Yun scanned the ship. The crew was knocked out, the Captain had gone to bed, and the prisoners were basically dead already. If he screamed, he'd have to explain himself quickly before being thrown overboard. Something told him that this rowdy bunch wasn't in a listening state.
There was one other option.
He turned to Miri.
"Psst! Lady Miri," he whispered. She turned to him, looking slightly confused. Her expression remained calm, but Yun picked up on the micro twitches her facial muscles made.
"You'll want to see this."
From below the grating, he could hear the prisoners whisper amongst each other. Either they had heard a monstrous sound, or they wondered why Yun was calling over his captor.
Miri leapt from her position on the bridge and landed nimbly close to Yun. "What is it?"
"Below the ship," Yun said as he jerked his chin towards the starboard rail. "Something's there."
Miri sighed, shaking her head in exasperation as if Yun was a jumpy child shrieking at every sound and shadow. Her grey eyes gleamed like cold steel as she placed her hand on the scabbard of her blade.
"I didn't take you for a scaremonger. What are you getting at?"
Yun's neck tingled at her words. "Living. I wanna live, okay."
She squinted at Yun, but he stared back, making sure not to waver.
Grumbling, Miri strode to the rail and peered over. For a moment, the waters fell deceptively silent. Miri also stood petrified, until one word echoed from her lips.
"Crap."
She turned from the rail, her boots pounding across the deck. Yun hoped that she would at least free him from bondage, but she just marched right past him.
"Hey, I think thanks are in order here. Maybe by granting me freedom," he hissed, only to be completely ignored.
The waves crashed more violently against the hull of the ship. The salt-stung wind bellowed. Thunder crashed and roared. The storm barrier had sensed the creature's presence as well. And it was waking up once more.
"Boy, what the hell is happening?" Scruffy's panicked voice crackled from below.
Yun was too busy trying to catch Miri's attention and straining his body against his binding to give a full answer. Much to Scruffy's irritation, it seemed:
"Speak, brat. I don't care that you're the scion of some abandoned tribe!"
"I'd worry about finding the key to my cage, if I were you," replied Yun.
"Huh, what are you talking—"
"On your feet, you bilge rats!" Miri roared.
A few groans answered her. One of the men, an unnecessarily large brute, waved a dismissive hand. "Wait, little Miri. World's spinnin' right now."
"That's because it really is."
In a single, fluid motion, she drew her sword and brought the flat of the blade down on the empty rum barrel beside him. The crack of steel on wood was like a watchman's firearm.
"ON YOUR FEET, for Court's sake!" Her voice boomed unnaturally loud, causing Yun's ears to ring. He grimaced. "There's a damn Plague Monster beneath the Blood Maiden that looks like it could use her masts as toothpicks! Looks like it's at least a Dragon."
Miri barked instructions as she marched across the ship, helping the most disoriented of the crew to their feet.
"Now, every man and woman who wishes to see tomorrow should man the Maiden's gun decks as well as arm themselves. Those with the most vital essence left should head to the bridge and power the script circles. MOVE!"
Salt water exploded onto the deck as lightning struck, punctuating Miri's command with a blinding white light. The preternatural authority in her voice overtook the drunkenness, shocking the red-clad crew into motion. Miri then disappeared into the captain's quarters, most likely to fetch Maliki.
As the first of them stumbled to their feet, the sea beside the ship began to boil. The water bulged. A great dome of the ocean rose as if pushed from below. The surface tension broke, and from the frigid abyss, the leviathan emerged.
It was a nightmare given form with sheer scale and teeth. Knotted volcanic rock, draped in forests of seaweed, formed its hide. Its head was like a battering ram, studded with tusks of rotting bone. And it fixed its ancient, chilling gaze upon the ship with nothing but madness behind it.
It let out a sound that was less a roar, sounding more like the deafening whirs and wails of military sirens.
Well, I did ask for a big-ass fish.
***
It was five centuries ago when the world split open, birthing the Great Break. From its maw, the Plague was born. Plague Monsters flooded in from the long-fallen Forsaken Realm, overwhelming our world's biggest military powers at the time. But you came here for some fantasy, not a history lesson. So let's talk about it.
The Forsaken Realm.
A world once filled with wonder and history much older and stranger than our own, now the cradle of corruption, a victim of the Plague.
Most of you reading this will never set foot in it, much to your disappointment. And I'm here to say: you're all fools; you should be grateful. That world is true horror, not fiction. There's no soundtrack. It was not made for your entertainment. Whatever the Divines face in that place, it is something the human mind was never meant to survive—and most don't.
All efforts to categorize the abominations of the Plague are futile, but is it not human nature to strive for order within chaos?
All beings of the Forsaken Realm, including Plague Monsters, are born with an organ unique to that world known as a vital core, providing them with the vital essence responsible for their strength and harrowing powers. We have managed to discover and identify seven classes of these creatures. In ascending order of vital core count (1-7): Mortals, Beasts, Demons, Dragons, Giants, Titans, and Disasters.
I thank Severin; our world has seen nothing past a Giant. If you're a Divine reading this, remember: purge the Mortal, avoid the Beast, and fear the Demon.
If you encounter a Dragon, unrealistic as that is, it's safe to say you have wandered too far.
And to all the wanderers, may Severin have mercy on your soul.
—L.G. Tiffon, A Divine's Guide to Living as a Coward.