The Guardian

Monkey madness

Bo and the other Klumpfs had their hands full with the Japes, leaving me and Amphia to go against the ship's long armed navigator. He was holding a seven foot metal pole he ripped off the wall and was charging at me, ready to turn me into a pile of Harlen. He had a crazed look in his bloodshot eyes as he screamed, sprinting at me with the intent to destroy me. If Amphia hadn't shoved me out of the way, he would've run right through me.

Right now, I had no time to focus on attacking back because his attacks were so quick and frequent, and he showed no sign of stopping. His long arms and even longer metal pole cleared so much distance that if I wasn't constantly moving and studying the poles movement to a T, I'd get smacked hard enough to break a hole through the wall.

His attacks were so uncoordinated and reckless, yet so effective and fluent. His stamina was outrageous, letting him fling his arms around like a lunatic for several minutes without worrying about stopping for a moment to breathe. His endurance seemed even more mastered, being able to attack in his pattern without showing signs of slowing down or fatiguing. Even though his arms and legs were fairly thin, they looked like they were mostly muscle under the dirty tan fur.

Another thing that caught me off guard was the fact that he looked like a normal monkey. No mandibles, no piercing yellow eyes, nothing. He stood out like a sore thumb compared to the japes. Maybe he really was the captain, and he was regarded as special for his strength and difference in appearance.

He seemed impossible to bring down as he would just keep going, probably until we gave up and let him whack us to death. I barely had time to think as I was avoiding his attacks, even as they sabotaged his own crew by accidently smacking a few in the head as he passed. I felt myself bump into one of the telescopes and had to duck and roll, so I didn't get hit.

The room was massive, but a big portion of it was dedicated to all the ropes and telescopes running through to work this part of the ship. It made a lot of sense, though. Why be exposed and out in the open while steering your ship when you can be in cover and closer to what was actually moving your ship. In this case, being closer to the legs moving the ship meant better steering and less waste of materials.

Telescopes and mirrors in pipes let you see everywhere around the ship easily, giving you more of an ability to see anything from any angle. The ropes and pulleys would help work stuff around the ship, like steering and stuff like that. To top it all off, at the very end of the room, throughout the massive cluster of pipes and ropes, there was a giant trap door that must've led to whatever was beneath us, carrying the boat, so they could get fed or whatever. I got a good glimpse of it while I was crawling away from the crazed monkey. That's when I got an idea.

It'll be much harder for the navigator to follow me throughout the cluster, so the deeper I'd go, the slower he'd get. Maybe I could trip him up and get him tangled in the ropes and held down by the pipes. After that, I get whatever was down in the basement to stop moving. It was a good plan, and it may be a little hard to pull off, but it was all I had.

Amphia noticed me moving into the cluster of pipes and ropes and immediately knew what I was planning. A smile popped on her face as she followed me. I tried slowly dodging throughout the pipes and ropes, so I didn't get tangled up or draw any unwanted attention, at least until the navigator noticed he was fighting ghosts and air.

Throughout my entire journey, I'd never expect being chased by a monkey to be the scariest experience I go through. His long legs ended up giving him an advantage by letting him leap from pipe to pipe with precision and speed. We weren't even a quarter of the way through the cluster before he slammed down on the pipe right in front of us. The monkey was staring me down, gripping the pipe in his hand hard enough to crunch the metal down. He lifted the pipe over his head and got ready to pummel me, but an arrow shot into his neck.