Just off the shore of a stormy island, sat lonely in the Bay of Kings, the Kraken Caller was anchored, a large ship marked with the adornments of its name-sake, Its salty rugged crew boarded small boats, loaded with silvery bolts, strange masks and pale body wrappings, stuffed haphazardly into crates. Their Captain, Galvos, was waiting on the shore, his boot stood firmly atop a barrel, watching his men with a grizzled stare as they prepared for the job ahead, “Come on boys, show some enthusiasm! We get this done and we’ll be fed fat for months!”

  “Hoo YAH!”

  “HOO HAH HOOH HAH” A voice brimming with effort came up from behind the other men, a man with a brimming red beard, and fiery hair, who towered like a giant over the rest, he carried a barrel on each shoulder where the other men might carry one per two people, then he slammed them down in front of the Captain giving him a knowing smirk “Is this where you want them Captain?”

  Galvos adjusted his hat, a bit perturbed at how rough the man was with the supplies, “Rowan, damn it, are you trying to break everything? Some of that stuff is fragile!”

  “Hey, calm down, it’s all accounted for, I made sure I picked up the rough and tumble,” Rowan said, sneakily lifting up the barrel’s lid to make sure nothing was broken.”

  Galvos sighed, exhausted, he began whispering under his breath, “Give them a chance she said… they’re good boys she said… Where’s that whelp of a brother of yours… is he also trying to break all of my stuff.”

  Quickly Rowan retracted his sneaking finger, the lid of the barrel slapped shut and he gave the captain his full attention, “Oh Cal? Ah, I think he was sleepin’ or something, You want me to go grab him? Haha, I’ll drag him right out of bed!”

  “Sleeping…” Galvos face pinkened a little, “I ain’t paying him to sleep! I knew the scrawny bastard wasn’t worth the money!”

  “Hey! watch it,” Rowan shot back loud, but then lowered his voice when he saw Galvos giving him the death stare, “Look, he don’t look like much I promise you, at the end of the day, me and Cal, we’re gonna blow the rest of your crew outta the water, I promise, and if you do regret it, well a months drinks on me!”

  “You got a secret stash of money I don’t know about?” Galvos asked, calling his bluff,

  Rowan smiled raising his arms in the air, “Ah, you got me, I’m broke, but hey, we’re already here! So you’re stuck with us! So we’re gonna put a gratious smile on that face yet, Captain, I promise you that!”

  Galvos sighed, shooing him away, “Just get to work, and make sure your brother is here when I call for everyone.”

  “Aye aye, Captain!” Rowan gave a hearty salute then went back to the shore crowded still with small boats filled with supplies

  As his feet hit the sand he spotted one last dingy making it’s way ashore, a familiar face riding on it, his head down, body crumpled into itself, “Ha, come on Cal… socialize a little” Rowan whispered to himself, As the boat hit the sand all the other man hopped out, hollering and roaring about what was to come, leaving behind a quiet smaller man, huddled by himself, fidgeting with a crossbow and flipping through a book.

  “Cal!” Rowan called out, jaunting over to him, When his brother’s voice finally reached his ears, his head perked up, his body loosened and suddenly he didn’t look quite as anxious. “

  As his boots hit the sand, he spotted one last dinghy gliding toward shore. A familiar figure sat slouched at the bow, head down, body curled inward. A speck in an overcrowded boat

  "Ha… come on, Cal, socialize a little," Rowan muttered under his breath.

  The boat bumped against the beach, and the other men aboard leapt off with hollers and laughter, roaring about the hunt to come. They left behind a single, quiet man,hunched over, fidgeting with a crossbow and flipping through a weather-worn book.

  "Cal!" Rowan called out, jaunting over with easy strides.

  At the sound of his voice, Callahan’s head perked up. His shoulders loosened, and in that moment, he didn’t look quite so anxious anymore.

  At the sound of his voice, Callahan’s head perked up. His shoulders loosened, he looked over to see Rowan grabbing onto the bow of the boat, pulling it deeper into the shore, “Right on time! You missed out on all the heavy labor, lucky you!” Rowan teased, watching his little brother stumble out, “I helped on the ship,” Callahan said, almost tripping over the edge at the shakiness as Rowan continued to pull on the bow, “you forgot this by the way… had to drag it all the way out of the room. Wouldn’t left it there if nobody helped!” Callahan lifted the hilt of a large hammer up and over the side of the dinghy, “Ah! You see that right there is why you’re such a gem Cal, I’d lose my own head if it weren’t attached to my neck!” With one arm Rowan grabbed the hammer and slung it over his shoulder, the ease put Callahan’s efforts to shame.

  “Yeah…” Callahan sighed looking behind Rowan, he tried to hide the small shutter he felt crawl inside of him at the mass of crewmates that continued to grow larger, the anxiety didn’t escape Rowan’s eye though, he gave Callahan a hardy slap on the back and some encouragement “Hey don’t be losing your will now! We’re half way finished already with our feet on the ground!”

  Callahan was almost thrown off the sand and onto the harder soil by Rowan’s slap, he was never one to pull his punches even when he was trying to cheer his brother up “Yeah… Yeah I know, the sooner I get used to all this the faster we can start really making some money.”

  Rowan smiled, a small glint of pride in his eyes “Keep that spirit up and you’re right! We’ll be back home in no time and Ma will be up and about like she used to be.”

  Callahan watched as his brother walked past him towards the crowd, “Come on now, looks like the Captain is going to give his speech, he’ll be real pissed if everyone ain’t there.”

  “Right behind you.” Callahan tried to move his feet, but they were heavy, anchors in the sand almost, he took a breath and pulled out a buried piece of home from under his cloak. A silver medallion, tied to an old piece of string, the etchings of a boar’s face in profile marked on the flat.

  He ran his thumb on the jagged silver, the cold metal reminding him of the moment he got it. “We’ll be home soon Ma…” His feet felt a little lighter with the reminder of what he was doing this for, and quickly he followed behind his brother, to merge with the crowd of pirate crew that they had become a part of.

  The beach was absolutely brimming with noise and chaos now, as the half-drunk men laughed, argued and fought over how many monsters each one was going to bring back, how much pay they were going to make. The Captain was used to it, his men were idiots a lot of the time but damn if they didn’t get the job done right when he asked them to. He gave them all a once over, trying to count heads in the bedlam and then when he was satisfied, he raised his arquebus to the sky and fired a shot, the sound overpowered the sound of the crew, had lightning struck in the storm just before the shot, it might have been confused for thunder. It was his classic way of getting the attention of his men.

  “Ain’t nobody getting paid if we come up empty handed, so lets quiet down while I explain, cause I know most of you idiots were hammered while we were loading these supplies up at the docks!” His voice could reach them all now that they were mostly silent, there was always of course, the odd fool who would blurt something out, “I was payin attention!”

  “Sure you were…” Galvos sighed, scratching his graying beard, “Now, lookie here” He pulled out a black mask, with two large circular lenses for eyes, “This thing is very important! We’re about to enter a Mire, and the last thing you want is to be inhaling any of that caustic fog that lingers on the ground!” As the words left his mouth he gestured to the floor, where a low hanging green mist swirled around the men’s boots, “It’s low here, but the further we get into Bimos the hire it’ll get, keep your skin wrapped with those bandages and your face covered with your masks, else you’ll be adding your soul to this rotten pile.”

  He could see some men, kicking the green fog towards each other, the grown men teasing each other with a substance that could melt their skin away.

  “Now,” He resumed his explanation, bringing out a silver bolt from his jacket, “This thing right here! This is how we stun the bastards that we came here for! We ain’t here to kill’em so don’t be aiming for their big shiny eyes, The more Wailers we bring home, the more money you get! So watch your shots and don’t get killed! When you got one stunned, muffle it with theses and tie it’s nasty little legs up with these” Out came another black mask, this one different from the ones they were supposed to wear, no eye holes, with the frilled entranced that would wrap close tightly around the creatures neck. In his other hands were silvery wires, similar to the bolts, flexible, but stronger than rope, with a bit of mystic hum to the way they hung in his hands.

  Galvos waved his Arquebus in the circle above his head, “Hold your damn horses would you? There’s one more important thing, everybody is gonna team up with someone with one of these!” Finally, from behind the barrel he brought up a strange machine, heavy, and awkward looking, with straps baubles and lights with no man there able to discern their function, “Once you get to a real saturated part of this rotten place, flick this here nob and let it suck up some of the anima, these things are worth a lot, and we’re getting paid real good if we bring them back too, so DO NOT break them, do you hear me? I swear to Onorus there will be hell to pay if it breaks!”

  He could see the crew was getting antsy,

  “Come on Captain! Let us loose already we know what to do!”

  “YEAH!!” They cried

  Galvos fired another shot to keep the attention on him “Fine, eager to find your deaths then! Cause I know a good few of you lot weren’t listening! WHO ARE WE” His question bellowed and boomed, reaching all their ears, and in unison, with arms raised and voices loud they replied

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  “THE KRAKEN CALLERS!”

  Galvos smirked, the butt of his gun dug into the dirt “And why would you fools call out to the devil of the sea!?”

  “CAUSE WE FEAR NOTHING!”

  Callahan, deep in the crowd next to his brother could barely keep his footing as the crew threw up their fists in their rumbling roar, Rowan too joined the call, already acting like a barnacled member of the crew, he felt truly out of sorts, loud, violent and pushy, he knew it was expected but it was still hard to adjust,

  He could feel the camaraderie, the brotherhood forged in the salt of the sea, and part of him hoped he might become part of it.

  After the call the men dispersed to gather their gear, thinning the crowd enough that Callahan could catch his footing, Rowan looked tickled pink at the whole affair “Haha! Did you hear us! can’t believe how loud we could get; those monsters are probably high tailing it by now! Oh… but we’re coming for them!”

  “I’m sure they heard us, but” Callahan flipped through his old book, landing on a page with a thin wiry creature, sickly pale with silver mirror for eyes and a grotesque saggy neck, it’s 4 legs spindly like a spider, each limb tapering into a thick black ebony claw that contrasted its skin “I don’t a bit of noise is going to rout them.”

  Rowan gave the picture a dismissive glance “That’s what they look like? Eugh,” He looked disappointed, he gave a knuckled knock to the breastplate of his armor “Guess I gotta be gentle with them, Captain will probably be pissed if we bring them all back with broken bones.”

  Callahan raised his eyebrow, giving his brother a cautious look, “You didn’t read what it said did you?”

  Rowan already took a step towards the supplies, ready to gear up and get out, “Nope”

  Callahan slapped the book closed and tucked it away in his cloak “They’re not physically strong, but their scream can paralyze you, Book says it’s similar to a Bind, it’s not just a soundwave.”

  “Oh?” Rowan slowed down, crouching a little as they reached the supplies, “Well it’s gonna to be a fair fight then, they got their screams and we got your”

  Callahan shushed him “Hey…. Not yet, I don’t even know how well it’s going to work!”

  Rowan rolled his eyes, “Gotta have a little faith Cal!” he said, stuffing his bearded face into the black mask Galvos had expressed the importance of.

  “This is just uncomfortable” Rowan said, stretching and sliding the mask over his face, trying to settle the lenses comfortably synced with his vision. “Can’t hear a damn thing either, guess that’s a feature though eh?”

  Callahan picked up the mask, the smell was well worn, the lenses smudged, foggy and scratched “This is gonna be a problem” he said quietly to himself as he slid the mask on, the smell even worse as the strange leather fully covered his face “It’s really damn hard to see in this Rowan” The mask muffled his voice, as it did Rowan’s and hearing was a problem still,

  “Gotta get use to it I guess,” Rowan shrugged, loading a quiver with bolts and tossing it to his brother “Catch!”

  Callahan lunged for the quiver, just barely catching it “Thanks…”

  “Hey you remembered to wrap yourself tight before bed last night right?” Rowan said, squishing his fingers into the thin white wrappings in the crate next to him.

  Callahan rolled up the sleeves of his pants and tunic, “Yeah did you?”

  His face was masked but Callahan could still see he was smiling “I remember somethings!”

  With their gear prepared, Rowan slung his hammer over his shoulder once more and began making his way inland, “come on lots to explore, maybe if we’re the first ones back we’ll get a bonus!”

  Callahan quickly started his pace, trying to keep up with his brother, but just as quick as they started they stopped, a voice calling them to halt, “W..wait a moment!”

  A tall slender man came running up towards them, with one of those bulky machines strapped to his back, his steps were clumsy, and his body looked like it could barely support the extra weight the device was putting on him.

  The brothers stood still till the man caught up to them, when he finally came to a stop, Callahan, even without seeing his face, found a familiarty with him, the slender build, the long arms, “Oh, you’re the one who helped me bring the hammer onto the boat!”

  “Yeah… uh, you mind if I come along with you two? Captain wants as many of these things going out as possible, need suck up whatever we can get.”

  Rowan sauntered over to the man, jolly as ever “course you can!” he said, his heavy hand on the device, jostling him around “What’s your name, friend!”

  “Ollie, and you’re Rowan and Callahan right…?”

  “Aye we are! The new boys from Rindle!”

  Ollie gave a nod, but his face, like the others was now unreadable behind the mask, Rowan walked on, taking the charge into Bimos, Ollie tilted his head, urging Callahan to follow, as he lingered behind, bringing up the back. He took a few glances back towards Ollie as they trudged forward, his head was down, eyes locked onto his own feet, and the machine on his back, though heavy, didn’t seem to be the only thing putting lead in his steps.

  They marched on, deeper into cursed isle, legends had said the rains never stopped, and for as long as they had been there they hadn’t, and now that they were on the island proper they could really appreciate how devesatated it had been. The ground was cracked with the thrums of war, what little remained of any buildings were being eaten away by the Mire, which had now as far as they trekked reached waist high. It was a sickly green smoke that lingered heavy in the air.

  Callahan swiped his fingers through it, the disturbance said whisps of if it flying and swirling through his fingers, unharmed, wrapped in the ghostly threads given to them by the Callers.

  “So uh… That machine of yours? It sucks this stuff up? Why?” Callahan asked, intrigued by the mire and the machine, this was his maiden adventure, and curiosity was getting the better of him.

  Ollie shuffled the heavy device up his back, his hands gripping tighter on the straps on his shoulders “The Captain doesn’t let us ask dumb questions like that. You do what your told, you do it well, and then you get paid” His words played at ignorance but there was something in his voice that made Callahan wonder if he truly didn’t know.

  “Come on slowpokes, keep the pace up and eyes open! Bastards are extra hard to spot when all this shit is flying around in front of your face!” Rowan, still far head, had kicked up a cascading wall of the green fog, swiping at it with his massive arms trying to create break in the death cloud.

  Callahan moved up a little further, trying to keep his pace up with Ollie at least, While Rowan had almost taken to a jog at this point.

  “hmm” Callahan could almost barely resist the urge to touch it, “So you really don’t know what it’s for? What it does? Is this like a clean up mission?”

  It was slight, but Ollie shifted his head toward Callahan, neither really being able to see the expression on each other’s face, and then with a strange reluctant sigh, Ollie gave a little give to to his shoulders, loosening just slightly, “We’re not here to clean up, I don’t think we’ll even make a dent with what machines we got.”

  “Hmm…”

  “How wordly are you Callahan,” Ollie asked,

  “hmm… Well this is my first time away from home, outside Rindle, Bimos and Onoria are the only places I’ve ever really been”

  “Some kind of sick dream of yours to want to be a member of a dreg crew in Onoria?” Ollie asked, he seemed a bit angry at the thought, his words almost judging Callahan

  “No, well not for me atleast, Rowan likes it a lot…” Callahan picked at the back of his mask, trying to gather his thoughts “Our mom, she’s really sick back home, and Rindle doesn’t have much in the way of healers or money, so… yeah, this is how we thought we could kill two birds with one stone you know? Make some money in the capital, hire an Onorion to cure her, it’s not the perfect plan but” He looked ahead, seeing Rowan still cutting his way through the fog “Rowan believes we can do it so I do to”

  Ollie let one of his arms slide down the strap, letting it rest, hanging past his knee.

  “It’s a good reason, family is… always a good reason.” His cracked a little

  “You ever hear of Moravyr?” Ollie asked

  “is that where you’re from?”

  Ollie nodded, “That’s my home, beautiful, white, cold. Much different than your Rindle, or Onoria or here.”

  He leaned his head back, the rain began to build a small puddle in the glassy socket of his mask

  “It’s not so pretty anymore, war does a good job of ruining things, and if it’s true, this thing on my back, it…”

  Rowan fell back towards the two lagging behind, “What you two talking about? We’re gonna be here forever if you don’t move your feet!”

  “Nothin’” Ollie replied,

  “He was just gonna say—”

  “Ah, well If you two are gonna gab I wanna join, ain’t seen no Wailers yet, we’re gonna end up going back broke” Rowan tugged at his mask some more, “Gods this thing is just the worse…”

  “Hey Cal I got a question for ya, you know ma’s old stories right?” Rowan was clearly bored of the walking, amped up to fight, he tried to quell the violent urges with small talk

  “I remember Ma had one about a Kraken, how big are those things you think?”

  “They’re huge!” Callahan’s mood picked up, the somberness of Ollie’s talk slowly fading, “They’re not just fairy tales either! I was looking at one of those books Kiki gave me, and in the book it said there’s one that lurks in the channel between Vallara and Ryvakar!”

  “Oh yeah!?” Rowan perked up two, the brothers words getting lighter at the thought of monster

  “Okay, well here’s the plan, we fail to catch any wailers and Galvos kicks us out of the crew? Well we go hunt us a Kraken!”

  Callahan’s voice turned skeptical and almost teasing “How? You know how far Ryvakar is? Way further than we’ve ever gone on foot that’s for sure! And how you gonna kill it Rowan?”

  “Ah, well you know, bind me some gils and some fins, I’ll go swim down there and stab it to death!”

  “And what do I say to Ma when you get eaten?”

  “You won’t be sayin’ anything to Ma cause you’ll be in the beast’s belly right along side me!”

  Ollie trailed back a little, letting the boys have their fun, he didn’t want to bring the mood down, and their chat stirred something in him, he felt a little warm, like nostalgia.

  “You think he’ll really kick us out?” Callahan wondered,

  “Ah… maybe” Rowan replied pushing Callahan off balance “He’s not really your biggest admirer that’s for sure! But he just doesn’t know what you can do yet!”

  “Yeah…” Callahan lingered on the word with anxiety,

  “Hey don’t worry about it! Gotta keep up the morale Cal,” Rowan looked behind him at Ollie, “You too buddy! Come on boys, ain’t nobody ever put sunshine in your oats before? The Kraken’s a plan B for a reason!”

  Rowan played up the bravado, trying to uplift his brother and tagalong, then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw it, something lurking in the mist. “hoho, shh boys” he said, getting low to the ground, dragging Callahan down with him and urging him to load his crossbow.

  “look look!”