Lost on a Strange Island

A sea monster ate our ship! Ate it! Well, I think it ate it. Big blue tentacles broke it apart and pulled it under the water.

Good thing we still have our raft, though. It was smart thinking when Varis hid our raft under the ship wreckage. I hope no one takes it. I would hate to be stuck on this place, even if it is Laara ‘Tal. What's the point of treasure when no one can see how fabulous you look?

We’re just trying to get our bearings straight on the beach, when Praxis sees a woman in the distance. We don’t even have time to go after her, though, because a group of strange-looking people and a Harn—yes a Harn!—come running toward us. I get the feeling they don’t want us to be here by the weapons in their hands. I’m not so sure I can get used to people wanting to hurt me for no reason, but it sure seems to be happening a lot lately.

Still in shock over seeing a Harn, I can’t seem to find the right words—or any words for that matter—to get the angry people to calm down. Varis, always quick to fight I’m learning, meets the three painted humans and the Harn head on. Praxis, not one to back down, rushes forward with his guns blazing (his arms are huge!) It’s just me and Captain—I mean Admiral—Wickers left on shore. I decide to take one of my cute, little throwing stars and hit one of the painted men. It will only hurt him a little bit and it will make it harder for them to hit Praxis, who they don’t seem to like much right now.

Admiral Wickers barrels ahead and I scramble to stay with my friends, though not too close to our enemies. Once I get closer, I realize one of the painted humans is a woman, and she is aiming at me! Those arrows hurt! I guess I deserved that, though, because I did hit her with a throwing star. Still, I think that was more like an eye for an arm, rather than eye for an eye.

I’m actually really glad that the Admiral, Praxis, and Varis hit a lot harder than me, and I’m not ashamed to say it. Manily because the bad guys like to hit them more than me. Unfortunately, they killed the Harn before I could talk to him and ask him all about Laara ‘Tal. You can bet Varis picked the bodies clean of anything of value and didn't find any clues as to who the red man was.

So, we took a quick rest and tended to our wounds before moving on. Praxis shows us the general direction that he thought he saw the hooded girl run off to. Though, as it turns out, none of us are very good at directions. The forest got thicker and we couldn’t see the shore anymore. I think the Admiral peed on the same bush twice. He said it was to mark where we had been, but I don't think it was helping. Maybe he just had to pee.

We were sweaty, hungry, and utterly lost when we heard some shuffling up ahead and froze in fear. Soon, the sounds of moaning could be made out and the smell of rotted flesh filled the hummid air. If I had any food on my stomach, I would have retched when I laid eyes on what we were to face.

Four men—or at least I think they were once men—with rotted, grey flesh were looking at us like succulent hams. I mean, I’m hungry too, but I would never resort to that! The dead men got a taste of Varis, but they especially loved Praxis. He was taking chunks out of them as they were trying to take bites out of him. I was trying to make it harder from them to eat my friends. After all, a girl really needs some good friends when she’s lost on an island.

One of the dead men was looking really ragged. Varis gave him one final hit and he exploded! Fingers, eyeballs, and toenails went flying through the air, hurting anyone who dared to stand too close. You would think they had learned the lesson: don’t stand too close to the exploding dead guy. I guess not though, because Praxis made the last one explode, too. Boys are so gross!

Ugh. After that, it was time to make camp for the evening. I volunteered for first watch so I could get it over with and sleep through the rest of the night. The Admiral took second watch, Praxis took the third, leaving Varis last watch. The night was pretty quiet, either that, or I was just too tired to wake to every little noise. I did wake up when Varis started hooting like a girl, though. He was swaying back and forth, hanging upside down from a tree limb. I bet one of those painted men rigged a trap for us. Being the proper lady that I am, I wanted to make sure that there were no more traps about. I would be mortified if anyone saw my underpinnings. After looking at the rigging holding Varis up and inspecting the ground carefully, I found a patch of leaves that looked odd. I picked up a rock and threw it at the patch of leave and it sank right through them, hitting the ground much further down than I would have expected. I carefully avoided the trap and cut Varis down. Yes, he landed on his head, but his face was a more normal shade now that the blood had drained out of his head.

Having no other choice, we immediately set back out into the forest in hopes of finding our way to some friendly little village where they don’t mind people with pointy ears. This time, I resolved to pay more close attention to the things around me.

Believe it or not, we didn’t get too lost this time! I’d like to think I helped some with that. We came upon a little clearing from the heavy forest where a dead, knotted tree was lying half-way uprooted from the ground. There was a man’s leg sticking out from under the tree!

Had the tree eaten the person? Was there a weird sickness here that caused people and trees to die and then come back to life to eat people? I warned the others to stay back, but Varis caught a glimpse of something shiny and went to investigate, risking his life for a bit of coin.

As soon as he got close to the tree, this blue, winged creatures came scurrying out from beneath the trunk. They started picking and clawing at Varis, trying to take his gun. I had no idea what the little creatures were. Some were much larger, and others appeared to be just babies. The best I could tell, they looked similar to the stories about the creatures of Khelek, though much smaller. Maybe they would get bigger when they grew up.

For being small, they were sure annoying. Could I really hurt a baby? I really didn’t know. The little creatures were nipping at my heels when I felt my wand get ripped from my back. The larger one stole my wand! Lucky for me, all it took were a few words and it magickly returned to my grasp. I didn’t even mind using a more powerful spell on the little thief. I didn’t kill it, though. Just hurt it a little, and let Praxis, Varis, and the Admiral hurt them a lot. They killed the larger blue creatures and some of the almost-cute babies. The other babies scurried away. I don’t want to run into them again, but I’m still a little glad that the boys didn’t kill them, too.

-Zaly

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