The waves crashed noisily on the beach and covered most of the white sand
with itself. The sun shone brightly down on the large trees and the loud
animal sounds in the jungle. The high tide waved Dante up onto the ashen
sand. He lied there for a few moments, unconscious before finally coming to
and spitting up seawater onto the already moist sand. He coughed heavily,
getting the rest of the water out of his lungs. He looked around for a few
moments with blurry vision until he blinked a few times and the world was
clear. He stood up and wiped the sand from his wet clothes and looked
around for anyone else that might've made it. He was surprised to find that
his sword had somehow managed to float to shore after him, but he still saw
no one.
Suddenly, he heard moaning coming from some brush far off to the right.
Dante picked up his sword and ran towards the noise. Under a collage of
large leaves from the jungle and wood from the ship, Dante found Captain
Rhodes. He grabbed her by her shoulders and shook her vigorously until she
awoke. She coughed water up much the same as Dante had done.
The captain attempted to blink away the blurry vision, "Dante?"
"Captain Rhodes! Are you alright?"
"Why didn't you let me die? My place is not here now, it was on that ship."
"I wasn't going to allow your pride to compromise your life. You should
thank me."
The captain sat up quickly, "I wanted to compromise my life. That is how it
goes. Thanks to you, I can never show my face in any respectable port in
the world. Many thanks to you, Dante, for disgracing my name. Fool!"
Dante decided he'd had enough, "Just wait here, I'm going to go look for
the others." He started to walk along the beach.
"Thank you, Dante. Really. Here you saved my life and I'm yelling at you.
Can you forgive me?"
Dante just kept walking down the beach. Now he prayed he wasn't seeing
things. Far off in the distance was a large blue shape that was kneeled
down. "Kermaan!" Dante called to the shape and it stood up and Dante
approached him.
Kermaan stood next to a mound of sand that was about big enough to fit a
person in.
"Where are Gorki and Aria?" Dante knew Kermaan's older brother couldn't be
far away.
Kermaan looked down at his hand. In his hand was Gorki's half of the
necklace the brothers shared.
Dante looked again at the mound of sand. He was right in guessing it was
big enough to fit a person inside. A small person. A small blue person.
Gorki.
"I'm sorry, Kermaan. I'll leave you to mourn." Dante started back towards
the captain.
"Dante," Kermaan called after him.
Dante was awestruck at Kermaan's broken silence and even more so at his
almost perfect speech, "Alexandria kill Gorki."
"When did he die?"
"He come up on shore like this not too long ago."
"Was it the bomb that killed him?"
"Maybe." There was a long pause between the conversation before Kermaan
spoke again, "Kermaan must go back to village to tell them of Gorki's
passing."
"Why don't you come with us?"
"Kermaan would like to, but death is to be reported to the village as soon
as possible."
"Well then this is when we go our separate ways."
"It was honor fighting with you, Dante."
"Likewise."
The two shook hands and with a final look at each other, went their
separate ways. Kermaan went into the woods and Dante to the captain.
When he got back to her, he found she still was lying among the wood and
grass but she was now sleeping.
He gathered wood and stones and made a small fire next to the captain. He
lie down on the other side and stared out into the sun setting on the
water. He couldn't believe that he must've been drifting in the ocean all
day and that miraculously, he had come ashore near the captain and Kermaan.
He thought he heard crunching behind him and brought his sword closer to
him. When the crunching of sand stopped, he let go of his sword. Suddenly,
a large shadow came over his body. Dante jumped up and turned around to
find it was only Kermaan.
"Kermaan sorry if Dante was frightened," the large blue warrior decided to
speak again.
"It's okay. You just startled me."
"Kermaan sorry."
"I said it's okay. What did you come back for?"
"If Kermaan go with Dane, Kermaan get to Alexandria?"
"Once the king finds out, we'll be going there one way or another."
"Then Kermaan stay with Dante and captain."
The two sat down in the sand next to the fire and Dante said, "What's for
you in Alexandria?"
"Alexandrian soldiers kill Gorki. Kermaan kill Alexandria soldiers."
"It might be a little tougher than that."
"Kermaan no care how long it take. Kermaan want Alexandria to feel loss."
Dante and Kermaan went the rest of the night in silence. It didn't matter
though because before he realized it, Dante had laid his head down in the
sand and gone to sleep.

**************************************************************
The gray, dreary clouds overhead were telltale signs that rain was
imminent. Dante felt a cool wind blowing over his face. At least he thought
it was wind before
a hot, sticky, moist tongue lay on his face. He
immediately jumped up and looked into the dark brown eyes of the small
creature that was licking his face.
The creature was a fat, brown two-legged creature whose tongue, even pulled
back, still drooped far out of its mouth. It looked up at him with eyes
that reflected pure stupidity and it looked as if it permanently had a
smile on its face.
Dante picked he sword up out of the sand and lightly smacked the creature
on the head with the blunt end of the blade. The creature looked as if it
was going to attack him, but just turned around and ran into the jungle.
The captain stirred next to where the fire used to be, "Can't you find
something else to do rather that pick on defenseless animals?"
"Not when they're licking my face while I'm sleeping," Dante looked around
the immediate area, "Where is Kermaan?"
"Kermaan made it!? That's great! So where are Aria and Gorki?"
Dante's voice quickly dropped, "Gorki didn't make it. We think he was
killed in the bomb blast."
"What about my sister?"
"Who knows? She jumped into the water with us and I saw her ahead of us,
but I haven't seen her since we came ashore."
The captain looked around a little bit, "We must go now. This area is not
safe during the day."
"How so?" Dante didn't think that a place as serene as this would even know
about danger.
Suddenly, Dante heard a loud squeal coming from the trees. The creature
that was licking Dante's face burst back out of the woods, followed closely
behind by what looked like an enormous red lion with horns on its nose and
stripes all over its body. The small creature didn't stand a chance against
the more powerful predator. The larger creature bit one of the small one's
legs, making it fall instantly to the sand. The paralyzed creature tried to
fight back, flailing its tongue around in all directions. The predator
quickly jumped on top of the large-tongued animal and began picking at it.
Finally, with a loud whine, the smaller animal succumbed to death and the
larger one enjoyed its catch.
"That's how so. Let's get out of here." She jumped up quickly and dusted
herself off.
The two ran as fast as they could into the jungle and away from the feast
that was taking place on the beach.
"Kermaan!" Dante suddenly remembered they were missing someone.
"What about him?"
"He was at the fire when I went to sleep and he was gone when I woke up. I
have to go back and look for him."
"If you want to go back there with that thing waiting for us, be my guest.
Kermaan's a big boy, he'll find us. Don't worry about it."
"I guess you're right. Where are we going anyway?"
"There's a village in these woods somewhere that the men talk about. A
place called Arazel. They say anyone that goes there is welcome. If Aria
disappeared and is still alive, that's where she'll be."
"What about Kermaan?"
"Like I said, Kermaan's a hunter. He'll find us before you even realize it."
"Dante!" Dante heard Kermaan called from behind them. It was perfect timing
because as soon as he turned around, an arrow flew by his head and buried
its head in a tree.
The three travelers looked up from where the arrow came from. Up near the
top of a tall tree, a figure crouched in a brown and green cloak. In the
person's hand was a bow with another arrow waiting to fire. Suddenly, the
cloaked figure stood up, drew a sword, and jumped down towards the three
fighters.