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Chapter 52: A Majestic Bird
🕑 Added 2025-01-10 18:36:08 +0000 UTCJerry rubbed his eyes. It didn’t help; he could still see a whale flying in the distance.
"That’s a whale," Marcus noted.
"I would rub my eyes too…if I had any," Boney said. Axehand grunted in amusement.
"What are you talking about? Everyone knows there’s flying whales," Laura replied. "The question is, why is one here?"
"What? Where are they supposed to be?"
"Wait a moment!" Jerry exclaimed, suddenly excited. "Maybe it’s an undead!"
"Of course it bloody is, Jerry, we’re in the Dead Lands!" Marcus said.
As soon as they saw it, the whale saw them, too. It turned with a flick of its tail, suddenly moving directly at them.
Boney’s jaw clacked nervously. "It’s friendly, right?"
"Maybe?" Jerry replied, cupping his chin. "Could we befriend it? I’d love a pet whale—I’ll name it Chunky."
"I don’t think we can." Laura narrowed her eyes, taking a step back. "Wild undead go berserk at the sight of the living."
"Wait, you don’t mean…"
"I do. I think that whale is going to destroy our airship."
It took them a moment to process this. Axehand was the first to react, letting out an intrigued grunt, and Marcus erupted right afterward.
"MEN!" he shouted, running to the steering wheel. "Pull up the sails! We must turn the ship around AT ONCE!"
The Billies sprang into motion. Two climbed up the masts like monkeys while two pulled at ropes tied on the deck, quickly making the front and back sails of the ship crease and begin folding in on themselves.
Marcus reached the wheel. "Everyone grab on to something!" he yelled, turning the knobs with all his strength. A flat block of wood rose from the ship’s starboard side, going from stuck to the hull to perpendicular against it, and blocked the wind, making the entire ship creak and moan as it turned sharply to the right. Checkerboards and chairs slid to the railing, some even raining to the Dead Lands below, and everyone grabbed on to whatever they could find to remain standing; Jerry held his chair with one hand and an upraised floor plank with the other, struggling to save his most precious possession.
"You’re going to kill us all!" Laura screamed, hugging the front mast.
The ship finished turning and Marcus straightened the wheel, letting the airship rock from side to side before calming. It still flew slowly backward. "Men! Open the sails and blow into them if you must, we sail at full speed ahead!"
The Billies obeyed—they somehow hadn’t been flung off the masts—and the sails opened again, but this time, the wind was diagonally against them, and the airship was slow. Marcus gritted his teeth as he noticed.
"Manna damn it!" he cursed, letting go of the wheel. "Hold her steady, someone!"
Boney rushed to the wheel, reaching and holding it tight with both hands as Marcus dove for the center of the deck, where the fuel barrel was. Latching on to the valve, he yanked it. "Careful!" he yelled. The very next moment, the entire ship rattled as its nose turned downward.
"We’re falling!" Jerry shouted. "Marcus, we’re falling!"
"I know!"
"We’re going to die!"
"Silence!"
The airship descended, and as it did, it picked up speed. Everyone’s stomachs protested, and they suddenly felt lighter. The ship’s prow, which used to overlook the horizon, was now pointed directly at a grassy hill. A zombie turned to look at them from far below, tilting its head.
"Marcus!"
"Now!" he shouted, yanking the valve in the opposite direction. The ship creaked as its descent slowly came to a halt, and suddenly they were flying straight again, but much faster than before, cutting through the wind like deranged surfers.
"You madman!" Boney cried out. "You did it!"
"I’m your goddamn captain, of course I did it!" Marcus shouted, looking back over his shoulder. He paled. "Shit."
Everyone turned. A colossal, majestic beast was chasing them, its tail flapping against the wind with terrifying force as it closed the distance. On its side, a terrifying red eye—they couldn’t see the other one—was pointed directly at them.
"Why the hell is it chasing us?" Jerry complained. "We didn’t do anything!"
"It’s a wild undead!" Laura gritted her teeth. "It won’t rest until it gets us! Marcus, can we outrun it?"
"Unlikely!" he shouted back. The airship was steadily, if slowly, losing speed. "We can’t repeat the same trick, or we might crash. Godsdamnit!" His eyes flitted from side to side as he thought. "Men!" he shouted. "Raise the sails again! We’re turning around!"
"Right at it?" Laura asked as the Billies hurried to raise the sails.
"Do you have a better idea?!" Marcus thundered. "We can’t escape, but it looks fat as fuck! If we outmaneuver and get behind it, we will have the wind on our sails, and we might be able to escape!"
Axehand, who hadn’t budged during the turning and tossing before, grunted in excitement. He took a swig of wine.
"Hold on, everyone!"
The ship turned sharply again, prow now facing the whale. It was still far away, but with the two parties heading straight at each other, the distance was quickly evaporating.
"Billies, at the sails! Boney, at the wheel! You must obey my orders the second I give them! I’ll be at the balloon, and everybody else…just do your best!" Marcus gave his final commands, preparing the ship for battle.
Axehand walked to the tip of the prow, steady beyond doubt, and grunted as he took another large swig from his flask. Headless, Boboar, and Foxy took up positions around Jerry, while Birb fluttered overhead, ready to do its best.
Jerry himself took a few deep breaths, preparing to use his soul against the whale’s. "An aerial battle…" he said, chuckling. "I never thought this day would come."
"This isn’t a game!" Laura said, taking up position right beside him, where his undead would protect her, too. The stopper of her wooden flask popped out, releasing a large amount of water, and even more seemed to coalesce out of thin air in front of her. "Try to strike hard and fast," she instructed Jerry. "Wild undead have frail souls. This one is too big to sever outright, but the more you can distract it, the better."
"How do you know this stuff?"
"Just do it!"
They were going with the wind now, and their ship was slowly ascending as they advanced, forcing the whale to fly upward, too. "Slightly port side!" Marcus asked.
“What’s that?” Boney asked from the wheel.
“The left, godsdammit! And when we reach the whale, prepare to turn sharply to the right."
"Your right or my right?"
"We’re facing the same direction, Boney!"
They angled the ship to the left, forcing the whale to follow suit. They were rapidly approaching the point of impact. Everyone prepared themselves, and the closer they got, the better they could observe the whale.
It was a large hulking beast with a long mouth and wide flaps colored a mixture of black and blue; it was probably longer than the entire airship. Its underbelly was wrinkled as it gracefully slid through the air, and its jaws were wide open, ready to devour them all. It didn’t seem particularly injured, but at this range, there was no way Jerry could miss such a towering aura of undeath.
“How does it even fly?” Boney lamented. “It makes no sense!”
None of them had seen a whale before, let alone a flying one, and they were lost in staring for a short moment.
"Look!" Jerry said. "There’s something on it!" Pieces of rotten wood were tied to the whale’s back, scattered across slick skin.
"Is that a mast?" Laura asked, her eyes going wide.
Marcus followed suit. "It’s a mast! And that one’s a piece of hull, and that piece of cloth is the remains of a sail. Holy shit. Was someone riding the whale?!"
"I wonder who’s that awesome?" Jerry said.
"Can we please focus on not dying?" Boney asked from the steering wheel. "Awesome or not, that whale is about to ram us, and the ground is very far away!"
They closed the distance. The whale loomed larger and larger as they approached. The wooden remains on its back were obviously a shipwreck—once upon a time, someone had turned this whale into an airship much like their own.
But that detail was insignificant as the giant form towered over them. It was definitely larger than the airship, and its red eyes were filled with fury as it opened its mouth to roar outlandishly, revealing a dark, bottomless abyss.
"It’s going to eat us!" said Jerry.
"Marcus!" Boney cried out, hands trembling on the wheel. "We must turn!"
"Not yet!" The captain commanded. The whale approached. A collision seemed inevitable.
"Hold!" he repeated. Boney clenched his jaw. Jerry closed his eyes, feeling out with his soul. Suddenly, a large, angry, misshapen thing entered his range. His eyes snapped open.
Now!
"Now!" Marcus cried out, and Boney was already turning the wheel with the strength of every bone in his body and little else. The wooden air stopper snapped open, and the ship turned much sharper than before, its deck reaching such a steep incline that it seemed about to tip.
The Billies held on to the masts as everyone grabbed whatever was stable for dear life. Headless’s one arm was wrapped around Jerry, whose hand was tight around the heavenly soft chair’s leg as his mind was elsewhere. A black aura escaped Jerry’s body as his eyes grew dark, and in his mind, the entirety of his soul slammed against the zombie whale’s with every bit of force he could muster.
In that single moment, time seemed to freeze, and Jerry sensed a large lump so chaotic and irrational that he knew there was absolutely no way for them to communicate. This creature wasn’t like his undead—it was a mindless bundle of destruction.
He was then flung back.
The whale roared in pain, and Jerry saw stars from the recoil; the sheer size of its soul had overwhelmed him, but he wasn’t defeated yet, and the whale’s mind went blank as its entire being struggled to resist him. Jerry kept going; they were still too close, and if the whale recovered now, it would smash them to pieces. No matter how hard he tried, however, his power was waning.
Suddenly, the sound of splitting wind came from above as a small shape darted down through the air. With an enraged chirp, Birb nosedived into the whale’s red eye, making the lumbering beast thrash and twitch, momentarily losing control and letting them escape. Jerry’s soul was ousted by its rage—undead felt no pain, but the instinctive shock and aversion to injury remained.
"Birb!" he shouted, but the little bird had already flown away, drowned in black blood but safe and sound.
The airship was still turning sharper than it ever had, and it had almost escaped the whale’s reach, but in its mad thrashing, a colossal fin was coming straight for them. "Master!" yelled Boney, pulling harder, but the wheel was already at its limit.
Just as the turn stabilized and the ship stopped inclining further, Marcus yanked the fuel valve so hard it broke. A hissing sound escaped the pipe, and the balloon above them deflated as the ship dropped like a rock, narrowly missing the fin that flew overhead.
"No!" Marcus grabbed the pipe with both hands, struggling to turn the valve to the other side, but he couldn’t stop the escaping air. A bubble of water could. As the water formed a tight grip around the broken valve, the fall stabilized, and the ship managed to maintain its altitude.
"We did it!" Marcus yelled, looking at the beast that was helplessly flying past them. "We’re past the whale! Laura, hold the bubble! Billies, lower the sails so we can—"
He looked above. His voice caught on his throat. Where he expected to see clouds, he only saw a dark tail slapping towards them, blotting out the sky. He hadn’t accounted for such flexibility.
The ship was stuck. They couldn’t dodge this time. Everyone paled.
As the tail fell on them, slapping down with all the strength of an enraged whale, the entire ship shook as a lone figure jumped up with tremendous force.
Axehand crossed the air, a challenging grunt escaping his mouth as his entire body expelled red steam. He was burning, overcharged to the limit; before the whale’s tail, he looked minuscule.
The tail fell. And Axehand, with a tremendous roar, placed his two axes together and slashed them as one.
The following sight engraved itself in their memories forever. As the giant tail fell upon them, the sky was revealed. Behind a tiny, axe-wielding form, the massive tail, several times thicker than Axehand was tall, was cleanly sliced off, its twin tip flying off by itself.
Everyone’s jaws almost dislocated from dropping, and many eyes threatened to pop out of their sockets. In mid-air above the balloon, between the two halves of the severed tail, Axehand grunted cockily.
The severed tip was launched away by sheer momentum, missing the airship, while the tail stump whooshed past the airship as well, ushering a massive wind gust as it almost scratched the hull.
