The Scholar's Tale (Original Fantasy)

Book I, Chapter 7

"Don't worry, lads! That damn freak is big and slow. No way it can close the distance that f-"-Unknown captain's last words while staring down a Seaworm;

And here I had been worried my first day would be boring...

Seaworms were...not uncommon creatures. They did not consume vessels because of hunger, though they could digest anything, but because they hated anything that disturbed the sea around or above them, except for their kin. They usually swam through Midworld's deeper regions, where the Sun's light does not reach because of ancient pacts and enmities. Hence their pale bodies and specialized sensory organs. The eyes were just for show, I knew. Something to distract rivals and enemies, make them concentrate on false targets while the worm did its best to tear them asunder.

I had once heard of a captain who had emptied her ship's ammo stores destroying a worm's eyes, to no avail. The creature had amused itself with its prey's futile efforts, then destroyed them. Because they could be cruel, too.

Vhaarn, did Mharra know about the eyes? I called out to him, but he was already running. I ran after him, shouting that the monster did not have weakpoints: any part of its body could do what every other part did.

'I know! Come belowdecks and let Ib handle it! It's not safe to dawdle about when it's fighting seriously!'

Rather than ask what he meant, I nodded and kept running. Soon, we were down the stairs. I followed him to the engine room, but the door would not open. I began swearing, but Mharra elbowed me.

'Get a hold of yourself, or you'll die,' he said with a stern look. And then, Three's transparent arms reached through the door, grabbed both of us... and pulled us through the door.

I felt like I was falling in all directions at once, spinning through worlds I had never seen. I tried to breathe with lungs I did not have anymore-and then, I was material again.

I took a deep breath, touching myself to see if I was still here. Then, I shook my head to get rid of the daze that had taken hold of me.

I looked at the grinning Three and the laughing Mharra. What the Pit was so damn funny?

'Sorry,' Three said, not sounding sorry at all. 'I sealed the room for our protection-well, yours, that is.'

'What did you do to us? Did you... turn us into ghosts? Are you a mage?' I asked him.

'Not as such. When you're dead, you start seeing and doing things... differently. Was it pleasant?'

'Yes, like a cactus up the arse! Next time, give me a damned warning.'

Three looked at me with a strange glimmer in his eyes. 'Interesting analogy...'

'Bah, it's just your first time! It will get better each time you do it, trust me,' Mharra said, clapping me heartily on the back.

'True. You should have heard the captain scream during his first time,' Three smirked, and Mharra laughed even harder.

'Pull up the sightglass,' Mharra told Three after he stopped laughing. The ghost nodded, one of his bodies moving to a long metal table and doing something to its surface. A section of metal fell away, revealing a glass rectangle the size of my chest. We huddled around it, and the blank surface was soon replaced by a view of the ship and the Seaworm.

We saw Ib standing on the deck, arms spread as if it was ready to jump on the Seaworm and wrestle it into submission.

What followed was even more ridiculous.

Ib jumped kilometres into the air, the sightglass adjusting to show us the clouds and the worm's head. Above me, I heard something like a thunderclap, and the ship shook. The side effects of Ib's jump. The steamer must have been very durable to not fall apart or break under such force, but it had not even been pushed downwards. Why?

The sightglass also slowed down the events in the real world, so we could see them at normal speed. After all, Ib had jumped kilometers in less than a heartbeat. It was now among the clouds, once more an amorphous, grey blob, supported by nothing visible. Then, it changed shape and size, growing and growing until it dwarfed several clouds, and even the worm's head, for all that it was the size of a small mountain.

Where was Ib pulling matter from to enlarge itself? Only magic could do that... but then, I did not even know what Ib was.

It became a sphere, covered in spikes and bristling with all manners of weapons. A one-being armoury.

'I know why you have come. Perversion of life's cycle. Killing for joy, not for need. Worse than a beast you are, vile as the lowest of men... and you lack their excuses as well. You knew what you would be made into,' Ib spoke in a voice like crumbling mountains, nothing like the gentle giant from earlier.

And, more importantly, what was it talking about? What did it know, or think it knew, about the worm?

The worm moved its head from side to side, dispersing clouds. The force of its movements shook the air kilometers beneath it, making the ship shudder and vibrate. But it still held, and I though I could hear it growling in defiance at the monster.

'You hunger, I know. It's all you can do, all you can ever feel. Otherwise, you would be afraid of me,' Ib said in a mocking tone. The worm roared, and Ib's form rippled. Deep beneath, the steamer groaned audibly.

'But it is cruel to deny fools their joys, even though they should know better. Choke on this meal." Ib blurred forward, even with the screen's slowed down perspective, and the clouds in its way were unmade by the sheer force. The worm reacted, and caught Ib in its mouth. It somehow forced the grey sphere down its throat, despite Ib dwarfing its head, and for a moment, I held my breath.

Then, the worm trembled. It shook back and forth, and great grey spikes appeared from inside it, covered in thick, milk-white blood. More and more appeared, until the worm burst apart, a mountain of flesh unmade. An avalanche of gore fell upon the steamer, and I absurdly though what a pain it would be to clean the ship.

And from above, I could hear Ib's laughter.