The fleet was moving at full speed. The
sails were working tremendously well and the wind was taking them exactly where
they wanted to go. Everything was going according to plan. The only thing that
worried them was that, in order to go unnoticed by the enemy, they had to
around the other side of the world to properly surprise them. That meant
navigating through water no one had ever sailed before, which could be
extremely dangerous, as they held no maps of the region or information
regarding its potential inhabitants, whether they were permanent or nomad, like
pirates.
They had not seen any land for the past week
and they were beginning to think there was going to be no land until they
reached their destination. Some of the sailors were very nervous because there
was a strong belief, among men and women of the sea, that the world was not
connected on both sides. In other words, that they were heading for an enormous
waterfall or “the end of the world”. In their minds and in their legends, that
area of the world was inhabited by vile monsters that ate boats and sailor
whole, leaving no trace of their existence.
However, they had been convinced by their new
masters with money and other riches they could enjoy once they returned home,
if the battle was gentle enough with them. They were fierce and very driven,
known for raiding ships all over the sea in the course of many years. But this
was not a raiding expedition but part of an invasion army that planned on
attacking hard and taking back their homeland by force. The new masters plan
was to defeat their enemies in the hardest and most definitive way possible, in
order to rebuild from scratch.
The world would never be the same after all
that, nothing could be the same. So many things had already been done that had
changed the world, including the fact that they were passing through an unknown
region. Alliances had also been made that were not probable before. The Yix,
also know as the new masters, had reunited all pirate forced in the known world
and had proposed to them to join their army or be destroyed. The pirates
thought they were coming for bounty but the truth was they were surrounded the
whole time the conversations took place.
Finally, half convinced by the payment but
also the threat to their existence, they accepted. By doing so, they were
technically turned into slaves but with a much better relationship with their
masters. The Yix were only cruel to those that deserved it and the pirates had
done the right thing by allying themselves with their faction in the war. In
that case, they wouldn’t hurt them at all. However, if they ever rebelled or
thought they had any choice on important matters, they would how to pressure
the men and women of the sea to make their will.
The ocean was beautiful every single day of
that long week they had already spent in it. The experts the Yix had brought
in, had concluded that a week and a half was necessary to get halfway through
the world, which meant the whole trip would make almost three weeks. These made
everyone a bit uneasy because, even as big as the ships were, there couldn’t be
enough food for so many people for so much time. The rations were small for
everyone on board, both the pirates and the Yix and they were limited to only a
couple of meals a day. That was not what either of them was accustomed to but
traditions don’t really matter anymore when you’re trying to make history.
Everyday, it was some kind of rice with fish.
There was a group that took care of the fishing every single morning in each
one of the boats and they were essential in order to have an orderly life in
each one of the boats. Sometimes the fish tasted awful and some other times it
was delicious. They could have it raw or roasted on a small fire created on a
big bin to prevent the ships from burning down. Those moments, when they all
ate, were the ones when all of them really looked the same, no matter their
uniforms or their accents. They were all men trying to survive a horrible
journey through an unknown region. They were brother and sisters, even if they
had no real exchanges of words.
After the first week, some of the sailors
noticed something on the horizon, which was on starboard. Just when the sun
set, the whole line above the sea appeared to be on fire, especially where at
sunset. Some of the people said it was an illusion commonly associated with the
sun but others swore they could see things happening in the horizon. No one
really believed in the people that said that but even with the few instruments
they had to see such a phenomenon, they couldn’t see a thing. The sun was
exactly the same as always, except for that band of fire that seemed to appear
every afternoon, just as they prepared for a new night.
Nights were the most terrifying part of the
whole experience as many men, even the sceptics, felt something was wrong when
they couldn’t se the water they were navigation on. Besides, the moon and the
stars were always veiled by a strange thing that happened every single night.
It was as if the region was condemned not to look directly at the sky, instead
having only some blurry vision of every part of the cosmos. This was
frustrating for all of them, because the ships depended on the stars in order
not to get off course. They could be seen enough in order to follow them but it
made them all feel as if something was not right about those waters. Some
thought it was haunted and others were still expecting to arrive to “the end of
the world”.
But they never did. They did, however, saw a
small group of islands. They were located roughly halfway between the two
continents they knew well. The islands were named Summer Islands, because of
the weather of the region. Two of the ships got near them and used some
rowboats to investigate if they were inhabited or not and whether they could
get food out of there, something that had nothing to do with fish or rice,
which was getting ruined pretty fast.
The rowboats carried twenty men into the land,
mostly pirates. They walked on the largest island and disappeared into its
jungle just after arriving. From the ships, the Yix waited for them to return. After
the first two hours, everyone felt something was wrong. From the apparent size
of the islands, it was not very possible that someone would take longer than an
hour in order to walk around them, much less to go across it. They have had an
accident or something like that. Yet, no one did anything to go and help
because of fear.
They were right not to act on their
suspicions. The jungle began to tremble after three hours. The palm trees and
other plants began shaking and some birds escaped the place in order to fly to
the smaller islands. Out of the jungle, a gigantic animal emerged. And then,
another two. Everyone on the ship was horrified. The animals looked like
scorpions but were much larger than the ones you would fin in the known world.
They were huge and were covered in blood in their pincers and over their
bodies. The two ships that had grown close to the island, decided to join the
rest of the fleet and forget what they had seen.
For the remainder of their journey, the sunset
brought back memories of those assassinated by the creatures on the islands. If
the world made something like that, if those animals existed, then worse things
could also exist somewhere. That’s what was in everyone’s minds and what made
them stare at the sky or at the roof every single night, no matter where they were
trying to sleep. They stopped looking at the sun and decided to rely only on
the veiled stars, even if some felt they were being tricked by the cosmos and
lured into a trap.
Almost a month to the date of their departure,
they arrived to the continent they had intended to invade. Everyone was
exhausted but they had advantage of numbers. Day after day, they took a little
piece of land from their enemies. When these realized what was happening, it
was too late. The Yix now owned the world and they soon freed their “slaves”.
They let them have their corner of the world and they agreed on never revealing
what they had see in the Summer Islands and how that place was maybe not unique
but it should remain “non existent”.
