“Just so all you idiots don’t embarrass me, let me go over the plan one last time.” The Captain was standing on the upper deck, looking down on everyone who had come along on this trip to Triban island. “We will try to sail in on the far north side of the island. It’s the one with the cliff which we scouted but ignored last time. There we will try to get as close to these weirdo cultists as we can get before it comes to blows. The plan is to capture one of their leaders for our royal friends so they can ask some questions, so try not to kill all of them.”
There was a nervous laughter among the people present. Some of them likely still remembered their previous attempt at dealing with these cultists which – from what Cobal had understood – didn’t have a great result. Some were part of Ferla’s crew and had been dragged into this mess due to them ramming Captain Tidescreecher’s ship. This was the ship they were on right now, called The Tidesetter. It was definitely a ragtag group of people, but with the help of the hero their confidence was boosted quite significantly. From talking to one of the crew members it seemed that even without their help they estimated their chances to be about even. With more support this should be easy. Still, Cobal had a bad feeling about this. These cultists could very well have something to do with the disappearance of his brother and that meant they were quite the capable bunch.
“There’s quite a bit of cover on the island, from the looks of it,” Mirgia noted. They could see shrubbery all over the island and the coast they were approaching from was particularly well covered.
“So here’s what we’re doing next,” The Captain said.
“I’ve decided it’s best to split up into groups. The main group will be led by Jamarin and you will sail to a bit more open of a spot where you’ll dock and attack straight on. Before you do that, you will drop off two smaller groups that will attack from the sides. Try to get as close to the center of their camp as possible and from there we try to take out people without being seen. I’ve decided on two groups.” She looked over at Captain Ferla.
“Ferla, you will go with the elf, the spirit, Tord, Jaran and Misialla. The six of you will approach from the south and you’ll depart first since it’ll take you the longest to get to where we expect them to be. Focus on not being seen and keep your own safety at the forefront of your mind at all times. We can always try this again if we fail and run so don’t be a hero.”
She looked at Cobal. “You, Mana, your guard fella, Merrick, Dana and I will get off the ship on the east coast and do the same as the first group. We’ll sneak up and take out as many of those cultist freaks as we can without being spotted. Hopefully the distraction of a ship will keep us under cover for as long as possible.”
Cobal nodded. He wasn’t the biggest fan of splitting up from Mirgia and Kimi, but as someone who had to sit through several boring strategy meetings in his early twenties he knew the value of spreading out some of your more talented soldiers. If not just for what they can do but also for motivating the rest. If you have some powerful people on your side you’ll have much more faith in your mission than if all the important people are sent elsewhere. He looked at Mana who nodded as well. “So we’re doing this then,” Dylon said.
“We sure are, are you ready for this?” Cobal asked.
Dylon laughed. “I’m supposed to be guarding you, but at this point I feel like you’re looking out for me much more than the other way around.”
“I did tell the guard captain I didn’t need a chaperone, didn’t I?” Cobal smiled. In a few days the young soldier had gotten much less tense and much more personable. Cobal was worried at first that it would be very stifling to have a guard with them, but now that worry was gone.
Merrick was a man who had the biggest arms Cobal had ever seen on anyone. He had dark black hair that was tied up in a ponytail and he had a big bushy beard. He seemed to be a man of few words. Dana was a younger woman with fiery red hair and a slim build. When Cobal asked her what her specialty was she took out a small crossbow. “I’m great with one of these.”
Cobal nodded. “That’ll probably come in handy.”
Cobal was nervous. He wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but the idea of possibly killing people didn’t sit well with him. He’d had his training of course, and he knew that he’d have to go to war if the occasion ever happened. He also knew they were going after people who might have harmed his family directly, but it still didn’t sit well with him. Now wasn’t the time to be pondering these sorts of things though as they were getting off of the ship. They took a small rowboat to a beach they spotted from a distance. The question was if there was any way to get up to the higher parts of the island from the little beach. If not they’d have to take the rowboat around and find a different point of entry and the time they’d spend on that would definitely complicate things. A million different thoughts were going through Cobal’s mind as the rowboat came to a stop on the small beach.
“Let me scout ahead,” Dana offered and she promptly moved up the beach towards the cliffside. It was covered in shrubbery and some of the trees that grew topside also grew out of the cracks in the cliff. Cobal watched as Dana climbed several spots and dropped back down again. In the meantime, Merrick dragged the boat further up the beach and hid it at the bottom of the cliff so it would be much harder to spot from above. Eliana Stood at the edge of the water and looked out over the cold seas. The wind down here was pretty steep but she wasn’t intimidated by it. After being convinced there was no one except their own ship in the nearby waters she turned around and with a stern look on her face walked towards one end of the cliffside. Cobal was amazed at how efficient everyone was working. He walked up to Mana who was investigating the cliffside as well. “It’s not that high up, but there’s no way we can climb this without a good foothold here and there,” she said to Cobal.
“Don’t worry,” said Merrick from the side. “If Dana finds a way up there she’ll drop a rope and it should be easy enough.” Mana looked at Dana who was already three quarters up the cliff. “She’s very good at that,” she remarked.
“People say she’s part elf, that’s why she’s so good at climbing and being nimble.”
They waited a little while longer before a rope was thrown down.
“Are there no knots in this rope?” Mana asked.
“What do you mean?” Eliana commented. “Why would there be knots?”
“Maybe I’m getting this wrong, but if you put knots in the rope, you can stand on them and climb much more easily.”
“I don’t know about that, but we can try that next time, that sounds interesting.” Eliana said. “Let me show you how we climb a rope like this.” She grabbed onto it and put one foot hooked under the rope. “Here, you hold the rope like this and then step on your other foot. Then you reach as far up as possible and do the same when you reach your legs up.”
Mana looked at Cobal with some amount of worry. “I’ve had to try this at gym class back in the day and I can’t say I was very good at it.”
“What is gym class?”
“In our schools we had a class that was basically sports and just physical training. It was a very basic level of it, but we also practiced some skills like climbing a rope. This just awoke memories in me of a time I’d rather forget.” She chuckled.
“Well, I’ll go last, so that I can help you out if really need be.”
“Thanks.”
By that point, Eliana had reached the top and Merrick was halfway up the rope. Once he reached the top of the cliff, Mana went next. It didn’t go very fast, but with the instructions she got from Eliana she did seem to reach the halfway point pretty handily. At that point she got stuck. “I don’t know if I have enough strength in my arms to keep climbing,” she said.
Eliana peeked over the edge. “Hold on tight.” She grabbed the rope and pulled Mana with the rope up until she was at the ledge and they could grab her. Then they threw the rope back down and Cobal quickly made his way up the rope. He hadn’t really practiced something like this before but years of training had made his arm muscles strong enough to get through this on pure power alone. Once everyone made their way up the cliff, Danae grabbed the rope and hid it in a nearby bush, still attached to the tree she’d tied it to. “Just so we can go down quickly if we have to. I’d rather not have to jump that far, I’d break half the bones in my body,” she remarked. Now it was time to make their way towards the center of the island. They’d spent quite a bit of time trying to get up the cliff, so they would have to hurry a little bit. Eliana led the group from here on out.
A big chunk of the way towards the center of the island consisted of shrubbery and forest without any signs of roads. Cobal suspected that the access to the island was on another side and that no one really came this way. Still, Eliana was very careful as she led the group forward. She stayed a few steps ahead of the other four and made sure there was no one in the vicinity as they slowly came towards a more open area. Here they found some dirt trails, leading them to believe that they were more likely to encounter cultists here. Next to some of the roads were ominous looking tiki torches although none of them were lit at the moment. Dusk was starting to settle in as well, making their approach a bit more obscured. Up to this point they didn’t encounter anyone, but from here on out the chance was much higher. As Cobal was thinking that, Eliana motioned for all of them to stop. She must have seen something. She moved ahead while the rest of them waited. A silence filled the area as they all waited for anything to happen until they heard what sounded like the beginning of a yell for help before it got quiet again almost immediately. A few moments later Eliana returned and motioned them to follow again. She didn’t speak a word of what happened while she was out of sight, but Cobal could guess without her saying. Luckily it seemed like they encountered only one scout on their way to the camp and after what felt like hours of sneaking around they finally reached the lit up outer reaches of the cultists camp. There were no signs of people running around yet, so the main group must not have arrived yet. They all crouched low in a bush a little way further back to discuss their next steps. They’d gotten through the easy part, the hard part had yet to come.
Opal Kaharis 