The Guardian

Oh, I'm alive

I felt a tap on my shoulder. I thought it was a spirit welcoming me to the afterlife or something, and when I opened my eyes, the figure falling with me made me think I really was dead. But I was still falling off a ship with a heavy cannon ready to smash me when I hit the fiery ground.

The woman who tapped on my shoulder had her hand out for me. She was a yellow, transparent lady wearing a white flowing toga and golden wreath tiara. I was too mesmerized by her and confused about how she got here to reach for her hand, but seeing the lower half of the hull to my left snapped me out of it.

Her grip was tight and strong, so tight and strong that she threw me on top of the cannon with relative ease and popped her head up from the side immediately after.
"Hit it, Rossy!"

Rosslyn was on the control pad standing over a large yellow button that she stomped on with all her might once she got the woman's cue. The cannon aimed at the floor as it fired right before we hit the ground. The blast was so powerful that it practically stopped us completely, slowing our fall as we slammed into the ash covered streets.

A group of Jinjaga men rushed to help us up. Rosslyn was covered head to toe in soot, making her look like a breathing lump of coal. She climbed up my shoulder and started shaking the ash off her scarf as she spoke.
"Well, we're alive, so that's good for starters. But now we have a new problem. How do we get back up?"

The yellow woman glanced at the Jinjaga people scaling the mast with spears and ropes but grimaced.

"I think they have it handled up there. We need to focus our efforts down here. We need a way to out the fire."

Without missing a beat, Rosslyn nodded and jumped off my shoulder, sprinting for the giant legs sprouting from the ship. Next, the woman pointed at any Jinjaga men near us and gave them specific jobs and fighting tactics to corner the Japes and save the village from the fire. Finally, she pointed at me.

"You have to get that ship to stop before it crushes the rest of the village."

I could think of a couple of ways I could do it, but another thought crossed my mind, trumping the ideas.
"What if I take control of it? We could use that boat to get out of the jungle. The creek should lead right out of here, but it's burning near the exit. The boat can withstand it."

The woman looked up at the boat and then nodded before pulling out something that made my heart stop. In her hands was a golden curved scimitar, just like the one on the slab. Before I could point it out to her, she rushed into battle to help out the villagers.

I didn't have time to think about anything. The longer I waited, the more the boat would destroy. I grabbed my bag and my axe off the ground and ran for one of the massive insect legs that sprouted from the boat, just as it crashed down.

Whatever was inside of this boat making it walk was immensely strong. After all, the boat was gigantic, and the legs smashed in the ground hard enough to leave mini craters behind. Without a thought in my small hunter brain, I tackled the giant leg and started scaling it.

Some of the fireproof sap had gotten onto the leg, making it harder to scale than it already was. The leg lifted, nearly making me slip and fall off. If I was under this thing as it walked, I'd be crushed into fine paste with one step, easily, so I tried to hold on as tight as I possibly could. As the leg smashed down into the ground, I held on even tighter before quickly continuing to scale higher up the leg.

I've always wanted to scale a palm tree. From the moment I'd heard of them, I always wanted to see how hard it would be to climb up a tree that curved and tilted, especially when their was a reward at the top like coconuts or durian. Now, I basically get to have that experience. Only now, the reward was getting to not die.