Tales of Cubonia

The Golden Hourglass 17 - The Green Sea

The trip southward from Old Andora had gone much more easily than either Broderick or Alexandra had expected it to. When you're hundreds of feet in the sky on the back of a gryffon, the only thing you have to worry about is weather, wind, and the occasional bird that happens to have the biology to survive that far up in the sky. Still, there were many, many leagues between Old Andora and Laketown, and even more still between Laketown and the Witch's fortress in the Wastes of Time.

After their run-in with the Brothers of the Little Bridge, Broderick was prepared for more issues any time they touched down for food or rest. When Adhemar touched down outside The Jigging Marmot pub in the Elazian countryside, he was on alert for bandits or, worse, travelling merchants, but the worst that happened there was a mild case of indigestion from the innkeep's marmot stew. Further still, both Alexandra and Broderick expected some sort of encounter when they made camp for the night in a copse of trees in the shade of the Pak-Pak Mountains, but there was nary a hoot from even a single owl.

Since things were going so swimmingly, Broderick decided to take advantage of the downtime and begin training Alexandra on the finer details of hand-to-hand combat and the weak points of many of the more common creatures that one might run into when in the business of monster hunting. The princess was rather skilled with a bow, but her fighting skills left room for significant improvement. They trained hours every night before one of them turned in and the other stood first watch. At first, Alexandra had gone to bed bruised and sore, waking up stiff and tender the next day. She was a very quick learner, and before long, the young princess was able to give nearly as good as she got, but the bruises were still plentiful.

Through the whole trip, Broderick could not help but notice that Princess Alexandra never removed the necklace from around her youthful neck. At first, he thought nothing of it. He was sure she was still worried about him stealing it and leaving her alone, so she wanted to keep it close, keep it safe. But as time passed, he began to suspect there was something more he didn't quite understand. He caught her mindlessly stroking the massive gem more and more often, as if it was a nervous tick. As the days passed, Alexandra seemed to be, almost imperceptibly, aging. It was hard to notice, but the more he studied her face, the more obvious it became. One day her skin was smooth and milky, the next there was a new wrinkle around the eyes or at the corner of her mouth.

Broderick said nothing. He knew not what to say. He knew it had something to do with the necklace, but what, he wasn't sure. The only thing he was sure of, was that it would soon be in the hands of the Witch of the Wastes. A better place for it, he could not imagine. He would keep training the princess as per her request and finish the job. That was all he could do. Well, that and hope for the best.

When they set off on their last leg of the journey to Laketown, neither Broderick of Alexandra had expected anything to go wrong. It was that kind of false sense of security that a really good adventure was skilled at providing just before things took a drastically dangerous and rather entertaining turn for the worse. They climbed aboard Adhemar's back much to the gryffon's bumbling and grumbling, and took to the sky just a league from the shores of the Green Sea.

The Green Sea was not a sea in the traditional sense. It was nothing more than a vast plain that stretched for leagues in any direction, but the plain that made up the Green Sea was unique from other plains that may exist throughout Cubonia. At first glance, the wavegrass that stretched on and on would appear only knee deep. However, the grasses of the Green Sea belied an immeasurable depth. None who lived had ever delved to the depths of the Green Sea and lived to tell the tale. Travelling across the Green Sea was incredibly dangerous unless aboard the ship of a highly skilled captain or on the deck of an airship high above, safely out of reach of the great grass waves that could capsize a ship should it find itself unprepared in the middle of one of the squalls that ravaged the Green Sea.

When Adhemar had climbed to a safe cruising altitude, Broderick spied a bank of storm clouds on the horizon that promised a raging tempest. Below the clouds, the wavegrass rippled uneasily.

"Should we turn back and wait for the storm to pass?" Adhemar shouted back over the roaring of the wind.

Broderick looked back at Alexandra and noticed a new wrinkle that creased her forehead.

"No," he shouted back at Adhemar. "I want this done. We have to press on."

"Going through the clouds would be suicide," Alexandra put in. "We could go around."

Broderick shook his head. "That could take days. The storm is massive."

"Well we can't go over it," Adhemar explained. "I can breathe up there, but you two wouldn't last long."

"You're right," agreed Broderick. "That just leaves us with one choice. We go through the storm."

"Ah, damn it," said Adhemar glumly. He spread his wings, tucked in his body, and the three of them darted away in the direction of the storm.

It wasn't long before the rain began. It was slow at first, but came down in torrents in the blink of an eye. The rain beaded on Adhemar's feathers and exploded into the air with every flap of this massive wings. It took only moments before Broderick and Alexandra were completely soaked through with bone chilling water. Below them, the wavegrass was thrashing about wildly. Massive swells were rising up and crashing down on each other, the highest of which grazed the pads of Adhemar's back paws. He tried to gain altitude, but a gust of wind forced them down closer to the undulating surface of wavegrass.

"We have to climb, Adhemar," Broderick shouted. "These waves are getting bigger."

Alexandra's arms were wrapped around his waist, and he could feel them tighten at the sight of a new wave, bigger than the rest, building up in front of them. Adhemar threw his wings out and banked hard to the right, his front talons skimming along the inside of the enormous wave looming over them. Broderick could hear it crashing down behind them, gaining every second.

"Do something," he shouted at the gryffon.

"Hold on tight," Adhemar shouted back. Broderick immediately flattened himself against Adhemar's back and Alexandra followed suit, squeezing him even harder. There was a sickening lurch of gravity as Adhemar corkscrewed to the right and a shower of wet wavegrass washed over them. Another lurch of gravity and the three travelers shot into the sky upside down and out of reach of the churning sea below. When Adhemar finally righted himself, Alexandra lost the modest breakfast she'd eaten only a few hours prior.

"The clouds are fading," reported Adhemar.

Broderick could feel the wind lessening, the rain letting up. Up ahead, the sun was beginning to break through the cloud cover. Below them, the wavegrass was beginning to turn from raging swells to rolling waves to calm seas again. Broderick began to think they had gotten through the worst of it until he caught the glint of something just below the surface of wavegrass. It took him no more than a moment to process what was about to happen.

"Archers!" he called out a mere second before the first volley erupted from below.

To the credit of Broderick and Adhemar's years of travelling together, the gryffon reacted almost instantly. The air just inches from the party rippled with the slip stream of arrows. Adhemar banked sharply left and right in an attempt to dodge the hail of arrows tearing through the now calm skies, but it wasn't enough. There were far too many arrows for a gryffon on his size to dodge forever. Three arrows punctured the gryffon's left wing. He screeched and time stood still for the briefest of moments before the three of them plunged toward the surface. As gravity betrayed the stalwart companions, the three of them slowly separated before the Green Sea swallowed them up.

The last thing Alexandra felt before she lost consciousness was three bony fingers wrapping around her ankle and yanking her downward into the darkness below.