EVERNA Ring of Fire

WATAS Part 3

The direction of the Pinissi remained westward. Sometimes the direction changes to the northwest or north, following the direction of the wind. To be sure, the destination of this trip has been set, the State of Bethara.

To be sure, the storm of division in the group consisting of Nirya, Sthira, Arumi and Dhaka is not repeated, avoided thanks to the advice of the wise commodore.

All of this was clearly reflected by the expression on the face of Sthira, the leader of the group who looked more handsome and brighter than usual. At least, it was much brighter than the dull, dark clouds that now hang in the twilight sky. Although the sun had not fully set on the horizon, the sky was now almost as dark as night. Symptoms of this nature usually only indicate heavy rain.

But Dhaka who is close and able to feel nature even quickly approached Sthira, Arumi and the ship's captain. "There will be a storm!" exclaim the komodorai. "The cold wind like in Yamkora is blowing, as if the bone skewers of Dhaka. Dhaka knows, a big storm is gonna hit us!"

Sthira. "Is that your best weather forecast, Dhaka?"

Dhaka nodded quickly.

Nahkoda Pinissi asked, "In your opinion, Elders Dhaka, what can we do to avoid this storm?"

"There's one way" Dhaka replied quickly. "But Dhaka doesn't think someone's gonna like that."

"Go ahead, elder! Don't be so convoluted!" Sthira's tone impressed riled.

"Take a detour right now.Take a detour to Akhsar, then we have a chance to avoid disaster."

Sthira's eyes hit Dhaka like a dagger. "We're staying at Bethara."

Dhaka turned his head towards the captain of Akhsar's origin, as if to say, "I told you, he must not like."

The captain, Daeng Hasan Alamuddin stroked the tip of his beard neatly pigtailed. He said, "Throughout the years of my service as captain of the ship, all the decisions I make are always in harmony with the signs of the Srisari nature. That's what makes Pinissi survive intact until this moment. Even when Jayandra's fleet was damaged, Pinissi was among those still able to sail."

Sthira instead glanced at Hasan. "What do you mean, Nahkoda?"

Without a single hint of trembling in the glare of his eyes, Hasan's gaze clashed, clashing with the blade of Sthira's gaze. "Dhaka's forecast is in harmony with my intuition as a mastermind. So, this time I agree with Dhaka's proposal. If you kill me here and now on the grounds that I rebelled, you'll have to kill all of the crew!" Almost all of the crew of the Pinissi Ship were from Akhsar, only a handful were Jayandra citizens. So it was only natural that they were completely loyal to Daeng Hasan.

Dhaka added, "Hey, rather than running out of crew to run the ship, it's better for Dhaka to finish Sthira here."

Sthira was glued for a moment. The look on his face implied as if the entire world was surrounding him. If Nirya and Arumi were present at the steering bridge, they would definitely oppose Sthira as well. Better the fallen selfish leader than everyone else to be a victim. After all, the two choices will end the same, namely the mission failed and stopped.

And a bigger catastrophic storm will hit all of Antapada.

Sthira considered the consequences with her common sense, then said, "Alright. If everyone insists, we turn to the Akhsar."

After saying so, Sthira turned away towards the bow of the ship. However, without turning his head he said, "But beware, Dhaka and Hasan. If you turn out to be wrong or deliberately fabricated, you must accept the punishment of being thrown overboard from the ship willingly."

As men, of course, Dhaka and Hasan held firm to their decision. So, there was no rebuttal, protest let alone any more words thrown from their mouths.

Daeng Hasan Alamuddin exchanged glances with Dhaka, then sighed. "Based on young blood, less acid-salt."

What to say. As far as the Pinissi changed course, still a big storm came. The only relief was that they did not continue to advance to the center of the storm on the path to Bethara.

If Pinissi had not changed course from the start, the storm would have been too violent, this "perfect" wooden yacht would not have been able to stand and would have arrived at Bethara as debris.

But a storm is still a storm. No matter how big the storm, everyone on board had to fight to survive. The sails have been lowered, Pinissi as if resigned toyed with the ferocious waves. It's been two hours "nature's observation" this wood ship can continue to be maintained wholeness?

In essence, do not let the ship lose balance, especially until it breaks and sinks. The waves are on average as big as the waves made by Dhaka in Dhuraga. An artificial wave compared to a series of natural storm waves, can be imagined as heavy as what the struggle is deployed.

Like his colleagues, Dhaka Commodorai is now exerting his strongest energy. Along with some of the crew, he pulled a rope connected to the main mast of the ship, keeping the pole from being knocked down by storms and waves.

Relying on the lizard-like agility, Dhaka often moves like flying around, grabbing a rope on one side of a pole. As the slope of the ship changed, he jumped again and grabbed the rope on the other side. If the handle of the Dhaka rope is released, its large body continues to be ejected out of the ship.

So, Dhaka's skill as a member with the strongest physique and the best climber in his team is again being tested very hard this time.

Especially in a violent storm, things often happen unexpectedly. When Dhaka just grabbed the pole rope, suddenly the ship yanked again to the opposite side. Just as he was about to jump again, he suddenly heard the sound of Sthira screaming. At a glance, Dhaka's eyes saw the Kalingga man hovering, crashing on the edge of the ship fence.

Before being thrown into the vicious vortex of ocean currents that would pulverize his body, Sthira's hand had clutched but the fence. But the wooden fence is very slippery, the life-sustaining handle can be released at any time.

Without a second thought, Dhaka lunged towards his partner. Just then, the handle of Sthira came off. In that second, a new connection of Sthira's life was intertwined in the form of Dhaka's hand grip on his hand.

The ship then moved to the other side. The force of the ship's movement was utilized by Dhaka by pulling Sthira to the safest position, which is in the middle of the deck of the ship.

Sthira's face looked as pale as a corpse, her tongue too faint to speak. But from the look in her eyes, Sthira was very grateful to Dhaka who had saved her.

Not yet Dhaka set his breath, to act again, heard a shout from the direction of the bow. "There's a porpoise jumping right in front of the ship!" The call was repeated three times.

So, Dhaka quickly darted towards the bow to check the situation. Then, he looked straight at the direction referred to by the sharpness of the eyes of the commodore who was able to see distant objects in the dark.

A few moments later, the figure of a fish-like creature jumped from the storming water, soared in the air and plunged into the surface of the sea beautifully.

Another two times the animals are called "pesut" by the crew of the Akhsar people who soar and dive. Surprisingly, the porpoise that seems to be a kind of dolphin is moving freely, as if not the slightest impact of storms and waves that hit it.

As the porpoise looked closer, Dhaka's instincts prompted him to shout, "Hi, pesut! Are you messing around, showing off you got a can or what?"

The porpoises who had been close to the ship turned out to be able to talk. He exclaimed, "This is no time to show off! Follow Dapu Dapu if you want to live!"

It turns out that the pesut is a demon. Could he be the messenger of the Srisari to save this ship? It was with that thought that Dhaka answered quickly, "Okay! Dhaka tell the captain and the judge!"

Dhaka again darted as fast as lightning, showing his ability also by slithering along the deck of the ship towards the stern.

The reference to the character "Dapu Dapu" is Pesut Mahakam. Image Source: Inibaru.id.