Dawn- An age of Darkness
Chapter 97 - Illogical But Worth It

We hurried back to the ship. At first, they couldn't believe us but soon their attitudes changed as both Brend and Jowy confirmed my words.

"Undead? Are ye sure?" The captain wasn't totally convinced.

"Aye captain." Brend made it clear.

It would be a great ordeal to get out of that fog-covered forest. So the pirates who were already inside didn't have a chance.

"I can confirm that there are indeed many undead in these lands," Jowy said.

That's odd. He's been helping and trusting me all this time. His speech is that of a normal person as well. Who is he? I didn't trust Jowy, but for the time being, I had to accept his aid.

"But still who are ye? And how could ye understand the statue?" Brend didn't like to be kept out of the loop it seemed. And he also didn't feel like keeping the statue thing a secret.

I didn't have the time to explain everything to them. Well, it was more like I didn't want to. "We can talk about that later. First, we need to get those six out of the forest before sunset. The undead here is not something you should mess with." Of course, I was just changing the subject. I wasn't dumb enough to run back to that forest anytime soon.

The old man meanwhile was busy fiddling with his beard. "But boy, this weapon you spoke of reminds me of the legend. Perhaps…" The old man didn't finish. Apparently, he had other ideas. Ideas, I wanted no part of.

"Let's go!" We headed for the island. The captain was very understanding: but I didn't understand him one bit. But apparently, I'd dug my own grave.

Moreover, the captain didn't want to lose any comrades. A total of twenty pirates descended on the island.

What was the point of this though? Did they really understand the situation? I sighed in resignation as all my pleas went unheard of.

"Listen up ye sea dogs! If ye don't get back before sunset then we'll leave ye. And remember; this forest is illusive. When ye think ye might be lost, then close yer eyes and head north!"

"But cap-"

"YARRR!!!" That was scary!

"AYE!" No one had the guts to question the captain that much was clear.

Everyone headed into the forest, myself included: though, I didn't want to. The captain was rather something. He made every single one of the pirates behave like it was nothing. Was he really scared for his crew or was it because of the treasure? I wanted to believe it was the former.

As we had larger numbers we were attracting more and more monsters: apparently, the trees wanted a piece of our action. The pirates were quite good with weapons.

The undead, however, were leaving us alone. As for the weapons, I thought pirates would have pistols and stuff but this world was too damn outdated. The concept of a gun probably never even existed.

Brend had stayed behind at the ship along with Bitey. Ah, how I miss my little cutie bunny! Being bitten to death by a cute bunny seemed much more favorable and desirable than being chased by the undead. Even that island full of carnivorous bunnies was better than this stench-covered forest. At least that forest had lovely man-eating bunnies.

I got the impression that Brend had a history with the undead. He seemed awfully scared of the undead too. I couldn't blame him though. I was scared shit to death too.

The forest was getting darker and darker. Afternoon? Already?

Time was flying away. So was our life expectancy.

"Cap'n I see some tracks. They might have gone this way."

"Yarr! We go!"

"Aye!"

The whole pirate accent was growing on me. I wouldn't be surprised if I spoke like them after a few weeks either. Then again, I was already speaking almost like them at times anyway. Even I was surprised at my own adaptability. If I hadn't come to this world, perhaps this trait of mine would forever have gone unnoticed.

The fog also got denser. The rot in the air intensified. We are in the dead zone, aren't we? I didn't want to think about it. But at this point, there was no sugarcoating it. We were in for trouble and we knew it.

"Look sharp voice. There be mateys."

I had no idea what I just heard. "What?-"

I asked but since all the pirates were looking at a distance, I looked too. There were four pirates there. They were together? But weren't there supposed to be six?

"Cap'n!" The four pirates were out of commission. They were too frightened and looked pale.

But when they saw us, they lounged at us. They hugged the captain and the captain kicked them like babies, shoving them to the ground. Yet they still wore grateful looks.

"Where be Jelcor and Hera?" the captain asked.

"I was with them, captain. We saw a very dark cave and they went in; thinking there be treasures. I tried to stop them but they didn't listen. When I heard them scream I ran this way and…" Marr paused.

"Ye left them there!?" Gack screamed.

This Marr guy was crying and looked frightened. I wanted to punch him but I couldn't blame him. Anybody would run under that kind of threat. And it was the right thing to do so. Him being alive, was the proof of that.

"Lead us there," the captain said.

"But cap'n there is something there…" His eyes expressed fright like I'd never seen before. As tears rained down his cheeks he looked paler than ever as though he saw his own death.

I remembered what the angel told me as well. "Captain, I don't think it's worth the risk. You remember what I told you, right?"

"Yarr! I ain't leaving behind anybody! Yarr!"

He was serious. The chances of the other two pirates surviving were close to zero but he still wouldn't leave them behind. It was now clear that he wasn't in it for the treasure. My respect for him increased dramatically. But the chances of our survival declined dramatically as well. I didn't like this one bit.

"Old man, this is bad," I whispered.

"Don't worry. This might be even good for us. There's the possibility that a mystic weapon could be there. Remember the scary island rumors I've been telling you about? If it is, then we might have better chances of getting it."

Why is he so fixated on those things? But he might just be right on this one. According to the old man, this part of the sea was supposed to be home to scary monsters hence sailors would avoid these. But it was also rather likely that legendary weapons of old could be found in these places. So it was worth the risk. Maybe. Maybe not. But if there was one, then we'd or rather I'd be well off. But even so, the monster guarding this place was going to give us hell either way. If thousands got here before me and died, then I wasn't foolish enough to think I'd have a better chance. I was dumb but I wasn't that dumb. If this world taught me something, it was that anything could go wrong, at any moment.

"Ye two quit scrawling around and move some legs!"