Dominant Species
Issue #19
by Tom Zjaba
Chapter 21
Fire in the Sky
Once the ship hits the open sea, the entire crew lets out
scream of joy. They now know they are free from the Amazon Queen's clutches. The
only thing stopping them now is the lack of supplies. Being a war ship and one
that does not travel far, it does not have a large supply of food and water. A
dozen barrels of fresh water and a half dozen bags of dried meat and fruits is
all there is. Enough supplies to last a week at most. But right now, they are
celebrating their freedom and will worry about supplies later.
The chief steers the boat while the rest of the crew all
celebrate. They are singing and dancing on the deck with the moon's light
beaming down. Ashley takes turns dancing with everyone, but saves most of her
dances for Scott. Everyone is happy and joyous, except for Darr. Knowing the
fate of his friends, it is hard to be happy. He is appreciative that they freed
him from the Amazons, but he still wishes the rest of his tribe had come along.
Part of him wants to go back and try to rescue them, but he knows that if they
are still alive, it would be a suicide mission.
Darr heads up to visit with the Chief. He feels a connection
with him as they were both leaders of their tribes. When the Chief sees him, he
smiles and waves him over. "Come on over, I can use the company." he says as
greets him. Darr gives a half hearted smile as he stands next to the Chief. "Did
your tribe sail boats like these?" he asks as he is impressed at how relaxed the
Chief is behind the wheel. "No, we were land dwellers. I learned this from the
old world." A puzzled look comes over Darr's face. "The old world? I do not
understand." The Chief takes a good look at him and tries to guess his age. It
is hard to gauge a person's age as their lives are harder, so they tend to age
quicker. "How old are you?" he asks as he is having a hard time guessing Darr's
age. "I have lived twenty two storms. Why do you ask?" Now it is the Chief who
is puzzled. "Storms? What do you mean?" Realizing that everyone does not measure
time the same way, he does his best to explain it. But he needs to ask some
questions to better explain it. "How do you measure the passing of life in your
village?" The Chief smiles at the way he says that. "We use the way I did in the
old world, we use years, which are broken in seasons." Not sure what he means,
Darr asks another question. "What is a season?" Thinking for a moment, the Chief
comes up with the best way he can describe it. "Where my tribe, we have seasons.
There is winter, where snow falls to ground. Then there is spring, where all the
plants grow and the animals have babies. It is followed by summer, which is very
hot. Then there is fall, where it gets colder and we harvest the food." Darr
nods in agreement. "We too have seasons. It starts with the arrival of the
birds. They come down to lay their eggs. That is followed by the birthing
season. There are baby birds and turtles everywhere. Then the birds leave and
head up to the top of the world. They leave to escape the storms, which come and
destroy the trees. After the storms go away, the birds return from the top of
the world and it starts over." The Chief breaks out laughing at this
description.
"So you are twenty two years old." Darr thinks for a moment and says "I guess I
am. Not sure what a year is, but it sounds right." Taking his hands off the
wheel, the Chief tries to explain. "What you just described is a year. The time
between one season of storms and the next one, would be a year." It finally
sinks in and Darr smiles and nods in agreement. "Yes, a year. That is what it
is."
Back in the Amazon palace, the soldiers reluctantly return to
face the queen. As the captain of the guards and a few of her guards enter the
palace, the feeling of dread come over them. They have failed the queen and know
that death is awaiting them. Their only hope is that she allows them to plead
for their lives. Maybe because their foes were not ordinary, she will be
merciful. As they come into the throne room, they see the queen waiting for
them. The look on her face is one of anger. "Where are the heads of the men?"
she says as she glares at them. Taking a bag full of the heads of the villagers,
she puts it down on the ground in front of her and steps back. "Here are all the
heads we could collect." she says as she looks down. One of the Queen's guards
takes the bag and pours it out on the floor. The grisly heads roll around the
floor, leaving trails of blood. The Queen looks over the heads and notices there
are no boy's heads among them. "Where are the heads of the pups that escaped?"
Knowing it would come up, she dreads answering this. "Your highness, they
escaped into the sea." A look of anger takes over her face as she turns red and
bites her lower lip. "What do you mean, they escaped into the sea? Where were
the war ships?" Not knowing how to explain this in a way that does not get her
killed, she decides to just tell it as it happened. "They dove into the water
and were able to breathe water like a fish. They then took over one of the ships
and sank the other three."
This makes the queen even angrier. The fleet of warships was
her pride and joy. She used them to sail into small port towns and attack. Most
people did not sail the seas for fear of the many creatures that existed out
there. When they did sail on water, they limited it to rivers and streams. The
queen used this as a way to gain an advantage over other tribes, especially male
dominated ones. They were feared all around the area. Now she finds out that her
entire fleet is gone. Either sank or stolen. And they were taken by teenage
boys. If word of this spreads, her enemies will think they are vulnerable and
attack. That fleet was one of the reasons they were strong and feared. Something
needs to be done and quickly. While she wants to kill her captain, she has need
of her. "Against my better judgment, I will spare your life. But I have some
important work for you to do." The captain bows down to the queen. "Thanks for
your kindness, my queen." The queen stands up and grabs her by the hair and
pulls her head up. She looks her right in the eyes and says "I want our fleet of
warships rebuilt immediately. And I want it bigger and better. And get our
defenses fixed and issue a warning that no one is to speak of what happened. I
want this disaster silenced forever." The captain rises to her feet and kisses
the queen's hand. "Yes my queen." With that, she heads out of the palace with a
sense of relief.
As the night wears on, the men have gone to sleep for the
night. Scott and Ashley are sharing a bed in one of the rooms. Scott is
beginning to doze off, when Ashley interrupts his sleep. "Will you always love
me?" she asks as she looks over at him. He has his arm around her and is on his
back. Slipping between consciousness and unconsciousness, he did not hear the
question. "Did you say something?" he asks as he looks over at her with heavy
eyes. "Will you always love me?" she repeats. "Yeah, I will always love you. Why
do you ask?" She rolls over onto her back and looks up at him. "I am scared. I
left behind everyone and everything I ever knew. All I have is you. If you left
me, what would happen to me?" This kind of talk wakes Scott up completely. He
rolls over and looks her right in the eyes. "I understand you being scared. I am
scared too. But I promise you that we will always have each other. I will never
let anything bad happen to you." She smiles as she feels a bit more reassured.
But she then asks "What about when I get old and my skin wrinkles? I heard men
kill the old women, once they cannot give them more boys. They then look for a
younger woman to give them more boys." Scott tries not to laugh at the nonsense.
"Trust me, that is nothing but Amazon brainwashing. All men are not like that."
She is unsure what he means, but she feels that he is telling the truth. "What
about if a women with big bosoms comes around? Are you going to leave me so you
can go and suckle her like a piglet?" Scott breaks out laughing at that remark.
"Who told you this crazy stuff? I think your bosoms are fine. I love them.
Honest." She looks down at her breasts. "But they are not real big. Don't all
men want big bosoms?" Scott pulls her close and kisses her on the lips. "I don't
care what other men want. All I want is you." He then kisses her again on the
lips. She kisses him back and they have a long and passionate kiss.
While the rest of the crew sleeps, Chief and Darr stay up on
deck and steer the boat. It is dangerous to be sailing at night as there is no
light, but the Chief feels he has a good grasp of the sea. The boat is moving
slowly as the winds have died down. The only light is some lanterns that were on
the boat. They have candles inside them and give off minimal light. But it is
something. The two men have been talking all night as Chief tells Darr all about
the old world. Darr is amazed that the world was so different before he was
born. This is the first he has heard about the old world. A few of the old
timers in his tribe spoke of a different time, but they never really went into
any detail. Most of them died off when he was young, so he never had much
opportunity to talk with them. They would mention things that he never heard of
like television and soccer games. But now, the Chief is telling him in vivid
detail all about this wondrous world. He finds it so hard to imagine a safe
world, one where you could go to bed at night and sleep soundly. Where you went
to a magical place called a grocery store and that had all the food you could
ever want. And how you paid with things using a card. It is all so magical and
exciting to him.
A s the two men talk, they see something coming in the
distance. At first, they see what looks like a flame in the sky. "Do you see
that?" the Chief says as they see this growing flame. "I do not know what it
is." Darr says as he looks at the flickering flame. "Why don't you go get the
rest of the men. This may be trouble." Darr nods as he rushes to the lower deck.
"Wake up! Wake up! We need everyone to the deck." he yells as he runs from room
to room. The men all wake quickly as none of them are heavy sleepers. The only
heavy sleepers in this world are the dead. Howlingmad grabs his flaming sword
and rushes out. "What is it? Are we under attack?" Darr stops for a moment and
looks at him. "I do not know. Something is coming in the air. Something made of
flames." Bearslayer emerges from his room to catch the conversation. "We must
prepare for the worst." As soon as he finishes, Derrick, Scott, Ashley and
Eightdigit. Howlingmad then takes over. "Hurry, we need to get on deck." With
that, he leads the group as they all rush up the stairs and onto the deck. As
they reach it, they see what the fuss is about. A few thousand feet away is a
extremely large flame that is moving quickly through the air. It headed towards
the boat, though it is about two hundred feet up. In the blackness of the night,
it stands out. The chief had abandoned the wheel as he rushes over. "I don't
know what it is, but we must be ready in case it attacks. Bearslayer quickly
pulls out his bow and readies an arrow. He wonders if his arrows could even do
any damage to whatever this is. Scott makes sure his giant strength belt is on
and grabs a sword that was left on the ship. Howlingmad pulls out his flaming
sword and holds it over his head.
When the flaming object nears, they can finally make out what
it is. There in the sky is a giant, flaming bird. As it nears the ship, the
great bird looks down and sees Howlingmad's flaming sword. He is standing near
the edge of the ship and is waving it in the air, as if to scare the bird away.
Upon seeing this, the bird turns and circles the ship. Everyone just stops and
watches this mighty creature. The bird is a good hundred feet from wingtip to
body and glows with flames that burn over its body. Long tail feathers hang
behind the creature and each one ends in a flame that flickers like a birthday
candle. The bird circles the ship twice before it stops in front of the ship and
turns to look at the crew. The bird just stops and floats in the air as if it
was a balloon. The bird just stares right at Howlingmad and his sword. Realizing
this, he moves across the boat, with the bird following him. As he gets to the
other side, the bird is right there. So he rushes to the front of the boat, only
to have the bird follow him again. He then takes his sword and puts it back in
its sheath. When the flame disappears, the bird turns and flies off into the
night. Within a minute, it is just a faint object in the night sky.
Once the trouble is past, Scott and Derrick look at each
other and Scott says "That was so cool." Derrick gives Scott a high five and
says "We saw a phoenix, a real live phoenix." The rest of them turn to the boys.
Howlingmad walks up to him and says "That was a phoenix?" Derrick nods and
answers "Yeah, they are a mythical bird that dies and burns up. Then it rises
from its own ashes to live again." Howlingmad pulls out his sword and asks "But
what about the sword?" Scott looks at the sword and says "Maybe because both are
magical fire that it was attracted to it." Derrick then adds "That or it thought
you were its baby." This makes everyone laugh, even Howlingmad. There is a buzz
on the ship after that. Everyone agrees they saw something magical and amazing.
It was right up there with the dragon or the roc. The kind of creature that you
can tell your kids about one day. Once the excitement dies down, everyone heads
back to bed. Everyone but Darr and the Chief, who stay to steer the ship.
When the deck is quiet again, Darr looks at the Chief and
asks "Were there phoenix's in the old world?" Looking at him, the chief smiles
and answers "No, we didn't have anything that amazing." Darr smiles back and
says "Yeah, that was pretty amazing." Chief laughs as he adds "Amazing and
scary. That bird could have easily killed us all." Darr nods in agreement. The
rest of the night is peaceful.
Dominant Species ©
2006 - 2008 Tom Zjaba