Author's Preface
After countless hours of searching, the crew and Captain Oak could not find the creature. Nariko and a few deckhands had already jumped on the damage to the haul and patched up the hole. The few men who were injured by the Searcher were checked on by Tiko. Boso and a few able-bodied crewmen kept the ship on course to the western islands. Captain Oak and Ash were in the captain’s quarters; they looked over the haul of treasures they found. Most of the treasure that was carried on board was gold coins with designs that didn’t match the current royal guard's emblem, a few jewels, and a small crown with seven points that held variously colored gems.
“Now isn’t that something,” Ash said as she took her feet off the table and leaned forward to examine the crown. “What kind of royalty do you think this guy belongs to?”
Captain Oak picked up the crown and looked at the gems closely. He could see that behind each gem was a faint detail of an animal.
“Peacock, Snake, Lion, Toad, Wolf…” Captain Oak started, then his eyes widened.
“Boar…Sea Slug…” A gurgly voice sang from the room.
Oak saw in the reflection in one of the gems a shadowy figure in the top corner of the room. Both Captain Oak and Ash stood up with guns drawn at the creature. Slowly, the creature crawled down from the corner and onto the floor. The creature was nothing Captain Oak or Ash had seen on their adventures. Their minds could not describe what stood in front of them. The mix of tentacles and crustacean appendages contorted the thought of any kind of cohesive sea creature. Its face was covered by wet, greasy dark hair, almost like seaweed, and what could be seen had barnacles protruding out.
Two shots rang out from both barrels of Oak’s and Ash’s pistols, but the creature did not move. Its hunched form started to move sideways around the room. Ash drew another one of her pistols and took fire on the being. Again, the bullets made contact, but the creature did not notice. It quickly lunged at the table, its pincers revealed themselves, and it attempted to grab the crown, but Captain Oak’s baton came crashing down onto the claw; it stopped in place just short of the crown.
Between the grunts and struggles of Captain Oak and the creature, Ash quickly grabbed the crown off the table. The creature slammed Captain Oak across the room and hurried to Ash.
“Ash!” Captain Oak yelled, “Throw it out the window.”
“No!” both Ash and the creature responded.
The creature and Ash looked at each other.
“You…do…not…deserve…” The creature gurgled out.
“I stole it, and you can’t have it back,” Ash said.
“Don’t antagonize it,” Captain Oak said as he lifted himself up from the floor. “Throw it out and let the thing fall with it.”
“Not…worth…time…?” The creature said. It looked back at Captain Oak, with its head cocked to one side.
There was a knock at the door; Boso’s voice could be heard from behind it.
“Captain? You alright?” Boso asked.
Captain Oak’s mind raced with thoughts of how this would play out. Does he open the door and have his crew all fight this monster, or keep quiet and not alert the ship? The creature crept closer to Captain Oak. Its gaze was not leaving his eyes. The pincers snapped at the table and lifted it up, dropping the coins and jewels onto the floor. Smaller crab-like legs came out and picked up the treasure.
“What…will…it…be…?” The creature gurgled out. It snapped the table in half with its claw. The sound of splintering wood filled the room as the creature stepped closer.
“Captain–” Boso started to say.
“I am fine, Boso. Just a bit wobbly on my legs. Let me know when we spot land.” Captain Oak said as he raised his hands.
The monster stopped and lowered its claws.
“We should hopefully see landfall by daybreak. Get rest, captain; we can take it from here.” Boso reassured the captain.
Once Boso’s footsteps could be heard departing from the door, Captain Oak slowly walked over to Ash. He grabbed the crown out of her hand and held it up to the monster.
“You can speak, and you know what we are saying,” Captain Oak said. He spun the crown around his finger and stopped it short of the bay window. “So tell us why you are here, or this swims with the sea.”
The creature reeled back, and its small, hunched form grew straight and tall. Its hulking presence truly showed how much of a monster this thing was. It hunched back down and snipped the air towards the crown.
“Not…yours…” The creature spoke, “Mine…long…ago…”
“Not yours anymore,” Ash said. “Now, Captain, please give it back.” Ash reached out to grab it back from Captain Oak.
Captain Oak quickly flung it back to his other hand. He twirled it around a second time and stopped it once more, this time in front of his face. He looked at the gems again and back at the creature; this time, it scuttled back and forth.
“Look, I don’t want you on board my ship,” Captain Oak pointed at the monster, “we would like to keep the treasure, including this crown, so, one last time. Why are you here?”
A brief moment of silence filled the room, with only the sounds of gurgling and snipping from the creature.
“Invidia…make…you…better…” the creature finally gurgled out. Its appendages moved in a hypnotic sway. The clicks and sloshes sounded as if they mimicked the ships cracking and waves sloshing against the Rytidome.
Captain Oak napped out of the trance and spun the crown on his finger and back towards the window.
“What do you mean, make you better?” Captain Oak asked the creature.
“Invidia…sees…desires…” The creature said, she moved over to the shelves of Captain Oak’s bottles and reached for a few. “I…can…make…happen…” The creature devoured the different bottles. Broken glass fell to the floor. The sounds of clicks and sloshes ceased, and the creature's back started to split, like a boiled lobster tail opened to reveal its fleshy interior. What was left was a dried-up husk, void of any life. Captain Oak and Ash slowly took a step towards the corpse.
“Now,” A soft, elegant voice came out from the back of the creature. A woman appeared; she stood in the husk of the creature. “I can finally speak clearly.”
Ash drew another pistol and pointed it at the woman. Captain Oak stared at what transpired before them.
“Explain yourself.” Both Captain Oak and Ash said with a difference in their tones.
The woman hopped out of the husk, her brown bare skin relieved itself to the two. Captain Oak looked away, while Ash remained looking down the sight of her gun.
The woman walked over to a dresser and opened the drawers. She pulled out a large coat that covered her body.
“Okay, captain, you can look at me now,” the woman said, unbothered by the end of a barrel pointed at her.
Ash cocked her pistol. “Explain yourself.”
“I want nothing more than to explain myself,” the woman said. “You stole my crown, which you do not deserve, but I can make you deserving of such treasure.”
“Not interested,” replied Captain Oak as he continued to spin the crown on his finger. “This doesn’t explain who or what you are, but if I had to guess, you are some sort of siren or magician. I don’t need either one on my ship, and now that you aren’t in that monstrous form, I imagine our guns can tear through your flesh.”
The woman gave a toothy grin and walked towards Ash’s gun. “I tell you I am no siren; they are too wild and have no plan, and I am no magician; they only pretend to hold power they are unworthy of having.” The woman stops just shy of the barrel pointed at her face. Ash pulls the trigger.
Click.
A round fell out of the end of the gun onto the floor, and a tiny crab crawled out of the barrel and hopped onto the woman's face. It found a home in her messy hair and hid. Ash threw the gun down to pull another pistol, but as she did, more rounds fell from her person and onto the floor. More tiny crabs crawled out from Ash’s jacket and weapons and made their way onto the woman.
“As I said,” the lady continued. “I can make you worthy of such treasures as my crown; you are twirling carelessly.”
“We are not in the business of your schemes,” Captain Oak answered.
Ash quickly drew her cutlass and held it to the woman's neck. “Take another step, and your head rolls on the captain's floor.”
The woman ignored Ash’s threats and stared at the blade. She lifted her hand to it, and in a flash, her hand snapped the blade in half.
Ash took a step back, her eyes widened, and she nearly tripped over the broken table.
“Schemes? Do you think I sell tricks? I’m not in the business of arms; those are barbaric means of trade and riches. Nor am I in the business of people or drugs; those are for short-sighted and simple-minded. No, I am in the business of toppling empires. The people, the arms, the drugs, and the riches come with it. I am Invidia, the sea witch of the west.”