The Island of Sleeping Dragon (chapter 1)
The moon shown down on the lonely ship, slowly moving across the vast ocean. The water was calm, and the sky was clear, showing an endless view of stars, the view stretched across the entire sky. The only cloud seen was that of the pipe the captain was smoking. As he looked across the vast span of water and sky, little puffs of smoke exited the man's mouth. He always did this when something was amiss, and the crew knew this, but also knew not to disturb his thinking. I on the other hand, did not know this.
"Nice peaceful night, huh?" I asked, walking over to the captain. Resting on the railing to the ship. I looked up at the sky. After not hearing a response from the captain I asked again. "Beautiful evening don't you think?" The captain looked at me. Removed his pipe.
"You be lookin' for a man t' talk t', you lookin' at th' wrong man." The captain said, a cloud of smoke coming out of his mouth as he spoke. "The sea is too quiet if y' ask me. Somethin's array, an' ah’ll be damn't if we don' 'scover why tha' be t'night." The captain walked away smoking more of his pipe, mumbling below his breath. I turned around to head back. As I walked back to my bunk, I saw one of the shipmates shake his head at me.
It had been a month on the water, since we left land. I didn’t know that it would be this long to get from one continent to the other. I was moving because my regiment was being sent to fight the war on the main continent. Preferably I could care less. I had signed up for battling, so I was to join the big chaos march.
As I was walking back to my bunk, I saw something slick move through the water. The water rippled then stop. At first I thought nothing of this phenomenon, but then heard murmuring among the crew. I shrugged it off, not really trying to understand. Suddenly the entire ship jolted to tilt, throwing me into someone else’s bunk. If this were not influenced by something so obvious, the person would have been angry. Then the ship jolted to the other side, throwing me to the banisters of the ship. The banisters snapped like twigs. I fell into the water and started to sink. Realizing what was weighing me down, I looked at my sword. I was about to dump it, when a sensation of buoyancy pushed me above the surface; I was floating in the air.
I looked down only to see a massive row of teeth and a large gaping mouth. I pulled out my sword as I fell into the mouth and cut my way through the throat. As I landed I heard the moans of the beast as it flipped and threw about from the pain. I heard a crash, thinking it was the ship being hit by the beast. I was suddenly hit by something undigested in the creature's stomach and became unconscious.
I slowly regained consciousness, my vision blurry, but still intact. I sat up and remembered I was still in the beast's stomach. I wasn’t being digested, so I guessed the beast had died. My only fear was, I was at the bottom of the ocean, and would be forced to open up the beasts roof risking dieing on a long swim up, or die from insanity and lack of air.
I decided to cut and make a mad swim, getting read, I steadied my blade. As I was aiming for the top, I heard a voice.
"Ah wouldn’ do that, if ah was you.” I turned to see the captain of the ship, leaning against the wall of the stomach. Still smoking his pipe. He stood up and walked over to me. “Y’ see, only th’ best o’ swimmers coult make it t’ th’ surface.”
“So what do you suggest? I don’t see any other way of getting out of here.” I resheathed my sword as I spoke.
“I have a plan.”