Vengeance from the Sky (Completed)

Chapter 5 - Ocean Dwellers

The breeze was warm and gentle, the ocean was calm and clear, and the heavens were a perfect shade of blue, yet something didn't feel quite right with the world. It had been two days since his captain had flown off with a rare white pegasus, and his foreboding words still rang in Baelin's head like a prophetic warning. He didn't like it. So, even though he had sent his other crew mates to town, and a handful of replacements had returned, Baelin remained on board the ship.

He found himself dividing his uneasy glances between the sky and the vast blue sea. He knew better then most about the dangers that lurked under the deceiving waves. He had once called that place home, deep under the waters, where the ocean dwellers lived. And that place, in many respects, was even more dangerous than life on the surface. He could feel the heaviness in the air, warning him that something malignant was imminent.

Baelin gripped the rail and gritted his teeth when he noticed bubbles in the water not thirty feet from the ship. He knew what that meant. He knew that one of his own kind, another ocean dweller, had come to the surface to seek him out. But why? He had not left on good terms.

A bald, cornflower blue head and shoulders emerged from the mostly-calm waters. His familiar orange eyes locked onto Baelin with neither friendliness nor threat.

"Talon Connor. Tell me where he is," the ocean dweller demanded in his gravelly voice, not unlike the man he addressed. He spoke in Under-Tongue, which was a language that no creature born on land could decipher.

Baelin forced his features into a blank slate. He responded to the familiar man in their own language. "Greetings, Brother of the Sea. It has been years since I have seen my own kin. Any news from below?"

The other curled his lip at him in distaste. "That is none of your concern, traitor. I seek your captain, Talon Connor. Tell me of his location at once."

Baelin shook a long, thick finger at his kinsman. "Now, now, Ajit, that is not a fair trade. Why do you want my captain?"

Ajit crossed his muscular arms over his hard chest. All ocean dwellers were extremely muscular as a result of living under the weight of millions of tons of water. Baelin was no different, and he copied Ajit's movements with his own beefy arms while he waited for his distant cousin to respond.

"Our king has made a pact with the God of the Sky, and he wants Talon Connor dead. Now, where is it?!" Ajit demanded again, this time in a much louder tone.

Baelin scowled at his enemy and former relative. He stripped the off-white shirt from his hard, blue form and drew his long, curved scimitar from the strap across his back.

"I cannot allow you to harm my human friend, Brother. Return to the sea, where you belong, or I will be forced to to return you myself." Baelin warned, standing on the rail of the ship, perfectly balanced and holding his sharp, deadly sword ready for anything.

Ajit laughed mirthlessly at him. "You've been away from the merciless deapths of the sea for close to a decade, Baelin-ji. There is no chance that you can beat me in a battle, Land-walker." He raised his whale bone, poison-tipped spear from the water and took aim at his banished kinsman.

Baelin smirked, not moving a muscle while he waited with incredible patience for Ajit to make his move. "Hit me if you can, Water-treader."

Ajit pulled back his thick arm and launched the expertly crafted spear with a powerful thrust, paired with a long, fierce bellow.

Baelin continued to wait and wait, until the spear was just a gasp away, and then he jumped, leaping right over the poisoned weapon and shouted his own loud, ferocious battle cry. He brought his glinting scimitar down swiftly, using the strength of gravity and his own weight to drive the blade straight into Ajit's shoulder and through his torso, ripping through flesh, muscle, organs, and bone until he had been severed into two halves. Ajit did not even have time to scream, and now his lifes blood tainted the usually crystal clear waters red.

Baelin swam away from the stained water to rinse his body and his reliable blade. He resheathed the sword onto his back and climbed back onto the ship.

The other members of the skeleton crew stood on deck looking at Baelin in awe. One of them was kneeling beside the sixth crewmate who lay motionless on the deck.

"Wha' happened t' him?" Baelin demanded, noting that the bone spear was on the ground beside the still body. "Did 'e get pierced?"

"No one got hit by the spear," the one kneeling, Lark, said with a grim face, "but Harny here picked it up and pricked his finger on the sharp end. Within seconds he stopped breathing and collapsed."

"Concentrated jellyfish venom," Baelin mumbled, shaking his head sadly. "Keep yer eyes open fer any other signs o' danger, got it? We'll have t' give Harny a sailors burial wi'out the cap'n. I'll take care o' the spear, no one else touch it."

"Why did one of your own kind attack you, Baelin" One of his other mates asked.

Baelin shook his head wearily. He sighed, "Bad times, Mates. We're lookin' a' bad times, me thinks." He turned his orange eyes to the sky and thought in worry, 'where are ye, cap'n?'