5th of Fall, 513
It was finally over.
After weeks on this wretched boat Ebrahim’s journey was finally coming to an end. The island had come into view later yesterday evening, but the sun was setting fast and no amount of pestering had mananged to convince the frightened fool to approach the island of the dead in the dark. Ebrahim had stood watch all night, gazing in silence at the great black mass of land that was soon to become his home, Sahova. Land of the Nuits and greatest magical research facility in all the known world. With the end of his journey just beyond his reach Ebrahim could do nothing but stand there and laugh, a wheezing breathless laugh that seemed to float over the gently rocking boat and into the nightmares of the crew within.
When dawn finally arrived and the sun broke across the horizon Ebrahim awoke the captain, forcing him to get his crew up and ready in order to finish the journey to the island. Quickly jumping to his command, the captain made ready for the island – shaking ever so slightly at the memory of those cold wet hands and the black bulbous tongue that one belonged to his friend.
As the boat turned and headed into port Ebrahim sat silently on the bow of the ship, dreaming listlessly of shedding this rotting shell in favor of a more aesthetically please model. The humidity of the sea and the unexpected heat had forced the body the Nuit started with to rot off halfway through his journey. Forced to find a new body quickly, Ebrahim was compelled to take the body of the old sailor he now possessed. The man had died in his sleep a week previously and, at the request of the captain, Ebrahim had used his meager knowledge of embalming to preserve it. In retrospect, he was glad that he had fulfilled the request.
Caught up in fantasy and his own musings, Ebrahim neglected to notice the pace with which the traveled; the crew highly motivated to get rid of the thing that possessed the body of their old crew mate. Fear had made them move faster and their hands more steady as they recalled the horrors of the night and that breathless wheezing laugh. Moving quicker than his appearance suggested Ebrahim quickly disembarked from the boat heading; taking a path directly for the Citadel. Even as he did so, the Pulsars behind him let out a sigh of relief; a sound that did not escape the ears of Ebrahim.
All through his journey Ebrahim had been the subject of furtive glances and quite prayers to some god to save them. It had been endearing at first, but as the weeks passed the behavior had come to be annoying and then infuriating. Matters merely got worse when Ebrahim was forced to take the body of the twisted, saggy, sore covered and wrinkly old man these men had known as a friend. Ebrahim had tried to be as unobtrusive as possible but they had not relented and now that he no longer needed them, it was time to pay them back.
Stopping straight in his path, Ebrahim turned and returned to the boat. “Gentlemen, excuse my manners. In my haste to finish my journey I forgot to thank you properly for your services.” The Nuit smiled and one of the men fainted. Decomposition does terrible things to a body and the image of their dead friend’s rotting flesh smiling at them was more than they could take. “It’s . . . it’s no matter at all sir. Happy to be of help.” The captain babbled, fear and revulsion laced in his voice. “Hahahaha,” Ebrahim laughed again in the breathless wheezy manner and the living drew back a half step anxiously, “Of course it is! Without you I would have been stranded. Please, let me demonstrate my thanks!” Ebrahim proffered his hand to the men, forcing them to take it and shake the dead flesh. One by one the Nuit moved through the crew, forcing each and every one of them to grasp his hand and look into the dead eyes animated by a dark life. Each man was given a smile and a little chuckle, Ebrahim reveling in the torment he heaped upon the men.
Goodbyes said and business concluded, Ebrahim finally turned his back on these pathetic men and made his way up the docks towards his new life, but he couldn’t help but smile to himself at the sound of a 10 grown men puking.