Adventure of King Hammon

Wind claws at the cliff above Morrili, and blue lightning keeps flashing over the surf. King Hammon stands at the edge with his people behind him, while far below Ethrosise coils around a splintering pirate ship like a living sea-wall.

The captain waves both arms from the shattered mast, desperate and soaked, as the serpent's spines begin to glow with harsh, crackling light.

Voices snap and clash behind Hammon, some shouting to open the gates, others crying to let the sea take the pirates and be done with it.

Ethrosise raises his dragon-like skull over the wreck, the whole horizon trembling with the force of his voice, as lightning crawls along the water.

A single crack of thunder rolls between ship and castle, and the pirate captain flings one arm toward Hammon again, waiting for an answer.

Hammon lifts a hand toward the cliffside crowd, and his order cuts through the wind. The nearest residents recoil from the surf and begin backing toward the castle path.

A fresh boom rolls off the water as a wave smashes the wreck. Spray leaps high enough to wash the lower rocks white.

At the serpent's words, the crowd bunches tighter, then shuffles as one toward the safer climb, keeping clear of the edge.

Ethrosise tightens around the splintering hull, and the ship lists hard in the lit surf, forcing every eye away from the cliff edge and toward the sea.

Hammon lowers his hand and does not answer the plea. The cliffside crowd hears the refusal in the shape of his silence, and the last stragglers turn hard toward the castle path.

The ship grinds sideways in the surf. Ethrosise tightens his coils once, not in haste, but in verdict, and the broken hull groans louder than the wind.

That sentence breaks the crowd's hesitation. More residents bunch together and climb for the path at once, shoulders knocking, eyes fixed inland instead of on the wreck.

Below them, the pirate captain loses his footing on the tilting deck as spray bursts over the stern, and Ethrosise's lightning flashes white-blue across the water, forcing everyone on the cliff to choose between watching and running.

King Hammon backs away from the brink, boots grinding on wet stone. The wind catches his robe, and a sharp stone scrapes his heel, but he clears the edge.

Below, the last of the residents bunch together on the path, no longer looking seaward. Their retreat holds.

The captain's cry is swallowed by spray as the deck tilts again. Ethrosise lifts his head from the wreck, water sheeting off his jaws.

Lightning crawls across the surf, and the pirate ship groans as another section slips under. The sea serpent holds his judgment without turning toward the fleeing crowd.