Chapter 1294: An Isolated Island

She slept on the surface of the water when exhaustion overtook her and swam on when she woke. Rain for thirst. Raw fish for hunger. Joan had stopped counting the days after missing one or two — the tally had slipped from her grasp so gradually she hadn’t noticed until it was simply gone. Half a year, perhaps more. The ocean had no calendar.

She had cried. Numerous times. But her tears merged with the seawater until there was no telling them apart.

So tired.

Even sleep wasn’t rest. She had to stay alert on the surface, otherwise the ospreys would find her — their beaks sharp and mean — and beyond the birds were the Sea Ghosts, and the ship-shaped things, and all the other monsters she had no names for. She’d encountered them repeatedly these past months, every time near enough to dying to remember it clearly afterward. She always managed to shake them off, but each escape left new cuts in her scales, and the air exposure had turned her skin white, and some wounds had been open long enough to rot, and the parasitic worms had found her and nested there, and pulling them out hurt worse than the original wounds.

Her scales, which His Majesty had called beautiful, were crosshatched with scars now.

She missed the soft bed in Neverwinter. She missed Wendy’s arms. She missed the peace of a life that happened inside walls.

There were fish enough in the ocean — more than she could ever need — but she’d been eating them raw for so long that the smell on her lips had turned from familiar to something she couldn’t stand. She wanted Lightning’s barbeque chicken wings.

She cried again while she swam, tears already indistinguishable from sea.

She was faster than almost any fish. Faster than His Majesty’s Snow Wind. The time she’d spent in this water could have taken her five round trips between Neverwinter and the Shadow Islands. So why couldn’t she see where she was going?

His Majesty had said the world was round. If that was a lie, she would find him when this was over and drag her scales across his face.

But she had to get to Neverwinter first.

She filled her lungs and pushed herself back to motion. Don’t give up. Return to your friends.

Then she heard it — her own voice, bounced back to her from somewhere ahead. “Ya, ya.” An echo where there should have been open water.

Something in the mist.

The day was grey, visibility down to a few kilometers — the kind of dim that reminded her of the Shadow Islands at low tide. She swam toward the echo. Half an hour later, a black shape materialized out of the haze.

A rock on the surface of the water.

Joan felt her whole body lift with the possibility. She knew the ocean well enough to know that what looked like a rock was often enormous. If it reflected sound, it had mass. If it had mass, it might have land. If it had land—

Could it be part of the Impassable Mountain Range?

She drove herself forward through the spray, and the black shape resolved itself: a mountain at the back, and at its foot, a flat island. The island connected to a vast landmass behind it, too far to see clearly. But it was solid ground. It was more than nothing.

Joan pulled herself out of the water and up the beach.

Standing still, she registered the island’s scale — larger than the biggest of the Searing Flame Islands at the Fjords. Except for that verdant mountain at its back, the whole thing was flat as a tablet. And it should not have been alive.

But it was.

Grass grew under her feet. Occasional flowers, colors muted by the mist. The island was exposed to every storm the ocean could produce, sitting at the mercy of seaquakes and surge — and yet nothing here showed erosion or decay. The mist wrapped it like gauze, and the living green under her feet felt like something out of an old story.

Joan shifted her flippers to legs and walked toward the center.

The stone tablets appeared gradually. At first she took them for natural formations, but they were too evenly spaced to be accidental — and then she noticed that they grew denser toward the center of the island, arrayed in rings, each ring tighter than the last. Converging on something. The tablets looked ancient but were dustless, as though someone cleaned them regularly.

Was someone living here?

She walked on, and then she stopped.

The pit was enormous. Several kilometers across, its diameter and depth both impossible to judge at a glance, its wall perfectly smooth — not the rough shear of a collapse but something shaped deliberately. The stone tablets encircled it in concentric rings, like ripples frozen in the act of expanding from a center point.

Joan raised her eyes to the sky.

The Bloody Moon pressed through the mist overhead. She looked between the sky and the pit and felt something strange move through her: a certainty that she couldn’t have explained, that the Moon and the pit were the same shape, the same scale, that one was the shadow of the other. As though the Bloody Moon would fit exactly into the hole if it fell.

“Hello.”

Joan screamed. She stumbled several paces back and slammed into one of the tablets.

Silence. Then, tentatively: “Well — are you all right?”

A woman. Young, very pretty — white dress, two strands of black hair falling to her chest, a kind of grace in how she held herself. She was looking at Joan with the expression of someone caught between concern and caution, unsure whether to approach.

“Ya, ya.”

Joan tried to form words and produced sounds instead. Half a year without conversation had undone the mechanism entirely. She wanted to ask: who are you, where is this, what is that pit — and what came out was noise.

Incredibly, the woman understood.

A sadness moved briefly across her face. She smiled through it. “Me? I’m just a guardian. Trapped here.”

Chapter 1294 - An Isolated Island

Translator: Transn Editor: Transn She slept in the sea when she got tired and resumed her trip after she woke up. When she was thirsty, she drank rain water and ate fish when hungry. Joan did not know how long she had to live like this. At first, she had been trying to track time. However, after she had missed one or two days, she gradually lost the track of time and finally gave up. She had no idea how long she had been swimming aimlessly in the ocean. Perhaps, it had been more than half a year now. Joan almost burst into tears at this thought. In fact, she had cried numerous times, but her tears merged with the seawater and became a part of the ocean. She was so tired. So tired indeed. Even when she was asleep, she could not totally relax on the surface of the water, otherwise ospreys and other animals would come to eat her. Even if they could not gulf her down, their pecks were sharp and painful. Also, she could be seen by Sea Ghosts and those ship-like monsters. Joan had actually encountered them many times during the past few months. Every time she had been scared to death. Fortunately, she had always managed to shake them off, despite that sometimes she got additional wounds during the escape. There were many cuts in her beautiful scales that His Majesty spoke highly of. The skin exposed in the air turned white. As she had been in the water for so long, some wounds started to decay. What was worse, some parastic worms had found her as their new host and nested in her wounds. It was excruciatingly painful to pull them off the body. Now, her body, which had never been pretty, became even uglier. She missed the soft bed in Neverwinter and Wendy’s arms. She also missed the peaceful life there. Although there were a lot of fishes in the ocean, she had to eat them raw. She used to do that all the time, but now, she somehow could not get used to the fishy smell lingering between her lips. She wanted to eat the barbeque chicken wings made by Lightning. Then Joan again cried. She kept swimming as her tears trickled down. How long did she have to swim before she returned where she came from? She swam much faster than most fishes. She was even faster than His Majesty’s “Snow Wind”. The time she spent in the water could allow her to have five round-trips from Neverwinter to the Shadow Islands. However, why could she still not see her destination? His Majesty said that Earth was round. Could he have lied to her? If His Majesty had indeed lied, she would swipe his face with her scales if she got such a chance in the future! But she had to first get to Neverwinter… Joan took a deep breath and encouraged herself. She reminded herself that she must not give up and must return to her friends! Joan began to produce a series of “Ya” sounds over the sea. A moment later, she heard her echoes, “Ya, ya.” A little shocked, she traced the echoes. It was a gloomy day today. A thin veil of mist permeated the surface of the ocean, and she could only see things within a few kilometers, just like the Shadow Islands when water went down. Since there was nothing at the front, Joan swam in that direction for another half an hour or so and finally spied something black loom against the mist. It looked like… a rock on the surface of the water. Joan’s face lit up. She knew that many tiny little things on the ocean were actually huge. Like the rock floating in the water, it must be enormous as well. Since it reflected off sounds, it could be a giant mountain. If there was a mountain, there should be lands. Was it a part of the Impassable Mountain Range? Joan suddenly had a lot of strength. She picked up her speed and swam as fast as she could toward the black silhouette. Water splashed all over her. As she got closer, she saw the black “rock” more clearly. It was indeed a mountain, but at the foot of the mountain was not the port of the Western Region but a flat island. The rear of the island was connected to a vast land. Since the land was so far away, she could not see it clearly. But anyway, this was a land, which was better than nothing. Joan pulled herself together and stepped onto the beach. It was not until then that she noticed that this island was probably even larger than the biggest Searing Flame Island at the Fjords. Except for that verdant mountain, it was as flat as a pancake. In fact, the island was actually a meadow. Unlike the deserted islands she knew, this island seemed to be protected from the erosion of wet sea breezes and harsh weather. Grass grew underneath her feet, and occasionally, there were a few flowers. Joan did not understand why a secluded island like this, which could be easily destroyed by a seaquake, could be so vibrant and full of life. As the island was surrounded by the mist, it gave her a feeling that she was on a fairyland. Joan turned her flipper into legs and walked slowly toward the center of the island. Gradually, she saw some stone tablets. At first, she paid no notice to them, but later on, she found these tablets, although different in size, were neatly laid out. The closer she was to the center of the island, the more tablets she saw. In the end, the tablets formed various circles that became denser and denser, as though they were encircling something. She somehow had seen a similar scene before… Joan crouched down at one tablet and studied it carefully. There were patterns on it, but she was not sure whether they were arbitrary patterns or some unidentifiable and indecipherable messages. To Joan’s surprise, these stones looked quite old, but they were not dusty at all as if someone was cleaning them on a regular basis. Was someone living on this island? After walking for another few minutes, Joan was suddenly frozen to the ground. In front of her lay an immense pit, whose diameters might be several kilometers. The pit was not only fathomless, but its mouth was smooth as well. Apparently, the pit was not caused by the collapse of the ground. The tablets encircled the pit and formed rings of “ripples”. Joan dimly thought of something. She stared up at the sky and saw the Bloody Moon peep through the hazy mist. For some reason, she felt that the Bloody Moon in the sky would fit perfectly in the pit on the ground. They looked almost identical. She even had a strange idea that the Bloody Moon would probably fill up the hole if it fell off. “Hello.” Just then, a beautiful voice came from behind and startled her. “Ya — ” Joan screamed and stepped a few paces back before she slumped against a tablet. The owner of the voice seemed to be frightened too, for she was silent for a while before she asked tentatively, “Well… are you alright?” Joan then discovered that it was actually a very pretty young woman. She was wearing a white dress, two strands of black hair cascading to her chest. Her graceful act of demeanor really impressed Joan. The woman looked a little confused as well. For a moment, she was not sure whether she should come forward to comfort Joan or keep observing her. “Ya, ya.” Joan wanted to ask who she was, but she could only produce some inarticulate sounds. As she had not talked to anyone over the past half a year, she again lost her communication ability. Incredibly, however, the woman understood Joan. A little sorrowful, she replied with a smile. “Me? I’m just a guardian who’s trapped in here.”