Chapter 127 - Washed Up Omen (1/2)

Chapter 127: Washed Up Omen

The only stop we made was at the stable to pick out a few horses for our trip after going through the teleportation gate. We needed to go a bit out of the way to find horses accustomed to going through teleportation gates, which caused Professor Gideon to fidget with impatience.

The man was a nervous wreck throughout the trip. He said very little after going through the teleportation gate, only snapping at the reigns of his black steed to go faster. Soon, we arrived at a rather thin trail with the Forest of Elshire to our left. I could see the thin fog spilling over onto our trail, making the road look kind of creepy. To our right, there was a thin stream that acted as a fence, marking the border of the Elshire Forest and the edge of the Beast Glades.

Emily sat behind Himes on a white stallion as I rode with Varay on a particularly gentle brown horse, leaving us with little else to do but talk. However, we rode in silence most of the trip; it was hard to talk over the sound of our horses’ hoofbeats clicking on the ground.

Eventually, the familiar, briny smell of the ocean filled the air. I could almost taste the salt on my tongue from the growing breezes that whipped against my face. While the weather was cool, it was obvious that it was growing much more humid, fast. My shirt began sticking to my skin, leaving me uncomfortable and grimy.

“We’re almost here!” Professor Gideon yelled over the howl of the wind. Soon, the trees that made up the dense, magical forest began spreading apart, and eventually clearing up to a wide plain of wild grass and shrubs.

The ocean came into view, quickly widening from the horizon as we drew closer to the edge of the shore. The strength and speed of the winds grew stronger the closer we got to our destination, soon drowning out the sound of our horses’ gallop. Large rocks began popping up more and more on the field of grass that sandwiched us on both sides until we had stopped our horses on the edge of a rocky ledge that overlooked the shore.

I had to shield my face with the hood of my cloak against the sharp, sand-filled winds that cut against my body. I was about to ask if we had arrived when I spotted something unnatural on the coast.

It was a humongous boat, or rather, what was left of it. As the waves lapped against its metal exterior, I couldn’t help but feel like I had seen it before, when it suddenly popped into my mind.

“Wait, isn’t that the Dicatheous?” I gasped, peeking out from underneath my cloak as I turned to Professor Gideon.

“No,” he said, his voice barely audible against the wind. “It’s worse.”

“Wait, it’s not the Dicatheous?” I asked, taking another glance at the familiar ship to make sure.

While I wasn’t able to see the departure of the monumental ship because it overlapped with the start of my second year at Xyrus Academy, I had seen it when it was still being constructed. I could still remember quite clearly the first time I had laid eyes on the mysterious craft that spewed black smoke like some sort of metallic dragon. To be able to carry hundreds of people and still traverse the unknown dangers of the ocean, it was hard to believe it at that time.

“What do you mean worse?” Varay cut in as she surveyed our surroundings, her hand resting firmly on the pommel of the thin sword strapped to her waist.

“Leave the horses here. We’ll need to go on foot if we want to get to that wreckage site.” Ignoring us both, Professor Gideon swung his leg over his horse, dismounting rather clumsily. “Emily, Himes! Grab the bag!”

I opened my mouth to ask again, exasperated by how constantly the professor kept doing things at his own pace, disregarding everyone else. However, with a consoling squeeze on the shoulder from Emily, I just let out a sigh and we followed Professor Gideon. The old inventor was already making his way down the rocky slope to the shore rather nimbly despite how wet the rocks were. Varay and Himes trailed closely behind, both of them with their necks stretched, looking for any signs of danger as they easily hopped from one stone to another.

“I’m going to need the ship completely out of the water. Can either one of you ladies do the honors?” Professor Gideon turned his head, switching glances between Varay and me.

My hand shot up in the air.

“Let me tr—” I volunteered excitedly before remembering what Master Aldir had constantly warned me about. “I mean, Varay should do it.”

The lance gave me a sympathetic look before getting to work. The task wasn’t hard for her; with a simple wave of her hand, she swept the tides back enough to reveal the whole ship, then she took a moment to conjure a wall of ice around the remains of the wreckage to keep the water from spilling back in.

Varay made an opening in the ice fortress for us to enter through and almost immediately after crossing, I stopped to gaze in awe.

Perhaps it was because I had only seen the Dicatheous during its construction, but many of the features I remembered about the ship, from its large metal frame and multiple cylindrical pipes, undoubtedly resembled this large contraption. Regardless, neither of these two metallic monstrosities looked nothing like the wooden sailboats that I was accustomed to.

Further inspection of the large craft led me to notice the reason why it had been stranded here, partly sunken, in the first place. Apart from the more obvious dents that had deformed the base of the ship, there were rows of puncture marks as well.

“Don’t those kind of look like...bite marks?” I marveled, walking toward the side of the ship.

“Dang, imagine how big the monster was to have a mouth that could take a chomp at this,” Emily sighed.

I couldn’t help but grow more and more curious the longer I studied the giant boat. If it truly was not Dicatheous, then what was it? Who had built it? For what purpose did it come to this continent?

Another observation I drew was that, while the thick metal frame had incurred fairly substantial damages, it didn’t seem… old. There weren’t any signs of rust that I knew happened to most metals left in places like this for too long.

“Well then, on we go,” Professor Gideon grunted, stepping into one of the larger holes that had punctured through the bottom of the ship.

“Wait.” Varay held up her arm to halt the professor. Before he could respond, the lance sent a large pulse of mana through the abandoned ship.

“No signs of life,” she confirmed.