CHAPTER 12: A Cold Confrontation

Deep down in the tunnels perforating the city’s streets, a light, mottled by metal grating, shined directly ahead of Orsel, Vino, and Jacob as they belted their way forwards through the maze of pipes and valves.

“Just a little bit further, c’mon, guys!” Orsel encouraged as he ran. When the three had finally made it to the grate producing the hopeful light, it proved to be another obstacle that was no match against Jacob’s might as he threw his formidable weight against it, blasting it open. At long last, the trio’s prize was within sight— the docks. An enormous stone wall and a surprisingly open gate were all that stood between them and their access to the city’s dredging vessels and stockyards— as well as the open waters of the Therean Ocean.

“What luck, it’s open!” Orsel shouted with joy, “Now all we have to do is unhitch one of these boats and—” While Orsel found himself explaining, Jake and Vino managed to run past Orsel into the walled-off area. Shortly after, they turned out of sight of the lone shayd, and their departure was capped off by the loud, unexpected CLANK of the shutting door. Orsel was left alone to bat against the door, wondering what could have happened.

“Guys, the gate’s locked!” he shouted, trying with all his might to turn the entranceway’s handle.

“I’m going to try opening it from this side!” Vino confirmed, unseen. Orsel took a step back from the door to try and find an alternate way up.

“Well, hurry up!” he said.

“STOP, CRIMINAL!” A deep voice bellowed from behind Orsel. He turned around to see none other than Chief Yuttoguln towering over him, wringing his boltcaster in his braided hands. The siren from his jailboat behind him still blared and illuminated his presence. “Your time is up, Orsel. I will give you one last chance to return to your sentence.” Sidling against the wall, Orsel mustered up every ounce of courage he had to speak up to this superior.

“I-I’m leaving! This place has done nothing but treat me like garbage!”

“Criminals should be brought to justice,” Yuttoguln convicted, “Besides, you have nowhere to go.” As the behemoth made his statement, Orsel noticed an intruder to their exchange, creeping its way up behind Yuttoguln.

“Neither do you.” Orsel wavered, pointing behind the chief of law enforcement. Yuttoguln turned to see the same sight Orsel caught, as he now slipped ever so slightly away from his spot. A titanic experiment composed of ice and darkness, crashing forwards through Yuttoguln’s jailboat, leaving a pool of frozen filth and shreds of boat to overflow the canal and spread onto the ground. As the boat’s siren sputtered back to life behind Yuttoguln after the impact, the creature screamed a horrible scream, like that of an impending avalanche. Defending himself, Yuttoguln fired a bolt through the experiment’s arm with his weapon, only for it to knock the boltcaster out of his hands in pain and resort to hand-to-hand combat. The two titans locked hands and pushed against one another, the icy beast’s writhing and shrieking contrasting Yuttoguln’s disdained silence the entire time. As the fight went on, Orsel slunk away across the length of the wall over to a crane tower that intersected it, connecting access from the docks to a loading bay outside. Since this was a working environment, a healthy supply of crookshanks was kept nearby. Orsel grabbed one and hooked it into the side of the crane, beginning his ascent.

Orsel’s abscondence caught the eye of the still-struggling Yuttoguln, who was firmly reminded of the task at hand. He dove beneath his adversary to grab his boltcaster, knocking it off-balance as it crashed under its own weight. After having retrieved his weapon, Yuttoguln attempted to aim a shot at Orsel as he climbed up the crane tower; only for the creature to regain its footing and blast a sheet of icy, frost-bitten breath at Yuttoguln, freezing his tendrils to the ground, and rendering the firing end of his boltcaster inoperable. During all this, the jailboat’s detached siren was still sputtering through its damaged speaker, causing the experiment to clutch its head, screaming in pain. Noticing this, Yuttoguln saw an opportunity— he clubbed the still-shrieking siren away from him with his weapon, driving it away and lodging it into the framework of the crane Orsel was still climbing.

Orsel’s eyes widened with dread as he now saw the shambling monstrosity of frost and shadow making its way towards him. He began to climb faster, fueled by fear of having to face this creature, until he had finally reached the base of the crane’s cockpit at the top of the wall. The monster attempted to heave its twisted body upwards towards the painful sound, hoping to put an end to it. Unfortunately, its weight proved to be too much for the infrastructure to handle. One by one, the rivets that connected the tower to the wall popped out like bullets, compromising the structural integrity of the barrier. The crane creaked and leaned forwards into the dockyards as Orsel began to descend into it after circumnavigating the crane’s head. Startled and noticing the structure he was on wasn’t stable anymore, he leapt down onto the roof of a supply shack as cracks along the wall began to lengthen alongside the crane tower’s gradual descent.

After finally stumbling onto the ground, Orsel noticed what was once the imposing wall had suddenly transformed into a cascade of dust and rubble. He zipped towards the docks as quickly as he could, trying to scope out his two cellmates amongst the chaos. Suddenly, a sight caught his eyes— a light facing towards the open waters, coming from a rather small dredging vessel. The cloud of dust behind him kissed his tendrils as he ran towards the beacon— over the cobblestone path, past the safety gate, onto the metal docks, and eventually, over the edge.

Orsel had hooked onto the back of the vessel with the business end of his crookshank, dangling over the propeller as his cloak was soaked for the second time today. He hoisted himself up onto the main deck, his two friends still staring blankly forwards at the ocean in front of them.

CHAPTER 13: The Stowaway

“Hey, guys! We made it!” He celebrated, only for Vino and Jake to whip their heads around as if they had just heard a ghost. Orsel simply assumed they were still a little high-strung from the whole ordeal they had just been through.

“Man, that was rough back there, but hey, we did it! I can’t believe this actually worked!” Vino and Jake’s eyes leapt from each other back to Orsel in disbelief as they sat in complete silence. “I know, I know, I’d be speechless too,” continued Orsel, “but we really pulled one over on those guys, huh?” Vino finally spoke up.

“Yeah… You, uh, you really pulled your weight back there, huh?” Jacob soon followed suit.

“Yup, now ALL THREE of us are on our way to freedom.” Orsel pondered for a moment. 

“Hey, there’s something I don’t quite get— how come you had the boat ready when you said you were trying to get the gate open?” Vino froze and cleared his throat nervously.

“Well, there was a lot of noise going on back there, and we wanted to have things ready for when you got through.”

“Yeah…” Orsel went on with his course of thought, “but how did you know I was going to get over the gate while it was still closed?” Jacob slipped down onto the dock where Orsel stood and eased him over to a porthole.

“Hey, why don’t you go check on the engine? See if there’re any problems down below? We’re going to have to keep things smooth if we’re gonna make it to the mainland.” Vino nodded enthusiastically. Orsel, still a bit confused, was at the very least grateful enough for his recent liberation to go along with his new partners’ demands.

“Uh, okay. See you guys in a bit!” As Orsel descended into the ship’s mechanical depths, Jacob’s smile disappeared as he went back to his usual spot next to Vino. The two stood in silence for quite a while, Vino working the controls as Jake felt the wind through the three wispy roots that sat on his head.

“So,” said Vino, trying to lighten the mood, “lovely weather up ahead.” Jake smashed his fist on the side of the boat.

“We were SUPPOSED to leave him behind.”

“I never guaranteed that,” Vino defended, “Besides, how was I supposed to know that this shayd, out of ALL of them, would be the only one that wasn’t cannon fodder. I mean, statistically speaking, their survival rate is admittedly…”

”Look, I’m not dealin’ with one of their kind.” Jake interrupted.

“Well, it looks like we’re going to HAVE to.” Vino snapped back. The quiet between the two slowly crept back, quickly abated by an idea from Jake.

“Why don’t we, I dunno, shatter him now and dump ‘im overboard! I’ve been burned before for keeping one of them alive, and I’m not gonna take that risk again.”

“I am aware, and I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

“Why not? You want him to do the same to us when our backs are turned?”

Jacob nervously looked back over at the porthole where Orsel descended into. Vino clutched the controls a bit more intently.

  “All I know is that we locked him out there with Shaydon’s law enforcement and those awful experiments, and he STILL managed to survive and make it onto the boat. He’s gifted. He’d probably find some way to wriggle out of death if we presented it to him.” Jacob rotated the claws in his hand like that of a drill.

“I find that hard to believe,” he growled.

“Besides,” Vino led on, “Are we REALLY going to kill him after everything he’s helped us out with? He seems to trust us, and he hasn’t really given us a reason not to do the same for him.” Jacob furrowed his brow and crossed his arms.

“It’s not about what he has done, it’s about what he will do.”

“He might be different,” Vino shrugged, “Who knows? It’s illogical enough that he survived, so would it really be that much of a stretch for him to be… Good?”

“Hmm” Jacob grunted unenthused while Vino continued his statement.

“Here’s the way I see it: Yes, we have every reason to hate Shaydon, for causing and perpetuating the Umbral Incursion; which is, y’know, the biggest and most devastating war Crux has ever known, causing untold amounts of destruction and death to places and people that we loved, and yes, for imprisoning us…”

“Yeah.” Jake replied.

“But we have no real reason to hate HIM,” Vino continued. “HE didn’t cause the war. Hell, he probably wasn’t even old enough to serve in it when it was happening. So for the sake of civility, let’s just judge him as an individual.” Jacob ran his clawed hand down his face and sighed a great big sigh.

“Fine, but first chance we get, we cut ‘im off, alright?”

“If that’s what you want, fine.”

“And if he tries anything funny, WHACK! That’s the end. One strike policy.”

“Yes, fine, big and scary. Right now, let’s just focus on moving forward. We have a long trip ahead of us.”

Jacob and Vino suddenly heard a commotion coming from behind them, beneath the deck. Metallic clanking and screeching echoed from beneath them until finally, Orsel emerged from the entryway, wrestling what looked like an enormous rat.

“Hey guys! I- WOAH!” He exclaimed as the beast shifted its weight and scratched against his cloak. In the commotion, he dropped it, and it was now free to skitter around the salt sprayed deck.

“What the hell is THAT?” Vino shouted, struggling to divide his attention between the creature and the controls. Orsel began to attempt whacking the fuzzy perpetrator with his crookshank. 

“Well, it-rnngh! Looks like a- hrrh! Canal rat!” he said, missing every swing. 

“Well, get rid of it!” Vino ordered. “Don’t let that thing near me!” 

“I’m trying!” Screamed Orsel, missing another frantic swing. Jacob rolled his eyes. 

“Aw, fer the love of- Let me at ‘im!” The rat was now between Jacob and Orsel, still strafing around the latter, who it deemed the bigger threat thanks to his crookshank. Jacob grabbed the wild animal in one of his massive hands, and gracelessly threw it into the open waters. It landed with a great SPLOOSH in the blackened waters, and was immediately ravaged by hungry sea creatures.

“Nice job!” Orsel congratulated, only to be met with a short grunt from Jacob as he returned to the upper deck. Orsel cleared his throat.

“Well, you’ll be happy to know that aside from that stowaway, everything’s up to code underneath.”

“That’s great Orsel,” encouraged Vino, “Hear that, Jake? Looks like smooth sailing ahead.”

 “Let’s hope so.” Jacob grumbled.