Dungeon Sniper

Now that we were safely away from imminent danger, there were several mysteries to be solved.

First was how did Baha and Hermana understand my 'nod' for them to jump off the ship.

"It was the song."

Hermana frowned as she chewed special seaweed that the Black Whales brought for us to drink as a means of hydration. All four of us were chewing and s.u.c.k.i.n.g the watery seaweed contemplatively, as a matter of fact.

"I still can't understand them as clearly as you claim to, Beta, but at that moment, the song sounded like a word: Jump."

"I heard it too," agreed Baha curtly.

So that was that. Onto the next mystery.

"Was your father really the navigator of Doby Mick I?" I asked bluntly to the gloomy ex-captain.

"... Yes, he was."

"... And was he really, you know, responsible for crashing—"

"No. It was a freak accident. My father was a lot of things, but he never made a mistake out on the sea."

I exchanged uncomfortable glances with Elysia and Hermana, and Baha caught the nervous looks.

"I know what you're thinking. You think I'm protecting my father's honor?"

Baha scoffed indignantly.

"Kraken's crotch, I am! I don't give a damn about the dead man's honor... It's something more personal that I want to see and find out... and settle for good."

The moody ex-captain fell silent with a heavy air that screamed for personal space, so we left him be for the time being.

"What now?" asked Hermana with a sigh. The sun was already setting on the peaceful, post-storm sea.

"I'm not worried about hypothermia. Summer seas are quite gentle, and we've got warm, cuddly blankets under us."

The Black Whale beneath Hermana hummed softly as if responding to Hermana's comment. Hermana giggled as she hugged the whale's back, and I tried not to smile along, not with Elysia, fresh and recovered, sat and watched everything as keenly as ever.

"I guess I could tell the whales to find the nearest land—"

"We're getting the ship. Tell them to chase after the traitors," interrupted Baha heatedly.

"Yeah, forget the old man. I'm asking them to land us as soon as possible."

"The ship, boy, we've got to get it back!"

"Don't order me around. You're not a captain anymore."

Baha blinked with a hurt look on his face for a second, followed by a stern, volcanic look of authority and obsession.

"You think you can survive on the sea without my guidance? You, a janitor at ship, and a fortnight's experience at that."

"You think you can survive without my help? Can you even talk to the whales, bro?"

"Stop, both of you," snapped Hermana.

"Tell the whales to chase after our ship," demanded Baha threateningly.

"Tell them yourself," I shrugged nonchalantly.

Baha grunted and seemed to want to curse off some heat, but instead collected himself and patted the whale on which he was riding on.

"Goodfella, would you be kind to turn back and go after the sh.i.p.s you picked us up from?"

I held back a sneer at the earnestness of Baha's tone. I saw Elysia and Hermana biting their lips to hold back a smile.

And nothing. Silence. The whales did not respond and sailed ahead smoothly, leisurely.

"Damn it!" cursed Baha, stopping just before he pounded his fist on the back of the whale.

I thought Baha had given up and was about to 'ask' the whales to find the nearest land when the old ex-captain did something totally unexpected.

He started to hum and imitate the sound of the whales, in all earnestness and... some distinguishable expertise too.

"Uh... what are you doing?"

I had to ask, but Baha did not stop hooting and humming with the utmost seriousness in his face.

And this time, the whales answered back. To me, first.

"Did it work? Did they agree to go after the ship?"

"... They are asking why you keep saying 'jellyfish' and want to know if you'd like some."

"What? I 'meant' to say the 'ship!'"

Baha cursed under his breath and muttered exasperatedly.

"I know they sound similar. It's been too long and I'm all rusty now. Wait. Let me try again."

And then the old man started to hoot in a slightly different pitch, but with the same determined look, this time.

"What do you mean you 'meant' to say? You've done this before?"

"Don't disturb me, boy."

"You're saying 'turtles' now, Baha."

"Damn it!"

But Baha never gave up. I looked around and saw Elysia staring at Baha with a concerned, skeptical look. Hermana was staring at me, however, as if she had something to say to me.

"Remember the childish book, A Study of the Black Whales?" asked Hermana abruptly.

What a random conversation, but it was better than listening to Baha's persistent humming and hooting.

"Yeah?"

"I told you I had an idea who wrote it."

"You did tell me that."

"... There's your author," Hermana pointed at the one person sitting behind me.

I turned sharply to Baha. The old man was constantly letting out whale noises from his mouth, with a faint smile on his wrinkled face.

Could it be that... he was enjoying this?

"Baha, stop."

"Why? What did they say now?"

"A boat. You got closer, I'll give you that."

"See? I'm getting the rust off. Now just give me a minute—"

"You wrote A Study of the Black Whales, an Observation?"

Baha froze. I would say he had looked much calmer when Shef's longsword barely touched his nose.

"... What?"

"There was this book on the ship. Poorly made, even more poorly written, from what I've been told. And Hermana told me it wasn't from her usual stock... so my guess is that she took it from the captain's personal study."

I blinked and turned to Hermana.

"Wait a moment. Isn't that stealing?"

"I borrowed it, out of pure academic curiosity," shrugged Hermana innocently.

"What academic curiosity? You said it was crap."

"Hey, I'm still here, you know."

Baha had recovered from the initial shock and looked the same grumpy old man, made even grumpier from all the criticisms on his amateurish book.

"Sorry, but you've got to admit it was hardly a print material. Hermana even wrote a note saying that it read like a twelve-year-old wrote it."

To my surprise, Baha smiled nostalgically at my last comment.

"That's because I wrote it when I was twelve."

Something in the way he said those words made the rest of us fall silent as well. Except for Elysia, who had been silent all along and staring up at the early dusk stars on the sky.

"Well, that changes a lot of things. Not too many twelve-year-olds publish a book," I cleared my throat.

Hermana took the cue and followed suit.

"Actually, looking back, there were some really sparkling lines on that book—"

"Cut the crap, you two. It's embarrassing enough for me to find my one past uncovered, I could care less about being made fun of a dream I had as a child."

Baha, looking more relaxed and carefree, stretched out his legs, both the sane and the wooden one, and sighed as he looked up at the violet dusk of a sky.

"Boy, you can tell the whales to land you at the nearest land," said Baha resignedly.

"... What about the ship?"

"I'll go look for it on my own. No need to get you further involved in my mess. We are here in the first place precisely because I made you a part of what was clearly my personal deal."

"Sounds like you're apologizing to us, Baha."

"Not much to you two, but I owe it to Hermana... And thanks for sticking up with me, unlike the others. I always knew you had more guts than those brainless jocks calling themselves men."

Baha grimaced awkwardly toward Hermana, and the gutsy girl returned with an appreciative smile.

"Tell them, boy. As cozy as it is to sail on their backs, we can't ride on the whales, can we? Tell them to find the closest land."

Baha and Hermana eyed me curiously, expecting me to pull off some magical stunt to communicate with the Black Whales, or even imitate their humming to near perfection.

"Um... guys? Can you drop us off at the nearest land you see?" I asked politely, and clearly, in normal words.

"Strange. I understood what you just said," blinked Baha uncomprehendingly.

"That's because he talked to them using people tongue, not whale... whatever organ they use for their vibrating humming."

"But... how? Why?" blinked Baha in even deeper confusion.

I did not understand how it worked either. Magic, I guessed. But it worked, and the whales answered back, and not in the way I had expected them to.

NEGATIVE—

PRIORITY—

SET—

"What are they saying?" asked Baha eagerly.

"... They're taking us somewhere. Where they need us to be."

"What does that mean?" asked Hermana sharply.

"Before you guys woke up, the whales asked me to help them out."

"And you haven't told us until now because?"

Hermana raised her eyebrow threateningly.

"... I figured it was like a fee for the ride. Maybe get them food later for their service? I don't know!"

"How dumb do you think these whales are? As dumb as you?"

That hurt. I turned to Elysia for help, but her eyes were fixed on the horizon, reading the stars. Or ignoring me to suffer on my own, it seemed like.

Hermana was about to go off once more when the whales hummed in just in time to save me.

"What are they saying now?"

"... That they would like some food later for their service indeed. After we do them the bigger favor, of course..."

The Black Whales. They had good ears. And good bargaining sense too.

"Oh, how cute," spat Hermana, and she did not look cute herself when she said that.

"What do they want, boy? Specifically," asked Baha gravely.

"It's hard to track the specifics when they can only communicate with one word at a time—"

I fell silent as the last words of the whale song hit me.

"The Black Whales are not evil... despite what others say... or are they evil? They're smart, we all know that—what's with the face, Beta?"

I looked up and saw Hermana eyeing me worriedly. I must have made quite a face then.

"... They told me the plan."

"Good. Let's hear it."

"No. You don't want to hear it," I swallowed.

Baha and Hermana exchanged glances with each other.

"How bad can it be? It's not like we're going for a Kraken hunt or something, right?" laughed Hermana nervously.

I did not laugh along.

"Oh no," gasped Hermana.

"Is that it, boy? Are we really—"

"Look, I know I'm not the smartest one here, so I'll just reiterate what they said to me. Hopefully, it's like a code only the seasoned sea men, and women, can understand. Hopefully."

LORD—

CEPHALOS—

MUST—

BE—

KILLED—

There. Those were the exact words.

Baha and Hermana blinked without a word.

"I mean, there's no other way around to it," said Baha finally.

"We still have time. Let's ditch the whales and swim in one direction until we hit the land. We'll die either way and drowning feels like the safer option here," said Hermana hurriedly.

"Let's all calm down."

Baha raised his hands authoritatively and reassuringly.

"Do the Black Whales have an exact location or are they roaming until they find the Bald Kraken?"

I asked, and came the answer.

DEEP—

DOWN—

TYRANT—

SLEEPS—

"Sounds like they know where they're headed."

"But where exactly?" said Baha impatiently. I figured a sailor without a sea chart and any means of navigation was bound to feel helpless in the middle of the sea, not to mention being 'kidnapped' by the highly intelligent animals with dubious characters and bad rep all around.

"Wait. There's more," I waved at the others to keep quiet as another song boomed around us.

TYRANT—

VULNERABLE—

HUGGING—

PRIZED—

SHIP—

"Am I the only one thinking that these whales are doing this on purpose? To quiz us?" I complained, but Hermana and Baha looked serious, appalled even.

"What's wrong?" I asked tentatively.

"They said the Kraken is hugging a ship, deep down below," said Hermana cautiously.

"Yeah?"

"... There's only one sunken ship in this sea. The one that hasn't been salvaged. We're sure because the salvager union always keeps records."

Okay. I got the cue this time too. And a chill too.

But, really? Were things really coming together like this?

"Only if we had the star charts with us, then we can cross-check the course and know for good that we're heading in the same direction…" Baha grunted exasperatedly.

"I think I know where we're going," said a voice abruptly.

We all turned to Elysia, who had been reading the stars patiently the past half-hour or so. She pointed to the horizon, at the sparkling stars just above the line.

"We're heading in the same direction we had started with."

Toward the sunken ship, Doby Mick II.

"Impossible. How can you tell apart the distinct movements of the stars without the chart?" asked Baha with a mixture of shock, disbelief… and hope.

"I memorized the chart, just like you told me to," blinked Elysia innocently.

"I only meant you to study it thoroughly—a figure of speech—impossible!"

Baha was smiling by the end of the broken sentence.

"It's just an Elf thing. Nothing new."

I said that. I felt the need to shrug off some smugness in place of my amazing girlfriend.

.

.

.

We were all thinking the same thing.

Doby Mick I crashed not because a young, ambitious navigator made a mistake. Nor did it crash because it met a natural disaster like a storm or a giant iceberg.

Lord Cephalos, a.k.a the Bald Kraken, was known for attacking sh.i.p.s and animals like on the sea, but there had always been remains for the other to see and fear the catastrophes.

Doby Mick I, the largest and the most successful salvager ship in history, disappeared without a trace along with its entire crew. Not a single piece of hardwood floated by afterward. Not a single clothing or maimed body parts either.

A theory was forming. Lord Cephalos needed a new home. So he took the entire ship under the sea, as intact as possible. He did not headbutt or wreck the ship with his spear 'hands' as usual.

One night, the Kraken approached the ship from below and pulled it down to the bottom of the sea. The buoyancy, or upthrust, of the large ship against the surface of the water proved to be a challenge for even the largest sea creature in this world. The crew fought, slightly taken aback by the abnormal behavior of the monster. Once they realized that they were being taken down under, it was too late.

Half of the crew were trapped inside their cabins and drowned to death without an opening of escape. The other half who fought gallantly were devoured by the energy-depleted Kraken in the aftermath.

"During the fight, a hole or two could have been made on the ship, helping the sinking easier, faster," Hermana concluded her 'theory' with a grave air.

No one said anything for a while. Only the rhythmic churning of water against the swimming whales filled the starry, moonlit night on the sea.

"That doesn't sound like Lord Cephalos at all," said Baha dryly.

"The disappearance of Doby Mick I does not sound like any other crash incidents either," Hermana retorted back.

"I've been meaning to ask, but if we don't know where exactly the original Doby Mick sank, where have we been heading all this time?"

"The last known coordinate as dictated by the preparatory navigation chart," answered Baha promptly.

"I see… And that means if the Kraken is indeed making himself home inside the sunken ship, then where the whales are taking us should be the more precise location, right?"

"It also makes sense why the last few years in search of Doby Mick I have been all failures," added Hermana in support.

Because the Kraken had been moving around with his 'home' on his back, like a giant, terrifying hermit crab, sweeping the floor of the ocean with over fifty corpses still trapped inside.

I expected Baha to jump in on the theory most excitedly. After all, if found to be true, it could remove any doubt and infamy that his father was responsible for the ship's disappearance.

We would have to survive the battle against the Kraken to live to tell the story in the first place, of course.

"Looks like your faith in your old man was going to pay off soon, Baha."

Baha threw me an indignant look and shook his head.

"I told you I never had any doubt."

"Yeah, well, tell that to the crew who betrayed you. Admit it, grandpa, you were obsessed, and, thankfully, it's going to be over soon."

Either through our deaths or that of the giant, aggressive, indomitable sea monster that had ever existed. The chances were not in our favor, but one could still hope.

"Obsession, eh?"

Baha chuckled in self-contempt, scratching his wooden as if fighting off the phantom itchiness bugging him from deep down.

"I might as well come clean now that we're all facing death in the form of Lord Cephalos."

Baha sounded eerily cheerful as he said those words.

"Shef said that I dragged you into my personal quest to free myself from my guilt. The guilt of having a stubborn, drunkard father who beat me and wanted me to become the same man he was."

Baha looked as if he could use a drink at the moment, but he smacked his dry lips and continued.

"My mother died when I was young. Don't remember her much. Father was out on the sea most of the time, and things were still shaky back in the days, with the fear of the Ant Queen invading us, laying eggs in our bodies... The sense of 'live today, die tomorrow' was prevalent. The future was uncertain, and people were free to choose their destinies and live their lives as if tomorrow didn't exist... except for me."

Baha literally twitched his arm as if raising a bottle of rum and stopped momentarily, rubbing his hand wistfully.

"Told you my old man wanted me to become a sailor like him. Such pride, such stubbornness. I didn't care what the others said about him, how brilliant a sailor he was. Born for the sea. Laikaan was the king of all lands, but the king of the ocean, that throne was vacant. And my father was the man for the job, not then, but eventually. The man didn't have a ship of his own, and he worked like a madman to save enough money to be captain of his own. Meanwhile, his only son was left at home, alone, eating moldy bread and rotting fish for weeks, months..."

An image of a boy waiting for his single-mom to come home at two o'clock in the morning, taking out a frozen pizza from the fridge, serving for two, in case the mother was hungry from her night shift, watching the frosty pizza turning inside the microwave, hungry but patient, soon the mother would come and hug him—only to watch her reach for the vodka and hiding her aging face in her palms, weeping softly...

"I had friends. Not the boys who listened to their mums, no. I was too unclean and uncultured, they said. I was the only ten-year-old in town who still didn't know how to read or write. The old man taught me to read sea charts. I knew numbers, and I knew sea talk... And Hermana, I lied earlier about the age when I wrote the book. I wasn't twelve. I was seventeen. Seven-f.u.c.k.i.n.g-teen, old enough to start a family back then and still struggling to write. Can you believe it?" Baha chuckled again, and it hurt those who heard it.

Hermana moved her lips but no word came out. The moonlight was too faint to see the color of her eyes, but she looked as if she were holding back tears of pity.

"You hated your old man," I said flatly.

A teenage boy threw the bottle of vodka against the wall. The woman looking older than she really was screamed back at him, telling him to leave her apartment. So he did.

Baha stared back at me and shook his head.

"There were times that I resented him for the long voyages, but I missed him too at the same time. I was young, and it was tough hanging out with my friends when things were turning against them so quickly, so unfairly even then."

I noticed Baha running his hand over the back of the whale he was sitting on, and I realized who his 'friends' were.

"If there was one thing that I ever wanted was to study these guys. Let people understand that they had it all wrong about these kind, intelligent creatures. So I told my father that I wanted to spend the rest of my life on the sea as he had wanted, but on the shore, with my humpback, humming friends."

Even the Black Whales kept their silence, listening in keenly.

"He didn't take it well. He never did. The fight went on for years... until that night. I remember all too clearly because I had just finished writing that book, A Study, and most importantly, it was the night before his last voyage. Before the disappearance."

A part of me wanted to stop him then. I did not want to imagine the last words exchanged between a parent and a child before parting.

Because I knew what they were like.

But Baha opened his mouth, vacantly, resignedly.

"I told him that I wished he would never come back. Told him to rot under the sea that he loved so much... I said that."

I said that, muttered Baha again, staring ahead at nothing, or the irretrievable past.

"Those were my last words to him."

Baha's voice was hollow, devoid of any emotion, not because there was none, but because there was too much, and now gone.