Naviathan

Chapter 1

When you have been playing a game for so long the people in charge always tend to stop trying to entertain you. The people that ended up training me, never tried. They always gave us the same drills, the same schedule, the same food. But they always prided themselves in finding new ways to teach us the many ways to kill a person. Like usual training begins before the sun rises. Nobody else on the ship is awake except for Novea, Sylas and I. As normal, Novea and I are forced to start by hanging on the highest beam on the ship, with no weights attached to our feet. As we hang there Sylas taunts us from below, along with occasionally saying that if we were to cry out he would drag us back to Azazle's ships. And out of all the places I could be I would rather be here on this ship with my shoulders about to pop out than have a conversation with Azazle. Novea never liked talking to the trainers since she turned 14 and decided that giving them a straight answer gives them too much power. She also always said she wanted to make them suffer just as much as she had. Although it never seemed that the trainers were that bothered by it.
A few hours later, Novea and I are still hanging on the mast, and somehow the sun has still not risen. . As the boat rocks back and forth my hands shift slightly over the coarse wood a couple of small splinters slide into my palm and fingers. And although the pinch of the splinter hurts I know not to scream. As the waves grow larger and begin to crash onto the deck, Novea begins to shift her weight on her hands. Although people would normally see this as a sign that she was getting sore from hanging there. I see it as a tell that she is also being plagued by the tiny splinters. Whenever Novea gets hurt she always tries to not use whatever hurts. However whenever I'm injured I always bite through the pain, and use whatever hurts just so that no one else can see my weakness.
As the waves keep climbing and crashing onto the ship the crew begins to emerge. Some climb the mast and walk over our hands, and others scramble below us like tiny ants. When we reach hour 4 I hear Novea's shoulder pop and her arm falls, laying slack beside her. I hear her swear softly besides me as she tries desperately to hold onto the mast with her remaining hand. I try to flex my muscles to keep it from falling out of the socket but it doesn't last long before I hear a loud pop in my ear as pain erupts from my shoulder. I move my weight to the other arm and barely hold onto the beam with my fingers. Slowly a dark mass slowly comes out of the fog, the ship sails closer and closer until I hear the splash of the anchor. A single whistle blows over the crashing of the waves and we fall. We pass beam after beam after beam on our way down to the deck. The waves cover the thud we make as we hit the deck. I grab my dislocated arm and angle it as I begin to run across the deck. Shoving it back into place as I jump over the railing at the front of the ship and dive into the ice cold water. I dive deep into the water, squinting as I look for an Ilanae. I can already see Novea gliding away towards the shore in the corner of my eye as a Ilanae swims towards me from the back of the ship. Its white body somehow shines even though little light reaches down this far on a rainy day. I swim above it, hovering just barely as I loop my arms around its blubbery body and hold on to the fin just underneath its head. Even though I don't have a good hold on the fin, the Ilanae begins to swim before I've given her the signal to do so. Quickly I do so and she speeds towards the shore dragging me behind her. It doesn't take long before we reach the sand bank and she promptly drops me off, already deciding that I'm not a great use of her time, and swims away. I try to bob for air before I begin to swim but the waves push my head below the water and breathing becomes a futile cause. Quickly I begin swimming towards the shore letting the waves carry me closer and closer until my hands can't paddle all the way because they keep hitting the sand. Stepping onto the shore, Novea is already waiting for me.
"Took you long enough" she sighs
"Just because you found an Ilanae first doesn't mean you are faster, you had a head start, it wasn't a fair race."
"Right... maybe if you had stopped swimming before you were already on the beach you would have been faster. You have been told to run onto the beach on the final leg of getting onto the island."
" True, but I don't like running in water, it makes me feel weak against the waves, and I feel slower."
"How can you feel slower when you're already so slow." She chuckles
"Har Har" I laugh mockingly. At that we both look down the shore towards the trees that create a break in the cliffs. Although we don't say anything to each other we both know what the trees mean. We begin to run across the wet sand, we run in unison as the waves chase us across the beach until tall grasses tickle the tips of our fingers and we climb into the forest.
Eventually we come out on top of a little cliff overlooking a small town surrounded by a large military outpost. The highest part of the outpost is a tall tower that sits just in front of us blocking most of the village from our view. There is a small window about 15 feet away from us near the top of the tall tower. Novea begins to look for a vine that can bear our weight, but I decide not to waste my time on a task that will not help the task at hand. I walk back away from the cliff's edge as far as I can, and begin my attack. My feet beat the ground violently, pushing me forward. Once upon a time someone told me that I run like I'm angry at the ground. And that must be true, especially at this moment, because if the ground doesn't do its job then I will fall to my death. And then Novea would fuss at me for getting angry at something like the ground. I launch myself into the air, I feel weightless as I soar past 5 feet, 10 feet, and finally 15 feet. I guess I didn't calculate the size of the window, and it's relation to my landing. As I hurtle towards that my body flips, making my feet the first thing that makes contact with the thin glass. And that's all it take before I then continue to hurdle through the window and against the wall on the other side of it. Although pain shoots through my arm I get up and signal to Novea through the window before I climb the stairs to the room at the top of the tower. To maintain some dignity I would say that the soldier ran into me, but it felt more like I ran into him when he fell back up the stairs somehow. He doesn't get the opportunity to realize what has happened before there is a small dagger embedded into his neck.
I step unceremoniously over his bleeding corpse as I climb the final stairs to the wooden door. It's locked, but I quickly pick the lock with two long pins and push it open, slamming it against the door inside. That's when the wave hits me, it's not unfiltered power that you can feel around someone who just fought across the battlefield. It's the kind that hums in the back of your mind, until you become accustomed to it. And then it strikes out of nowhere, when you least expect it. I stalk across the room to the first thing I see, a thin black dagger with dark jems included in the hilt. As I lift it from its velvet cushion the power intensifies. Pulsing through my blood like adrenaline. My head feels heavy as I close my eyes and drink it in. My eyes snap open when I hear someone climb the stairs, and instead of finding Novea, a beast of a man take up the entire door as he walks in.