Location: Tethys Sea, off the coast of Ellewyn
Characters: Malkav, Adam, Fayrelin, Captain Jargon, Exthame, Blackthorn
Time: Day 4 - 4:36 PM
Captain Jargon stood with one foot on the bow of his mighty vessel, letting the wind blow back the tresses of his chest hair. He laughed, whiffing the saline air, smelling home. “The open sea! You’re more beautiful every time I see ye.”
Hanging over the ship’s railing, Adam puked for the fifth time. “I hate ships… I really hate ships…”
“What’s wrong with your friend?” Fayrelin asked Malkav. They were both sitting on a crate full of marble-sized cannonballs.
Malkav shrugged. “He hates ships.”
“I see… Well, he better start liking them. Gravy Bones’ locker is a long way away.”
“Fantastic…”
“Okay, so we know what’s wrong with your friend. What’s wrong with you?”
“What do you mean?”
“You don’t say much.”
“I’m shy by nature.”
“You know, a liar can always spot another liar. It’s in their eyes. It’s something they can’t hide.” She nodded her head towards Exthame, who was standing tall and rigid behind the captain. “Except for Exthame there. You can’t even see his eyes through those shades. Some people say that he’s blind. They say that a shark gouged out his eyes when he was a child and he wrestled the shark to the bottom of the sea with his bare, bloody hands and strangled it to death. Other people say his eyes are actually like periscopes and he’s able to zoom in on anything that swims, breathes, or crawls. Still others even say he’s not from this world.”
Malkav perked up, but he tried not to think about it. The real world. The lost one. “Other worlds, huh…? And what would these people know about other worlds?”
“Ha, this world alone is a lot bigger than you could ever imagine, Malkav.”
“Is that so?”
“I bet you’ve never even seen a pygmy.”
“A what?”
“A pygmy!” Fayrelin laughed. “What? You’ve never even heard of them?”
“No. What are they?”
“You’re looking at one.”
“You?”
“Haven’t you wondered how I could be a girl and still be the same size as you?”
“It’s crossed my mind.”
“But you’re too shy by nature to ask me, right?”
“You got it.”
She nodded, grinning. “There was a time…when Men and Women used to stand together, you know. It wasn’t always like this. The Dark Lady Sorena didn’t always dictate how we live our lives.” A cool sea breeze tickled her face. “And when she did change our world, not all Women let Men dwindle away to nothing. Some of them still believed. And they shared in the punishment of the Men.”
“You mean they dwindled away with the Men?”
“Precisely. Those Women became known as the pygmies. Unfortunately, our kind is dying off quickly and it won’t be long before we’re extinct. In some societies, we’re hated even more than Men.” She shrugged, like it didn’t bother her or like she didn’t have a choice. “That’s why I became a Rogue. I knew I’d have to take care of myself in this desolate world. Don’t let the others fool you; there is no borderline to the land of the Forsaken. They’re all forsaken. Ellewyn, Kaligar, Penee, all of them. Forsaken to their rotten cores and corrupt leaders. We’re the only ones you can trust. The ones of the shadow world. The ones who walk the walls and stalk the night.”
“Yeah… It’s hard for me to trust people, too.”
“I can tell. You had something going with Siarra, didn’t you?”
Malkav’s eyes widened and then narrowed. “Geez, you really have been following me around, haven’t you?”
“It’s in the job description. You should know.”
Adam wiped his mouth and plopped down on the crate between them. “Riding a ship full of drunken pirates was not in my job description. I’m just a Monk. I belong on land.”
“At least we’re safe from Women here,” Malkav muttered.
“Arrr, there ye be wrong, boy!” came a raspy voice and they all turned to see Blackthorn, holding an overflowing mug in one hand and scratching his behind with his hook. “There be plenty of Women in these here waters. Haven’t ye landlubbers ever heard of the tale of the sirens and the mermaids?”
Fayrelin rolled her eyes. “Don’t scare the boys. They don’t need to hear this.”
“Arrr, but they do. They do. They must.”
“Hear what?” Malkav asked.
“What about sirens and mermaids?” Adam chimed in.
“Other races,” Fayrelin said quickly, eyeing Blackthorn. “Like pygmies. But far more dangerous.”
Blackthorn squeezed in between Adam and Malkav, nearly crushing their thighs with his enormous rear end. “Aye, far more dangerous. No offense, Fay.”
“None taken, you big oaf.”
“Tell us the story,” Adam said. Then he paused. “…It is just a story, right?”
Blackthorn laughed, causing his stomach rolls to fold over the two boys sitting next to him. “Har har har! Everything is just a story, my boy.”
“That’s totally not what I asked.”
“It all began a long, long time ago, back when the kingdoms of Neverquest were one. All the lands, in fact, were still one—joined together by earth and peace—and the Tethys Sea was a vast ocean of blue. This was before Men, before Women, in a time when the deities still walked the earth, fish roamed the seas, and birds ruled the sky. But nothing stays as it is. Everything evolves. From the Tethys Sea, the fish began to take on a human form—much like the deities and the Women of today—and the race of the mermaids were created. From the sky, the birds did the same, evolving into what became known as the sirens. Both the mermaids and the sirens resembled the deities, but they hated each other. For centuries, they fought in the skies and the seas as the lands of Neverquest began to break away. In time, Dai Celesta and the other deities created a race known as Women—creatures of land—giving them neither the breath of the mermaids nor the grace of the sirens’ flight. The deities had learned from the mistakes of the others. The mermaids and sirens were left to their fate, to destroy the air and the sea by their own hatred.”
“So…they’re both gone now?” Adam asked. “The mermaids and sirens, I mean. They killed each other, right?”
But Blackthorn shook his bald, unsightly head. “Many would like to think so, but I have seen them with my own eyes. The mermaids and the sirens still exist today…in the deeper waters, in the higher skies, yes, but they exist. Oh, they exist. Their hatred still grows.”
Malkav and Adam looked overboard, looked out over the rising waves of blue, and tried to imagine what kind of terror lurked underneath their tiny vessel. The mermaids. The sirens. They were there, somewhere. Turning green, Adam threw up again.
“Gross!” Fayrelin said, leaping off the crate.
Blackthorn laughed, slapping Adam on the back. “Monks never could hold their liquor!” Then he belched and leaned overboard to throw up as well.
Malkav remained in his seat, thinking. “…We’re going to run into them, aren’t we?”
“What?” Fayrelin looked at him.
“The sirens and the mermaids. We’re not going around them. We’re heading right for them. It’s true, isn’t it?”
“…Yes. I was going to tell you… Gravy Bones was killed in the battle between the two races. They say the sirens swooped down, gobbled up his crew, and overturned his ship, while the mermaids took him under to his watery grave. There, at the bottom of the old Tethys Sea, is where his treasure and the Scarab of Water are buried. In Atlantis, the home of the mermaids.”
“Oh, that’s just great. What’s the big plan? We’re going to sail to Atlantis and ask the mermaids for the treasure back?”
“Yup.”
“And when they refuse? What then? What happens when they decide to gobble up us just like Gravy Bones’ crew?”
“Arrr, the mermaids don’t eat human flesh,” Blackthorn said, stepping off the crate, taking a swig of rum, and leaving a frothy moustache behind. “That would be the sirens. Devilish creatures, really. They can pick a body clean in a matter of seconds, never letting a drop of blood touch the ground. I’ve seen them do it. Lost a lot of good chums that way.”
“That’s fantastic. Thanks for sharing.”
“Aye, my boy. The mermaids aren’t nearly so deadly. They would only take you under—to the bottom of the sea—and smother you in skin and rock until your whole body turns to sand. Then they would use you to line the walls of Atlantis, or to decorate the sea floor, or to be put in an oyster and made into jewelry for their princess. Aye, that’s what they’d do.”
“Have you lost a lot of friends that way, too?”
“No, mate, I have not,” Blackthorn said, scratching his chin. “Usually the sirens get to us first. I’ve never made it past them. In fact…my first run in with the sirens lost me my good hand!” He raised his hook to the sky and then laughed, as if giving the bird to the bird. “Damn bitch took the whole thing off. I guess I got it better than ol’ Irontoe, though, may he rest in peace. Same bitch swallowed him whole. Then she came back a couple days later—flew by while we were setting sail for home, squawked a few times to get our attention, and laid the nastiest white dropping you could imagine all over my ship. Then she laughed and flew away. Well, we found ol’ Irontoe’s metal toe that day—by the good Priestess, we did—tangled up in all her bird feces, and I’ve sworn revenge on the sirens ever since. I’m going to get that bitch—I swear, I am—and she’s going to pay for what she did to Irontoe, may he rest in peace.” He wiped his eye, which had collected salt water.
Malkav put a hand over his mouth. “…That was really disgusting. Move over, Adam. I need to puke.”
Giantess World
