Wrecked.
The light shining through Thorn’s eyelids was agony, and she rolled over and covered her head with her arms. Her head hurt so much. Her belly was empty, feeding on itself, and her mouth was as dry as ancient parchment. Beneath her to ground rolled and swayed, around her the fresh air was heavy with salt and brine. She groaned and curled up into a ball.
“Ah, she wakens?”
The voice was new. For a moment she wasn’t even sure she recognised the language, it had felt like so long since she heard another person speak.
“…wah-ur…” she croaked.
“Sorry?”
“…wah…ur…” she tried again.
“Water! Of course!” There was the sound of a cork popping, and a soft tap on Thorn’s shoulder, “Here, take this. Try not to drink too quickly, you’ll make yourself sick.” Thorn ripped the waterskin from the voice’s hands and glugged it down greedily, entirely heedless of its warnings. She heaved in air, her tumultuous stomach settling gradually. “Have some food.” Another touch on the arm. This she ate more carefully, taking delicate bites as her sight began to return to her.
They were on the open sea. Their ship, if a twenty foot catamaran with a single lateen sail could be called such a thing, was cutting through the water with ease, the lamps shining brightly in the ceiling above. Her companion, the captain of this ship, was a small man, his brown hair lazily swept out of his hooded eyes. he had the most intense stare Thorn had ever seen. She watched him from time to time, and genuinely wasn’t sure she’d ever seen him blink.
“So…where are we going?” Thorn’s voice was still weak from lack of use, but food and water had made its use less painful over the last several hours.
“Well, that’s a good question if I’m honest. I heard rumours some time ago there was a Door to the north. I sold my house, bought this ship from an old merchant, and I guess I’m out looking for that Door. I’ve never seen one. It sounds interesting. After that I don’t know. I guess I could head back home, but if the Door’s open then I might even look into whatever room is beyond!” His smile was infectious, but something behind his eyes still left Thorn uneasy. “What left you on the shoreline?”
“Just looking for a friend. I didn’t realise he’d gone so far, or I’d have brought more to eat and drink…” she shied away from the question, the gap in her memory leaving her off balance and vulnerable. Seemingly happy with the answer, her companion went back to his unblinking stare, watching the seas about him, and humming gently to himself.
“My name’s Lupus, by the way”
“Thorn”
“My pleasure”. Not once did he blink.
The lamps were beginning to dim when Lupus first saw land.
“An island, three points on the starboard bow!” Thorn looked up from her reverie to see a rocky outcropping in the distance, peeking over the horizon. “We’ve got a beam wind, so we’ll be there not long after nightfall. We can set up there for the night, and decide what we’re doing tomorrow.” Thorn nodded, excited to start a fire and have her first hot meal in what felt like an eternity. No sooner had her joy welled up than it drained away like the rain on the walls of her house back Home. Lupus’s face was white, so pale it was obvious even in the dying light.” Pack everything into the sealskin. Now.” He jumped from one hull to the other, pulling the sail around and turning the small ship almost ninety degrees, close hauling the sails as he went. Thorn had no idea what to do, and sat in dumb silence for a moment before being pulled out of her inaction by a wordless shout from Lupus. She leapt to her feet, stumbling on the angled surface of the ship, holding whatever lines and stays she could find. She packed everything she could get her hands on into Lupus’s sealskin bag, lunging for items that were rolling across the deck, saving those that risked falling into the ocean underneath them.
It took her a moment to realise that she’d finally seen it. A waterspout. A gigantic column of water, seemingly as high as the ceiling above, and moving directly towards them. Around it were huge shapes, all fins and bulk, swimming in the water, breaching from time to time, entirely unaffected by the monstrous ocean tornado beside them. She screamed, the colour draining from her in a moment. The little boat ran as fast as it could with the wind, bouncing from the growing waves, slicing through them as it ploughed on. But the waterspout followed them, gaining ground as it went, the inevitability of its arrival a terrible fact the two of them simply chose to ignore until the moment the sail was finally ripped from the yardarm by the force of the winds it generated. Lupus fell to the deck, screaming to the gods above, berating every name he could think of. Thorn simply prayed, hoping Talon would hear. That he would hear, and forgive her for failing him. As Lupus’s voice was lost to the winds, and the ship was buffeted by the colossal forms of the whales now swimming beneath them, Thorn watched the towering pillar of water beging to suck them into its vortex, before the mainmast finally fell, knocking her into oblivion.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Thorn winced. Her head ached, pain lancing through her eyes whenever she dared to move her head, and the pounding of blood was deafening in her ears.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
She had no idea where she was. She could hear water lapping somewhere, but echoes made it difficult to place by sound alone. She had whispered for Lupus a few times, but there had been no response and she’d stopped, afraid of the terrible things she couldn’t see behind her eyelids.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
She didn’t know how long she’d been in this place. Her world was so small, confined entirely to the hard, damp ground beneath her, the incessant sound of dripping all around her, and the gradually fading agony of her body. It felt like days before she was able to open her eyes properly, and the pitch darkness around her scared her so much she scrunched them back up again to hide. She was so lonely; so crushingly lonely.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Thorn woke with a start. Something echoed past her, a shrill noise distorted by distance and the infinite reverberations of a network of caverns and tunnels. The pain in her limbs was mostly gone, a dull ache compared to the piercing torment it had once been. She rose from the ground, unsteady on her numb legs, and felt around for a wall, pushing herself up against it as her fingertips met the cold, wet rock of the cavern’s edge. She felt her way along, the terror of sudden drops, unseen foes, and every imaginable danger keeping her mind sharp.
She continued this way for some time, edging forwards with care, doing everything she could to remain utterly silent. Step by step she inched forward, until she saw a pin prick of light shining in the dark.
Drip. Drip. Drip
Thorn pushed on, faster and faster as the light got closer, desperate to find another living person on this awful rock.
“Thorn!” hissed a voice from behind her. She spun around, eyes wide with fear. Lupus looked awful. He ear was ripped half off, his face swollen and beaten, his eyes black from burst blood vessels. “Don’t go. The place is lousy with pirates,” his voice dropped in volume, becoming a barely audible whisper, “we need to be careful. Come, follow me.” Thorn watched as Lupus crouched and limped up the tunnel towards the light, a large rock held in his bound hands. She crept along behind, a knot in her stomach growing at the thought of what they might be forced to do.
Chris Hately, GM 
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