The Chronicles of Soul

Day Nineteen

This afternoon I felt that the time was right to speak to Agorius about what had happened in the canyon and the conversation turned in due course to the responsibilities he would ultimately have to face as the future King. I praised him for the bravery he had displayed on the high pass just a couple of days ago and conceded that we probably would have missed our best chance had he not revealed himself to the beast at that point, but I had also to admonish him for his recklessness. I explained that a Sovereign must never endanger himself so and he accepted my warning with good grace.

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Day Twenty-One

Our course through these islands has been plotted by our chief navigator and its complexity is dictated by the need to avoid the treacherous currents for which thses waters are noted.

This evening, as we passed through a narrow channel between two jagged peaks, the night sky was briefly illuminated by a flash of orange light. The lookout summoned me to the main deck and together we awaited for a repetition of this strange phenomenon. Several minutes passed before it happened again but this time there could be no mistaking the two giant tongues of flame which roared out of the darkness towards us. Clearly visible behind them, high up in the mountains, was a dragon of immense size. Our vessel had just passed under a rocky causeway when the jets of fire came again, shattering the bridge into hundreds of superheated boulders  which threw off great plumes of steam as they plunged into the icy waters behind us.

It's quite possible that the commotion caused by the collapse of the causeaway led the creature to believe it had found its target for it made no further attacks on our ships last night.

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Day Twenty-Four

We have remained extremely vigilant for the last two days and this afternoon, as our ships rounded a particularly hazardous group of islands, Agorius spotted the creature again, gliding so low over the water that its wing tips sometimes skimmed the tops of the waves. At a distance its appearance was not dissimilar to that of a giant seabird. From time to time we saw its head dip into the water an as we watched it became apparant that it was feeding by plucking porpoises from just below the surface. When at last it noticed our ships the beast turned and headed straight for us, beating its enormous wings a couple of times to increase its speed.

The crews scattered as it made its first pass, coming in fast and low before peeling off in a great arc just a short distance from our vessel. It climbed a little and made a wide circuit of the ocean before attacking again, this time beginning the approach with a steep dive that further increased its velocity. Two enormous blasts of flame roared out of the dragon's mouth as it reeled away a second time. The fire licked at the upper reaches of the rigging but our luck held and the fire failed to take hold. The navigator galloped to my side and suggested we take cover amongst the relatively sheltered but fast-flowing channels which run between the islands. Despite the risks involved, I could see that this would represent our best chance to turn the situation to our advantage, so we signalled all the vessels to follow us into a craggy inlet that was looming over our starboard side.

The dragon was making another wide circuit as we made our dash for cover but the sound of its roar came drifting across the water and echoed threateningly through the canyon walls that now rose steeply on either side. The current that seized us as soon as we left the open ocean was simply astounding and before long we were hurtling along on colossal mounds of rolling water. Once or twice the waves broke over the deck but they did nothing to impede our rapid progress as we barrelled down the gorge. As the seas became yet higher and faster so it became more and more difficult to steer a course down the middle of the channel. The Captain fought with the ship's tiller as he endeavoured to prevent a collision with the canyon walls and every so often we were forced to veer off sharply to avoid the enormous standing waves which threatened to stop the ship dead or drag it under. We saw nothing of the dragon itself for the next few minutes but its shadow flashed across the ship's deck several times and its roar, which was amplified and echoed by the island's cliffs, had now become a perpetual cacophony.

Without warning the ship entered an especially turbulent patch of water and immediately began a slow rotation. Our Earth Pony Captain was powerless to prevent this disastrous manoeuvre and we soon found ourselves at the mercy of huge waves that came thundering into the side of the vessel, but under the relentless force of the current the spin continued and a few moments later we were facing forwards again, moving faster than ever.

Suddenly I was thrown violently to the deck. Our ship had plunged into a deep trough of turning water and our passage through the canyon had come to a shuddering and wet halt. So vast was this inverted wave that it swallowed the entire ship, holding her fast in a precarious position and exerting tremendous force on her timber frame, which groaned under the strain.

As the tumultuous waters surged past on either side of us the ship's crew struggled to maintain their positions on the badly sloping deck. The first of the other vessels hurled past us, closely shadowed by the dragon itself. Her crew were so busy trying to deal with the various fires that had broken out on deck that they barely even noticed our dire predicament, and were therefore unable to assist us in any way. We were momentarily awestruck by the sheer size of the beast as it flew overhead, its great wings almost spanning the width of the gorge.

I knew that we might never escape our fate but at least we had at our disposal the means to injure this terrible beast and possibly even slay it. Alone amongst the various ships, ours has a large deck-mounted ballister, which, though difficult to arm, is extremely powerful. The only advantage afforded by the incline of the ship's deck was that the ballister was pointing skywards, perfectly positioned to repel an attack from the air. Struggling to make myself heard above the rushing water, I ordered the crew to make ready the weapon by filling the huge pan at the back of its lever arm with a sackload of spiked iron balls. Several minutes passed before they had completed their task. Our Captain, his red coat soaked along with everypony else's, climbed to the top of our main mast and reported that one of our vessels appeared to be stuck fast on a rocky outcrop further up the channel. From what he could see, the dragon was making repeated attacks on their ship but was hampered by the confines of the canyon walls.

Eventually it gave up its assault on the others and turned its attention to us, presumably considering our vessel to be an easier target. To his credit, our Captain remained at the top of the mast as the monster bore down on us, readying himself to give the signal to fire. When his arm came down the dragon still couldn't be seen by those of us down on deck but the crew trusted his judgement and the catapult was duly fired, propelling its deadly hail high into the air.

At exactly the same moment, the dragon appeared above the ship, moving very fast and virtually filling the sky above us with its enormous bulk. Some of the missiles went astray but a great many collided with the creature's underbelly, embedding themselves in the flesh or opening up bloody gashes in the skin's surface where they had caught only a glancing blow. Some of the spiked balls punched straight through the wing membrane, leaving ragged holes which were almost certain to affect the dragon's stability in flight. An agonising shriek escaped its mouth as it banked away sharply and disappeared from view. Our desperation ensured that feelings of triumph were far from our minds but as the Captain came climbing down through the rigging I could see from his face that he had not given up hope of escape. Hurriedly, he explained that the other vessel had now drifted free of the rock and would be passing us very soon. If we could get a line to it and their crew of hard-working stallions could secure it swiftly enough there was just a chance that the momentum of the other ship would haul us clear. The Captain seized a crossbow from the armoury and quickly attached it to a mini-mount that he'd fitted to his back. He quickly tied a length of twine to the arrow's shaft, just ahead of the flights. As he again ascended the rigging, weapon mounted, I tied the other end of the twine to the strongest piece of rope I could find on deck, hoping that there would be sufficient length in its coils to reach the other vessel. Even as I completed the knot it was ripped violently from my mouth, with which I was tying the trusty knot. The Captain had fired the crossbow and from his exultant cries I guessed that the arrow had found its mark. Unable to see what was happening above our line of sight, those of us on deck could only watch and wait as the rope swiftly ran out. A heavy iron cleat, to which the rope was attached, was all that remained once the coils were gone and as the rope snapped taut, the bolts that attached the cleat to the deck shifted visibly in their mountings.

For a second I thought they would give way but instead it was the ship's railing that collapsed, crushed by the tremendous tension in the rope. At first our ship rolled to one side alarmingly but then, in a heaving action which felt as if she were tearing apart, she broke free of the standing wave and was carried swiftly back into the main current. Just a short distance further on the channel widened a little and the waters calmed before delivering us to the open ocean once again, where we found the other ships waiting. Amazingly, there was no loss of life as a result of this encounter but several ponies sustained burns and the damage to one of the vessels was considerable.

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Day Twenty-Eight

The last three days have passed without further incident but my sense of unease returned as we made landfall in the South Kingdom tonight. Our plan was to spend a night of relative comfort at nearby Icarus Castle but soon after we began unloading the ships it became apparant that we were in grave danger.

The dragon that had stalked us since we left Stremana appeared again, perching on a clifftop high above the bay and belching fiery threats which lit up the landscape around us. There was no time to ready any of the heavy weaponry, so a few light arms were snatched from the ship's armoury and we took cover where we could. Visibly scarred by the injuries our catapult had inflicted earlier in the week and perhaps a little more cautious than before, the dragon waited several minutes before mounting its attack. Instead of launching itself mid-air as we'd expected, the creature simply slid off the ridge, dislodging what appeared to be its nest as it did so. Two huge eggs tumbled out and exploded on the rocks below while the monster itself half flew and half scrambled down the mountainside, dragging one of its wings awkwardly behind it. We now knew that we had severely disabled the creature but this thought provided little comfort as, screaming furiously, it fought its way across a rocky escarpment towards us. Some of our party panicked and fled, hoping to out-pace the dragon in a frantic gallop across open grassland to the security of the castle.

Although unable to fly, the creature was putting its good wing to effective use with great thrashing movements and these powerful downstrokes enabled the beast to spring forward in gigantic bounds. On landing, its talons would lock firmly into the ravines that criss-crossed the escarpment and it would stabilize itself briefly before the next strenuous leap. In the event, it was these narrow gullies, most of them no wider than a mature stallion's body, that not only provided shelter for those who remained but also gave me my one opportunity to slay the beast.

I left Agorius and Amalai where they hid and after instructing nearby ponies to shield them as best they could I picked up a crossbow and clambered out onto the escarpment. The dragon had stopped a little way off and was driving its snout forcefully into one of the ravines in an effort to get at those who sheltered within but on seeing me emerge from hiding it snarled viciously, spat a ball of flame high into the air and took a great leap in my direction. As it approached I threw myself into another of the rock fissures and lay there with crossbow at the ready, waiting for the huge head to appear above me. Slowly it came into view and a second later the jaws were upon me, crashing against the narrow opening of the ravine with astounding force. Try as it might, the creature cimply couldn't force its huge snout far enough into the gully to reach me and frustration was driving it into a fury. So frenzied was the attack that its teeth splintered on the surrounding rocks and its gums tore open, spilling cold, black blood onto my face. With its rough tongue it probed the inner recesses of the ravine but the slavering form never quite gained sufficient purchase to lever my body out of the hole. The blasts of hot, damp air that issued from the monster's nostrils reeked of death itself but I was meerly thankful for the fact that it hadn't occured to the beast to spit fireballs into the fissure.

Twice more the head lunged forwards before I had the angle I needed, but when at last I had a clear view up into the roof of the creature's mouth I hesitated not, firing the bolt straight away. The effect was so sudden and dramatic that there could be no doubt - the bolt had penetrated the underside of the brain, resulting in instant death. The huge body slumped to the ground, trapping me in the ravine and it was only when some of the pony warriors had cut away part of the carcass that I was able to climb out.

Exhausted, we decided to delay further unloading of the vessels until tomorrow morning and went straight to the castle, where a celebratory feast, comprising of dragon steaks, was enjoyed.