Dominant Species
Issue #10
by Tom Zjaba
Chapter 12
The Big Easy
For the next week, they travel down the river. The chief
figured that their best chance of finding another village is to stay near water.
While the men wanted to go through the village and try to find the remains of
Spearfisher and bury them, the chief decided it was best if they did not remain
in the area. The last thing they needed was for the dragon to find them. On the
first day, they traveled by foot, keeping in the woods as much as possible.
After a day, the chief felt it was safe enough to venture out on the river
again. While they would be sitting ducks to the dragon on the river, it was
safer from the other creatures that inhabited the woods. The men all pitched in
and built another raft. It took the better part of the second day, but they were
able to build a large and strong raft. With the raft finished, they pushed her
into the river and carried on their journey. They have no idea where they are
going or what they will find. They just hope that they find some people who may
have an idea where Derrick's other two friends may be. Scott has not seen them
in years and has no idea what happened to them.
Derrick spends most of his time with Scott. They speak allot
about the old world and what they miss. He never really fit in with the rest of
the party as he was younger at least in appearance than they are. He is also a
small, thin teenager and they are large, strong men. While no one has said
anything, Derrick feels that they blame him for the death of their friend. There
has been tension in the air since they left. But it is not about Derrick. The
tension is between Bearslayer and the chief. Bearslayer thinks the loss of
Spearfisher is the chief's fault. He allowed them to leave the group, instead of
fighting to keep the team together. He questions his leadership skills and his
decision making ability. He has not said it out loud, but his mood shows there
is something wrong. The others sense it as well and it worries them. They saw
what happened the last time the group split up and they fear it is going to
happen again. They all hope it doesn't but there is definite tension.
The trip down the river has for the most part been
uneventful. They did pass a few giant sloth's who came to the river to drink.
The giant hairy creatures who almost resemble giant bears than sloths did
surprise them. With their long claws and enormous bulk, they are formidable
foes. But they are mainly herbivores and they have little to worry from them.
The giant sloths did not even look at them. With their immense size, they do not
feel threatened by too many animals. They did have one scare that shook up the
group. As they were sailing down the river, the sky turned black. They could
tell there was something giant in flying overhead and their blood an cold.
Fearing the dragon had found them, they braced themselves for the worst. But as
the creature came into view, they found it was not the dragon, but instead a roc
bird. The giant bird which is close to the dragon's size did not show any
interest in them and just flew past. It is a sight to see such a gigantic bird
flying overhead. Scott was especially excited by the roc. He remembers the roc
from the classic movie, "Seventh Voyage of Sinbad." That bird had two heads,
where this bird only has one. But the lack of a second head does not diminish
the creature in any way. He watches it fly overhead with its dark brown feathers
and a wingspan nearly the length of a football field. They are fortunate enough
that the bird is gliding past them as the wind of its wings is enough to knock
over trees. As Scott watches the bird sail off into the horizon, he has a smile
on his face for the first time since he was freed. Derrick notices it and smiles
as well. Scott was the one who loved Into the Catacombs the most. He loved the
monsters and was an avid fan of mythological creatures. For him to see these
creatures alive and moving is a dream come true. It helps him to forget some of
the horror he had to endure as the dragon's pet.
As the week passes by, they finally come across some humans.
A small pack of men with long spears are fishing along the river. The men are
dressed in buck skins and have painted faces. Their faces are painted with wild
black and red paints. The paint makes them look more menacing as they painted it
to look like they have fangs and an extra eye. Each man takes a turn plunging
his spear in the water and pulling out a fish. Most of the time it was a large
catfish or trout. Once they spear a fish, they take the fish and drop it into a
large wicker basket. The basket appears to be handmade and looks quite sturdy.
As the raft comes into view, Bearslayer yells out "Hello!" The men who are
concentrating on fishing, look up and see the raft full of men. At first they
find it was odd to see other humans, especially ones that announce their
arrival. Their first reaction is one of fear as they step back and point their
spears towards the raft. They then move into a circle around the basket of fish.
With the many scavengers and raiders in this world, you quickly learn to protect
your food. Orcs, kobolds and other humanoid creatures would rather kill humans
and steal their food than hunt or fish for their own food. And there are human
bandits that roam the woods and look for people they can steal from.
As the raft nears them, one of the men on the shore yells out
"Stay on the river or we will be forced to kill you." Howlingmad used the long
pole to halt the raft. Bearslayer is stunned by the hostile greeting. "We come
in peace." Bearslayer yells back in hopes that it will lessen the tension. The
men keep their spears pointed as the same man screams out "We do not believe
you. Leave now or feel our spears." Derrick looks at the chief and asks "Want me
to handle this?" The chief smiles and says "Be my guest." Derrick jumps into the
water and begins swimming towards the shore. The men are surprised by this. They
expected the men to attack and try to steal their fish, but they did not expect
them to send a single person. As Derrick swims towards them, the same man yells
out "Turn around now or you will be killed." Derrick laughs to himself as he
knows their spears cannot harm him. He keeps swimming towards them. One of the
men throws his spear at Derrick, which bounces off him and lands in the river.
He reaches the shore and starts to climb out. Two of the men rush over and start
stabbing him with their spears. He stands there and laughs as the spears hit him
but do no damage. The men keep trying to stab him to no avail. They try stabbing
him in the chest, the arms, the face, pretty much everywhere. But they get the
same results no matter where they stab him. "Give up yet?" he says as one of
their spears breaks on his impenetrable skin. When the spear breaks, both men
step back. They look back at the man who is speaking and obviously the leader of
this group, for guidance. The man who has been doing the talking for he group,
steps forward and asks "What manner of man are you that cannot be harmed?"
Derrick smiles as he says "I am invincible." The man then offers the fish to
him. "Take our fish, but do not harm us." he says as he steps away from the
basket. Derrick smiles and says "We do not want your fish, we are looking for
information." The man looks at him with an odd look "What type of information
are you looking for?" Derrick leans down on the ground and starts drawing in the
dirt. "We came from up the river. We are looking for any large settlements of
humans. Can you show me where I can find more humans?" The man leans down and
draws a city down the river. "If you follow this river to the sea, you will find
a large settlement of sea men." Derrick looks at him and asks "What are sea
men?" The man then draws a picture on the ground of a merman. "They are men who
are half fish. They live in an underwater city called the Big Easy. While they
can be hostile, it is said that they know many things. But you will need to give
them tribute." Derrick looks at him and asks "What kind of tribute do they
want?" The man looks back at him and says "They crave land food. With their fish
feet, they cannot move on land. So they are always willing to trade for food
like wild pig, mushrooms, berries and other food that grows on land." Derrick
thanks them and then jumps back in the water and swims back to the raft. As the
raft sails off, he waves to the men, who are unsure what to do. The leader then
waves back to him as they return to their fishing.
That night the group makes camp along the river. They find it
safer to be near the water as they only have to worry about one side. While
there are dangerous creatures in the river, they have yet to encounter any. As
they sit around the fire, cooking the fish they caught, they watch the fire as
it blazes. On the river, they can see the reflection of the fire on the water.
As they look at the reflection, they see something coming up out of the water
and looking out at them. In the darkness, they cannot tell what it is, but they
can see there is something out there. Howlingmad stands up and walks to the
river's edge and looks out. As he looks out, he sees what looks like bumps in
the water go back under. He walks into the water and starts looking around to
see if he can see anything. The others get up and start heading towards the
river's edge as well. "Howlingmad, get out of the water." the chief yells.
Howlingmad does not listen as he keeps walking out. He is now in waist deep
water. He looks around and does not see anything. Suddenly, he feels something
swim past him. He jumps back as it startles him. "Something just touched me." he
shouts to the men on the shore. "Come back, it's not safe." Eightdigit screams.
He is still in shock from losing Spearfisher and the last thing he wants is to
lose another friend. Howlingmad keeps looking around, when he sees something
rise out of the water about twenty feet away from him. He starts moving towards
it, when it submerges. He goes as fast as he can towards it. The water keeps
getting deeper and deeper. It is now up to his chest and he is finding it hard
to move. Once again, he feels something touch him underwater. It feels like a
tail of a fish or something else that is cold and slimy.
On the shore, the rest of the group are getting restless.
They are yelling for him to come back, but to no avail. Derrick finally jumps in
the water and starts swimming towards him. While he is not a great swimmer, his
mother did make him take five years of swimming lessons. Every summer when he
was young, she would take him to the local pool for lessons. While he resented
it at the time, later in life he found the skill of swimming to be quite useful.
As he swims closer to Howlingmad, he also feels something swim past him. But
unlike Howlingmad, he dives under the water to see what it is. As he submerges
himself into the murky waters, he finds that the combination of murky water and
the darkness of the night makes it impossible to see more than a few feet in
front of him. While underwater, he decides to try something. He opens his mouth
and breaths in a mouthful of water. He wants to see if he will drown. At first
the feeling of breathing water scares him. His body starts to shake and he gets
panicky. But he fights the feeling and keeps underwater. After a minute, the
feeling starts to subside as he finds that he can live without air. He swims
around happily as he knows that he can stay under as long as he wants. He really
is invincible and he cannot wait to share this fact with Scott. He heads back to
the surface when he sees a large fishes tail go past him. Instead of just
watching it, he decides to grab it. He reaches out and grabs a hold of it. The
creature feels the pull on its tail and starts to shake it violently to get him
to let loose. He hangs on tight and resists the creature's attempt to break
free. When the creature realizes it will not be able to easily break free, it
starts swimming towards the deeper water. The creature figures it can pull this
land creature deep underwater and drown it. Derrick finds himself moving at an
alarming rate and soon he is in the middle of the river. He peers to see what
the creature is, which is hard with the fast movement. He does see that the long
fish tail is attached to what looks like a human. As he is being pulled under,
he feels two sets of arms grab him and yank his hands off the creature. As he is
forced to let go of the creature, it swims off and quickly disappears into the
murky water. He turns around to see what grabbed him. While he finds it hard to
see, he can make out that there are two mermaids swimming away.. He only gets a
quick glimpse of them as the also disappear into the murky water. All he could
see was a human female top with long flowing hair. This body is attached to a
long fish body that moves gracefully and quickly. It is only his ability to see
in the dark, one of the many abilities that come with his character, that lets
him even see they are mermaids. A normal human would have seen nothing.
Howlingmad looks around for Derrick as it has been a few
minutes since he went under. The men on the shore are also looking for him. As
they look out, they see something come up to the surface. It is down the river
and it looks similar to the bumps in the water from earlier. Unlike the other
bumps in the water, this one stays above water. Howlingmad screams out "Derrick,
is that you?" As he moves closer, he gets a response. "Yeah, its me." he says as
he starts swimming over to Howlingmad. "Did you see anything under the water?"
Howlingmad yells out. Derrick swims closer and when he is near him, he says "I
saw mermaids!" Howlingmad comes over and helps him out of the water. As Derrick
breaths in more air, he feels the water he swallowed earlier coming up. He
coughs violently and then expels the water from his lungs. He keeps coughing for
a few minutes as the water all leaves his lungs. He feels a small pain in his
side from the coughing, but otherwise he feels fine. Howlingmad grabs him and
helps him back towards the shore. The other men rush out to pull them in. As
they come out of the water, they feel the cold night air against their drenched
bodies. "Let's return to the fire." Derrick says as he smiles at the guys. They
all head back to the fire and Derrick tells them about his encounter with the
mermaids.
The next day, the group returns to the raft and heads back
down river. With the visit from the mermaids, they figure that they must be near
the Big Easy. It gives the crew a renewed sense of energy as they look forward
to seeing this underwater city. The thought of mermaids is also exciting. While
the men have never seen mermaids before, Derrick account of his encounter along
with the fact that they were not hostile when they showed up last night creates
more excitement.
As the day wears on, the river starts to become rougher. The
water is traveling faster and there appears to be more rocks in the water. The
calm waters are quickly becoming dangerous. The chief instructs Bearslayer to
push the raft towards the shore. He struggles with it as the currents keeping
pulling the raft towards the deeper middle. As he struggles to get the raft to
the shore, they continue to move down the river and the water is getting faster
and wilder. The raft is bouncing up and down on the white water as it rolls into
a rapids. The large raft is a magnet for rocks and it starts to run into them.
The first rock cracks a few logs on the end. The men move away from the
splintering wood as it buckles under the pressure. The raft then spins around
and heads towards another rock. Bearslayer thrusts out his steering stick and is
able to push the raft from hitting the rock. But his stick breaks from the
pressure and now he does not have the means of steering the raft. "Grab hold of
the sides and hang on tight." the chief screams as the raft heads down the
river.
The raft continues to be tossed around the water as the
rapids become more intense. The choppy water sends the raft bouncing up and down
as the currents spin it around. The waves of water flow over the raft and drench
the men. The quickly rushing water grabs hold of their supplies and washes them
overboard. With the men holding on to the sides of the raft to keep from being
swept away, they can do nothing more than watch helplessly as their food, water
and other supplies go overboard. But they have little time to miss them as they
see large rocks jutting out of the river that are coming up fast. Not having any
control over the navigation of the raft, they can only watch helplessly as the
it slams into the side of a large rock. The collision of wood and stone makes a
loud noise as stone quickly wins out. The force of the blow makes some the logs
begin to split and within seconds, the entire raft is broken apart. Logs are
snapped in two as the raft is reduced to splinters. The men are thrown in
different direction as the impact of the collision breaks their grip. .
To the right side of the rock, Derrick, Scott and the chief
are tossed. To the left side, Bearslayer, Eightdigit and Howlingmad are sent
flying. The water quickly grabs each of them and pulls them under the water.
They all struggle to swim to the surface as the currents keep dragging them down
the river. They also find their heavy weapons are weighing them down, but they
have no time to loosen themselves from the heavy metal weapons. The strong
currents are too much for the men and they cannot stop their progress. It takes
all their effort to keep from drowning.
Bearslayer is the only one to free himself from the river's
grip. He is able to reach out and grab hold of a rock as he goes past it. His
hands grip the rock tightly and the force of the water almost rips his arms out
of their sockets. With all of his strength, he struggles to pull himself closer
to the rock. With much struggle he manages to pull himself up on top of the
rock. He struggles to get the rest of his drenched body out of the water and
onto the rock. Once he is safe from the pull of the river, he looks out to see
the others headed down the river. As he looks around, he sees nothing but raging
river to his right. To his left, he sees another rock that he can jump to. It
will place him closer to the shore and with some strong swimming and a little
luck, he may be able to reach the shore. It appears to be his only chance to
survive this ordeal and he decides to risk it. He eyes up the rock and tries to
concentrate on landing on the rock flat. With some concentration, he prepares
himself and leaps to the rock. His calculations were correct and he lands flat
on the rock. But he did not take into consideration the slickness of the rock
and he finds that he cannot get a grip on the slick rock and slips off, sending
him falling back into the water. He luckily does not hit the rock and is able to
keep from drowning.
As the group keeps going down the river, they hear a
deafening sound. A loud roaring sound can be heard in the distance. It keeps
growing louder and louder as they move further down the river. The chief knows a
waterfall is coming, but he is powerless to do anything about it. He tries to
swim towards the shore but the power of the river is too much for him to
overcome. And the river keeps getting stronger and stronger as they near the
waterfall.
Up ahead they can see the mist from the waterfalls. They all
struggle to halt their progress but have no luck. It is enough to try and keep
from drowning as water keeps splashing them in the face. Eightdigit is the first
to reach the edge of the waterfall and go over. They can hear his screaming as
he plummet down the waterfall. But not being able to do anything about it,
Howlingmad follows him. He also screams as he goes over the side. Scott then
goes over the edge, closely followed by the chief. Derrick is the next one to go
over as he also screams. Bearslayer is the last one to be pulled over the edge.
He looks over the edge as he is pulled down and sees what looks like a long
drop. With all the mist from the falling water, he cannot see how far down it
is. Nor can he see any of his friends. But he has little time to look for them
as he is quickly swept over and also finds himself screaming as he falls
downward.
Dominant Species ©
2006 - 2008 Tom Zjaba