The horizon glowed the color of the rising sun. The final night of our long voyage across the ocean had just passed to mark the end of our uneventful journey. The sky was riddled with dark storm clouds getting thicker the farther into the horizon I looked. I hope that misses us, I thought to myself.
"It's always the last day of the journey when the storm hits us." Captain Keyson said as he stepped up next to me leaning over the bow of the ship.
"I was hoping we would get through this without getting too wet." I laughed in response.
"Unfortunately it can't be helped." He laughed while patting me on the back. "We should get everyone ready for the storm."
"I'll head below deck and inform the other passengers."
I turned and walked past the front mast and down the hatch to the underbelly of the ship. Once at the bottom of the ladder I turned towards the bow of the ship and entered the forecastle to find the two elves that accompanied us on our voyage. "There's a storm approaching on the horizon. Captain Keyson wants all hands on deck." I told them. "Thank you Kaelen, we'll be up in a minute." The elf named Sylwen responded. Her dark wavy hair fell to her shoulders as she sat up on the hammock. Her vivid green eyes looked towards her companion Thandor. "Get up Thandor, the crew is in need of our help."
I walked away from them before I heard a response. Next I went to the gun deck in search of the dwarves who always seemed to be helping improve the ship. As I went around a corner I almost ran into the first of the dwarves, a male warrior named Borin Stonefist. He was of stocky build with a battleaxe always on his back, his red hair was tied in a pony tail and a long beard hung from his face. "Hey Borin." I said while side stepping around him to avoid his work of fixing a broken cannon. "There's a storm approaching from the horizon, the captain could use all hands on deck."
"Aye kid, let me finish my repairs then I will make my way upstairs." He responded "While you're down here can you let Korga know as well? She may need some help."
"I can do that. Good luck with your repairs."
I made my way further into the gun deck passing sailors as they tied down cannons and crates in preparation of the coming storm. At the end of the passage I found who I was looking for. A short stocky dwarf with her black hair tied into a braid was bent over fussing with what looked like an odd cannon. The cannon was set on a standard track with a series of posts attached to the frame holding a barrel of what I assumed to be gunpowder. At the back of the device a rack of cannonballs was attached to the frame with a rail leading to the chamber of the cannon where a hole had been cut out and a lid mounted in its place.
"What are you working on Korga?" I asked.
Korga jumped in surprise, hitting her head on one of the supporting beams of the canon. "Damn it! Don't startle me like that." She said while rubbing the back of her head and turning towards me smiling. "I am attempting to reduce the time it takes to reload one of these bad boys. Imagine how much damage we could do to an enemy ship if we cut the reload time by more than half. I implemented a way for the gunpowder to be automatically placed in the cannon as soon as the last shot is fired. Then all we gotta do is place a new fuse and compact the powder. Then this hatch opens and drops a cannonball inside without anyone having to lift it into place. All I have to do now is test it but the captain doesn't want me to while at sea."
"Ooh impressive." I responded. "For now the captain needs us on deck. There's a storm on the horizon."
"Alright, lead the way." she said while standing up and dusting off her clothes, leaving her machine behind.
I turned to backtrack towards the stairs I came down and caught a glimpse of the last of the passengers on the voyage. The two goblins were crouched behind a couple of crates, out of clear sight from the rest of the crew. I had become close to the younger goblin, Grik, over the course of the voyage. He tended to be mistrustful of newcomers but he was extremely sharp sighted and resourceful. He had a small build, even for a goblin, and always had a dagger holstered sideways along his back.
The older of the two, Skralla, was a different story. He had a strong muscular build with a longsword hanging on his hip at all times. He had a sharp-calculating gaze that seemed to dissect whoever he was looking at. He kept to himself and barely talked to anyone other than Grik.
"Skralla, Grik, The captain needs us up on deck." I called out while waving from the two goblins to follow me.
Once everyone gathered in a loose semi-circle on the main deck Captain Keyson addressed his passengers. "These storms in this part of the sea are extremely treacherous and grueling. I'll need all of your help to keep the ship under control. First off I need 4 people to help my men with the rigging, you'll be trimming and lowering the sail when I command. You'll also be in charge of taking up an oar should the need arise. Everyone else will be in charge of securing any loose cargo in the hold and helping wherever else you're needed. You guys split yourselves up I have to get back to work.
"I'll help on deck, who else is joining me?" I asked.
"Thandor will help up here as well, I think Borin and Korga should join you too," Sylwen replied.
"Awe, does the princess not want her hair to get wet?" Borin says in a mocking tone.
Thandor stepped up to the dwarf while placing his hand on the hilt of his longsword. With his voice full of disdain he replied, "Don't disrespect her… dwarf."
Before anything could escalate Sylwen stepped in between the two, "it's alright Thandor. And no Borin, I merely suggested you two instead of myself because both of you are stronger than me, you'll be of more use up here than I will. The same for both the goblins, no matter how strong they are they are too small to be of much use here."
"Aye, that does make some sense." Borin replied. "Alright that's the way we'll run this then, everyone get ready."
Before we knew it the storm was upon us. Harrowing winds savaged us from all sides. Massive waves threw the ship to-and-fro. The four of us on deck were struggling to keep our balance with water pelting us and the ship reeling from the waves. "Trim the sails!" The captain yelled from the stern of the ship. The four passengers helped the crew pull on the ropes of the rigging doing our best to not be a burden.
The storm seemed to last an eternity. Thandor and I ended up helping the crew on the Starboard side of the ship while Boring and Korga helped on the port side. My muscles burned from the extreme strain of working the rigging. Even though I was drenched from head to toe in icy salt water I was hot from exertion. I wanted nothing more than to lay down on a nice soft bed and sleep for a day straight. Whenever I looked at the people around me I could tell they felt the same way.
Just as I took another glance at the struggling dwarves a rogue wave surged over the port side of the ship sending tons of water over the bulwark of the ship. The wave hit Korga's already off balance body sending her sprawling onto her back. Just as fast as the wave came it receded, pulling the tons of water back into the ocean. Korga, still prone with the wind knocked out of her, started sliding towards the side of the ship. Her body hit the bulwark with enough force to break a few legs off the railing creating a gap almost large enough for her to slide through. She reached her hand out and caught the bulwark just in time for another wave to batter her attempting to pull her the rest of the way into the angry sea. Still holding onto the railing Korga fought to regain her footing and only succeeded when the strong arms of Borin pulled her to her feet and anchored her to the rope he was holding.
I let out a sigh of relief seeing her back on her feet again but didn't have much time to celebrate because a wave hit me threatening to throw me to the ground the same way it did Korga. Luckily I was prepared so I adjusted my weight to keep to my feet. We can't keep going like this for much longer, I thought to myself.
A long time later the wind suddenly stopped and the ship stopped rolling. It took me a long while to understand what happened. I looked up and saw the ship surrounded by a wall of dark gray storm clouds, lightning could be seen through the clouds illuminating the harrowing sight of what we had been going through for the better part of 4 hours. We reached the eye of the storm