Fateful encounter

My eyes open up slowly as I wake up, feeling dizzy and lightheaded; it was the voices I heard that woke me up, loud songs in an unfamiliar language that I haven't heard before in my life.

Even though I traveled a lot, I haven't been this high up north before.

I tilted my head to see where these sounds are coming from, just to realize I was sleeping in a raft, a small one at that, it barely holds the girl next to me, and me hanging at the very edge.

A ship was coming towards us, different from the one we came in.

The ship's crew throw a rope for us to get up to the deck.

I woke up the sleepy girl and took hold of the rope, saying "hold on tight."I started climbing with all the strength I had left.

One gigantic man approached me reaching his hand out, supporting the girl to get on board, then reaching out again for me.

From the first look, I knew these people are merchants like the ones we came with last night; they wear different but from my experience, I can tell merchants from warriors and bandits.

At that moment, my bad habits kicked in, I turned to the girl saying "if we play this correctly, we will convince them to help us, the only problem is we can't communicate with them."

One member of their crew interrupted me saying "this won't be a problem, this ship travels all seas, and I can tell by your tongue, your country is one of its stops, and for the play, you intend to perform on us so we help you, it isn't necessary, we will do it for free."

The enormous well-clothed man standing in the middle of the ship interrupted, talking in his language to the one who was speaking to us.

"Our master loves helping others in need," the man exclaims, adding "he merely seeks to know how come, two charming girls like you, to be lost in this area of the sea?"

The girl answered bowing her head "O dominant master, we thank you for your generous hospitality,"

Speaking in such formality, like some sort of noble.

"We both survived miraculously from a horrific crash of a merchant's ship smaller than this one. Those merchants wanted to dispose of us when we reach the mainland."

She continued."I was working on that ship."

"Her master captured her assisting me with the theft I did," I interrupted.

I didn’t need any help, I’m used to escaping sticky situations on my own, being a thief since my youth but from her naivety, she thought I’m stealing cause I'm starving, and how mistaken she was. I added in my mind.

"When she got caught, I couldn’t just leave her behind, and for the first time in my life, I hesitated what got me caught with her. The merchant’s master tied us both and kept us in with the food I attended to steal, and for my foolish deeds, this unfortunate girl was experiencing a dire situation that she has nothing to do with."

The night approached, and a frightening and uncontrollable storm began.

I liberated myself while the guards who were watching us left to support their crew, sailing through this disastrous weather, then I freed the girl.

She thanked me in a mellow voice.

"Stay close," I replied."we are escaping this."

Escaping the ship was my plan, What's beyond that has never come to my thinking.

When we reached the deck, I saw something frightening; I have never seen such a thing, a massive whirling pool of water, the biggest I've ever encountered; sucking the ship near its center.

The crew worked hard on sailing away from the certain death looking upon us.

When my primary focus was on keeping the girl safe.

The ship barely made it to the other side without being sucked in. The night was at Its last breath; the encounter gravely damaged the ship; parts of it were all over the water.

The weather was calming down, and the crew started repairing all damage that occurred to the ship.

Entering a channel, narrow waters we need to traverse through.

"Help with the ship repairs and I’ll grant you your freedom back," the master asked with a deep growling voice.

We both agreed, but I knew from the look in his eyes that we need to escape before dawn, for this one isn't a person who keeps his word.

The moment we reached the entrance of this channel, the girl came to me shaking, I asked with confusion ‘did someone hurt you?’.

"NO, NO, it’s not like that," She replied. 

"It is this place, I'm getting bad vibes from it," she added jumping into my arms. 

"We must leave at once." in a quavering tone.

I tried comforting her by telling her "there is nothing to be afraid of after all the water is calm and the weather is nice and…"

I didn’t have to finish those words to realize it.

Fear struck instantly, how can the weather change like this in a matter of minutes, from a world-ending climate to a calm clear night.

That was the creepiest moment I have experienced in my entire life.

Screams from the crew members disrupted my thoughts. 

A dragon-looking creature, that came out of a cave in the rocks took one crewmate, followed by five more heads with bizarre shapes. Three rows of teeth in every one of them.

The heads started attacking and taking one crew member at a time, every one of us panicked for that creature was something that comes from a late-night fairy tale, men aren't used to facing such terror in their trips, they aren’t warriors or heroes, just a bunch of douchebag merchants.

The creature’s core comes out forward from the dark. 

The first thing I note was the dogs surrounding its wrist, and with disturbing unheard of noises, they barked.

At the center there was a woman at least it looked like one to me, she was a raging abomination of mixed creatures.

I shuddered and froze for a second. 

"There is a raft in the water" I heard the girl screaming at me, so I break out of it, grasping her by the hand, and we both jumped in the water trying to catch the raft as fast as possible to get away from this situation.

The girl got on top of it and started immediately pushing it, begging the gods for some power, mine was long drained.

The monster crashed the ship with one big hit, creating a massive wave that pushed us away.

I kept on holding into the girl’s hand until we reached the open water; it wasn’t safe by any means, but it was far from that nightmare.

and that’s it, that’s how we got to the middle of nowhere.

The translator told his master our story in their tongue, the expressions in his face were of excitement and joy.

He gives a burst of big prideful laughter and speaks with a gigantic smile on his face.

The man translates “my master says that it has been a long time since he last heard a story about Scylla, most men now think of her as a goddess of ancient times turned to monster out of jealousy, people forgot about the terror she can bring.”

He comes closer to us saying” but to see someone who actually survived an  encounter with her, is worth the time, we will help you reach your destination”

“And, the story of the two girls who survived her encounter will be told everywhere we go.”