Chapter 46: 46: Island of bones (1)
[23 hours remaining.]
Harley looked at the paper in his hands that contained their mission. He sighed, relaxing on the boat they took.
He looked up at Vernox, who handled the singular sail flawlessly. Shifting a single pedal to bend or balance the boat, it was as if he had trained for this his entire life.
Harley couldn’t help but think that without Vernox he might still be in the kingdom. He was sure that he would have found a way to scale through, but it felt nice having a reliable person on his side.
"Hey." Harley called out to Vernox, who was focused on the waters.
The young man turned his golden eyes to look at Harley. He had a determined expression on his face and there was a flickering emotion deep in his eyes.
"I know we hadn’t met each other other than this trial. But I’m really thankful you chose to complete it with me." Harley spoke from his deepest emotion.
Vernox only stared at him with a perplexed expression, then turned back to the waters, choosing to remain silent.
Eventually, he opened his mouth to speak again.
"Why did you kill her?" That was the only question that came out of his mouth.
Harley didn’t answer immediately, having a slight smirk on his face.
He had deduced the kind of person Vernox was. The black-haired human was a trustworthy person upfront, but he hated people turning their backs on him.
Back when they were raiding the lizardman nest, they were betrayed by Lesley, who waited for them to be weak before he struck to take the spoils for himself.
And what did Vernox do when it happened?
He got triggered, his cold shell broke and he got angry for the first time since they met.
Harley was a person who was wary of people. From the real world, growing up where children constantly fought for survival and thriving, he knew just how capable every person is of being evil.
Even before they were betrayed in the cave, Harley simply doused their drink with desert ash just so they wouldn’t pose a threat.
However, what happened after the siege seemed to be something that he could never foresee.
"I did it..." He paused, raising his head to look Vernox in the eye. "I did it because I hate being used, I hate people using me."
Vernox sighed, looking at the waters once more.
"She played with my mind, I have no idea how she did it." Harley spoke another excuse, smirking to himself.
He knew himself to never trust his emotions, but just for that day, what if she really cared for him. He didn’t care if it was out of pity, it just felt good and he stayed with it.
Although he noticed that he was physically stronger than the seer, he knew that he would be able to deal with her or counter any attack from her. But the thing was that she didn’t try to attack him after he let his guard down, and after he stopped thinking of her as a threat, she still remained sweet and kind.
"How foolish of me?" He laid back on the border of the small boat, and then looked at Vernox, throwing him a question.
"What would you have done?"
Vernox shook his head, looking at the circumstances.
"I would let her go. There’s no need for blood to be spilled." Vernox answered, but then he looked at Harley.
"If I was in your shoes, I think I would take an arm at most." He spoke, and Harley shifted his perception of the black-haired man in front of him.
He could understand that his rage and weakness was not Vernox’s rage or weakness. So he kept quiet.
The boat continued forward for the longest time, and they hadn’t been able to see the Kingdom of Gord ever since the sun rose. And since then they had kept going for another ten hours, but there was no sign of reaching their destination yet.
"People of the kingdom spoke about the island, so I believe it has to not be far as they said." Vernox spoke, having a determined expression on his face.
Harley stood up as he saw something in the distance, and he frowned.
"Is that a wall?" He asked.
Ahead of them was what looked like a white cloud of fog that rose up all the way to the clouds.
"It’s a thick fog!" Harley shouted, feeling the waters getting restless.
The boat rattled and Vernox tried his best to steady the sails.
"Remember, through the fog. That’s where the island is!" Vernox shouted at Harley and the white-haired man nodded and held onto the boat tightly.
Above the water their small boat was only one meter tall. It helped in a way that the waters weren’t able to leap into the boat.
Soon, they dived into the fog, and the waters became still once more. Harley took out two paddles and threw one to Vernox. The wind inside the fog was basically non-existent.
As they paddled deeper and deeper into the fog, the silence was deafening. The occasional roars of the waves were what made the ocean feel like the ocean. It was as if there weren’t any creatures swimming within.
The boat glided forward through the impenetrable white, the only sounds now the rhythmic dip of paddles slicing water and their own breathing. The fog swallowed everything—light, sound, even the sense of time. Harley’s shoulders burned from the steady rowing, but he kept his grip tight on the wooden handle, eyes narrowed as he tried to pierce the milky veil ahead.
Minutes stretched into what felt like hours. Or perhaps only moments. In this place, it was impossible to tell.
Vernox’s golden eyes flicked left and right, scanning for any break in the monotony. His black hair was damp with mist, clinging to his forehead.
"Stay sharp," he muttered. "The fog may be dangerous."
Harley snorted softly. "After everything we’ve been through, a little fog isn’t going to—"
A low, hollow groan echoed from somewhere deep within the whiteness. It was quite a wave, not quite wind, but it was something else.
Both men froze, paddles hovering above the water.
The groan came again, closer this time, vibrating through the hull of the small boat like a dying breath. Harley’s grip tightened until his knuckles whitened. "What the hell was that?"
Vernox didn’t answer immediately. His expression had gone deathly still as he maximized his focus. "Keep rowing. Don’t stop. We’ve come too far."
They pushed forward. The temperature dropped sharply, the air growing clammy and heavy with the stench of rot and old brine. Then, slowly, shapes began to emerge from the fog; there were dark, jagged silhouettes that rose from the water like broken teeth.
Harley shivered as they finally got close enough to see what these shapes were.
They were bones, massive bones.
Harley’s stomach twisted as the first clear form came into view: the colossal ribcage of some long-dead sea beast, each rib thicker than a man’s torso, bleached white and encrusted with barnacles. They arched high overhead, forming a grotesque tunnel through which the boat now passed. Smaller bones—skulls, femurs, spines—floated lazily in the still water, bumping gently against the hull with soft, sickening thuds.
"The Island of Bones, we haven’t even gotten there," Harley whispered, half in awe, half in disgust. "They weren’t exaggerating."
Vernox’s jaw clenched. "Eyes on the water. Something’s moving."
Harley glanced down. Beneath the surface, pale shadows drifted—long, sinuous forms that could have been eels, or worse. One passed directly under the boat, close enough that Harley could make out the faint outline of a skeletal fin. The creature didn’t attack, at least not yet.
But the way it circled felt... hungry.
The fog began to thin in patches, revealing more of the nightmare seascape. Entire reefs made of intertwined skeletons stretched in every direction. Here and there, rusted remnants of old ships protruded from the bone piles like gravestones—broken masts, shattered hulls, tattered sails hanging like funeral shrouds. A half-submerged figurehead of a woman with hollow eyes stared blankly at them as they rowed past.
[19 hours remaining.]
Harley glanced at the time on the mission once again, and he wondered just how much further they needed to row.
Suddenly, the water ahead churned. A low mound of bones shifted and rose, water cascading off it in sheets.
Harley immediately turned to the side, seeing the creature not far away from them. The waves hit their boat hard and they glided sideways a bit.
What emerged was not a creature in the usual sense, but a towering amalgamation—hundreds of fused skeletons forming a hulking, multi-limbed thing. Empty eye sockets glowed with faint, sickly green light. It let out that same hollow groan, louder now, shaking the waters and the boat violently.
Vernox reacted instantly. He dropped his paddle, grabbed the single sail’s rope, and yanked hard, angling the boat sharply to the left. "Row! Hard left!"
Harley dug his paddle deep, muscles straining as the boat lurched. The bone-construct swung a massive arm—made of interlocking spines and skulls—down toward the water and moved toward them.
"Faster! It’s getting closer!" Vernox shouted, his golden eyes blazing with focus. He tied a rope to hold the sail in place and grabbed a paddle to continue forward.
They paddled desperately, weaving between the colossal ribs and floating debris. The creature pursued, its heavy steps sending tremors through the water. More shadows moved beneath the surface now, drawn by the commotion—smaller skeletal things breaking off from the main mass like parasites.
The waves sent by the movements of the towering creature were also able to push the boat forward. But despite its slow movements, it was catching up.
Harley’s mind raced. They couldn’t outrun it forever in this sluggish boat. His eyes darted across the bone-littered seascape, searching for anything that could give them an edge.
"There!" he yelled, pointing ahead. Through a gap in the fog, a dark silhouette rose from the water—the edge of the actual island they were looking for. Jagged cliffs made entirely of compressed bone and rock, with what looked like ancient, crumbling steps carved into the side. "The island! If we can reach the shallows—"
*Grrrrrr!*
Another groan. The construct was gaining; it was only a dozen metres away from them now.
Vernox’s expression hardened. "I’ll buy us time. You get us there."
Before Harley could protest, Vernox stood, balancing perfectly on the rocking boat.
He raised his hand and the black sword materialized out of thin air. He grasped it, looking at the approaching creature.
"All beneath the sky must burn." He pointed the sword forward towards the creature, and there, the flames erupted on the blade, licking the steel.
The next moment all of the flames moved towards the top of the blade, compressing.
And then it shot towards the thing with great speed.
*BOOOM!*
A huge wall of flame rose as the attack hit the creature. The winds pushed the boat further towards the island and Harley glanced back just in time to gaze at the image of the creature.
The impact shattered several ribs and sent the creature staggering backward with a deafening screech.
Harley didn’t waste the opening. He rowed with everything he had, the boat surging forward through the narrow channels of bone.
The island drew closer. The cliffs loomed, towering and ominous. As they approached the base, the water grew shallow enough that the hull scraped against submerged bones. Harley leaped out first, boots crunching onto a beach made of pulverized fragments. He turned and grabbed the side of the boat, dragging it up as far as he could.
Vernox jumped after him, dropping the sword to help drag the boat onto shore.
Behind them, the bone-construct roared in frustration but did not follow them to the island. It seemed bound to deeper waters and didn’t want to come.
There was a glint in its eyes, Harley could feel it. It was hatred...
However, the creature finally retreated back into the waters silently. It could be that it wasn’t a land creature.
Or maybe... It was scared of something else.
