He shrugged. “I don’t know, but it’s taken a keen interest in you.”
My blood ran cold again. “What do you mean?”
Ramaro’s kinked tail rapped against the back of my head. “You were the only one it grabbed off the deck, remember? It didn’t even touch the men on shore. That means it wants you.”
I swallowed the growing lump in my throat. “Wants me for what?”
“Probably to feed the creature.”
Panic overtook my mind. I sprinted forward and crashed into the plants in the direction Ramaro had indicated.
“Slow down!” he scolded me as he gripped my shoulder tight.
Leaves and branches whacked at us, but I didn’t care. My survival instinct told me to run, so I ran.
“Stop!” Ramaro shouted as he slammed his body against the side of my face. “Slow down before-”
A sudden tremor struck the ground beneath my feet. I lost my balance and toppled forward onto my hands. In that prone position, I found myself leaning over the edge of a bottomless ravine.
I shrieked and stumbled back. Part of the ground where I’d been gave way and tumbled into the abyss. The pebbles pounded against the walls before crashing into water far below us.
“See?” Ramaro snapped as he pounded a clawed paw against my shoulder. “You have to think before you go crashing through here! This place is trying to get you eaten, it won’t care if it gets you killed!”
My heart thumped so loudly in my chest that I could barely hear his words. Panic had turned to frozen terror. I sat there staring into the misty bottoms of the void, captured by my instincts.
And that’s when a sharp claw was stabbed into my arm. I yelped and started back, where I stared in bewilderment and anger at my attacker. Ramaro held up his bloodied claw, and a nice stream of my life fluid flowed from the wound he had caused.
“Why’d you do that?” I snapped at him.
“Because you weren’t doing anything useful yourself!” he growled back as he used his bloodied claw to point at the crack. “You almost got us killed, and then you just sit here waiting for death to happen. That creature doesn’t sit around waiting for the island to bring it every meal. It’s somewhere out here searching for us. We have to keep moving or it’ll catch up.”
The warm blood on my arm was a surprisingly soothing reminder of my predicament as I eased myself onto my shaky legs. “Alright, but which way do we go?”
“Follow the ravine. The island obviously doesn’t want us going that way, so that must be the way out.”
I took a deep breath and trudged along the precipice, wondering what Torvus and the others were doing to get me out of this mess.
Chapter 11
“She’s as good as dead, Captain. We should leave while we still can.”
The harsh words came from one of the crew members as they crowded around their leader on the deck. Their sun-scorched faces were lined with worry, and some even showed a hint of fear as they looked over their shoulders at the misty island. The heavy fog still shrouded much of the bow in its white, cold embrace. The faint pounding of hammers could be heard below deck and at the front.
Torvus stood in the middle of the group, his arms folded over his chest and his eyes closed. His head was slightly bowed and he didn’t stir.
“He’s right, Captain,” another chimed in as a few others bobbed their heads. “That island’s just begging for us to go in there after the woman and Ramaro. That thing is probably waiting just in those trees, licking its lips to tear us apart.”
The captain remained as still and silent as a statue.
“We should all be working on the fixes,” one of the sailors added as he looked over his companions. “And get out of here as soon as the last board is nailed.”
“Come on, Captain,” a fourth spoke up as he stepped toward their leader. “Are we leaving or not?”
Torvus opened his eyes and lifted his head. “We’re leaving.” A cheer rose from the crowd. “After I’ve found the woman and Ramaro.”
Protests arose from the men.
“Don’t do it, Captain!”
