The Butcher of Gadobhra

Chapter 224: Shipbreaker

When Ozzy had asked the captain about how you should go about eating the core of a shark, Woodrat had just smiled and said "Like you eat anything else. Just chew a couple of times and choke it down. No worse than the cooking on most of ships."

Ozzy was relaxing in his cabin. He was off duty for a few hours while Woodrat took his turn on lookout. The two of them were making sure someone was always awake. The possibility of monsters, charred, or pirates was too high. Ozzy only needed four hours of sleep and could work for sixteen hours without thinking about it. Woodrat was also a madman when it came to working on the ship. He'd been a starving sailor for so long, and a full belly and a ship of his own were driving him hard. Ozzy made sure his captain took off at least six hours each day for sleep. Keeping watch wasn't hard for him. It mostly involved making chain for hours.

Even when he was taking time off to sleep, he found he spent most of his time thinking. More and more he was looking at what he was learning, and how those skills would work when he got home to Sedgewick. He could see that many of the things he was doing now had connections to Joe's little teaching exercises: Making smoke rings, controlling smoke, breathing fire, handling heat. He was expanding hugely on those skills and abilities. He looked forward to the next time Billy tried to show off with a smoke ring.

His hammock swung back and forth as he held the small grey ball. He had some ideas about what this might give him, but the only way to find out was to eat it. He hesitated for a moment, then he popped it into his mouth and chewed. It tasted like salty fish and a hint of blood. Swallowing it down, he felt a sense of lassitude coming over him. He closed his eyes and...

he was in the smoke, slowly swimming along, half asleep. He wasn't hungry...yet. But he would be soon. So, he slowly moved along, keeping a few tasty morsels in view. They were easy to spot. If he could eat it, he was aware of it. His stomach suggested it wouldn't mind a snack and his fins drove him through the smoke quickly and quietly before the creature he'd been stalking could react. He bit it once to cripple it, then circled back for the kill.

His belly was full and he moved from the area, looking for more future meals, swimming along half asleep...

Ozzy opened his eyes and looked around. It took a moment for him to fully shake the dream. If he thought about it, he could feel some of the shark still there, somewhere. Holding onto that feeling, and remembering what Joe had done, he poured out some of his smoke and willed it to become a shark. What he got was a pair of merciless black eyes and a toothed maw training a smoking outline behind it as it raced out to hunt. The little smoke form flew out his porthole and disappeared. From up on deck, he heard Woodrat curse and felt his connection to his smoke go away. Woodrat's voice drifted down to him.

"Damned fool of a mate! Warn me next time you start experimenting with smoke figments! I swear they didn't teach you proper manners down in the junction."

Ozzy laughed hard and yelled out the porthole. "Sorry about that, captain, the little bugger swam off without me. Fair warning, I'm going to eat that whale heart and take a nap."

"Warning accepted. I'll be prepared for you to be slacking off tomorrow. That's a heavy meal and you'll be sore tomorrow as you stretch some new muscle."

Ozzy lay back again and pulled out the heart. It wasn't much bigger than the shark's core but it was much heavier and harder. He did like Woodrat hat said, pouring smoke and heat into it until it softened, and then he tried to take a bite. It was tough and stringy, and as hard to eat as cured leather. He chewed and swallowed, taking small bites. It rested heavy in his belly. His limbs felt heavy as well. He drifted off to sleep and slowly snored.

A ship was in front of him, unaware that he followed it. He was deep, far deeper than the little surface dwellers could sense or see him. From two leagues back he started towards them, moving faster and faster. He knew that the ship was just a thing, not a creature. It didn't eat and it couldn't see him. His enemies were the things in the ship, but if he killed the ship then they would die as well. And they all deserved to die.

He came up fast and rammed it from the side and the rear, making sure to crush the fin at the back that helped it to swim. The things on board only saw him at the last moment, and he heard the noises they made, angry and fearful. There was no time for them to attack. His blow knocked some of the small things from the tall spines, throwing them to the sea or to break on the ship. Before they could bring their teeth to bear, he dove deep, his tail throwing water onto the ship. He head hurt, but he wasn't done.

The sharks that followed him swooped in to find the sailors floating in the smoke. He ignored both victim and predator. It was just a business arrangement: He provided a meal, they saved him time killing the little things that fell in the smoke.

The ship wasn't moving as fast as it had been, and was listing to one side. He stayed in the deep, following it's movement, and planned his next attack. They would be alert now, and ready to attack him. His next assault was on the same side, a bit further up the ships body. Just before he hit the side of the ship, two small spines were thrown at his back, one of them piercing his skin. Another pierced him after he hit the vessel, when he was slow and had to twist to free himself from the shattered wood. If he stayed, they would kill him.

Others of his family had died that way, so furious after the deaths of children or mates that they attacked the ships over and over as the creatures above put more and more of the spines into them, or blistered their hides with fire and smoke. Ozzy was smarter than that. He needed to be. As the last of his family, it was up to him to avenge their deaths before he died.

The ship was starting to sink now, as smoke poured into the shattered rear of the ship. Little ships were leaving it. He would leave those to the sharks. Whole schools were here now, hoping for a feast. Hours later, the ship was beneath the waves, and he attacked it again and again as it went deeper and deeper. He would not chance it healing and returning. Only when it was torn to pieces did he quit attacking.

He was hungry and needed food. There were some of the dead creatures in the water. The sharks knew to leave some for him. He ate those, and swam deep, letting the smoke heal his wounds. Dozens of the little spines decorated his hull. He had killed many ships, one for each of his family. He had many more to kill before he could rest.

Ozzy tore the mast from its supports and swung it repeatedly at the deck of the ship and the hull. When it finally broke, he began punching the sides of the ship and tearing apart the hull, throwing chunks all around the nearby area. He paused, breathing hard and looking around.

"What the hell am I doing?"

His arms were sore. Hell, every muscle was sore and aching from exertion. His smoke was low and his hands were swollen and bruised with numerous splinters in them.

A voice shouted from a pile of debris. "Are you through with your damned tantrum? I swear I'm heading to sainthood some day for putting up with such a strange and stubborn crewman." Woodrat was drinking from a bottle as he sat on the wreckage of a ship. Ozzy scratched his head; he'd been beating on the wreckage of a large three-masted ship. There wasn't much left of it. Even as he watched, the last mast quivered and fell over.

Ship Destroyed! Another of the hated killers will never swim the smoke again. But you cannot rest until you fulfil your vow!

Destroy Whalers and ships of three masts or more to complete Ship killer’s quest. Ships destroyed: 123 Ships remaining: 7

Ozzy wandered over to where Woodrat was drinking and watching. "What happened?" He reached for the bottle and Woodrat handed it to him.

"From what we can tell, you ate the heart, had a bad dream, stood up to quick and bumped your head."

"Then you screamed, "Damn this ship! Die like all of your kind!" Then you started punching the poop deck, broke a big hole in it, and jumped up on deck. You were crazed in the eye and looked like you were going to wreck my pretty new ship. That's when Mariah grabbed you and threw you as far as she could. You stood up and marched over to that poor ship and beat the hell out of it for most a day. Quite single minded in your work. I didn't feel like bothering you, so I gave you the day off."

"Mariah? She's back."

Woodrat winked. "She missed me, obviously, and hadn't flown away too far. She didn't want to see you breaking up my ship any more than I did."

Ozzy stretched and his back popped. "I think I know why that heart went uneaten. It came from an old and bitter creature named Shipbreaker. It was still grieving for its family and avenging their deaths. I've inherited one of its unfinished quests."

Woodrat thought for a few seconds, trying to remember old stories told by drunken crewman. "I think I heard that story. I remember a yarn about a whale that hunted ships the way the whaling clans hunted the whales. It was used to scare the new look outs, keep them on their toes and calling in any sightings of whales."

"Think you can refrain from breaking things? I've got some extra work to do repairing that deck you destroyed, as it is, and don't need more repairs in my que." He looked around. "But you've made me a fine gift of all the raw materials I might need for the next few years. Why don't you grab a few of these nice planks and drag them back to the Splinter? You need a bottle of your own and we can take the evening off, play a few rounds of cards. Then tomorrow you can make some chain, and work on that quest. Get it finished so we don't have to worry about you bumping your head again."

Ozzy grabbed the long planks of imbued wood and started trudging back to the ship.

Shipbreaker is dead, but his ancient anger lives on.

You have earned the Perk: Shipbreaker's Destruction. Damage that you do against any ship uses the force of a whale's vengeful strike. Your damage is multiplied by 4x against ships.

Completion of Shipkiller’s Quest will gain you an additional award of the Perk: Whales Strength (+1 STR and +1 CON per Tier).

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