Living Anew

by Loud_Taffy

Chapter 2: Riding it Out

Author's Note:

This chapter took too long to envision. But please enjoy it anyway. Oh and please leave comments, I love your feedback.

It sounded like a train was thundering past. Melony jolted up, smacking her head on the upper bunk. A little dazed, she pulled herself to her feet. As she steadied herself, the planks beneath her began to crack. The walls creaked and moaned. In a burst of splintering wood the back wall was torn off and flung into a mass of swirling winds. Melony just stood there completely dumfounded as what looked like trees and bits of housing were spinning around in the air. To her utter amazement, the only thing that was left of the ship was the bunk she was holding onto and the planks beneath her. As she stared, open mouthed at the chaos, a bolt of pink lightning flashed enveloping her in a bright magenta hue.

A mass of glowing debris flew towards her. She cringed in anticipation of the collision. Instead of pummeling her to death, the chunks of wood and metal swirled around her. She watched in amazement as the ship started rebuilding itself from the scraps. Bit by bit the hull came together. In no time she found herself shielded from the storm. She looked around; the inside looked the same as the Galilee’s four person, stern cabin. The floor pitched forward and Melony was knocked through the cabin door. She had never seen the rest of the ship before, but it seemed simple enough; two doors and a latter leading up to the deck. She stood, and made her way to the stairs, bracing herself against the wall. As she climbed, the ship heaved again almost throwing her to the floor.

Opening the hatch revealed a fully assembled ship. She stumbled out onto the deck watching the lightning flash all around her. Melony clapped her hands over her ears as thunder boomed. The wheel spun freely and the ship listed to the side. Before she could slide off the deck she lunged for the helm. Grabbing one of the spokes she pulled herself to a standing position. Turning the wheel the other way caused the ship to right itself. Now all she had to do was steer the ship past the larger chunks flying around her. The wind speed started to change, and Melony figured that she was getting closer to the edge of the storm. Suddenly a huge structure appeared out of the darkness. It loomed over the ship and Melony furiously spun the wheel to avoid it. The ship groaned as it slowly swerved past what looked to be a castle.

Now she was flying deeper into the vortex. There was a loud clang, Melony looked behind herself and saw big steel bars flying towards her. She squinted; they looked like train rails. Before they collided with the ship, they began to twist and warp. Twelve cannons crashed down onto the deck. Melony looked at them, and then looked around at the storm. She began to laugh. She laughed at the absurdity of everything that was going on. She was piloting a sailing ship through a tornado! She even had cannons now! She laughed like a madwoman, a madwoman steering a boat through a massive vortex of death and destruction. Wild Bill, eat your heart out.

She sighed as she wiped a tear from her eye. “This has got to be a dream,” she said to no one. Gazing down at the cannons with a forlorn expression, “Too bad, I’ve always wanted to see a cannon fire-”

*BOOM*

She stared wide eyed as one of the cannons did just that. A sphere of purple light rocketed away and collided with a bit of roofing, blasting it to pieces. “Huh, well that was unexpected. I wonder what caused it to fire-”

*BOOM*

Another cannon went off, this time blasting a tree into toothpicks. Melony continued to look at the cannons in confusion. Then she had an idea. “Fire.”

*BOOM*

A wicked grin snapped across her face. “And it just keeps getting better and better.” She plunged the ship further into the storm, blasting anything that got in her way. As she neared the center of the cyclone, the visibility steadily increased. She could see the debris from farther away.

All of the sudden the air became crystal clear. The ship had broken through the inner wall of the storm. It felt like being in a huge, empty rotunda. At the core was a smaller funnel spinning in the opposite direction from the rest of the vortex. Melony gazed up. She could see the night sky through a hole in the clouds. It was a beautiful star covered sky with a brilliant glowing moon. She unconsciously gripped her pendant as she gazed up at the glowing orb.

Even in all this chaos, it’s still just as magical. Her attention was torn away from the moon by a loud crackling noise. At the center of the smaller vortex was l large rotating object. It was sparkling with energy. Occasionally a bolt would shoot off into the storm, causing more lightning and thunder. Melony tried to steer the ship around it, but a dark tendril shot out and wrapped itself around the bow.

A well-aimed cannon blast severed the tendril. “Ha. Nice try, but you your goanna have to do better than that.” Several tendrils sprang up and raced towards her. “Ok that’s a little better.” Melony spun the wheel hard avoiding some and blasting the rest. In her efforts to evade the attacks, she had drawn dangerously close to the spinning object. She could now see that it was actually a dark rock, with sharp edges that looked to have been cut to a certain shape.

As odd as it seemed, this thing looked like it was the cause of the storm. “I should probably be trying to get away, but… What the hell.” She turned the ship, trying to set up a clear shot. Whatever this thing was it wasn’t going down easily. It pulsed with dark energy, fueling the storm and continuing its assault on the ship.

One shot that was all she needed, but all these tendrils were blocking her aim. No matter how many she blasted more would appear and rush at her. An idea hit her like a slap in the face. She spun the wheel again, rotating the ship so that the stern was facing the rock. The tendrils lashed out wrapping around the wood of the railing. She cackled and spun the wheel one more time, turning the ship two hundred and seventy degrees. The tendrils were pulled taught against the port as she lined up the starboard cannons with the now exposed rock.

“Broadside! Fire!”

All six guns roared as they unleashed themselves upon the spinning chunk of darkness. On contact, it shattered as if it were made of glass. The tendrils vanished instantly, and everything froze.

She looked around, “Ok, now I know this has got to be a dre-Ah!”

A surge of magenta light exploded up from the ground, blinding her and catapulting everything into the air. Dirt, wood, her, the ship, everything was sent flying straight up. This time though, there was no magical storm to keep the ship in the air. Melony screamed as she plummeted down through the remains of the storm. The wind was defining; it stung her face and brought tears to her eyes. Her clothes whipped around like mad and were on the verge of being torn away. She held onto the wheel praying she would wake up before the inevitable impact.

She was not so fortunate. A torrent of water shot up on all sided, and the ships velocity was halted. The watery impact softened the blow, but not enough to keep her from rebounding off the deck and flying over the rail. She skipped across the water and skid to a halt on the sandy shore. Dazed and with a sizable lump on her head she could barely move. In the end, the pull of unconsciousness won out, and Melony slipped into the welcoming arms of darkness.

Comments

[RainbowCoolDash Pariah]

Not bad keep it up

[Xenomorpher]

What the fuck

[Loud_Taffy]

6211235
What's wrong?

[Xenomorpher]

6211267 Nothing, this was just unexpected I guess. Although the fact that the cannons fired when she said fire was a bit odd.

[Loud_Taffy]

6211286
I'll end up explaining away the cannon thing later on, (as soon as I think of something lol). But I'm curious, what was so unexpected? If you don't mind me asking?

[Nova Blaze]

You had my curiosity. Now you have my attention. I shall track this.

[Worm-revolver]

Good story so far. Wish the chapters were longer though.

[Cyanjames2819]

Hmm... not bad, pretty interesting to say the least. I'll follow along.

[lady Phoenix]

Moar?

[Loud_Taffy]

starting to re wright ch.2 in order to make sense of the overall arching story.