Ertimus

The sea remained quiet furthering the lie that everything was. The Mammoth shark followed closer and closers with its maw open wide preparing to attack the little boat. Ertimus clung to the wheel dizzy from the wine he had consumed, his stomach was threatening to upheave its contents at any moment.

The shark was twice the size fo the boat it was following, able to reduce it to splinters with a bite from its massive jaws and rows of sword sized teeth. its breath was strong enough to be mistaken as wind as it became just a few meters from the rear of the ship.

"BEHIND US LORD!" Ertimus's Daemon had lept from the dark in its cat form again to try and bring Ertimus back to sobriety. Ertimus looked behind him to see the Monsters eyes burning behind him as his gaping maw lunged forward.

Ertimus fell backwards smacking his head hard against the wheel of the ship, a small amount of blood leaked from the wound and Ertimus was uncocious.

"shit! wake up!"

The Daemon changed into a dog and began barking at the boys down below trying to wake them. Greggan stirred first and looked at the dog to see the wheel of the ship spinning freely and the giant gaping mouth of a mammoth shark closing in.

"wake up! Ertimus is hurt! And a monster is upon us!"

There was so much going wrong Greggan couldn't collect his thoughts enough to make a coheret sentence, but his yelling worked the other boy opened there eyes to see the monster setting on their little ship and they jumped up.

The large boy they had taken to calling bog boy wet himself almost immediately after waking up, trembling in fear while the other boys ran towards the helm.

" move big boy you fucking coward!"

Avery yelled, he was the first to the wheel and he had managed to stop it from free spinning but they were way off course now with a mammoth shark coming for its meal.

"we need to drop the main sale! Greggan and Flick! I need you to go up and free the sail!"

Flick was the name they chose to give the dark skinned boy, he was from an island off the coast of la'velle and his name was too hard for them to pronounce, he was a little older than Greggan.

The boys took to the riggings as fast as they could as their little ship began to feel the waves from the shark behind them as he picked up speed towards them. Avery refused to look behind him out of fear, he knew he would not be able to continue steering the ship if he saw the monster closing in.

"Ertimus you have to wake up!" Avery kicked the boy sharply in the ribs in hopes it would wake him up, instead Ertimus groaned and remained unconscious. without Ertimus's magic he didn't think they would make it out of the situation alive. He kept the ship away from the rocks watching the boys climb to the main sail. So did the Mammoth shark, it decided to make its first attack

It's jaws began to close as the boys loosened the knots fastening the main sail to the mast causing it to drop and catch wind. The sharks bite missed its target and was rewarded with empty seawater. Ahead of them more large rock formations came towards them at alarming speeds, thanks to the main sail they were also moving much faster and now they were moving towards two more mammoth sharks. They surfaced as the original closed in behind them. They were surrounded, Avery gripped the wheel as hard as he could and tried to turn her about but managed to stick the ship in between the two new sharks as the original decided to take a bite out of its competition.

"Brilliant! let's get the fuck out of here!"

Flick was making is way down back to the deck as fast as he could. Greggan wasn't too far behind but was so convinced they had made their get-a-way. He remembered something he heard back at the brothel in La'velle an old sailor had said one night. He had been drinking a large amount after being at sea for several months and was telling tails of the monsters they saw on their travels.

"mammoth sharks are crafty beasts, blood thirsty Giants whos fins look like crags cutting through the water. Those bloody beasts with attack a ship for sport honestly. Have the time they will destroy a ship and kill everyone on board to not eat a single body. I say its territorial myself but I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't just for sport."

Greggan remembered the man because unlike most guests who stayed just a few hours or a night, he actually rented a room for the whole week and his mother was his favorite girl and would pay her extra to have her stay with him all week. He even allowed Greggan to come up to the room for supper a few times and told him many stories of the sea. Its partly why he hated it.

"mammoth sharks always hunt in pairs"

"Avery there's another one somewhere around us! thats why the other one didn't chase us and decided to attack those other ones! It's mate is chasing us!"

Avery started scanning the sea around them. he couldn't find the tell-tale giant fin but it was also late at night and all they had was moon light to illuminate their path. The water had begun to get rougher as they continued to round the bend towards Denizens bay, if they could make it there then maybe they would be safe. maybe the sharks would abandon the hunt.

The boat began to rock side to side as it powered through the growing waves of the rough waters, Ertimus's unconcious body began to slide across the deck of the Helm and into the railing keeping him from going into the water. Ertimus groaned and his eyes to the sounds of the boys yelling about mammoth sharks. His Daemon still in its dog form ran over with his tail wagging and began to lick his face. Ertimus had a headache from both the fall and the wine and as his daemon licked him it started to fade.

"ok Andrew! I'm awake! what the hell is going on?"

Ertimus got to his feet and saw the long moving shadow of the mammoth shark's jagged fin following behind. "one, where's number two" Ertimus pointed his finger in front of him and muttered some incantations. the tip of his index finger started to glow with a yellow light, he pointed it towards the see and it began to shine like daylight and the sea became clear like glass. There he saw it. On the sea floor following below was the mate to the first shark. Its jagged fin poised to kabob the boat before dragging it to the bottom of the sea. He looked above him at the stars and smiled, " of all the days there are to die today is not my day."

The yellow light turned silver and went from light to a glowing metal, at first just the tip of his finger was covered in the silver material and after only a few seconds the metal had covered his hand to his wrist. He jumped onto the railing of the boat and grabbed a some of the line to hold himself steady. "Let's see how this goes!" Ertimus swung his hand down pointing it at the mammoth shark below " Zendtahjir!" and the metal shot like lightning down into the water. The water was silent at first, even the waves had stopped and the water remained still as if it were frozen in time. Then bubbles began to break the surface of the water. The ship lurched forward as waves forced it out of the way.

The clear water had gone black again and Ertimus kept watching it waiting to see if he hit his mark. If his spell didn't kill the beast they were surely going meet the sea. What he saw next game him some hope. The torso of the shark had came to the surface, belly up and missing half of his head.

The original shark stopped at the corpse of its mate and made a sound too horrid to imagine, " They hold a grudge you know, that shark will follow you no matter what side of the world your on. The moment you enter the sea that shark will be after you."

The daemon had taken the form of a hummingbird and had begun zipping around Ertimus.

"If she comes close enough i'll kill her too."

"is that before or after the entire sea of monsters is aware there's food here. There's a large meal floating behind us and that Shark back there just let every thing between here and the ire know about it!"

"we are almost home free Andrew, when we make it to the bay all we have to look for is Water-Steeds."

Ertimus relieved Avery of the helm and gave him a good pat on his shoulders.

"I think i just found my first mate, when we get to Windals keep I will make sure my father rewards you."

Avery puffed his chest out with pride and had a certain strut in his walk. Ertimus may have used his magic to kill the first shark but Avery kept everyone alive while Ertimus was out, without Avery's leadership they all may have ended up at the bottom of the sea food for the bottom feeders.

"where's Big Boy?"

Greggan pointed down below to the stores. Ertimus felt his face get hot, Big boy was the oldest of them and the largest and had hid down below.

"I can't stand a fucking coward. Avery bring Big boy topside and bind his wrist."

"Yes captain!" Avery went to the stairs and grabbed a lead of rope along the way.

"Hey Big boy! the captain has ordered you to come up stairs." he strolled down the steps swinging the rope casually.

A loud crash came from below as Avery's body smacked against a wall after being hit with an empty crate. The crate had splintered, Big Boy had grown tired of his mistreatment and knew Ertimus would use this as an excuse to torment him.

"listen you magical bastard I'm not a part of your stupid crew. Make port somewhere and let me off!"

Ertimus had enough of this coward, he even blindsided Avery who was most likely going to let him tie himself up and treat it more like a game anyway. Ertimus had planned to scold him a bit but he may have killed Avery. He was dangerous to the smaller kids on the ship, they may be playing pirates but they were still all kids.

Ertimus Enchanted the wheel to continue the course he had set them on and headed towards the store room. He pulled the sword from its sheath.

"My lord I don't believe slicing this boy up would be good for these children to witness. I think Greggan is only five or six."

Andrew had taken form as a hummingbird again and taken to whispering in his ear again.

"I can't have him on my ship any longer, he's a danger to the little ones."

"you have magic Ertimus you don't need to cut this boy to bits."

Ertimus hated when Andrew was right. He couldn't just hack this boy to death with his sword, they would be terrified of him even more than they already were.

"Just a couple lashings and ill make him clean the deck. "

"Big Boy come with me peacefully and I won't burn you alive where you stand and throw the ashes for the Mammoth Sharks."

"Damn you Autumn witch! I told you I am not a member of your stupid crew. Leave me alone and drop me off anywhere close by."

'This ship doesn't make port till Aerios and everyone who wants to make it to Aerios alive is a part of my crew. You don't want to die do you?" Ertimus remained at the top of the stairs as he and Big Boy yelled back and forth.

"big boy I have magic, i can make you come out of there without a dick if you want to try and do to me what you did to Avery. If you killed him im coming down with magic and sword."

"The little big mouth is fine. He'll have a headache at best. It doesn't matter I don't want to go to Aerios i want to get off this ship and out of these monster infested bloody waters!"

"You're such a coward, a useless pitiful waste of space coward. I was wrong, you don't need to be on this ship. We aren't stopping so what i'll do is throw you off the ship untied when we get to the bay."

He levitated Avery up the stairs and laid him gently behind him.

Ertimus cast some spells over the entrance of the pantry. He checked to make sure Avery was not dead.

"You're lucky he is just knocked out. "

"i'm very proud of you Ertimus."

"Don't be Andrew, I plan on tossing him overboard after i turn his feet to stone."