The Queen of Golden Flame

23. Christian

Their landing was anything but gentle, though Christian kept the thought to himself.

He couldn't say that he was in the best mood after being awakened from what quite possibly had been the heaviest sleep he'd experienced in ages, pressed up against the opposite wall of his bedroom while Ilya tried to keep his cot from crushing the both of them. Thankfully, they had been lucky and had turned again, but the next thing he knew the boat screeched and lurched forward, propelling the two men into the door.

Christian had grabbed whatever had felt appropriate in his slowed state, shoving just about anything he could find into his toppled bag before Ilya was yelling at him to come along. He had no choice but to follow.

The crew climbed down a tattered rope ladder one by one and huddled together without an ounce of humility. Regardless of the fact that he could not feel the cold, Christian was too wet and miserable to be uncomfortable with the way Ilya's backside pressed a little too close to his stomach.

Atlas lowered the anchor, shimmied down the ladder, and surveyed the damage with hands on his hips. The front of the boat had wedged itself into a large formation of sharp rocks, and the back of the ship still partially submerged in the lapping waves, but thankfully after a long examination from the Captain, he walked away from Diamond with good news of no major damages.

"We were lucky," he stated with unnatural enthusiasm given the circumstances, "She coulda been really broke, and we'd be stuck."

"Oh joy," Christian called over the storm, "What a great mental image to keep with us on our detour! Getting stuck!"

"Shut up Christian, not like he was trying to get us killed," Ilya supplied, his voice unsteady with the intensity of his body's tremors.

"Don't look at me, darling, I was just trying to lighten the mood." They began to shuffle along slowly, hands held at their browline to block the heinous downpour from their eyes, only the lantern swinging from Atlas's pack to guide their way. He added, "I'm just thrilled to be on solid ground."

"Wh-Why can't w-we stay on the ship," Ember asked. She had her arms wrapped tightly around her little frame, dark hair sticking to her face and lips tinged blue. Ilya tried to pull her close, but the attempt was practically useless and only made them come away colder.

"'Cause even anchored, Diamond can get swept back in," Atlas supplied.

Oli's head shot up suddenly, eyes widened comedically, "You mean you- you're okay with leaving your ship?"

Atlas's shoulders heaved with a great sigh, or maybe it was just a cold shiver. It had been too long since Christian had experienced one of those, but he supposed he couldn't complain now. "Not okay, but 'ts just what we have to do. Rather save my crew than my ship."

"Awww, how sweet," Ilya cooed and Atlas shoved him goodnaturedly.

"There's a mountain up ahead, I can see it," Atlas explained, a trembling finger pointed towards a dark mass in the distance, "And where there's mountains there's caves."

"I do-n't even care where, I just need to get o-out of the cold," Ember said, "Any-way we can get there faster?"

No one had a solution, and so they walked on.
Since the rain was less of a hindrance and more of an annoyance to Christian, he decided to take the time to try and survey the land. Considering he'd never see Deadman's Land again, he thought, might as well see what he was missing.

But he soon realized that there was nothing really to see. No grass grew beneath his feet, nothing but a muddy wasteland for miles. There were hardly any trees, and if there were they bore no leaves. Crops of boulders lay discarded around, as if left there long ago to be forgotten, the few mountains nothing but a crooked wasteland in the distance. Even when he looked skyward, there was not even a stray star between the canopy of heavy clouds to twinkle at them.