The Nextworld Invasion and the Death of Magic - 10. Chapter 10 - The Mermonster

“How is this possible?” Tigath asked Kilial as her ship began to head out of the Elstall harbor.

The Mermonster possessed no crew. No strapping young seafolk dealt with the ship’s tack or sail, and yet, Kilial steered it out into the open ocean at a fair clip.

“My love was constructed over five-thousand years ago.” She stroked the ship’s large wheel with one of her long-fingered hands.

“What are you talking about?!” Othri squawked in disbelief.

“It’s true,” Kilial countered. “The Mermonster was designed by Rothian ancients, and it’s made…”

“Of sentient ocria wood?” Nuji blurted out, and the ship creaked as if answering her. “I was fascinated by the idea of ocria wood when I was an apprentice.”

Kilial nodded and explained. “The Mermonster had been lost for centuries before I found it again.” She gave her passengers a very satisfied smile. The ship began to leave the coastline behind, and Kilial continued. “The early Rothians discovered the island of Tal-ocria, the only place on Earth where ocria trees grew. Before our ancestors arrived, the trees had become twisted and overgrown. Many were sickly, and the forest was in dire need of assistance.”

“Wait a second,” Othri interrupted, “sentient trees… a five-thousand year old ship… is this a joke?”

The Mermonster’s main mast creaked in an almost threatening way, and Othri turned his orange eyes up toward the empty crowsnest.

Kilial’s eyebrows were raised. “It’s listening to you,” she stated.

“What do you mean?” Tigath whispered. “How is the ship listening to us?” He turned and looked astern, but the village of Elstall and the land they had left behind were already hidden beneath the horizon.

Kilial nodded to Tigath and repeated, “It’s listening.” She continued explaining. “A small group of our people chose to stay on the island to help the trees.” She glanced at Nuji. “We Rothians have an easy time communicating with the trees, and the trees told those early inhabitants how to help. It turned out, the island itself had eroded beneath the surface of the ocean, and the landmass was failing. A cave system slowly formed over the course of about a decade, and the trees had become tangled as they grew away from the earth that was crumbling around their roots. Our people were instructed by the trees, which of them needed to be felled, and which others needed to be pruned and might be saved.”

“Were the caves still getting worse?” Alydrael asked.

Kilial smiled with her wide mouth, and she looked proud. “The ocria trees told the Rothians that they expected to go extinct in a mere five years, but they survived another five-hundred!” Kilial was beaming, and the wood of the ship let out a joyful moan. “The erosion of the island was unstoppable, and ocria trees were not able to be transplanted anywhere else in the world. The very bedrock of the island was intrinsically linked to the magic in the Earth that gave the trees their sentience. The magic was depleted; the island was disintegrating, and the trees inevitably went extinct.”

The Mermonster let out a mournful groan through the deck beneath the traveler’s feet.

Alydrael scampered to the back of the boat where Kilial was at the wheel. Being an Urcai, Alydrael was almost two feet taller than Kilial, and she looked down at the limby Rothian woman with a little blush working up her green cheeks.

“What is it, girl?” Kilial asked, and a smirk curved up one corner of her wide mouth.

“Can I steer the Mermonster?” Alydrael asked in a breathy voice.

The ship rattled a couple of riggings that almost sounded like laughter.

Kilial’s smile grew as she stepped back and waved a spidery hand at the wheel.

Alydrael brought her green fingertips to the wooden handles in a dainty grip, and she let out a sigh. She leaned forward and whispered, “I don’t think you’re a monster.” Her pale yellow eyes were sparkling.

The rigging rattled again, and this time it was accompanied by the squeak of several pulleys, and a chain at the front clattered.

Kilial let out a boisterous laugh. “It likes you, girl!”

Alydrael turned to her with a bright smile and her eyes sparkling, and the wheel of the Mermonster seemed to quiver in her hands. “I like her,” she declared.

Kilial became serious. “The Mermonster is not female and does not like to be referred to by a gender.” She then shot Alydrael a wide grin. “The ocria trees didn’t have genders. Different parts of each tree were required to produce seeds for their future generations, so gender wasn’t really a thing for them.”

“Oh, sorry,” Alydrael said to the ship, leaning close to the wheel again.

“You’ve got this, girl,” Kilial replied with another laugh.

Alydrael let out an embarrassed giggle, and she reminded Kilial, “My name’s Alydrael.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Kilial replied with a snort, “and I’ll get it at some point.” She reached up to Alydrael and patted the much taller Urcai teenager on the shoulder. Nuji turned and strode over to Othri. “I’ve had the Mermonster for almost three years,” Kilial went on. “Not much of the old sentient wood still exists. Most of the trees that were cut down were turned into other things.” She brought her long-fingered hands to the banister along the starboard side and leaned on it as she gazed out to sea. “Most of what was made is long gone.”

The wood of the ship groaned again.

Tigath was already nervous about being on a ship, never mind a ship that was listening to him. “How did the Mermonster survive all this time?” he asked quietly. The wind kept blowing his long purple hair in his face, and he tied it back.

“Ocria wood doesn’t actually decay,” Kilial answered. “So it’s possible the other objects that were once carved from ocria trees might still exist, but most have been destroyed or lost over the millennia. I found the Mermonster at the bottom of a whirlpool in a sea far up in the frozen north.”

One of the ropes from the sails whipped against the mast, letting out a loud crack of alarm, and Kilial raced to the wheel. Alydrael immediately backed away from it and let her take control.

“This is why I didn’t want to travel by ship!” Tigath cried out, pointing straight ahead over the bow at an enormous fireball that was rising toward the sky.

“Hold onto something!” Kilial shouted. “Come on, Mermonster, evasive action! Hard to port!” She spun the wheel, and the sails shifted and altered their positioning of their own accord.

The ship creaked, and Nuji yelled, “There’s another!”

Flames raged up from the surface of the sea, this time closer to the Mermonster, but Kilial let out another loud laugh, and everyone turned in her direction. She was focused on Nuji.

“You can understand it!” Kilial proclaimed. “You can understand the Mermonster!”

“What are you talking about?!” Nuji hollered back.

“That’s what the Mermonster said! It said, ‘there’s another;’ that’s what it creaked to me!”

Nuji looked at the deck of the ship below her feet, as a third explosion of fire erupted from the sea.

“There aren’t really dragons causing these fire spouts, are there?” Alydrael asked as she held onto the main mast and the ship leaned hard in the water.

“Yep,” Kilial replied through her teeth as she spun the wheel back in the opposite direction, “they’re probably too deep to see from here, but that’s exactly what’s causing the fire geysers.”

Tigath was very unhappy with the severe rocking of the Mermonster as it wove through the flaming waves. “What happens if one hits the ship?!” The tie in his hair was slipping, and he looked very disheveled.

“Then we all die a horrible fiery and watery death,” Kilial replied.

Tigath did not like hearing that.

“Why are the dragons doing this?” Alydrael asked.

“Hard to starboard!” Kilial shouted as more bursts of flame flashed above the waves. “Wow, the trenchwyrms are really active today! This is their mating season. There must be an entire shoal of them down there, and they’re going at it!”

The Mermonster let out a rattle, and Nuji shrieked the translation. “Land ho!” She was pointing at the horizon. “Two o’clock!”

“Mermonster, sixty degrees to starboard,” Kilial ordered, “and punch it!”

The ship lurched forward and turned just as another geyser of flame erupted right off the starboard side. Fire was suddenly blazing from the Mermonster’s ropes and the forward sail. The creaking of the ship grew to almost a wailing, but Tigath and Othri were already tossing buckets attached to ropes over the side to collect water.

“Drop your front sail!” Nuji shouted at the ship, and it obeyed.

The ropes went slack, and the burning canvas of the forward sail hit the deck. Alydrael ran up and stomped out the blaze. “Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!” she kept repeating to the Mermonster, and the flames died beneath her feet. Tigath and Othri had drawn up a few buckets of water each, and all the fires were extinguished.

The group of five turned to look back over the stern. Fireballs continued to shoot up toward the sky.

“The Mermonster is beyond the danger zone,” Kilial informed the others. “Just bad luck that we encountered them, but it is their time of year, so we might have to deal with more before we get where we’re going.” She looked at the three Urcai. “Nice job with the water, you two,” she said to Othri and Tigath. “And thanks for dealing with the sail, kid,” she added to Alydrael. Kilial then focused on her fellow Rothian, and a wide smile stretched across her face. “It’s nice to have someone else aboard who can hear and understand the Mermonster. I’m glad you’re with us, Nuji.”

Tigath’s hands were shaking, but he let down his long purple hair and ran his fingers through it to calm himself.

“I’ve always wanted to see the sea geysers,” Othri stated in a voice full of wonder. The flames were growing smaller in the distance.

“I always thought those stories were make-believe,” Alydrael replied, “but there they are. I almost don’t believe it.”

“Believe it, kid,” Kilial replied with a chuckle. “Alright, Mermonster, we’ve already had an eventful morning, so why don’t we make berth at the island you spotted for us, and we can give you a thorough checking-over before noon. If all’s well, we’ll be on our way again by the early afternoon.” She focused on the island. “Where are we? It isn’t…” Kilial paused and frowned. “Where did this island come from?! It doesn’t belong there!”

“What are you talking about?” Nuji asked.

“We’re only a few hours from Elstall,” Kilial replied in confusion. “This area is well known and has been thoroughly mapped.” She looked down at the deck of the ship. “Mermonster, do you know that island?” It groaned up at her, and she replied. “I know it’s land, but what land is it? There shouldn’t be any land right there.” Kilial turned to her passengers. “I’m not sure where we’ve ended up, but we need to fix the ship. So we’ll anchor, make the repairs, and continue on our way.”

For a moment, none of them said anything as they drew nearer to the anomalous landmass.

Alydrael glanced back over the stern of the Mermonster and asked, “Kilial, what do trenchwyrms look like?”

“Like giant sea turtles,” she replied.

Tigath did not like the prospect of coming across them again. “How do they create those fireballs from underwater,” he asked, “and is there some way for us to avoid passing over where they’re mating?”

Kilial laughed again. “There’s no way to tell where they’ll meet up in the depths to get frisky, and it’s just blind bad luck that we got caught in the middle of it. If the Mermonster had been one league away from the trenchwyrms in any direction, we wouldn’t have been in danger. Glad we’re through it though.”

The five of them fell silent as they watched the fireballs continuing to shrink in the distance.

“The dragons excrete an oil that coats their bodies,” Kilial explained. “It helps insulate them from the frigid temperatures at extreme depths and also makes them more streamlined. It’s poisonous to invertebrates, affecting them like a neurotoxin. Trenchwyrms love to eat jellyfish and similar animals. The oil only has to touch a jellyfish to stun it. However,” Kilial continued dramatically, “during their mating season, when two trenchwyrms come together and their oils mingle, it causes an explosive chemical reaction. Tiny bubbles of fire form beneath the immense pressure of the water, but they don’t affect the dragons. Because of the intensity of the combustibility of the combined chemicals, as the bubbles of flame force their way up the water column and the pressure diminishes, they expand and burst at the surface. It’s glorious to watch but dangerous for ships.”

“I’ll say,” Nuji replied. Then she looked down at the deck of the Mermonster again, and she whispered, “Can I really understand you?” A pulley squeaked behind her, and Nuji knew the ship was laughing in delight. She could not help but grin.

“Alright, land lovers,” Kilial called out, “once the Mermonster is anchored, we’ll take a dinghy in to shore. We can bring some food for lunch on the beach, and we’ll survey the fire damage.”