Unqual Island
Short Story / Written 7/1/04 / Rated PG

This was originally written as my "Scouting Report" for the DC x) It happens shortly after Drev first arrives in the Clan lands. It's also the story of how Drev meets his little bulldog-gargoyle. Welcome to Unqual Island!

Drev was eager to get out of there. He knew he wouldn't be able to "run away" from his debt to the captain... he and his crew were clever and could probably find him if he tried. Granted, they didn't know he could hide himself, but it probably wouldn't take them long to figure it out.

He furrowed his brow as he headed off in the direction towards the island the captain had mentioned. From there, maybe he could see at least most of the Clan. But first, maybe he could find a place to stay the night on one of the islands. Not the one with the mountain, he thought as the fog slowly began to clear and he could see the other three islands. And the other one's too close to the captain's island... By process of elimination, he decided he'd have a look at the last island before the mountainous one.

It wasn't long before his great wings slowed their pace and he began his decent onto the farthest island in the island chain. He noticed the edge of the island that faced east was hardly a coastline, but more of a large cliff the whole way around. This made an easy landing as he landed on top of the cliff at the eastern part of the island. He noticed the whole area at the top of the island was more barren than anything. It was scattered with large rocks and several of them formed the entrance to noticeable caves. He squinted his eyes at his surroundings in admiring distaste. It was cold, desolate, and spooky. But, as far as he was concerned, there was nothing else he would have enjoyed more.

He made an approving snort and headed western towards a gradual decline and the beginning of a large growth of spruce trees. He had noticed them from above - they covered most of the island after the rocky crest, layered over the steep slope downwards to small inlets where they ended to reveal grey beaches. Well, at least he thought he'd call them beaches - they were hardly anything like the sunny, sandy beaches he had heard of.

He was headed towards the beach on the southern part of the island that he had noticed during his flight. The forest was dense but easy enough to navigate even though he had never been there before. He could sense the other creatures in the forest and their calls quieted as he approached. He wondered what kind of creatures actually inhabited the islands. He wasn't worried about it, of course, because he could handle anything. He just hoped there weren't any werewolves - he had already had enough of them.

Sure enough, he eventually emerged on one of the two beaches. He figured this must be the southernmost one judging from the direction he had come from. All of the excitement from exploring had completely pushed his debt out of his mind for now. He'd worry about it later - if nothing else, maybe he could offer the captain any riches Ainad might have once he had killed her.

After a quick look around, he noticed the landscape was just about as foreboding and dull as the rocky crest except instead of a cliff to separate the land from the ocean, there was a dark sheet of ice surrounding the shore that went at least twenty feet out from the coastline. He also noticed a strange cove nearly hidden by bushes at the edge of the forest against a sharp incline. He had almost missed it due to the heavy plants on either side that were hiding it, but decided to have a look anyway. It looked like a large cave and with those bushes in front of it; it would make the perfect spot for him to stay...

He crept towards it cautiously. It looked big enough to house a large animal and he wouldn't want to frighten any mighty inhabitants. He was just wondering if something was inside the cave when the bushes outside of the cave rustled. He stepped back sharply and threw a dagger directly into the bushes in one fluid, instinctual movement. He heard a small thump of a creature falling and snuck forward to investigate. Sure enough, his aim had been true, there was a small, gargoyle-like creature lying dead with his dagger embedded in its side. It had a stubby nose, four paws, and two wings. It didn't have a tail and its ears were a little too large for the rest of its body. Quite an ugly creature, if he did say so himself. He was thankful the creature hadn't been any bigger and wondered if it was the only one living in the cave. He stooped down to retrieve his dagger, but recoiled his hand quickly once he touched it, the dagger was ice cold.

Odd... he thought as he held his hand worryingly over the dagger's handle. I just had it... and it wasn't that cold. he was just about to reach back down and take the dagger when something even more unusual happened. A grey-blue mist had begun to leak from the creature's wound like an ominous mist.

Drev gave a short cry of surprise and stumbled backwards. The mist continued to ooze out of the creature's body and slowly started to take form. Drev watched, paralyzed as the mist began to form a shape that looked identical to the one of the creature laying on the ground before him.

The spirit stretched, yawned, and with a flick of its hind leg, it tore itself completely from the body. It looked absent-mindedly away from Drev and towards the entrance to the cave. It appeared thoughtful about something before its misty ears sharply perked up and it turned its face to where Drev was standing motionless watching it.

Its eyes narrowed a bit as if it were studying him. Drev broke into a cold sweat, he had never dealt with a ghost before... could you even kill one? What if it killed him? Would he even be able to touch it?? Without warning, the creature leapt towards him. Drev winced, expecting to feel sharp fangs sinking into his neck, but instead felt a wave of cold rush through his foot as the creature licked it.

Drev opened his eyes and looked mortified at the creature. "Wha... what do you want?" he asked as it looked up at him. "I just killed you, you know..." The creature didn't answer and instead began running in a figure eight shape around Drev's legs.

"What does this mean?" he asked as if he thought the creature might answer him. "You're... a ghost now? But I want to live in this cave - you can't stay here!"

The creature looked up at Drev and waggled its end half from side to side in affection. Drev flinched, "Go on! Go find someone else to play with!"

The spirit bounded up to Drev and licked his foot again before Drev had a chance to jump back, "Knock it off!" he said, "That feels really weird..." It seemed as though any time the ghost touched him, it was like touching ice, he felt like his foot was going to freeze and fall off.

The spirit flopped down by Drev's feet and rolled over onto its back as if begging Drev to scratch its tummy. Drev stooped down to rub its smoky belly by awkwardly brushing his fingers over the smoke, figuring it would be best not to anger it since he had no idea what it could do to him... "Well... we've gotta find somewhere to put you, then." He said. "I feel kind of obligated to find you a new place if I'm taking your old one..."

The creature rolled over again and bounded out of the bushes. "Do you know a place?" Drev asked it. "Well, go on, then." He turned again in another attempt to retrieve his dagger from the body, but the ghost ran over to him and growled.

"Okay, okay, I'll leave it!" said Drev as the creature nudged Drev's hand with its nose and then nodded towards the body and brushed up against it as if it were trying to move the body. "You... want me to carry it for you?" he asked as the creature turned towards the door again. "Well, fine, but this had better not take long. I wanted to fix this place up a bit while the sun's still up." He figured he could at least return the body to the creature's family...

The creature padded heavily off into the forest with Drev right behind it, struggling to keep up and remove the dagger at the same time. "Slow down!" he called out after it. But the creature had stopped. Before them was a small clearing in the dense trees, a single tree stump resided in the middle of the clearing. The fading sun lit the clearing with an eerie red light as the surrounding trees cast spooky shadows on all sides.

The creature stood still, it was looking determinedly towards the stump in the middle of the clearing. "Do you know someone who lives here?" asked Drev in a whisper as though his mere presence there was causing some sort of biological imbalance. The creature said nothing, but stood staring at the stump. "Well... okay, then..." said Drev in a slightly annoyed tone as stepped out into the clearing and carried the creature's body towards the stump. A strange power was coming from the center of the clearing, but he chose to ignore it. Once he finally reached the center, he gently laid the creature's body on top of the stump and stepped back. A pillar of the same grey-blue light that was coming from the ghost burst up from the stump, completely immersing the creature's body. Drev gave another shout of fright and tripped backwards, but the creature's ghost remained motionless.

Almost as quickly as it had come, the pillar of light disappeared, leaving nothing but a strange puddle on the top of the stump. Drev squinted at it; it was hard to make out what the puddle was made of in the dying light. He started towards it, but was nearly knocked off his feet as the ghost leapt towards it and straight through his chest. It beat its cloudy wings once and then dropped itself into the puddle, completely disappearing under the surface. Drev stared open-mouthed at the puddle as the ripples subsided. He was just about to get the heck out of there when the ground beneath his feet began to rumble. He stopped to try and balance himself and saw that something was emerging from the tree stump. It was the creature! It was still a ghost, but for some reason it now had a visible outline. It looked solid now; though still the grey-blue color.

As soon as the creature was above the puddle's surface, the puddle disappeared and left the solid ghost sitting on top of the regular stump as if nothing had happened at all. Drev couldn't move, he was still trying to piece together everything that had just happened. The creature was the first of them to budge as it leapt from its spot on the trunk and hit Drev squarely in the chest in a forceful pounce.

Drev was knocked off his feet and landed flat on his back as the creature licked his chin. "You're welcome?" said Drev as he shoved the creature off of him and sat up. "So now you can live in peace in the afterlife, eh? Good... now I can get out of here." He stood up and started back in the direction he had come when he heard the creature following him. He turned around to get a good look at it.

"Go away." He said. "I helped you get rid of your body now leave me alone!" He took a few more trial steps, but the ghost dutifully followed. "NO!" Drev bellowed as he made to kick it away. "I don't want you following me!"

The creature wagged its behind again and bounced around Drev's feet. Drev clenched his hands and released them several times in order to calm his anger. Okay... so now I've got this blasted ghost following me... it's obviously not very dangerous, but how do I get rid of it?

He had just decided it would be best to just take off running and leave it in the dust when he looked up towards the forest and noticed it was completely dark. The sun had finally set, leaving the clearing lit only faintly by the moon and the stars. But now Drev was completely turned around, Wait a minute... which way did I come from...? he looked frantically around the clearing trying to recognize his path. He had left all of his belongings, including his weapons back in the bushes by the cave. It probably wasn't a good idea to stay out in these woods at night without a weapon.

He made another anxious visual sweep of his surroundings before his eyes finally fell back on the creature. It was now sitting at his feet, staring up at him and letting off an eerie blue glow. It was faint, but just enough of a glow that Drev could clearly see anything within four square feet around him. He stared blankly at the creature for a minute before he finally spoke to it. "Fine." He said in defeat as he waved a hand for the trees. "Take me back."

The creature stood and proudly walked towards the trees with Drev following it. Drev was lucky to have the creature leading the way, he could sense some of the creatures in the forest retreating at the sight of the glowing ghost. They made it back to the cave without trouble and Drev was relieved to find it again and to find all of his belongings safely stored within the bushes.

The creature, having successfully completed its task sat gently outside the cave and raised its chin proudly. Drev eyed it with a hint of liking. "Not bad." He said as he bent down to scratch it behind the ear. "You'll stand guard, then?" he added as he looked out over the shore ice and the moonlight reflecting off of it. "Might be hard to find anything in the dark... even if you did come with me."

He turned to go back into the cave. "I'll turn in... and look for things in the morning." The bushes swept to their close over the entrance to the cave and Drev curled up on top of his cloak. He was so exhausted from the three-day trip that it didn't take long for him to fall asleep. Before he knew it, his dreams had swept him away and the sun was peeking in through the leaves to wake him up the next morning.

He rose and stretched. He was just stepping out of the cave when he noticed the creature still standing guard. It looked as though it hadn't slept a wink. "You still here?" he asked, halfway impressed at the ghost's obvious loyalty to him. "Well, I'm going to go get a look at the rest of the island. I suppose you can come if you want... since you know your way around."

The creature looked up at Drev with something of a crooked smile and left its spot to follow him. Drev followed the shoreline around the island to the other beach with the creature was barely a step behind him the whole time. "So do you have a name or something?" Drev asked the creature as he stopped to rest on a large boulder and surveyed the surroundings: a similar grey beach to the other one, but with three visible caves on the edge of the forest. "Oh... why am I asking you, you can't talk." He shrugged. "Well, I'm just going to call you Kuive for now. If I find your name out later, I can call you that."

He looked down at his shadow and moaned, it looked like he had slept in... and a fair amount too. It was already afternoon. He was just getting after himself for wasting time when he spotted something unusual, "Hey, what's that over there?" he asked as he pointed towards the opposite side of the beach and left his spot on the rock. "More caves!" Kuive trotted dutifully along behind him as Drev peeked into the first cave. "These aren't as well hidden as the other one... Looks like there's three big ones..." he murmured as he stepped inside of the first cave and surveyed the walls. "Woa..." he said as his eyes paused on the ceiling. "Looks like there's a hole up there!" In the ceiling of the cave, nearly hidden by shadows and stalactite, was a crawlspace just big enough for Drev to fit through. He jumped and grabbed the edge of the hole and slowly lifted himself and peeked through it. "There's a light coming in through somewhere!" he called down to Kuive as he wriggled his way up into the hole. It turned out it led to almost a "second level" of this cave. A small window in the rock allowed enough sunlight in to get a good look around. He was just about to go back down through the crawlspace when something in the back of the cave caught his eye. It was just out of reach of the light pouring through the window. "Hey!" he called down to Kuive. "Come here!"

Kuive fluttered up through the hole and looked questioningly at Drev. "Come over here so I can see what this is..." he ordered as the two of them approached the back of the cave. "Woa..." was all Drev could say to sum up what he had found: all along the wall was a series of drawings, hieroglyphs that seemed to tell a story.

"I wonder what it means..." he mused as he poured over the drawings. "It's like a story... a story about ghosts." He glanced quickly at Kuive who offered a confused glance. "Look!" he said. "It looks like someone's at a stump with a ghost! And then... it shows a ghost with red eyes... Come to think of it." He said as he peeked down at Kuive again. "Your eyes weren't red until you did that weird thing. What do you think that means? The stump turns your eyes red?"

He moved down a bit to examine the next set of pictures. It showed a red-eyed ghost surrounded by several misty shapes. "Okay, so I get it, there are two types of ghosts... what's the difference, though?" He stepped farther over to the next set of pictures, this one was in sequence. It showed a live creature with an arrow pointing to a misty spirit and then to a red eyed ghost. "So your version is like... a top rank of ghosts?" Drev asked, thoroughly interested as he moved onto the fourth and final drawing.

It showed a drawing that looked like a map of the island. "Ooh! Look! This is where we are now... and there's my cave." He said pointing at each place on the map. "And... oh look! This must be where that stump was..." the artist had drawn the clearing in the forest surrounded by the ghostly mist and had drawn a skull next to it. "What, like the Valley of the Dead or something?" he wondered as he compared all the pictures. "Maybe it's like... you can only get to your level of ghost if someone takes your body to the stump."

"Or maybe you can only live happily in the after life if someone chooses for you to and takes you there? Maybe there's something about the island and anything that's killed here..." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Ah... all this thinking is giving me a headache." He said as he got down on his knees and slipped down through the crawlspace again. "I'll see more about it later..."

He exited the cave and strolled across the beach before sitting on another large boulder. "You know..." Drev he said once he saw that Kuive had followed him, not really seeming to have a problem talking to a creature that wouldn't talk back. "Something's been really bothering me lately: before I was locked up, I had this ability to transform into something. Something that I had touched, I could memorize their looks and morph to look like them. But I haven't been able to do that for ages. Not since I was locked up anyway."

He sighed, "At first I wondered if it was just that I was weak from being locked up... maybe I didn't have enough power to transform. But I've been out for a few weeks now and I still haven't been able to transform. I hope I haven't lost the ability... that was my best advantage."

He shrugged at Kuive. "Of course, I guess some of it might be the silver thing... for some reason I can never transform around silver. Maybe there was a lot of it on the ship." He looked thoughtful as he tried to recall any silver he might have come in contact with. "Well, I had some silver, but not any more since I had to give it all to the captain." He grumbled.

"I guess I could give it another try. But you're the only thing I've been in contact with lately..." He took a deep breath in and breathed it out slowly as if he was concentrating really hard, "Let's see if I remember how to do this..." he murmured as his figure slowly began to shrink and his scales looked as though they were flipping inside out. Before long, his large draconic form had been replaced by the small form of the creature that was following him.

Kuive gave a startled yelp and took off running towards the direction they had come. Drev shifted his weight on his four paws and struggled over to the ice to get a glance at his reflection. It worked!! he thought as he looked his reflection over with approval. About time, too!

He stretched out his small wings and considered flying. But I haven't transformed in so long... what if it's not safe? But then again... I've always been good at flying, shouldn't be too different - it's just a different pair of wings is all. He studied the sea and noticed a mountainous island not too far off in the distance. I'll bet I could make it all the way there... he boasted to himself. Yeah, it'll be a good work out! He galloped towards the shoreline and ran for a bit on the ice before taking a flying leap into the air and setting course for the other island.


The End



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