The Great Magical Mishap

Chapter 3 - Cloudy with a chance of tentacles

Harrold woke to the sound of panicked shouting.

I knew it. This airship will be the death of me.

That's when he noticed the violent motions of the ship.

Huh, we're not in the air yet. Maybe just a bad storm then.

He quickly got up to make his way to the deck. He started at a normal pace, trying to maintain his balance, until he encountered a couple of sailors. They clearly didn't have time to explain what was going on, but their faces showed the situation was serious. Even Peggy hopped on by without so much as an angry glance, which was probably the most telling of all. As Harrold arrived at the stairs, he could make out the Captain's voice shouting orders.

"Man the cannons! Grab the muskets! Kraken inbound! This is not a drill! Not a drill at all!"

Harrold paled and instantly stopped in his tracks, almost knocking over a sailor running right behind him. A kraken? A damn kraken? This job just started and it's already a mess.

Harrold now very much regretted signing up for the mission. He had never been the adventuring sort. The risk of it was simply too large. Too much could go wrong, as demonstrated right this moment, and it all took way too much effort for his taste. It wasn't particularly enjoyable either, usually it was just a miserable experience. He had always dreamt of becoming a wise and powerful wizard, but in reality it wasn't at all what he expected it to be. It became something he despised instead. As a result he refused to do 'proper Wizard' work at the Towers and took to adventuring instead. It paid the bills.

This is the last time though, it's time to accept my fate. If I even survive this encounter.

"Out of my way!" the almost knocked over sailor yelled, shoving Harrold against the side of the hull and running past him with a musket in hand.

Harrold snapped back to reality and quickly followed him. He was hit by a heavy downpour of rain as soon as he made it on deck. The dark skies lighted up for a moment, soon followed by the loud crackling thunder. The ship rocked back and forth as the large waves hit the sides, spilling more and more water onto the deck. The kraken was a massive problem on its own, they really didn't need this storm for the extra challenge. He spotted the Captain behind the helm, wildly rotating the wheel in a desperate effort to keep the ship under control. Pat was standing next to him, making the balancing act of remaining upright seem effortless once again.

Suddenly someone shouted, "It's here! The kraken i-"

A large tentacle shot out the water and went straight through the ship's railing. It hit the sailor dead-on with terrifying force, sending the man flying off the ship. Harrold went wide-eyed and everyone visibly panicked.

"Fire at will! Cannons to portside!" the Captain shouted, trying to get his men into action.

The tentacle made a loud slap as it landed on the deck, before slowly slipping off and disappearing back into the water. Several sailors with muskets ran past Harrold to look over the, now mostly destroyed, railing. With muskets at the ready, they waited for the monster to show. The ship suddenly shook heavily. That wasn't a wave.

Harrold froze as he realized what the beast was doing. Two more tentacles suddenly shot up into the air. Harrold was both awed and terrified by the size of them. With incredible speed, the tentacles struck down upon the deck, like two massive hammers, and instantly crushed one of the sailors. An undiscovered stowaway was crushed as well, which was a shame as the woman would have eventually led Harrold and Pat on a much greater adventure than the one they were currently on. The other tentacle struck down close to Harrold. The force of the hit knocked him over, chipped wood and broken planks flying everywhere. The tentacles ripped apart the deck as the kraken pulled them back slowly until it managed to get a strong hold onto the ship. The sailors fired their muskets, some of them didn't even work as the gunpowder had gotten wet. Harrold had no clue if they could actually see their target above water or if they were panicking. He realized he had to take control of the situation or things would end badly.