Chapter 5: Tarrick

Henriker could barely hold the dome, protecting the boat from the storm. A drunken Tulvarick sang songs, holding a goblet with tenliash. Tarrick looked through the dome at the sky and the sea. The dome held back the waves crashing on it, but the boat still went back and forth.

“I don’t have enough strength, and if the storm will not end in the next few minutes–”

“It doesn’t want to come to an end,” Tarrick shouted to him.

“Let there be tenliash in my hand, let the feast be eternal, I’ll stay awake with the beautiful elf, and I’ll wake up the whole world!” the king sang.

“Your Majesty, please, get away from there! When Henriker’s powers are exhausted, you’ll be singing songs underwater!” Tarrick shouted.

“I don’t want to! I’m fine here!” Tulvarick answered.

Suddenly the dome disappeared and a huge wave came crashing down on the boat, knocking the king off his feet. The boat tilted, and the king rolled, and behind him rolled a barrel of tenliash, which he had forbidden to put into the hold. Then the king said that this was not a hold, because only ships have a hold, and since it is a boat, it is better to keep tenliash on the boat, and not under it.

The boat swayed the other side, Henriker held on to the side, Tarrick wanted to help the king, but then a strong wave covered them and overturned the boat...

They were close to the island, so they were washed ashore. But next to the shore there were two young larmarians, they ran towards the bodies. Larmarian young woman tried to drag Tarrick away from the water, but she failed, and then she patted him on the cheeks.

“Are you alive?” Uldra asked Tarrick.

“Uldra, there’s another one here,” Julianip shouted.

“Dwarf, wake up!“Julianip tried to bring Tulvarick to consciousness.

The king spat out water and coughed.

“How do you call me, boy? I am a king!” Tulvarick remarked irritably.

“Oh, forgive Your Majesty,” Julianip said.

“Where’s Henriker?” Tarrick asked, approached and began to look around.

“Someone is lying there,” Uldra said and ran to the body.

Henriker was coming to his senses too.

“Everybody is alive!” Tarrick said with joy.

“You are very lucky!” Julianip said.

“We weren’t so lucky before,” the king remarked.

They all approached each other. Tulvarick glanced around the island.

“The fire-breathing creatures have made a lot of mess here,” the king remarked regretfully.

“My name is Uldra Farniss,” Uldra introduced herself, “and this is Julianip Plemaschan.” She pointed at the snub-nosed larmarian.

“Uldra Farniss, you say?” asked the king, giving the girl with an almost sober look, “Nulara mentioned about you.”

“Nulara? She is alive?” Uldra asked, delighted.

Tarrick looked at the king with contempt and resentment.

“Yes, Your Majesty, is Nulara alive, tell them!” Tarrick said with grief.

“That’s not my fault!” the king was making excuses! “It was the foolish snunorf guards! They let her go! I would never let her go! She’s lost everything and was full of anger, but she is a good person! I would never–”

“What happened to her?” Uldra interrupted the king.

“We were in Frosholden, and then she decided to leave without telling anyone. The guards let her go, she is, after all, a noble young woman. Then Tarrick appeared and said that she was not the first to claim the titles of yarlantan and snonungyarl and that Suljan was alive… But what can I say, since the girl had left,” the king said sadly.

“Suljan is alive?” Julianip was surprised.

The king looked up at Julianip and looked at Tarrick.

“Now is your time, resier, to make excuses,” Tulvarik said.

“I left him with the fleet, and then the fleet disappeared somewhere,” Tarrick remarked with pain. “I thought that if I took Suljan with me to the city, something might happen to him. Nothing could happen with my ships in the calm waters of the northern part of the Outland Sea... But I was a fool! After all, I knew about dragons! But we didn’t find the wreckage of ships or something indicating that the fleet sank... Are you alone here, by the way?”

“Yes, the dragons flew away, killed all the oldenmessers –” Nulara said.

“Oldenmessers?” the king interrupted her with surprise, “What they were doing here?”

“They were in alliance with the dragons at first, but... it seems the whole thing is in the prophecy,” Julianip answered.

“It’s always about some words written by someone in a past,” the king said disappointedly.

“Who else survived?” Tarrick asked.

Uldra lowered her eyes, Julianip looked at Tarrick.

“No one survive,” Julianip answered.

“You want to say that there is no one else on the island besides you?” Tarrick was surprised.

“No one else! Larmarians were burned alive, died under the rocks or gone in the sea,” Julianip replied.

“Maybe on the small islands someone took refuge, but we haven’t found any boats or ships, the dragons destroyed everything!” Uldra said.

“What a terrible adventure,” the king said with pain. “And how do we sail back?”

Tarrick looked at them, and then glanced at the partially burned forest, and at the dilapidated castles, which were hard to see from the shore.

“We’ll have to build a boat!” with these words, he headed towards one of the castles.

“One sea adventure is not enough for him,” the king said, and exchanged glances with Henriker, “now we’re definitely going to drown!”

And they all followed Tarrick.