New Dawn

The sea

"Now you look here you scaly bastard! I won that game and you owed me 100 delnar" Ailen shouted
The lizard laughed back
"Ya, sure I'll give you your hundred as soon as you. You show me the cards you have been hiding in your sleeve you old bastard,"
Ailen sighed. He knew that Ra'hatak wasn't going to budge, and he also knew that if he did find the extra cards up his sleeve he would give him a nice beating. He turned away from the table and looked up to the sky. The group had been sailing for a while now. He could hear the waves crashing along side the vessel. It was a beautiful boat. Not large like some of the merchant ships that he had smuggled on before, but enough for a nobelman and his compatriots to have a party on. He and Ra'hatak were seated at a small table in the middle of the vessel. The bow had a small tented section with a few barrels. Probably of goods that Ra'hatak had acquired from the north. The stern had a nice cabin where the young ones were sleeping under the watchful eye of Cora.
"Ok old friend where did ya get her?" He asked
The lizardman looked down.
"It was Folia's" He sighed
Ailen knew of Folia. One of the best mercs in the Empire. Crossed paths with her on more than one occasion. Though she seemed to disappear after a while. Ra'hatak seemed to know her rather well and typically always spoke fondly of the woman. Ailen wasn't sure if this meant that they were more than friends, but seeing his friend like this started to confirm his suspicions.
"You mean you stole it?" He asked
Ra'hatak looked at him in the eye and chuckled. The spoke slowly
"Ah you old bastard. After doing a couple of heists together we were - well together. She and I were pulling a job up here when those shink things jumped us and we got separated. I searched for her but I couldn't find her. We agreed to meet at the port and sail away to a safe place. Waited for a while and then you showed up asking for a rid,"
Ailen reached out and tried to reassure his friend.
"Knowing her she'll turn up agin right? After all the best merc in the world isn't gonna be taken down by a couple of demons"
The lizard seemed to appreciate that.
In that moment the wind began to die down. The sky began to grow into a dark gray color. The comfortable waves that were splashing against the ship had stopped. Ailen peered over the side of the ship and saw that the water had changed to an almost glass like surface. Ra'hatak put a finger to his mouth, and immediately Ailen knew what was happening. Every seaman's worst nightmare. Mermaids. Both men reached for their weapons trying to be as quite as possible. Even the slightest creak from the wood below them may put them in unprecedented peril.

Cora began to stir after she familiar movement of the ocean had stopped. She peered out a porthole and saw the water had become a glass like surface. A fog seemed to surround the vessel. She wrapped her sister in the blanket and grabbed her spear. She went to the cabin door and pulled it open
"Whats going on?" She yelled
She immediately saw the look of distress and shock of Ailen and the lizardman.
Ailen tightly gripped his knife. The sound started from the port side of the ship. At first it was as if someone had been crying, then screaming, then more of a wail. Every passing moment the sound got louder and louder, until it was an ear piercing noise. Ailen and Cora fell to the ground in pain. Ra'hatak had already passed out from the noise. Ailen couldn't get his thoughts straight to come up with a plan. This was it. It was well document that mermaids killed sailors like this. The screams would render the crew useless, then systematically they would break into the hull of the ship, sinking it. Then as the sailors came into the water they would be devoured by the deceptive beauties. It then hit Ailen. His emergency light magic scroll! He kept it with him for exactly moments like these! The magic was intended blind his enemies just for a moment so he could make a quick get away. Here he was hoping that using the mermaids natural weakness to light he might be able to move enough to do something. He knew that is would hurt to remove his hands from his ears but he had no choice. The moment he moved his hand from his ears everything went dead silent. The wailing had stopped. Ailen knew what was coming. The hull was breached! He scrambled to grab the scroll he had spent a fortune to get. Cora was still in a daze, and Ra'hatak was of no help either. The silence was still deafening. He slowly unraveled the scroll and began to say the incantation.
The moment he finished Ailen's world seemed to be swallowed in a flash of light. Ailen grabbed a flint from his pouch and struck it. The was a a small frayed rope he would try and light
Nothing. He new that if he wanted even a small chance of surviving he needed to get a flame.
He struck the flint again. Chink! Again nothing. In that moment he could tell the mermaids were begging to recover. This couldn't be the end!
"FOR SHINK'S SAKE WORK" He bellowed as he struck it with such force that his flint broke, but not before a flame came to life on the frayed end of the rope.
He grabbed the rope and started swinging it around himself like a madman.
Cora still dazed from the flash could barely understand what was happening but she could here Ailen screaming.
"LEAVE YOU WRETCHED MONSTERS! FEAR THE FIRE"
She could see a bright orange coming from the direction of his voice. As her eyes adjusted she sa what she could only assume to be Ailen commanding flames! No that wasn't it. He was flinging a fire around!