Page 99 of The Sky Pirate's Stowaway
Max’s voice boomed out from the aft quarterdeck, standing in front of the wheel, “Listen up!” Once everyone quieted, he continued. “The storm threw us off course by at least a day or two.” People groaned. “I know, it sucks, but that’s not the worst of it.” He took a deep breath, and when his eyes met mine, I could see so much regret in his gaze. “Our engine fluxstones aren’t going to make it.”
No one spoke for a long moment, as if the entire ship was holding its breath.
Then Moonie called out, “What does that mean exactly? Do we have enough to make it to Gearhart?”
Max ran his gaze over the crew, looking at each and every one before he shook his head. “No, we don’t. We’re going to have to land.”
“In the Othana Desert?” someone called out, sounding terrified.
“We can’t land here!” another crew member yelled.
“We’ll be eaten!”
“Have ya lost yer mind? Othana’s a death trap. No one crosses the desert. Ever.”
“Oh goddesses, we’re all gonna die.”
“We have to do something. We need to… I don’t know what, but we need to do something. We can’t land. Fuck, we can’t land.”
“Is there nothing at all we can do, Captain?”
Everyone was freaking out and yelling over top of each other, screaming at Max, and asking Viper what the plan was.
Max tried to calm people down, and all Viper did was stand there and glare. He didn’t even open his mouth. As horrible as that was, I was almost grateful because he looked angrier than I’d ever seen him. If these people didn’t shut their traps, Viper was going to lose it and start throwing people to the sand serpents.
I shuddered at the thought.
“We’re gonna die.”
“No one survives walking the desert. Not a single person. Ever.”
“We have to do something!”
“Calm down!” Max yelled. “Calm down, everyone. We need to plan. We’re going to have to hunker down inside the ship and wait for another ship to pass by, or…” He took a breath. “Or we need to make it to Asteris on foot.”
“We’re all gonna die,” Bones muttered over and over again.
“Walk? We’ll never make it.” Patty groaned, looking more terrified now than she had when she’d gone flying overboard.
“Stayin’ll get us killed too,” Greybeard said, running a hand down his face and long, grey beard.
Willy murmured from beside me, “Sand monsters are gonna eat good tonight.”
Someone in the back wailed, “I don’t wanna become sand monster food.”
I took in the faces of my fellow crew members, looking at each one in turn. In the time I’d been with them, I’d seen them attack merchant ships, face down Imperial ships, take on a dangerous storm, dodge Viper and his moods, and so many other things. They were all braver than anyone I knew. They were unafraid of any challenge…until now. I’d never seen them look this scared and dejected before.
Seeing the terror, the horror, on their faces made my heart pound hard against my ribcage.
Was the desert really that bad?
I’d heard the stories—so many stories—but I always thought they were embellished. I didn’t think they were real, but… but the way everyone was acting made me think they were.
Holy. Phoenix. Tails.
I cringed as all the tales of sand serpents, fire-breathing raptors, and sand krakens floated through my mind’s eye. The monsters of the desert were huge and very unforgiving. The sand serpents were the most common, and I, in no way, shape, or form, wanted to ever meet or even see one. The pictures I’d seen in books and articles were bad enough. They’d given me nightmares as a kid.
Not to mention that there was literally nowhere to hide from a sand monster. They could hear and feel the vibrations from any creature’s movements and simply pop up directly under them with unerring accuracy and open jaws. And since humans couldn’t see through the sand or feel and hear vibrations the same way, they’d never even see it coming. One minute, they were walking peacefully over the land, the next, they’re being swallowed down by a terrifying beast.
