Herera - Stories of The Purple Pearl

13. The Leafstorm

I'd only seen it once from a very long distance. I had been so impressed by it, that I'd decided to name my pet fruit bat after it. But whatever I had once seen from a safe and comforting distance, it did no justice to the real thing.

The Kraken was often pictured as a large octopus, with tentacles big enough to take eight ships down at once. In some way, it was like that, but it was not. It was bigger, stronger and more majestic than any picture could ever portray.

Its dark green tentacles appeared and disappeared at a velocity no other could equal. They curled around their prey, taking it down within seconds. One tentacle around the romp of the rental ship and it had squeezed it to bits.

Then it dragged the two separate halves under the water surface and as the darkness of the sea's depth was showing, I realized that the beast had eaten the whole thing.

But it didn't seem to be satisfied yet.

Even though the Kraken would normally not hurt The Purple Pearl – for it was still a living thing sharing the might of the ocean with all sea beasts – the chaos that had called it here, had probably disillusioned it enough to not distinguish right from wrong.

It was going for everyone, eating everyone, and it was not backing down for us. I cursed my actions again and had given up on praying to the gods, as if they would want a pirate in their Afterlife that had fucked up everything as much as I had.

But my crew would not die today.

No words, no sound, just one look at Lemington set in motion our next action. We called it 'our last resort'. I only needed to be sure that Lemington was up for it. But even our distance could not dim his bright green eyes glistening, already channeling his power.

I grimaced, I loved this part.

Soft, green leaves started floating around me. Soon, more were fluttering around and a strong gust was rising. I felt the little hairs that never stayed into my braid, tickle my face, and the sails that were not yet damaged by our canons or the Kraken started waving in all directions.

The Leafstorm of The Purple Pearl let loose all its leaves, but they remained in a luminous green, glittering and glistening in the light of dawn.

Lemington stood amidst the storm that was coursing from The Pearl through the waters, over the Kraken and Hachi's ship. His eyes lighting up in an even clearer green than I'd ever seen, his hands waving around in majestic, magic movements. His white beard and loose clothes were flying in all directions as he was creating an actual leafstorm.

I could barely keep my eyes open with the leaves, sand and wind that scattered into my face, but I saw little glimpses of what was happening around me.

The leaves were surrounding the Kraken, hopefully hurting it enough to fend it off, but not too much to cause it permanent damage.

Kailynn had gotten up again and was getting Yui away. The time traveler had joined Elias in the fighting, and Idir was getting closer to me, using Hachi's half surprised state to attack them from behind.

The druid woman cut him off and as I was dueling with Hachi on my own again, I saw Idir fighting for his life, but also nervously looking around. Looking for his wife that had seemed to be handling herself against the druid only a minute ago. But now that woman was standing here and where was Catharina?

Before the druid woman could make another strike, a lioness crunched at her throat and pushed her overboard. Right before they fell into the water, they both – the lioness and the druid– changed into two eagles, taking to the skies. Catharina and the other druid were shapeshifting into animals as they were fighting in, on and under the water. A swan versus a seagull, a crocodile against a sea turtle. I saw them changing into a shark and a swordfish as they dove into the water again.