CH - 20 [ Losing your shit ] part - 4

Grey sat on the bed beside Halcen. "You won't be doing nothing. You'll be preparing. You won't be any help to her, the wreck that you are now. We all need to be ready. We don't even have any idea what this 'Bear God' thing even is. We can't just charge in half-cocked, expecting to win. Tomorrow we'll be able to go in fully ready."

"Alright, Grey." Halcen sighed. "Thanks." He was having a hard time dealing with this.

Grey wrapped his arm around Halcen's shoulder. "Everything's going to be okay," he said, comforting his friend.

"Yeah," Halcen nodded. He knew there was no point trying to fight it. "You might be right. I just… have such a hard time not being in control. She's out there and I can't stop that by myself. So yeah.. we'll put a plan together in the morning. For now, I think I should just try to get some sleep. I think we should all turn in. I want everybody up as early as possible."

"Sounds good, Captain." Grey stood up, feeling better. He left the room and headed out to share the plan with the crew.

They all had important things to take care of before they could actually settle in for the night, so it took some time, but eventually each crew member headed down to their bunks. Slowly, they all were able to conquer their anxieties about what they were up against and faded to sleep in their own bunks. It took a while, but finally everyone was down for the night.

Halcen sat up silently. Sorry Grey. I can't just sit here and wait. He left his room silently, climbed the stairs to the outside, and snuck across the deck to the dock. He couldn't take the Black Tail, but he could steal one of these smaller boats the townspeople had floating around the dock. Nobody had been seen coming to use any of them. Probably because of us. No one wants to come down here alone with the outsiders. Halcen unroped one of the small paddle-boats from the dock and was off with a heavy push. He was trying to be as quiet as possible, so he kept the paddles out of the water until he had was sure he was out of earshot. And then he disappeared into the night, not leaving even a note. They'll be okay. They have Grey. Valentina needs me.

Halcen paddled in silence, only uttering a random curse word from time to time. His mind was on the mission: rescue the woman. So he continued through the night, stroking the paddles through the water until he was on the far side of the island. East coast. This ought to do. He found a spot with a small patch of sand leading up to the grass above and drove the boat up on that. He dragged it in the last few feet then turned to the trees and started for them.

The pirate captain waded through the forestry for what felt like hours. He began to feel more distraught as time dragged on and he found no signs. But he continued on around drops, over streams, and avoiding carnal animals' calls. He made a heading in as much of a straight line as he could, toward a general area that he hoped would be about where the cultists had taken her.

Where are you?

Then he saw light in the distance. It was close, relatively. The glow emanated across a semi-large area. As he got closer, he could hear voices, but he couldn't make out any of what they were saying. He pressed on, silently sifting through the wood until he was close enough. He could tell there were quite a few people in the area, but he couldn't figure out what they were up to. He only knew it had to be no good. As he drew near, he could actually sense the presence of the people walking about, but couldn't tell how powerful any of them might be. And then he was close enough to make out figures.

They were everywhere. Men clad in dark red cloth. Only their important parts were covered: feet, groin, chest, and head. The rest was all exposed skin. It had to be armor of some sort. These were the cultist. They all wore exactly the same thing. They sounded excited. The Kumashinja.

And beyond them, on the other side of their swarm, was her. A beautiful woman with long pink hair strung up on what seemed like a metal altar. She was in a standing position with her arms were tied up over her head to the chunk of metal. Halcen couldn't make out her facial expression, but it was her. Valentina.

Halcen felt a sharp sting in his neck, and then everything went black.