Young Writers Society

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As the ship crested the next wave, the crew rushed to man the oars. A wave crashed up the bow of the ship, then ran across the deck to be thrown from the scuppers to join the surges once more.

With the beat of the bosons drum the ship seemed to come to life and began to claw its way up, then down the face of the waves. Below deck at the rower’s benches some of the crew collapsed, exhausted. Only to be replaced by another filled with desperation to keep the ship ahead of the waves.

Up in the crow’s nest, the lookout was watching the seagulls hover in place for a few seconds to be blown back by howling gusts. As he turned away from them, he saw it. The Maelstrom.

Panicked, he flung himself from the crows nest and slid down the rigging. As he scrambled across the deck, being beaten back by the wind and also the occasional wave that crashed up the sides, only to have his face filled with the salty taste of brine then, to flee once more from the scuppers.

He burst into the captain’s quarters.

‘Captain!’ he cried. ‘We’re headed straight for The Maelstrom!’

‘What?’ Exclaimed the captain, obviously shaken. ‘What does that idiot Barod think he’s playing at?’

Throwing down his quill on to the chart he was working on, he strode from his cabin to the helm, only to be confronted by a sight that chilled him. No one was at the helm.

‘He must’ve gone over the side.’ He said with regret in his voice. ‘Well Eros, you’d better go down side and tell the boys downstairs to hold on and keep the speed up, we’ll have to go through it.’

And so Eros went down to the rower’s level and up to the boson.

‘Malken!’ he yelled over the drone of the drum.

‘What’s got you all shaken up?’ Malken said in a rich deep voice.

‘Captain says to tell the guys to buckle down, Barod is dead and we’re headed straight for The Maelstrom and we need all the speed we can get.’

‘Ok I’ll tell ‘em, you just go get safe ‘til we get through this.’ Malken said ruffling Eros’ brown hair.

Get safe, he thought dryly, how he was supposed to do that when they were sailing right into the storm that had kept his people out of these waters for thousands of years was beyond him. So he climbed up deck, went to his bunk, and collected all his possessions, just in case. Bundling it all in his small pack, he battled his way up to the helm, once again being beaten by the wind, but thanks to the rowers filled with new vigour at the news of The Maelstrom, no waves crashed up onto the deck this time.

‘Captain!’ Eros yelled.

‘Good, I take it you told Malken,’ he replied over the wind ‘I need you up in the nest to look for any reefs or rocks, these waters are new to me.’

He climbed, with the wind tugging at his clothes. With The Maelstrom just ahead, it made him a bit more careful with his footing going up the rigging. He managed to get up and was in the process of tying himself to the nest when he saw it, the true Maelstrom, a whirlpool about two miles across and dipped in the centre about a mile.

‘Captain!’ He cried ‘Rocks off the port bow!’

‘Aye!’ He roared turning to starboard.

It was too late when Eros realised his mistake. They should have gone in towards the centre of the whirl pool to use it, but now they were doomed… unless. He undid his ties and leapt from the nest to hit the sails and rip them from the mast.

‘What’s got into your mind?’ yelled the Captain.

‘We have to go into the centre,’ he said once he had gotten to the helm.

‘That won’t work, we need to skim the edge if we have any hope to escape this, and now you’ve ripped our sail down we need all the speed we can get.’

The ship started to vibrate with the swirling of both the wind and the sea. It was as if The Maelstrom was trying to rip the ship asunder. All of a sudden Eros remembered the seagulls.

‘Captain we need to get out of this, I saw seagulls earlier, and that means land,’ he pleaded.

‘I know what it means,’ he replied quite shortly, obviously concentrating on the situation ahead. ‘The problem is that we can’t get out easily without that sail you just rid us of.’

‘Trust me Sir, I know a way out, we need to go towards the centre.’

‘Look, I know you’re trying to help, but forty years experience out on the sea has told me that to do that is suicide.’

Then with no warning the sea around them just went still.

‘See lad,’ he said with relief. ‘I knew all we need to do was keep going and he’d get out eventually.’

But Eros wasn’t listening he was busy watching the sea, annoyed because of this sudden drop in current forcing them back. Then the sea leapt up again only this time the current was going the other way, it flung the ship onwards at an alarming speed. Eros ran to the bow to be confronted with a sight that held him in awe. Land.

‘Land!’ He cried. ‘Captain, land!’

‘What?’ he said taking out his spy glass. ‘Well I’ll be.’

And then there were rocks. The ship seemed to be blown apart, sending Eros flying up and over the out crop of rocks and into the water on the other side. Stunned, he floated for a while then realising his predicament, he grabbed a plank of wood floating nearby.

‘Help!’ he called it echoed feebly in his head. ‘Help! Can anyone hear me?’ he called this time it seemed as if he called in two voices, one, his normal voice, the other, a strange, strong ethereal voice. He felt a surge of energy leave him. Then exhausted by the call he drifted, trying in vain to hold on to his consciousness, wondering at what he had just done, he sunk into darkness.

♦ ♦ ♦

Far away in a sun scorched land an egg shifts restlessly. Someone rushed excitedly up to the egg and tapped the shell, a high pitched, reptilian cry came from inside the glistening crystalline shell. The attendant ran to alert someone. One had finally come.

♦ ♦ ♦

Two priests dressed in home spun robes rushed down to a small protected cove seeking the call for help that they had heard some time ago.

‘There’s the ship wreck,’ one said to the other. ‘You’re better at it then I am, so could you see if he’s around?’

The other priest closed his eyes in concentration for a few seconds then replied ‘Yes, he’s here but on the other side of the cove.’

They crossed the cove studying the wreckage with obvious sorrow.

‘How anyone could survive such destruction is beyond me,’ one said.

‘If the one who called us did survive, he is either very powerful or lucky,’ the other answered.

‘I can feel his presence under that wreckage.’

The two rushed over and begun digging Eros out of the rubble of his former life.

‘He’s only a child!’ One priest exclaimed in disbelief.

‘Well, I’ll get him back to The Temple and treat his wounds, you see if there are any more survivors.’

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just note that some things aren't being centered