@t7,10 @^ @f09@t1@cSAILING THE SEA OF TOMORROW @f00@t5 A story by Nightgaunt of the Stolen Data Team. @f01@t1@c1. @f00@t3 It had been a journey without specific events. The wind filled the hoisted sails with energy that gave them speed, yet it caused no harm. The captain calculated his profit on this trip, and his face positively shone with pleasure, and the hard-working man surely deserved it... The fourteenth day of sailing went by, and the crew climbed up and down the masts with smiles on their faces, for never had their work been made easier than this, and never had the wind ever blessed them with such progress as it did now... It was the year 102 After Hatheg-Kla - The year that everything changed... Well, the people who have heard my sagas, have always thanked me and said that I am a great storyteller, but I am absolutely sure that I have not a faintest @#@t7,10 @^@t3chance of making you believe that all these delights would last long... I bet my storyteller-honour that you sharp ladies and gentlemen have guessed that something bad will happen soon, and I give you right! "Only the good die young" is a famous excerpt from the Pnakotic Manuscripts, and concerning this story, nothing could be more right. The honourable captain of the ship, Laif Barlin, was sailing the last trip of the season, and the weather was biting cold, yet the sky was azur-blue and no clouds was in sight. The passengers were wandering about on deck and laughter and happy voices could be heard over the friendly waves of the sea. Two of the passengers were talking to the captain about the wonderful weather. They were Osgari and Waethryth, two brave and experienced sailors, though they both were very young and beautiful. Osgari owned a ship herself in fact, but since there was nothing to do, she had joined captain Barlin on the last trip of the season. She was twenty-seven cycles old, and her beautiful face was almost always covered by a warm smile that seemed to come straight from her heart. Because of the temperature, she was dressed in thick fur, but you could still see her perfectly rounded forms, which had caused men to fall to their knees for her they very second they first lay their eyes on her - and that had helped her a lot sometimes, but it had also caused trouble. @#@t7,10 @^@t3 Her dear friend, Waethryth, who was standing next to her talking to Barlin, was also the navigator of her vessel. Waethryth was just as pretty as her friend, yet wiser and more thoughtful. She had taken the profession of her father, who had been a great navigator, who - it is said - could raise a mighty storm in seconds, and dismiss it even faster. She was kind and very likeable, and she was very easy to conversate with. They had an interresting discussion about the things only seamen - and sewomen - talk about, and it lasted until Grimwasa, the cook, had finished the late dinner. All the passengers gathered in the dining room of the ship - consumed the goods of Eb-Grain, while they got to know eachother better. One of the passengers, who looked like a magician, seemed a bit drunk, and her friend was not only embarrassed, but he also looked confused and surprised by the way the mage-looking women behaved. After all had finished off their meal, and sat holding their stomach and talking about the delicious food, the strange woman, who seemed a bit drunk, became very pale. Osgari thought she was going to throw up her just-eaten dinner, but instead something unbelievable happened... Her eyes was open wide, as her mouth. Strange sobbing sounds came from her throat, and soon she fell of her chair and landed on the floor. She started to writhe as she tried to wring off her shirt, and it looked as if though she @#@t7,10 @^@t3cried, but she shed no normal tears. Red, thick liquid ran down her cheeks, like the River of Death, in distant Leng, where no man dears tread, and her eyeballs became red with the pouring blood. A little child screamed in horror over what was happening, and everybody turned to see... The woman died in a pool of her own blood, and some of the poor passengers fell to their knees, praying - while others ran on deck, for their stomachs could not keep the delicious food down. And while the passengers, filled with fearful questions of what had happened to the mage-like lady, returned to their cabins, black flashs clouds united their strength over the heads of the travellers. And the wind started to grow wilder, and it whipped the sea to release it's enormous waves, which it always keeps within for special occasions... ...Surely, this was one... @f01@t1@c2. @t3@f00 In the beginning of that day, when morning just had broken, another of the passengers had just entered the vessel, and stood watching the striving mates loading her cases and bags aboard the ship... Her name was Daehaelin Cirya, and she was the fifth youngest child of the @#@t7,10 @^@t3ruling noble family of Drinen. She had showed an affinity for magic at a young age. This became evident in early childhood when she began to glow red if emotional, stunned or bleeding. The cause of this unusual phenomenom had never been adequately explained, she had no control over it, and this day it was going to cause her real trouble... As you maybe have guessed, witty listener, this strange phenomenom was unleashed when the woman I told you about earlier deceased in a most tragic way. She felt a cold chill running through her veins, and up her back, with the speed of light, and all of the present, except the dying woman of course, could see a strange red glow coming from the young, terrified princess. But as many passengers ran on deck, horrified, only few others could see that Grimwasa the cook, calmly took out a pencil and a notebook of his pocket, and wrote something, while staring towards Daehaelin with the look of an insane man. Then, our princess' fear increased to such a level, that she blacked out... @f01@t1@c3. @t3@f00 The captain's golden hopes and happiness were turned into a blackened hell in the wink of an eye. Never before had this happened to him - not even when he smuggled spies during the War of the Flies. @#@t7,10 @^@t3 I am a bit ashamed to tell you this, but the womans departing was not so difficult for him to bear. What he couldn't stand the thought of, was the questions and the rumours he knew was going to start when people got to know about the episode. People around in his town - Shrel-Kain - had not much to talk about, and therefore he was terrified, thinking about what the citizens of Shrel-Kain would do when they got hold of this sensational and rather unique story. He felt a cold chill running down his back, while he desperately stormed his brain for a solution. When men has a seemingly unsolvable problem, they, strangely enough, seem to have some sort of executing, childish belief in that something miraculous will happen and save them from their terrible fate... This was not what Barlin felt now. He was sure that this was his last moment of honour and safety, and he felt that not even the gods of unknown Kadath could help him now. Not even the gods... @f02@t1 To be continued... @@