"Desecrators!" shouted the rider with the purple hair at the top of his lungs. And Wylgol certainly wasn't going to stop to take the time to answer him.
But fleeing the threat wasn't exactly easy… not with Garr slowing us down! he thought.
He and Mathurin had to work together just to keep up the pace — forced to drag Garr along by the arms. Still, the tremors in the ground, caused by the pounding legs of the giant crab, allowed Wylgol to gauge how close their pursuers were. They're practically on top of us, damn it! he thought, frustrated. Finally, he decided to look back.
The giant decapod and its rider were barely twenty steps behind.
Damn, we're trapped! he thought, dismayed. Still, the sailor refused to slow down.
"Come on, Garr! Come on, Mathurin! We're almost there!" he urged them.
In his frantic run, Wylgol took a moment to scan the horizon. First, he noticed that the shipwrecks were becoming scarce on this side of the plain. The terrain itself also sloped downward a little more.
But what really caught his attention was the absence of his crew — and of the monsters chasing them.
But… where are they?
"Mathurin, tell me — do you see anything ahead?"
"What, Cap'n?"
"Is there anything at the end of this damned plain!?"
The young lookout squinted into the distance.
"No, I don't see anything. There's nothing ahead. No one!"
"They can't just have vanished like that!?"
Mathurin strained his eyes harder, trying to pierce the expanse.
"Cap'n!"
"I'm listening, Mathurin!"
"At the end — it slopes down! The plain dips even more!"
"Okay, got it. They must've all gone down there."
"That must be it, Cap'n!"
At that moment, one of them started breathing in ragged wheezes. Wylgol and Mathurin were suddenly pulled back. They turned their heads — it was Garr. His legs had just given out.
"On your feet, Garr!" Wylgol commanded, panic rising in his voice. "Don't stop!"
But the heavyset man simply shook his head in surrender. Mouth wide open, he was struggling to breathe. His body was no longer responding. He had reached his limit.
That grim realization weighed heavily on Wylgol's morale. No way, damn it!
"Cap'n! Watch out — it's coming!" shouted Mathurin's alert voice.
When he tore his gaze away from his fallen companion to face the threat, Wylgol realized — far too late — that the giant crab was already upon them.
In that brief instant, the sailor had just enough time to see the decapod's two massive pincers rushing toward them… before they were violently struck.
"Aaaaah!!" they all screamed in pain.
The impact was so strong that their bodies were sent flying through the air for several meters. Spinning like tops, soaring over wrecks and masts, the trio was hurled toward the sloping side of the plain.
And that's where they landed. The crash into the incline was painful — but somewhat cushioned by the sand, which absorbed part of the shock. Their descent ended in a tumble, rolling all the way down the slope.
The three sailors ended up flat on their backs, panting, staring up at the oceanic sky.
We're alive?! Wylgol exclaimed to himself.
"Wylgol! Garr! Mathurin!" called out familiar voices.
Startled, Wylgol reacted immediately, lifting himself off the ground. He turned around and saw…
The massive, imposing exoskeletons of the two giant crabs looming over a group of individuals who were kneeling in the sand.
Wylgol recognized his crew.
"You?!" he shouted, overwhelmed. "You're alright?"
"Does it look like we're alright to you?" snapped Bory, clearly annoyed.
"I meant… you're alive."
"Yeah, but it was a close one, by the Tentacles of a Cuttlefish! Honestly, I've got no idea how we all made it out alive!"
"You're right," Wylgol admitted.
From his position, he counted the crew. The navigator noted the stocky figure of Bory, who was holding the unconscious young sailor Allan in his arms. At Allan's side stood Lurcard, the young cartographer.
His gaze then drifted toward the rowers, who stood apart, as if wary of something from the rest of the group. Wylgol counted eleven rowers. One was missing. Surely dead?
He didn't want to ask, because he wished for everyone to savor this reunion after all they had endured so far.
Was the crew complete? No, Wylgol noted. Someone was missing…
The only person who had the talent to exasperate him. The one who, despite all the criticisms they threw at each other's faces, still deserved her place among them.
Sassa!
The thief was absent.
Surprisingly, this affected Wylgol more than he expected, forcing him to grit his teeth to keep his emotions in check.
"But Sassa isn't here?!" finally declared Mathurin, who had been checking on their companions.
"Wasn't she with you?" Wylgol questioned each of them in turn. The answer was unanimous.
"No."
"Silence!!" thundered a tenor voice from the top of the slope. Everyone twisted their necks in that direction.
There appeared the rider with purple hair, armed with his golden lance, atop his monstrous mount. The crab was slowly descending into the lower area.
"Desecrators!" he continued in a solemn voice. "You have managed to tread alive upon the Holy Sand of this sacred kingdom! The Divine Waves have granted you passage this far, so… Bow before Her Majesty, Princess Hanahmana Lulu! Otherwise, your immediate death will follow!"
After this declaration, the rider pointed his lance toward a bluish figure standing proudly behind the sailors.
They turned around to admire the one to whom the riders paid homage and owed obedience.
Her eyes, the blue of the ocean, scanned the crew with interest. The aquatic princess stepped forward toward them, then stopped a few paces away. She motioned with her hand for Lurcard to stand. The young man hesitated but eventually complied. The young cartographer cast anxious glances at the giant crabs surrounding their group, but his attention soon returned to the princess.
"You," she began. "Do you know why the Divine Waves have brought you to Me?"
Lurcard shook his head, confused.
"You do not know, yet you have arrived here alive. No surface-dweller could reach this place without some knowledge of it," she declared.
"You speak true, O Princess of the Morning Seas!" intoned the rider with the purple hair. "Without knowledge, every Desecrator dies!"
The princess fixed her gaze on Lurcard. "Then I will ask you this question: Do you have any knowledge of our Kingdom?"
The cartographer did not answer. He hesitated, fearing the consequences of his reply. Time passed until one of his companions grew impatient.
"By the rotten fish! You will answer, yes!"
Bory's outburst made Lurcard start. He bit his lip, hesitated, then…
"Yes. I have learned certain things about your Kingdom," he finally revealed.
"I suspected as much," the princess replied, a slight smile playing on her lips. "Take them to the Royal City!"
At that moment, the princess turned away from the sailors and began to move away when suddenly, to her left, something caught her attention. She traced a circle with her arms, spun around, and opened the palm of her hand in that same direction. Then, from the sand burst forth a body that crashed at the princess's feet. All the sailors stood speechless at the incredible sight. Does she have powers?! they thought to themselves.
Then Hanahmana pivoted toward them.
"She is with you, am I not correct?"
The sailors stepped aside to identify the body.
Despite the sand covering her, they all recognized their companion, breathing deeply.
Sassa. She was alive.
"It seems everyone is here. Now, let us go to the Royal City," concluded the princess.