Chapter IV

A large bang woke Deuthreas up.  The swordsman sat up and looked around to see what was going on.  For a second he thought they had hit something in the water and that there was a hull breach somewhere, but everything seemed fine.  There was no sound of water gushing to be heard.  In fact, there was no sound to be heard at all.  The usual noise and laughter coming from the galley and the sailors’ quarters was inexplicably absent.  An eerie silence had befell the entire ship.  
Deuthreas jumped out of bed and clumsily searched for his clothes in the dark.  The old wooden floor cracked under his weight; it seemed even more rotten than before.  The swordsman managed to locate the candle next to his bed and lit it up.  He couldn’t see very far in front of him, but it was better than nothing.  He buckled up his belt and scabbard and headed outside the room.

'Hello?' he called out.

A putrid smell invaded his nostrils as he stepped out into the hallway; a sickening mix of bad eggs and rotten meat.  There was something wrong here; Deuthreas could feel it in his guts.  He walked to the door next to his own and knocked.  

'Rhys?  Are you there?'

No answer.  This silence was starting to get on the mercenary’s nerves.  He banged louder on the door, but still no response.  He turned the knob and noticed that it was not locked, so he pushed the door open and stepped inside.  The room seemed even darker than the hallway, as if his candle’s light could not penetrate its blackness.  Deuthreas took a few careful steps forward, one hand on the handle of his sword.  

'Rhys?'

He heard a muffled groan coming from the bed.  The swordsman approached it slowly until he could distinguish some mass under the bedsheets.  He noticed the tip of a feathered wing peeking out from under the sheets.  Was the Faldorian unconscious?  

'Rhys, are you okay?' asked Deuthreas as he motioned to pull away the sheets.  Just as he touched the rough material, a low-pitched growl came from the mass, and it began spasming uncontrollably.  The swordsman swiftly pulled away the sheets, only to find nothing underneath.  The bed was empty.  He looked for the feathered wing he had seen, but it was nowhere to be found.  There was simply nothing under the sheets.  

Suddenly he heard a shriek coming from another room.  Aeriel.  Deuthreas drew out his sword and ran back into the hallway.  Another cry.  Two doors down.  Deuthreas started sprinting but was immediately cut off by a coughing, hollow figure that passed right in front of him, coming out of one wall and entering the opposite one.  It seemed ethereal, shrouded in a green hue, and had empty eye sockets.  Deuthreas almost ran through it, but it was gone as quickly as it came in.  The mercenary struggled to regain his composure, wiped the sweat off his forehead, and ran down the hallway to help his catling friend.
He located the room from which the cries came from, and rammed the door down.  He found Aeriel there, cornered by a indiscernible mass that had his back to him.  The catling noticed his friend in the doorway, and cried out his name.  The assailant turned around to face the newcomer.  
Deuthreas was disgusted by the sight of him.  Although humanoid in shape, he seemed covered in green slime, and an eye was hanging from its socket by a loose nerve.  The monster let out a horrifying, deafening shriek, and lunged at the swordsman.  
Still stuck in the doorway, Deuthreas had no choice but to meet the enemy head on, thrusting his sword forward.  He drove it right into the abomination's chest.  Unfazed by this, the monster grabbed Deuthreas by the shoulders and hurled him against one of the wall.  The sword slipped out of the mercenary's hands and he came crashing down on the floor.  The monster groaned and leapt onto Deuthreas.
The swordsman tried to push back the fiend, but he was much too strong.  The monster opened his jaw, revealing sickly decayed teeth, and tried to take a bite off the swordsman's skull.  Deuthreas jerked away and wrapped his hands around the grimy neck of the beast to keep him at bay.  He tried squeezing, but it felt like the very slime was eating away at his fingers.  
The abomination let out a repulsive, guttural roar and tried to bite his arms.  The awful smell of the fiend's breath sickened Deuthreas to the point of feeling lightheaded.  Desperate, he cried out:

'Aeriel, my sword!  Quickly...'

Snapping out of her stupor, Aeriel picked up the sword from the ground and drove it through the monster's head and into the adjoin wall.  The dangling eye broke off and bumped on Deuthreas' lips before falling on the floor.  He spat out the fiendish taste it left in his mouth and released his grip on the slimy corpse.  
The mercenary got back on his feet and tried to wipe some of the grime off his clothes.  He grabbed the handle of his sword and pulled out; as soon as he did so, a frightening laugh echoed across the room:

‘AAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHA...’

Deuthreas swung around and brandished his sword, but the sound seemingly came out of thin air.  He stood there, poised and ready, waiting for the next freaky event to unfold.  Nothing came.  He realized his entire body was trembling.