After a somewhat slow morning and breakfast the next day, Lanaea told me that they were going to fix my ribs, but I would need to be unconscious for the process. She told me that it would ordinarily take several weeks, or longer, to fully recover from the injuries if I rested properly, but that she was going to use something to quicken the whole process to one week. She wanted to make sure my bones were all in their proper places first though. To this end she was going to be using the red healing concentrate. She mixed Klaris (Claw-riss) root with something called Ozaris (Oh-zaw-riss) and put them in a syringe and handed it to Leola.
“Leola, if you would, please.” Leola nodded and took a deep breath as she looked at me.
“Ok Croí. I need to put this in your neck. It’ll make you sleep so we can work on you. We need you out for at least a few hours for this to work.” Hours? How many? That’s... They can do that?
“Is it safe? Why in my neck?” I asked.
“It’s safe in the right doses. That’s the tricky thing that I’m still learning about medicine. Many things are poisonous, but in small enough doses they’re perfectly fine, or can heal you. Like this mixture. Too much and it relaxes you so much your heart stops, but in this amount, it relaxes, numbs, and helps you stay asleep. We can put you under for a total of eight hours before it gets potentially dangerous. This is a six-hour dose, so you’ll be fine. Really groggy when you wake up and you’ll have a really hard time moving while the muscle relaxer wears off, but fine. It only really works when injected into the bloodstream, preferably closer to the brain. It’s a well-kept secret between trusted practitioners of medicine, otherwise people could use it for some pretty terrible things.”
“I’m scared now. You mean I won’t wake up for eight hours?”
“Not even if we slap you.” Leola said, smiling. I shook my head.
“I don’t like the sound of that.”
“Well, it’s that or you stay awake and feel the concentrate rearrange your ribs, heal most of your bruising, fix the bone in your arm, getting cut open… you get my point. It’ll be painful, and if you move and twitch you could misalign or snap a rib, then it’ll heal improperly. Do you want that?”
“I’ll admit that doesn’t sound pleasant. They both sound scary.” She put her hand on my shoulder.
“Don’t worry Croí. We’ll watch over you. You’ll be fine.” She smiled. Her smile was lovely, infectious even. I couldn’t help but smile back through my fear. I was still nervous, but I figured this was better than staying awake.
“Ok.” I conceded.
“Great. Now you’re going to feel a little pinch from the needle, but I’ll count down from three and go on one to give you warning.” I nodded. “Three. Two. One.” I felt the pinch of the needle, then a strange twinge of pain as she squeezed the cool liquid into my neck. She pulled the needle out and pressed a small gauze patch against it and exhaled. Lanaea put her hand on Leola’s shoulder.
“Excellent work. All that training paid off.” She said. Leola smiled then looked at me. My vision started to blur. My eyes felt heavy. I was feeling tingly on my face, arms, and legs. I blinked. I struggled to open my eyes and tried to pull my hand up but it wouldn’t move. Panic was setting in. I heard Leola speaking, but it was muddled, like I was underwater.
“Close your eyes Croí. Relax, don’t fight it. You’re ok.” It felt like an effort even to move my eyes over to look at her. “Man, this stuff works fast, it’s kind of scary. That was like two or three seconds. Come on Croí. Sleep, it’s ok.” Feeling the soft comfort of her hand on my forehead allowed me to calm, and I finally let my eyes close.
* * * * *
* * * * *
I tried opening my eyes to the sound of the break bell. I felt sluggish. I could feel my body trying to move on its own, but nothing would happen aside from a small twitch.
“He’s twitching, is he awake now?” I heard Leola ask.
“It’s just his body trying to talk with the brain and find out what’s going on. He shouldn’t be awake for another couple minutes.” Lanaea explained.
“Ok.” Leola said, not sounding totally sure. I tried to open my eyes again, this time I was more successful. When I did, I saw Leola and Lanaea talking to my right.
“Like I was saying, that’s why I’ve been talking with him so much. The way he was raised left him so naive that most people would say it’s fake. It’s a form of trauma that the rest of you don’t have to deal with.” Lanaea said.
“Trauma? From talking about sex?” Leola asked.
“Yes. It doesn’t make sense to us but think about how strange it was to learn about it for the first time. Then add in that your whole life you’ve been taught that it’s a bad word. Just talking about it makes him shake with nerves and brings out intense feelings of guilt and shame. He’s going to have to overcome all of that, while figuring out his own sexuality. All of this while he’s dealing with the Trials.” Lanaea paused and Leola sighed heavily. I closed my eyes. I tried moving to let them know I was awake, but my fingers didn’t move like I wanted them too. Then a thought occurred to me.
Are they talking about me? It sounds like me.
“When you put it like that, then it really is a bit more daunting, and a bit of an extra challenge for me to treat. Does that mean we shouldn’t talk about it? Or that we should?” Leola asked.
“More talk about it than not, but don’t go out of your way for it, let it happen naturally. He’s a very internal person. He doesn’t let out much if any of what he feels unless it’s overwhelming him, or he thinks it’s socially acceptable. You’ll have to find out how to broach the topic at some point.”
They are talking about me. I don’t know how I feel about that, it feels like a betrayal for her to tell Leola all of this. Really embarrassing. But on the other hand. Leola is training to basically be Lanaea. She’s who I’ll need to talk to eventually. Still, it feels weird. I tried moving again but same as before, it was like my body was still asleep. I was only able to slightly curl my fingers.
“Well.” Leola said with a sigh. “I’ll do what I can. He’s a great guy. I really hope I can support him.” I stopped trying to move. She thinks I’m a great guy? I mentally smiled, my lips twitching a bit.
“I think you’ll be fine. Be sure to flirt or tease with him occasionally, or get Sable to do it, she’s a natural. Just make sure that you’re not leading him on. It’ll help him acclimatize to it and hopefully help him see it’s normal and fun, not just a ‘bad word.’”
“Right. I’m wanting to lure out his trauma bit by bit, then counsel it?”
“Essentially yes.” Lanaea said with a sigh. “Sometimes I wonder if it would be easier to be human, or Uraggian, or just some other humanoid.” Lanaea said.
“I mean in a way it would be worse, because from what you’ve told me, they don’t process trauma the same way we do.” Leola said.
“No, they don’t. It often cripples them for years, depending on the severity of it. Whereas like we’ve discussed…” She left it open, and Leola finished for her.
“If we get proper help coming to terms with it, we Age, we grow wiser, stronger, more durable. So, in a way, Croí being so naive will eventually make him much stronger. Provided I can counsel him properly.”
“Correct, but?…” Lanaea questioned, leaving it open once again.
“There is an element of risk to it. While we can get stronger from trauma, we aren’t immune. Some Agers get too much too fast and they’re not the same. If that happens it takes much longer for them to Age properly.” Leola answered.
“Granted, the amount of trauma it would take to do that to a Cianían would likely ruin a human, or many of the other humanoid races for decades. Not that there’s anything exact about it. All of this is based on averages we’ve observed. It’s possible that Croí could shatter, but we know that the more naive one of us is, generally the worse the trauma. So, if he makes it through this, he might be incredible. Our entire race is gambling with the Trials. If we win, we get a large boost to our ranks, our kingdom is defended and prospers. If we lose, we lose time, resources, and lives.” With that they stayed silent for a while.
I thought about what I’d heard. So me being naive could be good, or it could ‘shatter’ me, as Lanaea put it. It seems like me being counseled by Leola can help. I’ll have to try and confide in her like I did with Lanaea. Meantime, it might be good to get moving.
I tried lifting my head, but it felt like it weighed at least double what it had before. It was strange, like my body was in slow motion, but my brain felt just fine. They noticed and came over to me.
“Good afternoon Croí. Right on time for break.” Lanaea said. I tried speaking but only grumbles came out, followed by a slow-motion look of confusion. They laughed.
“Don’t worry Croí. It’ll wear off within the hour. In the meantime, just keep trying to make small movements all over.” Leola said, moving her shoulders up and down showing me what to do. I nodded, and focused on wiggling my toes and squeezing my hands into fists over and over. Shrugging my shoulders like Leola had shown me to do. “There you go you’re getting it.” She turned to Lanaea. “Is he awake enough to talk? Or at least understand?”
“He can understand, that’s why he’s moving. It’ll take him a moment to talk clear enough for us to understand.” She turned back to me.
“We have good news for you. Your ribs are pretty much healed, but they’ll still be a bit sensitive. A lot of your bruising has healed though, which is great. Edorin wants to have another tournament at the end of next week. You have four days of resting then training for a week to prepare. You get all that?” I nodded slowly after a moment of blinking at her. It was so strange, having my mind and body be so slow and feel so sluggish. It all made me nervous that the effects wouldn’t wear off. Besides that, I was still trying to come to grips with the conversation I’d overheard. Leola stood and walked to the door. “I’ll go tell the others that they can expect Croí at the table tonight.” Lanaea’s head bobbed.
“I’ll keep an eye on him.” Lanaea said. Leola left and I continued flexing and moving all the muscles and joints that I could. The sooner this feeling was gone, the better. Even my breathing felt labored and extended, but the more I moved, the more it gradually loosened up. “Notice anything?” Lanaea asked. I looked at her and blinked, then took a breath. Oh. That’s lovely. I smiled.
“Breathing.” I said with a content sigh. It didn’t hurt to take deep breaths anymore.
“That’s right. Those ribs of yours are healed. Well mostly. We didn’t put a ton of red in you, but what we did put in was absorbed and spread throughout, so I would suggest not doing anything too strenuous for the next couple days. Still, you’re back down to freshly healed bones and bruises in their final stages of healing, no more than two or three days and you’ll be right as the Elders.” Lanaea sighed and leaned forward in her chair. “You know, I’m going to miss you. I’m glad you’re getting better, but it was fun talking with you. I’m hoping you’ll come talk to me occasionally, not just when you get a bump or a scrape.”
“Of course.” I said with a slow smile.
Thirty minutes later, she was helping me stand up and walk around the room. Five minutes after that the effects had primarily worn off. There was some lingering lethargy and bouts of forgetfulness, but I was good other than that. The pain had gone down considerably, enough that I could move almost without pain, until I bumped a bruise or poked at my ribs too hard. Then finally, when I was ready, she held the door open for me.
“Right then. Thank you for all your help Lanaea. I really appreciate it.” I said, walking through the doorway.
“Nice to be appreciated. Now you take care of yourself, make sure to practice your breathing when you can and visit me often.”
“I will. Mostly the second one, the first one still just scares me.” We laughed and waved to each other as she closed the door. I was out in the hallway alone, looking around, feeling somewhat uneasy. I was nervous about meeting with the group again. I was hoping that things would go well, and that they weren’t sad, or angry with me.
For a moment I thought about just heading above deck to my hiding spot but was worried I would slip on the climb down. Besides that, Leola said she was telling all of them to expect me. I paced the hall until I heard the dinner bell and the chatter of the group, as well as the sound of the crew heading for the galley. I walked in behind a few crewmen. I heard a voice from behind me.
“Croí? You’re up!” I turned to see Danith smiling. “Happy to see you on your feet kid.” The crewmen heard this and turned around, smiles on their faces, speaking collectively.
“Croí!”
“About time man!”
“Good to see you Croí. We were sorry to hear about Sacae, the goat licking gobshite.”
“Yeah. Happy to see you on your feet Croí.” I couldn’t tell which comment was coming from which person and didn’t know how to respond to so many all at once. I just sat there, dumbfounded, with my heart pounding, a weak smile of thanks on my lips in response.
Going from the calm and quiet of the infirmary to the noise of the galley was jarring.
“Croí!” I looked around to see Sable just as she grabbed my hand, pulling me towards the table where the group was sitting. “It’s great to see you. We’ve been worried about you.” She said, smiling.
“It’s great to see you too.” I said, returning the smile. The rest of the group was smiling at me as I took my seat. I looked at their eyes but couldn’t tell which ones were masks and which were genuine in my nervous state.
“Croí! How are you?” Flint asked excitedly.
“Yeah, how was the surgery?” Lánn asked.
“Not too rough I hope.” Jael said. Klintock nodded.
“I’m doing alright. Surgery went really well, got me all fixed up. I’m a little sluggish, but otherwise doing well. How about you guys?” I asked.
“We’re making more leather. If you’re feeling up to it, we could use your help with that soon.” Lánn said, smiling from her curled up sitting position.
“Sounds great to me.” I said in a small voice, accompanied by a weak smile. Looking around at the table, it was clear now that the initial excitement of my arrival had worn off, replaced by nerves and guilt. Jael and Klintock didn’t look happy. They were barely smiling at all. Lánn’s excitement looked genuine, but it turned to one of concern as she noticed me looking around the table. Keokin spoke.
“It’s clear that we all have things we need to say. We all experienced something horrible, some worse than others. What are we thinking?”
“I think this is a waste of time. What are you all so sad about anyways?” William grumbled. Jael glared at him from across the table.
“Go suck on someone’s toes you overgrown meatball! You don’t have a heart, so obviously you wouldn’t understand!” William recoiled in offense.
“I’m being serious here. Sacae was beating up on Croí and got caught. We all watched him get lashed for it. You all act like it was your fault or something.”The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
“Because it was!” Jael hissed. “If I had done my duty, or Klintock, or any of us, it wouldn’t have gone so far.”
“Bullshite. This is all on Sacae and Croí. Croí lied to you, to all of us. If he’d just fessed up to what was going on than it would’ve been over with weeks ago.”
“Are you…” Jael began. I interrupted her.
“He’s right.” They looked at me.
“What?” Klintock asked, almost in disbelief.
“He’s right. If I wasn’t so…” Stupid, weak, pathetic. “Naive, I would’ve recognized what Sacae was doing and how bad it was, and that it was stupid of me to try to hide it.”
“But if we…” Jael pointed back and forth between her and Klintock. “Had spoken up sooner to Edorin, or Sacae himself, or pressed you to reveal what was going on, it would’ve ended even sooner. That’s our duty, watch out for the safety of the group, but we completely failed.” She put the side of her head in her hand. “I don’t deserve it. Not anymore.”
“Oh?” William sneered. She looked at him angrily with tears in her eyes, then put her head down, seeming to accept it.
“Feck off you vulture!” Klintock roared.
“Stop! It’s my fault! If I hadn’t hid this, you would’ve stopped it. I know you would.” I pleaded.
“Yeah. You said that skitterbrook. Tell us, why, in your infinite wisdom, did you decide to hide it? Didn’t think Jael and Klintock could help? Doesn’t sound like you have much faith in your friends.” Ordinarily William was just mean for the sake of being mean. This time though, he was hitting the nail on the head.
“It wasn’t that bad at first. I thought it was just part of the training. When we first met him, he was rough with us, ask them.” I nodded to Jael and Klintock.
“It’s true. First time we met, he said Jael was less because she was a girl, then slapped Croí and had some crewmen beat him. We fought back and tried to free Jael. He commended us; told us it was all a facade to test us under pressure.” Klintock explained.
“That’s why when he started what he did, at first, I took it as training. Eventually when it was too painful, I tapped out, but he twisted harder. I asked him about it, and he said that it was to toughen me up because I was the weakest. It was special training, and if I told anyone, or couldn’t take it, then he would train Jael or Klintock in my place. I couldn’t take the thought of them being put through that, so I kept quiet. And with William confirming everything that Sacae was saying, it felt true.”
“That’s demented.” Céírde said.
“You did it to protect us?” Klintock asked. I nodded shamefully. “That stings a little deeper I think.” Klintock said. Jael nodded agreement.
“I’m seeing a lot of positives here.” Keokin stated, smiling crookedly. We looked at him with mixtures of anger and confusion. “Hear me out. I’m not saying that it was a good experience, but if there’s anything that I’ve learned from Edorin, it’s that every experience has something for you.”
He shifted in his seat. “Like this for example, yes it was bad, yes it was scary, yes it hurts all of us in different ways, but it also taught us. It taught Croí that he can and should depend on us more. Jael and Klintock learned what it feels like to fail, and that they need to persist when they feel like there’s something dangerous going on. I learned to pay more attention to those that don’t want attention paid to them, among other things. We all learned something like that. We also learned the dangers of being too naive. We learned the dangers of blindly trusting someone just because we were told to. We also learned that while William isn’t always the best at voicing it, he does know what he’s talking about sometimes. I think that this will make us stronger and bring us closer as a group. Do we agree?” He looked around the table at us. I didn’t know about the others, but I agreed with him. I had a newfound anger towards my shortcomings.
I’m naive, weak, stupid, and pathetic. But I have some time left to learn to be better. I have to if I want to survive, if I want to help all of us get home alive and safe. I’ll take the next few days to rest like Lanaea ordered. But once that’s done, I’m training harder than I ever did before. I’ll train while the group rests if need be.
“I agree.” Céírde stated. “Think of it this way, we’ve already survived our first brush with death and come out stronger for it.”
“Yeah. That too. Thank you Céírde.” Keokin chuckled. She smiled. “Is there anything else that needs to be said?” He addressed the group. After waiting for a moment, all of us looking around, Leola spoke up.
“From now on, if I think your ribs are broken, I’m checking to make sure, whether you like it or not.” She smiled and we all chuckled, happy for a break in tension. It gave us an opportunity to change subjects and get back to our delicious, mashed potatoes, gravy, and ham.
Things stayed calm, somewhat somber for the next hour, but after a while, everyone seemed to be back to their regular selves. We finished our food and as the others jumped in for a card game with Cairen, who was excited to see me. I separated off with Céírde to catch up on the creatures and Common lessons I’d missed.
* * * * *
* * * * *
I woke to the noises of the others getting their things ready for the day. I groaned as I rolled over, stretching out my stiff muscles. I felt a sense of dread thinking about training, then remembered I didn’t have to go. Sacae isn’t my mentor, and I’m in recovery today. I breathed a long sigh of satisfaction and relief.
I wondered about what I would do. I could do anything if it wasn’t training. Helping with making leather, or powdering herbs, maybe studying creatures or fishing. I could do all of them. Everyone had already gotten dressed and taken care of their bedding. Those that noticed me said good morning, asked how I was feeling, and jokingly said I was lucky I could sleep in. I smiled and laughed with them.
They’re right. I could just go back to sleep. I am tired, but I also feel restless, like I’m wasting time. I waited for everyone to be out of the room before I got dressed and took care of my things, heading out to join them.
“Are you not going to sleep in?” Lánn questioned, rubbing her eyes and blinking tiredly.
“I’m not that tired.” I said. She nodded as she mindlessly nibbled on some bread.
“Suit yourself. I know I’d be sleeping for at least a couple more hours if I was you.”
“Well, I was thinking that I could still be useful and help out. I’m not supposed to be doing anything too difficult, but I can help with making leather if you’d like.”
“Uh… Yeah. That’d be great. Sorry, I’m just so tired.” She said. I patted her on the shoulder as I walked off to the kitchen for breakfast, nearly bumping into William as I was passing through the door.
“Sorry William.” I said. He grunted a slight response to me and headed for the table.
“Croí, good morning lad. Glad to see you on your feet. Feelin’ strong today?” Cairen asked. I smiled as he handed me a plate. “Take what you need, you’re the last one.”
“Thank you. Yes, I’m feeling rested and ready today.” I put some breakfast on my plate. Eggs, sliced potatoes, and cheese, simple but effective.
After breakfast, I went above deck with Lánn and William and helped them make some leather, same as we had done before, using the Crows Tears and Charum to expedite the process. It still amazed me that with the use of those ingredients, we could take a process, normally lasting days, weeks, or a year down to hours. I wondered why it was so expensive. If it could be more affordable, then my brothers could use it to significantly boost their business. It reminded me of what Lanaea and Leola had done with my injuries, reducing the healing process from weeks, down to days.
We let the new leathers sit in Kolob’s warmth, and went down to grab some fishing rods. Cairen wanted Lánn and William to catch something to cook for dinner. I decided to stand in and help. Me and Lánn chatted a bit about what to make out of the leather. We thought that jackets would be nice, but that it probably wouldn’t be cold enough for them. We discussed gloves for Leola that she could clean off easily, or a hat for Flint. All conversation halted when all three of us got a bite. Wow! This is really heavy!
We secured footholds against the bottom of the quarter deck’s railing. I kept my eyes on the others and did my best to imitate what they were doing, and what I’d seen them do in the past.
Whatever was on the end of my line felt massive. I was engaging all my muscles just to keep hold of the rod, let alone reel it in. I groaned and gritted my teeth from the pain of straining my muscles so much.
I had pulled whatever it was more than halfway in, but I was starting to really feel the fatigue and strain. I considered letting go but remembered that I would lose the rod. Even if I cut the line, I would lose the hook. There were replacements, but I was taught not to waste. I dug in. Training. This is training. But I’m not supposed to be training yet. I kept struggling. William had pulled his up, a Red Line Tarip at least as big as the one Lánn caught the time I was watching. Lánn reeled hers up, revealing another Red Line, somewhat smaller than William’s. Lánn did a double take on my rod.
“Whoa Croí. Your rod’s bent pretty hard. Stop reeling.”
“Not… reeling.” I grunted. She went and looked over the railing and squealed with excitement. I wanted to look but was too busy waiting for a momentary slack in the line I could use to reel.
“Ok Croí. You got this!” Lánn yelled, excited. Then she seemed to remember something. “Wait… you’re recovering. Let me take it.” She said, pointing at the rod. I wanted to hand it over, but I couldn’t figure out how. William walked over, and in a swift movement, grabbed the rod and shoved me out of the way, saying.
“Hand it over skitterbrook.”
“Thanks.” I said, relieved. He didn’t reply.
Ten minutes later, William finally got it to break the surface and started reeling it up. It was another Red Line, but it was a foot bigger than the others.
“Geez! That thing’s huge!” Lánn yelled with excitement. I stared at the massive fish flopping loudly on the deck as William and Lánn jumped on top of it. William, breathing heavily, pulled out a five-inch sharpened metal rod and slammed it into the head of the fish. A second later it was dead. He turned to Lánn and me.
“We need to get these three below deck so we can descale and bleed them.” I nodded and grabbed hold of the slippery fish, finding it awkward to try and lift. Then I saw Lánn, and William grab their fish by the gills, and simply drag them. I mimicked them, dragging it down to the galley.
When we finally got all the fish below deck and back into the kitchen, we placed them on a special table for skinning and gutting animals. I watched Lánn and William work on their fish. Each had a special knife like the one in my pack. They used the blade to scrape off the scales of the fish first, then used the hook part on the back of the blade to make a long slice up the belly of the fish, starting near the tail and ending under the jaw. They were quick and efficient, even joking while they worked. William actually seemed to be enjoying himself, smiling as he joked with Lánn. He glanced over at me, then did a double take. “Where’s your knife?”
“Knife?”
“Yeah, your gutting knife.” He held up his, wiggling it for emphasis. “Go get it and get to work.” I quickly retrieved my knife, excited to use it for the first time.
William taught me how to properly scale, gut and bleed the fish to get maximum usability out of it and all its parts, keeping some of the organs but leaving the others on the table. Once we were done, we put the fish in a large container that emanated cold. They said it was lined with an enchanted material to keep things cool.
“What’s enchanting?” I asked.
“This is how Cairen explained it. It’s the process in which an inanimate item is imbued with a new property through a complicated magical process involving several high-grade ingredients by an enchanter. I have no idea the process or the ingredients used, but it works. How do you think we’ve been having meals with meat in them for so long without having livestock on the ship? We slaughtered them all in the first week and filled the Ice Boxes with the meat.”
He walked over to a door that led further into the stern of the ship and pulled it open. It was about the same size as the kitchen, but had pantries, cupboards, and cabinets lining the walls. William pointed to a large box with drawers directly to my right as we entered.
“Open that.” It had a heavy lid, but when I pulled it up it latched onto the wall. There was some slight staining and discoloration, but it was a mostly white, porcelain like material attached to the bottom of the lid. The rest of the box was also lined with it. As soon as I opened it, a steady stream of cold seemed to flow out of the box.
William moved me out of the way and pulled out another one that was below it, filled with ice. He pulled out a shovel like tool and filled the bottom of the top box with a layer of ice, then Lánn dropped one of the carved fish into it. William put another layer of ice, then another fish and closed everything back up.
I was amazed by all of this. Back home we had to put things in a specially made underground chamber. At first, I was curious why we didn’t have one of these, but then thought back to the leather making ingredients and figured this was like that. Great if you could afford it, but too expensive for pretty much anybody else. Just how expensive is this ship? It’s incredible. I want a house like this for my family. The last fish was left out and cooked for dinner.
During dinner, Edorin joined us and listened as Flint and Céírde told us about four creatures they’d studied that day.
First was the White Crawler. It had two arms and two legs, both tipped with two thick, long fingers, wielding large, black claws. It had somewhat grey fur covering patches on its body and a small stubby tail. Its head had an odd shape to it, almost like it was upside-down with a long snout. Instead of eyes or ears, it had several holes lining the top of its head. Its large teeth were always visible because it had no lips. They were small at three feet long, but they were stealthy, patient, and hunted in packs.
Second was something called the Bleeding Spine. It was a tree that would grow in certain areas in the northern part of the Island. The tree itself wasn’t really all that strange, slightly red in color, but the roots would grow through the ground and resemble a slightly protruding spine. It constantly secreted a blood like substance to attract small creatures, bugs, and small lizards. Bugs would get stuck, and an appendage would emerge from the root, slowly eating it. Lizards or bigger things that ingested the substance would be poisoned. The root would shoot out a small appendage that would latch onto the prey while it was eating the blood. This appendage was attached to the root by a long rope like fiber. Most creatures would die within a minute and once stable, the tree would quickly grow an offshoot of the root towards the creature and consume it, or what was left.
Third was a group of creatures called The Eyes. It was a group of black furred, large bellied, primate like humanoids with big ears and glowing white eyes. They were small, three feet tall mostly, but they had numbers. Still, they weren’t necessarily dangerous unless they could catch a creature alone, in which case they would drag them off, tear them apart and eat them.
There was a variation of The Eyes. They would travel in groups of two to four, they were six or seven feet tall, and would stalk creatures, catch them, and drag them off to their lair before eating them. They were scary no doubt, but apparently if you showed them aggression in groups larger than two, they would frighten and leave you alone.
The final creature was one that wasn’t nightmare inducing. It was a small six-inch tall bat called the Skeleton Bat, named so because its skin and flesh were nearly transparent, leaving only the skeleton and some of the red organs visible. It hunted small insects or ate fruit from trees and was generally friendly, though cautious.
I noticed that during the briefing, Edorin had been keeping an eye on me. When the lesson was done, he asked to borrow me and took me aside.
“Jael and Klintock have already been told, but Sacae was not keeping any of you up to date on your training. After Zanataz took over, he realized you’re all weeks behind. I’m not trying to frighten you, just keep you informed. Your training will be very different when you return to it. All of you will be training as a unit to tackle objectives. Given your injuries, and that you won’t be able to participate, I’ve talked with the mentors, and we’ve agreed that we’ll have this last week be split. The first half of the day will be regular, and the last half will be team training. All of this making sense?” He asked.
“Yes. I understand. Thank you for letting me know Captain.” I said.
“Besides that, I wanted to see how you were doing.”
“Thanks to our Aids, I’m doing really good, even caught a massive fish today.” He gave me a small smile.
“I’m glad. Now, back to lessons with you.” He said. I nodded and went back in to join the group for Common lessons. It felt nice to have so many people watching over me. Though at the same time, I didn’t like making people fuss.
I spent the rest of the week in much the same fashion. Visiting and helping members of the group while they went about their new training and routines. I noticed that Edorin would come and check up on me with a fair bit of regularity. Always asking how I was feeling and how I was doing with my resting. I would tell him I was doing well, or sometimes that I was struggling and wanted a bit of time alone and would retreat to my room or my special spot for a bit until I felt rested enough to keep going.
When the last day of my rest period came around, I decided to follow Sable for her last solo training session with Gathaen. Sable was both fun and difficult to shadow because I got to shoot bows with her as she practiced, but was next to her pants, pretty face, and bubbly attitude, which was difficult.
Gathaen didn’t look or act cruel, just serious. I came to find he was very personable and kind when he was teaching Sable some holds and was asking me to be her dummy. Then he stopped and looked at me.
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I’ll ask someone else.” It took me a second to figure out that he was referencing what had happened with Sacae.
“Wait. It’s ok. With him it wasn’t really my choice, this should be ok though. At least for a few moves.” I said smiling. He studied me for a moment then nodded with a slight smile and got to work. It was almost pleasant being the dummy this time. Sable was much gentler than Sacae, or even Jael or Klintock, and Gathaen was ever watchful. It only got uncomfortable when I realized I was so close to Sable.
Gathaen offered for me to test the moves on Sable as well, but I refused, saying I needed a break to catch my breath, which was partially true. After that he had us meditate for twenty minutes or so. Which was essentially just us doing what we could to shut out everything else we could hear, everything in our minds, and focus purely on our breathing.
It took nearly the full twenty minutes to be able to block everything out and just breathe. It felt great, then Gathaen told us we were done, and I was slightly disappointed. We went down to the galley during break to find everybody gathering to decide what to do with the leather that was made. Once everyone was gathered, Lánn addressed us.
“Ok everyone. We have prepared all the leather they brought for us. We counted it up to be about thirty-five square feet of leather. We need to decide what to do with it.”
“Then it comes down to what would be most useful on the Island that we’re lacking.” Céírde started. “I don’t know about any of you, but I would thoroughly enjoy a nice pair of shoes.” My eyes lit up.
“You guys can make shoes?” I asked Lánn and William. They nodded.
“We’ve been taught the basics of anything we might need to make, and we can get help from Cairen when we get stuck.” William stated.
“Yeah. Like the pants.” Lánn said pointing to Sable and Céírde.
“That’s great, because walking around on the ship barefoot has been strange, even painful for certain older areas of the ship that are more worn out than most. I don’t much fancy getting slivers in my toes. It’s only happened two or three times, but it’s still enough for me to want protection.” Flint stated.
“Good point.” Keokin said, sitting forward. “What kind of shoe were you thinking?”
“Just something like what I was wearing at the ceremony.” Céírde said.
“But those were like slippers or something, are you sure that’s what you’d want on the Island?” Flint questioned. Céírde thought.
“Well, I’m honestly not sure what other kinds of footwear there is, or at least I don’t know the technical names for them. Aside from boots, and sandals. I’ve never been a fashion-oriented person.”
“What about some good, solid work boots?” Jael queried.
“Now there’s an idea.” Leola said. “Boots. If they’re made a little more streamlined so they’ll be easy to move in, not too heavy, then we can try to make them water resistant and sturdy. They’ll be good for trudging across all that rough terrain on the Island. Is that doable?” She asked to Lánn and William. They looked at each other and William shrugged as he spoke.
“I mean, maybe? It’s complicated because it takes something like five square feet to make boots I think, nice ones anyways, and five times ten is fifty. We don’t have enough leather for all of us to have boots, but maybe if we take it down to five boots, for those that need them, then shoes for the rest of us, that could work. If we’re lucky, we can make a bit more leather on the Island.”
“Right, so what we need to decide is who needs them more.” Céírde stated. We looked around for a moment. I was fine not having them, long as I got something for my feet.
We decided that Klintock, Sable, Céírde, Keokin, and I should have boots, the rest would have sturdy, ankle high shoes. We also settled on a potential marching order that we would get into when marching through the Island. With that we moved on to a pleasant card game before dinner, lessons, and a good night’s rest. With that, my sixth week, and week of rest was over and tomorrow it was time to resume training.