The Houndmaster

Portia Maye’s father helped found a prosperous settlement of sailors and merchants on an uncharted island in the Caribbean. They called their port town Fortune and created a vast trading network which exposed Portia to cultures and knowledge from around the world. As a sailor and lover of stories, Portia’s father read her the Arabian Nights, Shakespeare and Greek mythology, and he instructed her in sailing and celestial navigation. To be sure, he instilled within her a love for adventure so that she always wanted to travel with him. Once she accompanied her father on a trip to Italy where he traded sugar and silver for rare silks and spices. There they also acquired a litter of Corso puppies which her father said they would train as hunting dogs for Fortune’s yearly hunting games. He also mentioned she could keep the strongest of the litter for her upcoming twelfth birthday. She named the pups Caeser, King, Shah, Athena, and the runt of the bunch—Snug. But before she could begin their training, a violent storm pushed Nightsdream off course into an area controlled by freebooters. Desperately, her father tried to steer the ship to safety, but the dreaded Mad Molak attacked them with his ships and took Nightsdream quickly. Those who survived the initial attack were pitted against each other in vicious fights that Molak and his crew would wager on. The brigand promised that the last man standing would be let go. When Portia’s father refused to participate, the most vicious of Molak’s men, his son, Tariq, tortured him for hours and finally— Slit his throat. Keeping Portia alive to get past Fortune’s outer defenses, Molak and Tariq returned to their sloop and left a skeleton crew on Nightsdream. Portia would lead them into Fortune and, once inside, Molak and his raiders would attack, pillage and burn their beloved town to the ground. Using her skills in celestial navigation, Portia led them off-course through an area that many claimed to be cursed. Known as the Dragon’s Tooth, some believed the area bled into the dark malignant domain of some ineffable evil where monsters roamed. Portia hoped to lead Molak to his doom and if she perished in the effort, so be it. As she approached the Dragon’s Tooth, dark clouds accumulated, and a cold black fog surrounded them. Sheets of rain fell, and a fierce wind roared down on the ship, creating black mountains that crashed over the mast. Instantly, Molak and his ship turned away from the storm and left her to perish. But Portia refused to surrender as Nightsdream plowed through the thick fog and lightning. Her heart thundered in her chest as the ship creaked and groaned and slowly capsized. The last thing she saw before the ocean swallowed her whole was the silhouette of a giant tentacle crashing down on them. Portia opened her blurry eyes to see Snug staring down at her. He licked her face and barked for her to get up. Blinking the saltwater out of her eyes, she pushed her aching and bruised body from the ground but collapsed onto the strange purple sand. She had never seen anything like it before. With difficulty, she gathered herself, stood, and turned to face the runt. Snug barked twice and began sniffing the ground, leading her to a cluster of coconuts and purple seaweed. She dried out the seaweed, cracked the coconuts, and ate on the rocks, quietly listening to creatures she had never heard before and suddenly realized— They were marooned on an island in the Dragon’s Tooth. They were in a strange world, an in-between world, a world her father had once described as a living nightmare that tortured the mind and played with the heart. And as she listened to these strange new sounds, she suddenly saw Molak everywhere. Instinctively, Portia closed her eyes and shrieked and only stopped when Snug jumped into her lap, returning her to the moment with a crescendo of barks. Over the years, Portia survived on whatever washed ashore as she battled the predators that stalked the island. Ferocious animals, vicious humans, and savage abominations not of this world. Snug now weighed over a hundred pounds and followed Portia everywhere. Together they made a daunting pair and most of the survivors on the island kept their distance. The few who didn’t lived to regret it if they lived at all. And just when she was about to give up on the idea of escaping, she spotted an impossible thing while searching the beach for Snug. To her disbelief, she saw— Nightsdream drifting offshore in the cold, black fog. She knew better than to doubt or question anything on this island. With a whistle she entered the water but was suddenly attacked by a group of castaways. In her mind, she slaughtered Molak fifty times and spared only those she needed to crew her ship. Together they spent days searching for Snug, but he was nowhere to be found. He was— Gone. Gone, as if he had never been—as if he had only been a figment of her imagination. For decades Portia terrorized the Caribbean as she searched for Molak. She only attacked freebooters, taking their gold and torturing them sadistically to satiate some intangible darkness living within her. A darkness like a parasite that demanded blood until it had its fill. On the occasions Portia couldn't appease its hunger, the parasite would squeeze her mind with its deadly talons, crushing reason and reality until she would see Molak’s face on every crewmember. She would attack and butcher everyone and anyone until one of her many trusted guard dogs barked for her to stop and— Molak would suddenly dematerialize into wisps of black fog. Terrified, the crew knew it was just a matter of time before her madness turned against them. And so, even when they finally located Molak, they conspired to mutiny. But they had underestimated their captain. By the time Portia was through with them there were only five left standing in a pool of blood and gore. They instantly threw themselves on her mercy as her dogs surrounded them waiting for the kill command that never came. Destroying Molak would take more hands than she possessed. Gathering her wits, she ordered the mutineers to clean up the deck and feed her dogs as she steered Nightsdream toward Mad Molak’s Island. Molak himself was out on the high seas, but Portia’s crew captured Tariq and locked him up in preparation for his father’s return. When Molak returned, he found the island deserted apart from a woman offering chests of gold and jewels. She claimed she wanted to join Molak’s crew and had prepared an amazing feast for him and his men. Not recognizing her, Molak accepted the treasure and asked about Tariq. She smiled and assured him his son would be joining them for dinner. Portia served Molak an elaborate meal and he drank and ate with gusto. The meat was especially good, roasted crisp and black on the outside and pink and juicy on the inside. He wanted to know if it was wild boar or venison. Portia smiled, stood proudly and reached over the table and lifted a golden food cover to reveal Tariq’s decapitated, glazed head frozen in a scream of terror, the mouth vomiting bullion and jewels. Molak roared his anguish like a wounded bull, and she reveled in his torment as a thick black fog rose from the floor like a black veil. But before she could strike Molak down, something unseen jerked him backward into the darkness. At once her laughter died. Lips curled with mingled panic and rage. Veins in her neck stood out in livid ridges. Talons gripped her mind and squeezed and refused to let go. He was gone! Gone! Gone before she could stomp his head into a bloody pulp. Unintelligible words fumbled out of her mouth and degenerated into a guttural rasp. And just as she was about to scream, she heard the impossible. A bark. A bark she hadn’t heard in years. She heard it, again. And again. Snug! He had Molak’s scent. Not trying to understand what could not be understood, she charged into the fog to finish what she started with her long, lost friend.