The Unreached Duchy

Chapter 18

“Titian, launch!” was the command Namtao gave, and obediently, Titian followed it. Up into the air he flew with his thin, featherless tail in a corkscrew trailing behind him as he went higher and higher until Namtao was unable to see him through the rain that had set in over the last few days.

All of a sudden, Titian came crashing back down to the water in the shape of a serpent, wrapped his body around Namtao’s arm and frantically attempted to pull Namtao below the surface in such a way that gave Namtao several reasons to become worried.

Now alarmed by his Colo colo’s actions, Namtao frantically pulled his arm out of the circular mess that was currently floating next to him. Namtao carefully laid his trident next to his side, allowing it to free float in the water, and he scooped up Titian in both of his hands so Titian would feel safe enough to go back to his natural form.

“What is the meaning of this? What has caused you to act in such a manner?” Namtao asked as he picked the Colo colo form Titian up to eye level. Titian looked at Namtao in the eyes, picked up his 1 wing farthest from the lava covered Caserma, and pointed toward the open water that seemed to be getting rougher with each passing wave that touched the shoreline.

Following the tip of Titian’s wing before his shape shifted back into a serpent, Namtao looked out at the open waters and wondered what had Titian so worked up. There have been other rainstorms that lasted longer than this and were much worse than this when the pair had been out in them, not once had Titian ever acted like this.

Namtao did not have long to wonder about Titian’s actions because there was a commotion up on the land among all of the Mimas, Kurages, other domesticated creatures, Caserma prisoners that were not trapped, and other peoples from all over Makara whom came to help in the rescue efforts.

Normally the domesticated animals got along well with their untamed counterparts and vice versa; but today, just like every day since the Goddess Avesta’s mountain erupted, something felt wrong. Namtao hoped it was nothing serious and he was overreacting.

Titian still refused to stay in his normal form, so Namtao had no choice but to leave him in snake form while Namtao went to see what the commotion on land was. Titian seemed relieved by this, crawled up on to Namtao’s shoulders, and laid across them going behind Namtao’s neck with Titian’s head curled around under Namtao’s chin. Titian only did that when he was scared or felt threatened by something. Namtao hurried to the shore and seemed wholly unconcerned about the rather large snake looking creature that had wrapped itself across his shoulders with almost of its body hanging down the side of his body. The sight that greeted Namtao was not what he was expecting and it made Titian dive so far into the water that he was out of sight.

In less than two hours’ time, the animals had gone from simply being skittish to suddenly refusing to work and trying to get as far inland and away from the coast as possible. Nothing seemed to calm them down. Any creature that could fly was suddenly taking to the skies as fast it possibly could and any creature that was not currently carrying a load of lava rock was trying to run for the inner part of the island.

Worried that something maybe seriously wrong with the prisoners in his keep, Namtao swam up to the land and pulled himself up onto the bank of the river, causing a sudden transformation from Merman to human, an ability that was only bestowed upon Escorts and Trireme members during rescue missions if the situation called for it. Using the end of his new trident to pound on the ground, Namtao soon had everyone looking at him.

“What’s causing all of the commotion and discord?” Namtao demanded as he stood there and gazed upon the crowd of people from all the different races across the Kingdom who had come to lend a hand getting rid of the lava rock. Standing there in silver robes with a dark silver stripe on them, Namtao looked quite different and like the authority figure he truly was while in merman form; the trident just added to the authority look and made him appear even more terrifying.

“The creatures just simply started trying to get away and get inland. No reason at all as far as we can tell,” was the only response from a human somewhere in the crowd. Namtao could not even tell if it was from a prisoner or not. It did not matter, the weather decided that it was time for everyone to stop their rescue efforts on the Caserma by making the rain fall harder until it became hail and the wind started to blow worse than it had all week.

“Everyone to the interior of the island!!” Namtao soon realized what had Titian so terrified, a bad storm had kicked up out at sea and was gaining speed as it moved toward land. All of the animals knew it and were running for safety.

“Avesta and Arausio, what has Makara done to incur your anger?” Namtao wondered aloud as he started ushering the others to safety, anyone caught outside or without adequate protection from what was going to be a powerful hurricane had no chance of living through it.

No sooner did Namtao give the order to evacuate the work site did the visibility begin diminishing at a much faster pace than it had the last few days.

“Merfolk into the MerWay! Yilbegans that can fly into the air and take any creature or person that is willing with you! Move as quickly as you can to the interior of the island!” Namtao was yelling to the crowds.