The Reptile's Wrath

4

Bark toed the ground with her boot. Thrash had told her not to leave the shop when he left to get supplies. She had always been one to follow orders, but she messed up like everyone did sometimes. Thrash had never been anything but understanding and forgiving, if he was a bit strict sometimes. She had never seen him angry before.
“Swift was attacked in the backstreet that you found us in,” Valor said evenly. “One of them was marked with a venomous spirit animal and it bit him. They wanted him to bring Bark to them, and if he did that, they would treat his wound. I followed and after they treated Swift, I attempted to get them out.”
    Thrash turned on him. “Swift is a child. He wandered off like a child would tend to do. You shouldn’t have let him out of your sight, Valor. I’m disappointed in all of you, but you, Valor… I brought you along to protect them, and you failed.”
    Swift was shaking beside Bark, who desperately wanted to help him, but she was parilized by her fear of Thrash. Finally, Swift stepped forward. “Don’t blame Valor, Thrash,” he said, his voice shaking almost as much as his body. “It was my fault. I was the one who wandered off without telling you. It was all my fault, not Valor, not Bark.”
    Bark almost smiled in pride of the boy. She wouldn’t have thought he would do something like that.
    Thrash looked down at him for a moment, before his gaze softened slightly. “Swift, don’t do that again. Ask one of us to come with you or at least tell us where you’re going.” He sighed wearily. “Let us continue on.”
    Swift stuck to Bark, glancing down at his arm every few seconds. Bark nudged him softly. “How’s your arm?”
    He winced. “It’s fine.”
“Are you sure?”
“...no.”
    Bark’s tail ficked and she tilted her head. “Why are you trying to act so tough all of a sudden?”
    Swift dropped his gaze to the ground. He was speaking so quietly, Bark could barely make it out. “Thrash and Valor are so much better than me. I want to be brave like them. I don’t want them and you to have to protect me.”
“Oh, Swift.” Back patted him on the shoulder. “But you don’t have to be as brave as them. You’re smart and strong in other ways.”
“Not important ways! I got you and Valor in trouble.”
    Valor came to walk beside them. “You also got us out of trouble. What you did a few minutes ago took a lot of bravery.”
    Swift wrung his hands together. “But I can’t fight like you can. You took all of them out so easily. I can’t do that. You had to swoop in and save me.”
    Bark put an arm around him. “We’ll keep you safe, like it or not. After things have calmed down a bit and we’ve gotten back to the torch, ask Thrash to start training you. That might help.”
“Who did you learn from, Valor?” Swift asked.
“My father and the other men in our village,” he answered. He whispered something to dismiss himself, then fell back to walk at the rear of the group.
    Swift drifted slowly away, leaving Bark alone. As far as she knew, there were no more towns until they reached the coast. Just forest, forest and more forest. 
    She was used to the woods. Her family lived in northern Amaya, surrounded by trees. She wondered if the pair of dogs her father had were still alive. How long had it been now? Four years at least.
    A sharp pang of homesickness hit her unexpectedly. She had barely even thought of her home since she had left it. Would her parents even recognize her anymore? She doubted it. Four years. How had it been that long? Where had the time gone?
    Maybe after everything settled down, she could get to Amaya and visit them. She wasn't sure how she would bring it up, or who she would bring it up to, but it seemed that she had plenty of time to think about it. Unless of course they were attacked again or something.

    A week passed without incident. By now, the redcloaks were almost to greenhaven. The large island was in view from Bark’s place at the bow of the ship. She was tempted to call to the others, but Swift was the only one in earshot, and he wasn’t doing all that well. It had never occurred to Bark that her companions didn’t do well on water. It had never been a problem for her.
    She walked across the deck towards where Swift was curled on the boards. 
“You alright, Swift?” she asked softly.
    He groaned in response, barely lifting his head. He was pale and quiet, his hair stuck to his forehead. “Okay…” he said softly. “I’m--” He crawled onto his hands and knees, Bark helping him to the railing. 
    Bark looked up at the sky until the sounds of Swift’s retching ended. “Thanks,” he mumbled, as she helped him lie back down.
“We’re almost there,” she said. “We’ll be at Greenhaven soon.”
“That’s great. That’s good.” He groaned and rolled over onto his other side, clutching his stomach.
“Bark.”
Bark jumped, spinning around. Valor stood there, holding up his hands. “Sorry,” he said, gesturing towards the cabin. “Thrash wants to talk to us both.”
She followed him down into the ship. Thrash waited for them, standing in front of a small table. “You found her. Good.”
“What is it, Thrash?”
The man sighed quietly. “I think there’s trouble in Greenhaven.”
“When is there not trouble in Greenhaven?” Bark shifted her weight. “What happened?”
“A messenger hawk came to us this morning. It told us to turn back to Eura.”
“Nothing else?” Valor asked. “No ‘or else’?”
“No. Nothing else.”
“We still need to warn them about the devourer!” Bark put her hands on the table, her tail lashing. “If we don’t, who knows what would happen?”
Valor glanced at her. “What are we going to do, Thrash?”
“We’re going to continue on. We’ve come this far already. Be prepared though. We don’t know how this could go.”
    On the way back up to the main deck, Bark felt her stomach twist in knots. What was going on at Greenhaven that warranted them to give the redcloaks an order to turn around? The redcloaks and greencloaks had always gotten along so far, so what changed?
    Did they somehow already know about the devourer and think the redcloaks wanted to support him? Didn’t they know the entire point of being redcloaks was making up for all that?
    Bark shivered and tried to shake the thoughts away. All of this sitting around on the ship wasn't good for her mind. She needed to move. She needed to do something.
    She walked to an open part of the deck, unsheathing her sword. She tried to imagine Thrash in front of her as she slashed at the air. She went through everything she knew twice, but even that was over far too quickly. Sure, it was nice to be doing something, but it wasn’t the same without someone there in front of her.
    For a moment, she considered asking Thrash to spar, but he was probably too busy, still examining the letter from the greencloaks. If they had been on solid ground, she would have extended her offer to Swift. She glanced at him. 
    He was still lying on the deck, seemingly to not have moved an inch since Bark had left him. She felt awful for him. After leaving the tower for the first time, getting beaten up in an alley and probably just being generally exhausted, he didn’t deserve this on top of it all. Bark wished she could take the seasickness for him.
    Then again, no she didn’t. The bile had made her feel just like that, and she didn’t want to go through that again. Now her mind went to Swift’s summoning. He had to have summoned his animal before he turned eleven, but why would he have summoned it? Did someone force the bile on him? Had the conquers kidnapped him or something? 
    Bark winced as Swift pushed himself to the edge of the ship, throwing up yet again. She wondered how he had anything left to expel.
    She blinked, and he was gone. Down below, there was a loud splash. Bark froze for a moment, dropping her blade. Had Swift really just--
“Swift!” she cried, running to the railing. 
    She hated swimming. A ship was fine, but actually submerging herself in the water… She spotted him floundering in the water down below. Before she could steel herself to jump, a red blur dove in instead.
    Valor came running to stand beside her. “He fell in, didn’t he?” he asked.
    Bark nodded, watching as Thrash hauled Swift through the water. The crew were swarming the railing now, lowering a rope ladder down towards the pair.
    Bark and Valor were crowded out of their place at the railing by the ship’s crew who were hurriedly trying to bring Swift and Thrash back up onto the ship. 
    Thrash set Swift down gently, sitting down beside him. Bark flew to Swift side. “Hey, hey! Wake up, Swift. Come on.”
    One of the crew came up on Swift’s other side. “Back away, redcloak,” she said gently. “Let me help.”
    Bark stumbled to her feet and Valor put a hand on her shoulder. “He’ll be alright,” he said softly.
    Bark glanced at him, then nodded, blinking away her tears of panic. She hadn’t been comforted by Valor before. A warm, bubbly feeling spread through her.
    At their feet, Swift was beginning to cough. Bark was about to lunge at him, but Valor kept his hand on her shoulder to keep her from it. “Don’t,” he said. “You won’t be helping.”
    Bark felt like one of her family’s dogs, straining at a leash. Eventually, Swift managed to sit up.
    He looked around, then his gaze fell on the soaked Thrash beside him. He dropped his eyes to the deck.
“He’s alright,” the woman said, standing. “Keep him warm and he’ll be perfectly fine.”
“Thank you,” Swift murmured. 
    The crew drifted away, back to their stations. Thrash patted Swift on the shoulder, then disappeared into the ship’s cabin. Swift sighed heavily, staring  at his hands. Bark and Valor sat down on either side of him. 
“It happened again,” he said bitterly. 
“You had no control over any of that,” Bark said.
“Right,” Valor said. “You didn’t want to fall overboard, did you?”
“I’m so useless,” Swift drew up his knees, staring off into the distance.
    Bark and Valor glanced at each other over his head. Valor slowly got to his feet, tapping Swift’s shoulder. “It isn’t good for you to stay wet like this. Come on, your bag is in the cabin.”
    Swift stood, clutching his cloak around his shoulders and trailing slowly behind Valor. Bark watched them go, frowning. Poor Swift, she thought. Why do these things keep happening to him all the time?
    Soon, she stood up and retrieved her sword from the deck nearby, replacing it in its sheath. What would happen when they got to Greenhaven? She trusted her abilities and her fellow redcloaks, but if they had to go against all of Greenhaven? Bark shuddered at the thought.