Folke || Folkelore

♥︎ 8 ♥︎

A few days pass by with nothing adventurous happening. The water is calm, no dangerous creatures try to eat us and we don't encounter anything weird. Maybe the rest of this trip will be uneventful.

Apollo calls me to the deck with a slight trembling of fear in his voice. I rush through the steps, tripping on the last one and stumbling over myself in my hurry.

"What?" I pant, my hands planted on my hips as I try to regain my breath. Apollo answers me with a pointed finger.

As if pulled from my thoughts, a giant splash erupts a few boat lengths away from our ship.

"How sure are we that that isn't something harmless like a whale?" I ask.

"Pretty sure. The splash was from less of a tail and more of a tentacle."

Great. I spoke too soon. Now we have to deal with a Hydra Wyrm. One of the hardest things to kill. Ever.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Apollo inquires, looking over at me with eyebrows raised.

"If you're thinking that this thing will probably kill us before we can kill it, then yeah. I'm thinking what you're thinking."

He chuckles, rolling out his neck. "That wasn't what I was thinking but alright. I was thinking we take this thing out old school style."

Old school style? What is he talking about? "Like with our bare hands? How old are we talking?"

He doesn't give me an answer, just walks down the deck to a tight hall. Apollo glances over his shoulder, a smirk tilting his lips.

"Apollo. What are you talking about!"

He sends me a wink over his shoulder, his mouth still sealed. I hate him.

I sigh, charging after him to knock some sense into him. We need to deal with this creature! Soon!

Finally, Apollo stops before a little cupboard. At least I think it's little. He pulls it open and drags a heavy looking hunk of metal out. Shoving it through the opening on the other side of the hall, he places his eye up next to it. He wiggles the metal cylinder around some and looks through the opening again. Satisfied with its placement, he strikes a flint and stone together next to a short string. It catches the flame and after a few moments something blasts out of the other side of the cylinder.

Oh Shamans. He's trying to use a cannon to blast the monster out of the seas.

He moves to light the next fuse, but I place my hand on his arm to stop him.

"Are you sure this is the best—"

He lights it anyways and the cannon explodes, cutting me off mid-sentence. I open my mouth to give him a piece of my mind, but he keeps setting off the cannon.

Squatting down, I take a look out the window. Ripples course through the water, moving straight towards us. He's missed every single time.

"I don't think this is helping," I hiss, as he lights the fuse again.

He scoffs, stepping up beside me. "Course it is! I'm the best of the best," He insists.

Gesturing to the window I fume, "Take a look for yourself, you haven't landed a single shot."

The words are barely out of my mouth when the cannon disappears out of the hole. Apollo and I share an "oh crap" look, and dart away from the opening. Seconds crawl by, and I work up the courage to peek out of my hiding place. Ducking around the wall, my heart pounds in my chest. It looks clear. Glancing towards the opening, something keeps me on edge.

I think to myself, I'm just being paranoid again and again, and slowly turn away from the window.

I call out, "Apollo?" There's no answer.

I take a deep breath and creep around the corner. The uneasy feeling doesn't go away, but gets larger as I turn farther away from the window. I tell myself I need to find Apollo, but something isn't quite right. I slowly turn my head back with dread to the window, and there it is. The Hydra Wyrm.

A scream erupts out of me when the eye is replaced with a giant slimy tentacle, and I run. Twisting and turning through the halls, I try to get as far from the outside of the ship as possible. My body trembles in fear as the ship turns on its side. Oh dear.

The options flip through my head, all of them just as bad as the last. This is probably the worst thing that could happen on this trip. What was Apollo thinking, shooting cannonballs at a Hydra Wyrm?

Speaking of Apollo, he rolls into the small cargo hold panting. "I." Breath. "Think." Another breath. "I know." More breaths. "How to." One more pause for breathing. "Kill it."

I would put my hands on my hips, but I'm currently trying to keep from flying all over the place. "Your last idea is what got us into this mess," I hiss. "What makes you think this is even better?"

He opens and closes his mouth a couple times without answering. "Fair, but this time I have Extier on my side."

"What are you talking about?" I am thoroughly confused.

"Tierians magic is rooted in their eyes, right? So what about Tierian creatures? Theirs would be too! And luckily, the creature we're up against only has one! We just need to take out the eye!"

He's making a good point. "How are we going to get close enough to the Hydra Wyrm to take out its eye?"

"Eh, we'll figure that out as we go. Come on!"

Apollo releases the wall just as the Hydra Wyrm tips the boat again, and he slides straight out into the hall.

"Apollo? Apollo!" Groaning when he doesn't answer, I let go of my hold on the wall and follow him out into the fray. I find him crouched behind some barrels, out in the open air of the ship. How is this any better than inside? We're going to die!

Apollo looks over at me, his golden eyes sparkling. "I'm a little surprised you aren't rushing the beast. Is your courage only for facing dragons?"

"I've fought dragons before! This is entirely new territory!" I whisper-shout with a scowl.

Apollo shakes his head slowly, pressing his lips together I assume to hold back his laughter. In response, I nod awkwardly and wipe my hands on my pants. When did my hands get so sweaty?

"It doesn't matter, we need a plan," I insist, peeking out from behind the barrel. "That thing will kill us without a second thought."

He laughs, giving me his drop dead gorgeous grin. My stomach drops, and I look back at the water with a deep breath. "Calla, throw the plan idea out the window with the cannon. This thing is unpredictable. We just need to go!"

"Not happening," I counter. "There needs to be at least some semblance of a plan."

"Fine, I'll distract, and you go for the eye."

Without waiting for me to answer, he rushes off. I screech with frustration. If he dies...

With bated breath, I creep out from behind the barrels. Apollo is dodging the Hydra Wyrm's tentacle all the while shouting insults at it. I roll my eyes. We're going to die.

Nevertheless, I push out my wings, swoop into the air. I try to keep high in the air, both daggers firmly grasped in my sweaty palms.

I am Princess Calla of the Court of Loam. I've slayed many beasts. Certainly I can slay one more.

Rolling my shoulders, I plummet in front of the Wyrm and stab my knives around its eye, carving it out of the socket. It screeches in horror before falling silent. Slowly, it slides off the ship into the deep sea below. Some creature is going to have a feast tonight.

Apollo somehow rights the ship with an enchantment, and we continue on our course. Somehow, his crazy idea worked. I'll have to listen to him more often.