Chapter 601: Man of Sea (1) (1/2)
The otter assigned to be Zero and Truen's teacher was a young otter who introduced himself as Docky's disciple and a captain of a ship. In terms of commanding a vessel, nobody was better than Ottley when navigating rough waters.
”This scar on my back,” Ottley removed his shirt to show the doctor and his archer pal, ”came from saving my comrade.”
Zero frowned. That didn't look like it was done by a blade or a whip. The scar ran all the way from Ottley's left shoulder to his right hip. There were many jagged edges, some deeper than other places. More interestingly, Zero noticed how there were circular patterns at two places. What could have caused such an injury?
”The sea is a merciless place, sometimes more so than on land. There are two things you must learn to fear at sea. The first is starvation and the second is the Kraken. Not even Queen Leah knows how to deal with the King of the Sea.”
Zero's eyes lit up in understanding. ”Was that done by a Kraken?”
Ottley laughed and put his shirt back on. ”Kraken? No, that was done by a sea monster. We too thought that it was a Kraken. However, there was no way we would be able to escape if it truly was the Kraken. According to the legends, the Kraken would bring a lightning storm before it appeared to swallow the ship whole. The sea monster we faced wasn't big enough to do it, although it certainly was terrifying enough to break our sails and rudder, leaving us drifting for months.”
Zero felt bad for these otters. Sailors have it rough.
”How did you escape?” he asked.
Ottley smiles sardonically. ”Escape? We didn't. We were rescued.”
Curious, even Truen's ears twitched. Ottley didn't know what to say to the two sea greenhorns. He didn't want to dampen their hopes, but the truth was, nobody could win against mother nature.
”The sea monster only left us alone because an even bigger sea monster appeared. Our ship was sent to drift for months. Some of my brothers died, and we didn't have many resources. Thankfully, we otters are good swimmers, so we could still find some food from the sea to sustain ourselves until help arrived in the form of sea nomads. They led us to a lawless village at the edge of Derby Desert where we repaired our ship to sail back.”
After listening to Ottley's story, Zero became interested. He wanted to know more about the adventures Ottley experienced at sea. Unlike the tales of adventurers who slew monsters, took on quests and participated in wars, the stories from the unknown sea were a lot more interesting. Not many books on Earth contained information about sea adventures. Even Sedna's creations back on Amarania were a lot more interesting than the ones Zero have seen during his adventures.
”Now that you understand the unpredictableness and dangers of the sea let's start with your first lesson. All seafarers must be comfortable with water. You don't have to remove your clothes, but you should remove all weapons and armour. Salt will damage metal creations fairly quickly.”