Black Hearted

Part 20

Mark reloaded his flintlock pistol and raced up the steps to the helm, yelling out to the rest of the crew in a calm commanding voice. "TO YOUR POSTS! Man the sails and keep her going!" Climbing up the steps, he saw a bird woman swooping in to attack Bob and Sean from behind. Raising his pistol, he pulled the trigger. She took the bullet to the chest and tumbled across the deck into the rail beside Bob. Bob jumped in surprise, then noticed him walking over to him. Mark began to reload his pistol again, ordering Bob loudly. "Find us a way out of here, Bob!" Bob nodded, spinning the helm to straighten it back out and yelling out to Wade. "WADE! I need your eyes!" Wade dashed to a rope by the mast, kicking a level and holding onto the rope tightly as it yanked him up toward the crows nest in a manner of seconds. Once Mark finished reloading, a man on the lower deck cried out in a panic. "CAPTAIN! STARBOARD!" Mark quickly moved to the starboard side to see what looked like massive shark teeth start to breech the surface of the water around the whirlpool. 

The massive shark like teeth encircled the entire whirlpool in row after row, all the way down into a watery abyss. Every tooth razor sharp and about the size of the ship! Mark had never seen anything like it. The current grew stronger as the thing seemed to be sucking in water between its teeth and into its whirlpool of a gut. Mark rushed back to the rail, yelling out loudly. "Load starboard cannons! Aim for the teeth! NOW!" Mark watched the men slip and scramble across the wet deck to load the cannons. Sean came up beside him again, panting out breathlessly in a panic. "Mark, listen to me! You can't kill them! You'll only make them mad! We have to get out of here!" Mark shot a glare at Sean, snapping out. "What do you think I'm trying to do?! Set up camp! I'm going to use the cannons to break us from that creatures current, before it drags us back in!" Ken turned to face him, calling out loudly. "Starboard cannons ready, Captain!"

Mark raised his hand to give the order, but Sean grabbed his arm, shouting out desperately. "DON'T HURT HER!" Mark flung Sean to the ground, growling out. "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!" Sean stared up at him with terrified eyes, pleading out in a rush. "You'll provoke her sister if you shoot her!" Mark stepped in to smack some sense into Sean, but just as he raised his hand to back hand him... the ships bow dipped violently and crashed broadside into a large rock! Mark fell to his knees as the crew screamed in horror. Next to him, Sean sat up staring at the rock they hit with wide eyes. Mark climbed to his feet, shouting out angrily. "WADE!" Bob's hands shook on the helm, telling Mark with a pale shaken expression. "Captain, it just fell into the water!" Mark straightened up to look at it better, then swallowed in horror himself. It wasn't a rock. It was a massive limb of thick brown colored scales. As he watched, it slid back out of the water to reveal a massive set of two round yellow eyes on the side of its slim snake like head.

As the head rose higher into the air, Mark saw the creature's rows of snake like fangs pierced into the body of a large black and white sea animal. The animal cried out like a distressed whale as the thing tilted its head to swallow the animal whole! Sean climbed to his feet, telling Mark in a distressed voice of his own. "Scylla." Mark followed the long neck up to a cave high up on the cliffside, where six more heads were peeking their way out to look down at them. Each head had four massive eyes and rows of fang like teeth that they showed off as they slithered down the wall toward the ship! Mark turned to Sean, desperately ordering him. "Do something! Stop her!" Sean raised his hands perplexed, shouting back. "DO WHAT EXACTLY?! She's beyond MY power! She's practically a god!" Scylla's four heads plunged into the water around the ship, battering the ship between the necks as the waves rolled violently around them. The other two heads dived straight into the wooden deck, splintering it right down to the lower deck! All around, the men screamed and tried to take cover.

The heads pulled back, swallowing two men they found. Mark leaned over the rail to see if the ship was sinking, but it wasn't. The heads had only broken through to the first deck. As the other heads rose from the water, they noticed the ship and struck out at the ship like aggressive snakes. They started to snatch a few men off the ship that tried to run for better cover. One running too close to the main mast and causing the head to slam into it, busting it in half. Wade jumped from the crows nest to snatch a rope as the main mast went down across the deck, crushing two men and leaving the ship dead in the water! Frustrated, Mark ran to get his rifle and shouted out to the men. "TO ARMS! SHOOT FOR THE EYES!" Ken turned a port side cannon up in time to fire into the face of an incoming head, causing it to let out a horrible screech as it pulled away in pain. Its blood rained down from the sky as it thrashed above them. That was all the crew needed to rally themselves into joining in.