Land of Blood (SEQUEL to REIGN OF BLOOD)

Chapter 1

JAFAR'S POV

"God, I hate the coast," I muttered.

"Why?" Shadowwalker asked, "The sand feels nice under your claws. At least, I think it does."

"Me too," I huffed, "But aren't you worried about... it?"

"No!" Shadowwalker scoffed, "You are referring to Neuro, right?"

I shot a glare at Shadowwalker and hissed, "We don't speak his name!"

"Sorry," Shadowwalker growled, "But I'm guessing you are, so I'm just going to say that he lives too far inland. He lives near Mt. Shack."

"How do you know that?" I asked, "He's been spotted as far down as Coast Creek - which is right where we are."

"I doubt it," Shadowwalker said, "All Coast Creek has are dryos and tacos. That wouldn't be enough to sustain a beast like Neu - I mean, it."

I smiled at Shadowwalker as we continued moving along the coast, searching for any sign of food. Or, anything that was considered edible. Being hypos, we could eat pretty much anything.

Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something at the very edge of the coast. Right up to the shoreline was a giant, faded shadow covered in an incense of thick fog.

"Shadowwalker," I snarled, pointing out the foggy object, "What's that?"

Shadowwalker looked at the thing and said, "I'm not sure. It looks quite big... you think it's a human structure of some kind?"

"Size-wise, yes," I growled, "But humans abandoned this place years ago. Why is this here?"

"We're learning new things about our creators everyday," Shadowwalker reminded, "Maybe whatever this is was something we missed."

I looked at the fog long and hard, debating if I should go in and investigate. Who knows, maybe there could be food in there. Whoever abandoned this probably left some old pizza or candy. I hoped - it had been a long time since I had that hot, cheesy taste on my tongue. Or maybe, possibly even better, there were still humans in that thing. They could also be a delicate snack.

Finally, I took a deep breath. I turned to Shadowwalker and said, "I'm going in. Wanna come with?"

Shadowwalker looked at the fog long and hard. He then turned back to me and shrugged, "I don't care. I'm down to do anything at this point."

With that, Shadowwalker and I waltzed up to the fog. We entered its dewy atmosphere. The fog we entered was so thick that I couldn't see my claws in front of me. But I didn't care - all I could tell myself was, just walk forward. You'll get there eventually.

Well, eventually did come. The fog parted and revealed the shadow that lied beyond the fog. At first glance, it looked to be just a random metal structure, like everything else the humans had built. But upon doing a further inspection, I realized that this structure was nothing ordinary. In fact, the structure was a giant cargo boat.

"A boat?" Shadowwalker repeated my thoughts as he moved to my side.

"Looks like it," I replied, circling the boat, "It's a big one, too."

"That's even more strange," Shadowwalker hissed, also circling the boat, "Shouldn't this be at a docking port or something?"

I nodded as I walked closer to the boat. I tapped on the metal wall with my claw. The sound echoed across the vessel. I leaned my head against the metal and tapped again. Yep, this thing was hollow. There had to be a way inside from here.