lads!” he hollered at his crew struggling to keep the ship upright as the wave’s heavy hands poured onto the decks. He struggled to the door, forcing himself up while the pouring water pushed him down.

After minutes of struggling he finally reached the door grabbing the railing of the stairs holding him up until he was able to grab the door handle. Simultaneously the captain swung the door open, let go of the railing and launched himself inside just before another wave crashed over the ship. Inside he quickly shut the door to keep the water from coming in. Panting he turned around to see what had become of the passenger and the rest of the cabin. He expected to see chairs about the floor and everything strewn about and the passenger on the floor unconscious. To his surprise nothing happened the furniture was intact and in the same position as before. But there was no sign of the passenger. He looked into the rooms of the mid-section of the cabin, but could not find her not even in her own room? He scratched his head confused, comprehension and fear seized him.

He searched all over the cabins, into the deepest part of the Cabins then he searched downstairs in the lower section. His ship was large and one could get lost in such a large craft. As he turned up the mid-section he heard faint music coming from the upper part. He dashed up the stairs to the upper level. The music was getting louder and louder as he came closer to the source. Ambling through the hallway he could hear a violin and a harp being played. The captain found the door he sought and quietly opened it. There sitting on the couch was the sweet and generous Senestra playing her harp, the cabin boy on a stool at the fiddle.

They both seemed calm yet unaware of the storm. They played a melodious tune that soothed a person of his or her concerns. The Captain sighed in relief and exited the room.

“Is everything alright out there, Olverd?” said a calm soft voice as the music died.

Captain Olverd reentered the room. “Yes” he partially lied. “Uh I… believe the storm is getting a little rougher by the hour, m’ lady.”

“Are you alright, you’re not hurt are you? Medryn Senestra?”

She laughed, “Everything is fine Captain. Nothing happened here if you’re so concerned.”

Olverd grinned, closing the door behind him. He took a seat on a nearby cushion seat. Senestra placed her harp down, perched herself from the couch. She stretched, loosening the tenseness in her muscles. The boy sat there watching then looked at Captain Olverd, still holding his fiddle. Olverd nodded as the boy looked him in the eye. The boy left the room with his fiddle, the captain had some work needed to be done in his studies. Senestra opened the curtains seeing if the storm had died down a bit. A crew member came in.

“Excuse me Captain, pardon me madam,” the sailor bowed his head in presence of the Diplomatic Emissary and saluted his captain. “The storm has died down and the men are seeing to that no one was lost nor was any damage done to the ship.”

“I see the storm has died down, but you sure there’s no damage to the ship or anyone lost?”

“I am most certain my lady.” The man said reassuring with a smile, hands clasped together. “Well, since that’s over I’ll see where we are on the map. Ah Sern is there land nearby?”

“No sir! We couldn’t spot any islands on account of the storm. But we will have lookouts sighting for land.”

Sern left the room down to the lower deck. Olverd lifted himself from the chair, to look over Senestra’s shoulder to see the sun peeking out through the clouds. Olverd put a heavy hand her shoulder. “Let’s see where we are now.” He walked out of the room, Senestra at his heels. He led her down to the mid-section of the cabin into the map room where he stored all of his maps and navigational charts. The room was littered with papers the captain’s own doing. The table in the middle was covered with maps. Olverd scrambled through the mess letting even more papers fall to the ground until he finally found what he wanted.

It was a large map of the entire sea between two lands with some chartered islands here and there. The map marked cities and ports from the ports of Geshn and Vasdabrovere. He marked the route they had gone going through ports and around islands. They were now in the middle of the sea. Moving his hand northward across the map Olverd scanned for the nearest route to land.

“We should be at least four days from land. That is if we don’t run into any more storms along the way.” He moved his finger northward across the map from where they were to his chosen destination.

“Here is where we should land, on the isles of Gestera homeland to Crowsians.”

Senestra rolled her eyes in disgust. “You honestly believe those greedy; money grubbing cowards are going to help us?”

“What’s wrong with them? They have a standing army at least?” protested Olverd.

“Yes, but they won’t fight much, since they’re not properly trained.”

He sighed “Well, it’s worth a try!”

“Very well then we’ll see if they’ll help us that is. IF THEY HELP US!”

She leaned over the table Olverd tried hard not to look at her breast. Senestra placed a soft, beautiful hand on the Captain’s shoulder. “I am truly sorry Olverd. It’s just that these are hard times and I feel agitated at times when we seek out the wrong people for help. But we will see if they can’t help us.”

“And if we don’t find help.” Olverd said in a stark tone.

“Then consider Auxmire doomed to a bloody fate.” Senestra said somberly. They stood there in the map room in silence until a crewmember came rushing in.

“CAPTAIN! The storm’s returning we need you now!”

The storm had indeed come back, their vessel soon rocked violently as shelves tipped over onto the floor. One nearly fell on top of Senestra but the captain yanked her from the danger. They almost collapsed to the floor as the ship was rocked viciously by the rough waves. Olverd followed the sailor down to the decks as he stumbled trying to keep his balance, Senestra holding onto him. The young Emissary abandoned them on their way to the Deck. Climbing into her room she slammed the door shut. Panting, the wretched teen-adult threw her-self onto the couch in the middle of the room. It was bolted to the floor, as was all the other furniture in the Diplomat’s section of the ships’ cabin. All of her papers, charts, and make up canisters fell to the floor. She ignored the items rolling all over the floor, spilling their contents on the green carpet in the center, The young weary Senestra fell asleep on the couch, unaware the storm raging around the ship.

The captain fought the heavy storm, keeping his vessel from being pulled to the depths of the ocean by aggressive waves. Waves washed over the deck of the ship as her crew struggled desperately to save the ship and themselves from a watery grave. The winds did not howl as much, but the waves had become more deadly. The crew steered the large craft away from large waves quickly as possible. They were forced down onto the hard wooden deck by the heavy waves. Either these waters are untamed or the Gods of the Seas are just messing with the poor Sailors attempting to sail across. They will never know so long as the Gods do not let them die here. The waves grabbed at the ship like hands smashing it to pieces. Olverd climbed the ropes of the mast coming to aid anyone in need of help. Some of the sailors had wanted help for keeping the mast intact and secure.

He held on as another wave crashed against the ship with such force it nearly forced him off the vessel. Olverd tied several ropes around his waist to attach his own body to the mast. A young sailor made his way to the persistent captain.

“Sir, I don’t think she’ll be able to hold much longer!” the youth yelled over the loud winds of the mighty storm.

“No, my lad, you think wrong she was built to endure such a storm, that not even the Gods themselves could conger!”

The youth nodded in agreement. He smiled, “Let’s just say you’re right Captain!”

The young sailor looked about below as men rushed to grab onto something and keep themselves on board. “My father always said you were crazy and now I know what he meant by what he said.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because-“, He was interrupted by a large wave that swooped over them.

Spitting out water he continued still holding on for dear life.

“Because you were always stubborn and took on the roughest storms without fear.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, sir. You’ve always been an inspiration to me and many young sailors!” The Captain smiled as another large wave splashed onto the ship.

As the storm grew worse outside the young emissary laid there on the couch in a very deep slumber. She was having a dream a strange but terrible dream. She traversed through a vast waste land covered in large puddles of water she thought. Looking closer she noticed it was not water but BLOOD! All across the land there were large puddles of blood. The sky too was the shade of blood red as if the gods themselves bled. Making her way through the bloody wasteland Senestra stepped into the puddles of blood in disgust.

She could not bear to walk through the thick liquid let alone the sight of blood itself. It was gruesome, strange objects floated in the puddles. She could not tell what the objects were until she crossed over one with her foot. She observed the object judging what it was. It looked fleshy with bones showing. Her eyes widened she became horrified the object was a corpse chopped in pieces by some blade. Senestra looked about turning her head this way and that. Everywhere there were floating corpses floating in the blood puddles. Backing away from the puddles she tripped and fell into a puddle. She stared at the corpse which she tripped over. This one had a head it floated in the pool of blood. It soon came to life twisting its head to see who had disturbed its eternal sleep. The face of the corpse was torn apart with dead flesh hanging over the skeletal figure of its face. Its eyes bulged out of their sockets as if to jump at her.

Senestra forced herself away from this live corpse reaching out for her with its long diseased arms. She was surrounded by waking corpses coming for her. The young damsel fled for life from these undead abominations. To her dismay she found herself trapped all around by these walking corpses. Fleshy arms grabbed at her grasping her clothes. Her night gown was torn from her slender body as she was stripped nude. She stood there naked before these vile things. Bony hands groped her everywhere. Senestra’s body was not safe from hungry hands. Some even grabbed her breast. She struggled and squirmed to free herself but hope had failed this innocent woman. The undead began biting her chewing her up, devouring the wretched Senestra. This gruesome nightmare soon changed as the corpses and bloody field faded away. She found herself in the middle of a battlefield.

Men fought beasts and demons, limbs hacked off, heads rolled, and bodies fell to the ground. The battle became fiercer as it commenced. Warrior and beast were oblivious to the woman’s presence on the battlefield. Senestra was in a hellish world of bloodshed. In the midst of the battle she was attacked by several huge demons. They beat her senselessly, ripping her apart, tormenting the wretch.

Something jumped out of the crowd of battling beings and sliced the monsters tormenting her. Senestra looked up at this brave warrior. He was tall with a very muscular body. He hovered over her like a hero. He looked down at her; she could only see his eyes through the slits of his helmet. Their eyes met, both stared into the other. Senestra saw the rage in his eyes lit with flame. She could tell he hated demons that he would mostly kill one than look at it. The warrior grabbed her by the throat and lifted her from the ground. It was as though he was choking her but senestra felt nothing. The damsel squirmed in his grasp as everything faded away once again. Senestra opened her eyes, light illuminated into the room from the window. Looking around she saw the Captain beside the couch.