The Archman

Chapter 2 - A Midnight Visitor

After many hours of busy activity, the ship and all the people on board have been made combat-ready. The scarce amount of muskets, gunpowder, and cannonballs makes it thoroughly unprepared for war. It ought to be sufficient for a small engagement such as this, or so Normond kept desperately reminding himself.

The evening sun begins to set in the horizon, bathing the clouds nearby in a wash of orange and red. It is difficult to appreciate the natural beauty, given the latent danger hanging in the air.

Eira resides in the cabin, chips of wood still scattered about the floor as she sits at the large table. Her body has managed to calm itself down quite a bit over the last few hours, but there is still a dreadful anticipation in the space which weighs heavily on everyone's psyche.

Eira turns to look out the window of the cabin, which has been split all over from the shock of the harpoons piercing through the nearby wall. She gazes upon the final few seconds of the sunset, before the orange glow disappears completely from the horizon.

Soon, the only source of light comes from the waxing moon, standing out prominently in the starless sky. A creeping silence takes over as the already tense atmosphere grows denser with anxiety.

The large ship's black sails kept it shrouded in darkness, making it even more difficult to comprehend.

Suddenly the sound of clanking metal resumes, coming from the clouded shadows of the large ship. Everyone can feel the ground beneath them lurch as their ship starts being pulled backwards through the water, towards the larger ship. The chains attached to the harpoons are pulled taut as their ship is dragged backwards, closing the distance between their vessel and the massive one behind them.

It was like an immense predator had sunk its fangs into the body of its hapless prey, preparing to tear it limb from limb.

The large ship seems to only grow in size as Normond's ship drew closer and closer. The deck of the large ship stood several feet higher than their own, and a full meter wider on both sides.

Normond and the crew all crane their necks upwards, trying to see onto the deck of the large ship, but it only grows harder by the second. They can do nothing but stare in awe as they draw closer to the behemoth of a vessel before them.

"At the ready!" Normond shouts out to the crew.

All the naval officers carrying muskets scramble to the upper deck, organizing themselves swiftly into two rows of twelve, preparing their firearms in the process. In training and application, this process takes little more than ten seconds, but under these circumstances it takes nearly three times as long, as everyone's hands were shaking uncontrollably. They are all permeated with a sense of terror, sharing the same frightful speculation of what they might be up against.

Meanwhile, Eira stands in the cabin, hearing the chaotic rush of footsteps outside and the lurch of the ship beneath her feet. She is desperate to know what is happening, looking around with a frenetic combination of anxiety and curiosity. She walks over to the cabin doors, listening through the thin wooden panels.

The deluge of stampeding footsteps and metallic clanking has been brought to a silence, which only drives her curiosity further. She opens up the door and looks around, before stepping out onto the main deck. The space is completely empty, with the majority of the crew relocated to the upper deck. She walks over to the staircase which leads to the upper deck, trying to get a better look at the large ship, which is now almost completely on top of them.

The bowspit of the large ship hangs over the upper deck ominously, like the finger of some monolithic being about to squash them like insects.

Everyone collectively holds their breath as a single silhouetted figure steps up onto the bowspit, walking across the thin beam with perfect balance. Everyone's eyes lift up to the dark figure, no one daring to blink even once. The figure clearly has a human anatomy, though that did little to ease anyone's anxiety.