"What is this?" Jericho asked as he examined the weapon in his hands. It had a long wooden handle with a wicked, white spike on one end and what looked like the rock hard chitin of some huge crustacean's claw on the other.

"Jensai." Marika examined her own weapon, it looked much more intricate, with carvings along its handle and extraordinary jewels encrusted into it. "Stronges war tool, gotta Devi'shark burner." She pointed at the white spike then clacked her teeth together as if she were biting something. "Riftie-crab crusher." She moved her finger to the chitin.

"And I'm supposed to . . . what? I don't know how to use this thing!"

"Cap'n be sayin' Jericho gets arms. I be doin' his doin's." Marika turned out toward the ocean, they could see the spraying v's of water in the wake of the riftmen. It was impossible to tell how many of them there were, but Marika and Jericho were two of about two dozen men and women who stood between the islanders and their attackers. Half of the protectors took their lead from Marika and carried Weapons like Jericho's Jensai. The others grouped with Delgen, though frightenigly unarmed, and Cap'n stood in front with the water tickling his heels.

Jericho could see the rift rats daring each other to lunge for Cap'n's feet, but he appeared to be just out of reach. All the action made the shallow water behind him look as if it were boiling.

"Riftie-men be announcin' dey comin." Cap'n called with his back to the sea. "Thinkin' dey showey show be makin' scaredies o' us! I and I --" He nearly punched his forehead and his gut as he said it. "Knowin' iz-landahs not fraid o' no thing!"

The men and women cheered and Jericho's knees knocked.

"Iz-landahs be strong!"

More cheers.

"Be brave!"

Whistles and bird calls and air punching.

"Iz-landahs fight . . . Fight! . . . FIGHT!" The old man seemed so young, so full of youthful rage and passion. With each word his voice grew louder and the crowd did too. Jericho simply gulped and watched as the telltale riftman V's moved closer.

"Looks like there's just a dozen of them." He whispered but nobody was listening, not that they could hear him if they were.

He turned over his shoulder and looked at the cliff. He imagined running up that winding path and seeking the safety of the fresh water crater, but he knew he couldn't do that. He looked around himself and watched the armed warriors chant their battle cry towards the rift while Delgen's followers fell to their knees in the sand and cast their arms out wide.

"What are they doing?" He watched their silently moving lips as they whispered to themselves.

One of the riftmen dipped under the surface and broke out through the waves. It landed amongst Marika's warriors and screeched a frightening threat to the people around it. Marika screamed back and thrust the Devi'shark tooth hard into the creature's gut. It's strangely coloured blood seeped from the wound but it screamed again and slashed at the closest person to it.

Jericho froze to the sand as other riftmen joined the fight. One ran right for him but a man struck its head and it fell. Jericho started shaking and muttering things to himself about why he wasn't built to fight.

"Jericho! Where you be goin' to?" Marika called out, he hadn't even noticed he had started backing away. He watched a woman behind Marika writhe as the claws of a riftman tore through her stomach, another man was bleeding in the sand.

"I can't, this isn't me. I can't!" Jericho turned to run, catching a glimpse of light emanating from Delgen's group. He rushed up the side of the crater and the riftmen followed. One soared through the air and came down hard on the ground in front of him. He screamed and lowered his Jensai, impaling his attacker on the long white spike.

The thing slashed at Jericho, but couldn't reach. He watched as its wound started to bubble and froth. The riftman started shaking, caught in the grip of a frightening seizure and jerking the wooden handle of Jericho's weapon. He dropped the Jensai, continuing up the cliff, urging himself to move more quickly towards the safety of the crater.

As he came over the crest and began his decent, he heard the terrifying cries of the people below. He turned his head over his shoulder and saw three riftmen sailing through the air above him. With a scream he moved even faster, tripping and rolling down the steep incline.

He felt each and every impact as he bounced along. He cried in pain and grasped desperately for roots and passing plants, eventually coming to a stop about halfway to level ground.

With his head spinning, he watched a riftman splash down into the deep pit of water in the middle of the crater. It screamed and splashed and white smoke rose into the air. The next riftman tried to divert its path but met the same untimely end as the last one spun around in the air and landed in the group of tightly packed civilians.

They screamed and scattered as the riftman clawed and snapped its jaws. Jericho heard the remaining riftmen coming over the crest of the hill and he made a break for it. He stopped as a claw slashed through the air in front of him, then ducked and rolled into the leafy green plants that overtook the ground around him. He crawled through the thick brush as claws tore at the ground, trying to find him.

Suddenly Delgen's voice was all that could be heard. Jericho dared to peek through the plants and saw the man standing high atop the lip of the crater, with all his followers grouped behind him. He was speaking words that Jericho couldn't understand, at a volume that seemed impossible, and a beam of light connected him to the others.

"What the . . . ?" Jericho watched as Delgen threw his hands into the air. They erupted with bright flames that burned like flares and he cast them towards the group of slimy rift dwellers who threatened his people. "Mumbo jumbo genie man . . . " Jericho whispered to himself.

WHUMP! A claw smacked into the ground beside him and he screamed. The face of a riftman came close to his and he could smell its fishy breath. It clucked like a vicious seabird and screeched like a frantic dolphin and Jericho was frozen to his spot.

Before either of them could move, a blast of bright orange flames collided with the sea creature. It screamed and buckled over, then something in Jericho snapped. He leapt onto his weakened attacker and pounded it with his fists. He screamed an angry scream and one of the things claws swiped up toward his face. He wrestled with it, trying to subdue its dangerous limbs.

"Die, you mother fucker!" Jericho roared, he was shocked by his brazen turn around but refused to take the time to stop and think about it. He turned the riftman's hand against itself, struggling against its strength as he pressed its claws against its chest. He pressed harder, screaming a frenzied scream as the riftman squealed and writhed. Blood spurted from its wounds as Jericho forced its own claws deeper and deeper.

"Jeri!" He heard a small voice behind him. "Jeri, you bein so fright'nin! Crazy jumbo holdin ya too tight!"

When Jericho finally realized his attacker was lying still underneath him, he took a deep breath. It was like his first attempt at inhaling, the oxygen burned his lungs and he was shaking all over. He turned his head to look at Tyrie, who was crying and dirty, nibbling on a piece of her frizzy hair.

"Ty . . . I . . . " He turned back and looked down at the riftman. Even though it was dead, even though Delgen had weakened the others and Marika's warriors were finishing them off, Jericho's fear only grew more intense.

Impaled deep into the gaps between the riftman's ribs were Jericho's own fingers. He was positive he'd used the things claws against itself. He knew that it was impossible for his own weak, human fingers to have wiggled their way into the body of this aquatic monster, to wrap around its heart and squeeze the life from it.

With a deep breath he released the still heart and with a sickening schloop, he pulled his fingers free.

"Jeri . . . be controllin' dah jumbo?" Tyrie asked, coming closer to him.

"Yeah." Jericho nodded, but he wasn't sure if he was telling the truth.

With no hesitation, Tyrie ran towards Jericho and wrapped her arms around him. Jericho focused on the sounds of a dying battle around him and held himself back from returning the young orphan's embrace, thinking to himself that it would be a shame to stain her clothes with the dark blood of the enemy.

As the last of the writhing riftmen lay dying in the dirt, Marika came barrelling towards Jericho. "Tyrie!" she yelled, "get tah gettin' from dat dark jumbo riftah!"

Tyrie pulled back and Jericho stood up, aching in every limb and muscle. "Marika, I'm sorry."

In one swift movement the woman spun around and smashed Jericho in the face with the chitin end of her vicious weapon. He spun around in turn and fell into the bed of leafy green plants which had moments ago hidden him from a very different attacker. He climbed to his hands and knees and spit bright red blood all over the ground.

"What was that for?"

Marika slammed the crab shell bludgeon into Jericho's gut and he fell onto his side. "Scaredy Jericho bringin' dangersome war! Be screechy likea riftie-man, leadin' dah way to dah safety spot."

"I'm sorry! How could I have known they would follow me?"

Marika was about to hit Jericho once more when Cap'n reached out to stay her hand.

"Marika, be leavin' dah riftie-catch on his lonesome."

"Cap'n!"

"'Nough!" Cap'n screamed and Jericho noticed he was holding the Jensai he had left implanted in the intestines of the cliff side riftman.

"Cap'n, I'm sorry. I don't know what happened."

Cap'n reached out and clutched Jericho's shoulder. His face was cold like stone as he stared into Jericho's eyes. What was it about the old man that caused Jericho to feel like . . . like he was home.

"Jericho, you and you bein' a stronges war-child." The hand on Jericho's shoulder reached down to grab hold of his blood covered one, the one which had moments ago stopped a heart from beating. He wrapped Jericho's hand around the handle of his Jensai and eyed Marika with danger in his expression.

"What to be doin' now?" Delgen approached the group, shaking and coated with sweat.

"We be leavin' dah iz-land." Cap'n received a shocked gasp from nearly every one of the islanders now and he held out his hands to quiet them. "Come a time dah iz-land ain't safe. E'en dah safety spot not bein' 'nough. Leavin' be dah bestes way."

As Cap'n turned to leave, effectively putting an end to the discussion, Jericho turned to Marika. "Where will we go?"

"I and I be through wichu!" Marika held didn't bother looking at Jericho. "I be hearin' yah screechy screech! I and I sees yah kill dah beast wit hands dah same as."

"What?"

Marika turned to leave, stopping only to grab hold of Tyrie's hand and pull her away too. The girl stared over her shoulder at Jericho and he could see she didn't want to go. He turned to Delgen and repeated his question but the man didn't seem interested in answering.

"Please, Delgen, can you tell me where we're going?"

Delgen dabbed the sweat from his brow with a handkerchief that looked far to clean and bright to belong to such a sun-bleached and dirty village. "Sailin' crossa bluest blue. Goin' to dah cont'nent."

"Cont'nent? Like . . . Continent?"

"Dumb jumbo wants-tah-be genie man not even list'nin. Like I be sayin', we be goin' to dah cont'nent."