SL Huang - Up and Coming - Stories by the 2016 Campbell-Eligible Authors

The great raptors that patrolled the sea looking for fish gave us wide berth, silently acknowledging that we were kings of the domain of the air.

The ocean was rough, but nothing the big ships that carried our supplies couldn’t handle. They were well acquainted with these waters and should have had no problems navigating the conditions.

We flew for about an hour when Rhenvaar roared that he’d found something. Barioth and I turned to follow him. He had found the supply ships all right, and they were beset with pirates!

A dozen pirate ships had encircled the supply ships and were pounding them with broadside after broadside. The ironwood sides of the supply ships were starting to splinter under the beating, but lived up to to their name. I doubted they could hold out much longer, but they wouldn’t have to.

“Attack!” I called out and dove towards the farthest ship with the sun at my back. They wouldn’t see or hear me until it was too late for them. As I closed in on the ship I took a deep breath, fanning my internal fires. These pirates would never again bother supply caravans, that was for certain.

As I closed in I opened my great maw and breathed white scorching hot flames and saturated the ship with fire. The dry wood of the deck and the cloth of the sails caught flame easily. The fire became a hungry beast with a mind of its own racing throughout the vessel as the men started abandoning ship in panic. Soon the flames reached their kegs of black powder and the explosions ripped through the hull, sending deck hands diving for cover as shrapnel ripped through the air around them. The sloop had taken the full force of my breath, and was nothing more than a brilliant bonfire.

Rhenvaar swung wide and low and went at two more of the pirate ships at once. Using the advantage of surprise and speed he breathed his flames into the hulls of the ships above the water line and right across the cannon ports. Men screamed as the ship burned and more black powder ignited, sending a rain of debris and body parts everywhere.

He didn’t even pause in his breathing as he finished his pass on the first ship and began his pass over the second. Fire leapt across the bow of the ship and began its deadly dance through the wooden planks that made up the deck.

Barioth was the more cautious of the twins and stayed high as he dove through another group of pirates, but that didn’t lessen the fiery fury that he breathed across them.

In that first pass we left five of the pirate ships in roaring flames. I banked hard and came back for another pass when one of the pirates launched a counter attack. Massive nets flew into the air towards me, attempting to entangle me and send me crashing into the sea, but I’d seen this move many times before and was ready for it.

I deftly turned my wings up and began beating against my flight path, causing me to stall in place. The nets flew harmlessly past, on a perfect trajectory to where I would have been had I kept flying.

With a great roar I flipped over and resumed my attack run. The pirates didn’t have enough time to prepare a second set of nets, and they never would, because I unleashed my scorching breath across the mainsail, setting the boom and stern aflame. The pirates dove into the sea, abandoning their ship as the hull became engulfed in flames. Kegs of black powder erupted, throwing debris everywhere.

Black smoke filled the sky above me as I banked hard to avoid crashing into the ship and headed towards my next target. I needed a few more moments to let my internal furnace get hot enough to produce more fire, but I didn’t let an opportunity pass to take down another target.

These pirate ships were of the sloop style and weighed almost double my own weight, but that wouldn’t save them. I beat my wings hard and aimed for the broadside of one of the undamaged ships. At the last moment before impact I changed my flight path and smashed my tail into the bow, knocking a large chunk of the ship off, and sending great cracks through the hull. The unforgiving sea rushed into the breach and the ship began to sink.

The slam forced me to beat my wings hard to regain altitude, and for a brief moment, if the pirates had been the quick sort, I was vulnerable to counter attack. I wasn’t concerned that the pathetic pirates could take advantage of that weakness. They were too busy trying to keep their footing as the ship lurched under the force of the blow, and I climbed safely back into the sky.

Seven of the thirteen pirate ships were out of the fight, and their crews were swimming for the remaining ships. The supply ships turned away from the fight and were making good time tacking towards safety.

As I watched, the twins made another pass, deftly avoiding the nets sent their way, and destroyed three more of the pirate ships. With only three ships left, the pirates seemed more intent on fleeing than fighting. Large bonfires marked this battlefield for now, but before long the sea would claim what was left of the ships and there would be no indication the fight ever happened.

“Let the rest go,” I called out as we regrouped.

“Why?” asked Rhenvaar.

“So that they’ll tell others about what happens when you attack supply ships destined for this harbor,” I said.

“I doubt they have the sense to stay away. We should finish them off,” said Barioth.

It would almost be a kinder fate to kill them all, I mused to myself. The three sloops would take on what was left of the crews of the nine lost ships. It would be crowded and miserable. Pirates weren’t known for getting along in the best of times, and this wouldn’t be the best of times, for sure. But honor demanded we let fleeing combatants flee.

“Wait,” said Silverleaf. His little brow furled as he tried to reason out his question. “If it was more merciful to kill them, why would honor dictate they be miserable?”

I was impressed with this little one’s reasoning. He showed wisdom beyond his seasons.

“That’s just the rule, and rules are rules,” said Tamerale.

I smiled. Tamerale wasn’t quite old enough to grasp that there are times when things are not so black and white, but in the end his answer was right.

“Silverleaf, the rules of honor were intended to bring some civility to combat, and in most cases they did just that, but no rule can be perfect all of the time. It’s up to the honorable warrior to figure out how best to apply them in any given engagement,” I said.

“But then he should have killed them,” reasoned Silverleaf.

“Perhaps, and the twins sure would have been happy to, but Lyrroth was in charge and he decided to let them go,” I said.

Myrill’s husband Nasir said, “Keep in mind, by letting them go he was giving them a chance to improve their life and learn from their mistakes. Perhaps one day they would learn to use their knowledge of the sea to help others, or they might have had children at home waiting for them. If he had killed them, then all the possible futures go away.”

Nasir’s display of insight let me know my time as storymaster was almost up. Indeed, my time left in this world was nearly complete. I would have to speak with Nasir after story time.

“So, then, it really was more merciful for him to let them go?” asked Silverleaf.

“It could have been, but we don’t know what happened to them after that,” I said. In reality, I figured they probably didn’t learn anything from it and went on to cause more trouble. “But, that wasn’t the end of Lyrroth’s troubles that day…”

We circled above the supply ships while they got back in formation and set sail for the harbor. The three undamaged pirate ships picked up what was left of the other crews and made haste to get out of the area. Everything seemed calm, but I was on edge. Something wasn’t right.