The Stone of Salazara (Book 1 of Saga of the Stones)

Chapter 7

 "Oh, come on!" exclaimed Matt.

The box was empty, aside from a fine layer of dust on the satin bottom. A small note at the bottom read; Stone of Salazara, but the stone was gone.

"All that, and it's not even here!" Matt continued.

Levilan said something in Elvish, and I guessed it was something along the lines of what Matt had said.

"No!" yelled Jem. A painting of the last captain of the ship shook on the wall, but she didn't notice. Levilan, Matt, and I stepped back.

"Jem, if you're gonna light up, don't do it here," Matt said. I wondered what he meant by 'light up', but my question was answered a moment later.

"I did not get chased by a crazy man, get captured by elves, get seasick, get almost killed by invisible cats and stupid skeletons to find NOTHING!" She yelled, even louder this time. Suddenly, her red hair burst into flames.

Almost immediately, the wood above her caught fire. Matt grabbed her arm and ran out the door, yelling to Levilan and I; "Get out! NOW!"

We obliged.

As we ran out the entrance onto dry partly-invisible land, the boat collapsed behind us.

Jem's hair had stopped burning, but a few sparks were still flying up. "Oops."

"Oh bother," muttered Matt.

"That was..... interesting," said Levilan.

"Sorry," Jem, said. "Whenever I get really mad at something, my hair catches on fire."

I realized I was still holding the chest. I tucked it under my arm. "We should go," I said. "We might as well get back to land and start asking people if they knew who the last people to sail to this ship were."

Over the next few days, the sea became more rough, with waves like small rolling hills. Soon, we couldn't just relax on deck. It was either help the crew or stay below deck. Since the living quarters were stuffy and uncomfortable, we chose to help the crew.

It was becoming stormiest when an elf, barely visible from the deck, called from the crows nest; "Land ho! I think! I can't tell. Um, it just moved!"

I ran over to the railing of the boat and looked for what the elf had seen. My hair was in my face and I could hardly see through the mist, but I finally made out the dark blob. I blinked. I could've sworn it had moved. I blinked again. This time it was gone.

Something grabbed the boat from underneath, and we were lifted up into the air. I turned around, just as a huge tentacle wrapped around the ship. I dove to the side, unsheathing my knife as I did. I stabbed it at the tentacle, then dragged it down. I made a decent sized cut on it, but it wasn't very useful.

"Siv! Over here!" Matt shouted. I turned, and he tossed me a sword. I caught it, nodded my thanks, unsheathed it, then went back at the tentacle.

This time, I severed of the top completely. The tentacle recoiled, leaving a bit of it leaking green goo behind. I ran to the next tentacle. Then I heard a scream.

"Matt!"

I spun around. I could now see the monster clearly. It was a giant octopus-like creature, with three big yellow eyes on its face. She had her bow out and was shooting at the tentacles of the monster, one of which was holding Matt. He was wrestling to get out of the monster's grip, looking down at Jem with a look of fear.

I ran beside her and shouted at the thing, trying to get it to grab at me. Sadly, it ignored me. Levilan and some of his elf friends ran up beside us and started shooting too. One of the arrows hit the thing in its middle eye.

It made a noise like a cow, goat, and donkey all dying at once (which is, as you can imagine, not a pleasant sound), and plunged into the water. The ship fell from where the monster had been holding it in the air, and we hit the water with a splash.

Jem ran to the edge, and started taking off her cloak. Realizing what she was doing, I grabbed her. "No!"

"But I have to get him!" she said, struggling against me. I held on.

"Jem, it's a suicide mission," Levilan said, coming up behind us. "Look, I'm..... I'm sorry this happened.

A startled gasp arose from the crew. Their prince, who was notorious for being rude to mortals and lower beings, had just apologized to a human?
Levilan rolled his eyes and turned to the other elves. "Yes! I apologized! I'm friends with these mortals, and I'm going to keep it that way, whether my father likes it or not!"

The elves looked away, feeling embarrassed, and shuffled off to get the ship going again.

Levilan turned back to Jem and I just as she said; "We have to go after him! We have to find him!"

"Jem, I promise we'll try," Levilan said.

"We can't promise he'll be alive though," I added. "That was possibly one of Massadonic's creatures. Who knows if he'd keep Matt alive or not."

Jem looked heartbroken. I realized that as soon as the octopus monster had disappeared, the water had calmed. The storm must have been caused by the thing, which meant it had been following us for days.

The sky was growing dark, and I led Jem down to our room, where a bunk bed was set up. I helped her get into her nightgown, then settle down in the top bunk. I sat up there with her till she cried herself to sleep, then carefully climbed down and got myself ready for bed. I yawned, and pulled the covers up to my chin.

The second person that I had become best friends with in my life was gone, possibly dead. It hit me like a ton of bricks to the stomach.

Then I started crying.