Ch. 27. I Spy, Something Begining with D

The wind, fog and rain seemed to come out of no where as they started on their journey to Kledy. Ionas started once more to sing a song in an attempt to exhibit some control over the weather as was the natural ability that accompanied their Selkie voices.

He started to sing a soft, soothing lullaby, but a strong and sudden gust of wind hit him like a wall and knocked him down to the planks that formed the walkway in amongst the rigging. He clung onto the nearby ropes as tightly as he could and could only turn his face against the strangely ferocious winds. The only thing that he had to look at was that wooden carving that he had freed from the Reputation. There was something familiar about it, but whatever it was eluded the Selkie. He could hear something being picked up by the wind and being thrown. A loud rip and then finally the wind and rain ended. It left as quickly as it came and left the lookout with a vague sense of something not being right.

Awkwardly he got to his feet, totally not the usually dexterous and nimble elf he was. He started to feel the unusual heat towards the aft of the ship. It was then the captain gave those orders. “Dragon? That close?”

There wasn’t anything that he could do about the dragon but pinpoint its location. Fortunately the ship had started its emergency descent, and so Ionas set about locating the threat. He made his way around to the aft, and there it was. He could see it clearly plummeting down from above. The dragon wasn’t all that large for a dragon, about the size of a covered wagon.  It was still growing and relatively young… something akin to a teenager. As a result, the dragon could very well be inexperienced at hunting – something very good for the Calinda, but it was already far too close to do anything about getting out of the way.

The creature was obviously reptilian, its membranous wings separated into segments with structure-giving ‘fingers’. It was an obsidian-black colour with horns on its head and spikes running down along its back. It whooshed passed them spurts of flame venting out to the side. The creature disturbed the air flow and just clipped the side of the vessel, no real major damage yet it was enough to cause a headache for the helmsmen.

“It just brushed the very stern of the ship, its heading towards the water.” Ionas yelled down to the deck below, hoping that they would not end up like the Dragon and plummet down to the sea with it. The replacement sail was getting close to being lifted up to the rigging so that Ionas could replace it, so he returned focusing himself on the new task at hand, taking down and replacing the main sail.

Ionas started working, taking down the ripped sail.  He had received the replacement sail and so after he had done that, he could put the new one in its place. He focused on the task before him not wanting to risk knowing that they were going to crash until he’d finished or the answer came through the physical reaction of the Calinda hitting the water.