I was powerless. I had skills, talents, abilities honed over a decade with nothing else to do. All for naught.

Now here I stood, upon the deck of a ship, a bolt of lightning striking through the air upon the last boat like a hammer of the Tempest. We'd decided that Ginger, being so large, would take the boat alone. I saw him be sent upwards as the boat splintered and broke, flailing in the space above the water nearly fifteen feet before crashing back down below the surface. I never saw him again.

Another bolt scorched past, missing me by a few feet. "Prepare to run!" Henley called out. Few of us knew how to sail, but you'd be surprised how quickly you learn to do something when the wrath of nature is crashing down upon you.

We did the best we could, but the whole bloody sky above and sea below seemed to be conspiring to turn us all into fish food. Rain and lightning hammered us time and again, wind and waves battered us back and forth like a cat playing with its food to tire it out. I could barely hold my footing as the deck became slick with water and the powerful winds buffeted my body left and right.

Another blast of lightning carved through the sky, shocking Henley and causing her to grip the wheel tightly, unable to turn. One of us, looking into the darkness of the storm, shouted and waved his hands. "ROCKS!"

The ship lurched as we collided with something jagged. The hull burst and snapped, and we came to a full stop so hard, I almost found myself going over the side. The waves pounded upon us from the other side, pushing us further onto the rocks. And then we stopped moving entirely. We were stuck.

"Now what?" One of the crew shouted. I think his name was Lyle. Smart kid, didn't put up much of a fuss when his ship got boarded. "We're not gonna make it to the mainland with this much damage; she's taking water on both lower decks, and this storm will obliterate us if we ever get ourselves shoved off!"

"How far away is the mainland?" I called out, and Lyle shook his head, pointing west. "You can see it from here! We may be able to swim for it if we can get loose at the right moment! Wait for the wind to shift in that direction, then heave ourselves off these rocks! Does anyone here know how to change the flow of water or wind?"

A few raised their hands. They'd been mages before entering that hellhole. While they didn't remember their full strength, most knew how to do some basic stuff. Henley held tight to the wheel, her flesh seared down the right side of her arm where the lightning struck her. "You alright?" I came up to check on her, and she nodded.

"Alive. More than I can say for some of us. You?"

"Oh, I'm here...Do you like our chances?" I looked up at the human woman, her eyes focusing straight ahead, hands never leaving the wheel.

"They're better than if we had never left. If we crash and drown, at least we die free. And if we manage to make it back..."

"What will you do? I don't think I ever asked."

"I'll travel. See the sights. Find a party and settle down in the adventuring life. Maybe become a great hero. As long as I'm making my own way, I don't much care. I just want to make something of myself."

"Sounds like quite the life. I just want a bed and something to eat that doesn't smell of mold."

"Well, maybe we'll go together, you and me...I wish Ginger were here now."

"Lugging the goof around would be fun." I looked toward the strip of land in the distance, sighting softly. "Maybe I will go with you. Henley and Finn....Finn and Henley?"

"We'll workshop the name once we get out of here. Take the wheel." She stepped back, letting me grab the spokes. Henley, as I said, was a magician, but like any good mage, she had other talents.

Her eyes lit up like the sun, the wind shifting in her space. "Allow me to guide the storm. Full sails! Full sails!"

As our crew scrambled to release the sails to their full glory, Henley's eyes drifted toward the shoreline. "It's about to get bumpy! Once the sail is tied down, everyone hold onto something!"

We, of course, did as commanded; would you argue with a woman whose eyes glow with the light of day? Some grabbed the railing, some tied themselves to the mast. I held tight to the wheel. I'd never been a praying man before or since, but in that moment, I think we all begged the gods to see us home.

The wind's direction shifted, and as other mages maneuvered the waterflow to push us off the rocks, the wind pushed on the sails from behind. Like a bolt, we shot out across the waves, speeding like the very lightning that touched down around us. The shoreline was coming up quite fast!

The burst of speed was wise for getting us off the rocks, but when Nature itself wants you dead, there's little you can do to stop it. A bolt, more powerful than any before it, blasted the mast apart like a lumberjack chopping a log. It twisted and snapped like a bloody twig, shattering to pieces. The poor souls tied to it were carried away in the blast, disappearing into the dark.

The rest of us weren't so lucky. Along with the mast, the ship itself cracked in half. The two halves maintained for quite some distance thanks to the speed we'd been going, but soon began to slow. Water filled in the lower halves of the deck. The shore was too far. We were going to die here.