The Mad Voyage of Prince Malock by Timothy L. Cerepaka

Author:Timothy L. Cerepaka
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fantasy, fantasy about a prince, fantasy about ancient gods, fantasy and travel, fantasy new 2014 release, prince malock, prince malock world

Chapter Thirteen

The Iron Wind was incapable of landing close to the shoreline of Stalf, not due to to the depth of the bay, but rather because of a thick ice ring that surrounded the entire island. Malock considered ramming the ice ring, but then he remembered that the Iron Wind was not a cutter and any attempt to break the ice ring would probably do more damage to the ship's hull than to the ring.

So instead, Malock directed the ship to be anchored right next to the outer edge of the ice ring. Then he gathered his hunting party together, which consisted of Jenur, Gormas Okina, and three others who he had picked based on their skills as hunters. One of them was Kocas Iknor, a Natachan woman who had not been one of his original choices but who had managed to convince him of her capability as a hunter a few hours ago.

All of them were armed with guns and swords, with one of each per hunter. The guns were partly frozen, but a quick test revealed that they all still worked. At the very least, a frozen gun could always be improvised as a heavy bat of some sort, which didn't make them entirely useless.

They then gathered near the davit, where Malock gave Banika orders to keep the ship under control while he was away. Here he said his good byes to Vashnas, while also asking for any last minute knowledge she may have had about Stalf. Unfortunately, she had nothing new to give him, so Malock and his hunting party got into the remaining rowboat and Banika lowered it to the ice ring from the davit.

As soon as the bottom of the rowboat hit the ice ring, Malock and his hunting party climbed out and dragged the rowboat the rest of the way across the ice ring. The rowboat was heavy, even with all six of them working together, but they managed it and soon they were in Stalf Bay, rowing across the freezing water to the island's shore.

As they drew nearer to the shore, however, Malock spotted some strange animals crawling out of the water onto the beach. He waved at the rowers to stop, which they did, and then pointed at the animals. The hunting party watched in silence as the creatures, about a dozen in all, rested on the beach, like they were taking a nap.

The animals looked like walruses, but they had to be at least as big as bears. Their sleek skin was completely black, contrasting sharply with the long white teeth that jutted out from their upper lips. Some of the lay on their backs, while a few lay on their stomachs. Their fins looked as sharp as swords, but thankfully the walrus-like creatures didn't seem to notice Malock and his crew at all. They looked like they were taking a nap.

Jenur gulped. “Anyone know what those are?”

“Vashnas told me about them,” said Malock. “She always called them 'baba raga,' which is an aquarian phrase meaning 'big animal.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.