Chapter 108 - Shipwreck

The struggle to escape from Lagos was not only to reach one of the boats, but also to fight to be in it. There were only two boats, and the escape needed to be quick. Still, surviving the wild sea was a matter of luck.

The fight for one of the two boats was bloody and desperate. It wasn't possible to fully control the crowded boat. Sometimes the boat almost capsized, knocking people down in the deep, raging waters.

Not everyone could be rescued.

In the middle of the morning, the light rain fell on the five humans remaining in the boat, the lead-colored sky didn't allow to see the sun. For an instant, Alexa wished she could escape to the other body, far away. She wanted to forget the scary and cruel hell that had been surviving for the past few hours.

Nestled around her neck, Romeo watched as Magnus tied the arm of one of his men with a rag. He was in worse shape. Magnus had also been injured, but more superficially. But Dieter had been stabbed several times by a sailor desperate for his life.

~ I don't think Dieter will survive, ~ Alexander whispered to Alexa, and she slowly nodded.

Magnus sat next to her, with a sound she didn't know was a sigh or a grunt.

"How are you two?"

She looked at his clothes, torn and stained with water-diluted blood. She could say many things, how terrified and exhausted and even shocked. But the Princess chose to say,

"Hopeful. The rain is not so strong now, I think the worst is over. "

"Nobody has the strength to row now, and we don't know which direction either," he commented, leaning his body against hers and then pulling her to him. He seemed to want to protect her, so she didn't complain. At least they could share some body heat.

~ I don't know how to explain it, but ... I feel 'sensations'. I feel like there's a 'reference point', like I have a 'compass' on the top of my head, ~ the Princess heard Alexander say to her, "what if I'm right and it really points north like a regular compass , the currents are taking us further north than south. ~

This was an unexpected but useful skill, and it even made sense. Many birds migrated, including nightingales, and they must have had a sense of direction for that. Pigeons even knew how to come home!

Before she answered, she felt Magnus's body begin to weigh on her shoulder. He had fallen asleep. The Princess looked at the other three men. Two of them were at the bow, awake and vigilant, but silent.

Everyone had a lot to think about. Whispering, she replied to Alexander,

"I don't know if it's a good thing, but I think the current will take us to earth, right? I just hope it happens soon."

Alexander didn't answer anymore either, and the Princess thought about the irony of it. Not long ago she had boarded a ship, happy to be going to England, on her way to her fiancé Sir John Blackrose's house. But now, she had been shipwrecked and perhaps reached the coast of England, like Alexa von Wuttenfal. Was fate playing tricks on her?

In the early afternoon, Magnus and Ulrich were coughing feverishly and Dieter was dead. Johannes was fine, however. They said a Christian prayer for Dieter's soul, a personal friend of Magnus, but the Princess asked to keep the body on the boat for a ritual on land. Alexa didn't want to attract lost souls from the sea with her light, but didn't explain this part to them.

The men were grim and silent, and Alexa saw clouds in the distance and more rain.

Alexander suddenly exclaimed,

"Land in sight!"

She repeated excitedly without even seeing what he saw, alerting the others. But in the same direction as the rain clouds, they began to see the distant silhouette of land.

"Row!" Magnus cried out imperiously, grabbing one of the oars himself while Johannes took the other. The men rowed vigorously, even when the storm reached them, furious. Alexa wanted to help, but knew she didn't have the strength to do so.

They reached a gravel beach in torrential rain, and it was difficult to pull the boat ashore.

Alexa felt her limbs so cold that it hurt, and imagined that men were even worse. Hunger, fear, tiredness, and pain. She didn't know how to put this day on the list of the worst days of her life, but she was grateful to have been spared.

'There is a reason for all of this, right? This is not how we are going to die, me and Alexander or Magnus.' But at this point, she also wondered whether what had happened in the cell under Holstein's castle had anything to do with this storm and this shipwreck.

After the strenuous effort, they improvised a shelter with the boat between some rocks, and soon the three men slept under that protection, leaning against each other. She couldn't blame them. Her eyes got heavy, too, and she thought about resting them just a little ...

The little nightingale's beak woke her up, touching her nose, and maybe she'd dozed off a little.

~ Alexa! The rain stopped! Let's find help! ~

The Princess looked around and saw that the restless sleep of the three men was shaken by coughing. Ulrich was shaking. Magnus had a pale face and red cheeks. Sneaking out of the small shelter, Alexa looked around. The sky was still gray and a fine drizzle continued to fall. The small bay was deserted and lonely, but it didn't seem entirely untouched. She looked at the forest and the shore and saw no sign of people, but she figured she should investigate further.

Walking around with Romeo on her shoulder, she found what appeared to be a human trail, flanking the forest and rocks on the beach.

"Let's go to the village, we need to ask for help!" she shared her decision to Alexander. At that moment she was the only one who still had the strength to do something, and soon the night would come. It would be more difficult for everyone to spend another night in the open. She would be passed out and she doubted that men's health would improve with hunger and wet clothes for so long.

Following as fast as she could, the princess followed the narrow path towards the south, not sure for how long she would be awake.

Alexa was attracted by a desperate bleating, and it didn't take long to find a young sheep trapped by a small landslide. The animal had fallen into a pit of sorts. For a human to get the animal out of there it wasn't impossible, the only problem was that Alexa had been a little afraid of sheep since she and Magnus were attacked by one.

Still, she started an operation to rescue the animal.

~ Alexa, isn't it better to find the shepherd?! You can't waste time! ~ Alexander urged, worried.

"What if it takes us a long time to get it out of here and it's attacked by wolves?" She mumbled, already lying in the mud and pulling the lamb by its front legs. Of course, the animal didn't get her intentions and complained with very loud bleats, while struggling, scared.

~ WO-WOLVES? If there are wolves here, then ... ~ Alexander's voice paused but the Princess paid no attention to what she thought was some comment about the danger they were in. She finally managed to grab the lamb firmly and pull it, even against its will, to get it out of the hole. With a relieved HUFF! , she rolled onto her back when the lamb jumped out of her hands, feeling free.

BEEEEEH!

WOOF! WOOF!

Alexa was alert when she heard the barking of a dog, and before she could get up, the animal stopped beside her, snarling. She froze, seeing the brown dog's snout very close to her face. It was a big, muddy dog, and she was sure it could do a lot of damage to her face.

Then the Princess heard human footsteps approaching, and soon filthy boots stopped at her side, and the tip of a staff nudged her belly hard. Looking up, Alexa saw a middle-aged man with a cold and unfriendly look. 'Why is he like this? Didn't he see that I just saved the lamb? '

"What do you want here?"

"I was saving the lamb!" she complained. She didn't have any problem understanding what the shepherd spoke, she had a good knowledge of this language too.

"Hmph! Saving… or stealing? " with a command he ordered the dog, nicknamed Puck, to walk away. Alexa took the moment to get up quickly, but she was aware that the pastor was hostile and seemed to be waiting for any opportunity to beat her with the staff.

"I'm not stealing anything! The sheep was stuck in the hole! And ... I need help! We just arrived… By the sea! " She gestured, since the man's expression was one of disbelief. He seemed to understand her perfectly well, however.

"As I imagined, thieves! Go back where you came from, don't think you can steal our farms, foreigners!" the man raised his staff, menacing. Nervous, Alexa glanced where Romeo was, but didn't see him. 'What the hell?! I should get help, and not be accused of attempted theft! 'She had to try one more time, at least. Raising her hands to defend herself if the pastor really decided to attack her, she tried to explain, more and more anguished when she realized that the light was rapidly disappearing.

"Listen! Our ship was shipwrecked early in the morning! We're on the beach. I came to seek help! "

"Ha! I don't care, go back where you came from! Stay away from our food or you will regret it!"

"RUFUS!" an imperious female voice spoke behind Alexa. She turned to look at the woman on top of a rock, dressed in a flowing scarlet cloak. Against the dark gray sky, it was quite a sight. Out of the corner of her eye, she realized that the shepherd seemed to shrink from the apparition, clearly frightened. The woman continued, looking at the man and not at Alexa,

"These people… are my guests. And tonight… we will eat lamb."