The Legend of Nederon
by Jochewi
He felt stupid. He felt stupid and angry, with his wife and with himself. Embarking on that expedition had been a stupid idea, but Vicky had been fixated on it. He shouldn’t have listened to her.
–At least we’ll both die together, as husband and wife,– she told him.
Daniel wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand and tugged at his red braid, trying to calm himself.
–You know, Daniel? You’re very melodramatic, –Vicky replied, making a face. She had put on a white tunic in the style of a tyteras and her black hair was pulled back in a ponytail that fluttered in the wind. Daniel faced his wife.
–No, darling. I’m a realist. We’re going to die on this ship, in the middle of nowhere, just because that man promised us we’d be rich when we reached a place that most likely doesn’t even exist.
–Do you think Admiral Fabio would have organized this expedition if he wasn’t certain the legend was true?
But Daniel was convinced they would never find that blessed land of drunken sailors’ tales and that the admiral was leading them to their deaths. Anyone with half a brain knew that beyond the Atlas Mountains there was nothing but sea, yet he had still let his wife sway him and risked everything by signing up for that pointless expedition. He couldn’t have been more stupid.
–Open your eyes, Vicky. He said it would take us three days to reach Néderon; ten have already passed. He should have accepted the fact that the legend is nothing but a story, and instead it’s leading us all to our graves.
The Dreamer and the Hope had already sailed for ten days after crossing the Atlas belt, but they still hadn’t sighted land. From the fourth day onward, when the mutiny broke out on the Dreamer, the chances of returning to the Fortunes had become extremely slim. Even if the Dreamer had turned around at that very moment, there wouldn’t have been enough provisions left to supply the entire crew for the return voyage. Daniel knew this because he had managed to snoop in the hold after they started cutting back on rations. And Daniel wasn’t so foolish as to not realize what this meant: they would soon begin to starve.
–He said three days if the winds were favorable, it’s clear they haven’t been…
–We should have accepted when Oliver invited us to join the mutiny, –he muttered–. We’d be home now; making babies, not baking in the sun; heading to starve to death or be devoured by a sea monster.
–Has your blockhead forgotten how his mutiny ended? –Vicky hissed.
–Is your blockhead forgotten how his mutiny ended?
–I haven’t forgotten, but if we had sided with him… –Vicky pinched her index finger and thumb together and pressed her lips together.
–My husband wants to be a fish. Well, it would make me very happy if he jumped overboard and swam to Las Fortunas.
Daniel turned his face away, exasperated.
–Thank the gods gave me infinite patience, woman. Let me tell you something…
–You’re afraid of sea monsters? –Vicky interrupted.
–Land ahoy! –shouted the blonde woman at the top of the crow’s nest. Daniel completely forgot what he was going to say to his wife; the crow’s nest’s words echoed in his head until they made sense.
–Land ahoy. Is that possible, darling? –he said to Vicky, looking at her bewildered–. So that bastard was right? –He laughed–. Does Néderon exist?”
–I told you we could trust Admiral Fabio, –his wife replied, bored, pushing aside the black fringe that covered one eye.
Daniel grabbed her hands, overflowing with joy. –Let’s go! –He pulled Vicky along, laughing.
Although the prospect of setting foot on solid ground had lifted his spirits, he needed to see it with his own eyes. Maybe the topwoman had overdone it with the firewater, or maybe the sun had fried her brain; and maybe he was just hallucinating.
The euphoria quickly spread among the crew of the Soñadora. –Land ahoy! –the sailors repeated. Daniel and his wife climbed to the forecastle, desperate to see land.
–If you don’t let go of my hand right now, I’m going to kick you so hard your head will hurt.
Daniel heeded Vicky’s advice and gazed in disbelief at what lay before him. Enveloped in a light mist, a golden and ochre land rose from the sea, stretching almost infinitely as far as the eye could see.
Néderon, a legend made real.
Everyone on the Soñadora was swept up in an overwhelming joy. Captain Benamer climbed onto the sterncastle rail and spoke a few words. Daniel barely paid attention, only noticing the last word: firewater. Shouts of celebration filled the ship’s deck. They were witnessing something extraordinary. It had always been said that beyond the Atlas Mountains there was only an endless sea. And here they were, a bunch of fools and simpletons in two nutshells, chasing a legend thousands of miles from Las Fortunas. And the legend had turned out to be true, though only partially.
This was not the fantastic land promised by the stories. There were no precious stones on its surface, no gold or silver ores, no rivers of milk; there were no fruit trees anywhere, nor vegetables or mushrooms; only an immense sea of mud, sand, dust, and little else.
The expedition soon faltered again when they had to set up camp in that remote, godforsaken place, Daniel among the first to do so. They had discovered a new world only to rot in it. Even the admiral himself began to show his true colors after several of the scouting parties he had sent out returned. There was nothing of value there, nothing to eat.
The provisions quickly ran out. A week in that new world and everyone was weak and malnourished. Some even started eating their shoes.
The cabin boy Jon from the Esperanza, who had already eaten his own, was so desperate that he ate a strange, grayish creature. He became so ill that his skin rotted and he went mad. One day he began to growl and lunged at one of the sailors, biting her. A man named Guize, who was the girl’s fiancé, got into a fistfight with him and also got bitten.
In the end, Guize killed Jon with a rock to the head, but a few days later both Guize and the girl fell ill, just like the cabin boy, and had to be put down.
Admiral Fabio continued sending out reconnaissance parties, farther and farther away. Some never returned, and those that did found only more of the same: sand, mud, weeds, and filthy vermin.
On one occasion, Daniel and his wife were assigned to a party along with two others. They marched northeast, in the same direction as one of the parties that hadn’t returned.
They walked for two days and two nights, toward what Daniel thought would be their graves. At least he had a tough hide to chew on and was in good company. Pedro and Pablo were a peculiar duo. They were Maxorani, of good birth. They were constantly cracking jokes, as if the situation didn’t bother them at all. Daniel wished he had half their optimism, or half their foolishness. Besides, unlike many other members of the Dreamer’s crew, they didn’t seem to have any interest in Vicky; which was a relief.
On the third day of the journey, Daniel had finished the piece of tough leather. The sand dunes the group was crossing grew larger and larger, until they reached the size of mountains. Daniel was nearly exhausted; as he climbed the next dune, he expected to find his grave, but what he saw in the distance wasn’t a tomb, but a large oasis of crystal-clear water and lush vegetation. He must have been hallucinating. He had to ask his wife if she saw what he saw.
–Is it fresh water? –she asked him.
The whole group burst into laughter. They descended the dune shouting with joy. Daniel tripped and tumbled down the slope a couple of meters. He stood up clumsily, still laughing. He was covered in sand, but he didn’t care. He continued down the dune.
When they reached the enormous body of water, Daniel could see that some bushes had what looked like small black or green fruits, but not even Pablo and Pedro dared to try them after what had happened with Jon.
However, they were all too thirsty not to risk tasting the water. It was lukewarm and tasted of earth. Daniel filled the wineskin he carried on his belt and took a long drink, then filled it again and passed it to his wife.
–Admiral Fabio will surely want to move the camp here, –Vicky said, after taking a drink from the wineskin. Daniel raised an eyebrow.
–What’s your deal with that admiral, huh? –he asked.
Vicky slammed her foreskin into his chest, and a jet of water splashed them both. –What the hell are you talking about? –she snapped, irritated. Her nostrils were flared, but Daniel couldn’t keep quiet any longer.
–You keep saying things like that, as if you’re inside his head. And every time I say something bad about him, you defend him. Are you head over heels for him?
–You’re an idiot, –Vicky replied curtly. She turned and walked away.
–Where are you going?
–To the camp, report to the admiral! And maybe even screw him! –she yelled angrily.
Pablo and Pedro had the courtesy not to make any jokes about it during the entire return journey.
When they arrived at the camp, they found everything in disarray. Many tents were torn to shreds, their canvas ripped, and everywhere there were barrels and crates smashed to pieces, bloodstains, and even parts of some members of the expedition.
The man and woman who saw them arrive told them what had happened: a huge creature had attacked them during the night.
–The idiots on watch had fallen asleep, –the man said after spitting on the ground–. It took us all by surprise.
The beast had killed eight sailors, including the captain of the Esperanza, and many others had been wounded or maimed.
–I’m not sure if that arm belongs to him or the man next to him, –said Pablo, pointing to two men who had coincidentally lost the same arm.
The culprit behind such carnage hadn’t gone far; a trail of blood led to its carcass. Its nine meters in length, from snout to tail, lay sprawled along the shore, riddled with spears. It resembled a wingless, disproportionately large, featherless creature. It had a wiry neck and an enormous head with teeth the size of a human hand. Its drum-like body was covered in fine feathers or scales patterned in shades of brown and red. Its forelimbs were tiny in comparison, yet still enormous, with a pair of fingers on each hand, each tipped with sharp claws.
–I wish I hadn’t been here last night, –Daniel remarked uneasily–. Are there more like this out there?
–If there’s one, there must be more, –Pablo deduced.
–That we’ve seen, only her, –the sailor replied.
–Her? –Vicky asked, scrutinizing the beast–. Was it a girl?
–That’s what most people think, –the woman answered–. The last group that went south found a nest with some enormous eggs. They ate some and carried the rest back to camp… The crew believes she laid the eggs.
–And where is our dear admiral? –Daniel asked–. We should inform him of our return. He’ll be pleased to know we’ve found fresh water.
–He’s resting. The beast knocked him down, and he almost didn’t make it. They had to transfer him to the Esperanza. The surgeon says he’s broken several bones. Captain Benamer has taken command.
Daniel glanced sideways at Vicky to see her reaction. He wasn’t surprised to see her distraught face when she learned that her beloved admiral had been wounded.
Pedro rubbed his hands together. –So we have fresh meat and fresh water. Who’s going to light the fire?
–You can have the fresh water, –said Pablo–. Give me the firewater the admiral keeps in his cabin.
In the following days, the crews of the Soñadora and the Esperanza, or rather what was left of them, did what little they could to survive. Boatswain Benamer set in motion preparations to return to Las Fortunas. He sent a larger party northeast to collect plenty of water and ordered the beast to be butchered and the hold filled with its salted meat. No one dared sleep on land, so a stream of boats came and went each morning.
When Captain Benamer finally ordered the expedition to depart, there weren’t enough sailors to crew both ships, so he ordered everyone aboard the Esperanza.
The Soñadora was left behind, abandoned on the shores of that strange land, along with everything that was no longer useful.
Admiral Fabio survived his encounter with the beast, but he would never walk again. The bastard deserved no less. Daniel and Vicky, like many others who survived the expedition, never saw a single gram of all the gold he had promised them.