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  Erik and Arkyn rushed onto the deck and found Rafe embattled with a winged monster that looked very much like an over-sized bat, but with three barbed tails. The black-haired sailor was cut along his left forearm, but otherwise unharmed. He expertly dodged the flailing tails and came up swinging, cutting at the monster’s stomach.

  Lady Arkyn pulled her bow and fired at a second beast diving down toward Rafe. The arrow struck it in the eye and the monster burst into flames, falling out of its dive and splashing down into the water.

  “I thought you said the monsters here were not real,” Erik shouted.

  “Erik!” Rafe called from his position behind the wheel. “Take the wheel! Most of the monsters are illusions, but every once in a while the Natchy Moors like to throw the real thing at sailors as well, keeps us on our toes!”

  Erik charged out into the open, ducking under one bat-creature’s diving attack and slicing another’s wing with his flaming sword. The bat flopped to the deck, but quickly jumped up to its hind legs. It hissed and bared its fangs as it stood every bit as tall as Erik on the ship’s deck. Its left wing fanned out and the bat spun around, lashing out at Erik with its tails. Erik cut through two tails and jumped over the third. He then charged in and ran his sword through the creature’s heart. It snarled and hissed as it convulsed and staggered backward to topple over the railing and into the water.

  Something slammed into the ship and knocked Erik off his feet. His sword went skittering across the deck, flames vanishing as the weapon lost contact with him. A massive, purple tentacle with thousands of suckers rose from the misty depths on the opposite side of the ship. The tip wagged in the air high above them, and then came crashing down. The deck cracked and splintered in many places as the ship lurched to the side and then came to a halt.

  “Behind you!” Lady Arkyn shouted at Erik.

  He turned just in time to see a second tentacle careening toward him. He dove to the side, avoiding the slimy appendage by only a few inches as it swished over him and blasted the mast apart. The heavy sails above toppled over backward and in turn crashed into the wheel. Rafe was thrown aside, and slammed into the railing. Lady Arkyn moved in with her bow, firing arrow after arrow at the winged beasts hovering around the ship. Each time she struck one in the face, the creature would ignite and fall from the sky.

  Erik rushed across the broken deck for his sword, but as the first tentacle ripped and pulled at the ship, one of its suckers snared the weapon and pulled it overboard. The young warrior didn’t even stop to think. His instinct kicked in and he sprinted after the tentacle. He was not going to lose his sword to some overgrown octopus!

  He dove over the devastated railing and into the water. The cool, salty liquid stung his eyes, but he paid it no mind. The massive tentacle swirled through the water, carrying the sword with it. Erik swam as quickly as he could. A burning hulk of flesh splashed into the water above him, he glanced up just long enough to see the charred remains of yet another bat-monster with an arrow sticking out from its face. He turned back to follow the tentacle and reached out to grab hold of it. The strong limb was softer than he had expected. Softer and much slicker. He lost his grip and came away with a copious amount of clear slime. He reached down and took a knife from his belt and then stabbed into the descending tentacle. A puff of black blood shot out from the knife wound, but otherwise the creature seemed to take no notice of the attack.

  The limb dragged Erik down much quicker than he could swim, but it was also going far too deep. Erik looked up and realized the surface was slipping beyond his reach. He could hold his breath for a long time, but in his human form, he would likely not be able to swim back up. Luckily, there was no wizard here who could stop him from transforming.

  He closed his eyes and brought his transforming power to the front of his mind. Rather than change immediately, he held the change at bay just long enough to allow the sea monster to bring him in close. He didn’t want to scare the thing off before he could strike. Dragons made excellent swimmers, but against a natural being of the sea, he would easily be outpaced. The water darkened around him and the tentacle started to curl away. It was difficult to see through the gloomy water, but as Erik peered ahead he made out a massive form. It moved slowly, as if letting the currents carry its bulk toward him. A flap of skin raised upward, revealing a great, yellow eye that peered back at Erik.

  He was close enough to strike.

  Erik released his hold on his power and was enveloped in a flash of brilliant light. The sea monster shut its eye and recoiled against the sudden brightness, but Erik completed his transformation quickly enough to reach out and grab hold of four tentacles with his powerful claws. In his dragon form, Erik could pierce the murky waters with his vision clearly. The sea monster was as he had thought, a single creature not unlike a giant octopus, with eight thick, strong tentacles and one eye that stared back at him incredulously. The giant octopus pulled and struggled to free its four tentacles from Erik, and then started to reach forward with its other limbs. Erik knew that he had to win this fight quickly, ere the octopus caught him and drowned him in the sea.

  He ignited the fires within his chest and unleashed a torrent of flame into the sea. For the first few seconds, the water directly in front of his mouth hissed and turned to steam as the flames died in the water, but as Erik persisted, spewing with his full force, the fire began to make headway, clearing and vaporizing the sea before him and creating a massive pocket of air. The octopus hissed and screeched, and then the flames bored into its eye. The tentacles went slack and the octopus emitted a cloud of ink as it tried to use its free limbs to swim away, but Erik wasn’t about to let the thing go. He gripped tighter with his claws and ripped the four tentacles off, each making a sick, wet schlo-POP!

  He then used his wings to propel him through the water and reached out through the dank, blueish black ink and seized the octopus by the wounded eye-socket. He clawed into the soft, gooey flesh and then punched his right claws through and out the other side. A copious amount of blood spilled into the water. The creature went limp. Erik turned upward and used his wings to ascend toward the surface while dragging the carcass along with him. He broke the surface with a desperate gasp for air, and then he flew upward into the mist. He heard Rafe utter a curse as the sailor noticed the dead, giant octopus, and then Erik tossed the thing out onto a nearby jetty of rocks. The wet corpse schlopped onto the sharp rocks and jiggled back and forth for a few moments as the last of its life blood oozed out over its purple flesh.

  Erik then turned his attention to the winged bats. With a single blast of fire he destroyed seven of them, and the others that remained tucked their barbed tails and sped away.

  “Huzzah!” Rafe shouted from below.

  Erik turned his attention back to the depths below and then tucked his wings and dove back down. The water slapped his scales and then swallowed him as he shot into the sea like a massive, reptilian arrow. Using his superior sight, he located the sword, still stuck to one of the tentacles which was now resting on a sea vent that rose up from the bottom of the sea. Erik swam down and wrapped his talons around the sword and tentacle, and then he started to swim upward, but he noticed something shift in the depths below. He stopped and watched. There was not much that gave him cause to fear as a dragon, but for some reason he now felt very vulnerable. He glanced upward and saw that he was some two hundred feet below the surface. Whatever he thought he saw below him, was at least twice that far down, where not even his vision could pierce the darkness.

  As he watched and waited, careful to remain very still in the depths, perched atop the sea vent, he heard the distinct sound of scales sliding across the ground. The slick, gritty scraping was unmistakable, yet he could see nothing. A rush of warm water came up to meet his body, and then a mixture of air bubbles and dust floated up into view from below. Erik remained still, moving only his eyes to try and discover what was lurking below. He looked out across the expansive sea and saw two additional s
ea vents some hundred yards away from him. One was spewing hot water and steam upward, the other was silent, pointed upward and unmoving. Preparing to escape quickly, he pulled the sword free from the sucker on the tentacle and decided he would leave the severed limb as bait if need be.

  Erik looked below once more. His chest was starting to yearn for air, but he knew his dragon form could hold breath for several minutes at a time even while swimming. He looked down when he heard another slithering sound from below. He couldn’t be sure, but it almost looked as if the entire sea floor was shifting in the darkness.

  He then glanced up to the vents. To his surprise, a new one was now pointed upward, and standing between the first two. Erik focused on it, and realized that the third one was moving slightly, as if swaying with the under currents, or possibly…

  The large, conical mound tilted to point at Erik and revealed its secret. What he had seen was not the birth of a third sea vent, but a great, unspeakably large serpent that had raised its head and pointed upward to match the silhouette of the other two vents. Now that it turned to face him, he could clearly see the narrow jaws, the two large, round nostrils, and the wicked green eyes that were now glowing and glaring directly at him.

  The leviathan charged forward, striking out with unimaginable speed. Erik only barely managed to move out of the way and leave the tentacle he was holding in his place as the leviathan crashed through the vent he had been perched on and bit the severed tentacle in half, swallowing the large portion and then turning a grinning face toward Erik. Its evil eyes flicked up and caught sight of the other half of the octopus tentacle, sinking slowly and trailing a small stream of blood. Erik watched as the leviathan’s nostrils flared. It attacked the remaining bit of tentacle. As it moved, it brought up several hundred feet worth of its body. Erik could see coils wrapped around the two vents from whence the leviathan had launched its attack.

  He now realized why it had seemed as though the entire sea floor was shifting.

  This was no ordinary leviathan.

  Lady Arkyn had been correct. The Natchy Moors were an extension of Hammenfein, a portal to hell, if you will, and this was the great beast known as Vodklyk. Erik wasn’t sure on all the particulars, but he knew that this monster spent most of its time guarding the second level of hell, under Hatmul’s direction. He also knew that during the times it spent outside of Hammenfein, it loved to prey upon the hapless sea-farer.

  Erik wasted no time. He shot upward through the water, aiming for the ship. Vodklyk hissed and shrieked in a shrill, ear-splitting tone as it flared its spined gill covers and bared its fangs. It was attracted to Erik’s motion, but it also noticed the ship. Now they were both racing for the vessel rocking side to side upon the surface of the water.

  Erik clawed at the water and beat it with his wings, driving himself upward as fast as he could. Vodklyk wasn’t far behind, shooting upward and ripping the tops off of the distant sea vents as he violently slithered around them. Erik broke the surface just behind the ship and continued to ascend without slowing. He snatched out over the deck and seized Rafe and Lady Arkyn in his front claws and persisted to fly upward.

  “What in the bloody—” Rafe shouted as he squirmed against Erik’s grip.

  Lady Arkyn wasn’t too pleased either, but they both settled down when a thunderous explosion destroyed the ship and Vodklyk came crashing through with snarling fangs and flared, rattling spines on its gill covers.

  “By the gods!” Rafe exclaimed. “It’s Vodklyk! I thought he was a myth.”

  Lady Arkyn remained silent. Erik flew out and away from Vodklyk, but the giant serpent swam quickly upon the water’s surface, giving chase.

  “Can he traverse upon land?” Erik asked in his loud, deep dragon voice.

  “Who cares?” Rafe shouted back. “Just fly west over Natchy Moors. The land will at least slow him down. Don’t stop until we reach landfall in the northern territory, far away from this—”

  “Erik, look out!” Lady Arkyn shouted, cutting Rafe off.

  Erik turned his head to see Vodklyk hiss and jerk its head to the side. One of the spines from the flared set of gill covers on the left shot out like a missile. Erik dodged the first, but Vodklyk sent two more just as quickly. Erik dropped his altitude to avoid being struck by the ten-foot-long missiles.

  “Don’t go down!” Rafe shrieked. “Go up! Go up!”

  “The barbs on the spikes are poisonous,” Lady Arkyn warned.

  Great! Erik thought to himself as he struggled to twist and turn to avoid several more strikes. Then, just as Erik flew upward, Vodklyk shot out across the surface of the water, passing by below them as quickly as a bolt of lightning crosses the sky.

  “Oh- this is not good!” Rafe shouted. “He’s in front of us!”

  Vodklyk slithered atop a small, smooth outcropping of rock that jutted upward several hundred yards before the safety of the marshy moor beyond. The head and body rose up, equal in height to Erik, and then the fang-filled mouth opened and shot a stream of liquid at them.

  Erik threw himself backward and gracefully turned into a dive.

  The stream of liquid missed them, but Erik knew he had been out-maneuvered. He turned and beat his wings furiously, heading back the way they had come from. Some portion of the leviathan’s massive body rippled upward, breaking the surface of the water. For a moment, Erik thought to attack, but when he saw the ridges of spikes along Vodklyk’s back, he thought better of it. The monster was far too large, and just one strike from those spikes would mean death. The body below continued to pulse up and down, as a rope might when you shake one end and send waves down toward the other. Erik already guessed that Vodklyk was preparing to bring its tail up for an assault by the time Rafe made the same assumption and began screaming and slapping Erik’s claws. Erik didn’t respond to the sailor’s frantic panic. Instead, he flew straight along the tail. When fighting with swords, one effective maneuver is the feint. Though Erik was in dragon form, he was outmatched and outpaced, which meant that his opponent might fall for a similar tactic.

  He flew hard and straight, allowing Vodklyk to build momentum below by undulating his massive body in preparation for a tail whip. Erik was counting on it, for the longer he could keep the leviathan believing that the tail whip would win the fight, the more time the serpent’s head and those cursed spikes would remain back at the rock outcropping.

  He flew out beyond where the ship had gone down, and then saw the body start to narrow out. Knowing that he was reaching the end, he swerved off to the north at the last moment. The gargantuan tail came up out of the water just as he had expected, rising one hundred feet above the surface and slapping through the air where they would have been flying had they kept their previous trajectory.

  The leviathan’s angry snarl ripped through the air and the sea churned violently as the humongous serpent shifted around to chase them once more.

  “Fly faster!” Rafe shouted as he slapped Erik’s talons some more. Erik shifted his grip a bit so he could curl one of his talons over Rafe’s mouth. While he couldn’t hear Lady Arkyn’s giggle over the sound of the splashing water below and his wings beating the air above, he could feel her body move in accordance with laughing. He grinned as well. A bit of mirth to cut the tension.

  The relief was short-lived, however, for the leviathan gained on them even faster than it had the first time. Erik was doing everything he could to make it over a tall, green mountain that rose upward to meet the clouds just beyond the beach, but Vodklyk was coming in hard and fast. Erik’s only hope was that the inlet leading up to the beach at the base of the mountain would slow Vodklyk down as the water became shallow. Vodklyk hissed angrily as it crashed through the shallow waters and churned up copious amounts of muck and seaweed. Fortunately, the beach did slow the creature down. Erik turned to ascend over the mountain, climbing hundreds of feet in a matter of seconds.

  None of them saw the pair of spikes sailing through the air after them.

  V
odklyk let out a final, vengeful snarl and then sank back down into the deeper waters. Erik looked back to ensure the creature was, in fact, retreating, and that was when he saw the two missiles, but it was too late. He twirled around and tried to tuck his wings, but one of the spines ripped through the fleshy part of his wing and severed the middle joint.

  Erik cried out in agony as his wing fell limp at his side. They all began to tumble out of the sky, heading for the mountain peak. For several seconds, time seemed to slow and Erik could feel the full brunt of the burning pain in his wing. He couldn’t hear Lady Arkyn’s screams, or even orient himself. He spewed fire uncontrollably, and gasped for air at the same time. Then, just as his vision started to blur, he saw something on the top of the mountain that helped him calm himself.

  Marlin, his very dear friend who had trained him in preparation for the Exalted Test of Arophim, was standing upon the grassy peak, waving and calling out to him. Though Marlin had died at Fort Drake, he looked as healthy and vibrant as ever now, there in the Natchy Moors.

  “Erik, this way,” Marlin said as he gestured for Erik to follow him.

  I can’t fly, Marlin. My wing is broken.

  Marlin turned and walked down the opposite side of the peak, vanishing behind a veil of mist and fog.

  “Marlin, wait,” Erik said aloud. He focused all of his effort on stabilizing himself. He flapped both wings as much as he could, and then held them out as straight as possible. He had to fold his left wing into himself in order to prevent his crippled wing from dragging him off to the side, but with great effort, he was able to turn his rapid fall into a semi-steady glide. He passed the top of the mountain, clearing the grass only by a few feet.

  “Let go of them,” Marlin whispered on the wind.

  Erik did as he was told and released Lady Arkyn and Rafe. The two of them tumbled in the soft grass, but both came to a safe stop before the slope on the northern face of the mountain. Erik then tucked his wings and tried to land, but his momentum carried him much farther down the slope. The dense fog made it nearly impossible for him to see clearly, and he struck a tree with his injured wing. The flash of burning pain yanked his mind out of focus and he once again lost control. He crashed down, shattering trees and splitting rocks until he skidded to a stop, digging a deep trench in the soft earth.