Earthblood - Crossroads 13 (Patreon)

The screams. So many screams. 

You hit the water, but you don't feel the cold. Instead, it's like a soft blanket, ferrying you down into a calm embrace. The world fades away into comforting darkness leaving all the sorrows and pain behind. You feel a voice against your skin. 

"Kalu. Kalu you need to come to Amporia. Help me... please."

Your eyes open, and you are blinded by an ethereal radiance. Where there was gentle darkness, now there is brazen light. A figure stands within, chains of lightning coil and streak about them. 

"Amporia."

Your eyes open again and your ears are met with the silence save for the muffle of the waves above. You glance about as you struggle towards the surface. Shredded planks and ropes, cloth and wicker tatters. The ocean around you is littered with the remains of the Shore Lands. What great evil could have caused this? Is this the work of this "Amporia?"

Something moves above you. A great arm breaks the surface of the water and dives towards you. You brace yourself as its steel fingers circle your waist and pull you up, up towards fire and smoke.

As you breach the ocean waves, you are met face to face with Mikal. He stares blankly as the Reaper dips to float evenly the water, becoming a makeshift raft. Its other hand deposits a motionless Kheen beside you. Mikal reaches out gently, his hand stopping inches before his brother's form before slinking back.

"Kheen...? Kheen, wake up." 

You look about for your friends, seeing nothing but driftwood and chaotic waves. Something catches your eye in the distance. A steel shape towers over the beach, its impossible height making the monster you currently sit upon look a mere toy. A swarm of writhing tendrils made of metals and materials you've never seen before breach the forest edge, shredding trees and rock, searching eagerly for something. The island's edge cracks and sinks into the ocean beneath its weight. The waves before you shudder, and as you turn you see a twin of that great beast some distance off into the ocean, crashing through what remains of the Shore Lands. It splinters under the monstrosity's callous attack, the same horrid limbs slithering about each home and hovel, searching, hunting. 

Kheen coughs violently, spitting water and rolling onto his side. Mikal cries out and wraps himself about his brother, holding him close and gently rocking his head. Kheen moans softly and through raspy breaths he whispers to you.

"Kalu... Nelo and... Seri. They're okay. They're inside. Inside the Reaper. I... I can't find the other one. Mehtet. I... it's been an hour... I... I tried..." He shivers as a cold wind scours the ocean surface. "We... have to go. They won't be long with my home, nor with the Island itself. If they see us... I... my people... they... we have to go."

Mikal eases Kheen into his lap and brushes his hair back, his cheeks wet with a weak joy, but he is clearly overtaken by fear. He looks into your eyes.

"I think... I think I can get us to Amporia. You heard her too, right? Just now... I think... it's like I can... see her. See where she is."

You look back to the Island. Urupo. Your village. Mehtet. 

You glance off into the ocean. A nearly invisible glint of light hides under your eyelids with every blink, but you know it's there. The Mother. Amporia. 

Mikal grabs your hand. 

"Kalu...?"