“Miko!” he cries out as another wave crashes into him, pushing him beneath the water. When he regains the surface, Miko is nowhere to be seen upon the churning waters. “Miko!” he screams as loud as he can. Desperately looking around, he begins to fear for his friend when he still is unable to find him.
Jiron is almost out of sight as well where he’s still clinging to what’s left of the dinghy.
Doing his best, he tries to remain above the surface as wave after wave crashes into him. Gasping for air as he fights to stay afloat, he’s repeatedly being pushed under the water by the incessant crashing of the waves.
In a moment’s respite, he looks around and realizes Jiron is no longer visible upon the waves. The warship has disappeared in the storm as well. Alone, frightened, he tries to summon the magic to help stay afloat, but the constant fight simply to remain above the surface makes it impossible for him to focus enough for the magic to work.
He looks up as another wave rolls into him, taking a deep breath, he braces for the impact.
The sound of the surf crashing on the beach wakes him up. Lifting his head, he realizes that he’s somehow been washed ashore. Soaked and miserable, he comes to his feet as the wind continues whipping the rain into him. His arms and legs are leaden and he barely has the strength to move, the effort to stay afloat had sapped all he had.
Moving slowly, he goes further up the beach away from the water and then turns to look out over the waves crashing upon the beach. “Miko! Jiron!” he hollers. Even if they replied, it’s unlike he’d be able to hear anything over the sound of wind and surf.
He looks around at just where he’d been deposited. Many waterways drain into the ocean, stunted trees and grass cover almost every exposed piece of land. Kind of reminds him of a swamp.
Not willing to give the others up for lost, he moves further away from the beach into the vegetation. After searching around for a few minutes, he finally locates what he’s been looking for.
Kneeling down next to the small pool of water, he concentrates on Miko, willing the image of his surroundings to appear upon the water. In his exhausted state, he’s almost unable to focus enough to call forth the magic.
The image wavers and then suddenly comes into clarity. He sees Miko lying upon the beach, unconscious, with the waves crashing over him.
In a panic that he might be washed back out to sea, he quickly forms one of his seeker bubbles and gets up to follow it. The bubble moves back toward the beach and then follows the coastline to the left.
Moving as quickly as his wobbly legs will carry him, he makes his way along the coast as he follows the bubble. After ten minutes, he sees a form lying in the surf, far down the beach. Canceling the spell, he breaks into a run and races to Miko’s side. He’s lying face down and doesn’t look to be breathing.
When he reaches his side, he turns him on his back and discovers in relief that he is, in fact, still breathing. Grabbing him under the arms, he begins to pull him up the beach away from the pounding surf.
Laying him in a relative safe spot, he kneels down next to him as he tries to bring him back to consciousness. He tries shaking him and calling his name but that fails to work. Striking him hard across the face twice causes his eyes to snap open. He suddenly begins coughing and then starts vomiting up seawater.
Leaning him on his side, he pats him on the back until the vomiting fit is over. James then helps him to sit up as he continues coughing until his lungs clear.
Through red eyes, he looks around at their surrounding and between coughs asks, “Where are we?”
Shaking his head, James replies, “I don’t know. There doesn’t seem to be any sign of people around here.”
Looking around, Miko asks, “Jiron?”
“I don’t know,” James tells him, “haven’t found him yet.” He then looks into Miko’s eyes as he says, “I was too worried about you.”
“Thanks,” he says just as another coughing fit strikes him. When it’s over, he asks, “Think he made it here like we did?”
Shrugging, James answers, “Hope so.” Getting up, he looks around until he locates another clear pool he can use to find Jiron the way he’d found Miko.
Kneeling down again, he concentrates on Jiron, the magic coming a little easier than it had earlier. Having a brief rest, even so short a one has made a difference.
Miko comes over and sits across from him as he watches the water. The image shifts and then they see Jiron. He has his knives in hand and is fighting off three other people who’re attacking him with spears.
James ends the spell and stands up abruptly. The seeker bubble forms and begins to float away from them, back the way he’d come when he had been searching for Miko. He moves to follow it.
“Is he close?” Miko asks as he joins James in following the bubble.
“Don’t know,” James replies as he hurries, almost running as he follows the fast moving bubble. His begins panting as he starts using up what reserve of strength he has left. “But the area he was in looks to be similar to what is here, the same trees and grass anyway,” he explains. “If we’re lucky, he shouldn’t be too far away.”
Running along beside James, he says, “Let’s hope not.”
As they run along the beach after the bubble, they suddenly hear a crashing sound from further inland. They come to a halt when a large lizard-like creature the size of a rhinoceros lurches out onto the beach in front of them.
“What the hell is that?” Miko cries out.
The creature must’ve heard him, it turns its head in their direction and lets out a roar. It pauses only a moment before charging toward them. An answering roar comes from behind them as another of the creatures comes out from within the vegetation.
James takes out one of his slugs from the belt around his waist and propels it at the one in front of them with a touch of magic. It strikes the creature in the foreleg and lodges itself beneath the skin.
Crying out in pain, the creature stumbles slightly and then resumes its course toward them.
“You’re going to have to do better than that!” Miko yells to James when he sees the slug did little to slow it down.
Reaching down, he picks up a stone off the beach the size of a baseball and throws it at the creature, tripling the amount of magic he usually uses with the spell.
This time when the stone hits, it strikes the creature in the chest and blasts out the back, spraying bone and gore.
At the sight of what happened to that one, the creature behind them roars and doubles its speed toward them.
James doesn’t have time before it’s upon them to do anything. They jump to the side but the creature grabs his leg with his mouth, teeth sinking into his calf as it lifts him off the ground.
Crying out in pain, James reflexively lets loose a blast of magic that burns into the creature’s side. Roaring in pain, it lets go of his leg.
As he falls back to the ground, he rolls away from the creature, blood welling quickly from the wounds the creature’s teeth had inflicted. He comes to a stop then begins scooting backward along the ground away from the creature, his leg unable to support him enough to get to his feet.
Miko throws sticks and rocks at it to try to divert its attention from James to no avail. It looks around and sees him there on the ground. With another roar, it charges forward, slowed only slightly by the wound in its side.
James takes out another slug and throws it at the charging creature. In panic, he calls forth a tremendous surge of magic which leaves him gasping and dazed. The slug strikes the creature where its neck leaves the main body, and the incredible force of the impact almost completely severs its head from the rest of its body. Attached only by a thin layer of skin and muscle, its head lolls to the side as it falls to the ground, blood spraying forth upon the sand.
Miko rushes around the dead creature to where James is lying with blood pouring out of his leg. “James!” he cries as he comes and kneels down next to him.
“Miko,” he gasps through the pain throbbing in his leg, “give me your shirt.”
Taking off his shirt, he hands it to him. Wrapping the shirt around his wounded leg, he ties it as tightly as he can to stop as much of the blood from escaping as possible.
“We can’t stay here,” he tells him. Gesturing over to the trees, he says, “See if you can find me a walking stick, large enough to help support me. We’ve got to get out of here before the smell of blood draws others.”
