The Nextworld Invasion and the Death of Magic - 12. Chapter 12 - Uall Island

The Mermonster was anchored to the sunken island of Uall. Only the tip of the small landmass and a few trees were above the waves. Dawn was beginning to break.

Tigath, Othri, Alydrael, and Kilial had begun the repairs to the ship before sundown, but the Mermonster still required several hours of maintenance that they planned on completing in the morning.

Alydrael was the first to make her way above deck, but she was shocked to see the rugged skyline of a mountainous continent.

“What the… where are we?”

The mast of the ship creaked, and Alydrael looked up to it.

“I can’t understand you.”

The Mermonster made a frustrated sound.

Alydrael’s eyes followed the coastline. It stretched on for countless miles in either direction. The jagged mountains loomed up, forming an impassible wall of stone that looked very unwelcoming. The sea surrounding the sunken island was calm, but Alydrael could see powerful waves pummeling the rocky land.

Kilial’s voice came from the stairs that led below deck, and she sounded incredulous. “What are you talking about?! What land?” She stepped out into the sunshine behind Alydrael, and she stopped speaking.

The two women stared at the immense mountain range in disbelief.

“Does the Mermonster know where we are?” Alydrael asked.

“It told me we’d reached land,” Kilial replied, “which didn’t make any sense, but I guess it was right. Where are we?” she added to the world at large.

“Look,” Alydrael cried out, “Uall Island is beginning to rise!”

The two women spotted Nuji and Lestralin at the top of the island’s small hill. They were also gazing out at the unexpected landmass.

“Kilial, do you think this weird island has something to do with that land appearing?” Alydrael asked.

Tigath and Othri appeared at the top of the stairs. “What on earth?! Where are we??”

The four of them stood in silence, leaning on the starboard railing and staring out at the imposing mountains.

In less than fifteen minutes, the island was finished rising, and another fifteen minutes later, the six individuals were again reconvened on the sandy beach.

“Did you have a good evening with Lestralin?” Tigath asked Nuji.

“Aren’t you more curious about where we are?” she countered.

“Do you know?!” Kilial asked. She was very confused and wanted answers.

Lestralin nodded to her. “Uall Island spends most of its time drifting up and down this desolate coast, and while I’ve been on it, the island has been in this part of the ocean almost the entire time. I don’t know what caused it to shift yesterday, and I don’t know why it picked you up.”

“Seems like it wants us all to be together!” Alydrael proclaimed. “Will you and Illiop come with us on the Mermonster to fight the Humans?”

Lestralin glanced at Nuji, and he furrowed his bushy eyebrows with concern. He looked out at the coastline and stated flatly, “Our world is under attack. The Humans are killing our people, and they are conquering our cities. I’m from a region not too far from this part of the world, but I don’t know the region where you’re from with the Yellow City and…” he paused and turned back to Nuji for confirmation, “Vuliburge?” She nodded again. “I don’t know your land,” Lestralin reiterated, and he informed them, “but my home city of Karhos was invaded over a week ago and destroyed.”

“The Humans’ attacks on our world are much further-reaching than we realized,” Nuji said to the others. “They’ve strategically taken out multiple centers of industry and slaughtered massive communities. The death toll must be catastrophic. We’re only aware of our region, and now we know about Lestralin’s homeland as well, but we have no way of knowing if the Humans have attacked anywhere else.”

Tigath held up his green hands. “Wait a second, Lestralin, how do you not know about where we’re from? This island was floating not too far out to sea from the Yellow City only a few hours ago.”

Nuji held up her map that they had followed through the grasslands. “This map is limited,” she declared, “but this…” she added, unfolding a much larger parchment that belonged to Lestralin, “is a map of the entire West Sea.” She laid the paper out on a dry rock and smoothed it with her long-fingered hands.

The image was mostly water, a map for sailors, with continental lands protruding into the image from the four sides, but most of each landmass was not important to the map. A multitude of islands were marked, some with their names printed beneath them, and warning symbols indicated regions of the sea that ships needed to avoid.

“We were here when we found Uall Island,” Nuji stated, bringing one fingertip to a section of land about a quarter of the way down the page near the top right corner where a tiny spit of land was sticking into the vast blue, “but right now, we’re nowhere near there; we’re here!” Nuji brought her other hand to the bottom of the map closer to the left side, and she placed her palm on a stretch of continent that took up a larger section. She looked at her traveling companions and said in amazement, “The island of Uall brought us over twenty-thousand nautical miles during the night; we’re on the opposite side of the world!”

The others were in shock.

“We talked about it last night,” Lestralin explained. “Nuji told me where you folks were from, and we located it on the map. It’s pretty hard to believe this island brought me all the way up there in only a single day.”

“And then it brought all of us back here,” Nuji concluded.

“Where exactly did this island come from?” Othri asked.

“It was discovered about five-hundred years ago,” Lestralin replied. “The people of Oggliothia were the first to document it. Uall Island disappeared for over three-hundred years before reappearing in the same place, and it hasn’t disappeared again. There was no clear explanation of it, and very few researchers before Illiop and I have spent much time here. The island seems to almost want to remain by this remote coastline most of the rest of the time.”

Nuji looked up and down the expansive mountain range. “Are there any cities?”

Lestralin shook his head. “We’re hundreds of miles away from any settlements. The seas surrounding this continent are just as mountainous beneath the waves. A labyrinth of underwater peaks sits right below the surface, and the range stretches for hundreds of leagues. This region is a death sentence for ships. No one comes here.” He stretched a muscular arm toward the continent. “There’s nowhere to make port along that rugged terrain.”

“How do you travel back and forth between your city and Uall?” Tigath asked him.

“I’ve got a tilthial,” Lestralin replied.

“A walking door?!” Othri squawked. “I didn’t know they still existed!”

“It’s an old one,” Lestralin admitted, “but it still works great. It only has one location that it leads to though.” His countenance fell. “Or I should say, it used to…”

“What do you mean?” Alydrael asked.

Tigath took her hand. “If what happened to his home is anything like what happened to Vuliburge and the Yellow City, then the other end of the walking door probably doesn’t exist anymore.”

Lestralin nodded. “I escaped the devastation, but when I tried to go back through it, the doorway wouldn’t open.”

“Oh no,” Alydrael cried, “did you have friends and family?”

Lestralin sighed. “I’ve been focusing on my research of Uall Island, trying not to think about… about everyone…”

“I’m so sorry,” Alydrael whispered. She looked around at the others. “Are you going to join us, Lestralin? We were planning on meeting up with a group who are fighting back.”

Lestralin and Nuji’s eyes met, and she said, “Yes. He’s going to join us. We talked until late last night.”

Alydrael perked up at the information. “Will Illiop be coming as well?”

At hearing his name, the rainbowy animal squeaked and scampered over to her. He rubbed his side against her shin, and she giggled.

“He never leaves me,” Lestralin reiterated with a little smile.

“How did you originally get to Uall Island?” Tigath asked, but before Lestralin could answer, the conversation took a drastic shift.

“Twenty-thousand miles…” Kilial mumbled in disbelief, and she rounded on Lestralin with a scowl. “Why didn’t you warn us that the island might take us all the way down here?! How are we supposed to get back? We’re supposed to be going to Ixtix to join the Rothian master casters and Noktar shadow fighters! We’re twenty-thousand miles away!”

Lestralin looked at the coast of the mainland and replied gently. “When I woke up yesterday morning and those mountains weren’t in sight, I had no idea how far Uall Island had moved. I only knew it had shifted out to sea somewhere, but I had no idea where it was, and I don’t know why it was way up in your part of the world. I also don’t know why it immediately returned here.”

“It almost seems like the island wants us to be together,” Alydrael declared with a beaming smile.

Tigath looked out at the ocean. “If the seas here are so dangerous, how are we supposed to take the Mermonster out safely?”

Kilial was not happy, but she smirked at Tigath and declared confidently, “It’ll be able to maneuver the peaks.” Her frown returned as she added, “But how are we supposed to get back to the other side of the world? The Mermonster can make it about a hundred miles on a good day with a strong wind, but twenty-thousand miles…”

Alydrael gasped and replied in a hollow voice. “That’ll take more than half a year.”

Kilial dropped her head. “Why did this happen? How are we supposed to help the resistance against the Humans now? How are we supposed to fight back if we can’t get to the warriors on Ixtix Island?”

Alydrael stepped up to the much shorter Rothian woman, but she knelt down to look up into Kilial’s exaggerated features. “Maybe the Mermonster wanted us to find Lestralin.”

“It hasn’t told me anything like that,” Kilial replied defiantly.

Alydrael interlaced her green fingers with Kilial’s long, spidery ones. “Maybe it doesn’t know.”

Kilial scoffed. “Why would the ship want us to be together, and yet not know that’s what it wants?”

Alydrael turned to look at the ship, still anchored to the island. “It could have let go, right? When the island started moving, the Mermonster could have dislodged its anchor, right? It must have known Uall Island was moving, but the ship stayed attached and let the island take it all the way down here. The Mermonster didn’t warn those of us who were onboard that we were moving. Maybe the ship didn’t want to leave Nuji behind, but maybe there’s something more to it than that.”

Kilial let out a frustrated breath, and she eyed Lestralin again, but her anger had dissipated. “I don’t suppose there’s any way we can get the island to bring us back to where it found us, is there?”

“Unfortunately, Uall seems to do what it likes,” Lestralin replied with an apologetic shrug.

Kilial focused on the map. “Okay, so if we’re here, maybe we should have the Mermonster take us to one of these nearby settlements.” She pointed out several. “I realize each is hundreds of miles from where we are, but we need to have a destination in mind before we set out.” Kilial glanced at Lestralin. “I don’t care if you join us or not, but once the repairs to the Mermonster are completed, we’re leaving.”

Lestralin looked out to sea. “But there’s no way to make it through that maze of underwater mountains. How are you supposed to escape?”

Alydrael let out an enthusiastic laugh and declared, “The Mermonster is magical!”

Lestralin looked from the tall, green-skinned teenager to the Rothian captain of the ship, and then to the Mermonster itself. “A magic boat?”

“It’s made of magic wood!” Alydrael explained in delight. “And it’s five-thousand years old!”

Lestralin thought that sounded dubious and merely replied, “Impossible.”

Kilial raised an eyebrow at him. “You’re studying a magical island, but you don’t believe a magic ship could exist?”

Lestralin screwed up his forehead and looked down at the sand beneath his feet. “You’re right, this island has taught me a lot about what I thought was impossible.” He focused on Kilial. “I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t be so quick to doubt, but it’s in my nature not to believe something until it has been proven to me. That’s what made me so curious about the island; I could actually see it drifting when I first arrived.”

“So how did you get here?” Tigath asked again.

Lestralin laughed. “It wasn’t easy. I hired a ship to take me to the border of the underwater mountains. All my things were packed into several canoes that were lashed together, and after the ship dropped me off, I had to paddle all the way to Uall. It took me almost eighteen hours, and I had to keep paddling straight through the night. That sunset was my first time watching the island sink, and it rose again with the sun. Once I set up a basecamp with my tilthial, it was easy for me to go back and forth from the island to my home in Karhos.” His countenance darkened. “Since the Humans’ attack on my home, I’ve stayed on the island and focused on my research.”

Tigath took Lestralin’s hand. “I’m sorry for everything you’ve lost.”

“I’m sorry for what we’ve all lost,” the stocky Noktar man added. “If you’re really fighting back, then I want in. I want to help take down the Humans.”

Illiop let out an enthusiastic yip.

The repairs to the Mermonster took the remainder of the morning, and as the sun reached its zenith in the sky, Kilial was ready to shove off again.

“Are you coming with us to Kroave Island, or what?” she asked Lestralin. The group had decided to head to the nearest of the settlements listed on the map.

He looked around at each of them. “Three Urcai and two Rothians,” he stated.

“And one Noktar, if you’ll join us,” Alydrael added with a smile.

Lestralin glanced down at Illiop. “Are you sure you don’t mind having us tag along? There’s more research to be done here, but if I can help stop the Humans, I will.”

Kilial nodded. “You’re welcome aboard, and by the sound of it, our peoples need all the help we can get against the Humans.”

Lestralin hesitated and looked out to sea. “You’re sure this ship of yours can navigate the underwater mountains?”

Kilial grinned. “The Mermonster is going to be just fine.”

Illiop was seated in Lestralin’s lap, and Alydrael recommended to him, “Why don’t you hold onto Illiop, and we lower a bucket or basket or something down on a rope to get him on board.”

“I think that’s a splendid idea,” Lestralin replied.

“The Mermonster has a hoist system that it can use,” Kilial informed the group.

Alydrael was the first to climb the ladder and get on board, and before the others were even on the deck with her, she said, “Mermonster, Kilial says you’ve got a way to lift things up onto you. Can you send it down to bring Illiop, our new animal companion, on board?”

The ship was already extending a beam out over the dinghy. A moment later, a pulley shifted down to the end of the wooden pole, and a rope snaked through it. Out of one of the porthole windows came a basket attached to the rope’s other end, and it lowered down to the rowboat.

“Get in the basket!” Alydrael called down to the animal from above.

Lestralin patted the padded interior of the basket. “Go ahead,” he encouraged. Illiop stayed on his lap, so Lestralin lifted the animal and placed it into the basket himself. He petted Illiop’s head, and it looked nervous as the basket began to rise, but Lestralin kept rubbing him until he was out of reach, and Illiop looked up to see Alydrael extending an arm down in his direction. His three tails began to wag as she grabbed the handle of the basket. She put her other hand on his back.

“Stay there. I’ve almost got you on board.” She hoisted the basket onto the deck, and Illiop hopped out of it.

“I guess that settles it,” Lestralin declared with a chuckle. “We’re with you, Kilial.”

The others boarded, and the Mermonster disembarked from the anomalous island.

Kilial approached the wheel. “Take it slow,” she ordered. “You’re in control.”

Alydrael stepped up beside Kilial, leaned toward the wheel, and whispered, “You don’t need to show off, Mermonster. We all know you’re wonderful!”

A pulley squeaked behind Alydrael, and she giggled.

Whatever awareness the Mermonster had of the underwater topography may have been esoteric to those who rode upon it, but it slowly began to zigzag away from Uall Island.

“Good,” Kilial encouraged, “you’re doing great.”

“I believe in you, Mermonster,” Alydrael added under her breath.

Her words made Kilial smile.

Illiop squeaked happily and scampered down into the interior of the ship.

“Where’s he run off to?” Lestralin asked.

“I’ll follow him!” Alydrael offered, and she ran down the stairs behind the animal. She found Illiop sniffing the bottom step. When she joined him, he trotted ahead of her along the hallway, glancing into each room. He entered one, and Alydrael laughed. “That’s my room!” Illiop sniffed the cot she had used for a bed the night before, and he hopped onto it, rolling on his back with his hoofs in the air. He nuzzled her blankets, and she asked, “Do you want to sleep in here with me tonight? I don’t know how long we’re going to be on the Mermonster. Isn’t it great?! I really like this ship.”

The Mermonster was listening to her words, and the wooden planks that made up the walls of the room creaked.

Alydrael let out another giggle and sat on the bed. “Can I rub your belly?” she asked Illiop. The animal eyed her as she moved her hand closer, but Illiop did not move, and he huffed a contented breath as Alydrael began to scratch his scaly stomach.

Up on the deck, Othri walked to the bow of the ship to look down into the water. “I can see the peaks of the mountains!” He turned back and saw Tigath holding onto the mast. “We’re safe, aren’t we, Kilial?”

She was concentrating. “Yes, we’re going to make it through, we just need to take our time, right?”

The Mermonster groaned.

Nuji and Lestralin joined Othri at the front of the ship, and the trio stared down into the water in silence as the mountain summits slowly passed beneath them on either side.

“This would be impossible for anyone to navigate,” Kilial stated. “You’re doing great, Mermonster.”

Lestralin pointed ahead. “Is that the last one?”

The ship maneuvered away from the final mountain peak, and it began to head out into the open ocean.

Kilial let out a relieved sigh. “Now, on to Kroave Island!”