[ Eryn ]

"You said we would make it through the pass fine!" Eryn shouted over the high pitched scream of the wind. Beneath her feet, the deck bucked like a wild horse in the teeth of the sudden storm.

"Yes," Vee shouted back, "I did!"

Eryn tugged on the rope that held her mainsails steady, feeling the muscles in her arms strain. Ahead of the ship, a shadow loomed in the darkness, with far too many arms to be fair. "This is fine?!" Her outrage was too great for her usual wit.

"Well, I didn't say we wouldn't have problems."

If looks could kill, Vee would be drifting off into the ocean. Again.

"If we survive, I'm going to kill you!"

His wild laughter floated through the air in response. Whatever else he shouted at her was lost as a wave broke over the deck, drenching all the crew in its wake.

Eryn's arms ached as she held fast to her lifeline, and when her eyes cleared, she did a quick count of her crew. No one lost. Yet. She gritted her teeth and turned all her attention to the tasks at hand. Between yelling out orders, tugging things back into place, and being constantly drenched, Eryn exhausted herself.

Despite the ship being firmly in her control during the storm, the looming shadow worried her. Not only did she have no clue what sort of creature it was, but she also had no idea how they might go about killing it.

She glanced over her shoulder to find Vee grinning madly into the pouring rain. Even with all the displeasure she felt toward him right now, Eryn had to admit there was something magnetic about the dark-haired man. Eight months had passed since she'd pulled him from the depths of the ocean with no sign of where he had come from or what had happened to him.

A scream wrenched her out of her thoughts and she drew her swords. Steel hissed as she pulled them free from the single scabbard they shared. Metal sang to her as she launched herself to the left, barely avoiding the dark tentacle that slammed into the deck. She brought one of her blades down into the slimy flesh so hard that she pinned it to the deck. Eryn gave up a prayer of thanks that the tentacle was only about as wide as her thigh, or her short blades might not have gone all the way through.

Purple liquid oozed out of the creature, and a shriek unlike anything she'd heard before filled the air. Eryn smiled even as she shivered. Whatever it was may be new to her but she could make it bleed, so she could kill it.

Vee's voice rose above the wind, speaking a tongue that was foreign to everyone else on the ship. His melodic voice flowed over the deck, lighting everything in a pale rosy gold that matched his eyes.

Eryn brought her other blade down and severed the tentacle with the sharp upper half of her sword. She yanked her first blade from where it was still embedded in the dark wood of her deck and screamed her challenge to the heavens. Sven and the rest of the crew took up her battle cry and the sound of swords being drawn filled the air.

In response, tentacles burst forth from the water, wrapping around the ship and making the wood groan with the weight of them. Wherever the crew was, the purple blood of the creature spilled out over the deck. Eryn ran to the mast, with Sven at her side, and struck down anything that tried to break it.

Back to back, they slashed and stabbed until the deck was slick with blood. Someone screamed, and Eryn shouted. "Stay together!" Something heavy slammed into Eryn from behind and her feet lifted off the deck. Sven called out her name and the world went black for a moment.

She woke when she hit the water, still being dragged down by the beasts tentacle. Down and down, it dragged her with the weight of it. Her chest burned and she released a single sword into the ocean's grip to grab her own nose. Holding what little breath she had left, Eryn blew gently into her cheeks and felt her ears pop.

With her remaining blade, she stabbed into the meaty flesh of the tentacle. As hoped, it spasmed with the pain and Eryn pushed off with the flat of her free hand until she was out from under it. She kicked upward with all her strength.

Slowly, the water around her lightened, and she broke the surface of the water with a greedy gasp to drink in the sweet air. Eryn could hear the faint yelling of her crew behind her, and she turned to get a better look at the ship. What she saw was the head of the beast, easily twice the size of her hull and with teeth as large as a grown man.

More than that, directly under the ship, there glowed a light that seemed magical to her eyes. Silver pulsed between the teeth of the beast, bright in the inky darkness of the water. Eryn took a single moment to make her decision.

Certain death had never been a deterrent, though she did try not to face it too often.

She took a deep breath and kicked forward, careful to adjust her grip on her only remaining weapon. When the water darkened and shifted, Eryn strove forward to avoid the rising tentacle. She kicked off the slimy thing and bumped up against the wood of her ship.

Then she dove.

Without both her hands, she wasn't as quick in the water, but there was no easy way to carry a sword and be able to draw it quickly once the waves had swallowed her. So she held it in her left hand and trusted the strength of her legs. Eryn prayed to the Ocean for protection and dove into the beast's open mouth, doing her best to avoid the huge teeth.

Immediately, the water warmed, and the pulsing silver grew brighter. Eryn swam straight for it, toward the throat of the creature. Around her, small bones and chunks of wood drifted, threatening to obscure her limited vision. She reached out with her right hand and grabbed for the light, feeling her hand close around something strangely cold and smooth. The water filled with a roar as she tugged on it, and she realized whatever it was, it was embedded into the beasts skin.

Eryn struck at the thick flesh with her sword, cutting around it until she sliced through it from behind the object. Her lungs screamed that she needed air. She kicked at the back of the throat, propelling herself toward the teeth, even as the water around her began to drag against her. The beast was swallowing.

Eryn jammed her sword into the purple tongue beneath her and held on for her life as another roar of pain surrounded her. She closed her eyes, and felt the wood that passed her like small punches. The water drained, and the lips opened to let more water in. Eryn gasped, and nearly retched from the awful stench of the creature's breath. She forced herself to breathe deeply and ignore the turning of her stomach.

She placed one foot in front of the other and stabbed her way along the tongue as water swirled around her ankles. Her chest heaved with strain, but she reached the grotesque opening of the mouth and launched herself back into the ocean, narrowly missing the snapping mouth of the beast as it closed once more.

Cold water enveloped her as she swam toward her ship again. It was a comfort to her after the unbearable grossness of the beast's mouth. She broke the surface to the laughter of her insane star-reader and looked down at the treasure she had wrested from the dark creature.

In her hands, surrounded by slimy purple flesh, laid a glowing silver compass. Her fingers tightened around it as she read the inscription laid into the silver metal of the face: Cor unum et alterum anquirit.

Eryn's voice trembled as she spoke the translation to herself. "One heart seeks another."

Thanks again for sticking with me you guys. I love you the mostest. <3

I am starting to think Eryn can't exist without violence. She almost drowned like twice while I was writing this. XD

Why do you think her voice got weird when she read the inscription? Best guess wins a hug!