21. Shortcomings

Brooke fights a giant, sea serpent with the disadvantage of not knowing how to swim.

Brooke had to escape from the hold. Fighting a giant serpent two floors beneath would leave Brooke at too many disadvantages. In addition, she needed the elves safe. Brooke ran to the hold’s door. The hooded man stepped through, his stature looming over her small frame. He possessed a solemn face. He attempted to shove her inside. As his hands neared her, she grabbed the cloth of his cloak, and reinforced the attack. They spun and she ended up shoving him inside instead. Brooke dashed out of the hold, locking the door behind her. She heard the hooded man banging on it and swearing at her. Brooke smirked and went up the stairs to the main deck.

The roaring serpent swiped up bundles of elfin thieves in its mouth, swallowing them whole, and sometimes chewing them up. Green blood dripped from the serpent’s jaw like slime.

          The little elfin thief that spoke to them before boarding the ship cracked his whip and the big creature it rode hurled fire at the serpent. The serpent ducked into the water and the fire drowned within the wild waves. The little elfin thief looked horrified and it jumped down, ready to give commands to the other elfin thieves.

          Brooke gazed at the sky and a raindrop fell into her eye. She blinked and rain poured down. Her feet felt unbalanced and slippery against the ground. She knew this fight would be difficult. How was she going to start, she pondered. Striking the beast while it swept down to scoop up more elfin thieves was like connecting all three sevens on a gambling machine. She had to be fast enough, flexible, and agile. Sitting in a cell made Brooke stiff as the boards she slept on. Two of those sevens were already two different kinds of fruit. It was a lucky shot she got its tongue. 

            First, Brooke had to get its attention, or she would seem like a fly the serpent had to swat away. It had to be her opponent and she had to be its opponent. Brooke thought about it and decided. She flipped the sword of the handle, holding it like a ball. She licked the corner of her lip, and then thrust the sword. It landed just below the beast’s neck.

          The serpent roared. It shook and flapped its gills as if it were shuddering. The serpent turned its attention to Brooke and she saw her reflection through its intelligent, black eyes.

          Something tugged on Brooke's jumpsuit and she looked down to see the little elfin thief. “What are you doing?”

          Brooke grinned and replied, “With all the ruckus going on upstairs, I came to check out the problem.”

          The little elfin thief narrowed its beady eyes at her, adjusting his spectacles, and it looked her up and down. It cleared his throat. “You’re not an elf.”

          Brooke faked a gasp and touched her ears. “Gee, how could you tell, you gonna let me take care of this thing or not?” Brooke glanced at the beast and swallowed her breath. The elfin thief scrambled out of the way. The beast reared its head, scooped up some blue elfin thieves, their wails echoing, and then silenced.

 “It’s your funeral.” Brooke accepted that as permission granted.

The beast reared its head, and bent it to attack again. Brooke shoved the little elfin thief out of the way. She had to move away from anyone. Brooke was the beast’s target.

 She ran and the serpent sent attacks that followed her trail. The rain also fought against the woman, beating against her eyes. Brooke slipped, and fell hard against the main deck surface as the serpent snapped its jaw shut right before her heels. Brooke’s heart thumped in her chest, and she crawled away from the beast. She shook her head and rose to her feet. She couldn’t crawl here. There was no time for messing up. She didn’t want to end up like those blue elfin thieves and she had people to protect. People to protect? She wondered and flashed back to Princess Catalina. Internally, she shook her head. There was no time to dwell on failures. This will not be another one.

Brooke stopped and the serpent loomed over the boat, its body rubbing against the side of the ship. She saw an opening. She had to get off the ground. Brooke observed her settings and the big creature thing caught her eye. She used his tail to climb onto the big creature. It thrashed around, stomping its feet. Brooke glanced at the serpent, and knew it would soon attack the creature. Brooke grabbed onto the creature’s corpse skin, its rubber flesh beneath her fingers. Her bare feet made it hard to stay up. She gripped onto the skin, and hoisted herself atop of the saddle on its head. She plopped down on the leather seat and snapped the reins. The creature stopped thrashing as if whoever held the reins, held complete control. Brooke had never ridden a horse before. Mary disliked animals and although Mom said she wanted a horse once, she didn’t stick around for her father to buy it.

Her stomach twisted and Brooke pulled on the reins in the direction she wanted the creature to go. The beast attacked as soon as the creature tromped away. Brooke felt relived, but the relief vanished when the serpent slithered towards them. The serpent bit the creature and it cried in pain. Brooke stood, and wobbled as the creature began to kneel. She leaped and grabbed the part of the main sail. There was a large hole in the middle of it, but Brooke decided to make the best of it. She climbed onto the sail. The serpent followed, slithering behind her, its body lain over the ship’s main deck. Brooke began to fear its weight might crush the elves. She had to move quicker.

Brooke bit her bottom lip as the serpent slithered closer to her. She used her arms the most to climb upward. She swung against the sail and used her weight to turn the sail to wrap around the serpent. Brooke let go and she fell hard on the quarterdeck. She watched the serpent bite, and tear up the sails, wrapping itself in a deeper mess. She grabbed another big creature thing, hoisted herself onto the creature, and made it face the caught up serpent. Brooke saw the little elfin thief do this. She yanked on the creature’s head tusks and the creature released a gorge of fire at the serpent.

The serpent wriggled and roared, its body shuddering. Brooke used the creature to climb onto what was left of the sail. She then leaped from the sail onto the beast’s line of hair. Brooke tried to reach her sword, but the serpent tore down the entire main sail, and along with Brooke brought her into the water. She couldn’t swim.

She gripped the serpent’s hair, holding her breath. The serpent slithered in the water, the flames disappearing into the waves. Brooke feared the serpent would not return to surface soon. She had to continue to go for the sword. She fought the water resistance and climbed from the bottom of the line hair to the middle before the serpent rose above the water. Brooke saw they were beside the ship. The serpent roared and continued to attack the elfin thieves. Brooke climbed to the top of the hairs and reached down. Her fingers slipped and she caught onto the sword’s handle. As the serpent prepared to bend its head to attack, Brooke pulled the blade down and sliced half the serpent up. Blood poured into the water and some on Brooke. She mashed her lips together and found herself slipping back into the ocean. The serpent was too slick to hold onto anything.

Suddenly, the serpent was on fire. Brooke watched the serpent go lifeless, limp, and fall into the ocean, taking Brooke with it. The water filled Brooke’s lungs and she was scared. Was she going to die here?

 

Author's Note

Dear Reader,

Well, another fight. Please tell me what you think of the fight scenes because they are much important to the story.

Thanks for reading!

Sincerely JazzSoulKeke,

God bless

Reviews

[Arutha]

Hiya! I'm going to read this fully, but go a little lighter than usual on the review (with a more character-centric approach), as I have you and six others to read for the FF contest, but I will call out anything that just appears glaring.

"She flipped the sword of the handle..." Handle of the sword? Also, I wasn't sure about the reference to the gambling machine. I remember you talking about diaries in closets and stuff, like this is maybe a present-day fantasy with an old-world twist, or something, but the slot machine totally threw me out of the fantasy scene that was playing out in my mind.

Also, you describe the "creature" that Brooke mounts as having "corpse skin," which I was unclear on, particularly when you then implied that it was a horse.

So Brooke has really developed quite a bit since my first peak at your prologue. I like her confidence when she's talking to the elf dude, and her obvious tendency to laugh in the face of danger.

"...its body lain over the ship’s main deck." This should be "laid" or "splayed out" or something, not "lain." Lain is past participle, so it is generally used in reference to something that "had happened."

"...Brooke pulled the blade down and sliced half the serpent up." The wording here doesn't paint a vivid picture in my head of the action that is being performed. Also, why did she "mash" her lips? I didn't really understand what that was referring to.

"...from the bottom of the line hair..." not sure what a "line hair" is.

Anyway, definitely a very gripping chapter. The action is great, and it really drew me in!