Chapter 48 Waltzing Astraea.

 
We searched the great corpse for anything useful. Finding a ring with quite a large gem in it, I set it aside. I may have been able to wear it as a belt if it had a clasp, but as it is a solid metal band, there wasn't anything I could do with it now. Melfina had collected a few large amounts of blood, ready to experiment with it to find how best to utilize it. Gods forbid her blood collections ever broke. It would be far too much of a mess to ever get clean. Marda was able to find a few items, including a magic scroll, and once we had checked everything will were ready to throw it overboard. While it felt a bit callous, it was better than letting Spike eat it. This had been a sentient being, whose only fault was the fact that it wanted us dead. The small reptile had already taken a few bites out of most of the toes, and had somehow perched on top of the middle left toe, seemingly ready to feast to the bone.
Melfina plucked the turtle from the Giants foot as the body went over the rail, we all turned to make sure the rest of the crew is OK. Burns from lightning are prevalent, and both Melfina and Yun get into action, healing and attending to others. The two of them will be able to fix just about anything that may have happened, so I turn to check on Bellia and Leona. Bellia is busy directing a crew taking down the metal poles that she had hastened and suffered for. While directing them, she is hastily scribbling down notes, muttering about retractable supports. Waving off aid, she can't be bothered by anyone, else she may loose track of thoughts. Coming up behind her, I simply rest my hands on her shoulders, then bend to kiss the top of her head, gathering some energy from around me and pouring it into her. With out even thinking about it, she simply reached up and patted my hand, then went back to work.
Turning towards the back of the ship finds Geno, rope harnessed around his shoulders, climbing up onto the railing then jumping off, swift as could be. A crew member, new scar on their arm, watches over the rope where it is tied off. Opening the door to our cabin, I find Leona on the ground, clutching To'Li's waist in an upside-down grip. Leona looked exhausted, but upon my entering, she gathered up the energy to sit up, loosening her grip on the giggling Dragonborn. Standing, Leona gives me a one armed sideways hug, grabbing onto my arm so she could stay up. Her other arm is locked around To'Li's little hand.
“You did good.” I tell her, pushing energy into her as well, hopefully removing that same tingling burn that I know I have. “I'll take To'Li, you rest for a bit ok? I love you.” My oldest simply crawls into my bed and lays on top curling up atop the covers with a soft “Ow.”
Going back outside, I find that Geno is still over the side of the ship, yelling up about the damage on the bottom of the ship and what He will be able to do. Max is attending to the crew as well, making sure that Melfina and Yun are not exhausting themselves. The crew that are back up are back to work, making sure the ship is going to stay in the air. Climbing up the the quarterdeck, I find Melfina examining some of the Blood that she has collected, conversing with an earth genasi. With To'li on my hip, I start over, only for Melfina to punch the crew member in the face. Oddly enough, she leans closer, as if to check the effectiveness of the strike, only to lean back, clearly disappointed.
“No, no blood.” She sighs. They both accepted the fact that it was going to be difficult to get blood from this particular specimen, willing or not. The Genasi, introducing themselves as Stormy, had skin that looked similar to limestone. Gold filigree filled in patterns and markings in a design that was obviously intended markings. Something like tribal traditions. To'Li seemed to like him, but it was probably because he was partly shiny.
Luckily the rest of the day was uneventful. With the repairs to the ship complete, Geno once again found himself on deck, ready to keep working. With everyone healthy enough to survive, Melfina found a nice corner or the ship to study the new blood, saying it would be put to good use. Marda was trying out new configurations for keeping her weapons. I hadn't noticed, but the Rapier had been removed, and now she carried the three swords. I briefly wondered why she had decided to set the rapier aside, and when asked she simply told me she it was in it's proper place now. Yun played with the various instruments in their growing orchestra, playing snippets of different tunes as they normally did while in thought.
With the crew battered and the ship tossed, we were all happy when nothing else came to pick a fight with us. After turning in for the night, I scrunched up with Bellia, getting nice and cozy, when the dream started. It was not like any other dream, I found myself falling through the sky. There was no ship around, no other people, nor any reason for me to be falling. I could feel the wind rushing past me. I can see the ground getting closer, but not as rapidly as I would have expected. Inching ever so closer. Closer. Until finally I should be impacting the ground at any moment. Right before I hit the ground I wake up. And hit the floor of the cabin.
It takes me a few moments to figure out what had happened, and I spy Bellia's foot poking out of the covers on my side of the bunk. Ah. I should have seen that. I seem to have been inadvertently kicked out of bed. No matter. I can set up something for tonight, then we can figure out a better alternative for tomorrow. Pulling some of the makeshift nest off the top, I simply make something that will let me sleep on the deck between Bellia's bunk and To'Li's pallet. When I finally catch up to sleep again, I manage to hold on to it until morning.
Gathering around for breakfast, I find that my companions have had a much different experience during their own dreams. Ranging from dances to secret rendezvous to food being thrown at them. Every dream involved a Tall, dark skinned woman in full plate armor. And everyone said they simply Felt different. When I asked how, Yun simply stood, pointed at me and spoke one word. “Grovel.”
Standing from the stool I was sitting on I felt that was an odd thing for them to say. As my knees touch the deck I almost felt that it was sort of mean spirited of Yun to say that, like maybe I should be worried about it. I think the best thing to do is show that I mean no harm to anyone, and that I should simply appease them in anyway possible. In fact, I should make sure they know I'm not armed, so I should stretch my arms out as far as I can and hope they don't hurt me.
Why am I on the deck of the ship, prostrating myself so? Yun was bending down to help me up, and quickly apologizing. It seems they had gained a power to command those unsuspecting or weak willed individuals with a single word. Yun had seemingly been gifted this power by the dream, and Melfina and Geno also seemed to have some new spell available to them, and both were working on how best to use them, Geno scribbling madly on a scrap of paper, and Melfina taking stock of her blood samples.
The rest of the day went on well enough, sparring with Leona with no additional combatants hurling rocks or lightning bolts at us. To'Li was more curious than playful, getting into every barrel that wasn't sealed shut, even wandering down into the hold to pick up anything not nailed down. Or she tried anyway. Luckily she wasn't able to lift some of the heavier spare parts in storage. I'm sure that various bits of machinery would have been scattered about the ship, or the area below us, sea or land. Most of the time watching her consisted of her pickling something up, and turning to me then waving it in the air. I explained what the object was, she would repeat some of the words in broken common, then setting the object back down in the wrong place. I would replace the object as best as I could, then rush off to the next thing.
Standing up on the fore castle of the ship, Max and I were winding down. He had been to busy laughing at all my explanations to have helped, and luckily I hadn't needed it. With Bellia taking To'Li to bed, I found myself staring at the sky as the colors slowly blending into the deep indigo of the night. When pointing out the thin wispy clouds, he agreed with me that those made the best sunsets. I had asked Geno about the clouds, and he had given me some long name. Something about circle nimbus. Just smiling along, I hadn't the first clue what he had really said. Now I could hear Max talking next to me, but the words didn't have meaning much anymore, as if my mind couldn't keep up with the conversation.
Suddenly I wasn't there with Max anymore. I was standing on endlessly deep water with not but starlight twinkling in every direction. I should not have been able to maintain my footing on the surface of the water, as there was nothing to hold me. Looking around, I saw a lone figure standing not thirty feet from me, silhouetted against a star lit sky. I hadn't seen the figure myself before, but I knew who they were from the appearance.
Her face was the color of a new moon. With small splotches of color on her cheeks and nose, what humans called freckles. Long pointed ears flanked either side of her face, which drew you into her eyes. Looking into her eyes was like spending the rest of my like looking at the night sky. Almost like I could see the sky through her. Exquisite silver armor covered her lithe body While the armor was shined to a starlight gleam, it was inlaid with midnight blue panels and scroll work. The sabatons covering her feet had a near spike heel on them, which would have caused difficulties for most in battle, but the posture and grace of the body was manifestation of dexterity and nimbleness. A deep blue cape covered her off hand and a rapier, a weapon very well suited for a fighter of this caliber. The cape too had the effect of the night sky behind it, but as I looked, the cape moved, the sky behind stayed in place. Easily taller than me by a foot or more, it seemed almost a shame that the armor was being worn for fear of dent or scratch. Something told me not even blood had touched this armor. She brought her hands up into fists, as if this were to be some bar room brawl.
Wary of what may happen, I summoned my axe, then carefully laid my hands on the head of it, setting the haft on the surface of the water. I was worried for a second it wouldn’t hold, but it connected solidly enough. I stood there, letting the figure know I had my axe ready, but holding it in as non threatening a posture as I could. I could not see what her intentions were from this distance, and while I had not wished to be outright hostile, my cautious actions could have been perceived as such. She made no move against me.
Calmly I called, “If you wish to fight, we may fight. If you wish to spar we can spar.” If I had to fight her I would certainly loose. But I wasn’t about to run away from it. I wasn’t sure I there was anywhere to run anyway. Raising her hands, she gestured me forward with a flick of her wrist. Resigning myself to my fate, I planted to axe head into the water, once again not sure of what would happen. The axe sunk in a peculiar way, falling slowly backwards until the entire blade was in the water. Then it started to shift and grow, disturbing the water as it goes. Expanding into a large crescent moon, a small outlined arena of light.
I had seen Pugilists fight before, and while I had little to no ability in that style of fighting, I simply had to hope I could pick up the technique. Raising my fists, I took what I hoped was a defensive stance. As my opponent approached she smiled, then threw a right jab. I missed the block, but the jab went wide anyway passing by my head. I had just reacted to it when a Left hook came at me. I got my arm up in time to block but the fist turned into a flat hand, pushing and twisting me, putting me a bit off balance. I Knew right then I was due for a walloping, and as my body turned I saw the right hand coming back around, but instead of a solid hit, I was pushed again, spun faster around for a full rotation. Nearly falling, I flung my left arm out to try to catch my balance, only for her to catch my hand in her fully outstretched arm, the other arm stretched high above her in a dancers pose. My arm was fully extended , body nearly parallel with the water.
As the “fight’ continued, it quickly became obvious that she was playing with me, and enjoying it. Any blows she landed were obviously pulled punches, and mostly I felt she was trying to make me fall. Any time I was about to fall, she would catch me. Too fast for me to connect with anything, she simply danced around me. I knew that I was going to be out matched when this bout started, and I simply took it as it came. Joyous exultation exuded from my opponent, probably from the knowledge of just being Free once again but no sound came from her the entire time we sparred.
With one final deflection she grabbed my wrist and used my own momentum to force me back to where I started this whole crazy experience. Pointing to the Crescent around us, Astraea mimicked holding an axe, and it takes me only a second to realize she is telling me something. Pick up your axe.
I don't understand why she wants me to have my axe all the sudden, so I start looking around. In this vast plane of nothingness and starlight I can't see anything wrong, until finally, I see first one, then a second, a third and a forth. They were patches of opaqueness, or voids altogether where the starlight was muddled or the color was different. Something was wrong.
I called my axe to my hand, but the feeling was different. Like when you have just discovered some deep meaning, or come to a sudden revelation, a cloud of cold wafted down my back, originating somewhere near the middle of my neck. The crescent of light gathered in a pool under me and with a shower of sparks and starlight the solid axe haft comforts my hands. The Hammer appears the same, the crest of Daja embossed on one side, but the blade seems to slowly appear from siphoned light. At first it tries to take an elongated scythe blade, but ripples like the water under my feet. As the blade solidifies, the spare light starts to dribble like white fire from the center eye between the now familiar blade and the hammer. A chime like voice calls into my head: “By the power of the Moon, I will destroy you!”
Taking my eyes off the hammer, I found myself now looking up at Max, axe in my hand, back on the front of the ship. The voids from the twilight vision are here with us now, and Max is just noticing them as large dark tentacles come out of the portals, bright blue suckers the size of dinner plates. The large meaty tentacles were popping out of the air all over the ship, coming from various orientations, as if some great monstrosity already had us in it's grasp. I start to move to the nearest tentacle when the body appears off the left side of the ship.
A great rift bulges open as a bulbous dark slimy body undulates it's way through. A single seeking eye appears through the portal seeking us out, and the remainder of the body stays in it's remaining plane. Alarmed shouts start before I move further and the ship and it's crew start to fight for their life. With targets now in melee range, and Max grabbing my bow, the warriors of the ship spring into action. While battling the nearest appendage, Max and I found that it could hit us with some sort of beam from a sucker near the tip, which luckily didn't effect either Max or I. Hearing Marda cry out in pain from the back of the ship, a deathly wail crescendos from just off the side of the ship where I had glimpsed the wraith. What could have caused that being of all things to release a sound as blood curdling as that wail?
I didn't have much time to look around and check. I had to hope that the rest of the ship was doing well enough as I fought for my life. The massive tentacles had tried to grab max, and I only had to guess that others had been successfully snatched. Just as I had time to pull my wits about me, a strange inky cloud oozed towards the ship, and I could no longer draw divine nature to myself. I would have to rely on my axe work and hope that the other healers on the ship were still able to aid anyone in need. I got busy with the task of staying alive.
Hacking into the tentacles, I started felling them like trees. The fire on my axe wasn't hot, but burned into the flesh with a radiant heat, searing the skin and muscle with small flames that dance on the wound. One chop, maybe two and only bloody stumps were left, Once the one one the fore castle was damaged to the point of retracting, I moved down the ladder to the next deck, and found Melfina wrapped in another tentacle, which we severed. Geno had been grabbed by another tentacle, which he was biting and hitting with his flail. Sylvio had skittered up to the rear deck where Geno was trying to get to the ballista there. The metal lizard reflected the setting sunlight in it's scales, hissing blue smoke at the tentacle hold his creator.
I couldn't get to Geno to help, for as I take a single step towards him, the ship lurches to the right, away from the Kraken, and away from most of the tentacles. Had this been a being of water, we would not have been able to get away like that. But we didn't all get away. Geno was still being held by a tentacle, now forty feet away from the ship, and over open air. The sudden turn of the ship had caught me unaware as well, and I was forced against the rail of the ship, where yet another tentacle appeared. As it tried to grab me I barely wrestled it away, before cutting it down as well. I couldn't tell if the damage to the tentacles was actually effecting the creature, but it did seem to make it a bit angrier. A flash of green light from behind where I saw Yun pointing to a large hole in one tentacle. Marda was able to fire the rear ballista, grimacing in pain from a tentacle blast.
There wasn't much I could do as Geno was flung into open air, and I watched helplessly as he started to fall. I tried to gauge the distance, and even if I could jump and catch him, there was no way I could get us back up, especially since I couldn't hold any divinity. As he tumbled, and slowly righted himself. Reaching to his back, he pulled a small cord, and pulled open several small blades connected to his pack. They reminded me of something, which I couldn't really place at this distance. But he was now in control of his own movement, and heading back to the ship.
Passing Melfina as she finished a spell, blood was thrown straight into the air only to fizzle and spit, before a great column of it white hot fire streaked down from above, engulfing the gargantuan monster. Light flashed around us in retaliation, and cries from my allies came from all around. Glancing back, Yun did not look well at all, nor did Marda. A grunt from Max calls me back up to the front of the ship where I know I can reach my foe.
A new tentacle has appeared, pointing at me, and I feel my muscles constrict, as if they are all about to cramp at once. Pushing through it, I swing the burning axe down, splitting it like firewood. With that the Kraken vanishes, but the tentacles still flail across the ship. With a deafening clap of thunder, lighting flashes across the deck, arcing between the crew causing spasms and shouts of pain.. Geno lands next to me, and I realize the blades were metal arms, all folded together to make a skeletal outline of wings. Like the ones Melfina has. Thin membranes stretch between each metal arm now on deck, he pulls a cord on the other side of his pack, folding the wings back in.
With a horrid sucking sound, a void opens in front of the ship, and the monstrosity comes through again, right in front of the ship. Whoever it is steering the ship, they didn't waste any time, and the ship is immediately rammed into the creature, the bowsprit impaling a fleshy part of the body, causing pain, but not severely wounding it. Lighting arcs down again knocking most of the remaining crew unconscious, but the ship remains steady, as if the helmsman is still at the post. Needing to finish this quick, I move toward the large body, now that I should be able to reach it. A single ping from an anvil rings in my ears, and I pause, just before yet another gout of holy flame comes down, probably from Melfina again. Had I continued on, that would have hit me too. The brief pause also allowed for a lull in noise just long enough for me to hear the single word from below.
“Depart!” With an air of confidence and command, Yun's voice carries over the groans and wind. The few remaining tentacles fall limp, and the great leviathan drips back through the portal, tearing a gash in it's skin from the bowsprit. As I stand in stunned silence, Max pulls a genuine cowbell from his kilt. Runes engraved into the sides do not spoil the pure sound resonating from the bell which I thought it would have been a dull note. As it rings, the great portal before us closes, and he turns and rings it seven more times, closing a portal each time. By the time the last portal closes, he is panting, sweat matting his fur. Without time to rest, Geno Max and I all move to aid the crew and our friends.
Yun is still moving about, but burns and blisters mar the skin. Marda sits atop the ladder for the quarter deck, rubbing her chest near her heart. Waving off our alarmed looks, she never the less looks to be in some pain. I can see that Stormy, the genasi was the helmsman all along, and he is very much wounded. Melfina is already tending to him, and collecting some of his blood. I guess since they had failed before to make him bleed, now would be the time for it. A small conversation turns tense for a few moments, but neutrality quickly comes back to Melfina's tone.
I heal as I move, checking to see who is worse off than others, a blood red cloud surrounding Melfina as she mass heals those around her. Reaching the back of the ship, I knock of the cabin door before opening it, Finding Bellia and To'Li safe inside. My youngest daughter rushes out to grab onto my leg, clutching it close. I can't really move from this spot, and when Bellia embraces the top half of me I don't really want to. I finally let go of my wife, and reach down to pick up To'Li. The briefest of thoughts passed through me, thinking she probably liked the feeling of lightning so close, and that brought me back to duty. I squeezed her close, then handed her back to her mother with a smile. Turning, I go to find any still wounded to bring them back to health, and find Leona.
While healing everyone Melfina is followed by Stormy, hauling a great cask. Gathering up all the Kraken blood she can. Finding a whole Tentacle stub intact, Melfina is overjoyed with all the materials she can gather from it, and clutches to herself like I had my daughter. As Melfina proudly clutches her severed prize, Spike starts to hover slowly upward, landing on Melfina's shoulder to crawl into the pouch away from the scuttling feet as the crew slowly starts to patch the ship up.
Tired from the fight, and needing to put To'Li to bed, I find Leona had been comforting Mittens in the hold, who had simply loathed all the movement and smell caused by the Kraken. Asking her if she would like better sleeping arrangements, We all go back up to the cabin. Pulling out the old ratty blanket I help To'Li as she flaps it up into the air. Shear glee from the little Dragonborn causes it to form into a tent, and she completes the ritual with exuberant clapping. It looks like a kids drawing of a small castle, complete with turrets. Gibbering happily to her self, she climbs in, and I user Bellia and Leona inside, then follow them.
The entrance is a light pinkish hue, and it leads into one large room. Brownish pillowed planks cover most of the room, and a soft springboard leads into a vast pile of blue foam cushions. The Room resembles a solarium, with a beautiful sunset sky above. One side of the room reveals the darker night sky, wispy clouds occasionally illuminated by lighting. A four poster bed is off to one side, and while looking at it, I am reminded of the room where she hatched. Standing torches emanate small puffed cushions of smoke, which smells like the cookies from that Inn. Sleepily crawling onto the massive bed like it was nothing out of the ordinary, she pulls some pillows up to her, before burrowing into the small pile. Sniffing the hot chocolate, I can smell some sort of spice in the liquid, making it a hotter beverage in both meanings. Grabbing a mug for each of us, I hand one to Leona and one to Bellia. Gathering some cushions together, we sit an enjoy each other's company for some time, before we too find solace in slumber, now with plenty of room for all. I still find myself waking up falling off the bed.