Sweet-Toothed Savages Episode 7

Written by: Paul Holmes

 

Episode 7: Ori O'Knows 

The Carn-EVIL Clipper ploughed through the rough waves of the Grand Strait that separated the Eastern and Western continents of Skalmarune. It was almost perfectly dark due to the tempest the ship was navigating. Not a single star managed to poke through the storm, and the only light that Steve (Fudgey Steve to those ingrates on the message board) had to see by were small circles of dim dancing light from the shielded lanterns that bounced against the rails at irregular intervals around the ship.

Captain Rumguts Radke manned the wheel. For the most part he navigated by sheer instinct assisted by the strange little man sitting cross-legged on the planks near the Captain’s firmly planted boots.

The little man’s clown paint was nearly gone; washed away by the torrential rain pounding down on the decks. His tricorn hat wilted in the wind and rain, but he was focused on the softly glowing crystal ball in his lap. Ori O’Knows had a number of inexplicable abilities, but foremost amongst them was the ability to peer into the smokey glass of the future. Using that skill to avoid the tallest waves and the unexpected vertical juts of stone that peppered the Straits known as ‘Sea Stacks’ was dicey at best. Doing so in the midst of a massive storm was borderline impossible, but right now it was necessary as the Carn-EVIL Clipper currently had a half-dozen ships from the Scorran navy in full-sail chase behind them.

Steve watched the Captain and the Seer while he held onto a nearby rail and his stomach at the same time, but he couldn’t make out how the two were communicating. Ori stared into the cloudy orb in his lap and occasionally raised a hand. Holding up a variable number of fingers in strange, twisted forms. Whatever he was telling Rumguts, the Captain seemed to understand and reacted immediately. The system seemed to be working thus far: The Clipper had yet to run afoul of anything that could put her in more danger than the tempest already presented.

Ori abruptly raised both hands straight up then pointed with both hands at an angle to his left. Rumguts barked a laugh, patted Ori O’Knows on the head and began to spin the wheel counterclockwise. Once the turn had been made, he slapped the Seer on the shoulder and pointed aft.

As Ori scooted around to face the rear of the ship, Steve glanced back, and in a fortuitous flash of lightning, saw the Scorran ships. They were much closer than he was comfortable with.

A strange, pale green glow from behind him caught Steve’s attention, and he turned to see it was coming from the crystal ball in Ori’s lap. He was running his hands all over the orb, as if caressing it. Steve could see his lips move, but in the cacophony of the storm, Steve heard nothing of what the strange little man was saying.

A few seconds of this, and then Ori threw his head back and let loose an inhuman sound. A cross between a lion’s roar and the growly grunt of a hippopotamus. The orb flashed bright crimson for an eyeblink before returning to its previous eerie green.

“BLOODFIN!”, Ori called at the top of his lungs. “I call you forth to surface and bring an end to those that corrupt your domain!”

Moments later, in the flash of multiple lightning strikes, Steve watched as what looked like the largest Great White Shark he had ever imagined broke the surface and ploughed through two of the Scorran war vessels, reducing them to flinders. Though it was impossible to hear over the storm’s fury, Steve imagined he could hear the screams of the Scorran sailors as they were swallowed by the seventy-five-foot beast. 

Twice more Ori O’Knows called forth beasts from the deep of the Grand Straits.

Next was Dreadmaw, the Devil Whale. A massive scarlet whale that swallowed two more Scorran vessels before disappearing back to it’s haven deep below the storm.

Following Dreadmaw was possibly the most terrifying thing Steve had ever witnessed. A gargantuan multi-headed dragon, Leviathan, Leviarus, erupted from the waves and reduced the final two Scorran vessels to ash before returning to the deep. Scorrah would not be receiving any word of the Carn-EVIL’s direction from their first wave of ships.

Ori O’Knows, obviously exhausted from his efforts, scooted himself back around to face forward, and slumped over his crystal ball in fatigue. Luckily for him, his talents were no longer needed, as the storm soon ebbed, allowing the Clipper to sail to the southeast without difficulty.

Clear skies greeted the Savages’ vessel, and they enjoyed a more leisurely pace without the harrowing ships of King Svein.

While he was not included in the conversations, Steve soon grew to understand that they were to bypass the nearest landfall of the Wyldelands and instead bear towards the Teak Isles. In specific, Siren’s Hollow.

 

Neither of these locations were familiar to Steve from the various SweetTooth Savages media he had devoured back home, but from what he could gather, the Wyldelands was home to harsh wilds and creatures violently over-sized. DJ Kernelz specifically complained about a honey badger the “size of a f*cking inn!”

Siren’s Hollow in the Teak Isles, on the other hand, was spoken of in almost reverence by most of the Savages. Names such as Rum Wrecker Ruby, Shandy Sandy, and Crimson Plunder were mentioned as near prayers and wistful looks in the eye when mentioned. 

All Steve knew was that he was happy to have survived the Grand Strait and to be heading towards what sounded like a welcoming port of safety.