| Fred ate his stew in silence. The pirate ship, (Fred still wondered
at why the pirates had christened it Katie's Smile) sailed on toward
the west. And as he ate, his thoughts were filled with questions. And one
question stood out from all the others. What awaited them all when they
finally reached land? There was so much they did not know.
It was still difficult for him to accept how far away from home he really was. Moreau's Island was deep in the southern waters of the Tarel Ocean. The Kingdom's shores were washed by the northern waves of the Aryn Ocean. And in between was a world of trouble: warring nations, plotting factions, iron-handed despots, head hunters, cannibals, pirate lords, and wild amazons. 'Ofcourse,' Fred thought, 'they might all be dead by now...' Alicia caught his eye; she was smiling at him. Her stomach was finally settling down. But she was a survivor, Fred thought. The loss of her island home, an uncertain voyage through troubled waters, a big, black question mark waiting for them at the end; she would face all this and more with courage and strength. But what of the others? The pirate ship, lashed about with rafts and trailing barges of food and supplies, was a shipwreck waiting to happen. And everywhere was the Pack, below deck and above and on the rafts at its sides. He shook his head; what was he leading these people into? So many of them; men, women and their children. The survivors of three hundred years of Animal/Man experimentation. And all he wanted was out of the Pack. All he wanted was to become human again. But what did the Pack want? They had left the island in a mad rush, taking with them what they could carry and leaving behind what they could not. Their thoughts had been focused on one simple need: escape. Nothing else mattered. For the first time in their lives, no dragon flew unseen over their homes. But it was not the hope of freedom that spurred them on but rather the fear of their own destruction. With that danger left behind them, what would the Pack need now? Whatever happened, Fred swore he would not abandon them without giving them a new start. And if humanity was now extinct, that would be far easier than any of them would ever have believed. But that was what Fred needed to discover. Had the plague just begun, was there time to stop it, or was it all over? Either way, once the Pack had found a new home, he would need to go back to his. He needed to return to the Kingdom, walk once more in the halls of his family's house, and speak with his father of justice and honor. And disgrace. And then he would begin the hunt for Minestus one last time. Go Back
|
