Beyond the Wall

Chapter 6: Exploration

The Renewal waited the tempest out in the bay. Sails and anchors down, the ship crouched like a frightened animal as the clouds swirled and rumbled overhead. Fortunately, Lord Presagiar's stomach quelled with the storm, leaving him feeling good enough to walk carefully across the deck. He was, in a way, seemly distant to the crew, due to the fact that he was still surprised that he was alive and the ship hadn't flipped upside down in the ocean tempest.

            Barco was completely different. The survival of the voyagers wasn't a surprise to him. It was a victory. And he made sure everyone knew it, including the woman that had argued with him before. The crew laughed along playfully in spite of the storm above them, just happy to be alive.

            The next day, the last few clouds of the storm passed over onto the land and disappeared in the distance. Barco approached Alberto to find his orders.

            At the prospect of adventure and exploring, Lord Presagiar finally seemed to wake up from his fog of mind. "Ready the boarding rowboats! We embark now!"

            With the youthful enthusiasm of a twenty-year old, Alberto was in the very front of the very first rowboat, leaning out to get even closer to the foreign land. When the boat scraped up against the shore and stuck itself in the sand, Alberto hopped right out, grabbed a handful of the gritty stuff and threw it all around. "We are the first of the people of Amurallada to touch this land in four hundred years!"

            "Funny, the sand looks exactly the same as the sand back on the shores of Amurallada," commented Barco, smirking meaningfully at Lord Presagiar. "Not very special, eh?"

            Alberto waved dismissively at Barco. "You just have no sense of adventure!"

            Meanwhile the crew that had been chosen to accompany the ship captain and the Lord onto the foreign lands were dragging the rowboats onto the shore. A few of them waved back to the boat to signal that they were fine. The crew back on the boat waved back. All clear.

            "Well, how about we explore along the shore?" Lord Presagiar suggested, already walking off.

            "Whatever you desire, Milord." Barco motioned for the crew to follow them.

            They moved along the coastline surrounding the small bay that the Renewal was anchored in. It all was the same; sand, rocks, shells, and many pine and oak trees about fifty feet away from the water. The dense trees made a thick shadowy border, looking almost like a wall around the shoreline. No one suggested they dive into the forest.

            Sea birds scattered as they reached the edge of one of the fingers that encased the bay. The sea stretched out endlessly after it, roiling and frothing. Alberto's stomach began to grumble a bit, so he quickly looked away and continued to move down the shoreline. Barco chuckled and followed.

            He ran up to Lord Presagiar's side and smirked. "Having bad memories? Sea-legs sometimes take a long....." He trailed off.

            "What's wrong, Barco?" Alberto looked at his ship captain, who had just stopped walking and talking, staring farther along the shoreline.

            "There's someone down there." He pointed at a figure in the distance, crouching near where the waves broke on the sand. The figure stood up quickly, staring at Lord Presagiar, Barco, and the crew. With the sun not shining on its face, the figure was just a shadow, frustratingly mysterious. Only Barco and Lord Presagiar saw it, the crew too busy looking elsewhere at the moment.