Val was awoken by a shudder running through the entirety of the ship nearly forcing her to fall out of bed. Before she could dismiss it as simply a high wave, or a set of rapids in the current, the boat shook again, and Kyron called out to her, “Val, wake up!”

“I’m not a log, that crash woke me up. What’s going on?” Val said sitting up and groggily looking around. “That didn’t sound like we were pulling into dock.”

“Yeah, I think you’re right.” Kyron nodded and began to head towards the upper deck, but before he could even begin climbing the stairs up, Captain Leon came charging down the stairs with a sword drawn, and murder in his eyes.

“You never bothered to mention there was another interested party following in your footsteps.” Leon leveled his blade at Val stepping closer menacingly.

“So the assassins found us after all?” Val grimaced, “I knew it was only a matter of time, but I hoped we’d be in the capital by then.”

“Assassins? Is that some fancy coast-folk way of calling someone a plague tamer?” Leon huffed and stormed out of the room. The man’s short grey hair did little in the way of hiding the blood that was dripping down his wrinkled scalp, and the sweat beading down his neck from a recent exertion.

Val drew her own swords and began to follow after the captain calling back to Kyron. “You might wanna help Srough get ready to fight if we have company on board.” Without waiting for a reply she rounded the corner and bounded up the stairs onto the main deck where splinters of the ship were strewn about.

More concerning than the splinters was the blackened blood that was steaming upon the sturdy wood. She heard yelling at the bow of the ship and began to rush towards the source of the commotion as a body whistled past her and let out a sickening noise as it came to a sudden stop. Val cringed as she felt a spray of warm liquid on her arm, and pushed forward with trepidation slowing her pace.

As the bow of the ship came into view Val’s blood froze and she found herself unwilling to move forward. The entirety of the ship’s front was clenched in the maw a massive creature with pitch black skin, pointed teeth, and far too many arms. Finding herself unable to count them all Val looked around at the crew members, seeing some abandoning ship, and others attempting to mount a defense against the beast trying to devour the boat.

The boat rocked again, nearly sending Val tumbling to her knees, and that was when she saw it. Coming from the back of the massive creature’s head was an ethereal string that stretched out towards the shore. “Plague tamer?” She pondered the implications of the captain’s words. The creature at the bow was clearly a vrocthízo, the race known to many as a plague or the black maw.

“What the hell is that?” Kyron shouted coming up beside her. Val saw the ghostly string give a slight pulse and then the boat rumbled again as the monster tried to take another bite. “Is that a worldshaker? How did it grow that big so close to the capital without anyone killing it?”

“Titan’s blood!” Val cursed trying to figure out why there was a string attached to the monster. “Kyron,” She demanded, “Can you see the string attached to it? Where does it lead?” Kyron drew an arrow and looked towards the shore tracing the string with his aim.

“It’s connected to someone on the shore.” Kyron drew his bowstring back gently. “It’s hard to see from here, but I think they’re focusing on something pretty hard.”

The boat started to tip back as the many arms of the figure assaulting them grasped the boat’s underside and began to lift. “Shoot them! Aim to kill!” Val ordered, and Kyron released his grip sending an arrow sailing through the morning air.

Seconds later, Val found herself deafened as the vrocthízo grasping the boat screamed, before reeling backward and dropping the boat. The creature then fell into the river slipping beneath the waves caused by the current.

Moments later the boat ceased its rocking and returned to a gentle bob along the river, but none of the crew moved. Everyone was too shocked by what they had seen to take immediate action, and terrified that the horror wasn’t over. Eventually, a few brave crewmen meandered near the edge as the boat began to drift north again. Val joined them near the edge of the boat, but instantly recoiled when she saw the water. It was pitch black, and writhing with life struggling to find the surface.

The river began to froth and bubble as though a great heat had agitated its contents, and soon the surface tension broke revealing a horde of creatures identical to the beast that had fallen into the river. Identical in all but size, this hoard of smaller vrocthízo began trying to climb aboard the ship eager to devour the living before they would inevitably turn on the ship itself desperate for sustenance.

Several of the remaining sailors at the rails were pulled overboard as the frothing mass of water and life reached its peak and hungry mouths gnashed at everything within their reach. “Everyone get back from the rails!” Leon urged, trying to save any of the crew that was still within danger’s reach. “If we can reach top speed, then maybe we’ll lose the little devils.”

On his command, the crew began to work in a terrified fervor hoping that they would be able to outrun the demons. Val, Kyron, and Srough focused on aiding the crew in slaughtering any of the vrocthízo that managed to make it onboard. For a moment, it seemed like their plan was going to succeed, but water erupted in a massive spray as the enormous creature from before rose past the swirling mass with its jaws wide open.

As the creature rose it grasped onto the boat with its many hands and brought the vessel to a halt in the water. “Everyone abandon ship!” a crewman shouted out starting to flee his post.

“No! You’ll be devoured the instant you go overboard!” Val screamed tackling the man before he could jump. “We have to chase them off!”

“The lass is right!” Leon yelled from the rear of the ship, “We’re dead in the water! Quite literally if you jump, but I don’t know what we’re going to do next.”

“It’s simple really.” A voice unknown to Val rang out, “Vrocthízo eat people to devour their auras. At least that’s the prevailing theory. So, we just need to toss the person with the strongest aura overboard, and they’ll all chase after that heroic figure.” The female voice rang full of pride and condescension.

“We can’t just kill someone on the hope it’ll save our skins!” Kyron interjected before anyone could acknowledge the girl’s plan. When he found the source of the voice Kyron was more surprised than anything that she was even younger than Val. This blonde haired child was suggesting murder, and she barely seemed capable of clothing herself.

“Besides, with a hoard that large, they’d be devoured in seconds and the pack would turn back for the boat.” Val corrected on the faulty plan. “But there’s an old saying my dad told me. The covenant of the hungry is often short-lived. Vrocthízo practically never work together, because no amount of food could sate their hunger. If this pack is working together perhaps we can turn them on each other!”

“And how do you propose we do that?” The young girl scoffed, tossing her hair to the side. “There’s no such thing as controlling another person’s actions with magic. And it’s not like we have a perfume to spray on them that will make them smell delicious to each other.”

“Well actually, I was gonna use your plan. Because we do have a scent they’re after that we can use.” Val smiled narrowing her eyes, “We need to launch a few people on top of the big one. Then we have to avoid its attacks until the little ones start paying attention.”

“All it will take is one bite.” Leon started as the boat began to shake again with the massive teeth tearing through a section of the hull. “But we’ve got to hurry. Any more damage and we’ll be sunk.” He then turned towards his crew, “Wind dancers! To me!”

A set of twins stepped forward, “Yes, sir!” They acknowledged before standing straight and meeting Leon’s gaze. Leon the covered the plan with them, while the girl ran from crewman to passenger and back again, examining everyone on the ship.

When the girl reached Val, she looked the red-headed woman up and down and scoffed, “What’s so special about you? Looks like you’ll be quite the talented mage if you ever learn anything useful.” She then looked back towards Leon, “Papa, I found this lady here! She’ll escort me.”

A look of shock crossed Val’s face, but before she could speak Leon began barking orders again, “Alright, my daughter’s life is in your hands, Val. Keep her safe when you’re up there.” He then turned towards the twins, “Alright you two. Get a move on!”

With a nod, the pair began to chant in tandem, and wind began to swirl around them rising to a gale within moments, clearing the deck of shrapnel. More and more air seemed to swirl around them. While the pair chanted, the young girl walked close to Val, “I would draw your weapons. We might need to make our own handhold.”

Val nodded still somewhat shocked this girl was Leon’s daughter, but nonetheless, she drew her swords and waited, unsure of what was going to happen next. The child latched onto Val’s waist and clutched her tightly just before the wind dancers threw their hands towards the deck, and an immense force lifted Val and her new companion off the deck sailing them towards the massive creature.

Val managed to keep herself level as they arced forward, and readied to lash out at anything heading towards them. Fortunately, the beast was too focused on its attempts to eat the boat that it had never noticed the counter-attack heading its way.

Val flipped one of her swords into a reversed grip and slammed it into the black wall of flesh as they impacted driving the blade deep creating a solid platform. “Okay now, what do we do to get the little ones to pay attention.” Val mused.

“We’re lucky the big guy didn’t pay us any attention. Probably just thought we were an arrow or some other projectile. Oh, by the way, I’m Marissa. I’m sure you were wondering.”

Val had been a little curious of the girl’s name, but all the same, found it an odd time to introduce herself. “Val.” She muttered, not wanting to off put the child while they were working. “Now, what’s phase two of your plan?”

“Oh that’s easy!” the girl smiled devilishly as she pulled a small knife from her boot and jammed it into Val’s side puncturing a lung. “Now hold that there for a moment. Don’t pull it out until the vrocthízo are right on top of you or else we’re all dead on the boat. Toodle-oo!” And with that, the little girl vanished before Val’s very eyes with a small pop.

Val coughed as she felt blood beginning to well in her lungs and her mouth began to fill with the taste of iron. Her hand instinctively reached for the knife wanting to pull it loose so she could attempt to staunch the bleeding, but as hung on the side of a giant creature bleeding out she saw the boat below, and knew she couldn’t help them if the girl was being honest so she waited, holding on both to life, and to the creature.

Val’s eyes slowly forced themselves closed, causing her to shake her head vigorously. “Gotta stay awake.” her focus was repaired as she heard a feral scream. Looking around for the source of the noise Val found several small vrocthízo climbing towards her fervently. “This is it.” She stumbled nearly losing consciousness again.

Within moments the first plague creature had reached her and Val decided it was her last chance to try anything. Val dropped the sword not keeping her tethered to her unaware mount, and then used her newly freed hand to wrench the knife out of her side. As she did her lung drained of blood causing her to gasp in air sending pain roaring through her body. The other vrocthízo began to bite at the black flesh as they noticed the blood they were looking to devour.

The large monster gave a howl of pain as the gnashing teeth began to sap its strength, and Val found herself unable to hold on any longer and slipped away from the sword tumbling towards the river below with the rush of wind causing her to pass out.

Val hoped that she woke up before hitting the water so that she might be able to dive effectively and minimize any injuries the fall would cause, but Val also found herself hoping that she would wake up at all. And that was when it dawned on her, if she was thinking and hoping, then that meant she hadn’t died yet. But in her unconscious mind, Val knew that falling from that height was surely lethal without the proper technique. That left her with only one question; “Where am I?”

“Sickbay lass.” A familiar voice called out to her in her sleep. “Seems you might be waking up soon, so I wanted to say thank you for your brave sacrifice.”

Val’s eyes slowly opened regarding her surroundings, and anger came flooding into her. “My sacrifice?” She growled before noticing Marissa hiding behind Leon’s coat. The girl seemed frightened but kept her gaze fixed upon Val. “Wasn’t really my choice to make. But I’m willing to bet that one saved me?” She pointed at his daughter.

“Aye. Right as you started to fall she opened up a portal of some sorts and let you fall a short distance straight into sickbay.

“Papa, for the last time it’s not a portal! I just made a space below you the same space as the sickbay. It’s only an intermediate spell. Even you could learn it, papa.” Marissa grumbled

“Anyway. We’ll let you sleep. Thanks to your friends the boat is just about ready to set sail again.” Leon smiled, “The plan worked perfectly if you hadn’t gathered. The large one turned on all the small ones the instant you dropped and wiped them all out, but it succumbed to its wounds and fell back under the river. We’ve been plague free for eight hours now. Anyway, when you wake up we should be to the capital.

Leon turned and left the medical ward, but Marissa lingered behind for a moment, “Sorry about stabbing you.” A rare moment of humble sorrow flashed across the girls face, but vanished as quickly as it came, “But it needed to be done. I knew you’d survive anyway, so my plan was a brilliant success.”

“It sure was.” Val groaned before flipping onto her face and heading to sleep. That was twice in three days she’d nearly died due to her own recklessness. Still, she was alive and that was the most important part. And soon enough Kyron’s mission would be complete and they could head home to safety.