Chapter 5

  A shore, a bck beach, made of basalt. With water crashing violently against the hexagonal stones flowing forth from the ground.

  The waves continued to crash and thrash around, and with one such wave, we saw a boy crash against the stone shore, cracking a few of his bones.

  After ying there for a few minutes, he awakens, his eyes shooting open.

  Immediately, rolling over and barfing up immense amounts of water and blood, his eyes, tearing up from the pain. Water, diluted with blood just continued to flow from his mouth for some time. But the moment it stopped, the survival instincts kicked in.

  Closing his hands with force, as if he was trying to crush the rock beneath his hands, his head shot up, taking in the unknown terrain. The surroundings looked simir to the pce where he was before, only gravel and rock. The part where he was right now was a sort of ft nd, with uneven ground, caused by these weird hexagonal ptes of rock being pced at different heights. Looking left and right this type of terrain was reaching as far as the eye could reach with the occasional hexagonical rock reaching further out of the ground creating the look of small walls and hills. But if one looked towards the center, one would spot certain things, the terrain was getting more rocky and started to rise a bit. But at some point, the rocks stopped, changing to a gravel desert. Wanting to walk to where the gravel started he stood up and put pressure on his right foot only to instantly stop. Looking down, it wasn't hard to notice that his right knee was slightly mangled. The origin of the wound was unknown, but it didn't matter. Turning his head back to where he wanted to go, he started hesitantly limping, clenching his teeth so hard that they could crush bones due to the pain.

  Arriving, he could take in a much grander part of the isnd. After a few kilometers of gravel, the mountains started rising, or to say a mountain. A single mountain was spanning itself in an arc around the whole isnd, or what looked like to be the whole isnd, stopping near the shore.

  There appeared to be no sign of life, his nose only picked up the ocean smell, and his ears only the currents of the waves. Yet, he stayed vigint, after all, he wasn't new to beings being able to hide their presence.

  Looking back at the ocean, he saw the giant nd mass that was once his home. With that, he remembered what had brought him into this situation. Back then, he had felt the urge to get to this pce. This urge was so strong that his body decided to act on its own, together with his mind following in pursuit. But after swimming for a while, the waves started to pick up and started to drown him. But he barely managed to stay at the top.

  But that wasn't what had caused this situation, while fighting the waves, some things shot out of the water, tentacles and tendrils. Grabbing him by the torso and legs, he felt the unimaginable strength behind these appendages. As the one around his torso and his legs, a tentacle double in width of his arm started tightening and crushing his ribs and knee.

  Thinking fast about what to do, he contorted his body, bringing the tentacle around his torso closer to his mouth, close enough to bite it. And with force, he bit down, causing the tentacle to close itself even more, causing more pain and the muffled sound of his ribs and leg cracking. But the other tentacles that were roaming in the water started to thrash around. Realizing his attack was causing harm and pain, he continued to bite more and more. The tentacle around his chest closed more and more, but at one point, it started to go in reverse, loosening, but the other tentacles, still thrashing around, violently.

  After a few more bites, the unknown creature seemed to have realized that the pain caused by the little thing in its grasp wasn't worth it, so it chucked the boy away, towards the isnd.

  With the fight being over, the adrenalin vanished, causing a huge wave of fatigue mixed with pain. And so he went unconscious, up till just now.He was in turmoil, his stomach was empty, and he was unimaginably thirsty. Several of his bones were cracked or just straight-up broken. He was feeling immense pain. Simply put, he was in not a good situation.

  He could try to go into the water to get some fish, but his broken body stopped him along with the fact that he had just met one of the creatures delving in those waters.

  Looking around he decided to search for food somewhere else, maybe he would find a wounded creature or a pond with fish.

  An hour or so passed, with him limping on the edge between the gravel and the hexagonal stones. He was constantly looking towards the mountain, with a feeling of unease have started to build in his heart the longer he looked towards the mountain, as if something deep in his core was telling him he was in danger. It was a primal feeling, something he had never felt before. Yet he continued to march due to his hunger and he was getting closer to his goal, which was the cliff where the mountain arch ended. He went there due to his eyes not being able to spot a single piece of fauna, water, or life between him and the mountain. So he went to a pce where he couldn't look. And it seems that he was reaching close, if not for the fact that a sudden surge of pain was rising from both his shoulder and torso, as he fell to his knees. Barfing up another load of blood together with small lumps and chunks of flesh. Again, his eyes were tearing up, with a few blood vessels in his eyes popping from the strain, causing his eyes to look bloodshot.

  Having no more blood flooding his mouth, he weakly got up and continued to limp, with no need to look after his body. It's not like he could do anything to stop the world of pain or stop his wounds, so the only thing he could do was to search for ways to ease his suffering, these ways being food and water.

  Another hour or so passed with his breakdowns getting more repetative. Another thing that happened was he spotted something, a cave. It was near the heart of the mountain, up high. It looked small, yet his being able to spot it from such a distance indicated its actual size was incredibly high and wide. But it left his mind as he had finally reached the cliff and realized that it was rger than he had imagined, towering at least a few 100 meters in height. Going around it, he saw something that rocked his whole world, at first it looked like the scenery he had been looking at for the past hours. Yet there was one thing which he had never seen before. A strange structure seems to be made from trees. It was pced on the stone beach. Yet this wasn't as world-shattering as the other thing that he was watching.

  Besides the strange structure, there were beings that looked like... him.

  He had spotted a few different beasts in his time alive, wolves, foxes, twin stalkers, birds of all kinds, bears, fish. He had always wondered if there were others like him, but he had never seen them. Causing him to feel a sort of longing for others, yet, he had never found any. And over time, he embraced the fact that he was alone. Yet here, he was looking at a long-gone dream. He wanted to wander towards them, yet he was interrupted by a roar. It was a sound that arose every hair on his body. It brought his bones to shivering. It made him want to crawl into a hole and hide till the end of days. Paralyzed, he stood there, watching the ground start to shake. Straining his muscles with everything he had, he finally left the paralyzation and turned around. Only to wish he had never done so in the first pce.

  A few minutes prior.

  "Hey, boss. How long do we have to stay here? I miss the touch of a nice woman. Plus we all need new clothes, the st run-in with the navy left us with only these rags."

  A hunched, scrawny man spoke. He looked like a trickster, with a crooked nose. He had dark green eyes and short blonde hair hidden under a piece of red cloth tied around his head. He wore ragged, cotton clothing and a nice pair of leather boots, together with a leather belt tied around his waist, holding two jagged daggers.

  Before the captain could answer, a rough, female voice spoke up. "Oh please, as if any woman would even y a finger on your stinking, rancid body."

  The voice resonated from a woman, leaning against the ship's hull. She was on the shorter side, with short, brown hair, in the form of a small ponytail. Her shoulders were broad and her arms were packed with muscles. These things together with her hands being hidden in a cast of metal gauntlets cemented her role as a brawler type. Her outfit was simir to the man before, only missing the piece of cloth on the head.

  The scrawny man, kackled and replied, "Well, you see, Laura. Every woman wants to touch me if my money bag is deep enough. And if we get a good haul this time around, my pockets will be plenty full with coin."

  "We will depart in a bit, so please be patient you walking sack of disease." This time, a man with a calm and slightly raspy voice spoke up. He was bald but had a scruffy, bck full beard. He was well-built with an average hight but nothing more. He also wore rags like the rest, except for the nice captain coat resting on his shoulders. He didn't have any weapon in particur, only a thick bock strapped at his waist. With a chain and lock around it.

  The blonde guy jumped up, "WHO ARE YOU CALLING A SACK OF DISEASE? I'm a paragon of health of cleanlyness."

  This sentence birthed hearty ughs from both Laura and the captain.

  Only for both of them to stop as a new man seemingly appeared beside them, he also had brown hair though untied and long, reaching just below his shoulders. He seemed to carry the same build and height as the captain. The difference was that he had a quiver with arrows strapped to his back and a bow in hand. One thing to note was that if one looked a bit closer, one could see small, pointy ears piercing his hair. Speaking up, he said, "We are being watched by something, yet I can't detect from where or by what exactly, they seem to be pretty good at hiding their presence."

  Before anyone could say anything an eardrum-tearing roar was heard across the whole isnd.

  "Wh-what w-was t-th-that?" asked the blonde man with obvious fear present in his shaking voice.

  "Our sign to leave, Laura please push the boat back into the water." The captain ordered with concern, Laura only nodded, turning around to start pushing.

  -

  Having finally recovered from paralysis, the boy turned around only to wish he didn't. He looked across the gravel desert and there it was, a beast, unlike anything he had ever seen.

  It was standing crawling out of the cave entrance he had spotted earlier. The beast, while smaller than the cave entrance, was still several meters tall, probably around 20-25 meters in height. It was standing on four legs, each knee ending in a bone spike and its hands being the home of cws that render each piece of steel soft if compared. Its body was covered in slick, bronze, metallic scales. And it's head, ohh it's head. The head, also slick in design, looks reptilian. On its head were two horns, facing back, and below its chin was a beard of spikes. Its mouth opened, revealing a pond of teeth, driving fear into even the bravest knight. From where the horns grew, a center-pced row of spikes was growing down its spine, ending at the tip of its long tail. The tail-end was a piece of bone or metal, hard to discern. The end was said piece forming a brutal bde, being able to slice the tallest shield in half without trying. To top it all off, It was standing there, looking straight at the boy. While he couldn't see its eyes, he just knew that it was looking straight at him.

  And with that, it started running, directly at him. The ground shakes with each step.

  Turning towards the humans, he saw them moving erratically. While he didn't know exactly what they were doing, he just knew that they were leaving, and he wanted to go with them. Ignoring the pain in his body, he started to run towards them with all he could.

  Having made about 80% of the distance, he spotted one of his kind moving towards him but then he heard a huge booming sound behind him, and he didn't need to turn around to know what that sound was.

  -

  Laura just finished pushing the boat into the water, everyone else not hesitating to get on it. Pushing it a bit further, she also got on it, grabbing two oars and giving one to the guy with the bow but she stopped as the scrawny, blonde guy said something. "Guys... is that a kid?"

  Everyone turned around and saw a kid cd in fur, running towards them across the beach. The man with the bow dropped his oar and left the ship, going towards the boy. Only to be questioned by the captain, "Eric, where are you going?"

  "This isnd is normally uninhabited, yet we heard the roar, and here is a boy running panicked, I wanna get a bit of information from him, also, we still need to make some money, think about it."

  With those words, they looked at Eric running towards the boy, only for them all to get drowned in fear as far behind the boy, the cliff started to shatter with a boom. Looking towards it, they all only heard the captain yell at the top of his lungs, "DRAAAAAAAAAAKE."

  And without hesitation, he grabbed the book strapped to his belt and removed the chain keeping it closed. The book flipping open, the man mumbled a few words, unrecognizable to the two beside him.

  Having finished chanting, he held his hands forward towards the boy and Eric. And with that, two chains shot out of his hand, flying at rapid speed towards two and wrapping around them. Just before they were in the attack range of the rapidly sprinting drake, the captain retracted his chains, causing the boy and the archer to fly towards him at rapid speed, ordering his other two shipmates, "ROW, ROW LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT, BECAUSE IT DOES!!!!"

  And without hesitation, they began moving towards the sea.

  A few seconds ter, both Eric and the unknown boy crashed on the ship deck. Eric, despite the panicked state he was in without hesitation, stood up and ran towards one of the oars and started helping rowing. The captain, clearly fatigued from whatever he just did, did the same, though not before lowering the sails.

  Looking back at the isnd, they saw it, the drake, standing there at the shore. It's bzing, firey eyes, looking straight at them. Only for it to turn around and walk back the way it came running from.

  Having finally reached the open sea, they pulled in the oars and turned towards the boy, with mixed gazes.

  -

  Bestiary index: Drake

  Drakes, beasts of nightmare. They possess scales harder than most metals, yet as flexible as leather, causing them to be highly sought after. Yet no one hunts them. Each person killing a drake enters the books of legends as these creatures are incredibly hard to kill, from fire immunity to incredibly high regeneration, to the scales and the cws, and st but not least the tail. They are almost considered a natural disaster.

  Drakes usually live in vulcanic regions, building their home in a cave deep underground. Normally, a drake also hunts underground, yet there can be very rare cases of a drake venturing to the surface. These instances are incredibly rare as for why they happen: Unknown.

  A drakes blood is also highly sought after, due to them belonging to the draconic lineage. Causing their blood to often be used as a catalyst for mages. A drake's blood can also be used to create some of the strongest healing elixirs around.

  Drakes are also incredibly smart creatures, rivaling even the elves in their intellect, being able to mimic nguage.

  Due to stemming from dragons, a drake's lust is nearly unmatched, this results in the fact that some unfortunate adventures that find a drake don't find the sweet embrace of death, but instead the drake's embrace.