Crossroads 04 - The Dragon Isles by Stephen D (v1.1) Sullivan

up to the milling crowd. “Let us through!” the aristocrat
bellowed. “I must get on that boat!”
                 “Turn
the ship into the wind, or we’ll be swamped!” Mik said to Ula as the two of
them struggled with the tiller.
                 The
sea elf nodded. Trip came to help them, wrapping his small arms around the
steering board. A huge wave cascaded over the side of Kingfisher. The crew on deck were scattered like ninepins, and the
ship’s boat crashed through the rail and over the side. Bok went with it, but
Karista got pinned against the gunwale, her foot caught in one of the scuppers
meant to drain the deck.
                 A
second wave crashed over the bridge. The impact jarred Trip’s fingers loose
from the tiller. The kender tumbled down the stairs, skidding helplessly toward
the rail.
                 Karista
reached out and Trip grabbed her hand.
                 “Thanks!”
Trip gasped. They clung to each other and staggered away from the side, but Kingfisher lurched and threw them hard
against the main mast. They grabbed a tangle of lines at the mast’s base and
barely avoided being sucked overboard in the backwash.
                 Thunder
crashed and lighting splintered the ship’s bowsprit. Karista and Trip staggered
to their feet once more.
                 They
all gazed out into the raging sea. Four lengths off the starboard side, the
ship’s boat floundered in the crashing waves. Bok and several other sailors had
managed to pull themselves aboard the tiny vessel. They clung to the sides as
the gale spun them about like a toy in an angry child’s bathtub.
                 The
skiff suddenly surged upward on a huge column of black water. The crew screamed
as the water fell away and a lightning flash revealed the dragon beneath.
Tempest held the tiny boat between her immense rows of teeth for a moment. Then
her jaws snapped shut, and the boat flew into splinters.
                 The
people manning the skiff disappeared into her gigantic maw—all but Bok, who had
been flung out as the boat disintegrated. The bodyguard clung desperately to
one of the huge Turbidus leeches hanging from the dragon’s upper jaw. He
screamed wildly as he tried to scrabble up the dragon’s face to the imagined
safety of her brow.
                 Tempest
flicked her head, like a monstrous dog flipping a hone into the air. Bok lost
his grip and flew up into the storm. Tempest caught him in her titanic fangs
and crushed him into a bloody pulp. Sharks, razorfish, and Turbidus leeches
swarmed forward to gobble up the crimson leavings.
                 Karista’s
eyes went wide with horror as the dragon surged toward Kingfisher . She screamed—a piercing, high- pitched wail from the
center of her soul.
                 “Move!” Trip shouted, hauling on Karista’s hand. “We have to
move!” He tried to drag her toward the bridge, and finally her legs began to
move. They scrambled frantically over the wet, slimy deck toward the aft
stairway. On the bridge, Mik and Ula struggled with the tiller, trying in vain
to bring the ship around.
                 The
dragon’s snout snapped the top off the main mast as Tempest crashed down on the
bow of the ship. Kingfisher heaved
forward, and Mik lost his grip on the tiller. He tumbled down the stairs onto
the water-drenched quarterdeck, smashing into Trip. The kender lost his grip on
Karista. She tried to grab them again, but they skidded out of her reach and
crashed into the base of the shattered mast
                 The
captain and the kender barely had time to look up before an avalanche of
rigging and tangled sails buried them.
     
                 * * *
                The dragon whipped her head toward
the bridge. Karista, soaked and shivering, clung to the stairs just below where
Ula held fast to the