Gareth and th Lost Island (29 page)

Gareth was torn. He knew he should help Elizabeth,
but he couldn’t help laughing at how ridiculous it all looked. He
was urged into action by Elizabeth’s shout of, “Get this bloody
thing off of me!” Not wanting to get his hands anywhere near those
razor sharp teeth, Gareth drew the Void Rod from its holster. He
waited until Elizabeth turned her backside towards him before
taking a swing at the dastardly duck. The Void Rod connected with
the duck’s body, and sent it sailing across the room. Elizabeth
spun around, took quick aim, and emptied all six shots from her
revolver into the “changed animal”. Afterwards, the air was full of
feathers and the smells of gunpowder and blood.

Elizabeth looked at the remains of the duck, and
smiled at her handiwork. Her smile slipped when she suddenly became
dizzy, and was forced to sit down before she fell over. She knew
something was very wrong when her vision started to slowly fade,
while the sounds of Gareth walking towards her seemed muffled
slightly. Shifting her position, Elizabeth used the brass of her
mechanical arm to look at the reflection of the wound on her butt.
Sickly green fluid leaked out of bite mark left by the despicable
duck. “You have
got
to be kidding me!” she swore with less
strength than she would have liked. “Just so you know, I blame you,
Professor,” Elizabeth she told him.

Gareth hurried over to Elizabeth, and took a quick
look at her wound. Through the rips in her leather pants, he was
able to see black streaks radiating out from the bite mark. “Damn
it! Why did we have to get separated from Tralnis? He said wherever
he goes, he always carries around at least one dose of Dwarvish All
Purpose Anti-venom with him,” he lamented.

Elizabeth reached up, and weakly tugged on Gareth’s
arm to get him to lean closer. The edges of her vision were going
black, and she knew she didn’t have much time left. “Take care of
her,” she ordered weakly.

“No matter what happens, I’ll always look after
Izzy,” he promised, a tear starting to form at the corner of his
eye.

Elizabeth rolled her eye, and shook her head. “Not
her, you idiot! I mean the Glorious Dawn. For some reason, the crew
looks up to you. You should be her next Captain,” she said as if
the words tasted terrible in her mouth. “But while we’re on the
subject, if you hurt my baby sister, I’ll claw my way out of
whichever hell I end up in, and drag your screaming soul back down
with me,” she promised before she lapsed into unconsciousness.

One of the large stone blocks forming the wall
adjacent to the doors slid noisily aside to reveal a narrow dimly
lit tunnel. Tralnis stepped out, and was followed shortly
thereafter by Izzy. “See, I told you we Dwarves know a secret
passageway when we see one!” Tralnis boasted. He staggered as Izzy
accidently shoved him aside. She ran to where Gareth was kneeling
over the still form of her sister. Tralnis followed right on Izzy’s
heels.

Gareth stood up to give both Izzy and Tralnis access
to Elizabeth. The Dwarf doctor leaned his head down, and put his
ear to the Captain’s chest. “Her heart beat is faint, and her skin
is clammy,” he announced. “What happened to her?” he asked
quickly.

No longer seeing any humor in the situation, Gareth
replied, “She was bit by a venomous duck.”

“What?!” Izzy exclaimed. Gareth pointed towards the
feather covered carcass, and then motioned for Tralnis to roll
Elizabeth onto her stomach. Both Tralnis and Izzy gawked at the
strange bite marks.

“Looks like Elizabeth is lucky I have some Dwarvish
All Purpose Anti-venom with me,” Tralnis chuckled.

“Tralnis, we lost your backpack when we crossed that
rope bridge over the lava, remember?” Izzy reminded him. She now
wished Tralnis hadn’t lunged forward to keep her from falling into
the lava earlier. If he hadn’t done that, he would still have his
backpack, and the medicine needed to save her sister’s life.

“Um… well… yes, that’s true but… all right you two,
I’m about to let you in on a very closely guarded secret of the
Dwarvish nation,” Tralnis stammered. “There were, and still are, a
lot of poisonous nasties in the underground realms where my
ancestors came from. To combat that, we Dwarves evolved so that our
bodies produced a very special enzyme. An enzyme that breaks down,
and neutralizes any sort of venom. As it turns out, this enzyme
still does it job outside of a Dwarf’s body,” he told them.

Gareth was somewhat shocked at this. “Do you mean to
tell me your race harvests this enzyme from their own kind to sell
to the other races?!” he asked incredulously.

Tralnis waved his hand dismissively. “Nothing like
that, dear boy. We produce so much of the enzyme, usable amounts
are found in our urine,” he assured Gareth.

Izzy turned green when she realized what Tralnis was
saying. A couple years ago, she had been bitten by a coral snake
while swimming off the coast of the Southern Continent. Her life
was saved by drinking the famous elixir. “Are you saying that when
we drink Dwarvish All Purpose Anti-venom, we’re really just
drinking…” she started to ask, but couldn’t get herself to finish
her sentence.

“Bottled Dwarf piss? Yes, that’s exactly what you’re
drinking. We add some honey to make it taste better, but that’s
about it,” Tralnis admitted. “Now if you two are done questioning
me, I would like to administer the anti-venom to save the Captain’s
life. She can’t swallow, so I’ll have to pour the anti-venom
directly onto the wound,” he stated. Tralnis started to undo his
belt buckle and then looked up at Izzy in embarrassment. “I can’t
do this while you’re watching. I have a bashful bladder,” he
admitted. “Don’t worry. Elizabeth will be fine in no time,” he
promised.

Gareth held Izzy’s hand after they turned around to
give Tralnis some privacy. Relief flooded through them (and
Tralnis) as they heard the unmistakable sound of someone taking a
tinkle. Tralnis even managed to whistle a jaunty tune while he did
his business. A contented sigh was the sign that Tralnis had
finished.

“That feels better. I didn’t realize I had to go so
bad,” Tralnis muttered to himself. He rolled Elizabeth over onto
her back, and felt for her pulse on her neck. “Good. Her pulse is
starting to get better already,” he pronounced. Looking a bit
sheepish, and more than a little frightened, he added, “If it’s all
the same to you two, I would rather Captain Scary here doesn’t find
out how I got the anti-venom to her. I’m rather fond of that part
of my plumbing, and don’t want her ripping it off in a moment of
anger.” Gareth and Izzy both promised to keep the secret of the
anti-venom safe.

After a few minutes, Elizabeth began to stir, and
then wake up. The first thing she asked was, “Why do I smell like a
urinal at smashball stadium?”

Gareth was the first one to come up with an answer.
“You had so much of the duck’s venom in you, our good doctor had to
use much more than the usual dose of Dwarvish All Purpose
Anti-venom. It must be interfering with your sense of smell,” he
lied. He stepped back, and offered his left hand to the Captain so
she could use her good hand to help pull herself up.

“Just so we are clear, what happened in this chamber
stays in this chamber. I don’t want anyone else to know I was bit
on the ass by a venomous duck,” Elizabeth decreed. Her stern
expression softened when her sister gave her a rib bruising hug.
Izzy let go of her hug, and stepped back with a playful gleam in
her eye.

“Well, if we can’t mention the duck, can we at least
say you were poisoned by
fowl
play?” Izzy asked
impishly.

Never one to turn away from a punning challenge,
Tralnis got in on the act as well. “Now, now Izzy, be nice. For all
we know, the creature that bit the Captain might have been a
wereduck. We’ll need to keep her under observation for a few
weeks,” he stated. With a smile, he added, “Captain, let us know if
you are feeling a bit
down
during the next full moon.”

Elizabeth clenched her fists in anger, both her
biological and mechanical one. Gareth put a calming hand on
Elizabeth left arm. “Relax, Captain, it’s nothing to get your
feathers ruffled over,” he said with a smirk.

Elizabeth spun around, and stormed down the hallway
were the venomous duck had lived. She kicked random bones out of
the way, and wondered if it was allowable under airship law to toss
a crew member overboard for being a punster. Elizabeth was so
occupied with day dreams of having Gareth walk the plank a mile
above the sea, she didn’t notice the others had joined her at the
end of the hallway. The large tan stone block in front them was
blank except for a small bit of writing, and a small, round hole a
little below waist height.

Gareth stepped to the front of the group to look at
the runes. Color drained from his face as he reread the runes, and
looked at the hole. He swallowed once, his throat suddenly becoming
dry. Izzy saw his look of discomfort, and asked, “What’s wrong,
Gareth?”

Pointing at the hole in the wall, he replied in
almost a whisper, “It says, and I quote, ‘Put your rod in the
hole’.” Thoughts of traps with spinning blades and venomous ducks
made him want to pass out.

Izzy grabbed Gareth’s arm, and pulled him away from
the wall. She had been thinking along the same lines as Gareth.
“While our relationship hasn’t progressed to that point yet, I do
have plans for what it’s asking you to sacrifice,” she told
him.

Tralnis just moved his hands in front of himself to
protect his groin. “Sick bastards,” he moaned.

Elizabeth smacked her forehead, and shook her head.
Without saying a word, she reached out, and pointed at the Void Rod
on Gareth’s hip. Gareth looked at what she was pointing to, and
blushed with embarrassment. “Or they could be speaking literally,”
he conceded. He pulled out the Void Rod, and noticed it was the
perfect size to fit in the hole. With a gentle push, he slid the
rod into the hole. The wall shimmered and disappeared, leaving a
now familiar jet black altar. The fourth tablet rested on top.

Izzy grabbed the clay tablet, and smashed it against
the side of the altar while Gareth pulled out the other tablets and
his trusty notebook. He took the tablet from Izzy and quickly
deciphered the coordinates. He dropped all four tablets along with
his notebook. “No… no… NO!!” he shouted in disgust.

“What’s wrong, lad?” Tralnis asked.

Gareth pointed down at the fourth tablet in disgust.
“This one gives a set of coordinates located in the Southern
Continent. It’s where the University team found the first tablet.
The damn things lead in a circle!” he spat.

Izzy knelt down next to the tablets, and looked at
the markings they had earlier thought were just for decoration. By
placing the tablets out of order, the markings matched up in the
center and formed a perfect circle. When she tried to pull the
tablets away, she found they had fused together. “Gareth, come look
at this!” she shouted excitedly.

Gareth looked over, and then knelt next to Izzy.
Aside from the circle, the new alignment of the markings made a
single rune, the rune for blood. “Tralnis, hand me your knife!”
Gareth ordered. When his father handed over the knife, Gareth made
a small cut in his index finger. Hoping he was right, Gareth
reached down, and smeared some blood on the circle in the
center.

The fused tablet accepted the blood, and rose from
the ground all by itself. A glowing purple map was projected out of
the circle. Gareth held his breath as he leaned closer to the map.
The purple projection showed an island he had never seen on any
map, next to a set of numbers and more runes. He quickly grabbed
his notebook off the floor, and wrote down the coordinates for the
Island of Mascal.

Gareth stood in the wheelhouse behind Pilot, barely
able to contain his excitement. The Glorious Dawn had been airborne
for almost a month since leaving the Nexus Volcano. They were
finally closing in on the coordinates for the Lost Island of
Mascal. Using the sextant and maps Elizabeth had loaned him, Gareth
determined the island they were looking for was probably somewhere
up ahead of them. Unfortunately, a nasty looking storm cloud seemed
to have settled over exactly where they wanted to go.

Elizabeth stepped into the wheelhouse with them. She
extended her spyglass, and observed the lightning streaking from
cloud to cloud. “What do you think, Pilot? Should we chance it, or
try to wait the storm out?” she asked the Roehus.

Pilot reached up to stroke some of his head quills.
“To be honest, Captain of the Glorious Dawn, I think we should
wait. I’ve seen many storms while piloting this ship. There is
something about that storm that makes my quills want to stand on
end,” he told her.

Elizabeth nodded her head. “I agree. That storm looks
chancy, and I won’t risk it while we still have plenty of
provisions,” she decided. Elizabeth turned to look at Gareth.
“Sorry, Professor, but it looks like you’ll have to wait a day or
two more to find whatever it is you’re looking for,” she stated.
Putting the spyglass back to her eye, the Captain looked back at
the storm that made her feel so uneasy.

Sheldon walked up to the wheelhouse, but decided it
was too crowded in there to join the Captain. Instead, the left
eyestalk yelled out, “Hey, Captain! What’s small, gold, and flashes
red a lot?” it asked.

Elizabeth took in a slow breath to calm herself. She
never could decide which she hated more: puns or riddles. “Sheldon,
I don’t have time for riddles right now!” she snapped.

Sheldon shrugged his large shoulders, and turned to
go back into the cargo hold. The left eyestalk called back to
Elizabeth, “Fine, we’ll just go put this… whatever it is… back
where we found it!”

“Wait! Stop! What are you talking about?” Elizabeth
demanded.