11

❖

“How many was that?” Trovii asked after the balls of light ceased falling. Miro and his crew watched the battle as well from a completely different location. They also thought it wise to halt their sail in case they ran into the crossfire.

Gale looked at the sky to make sure nothing else was happening. It wasn’t. The battle was over, and it looked like the Atlohs were victorious again. “I counted twenty-four,” Gale told Trovii.

Natala nodded. “I did too. Either twenty-four or twenty-five.”

“Yeah,” Trovii said. “I just wanted to be sure. I think I counted twenty-four of those balls of light as well.” Then he shook his head in sorrow. “I’ll never get used to seeing that.”

The crew was silent for a while to pay respect to the hundreds of fallen Auroites. Miro’s eyes were closed as he stood next to Gale. He still could not steer the ship, but his arms were much better than they were. Raal and Little Man stood against the railing, looking out at the sea in silence.

After a few minutes, Miro finally said, “Let’s set sail.”

The crew got back into their positions, the sails of the ship came up, and it was on its way yet again.

Raal continued to look out at the vast ocean. “Twenty-four,” he said under his breath. Even though he had seen that same scene plenty of times before, he still couldn’t process the thought of it. He tried to reassure himself of what he just witnessed. “Twenty-four.” 

Little Man heard him and patted him on the back. “Come on, Raal,” he said solemnly. “Keeping your mind on it isn’t going to bring them back. I’ve had enough of death for one day.”

Raal nodded. What was done was done. Now, they had to redirect their attention to Leah. She was still Katu’s captive. 

Raal walked up to Gale and Miro. “What’s our destination?” Raal asked. 

“North,” Miro told him. “Toward Ban-U-San. That’s the direction that Katu was headed last. Who knows, he may have gone to Ban-U.”

Raal shook his head. “Doubt it. There’s an Auroite base there. He wouldn’t be caught anywhere near that place with a captive.”

“You’re right,” Miro said, nodding. “Either way, he still went north. There isn’t much else that way except for Ban-U-San and a few minor ports. Any other place worth stopping is hundreds of mileseters further. So, I think we should still check over there. We’ll give Baag the heads-up as well. He has eyes in almost every city this side of Auroa.”

“Alright,” Raal agreed. “You’re the sea expert. Track ‘em down for me.”

“Will do.”

Raal turned his head to Gale, who was on the steer. “So,” Raal said to Miro. “Honestly, how do you feel about letting someone else take the steer for a change?”

Gale laughed. “Don’t get him started,” he said to Raal. “He’s been mothering me on how to position myself correctly ever since I’ve been on it.”

“That’s only because every time you turn the steer, the ship feels like it’s about to fall apart,” Miro exclaimed. Then he turned to Raal. “Honestly,” he said, “it’s nice to sit around and not worry about the ship. I can actually get some sleep now.”

Raal raised an eyebrow. “Tell the truth,” he said to him.

Miro let out a deep sigh. “I hate it.”

Raal smirked. “That sounds more like you.” 

“It’s just . . .” Miro continued. “I’m the captain. I just can’t ‘not’ be on the steer. It’s like I’m missing a part of my body or something.”

Raal patted one of Miro’s shoulders, which made him flinch a little from the pain. “You’re not missing any parts, brother,” Raal said to him. “You almost lost some, but you didn’t. Just be glad you’ll be able to get back on it soon.”

Miro nodded. “Well, aren’t you a walking heap of positivity.”

Raal hit one of Miro’s shoulders again.

“Ow!” Miro cried. “Stop doing that!”

***

A few more hours passed. The crew was sitting around, letting the wind take them to their destination. It was a pretty normal day, until Gale gasped, “Whirlpool!”  

Raal, Miro, and the rest of the crew looked outward. It was a huge spinning cyclone far out in the distance. 

“That’s no whirlpool,” Miro said. “A water dragon is about to come out.”  

“Water dragon?” Raal asked. “It didn’t come out like that last time.”  

“The last one we fought,” Miro said. “That one was a baby.” 

Raal gasped. “A baby? That big thing?”  

Miro nodded. “And this one that’s about to come out is full-grown,” he said. 

Natala walked over to Raal. “Prepare to be amazed, Raal,” she said. “It blew my mind when I first saw it.” Raal gulped.

The water dragon surged out of the water. They were about fifty mileseters away from it, but the dragon was clearly visible. Its head was high above the clouds, but parts of him were still coming out of the water. 

“It just keeps coming!” Raal cried when he saw the body still surging out. Finally, the entire dragon was above the clouds. 

Suddenly a gust of strong wind pushed the boat backward a little, knocking down some of the crew, including Raal. The clouds were slowly moving backward as well. 

“What was that?” Raal cried. 

“It looks like it just flew over our heads,” Miro told him. 

“From that far away?” Raal said, shocked. “That’s way too fast!”

After five minutes had passed, Raal had finally gotten over the initial shock of witnessing the huge dragon; however, a huge bulge in the water was coming toward him.

“I suggest you hold on to something,” Trovii told Raal as he grabbed the railing of the boat. It was obvious that the crew was used to this. 

“Where is that swell coming from? What started it?” Raal asked. 

“The wind from that water dragon,” Miro told him. “Seems like this wave has finally caught up with us.”

Raal quickly grabbed the steer and held on tight as the boat lifted up on the swell. The ship almost completely flipped over. Gale kept it in line.

“Good seafarer,” Miro told Gale. Gale smiled, pleased to get a compliment from his captain. 

As the tsunami passed on by, Raal turned around to watch it. Then he noticed far off in the distance, the water dragon, crashing back into the water. He hoped he’d never have to face something like that. He thought about the difficulties he had against the baby. He would just let the full-grown one kill him if it decided to attack as well.