Shelves were flying. Medicines that weren’t strapped on the surface was smashed. The sudden turn of the ship caused many to bang their heads. The sounds of cannon and the recoil of the cannons faced against whatever the fleet was fighting made Gabrio panic.

He held on to the side of the clinic. You could hear only that thunderous roar of the fleet. Each volley of cannon fire louder. It didn’t help that the still sea was woken up by the continuous fire. A fog of war spread inside the clinic. Gabrio imagined how bad it must be outside of the fleet.

A lamp shook badly and would have felled if it wasn’t bolted on the wall. Another shockwave of recoil shook the Galleon. Hundreds of cannon firing a volley fire that was precise and continuous was tilting the Galleon. Gabrio realized that if this continued the glass on the rooms was going to shatter. He made a mad dash shutting and bolting the windows. From his room to the rest of the deck. Gabrio urged the ones who were close to shut them down. Carpenters and Caulkers started blocking these circular windows.

As Gabrio was about to reach the last window located at the far end of the deck. It shattered into pieces and started pouring water in. Gabrio grabbed on to the mechanism and started pulling. The door burst opened and he saw Wiles rushed in. Wiles leaped to the mechanism and gave a mighty pull. The cover blocked the water rushing, but the floor was half flooded. Carpenters came carrying planks and bolts. They shut the cover and made sure to reinforce it.

Thankfully the whole deck understood what it meant if these windows were not shut. Hallways were cleared and the crew could finally feel that rush. Days of peace broken by a sudden attack.

Gabrio couldn’t move to the upper decks. He waited on the clinic while trying not to trip every time the cannons blows its load on whatever the fuck they are firing on. Gabrio held on to the side. He moved slowly back to where he kept his pistols, arming himself just in case there were boarders trying to get in. From the sound of the cannons there shouldn’t be any. It didn’t mean that he’d let his guard down.

Each volley fire bounces off the ceiling and he walls. He’d go mad if this continues and from the looks of it there wasn’t any choice. Gabrio wore the face mask he had. He could still smell the black powder in the air so he instead went to the crate just next to one of the medicine shelves and took a crow’s mask that looked like a sack with a beak. It was one of the many masks that was sent to the Galleon just in case something like this happens. With the crow’s mask he could breathe easier. Wiles helped in manning the cannons while Gabrio stayed to watch the shelves shake.

It took half an hour before the storm of cannons started to simmer down. A great howl echoed through the still seas and it was louder than the cannon fire.

Then it was utter silence. Pure still silence that it became louder than the cannon fire. When it all settled in you could hear the sound of the voices spreading. A grow moan from a great beast was making Gabrio unable to sit still.

“Gotta do my job to himself,” Gabrio said. He weaved through the black powder fog and called out to anyone. “Anyone injured? Anyone got their heads smacked in?”

A figure appeared on two directions. They carried the injured on their shoulders. More of them were coming and from the looks of it. Gabrio was going to have to climb the top of the deck and scour for the injured.

“Anyone who got a scratch you stay put. I want the ones bleeding all over or their arms cracked.”

Most of the ones living in this deck was used such thing and was tougher. Gabrio set some bones and patched up the ones bleeding heavily. He had Wiles watched over the rest. Robert who was in the upper deck came to the clinic. Gabrio followed him up where he found people strewn across the floor bleeding.

“How in the fuck did it get this bad?”

“Sudden turn caused everyone who was being drunk as shit did. Most of them got their heads banged and it didn’t help that the volley fire kept on repeating. Couldn’t even stand up when the cannon fire was going.”

“What the hell are we fighting?” Gabrio held a man to the side. He reached out for his med bag. Grabbed the injured by the head and wiped the blood carefully before wrapping a cloth around the injured's wound.

“Some kind of sea monster from what I saw. One looks like an island while the other seems like a giant predator. All guns were pointed on the giant predator. Emptied the cannon and if I am not deafen yet, then the Ark should be pulling the corpse out of the water. They were not black-scaled.”

Gabrio tied the cloth neatly on a man’s head. “We aren’t doing any shit about the island?”

“Can we even touch that? We fired volleys of fire and the monster didn’t looked like it felt a damn thing. I don’t know what we should do about the damn thing other than go around it.”

“That’s not going to happen,” Gabrio said. He looked over a man’s wound and patted him awake. He moved to the next one. “The Scholars and the Ark won’t take this chance not to study this beast. They’d be a fool to risk this chance. I’d understand, but I just hope we won’t attract more predators.”

“Yeah,” Robert said. He called for those who got knocked out to help the rest. They had an entire deck to worry and Gabrio wasn’t sure how to handle them when they are all injured in the same time.

“Where the fuck are the others?”

“The ones who new meds already climbed to help. They’d need a hand up there.”

Gabrio nodded with gritted teeth. He cast an eye over the injured, sucked in air, and focused on what he was doing. He needed to take care of them first.

*****

When Gabrio was done he was starving and his throat was dry. If it wasn’t for Robert arriving with a waterskin and some hardtacks. He was sure that there would have been problems in him stubbornly continuing to treat people. Gabrio didn’t sit still for the six hours. He had a lot of people to treat. Some of them were injured simply because of how the Galleon suddenly turned. Some got injured by their fellow crew member who got thrown by the sudden turn. It didn’t help that after being thrown around, they got their ears ringed by the volley fire.

At times like these they should have been tucked inside their cabins bracing for impact. Problem was that the Galleon was too large and wide for news to reach everyone's ears. Even the ones who was strolling in the hallways couldn’t hold on. Gunners were trained to endure rough seas and constant cannon fire. The crew didn’t have much choice and had to learn to adapt to the rolling and the thunderous sound of a cannon

Cannon fire wasn’t easy to adapt with. Not when the sea had been quiet and flat for days. The sudden shift had caused people to be confused about what was happening.

It was easy to blame the Galleon’s Helmsman, but after a quick look at what the fleet was facing? You could hear none of the Galleon residents complain. A giant island-sized sea monster and a predator fish the size of a frigate.

Didn’t mean that people weren’t angry. Injuries caused confusion and when confused they turned to anger. The Prefects and the soldiers did their job in handling rest. Calming the crew members from making a riot out of this disastrous maneuver.

By the time he was done, they got the Galleon under control. From what Gabrio heard the Milostiv wasn’t the only one who had to make a sudden turn. Everyone had been injured. Some of the Gunners had their hands burned. They were the hardest to treat and he had to make sure that those who have bleeding and critical injury don’t crowd the clinic.

Gabrio took a seat in the hatchway. His coat had spots of red. His gloves were drenched with blood, sweat, and medicine. The crow’s mask was hanging on his neck as he chewed on the hard tacks.

Dom entered the hatchway and found Gabrio. Gabrio raised his head slowly, cracking his neck, and he was about stand up.

“Oh no,” said Dom. “The rest of the soldiers can handle the treatment. You sir, needs to rest.”

“I can still go on.”

“Nope,” Dom firmly said. “Order from the Inquisitor that you need to take a rest. We don’t want you collapsing knowing that there might be people injured. We need you healthy, Doc.”

A streak of sweat crossed Gabrio’s face. He stared. “That’s why I am here. I know myself better. Really, just let me handle a few and I’m done.”

Dom took a parchment from the Inquisitor with the order that Gabrio should stay still. Seeing the parchment he could only obey and recover his strength. Gabrio spent some time in the hatchway for a quick nap when a loud moan from the beast woke him up.

Struggling out of the hatchway and to the rail of the Grand-Galleon. Gabrio saw the eye of the beast looking down on the fleet. On its neck was a wound gushing out and it looks like the wound had been torn open cleanly by something or someone. From the looks of it the wound was getting larger. It's stink was horrendous that Gabrio put his crow's mask back on to breathe.

The wound on the neck looks like it came from that predator fish the fleet stopped. Gabrio flickers his eyes on the still sea. That shell reminds me of those four-legged creatures on the Eastern Hemisphere. Scaly looking head. A shelled back. I don't remember the name, but is it possible that this one belongs to the same genus?

Blood poured like a waterfall on the creature's neck. Moaning as if it was calling out for help. Though he was a Doctor that studied om how patients reacted and how to treat them internally. The Surgeon of Fort Rava had been particular in using animals to test out theories. Gabrio knew what a cornered and dying animal was. This one looked like it was begging to fade away.

A great whistling in the air happened. The trunks of the Ark that had finished collecting the giant predatorial fish started to plugged itself on the beast. The tendril-like trunks stabbing on the side of the beast. Next, the Ark became slow moving creature that reminded Gabrio of those slimy mollusks with two antennae. It was a scene that was straight out of a dream. In the wind there was a chatter that Gabrio could recognize. Patterns with rhythm and dashes that made him remember something. From the depths of his mind it tick and tock until he found something that resembled the pattern or was close it. Gabrio didn't understand what the chatter was, but that chatter was nothing compared to the view of the Ark forcing itself on the giant beast. The roots planted itself on the side of the great beast. Each root stabbing on every side, digging into the creature and pulling itself until it reached the back of the beast's neck. Two giant wood tendrils stabbed itself on the side of this beast and the moan of the giant slowly died down as the Ark integrated itself on the giant. Gabrio felt like all what he knew of the world being thrown around.

The singing stopped. The chatter from every direction halted. There was nothing but this silence and even the blood gushing out of the great beast was being sewn shut by the roots of the Ark. It was like the Ark became a tree on top of this giant shelled beast with an island growing around it.