The Dusk of Dawn

Chapter Six- The Tide (2)

Jackson pulled onto the rope and managed to burst out of the surface before he ran out of breath.

“Plah!” He choked, coughing, reaching for the edge of the boat to climb up. He looked up and saw Fluffy came back onto the boat, peeking timidly and Driya holding her bow, looking stern.

“That was really bendan!” She yelled as Jackson tumbled onto the boat. “You could’ve been killed! Who gave you the courage to make direct contact with a shark in the sea of dangerous waters?!”

“Well— you’re welcome for keeping you alive,” He snapped.

“I’d made sure of that for myself!” She spat. “Do I look like I need someone dying for me? Or protecting me?”

Jackson shrugged and glanced at the horizon again, the dot getting larger. “There’s something dangerous in the sea,” he told Fluffy. “Can we speed up?”

Fluffy bit his lips and nodded, then he went for the sails and the boat proceeded faster.

“We’ll need another boat,” Jackson said to Driya, once they were safely drifting on the sea. “A motor one… Perhaps. That could go faster than wind power.”

“Where are we supposed to get that?” Driya demanded.

“Maybe the Flow Jungle has some. They’re one of the most connected territories with Ling, I’m sure they’d get loads of technology from them,” He explained. “The problem is how should we pay for them…” It was proven that that wasn’t their only problem when they actually arrived beside the Flow Jungle.

Their boat rocked lightly against the reef clustered at the bottom of the Flow Jungle as the three of them looked up to the cliff that extended high up to the sky, hints of green growth could be seen at the edges, but the rest was just a large, blank, clay-coloured rocky wall.

“How are we even supposed to get up there?” Fluffy whispered as Jackson jumped off the boat and landed on a reef stone. Driya noticed him and instantly jumped onto the stone beside her too as a branch came crashing down to the spot she was standing at.

Fluffy gasped and climbed awkwardly onto a rock and off the boat. Taking a few deep breaths.

While he climbed, Jackson and Driya had both landed on the rock pile right beneath the cliff, trying to figure out a way to climb up.

“Hey Fluffy!” Jackson called. “Are you sure there's a cliff like this all around the Flow Jungle?”

“Yes!” He yelled, then slipped on a rock accidentally. “Ow!”

“How about you stay on the boat?” Driya suggested. “I don’t think you’d be able to climb up to this place even if you make it here.”

Fluffy hesitated but nodded anyway. He slipped gratefully back into their boat, sat under the cover of the sail, and watched them intently.

“Right, Bu Hao,” Driya began. “How are we supposed to do this?”

“No idea,” Jackson replied, walking over closer to the cliff and leaning on it. “Oh— and don’t call me Bu h—”

With a thundering rumble, the cliff wall behind him suddenly collapsed and he fell right in. Muffled, he heard Driya hissing, arrows zipping across the air, and Fluffy screaming.

There were hands that reached down and grabbed for him. Buried beneath the rock and dirt pile, Jackson tried to roar but only resulted with mud tumbling into his mouth. He kicked and hit something really hard with his leg instead. He tried standing up, cutting his arm on a sharp rock in the process. He rubbed his face clean and squinted at his opponents.

They were in a damp and dim cave that was hidden by the cliff wall. Jackson must’ve discovered it accidentally by leaning on it.

The soldiers were dressed in armour, around half of them were already groaning on the ground with arrows sticking from their back, torso, or legs. He looked around and deduced that Fluffy had probably sailed their boat away to safety, while Driya was battling another bunch of soldiers.

He dodged timely as a spear plunged into the gap between a few rocks beside him. He grabbed the spear and pulled it towards him, slamming the soldier who wielded it aside.

He punched his fist into the face of another attacking soldier, someone slashed him behind his back. He flung the spear around and a few others screamed, then stumbled and fell onto the sharp reefs beneath.

Another soldier staggered forward, toppling onto his knees and then face-flat on the ground, with an arrow on his shoulder just as he was about to spring at Jackson. He glanced around at Driya.

“Thanks!” He yelled through the chaos. “But mind your own business from now on!”

“You're welcome!” She retorted,  grabbing two soldiers by their heads and slammed them together. “I’d keep that in mind, you bendan!” She noted, smiling. 

But suddenly, the place seemed to get really misty, with pure white vapour slithering into every corner of the cave Jackson broke into. In his peripheral vision, he saw Driya’s attacking tactics slowing down, she knelt over and dropped to the ground.

…Gas! Jackson realized sleepily. Cowards! They must’ve guessed they can’t fight her…Or us… So they used… Used…

His thoughts stopped there, and didn’t proceed any further.

“Hey!”

Jackson buried his face closer down to the ground and tried to ignore whatever noise that was.

“Oh, so you are awake! Were you ignoring me this whole time, dumbhead?”

Jackson’s eyes suddenly snapped open, he gasped and tried to sit up but fell back down by the weight of an iron cuff around his neck.

He looked around. He was not down at the beach anymore, nor were the sea or the rocks in sight. There were only square-shaped walls built of bricks, leading up to a sky-hole blocked with weaved vines, casting rays of dim light down onto the ground.

The prison was completely empty except for another person, chained to the wall opposite him.