Shalina couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but there was something distinctly unsettling about the cloud bank that was rolling closer to them from the seaward side. The more she looked at it the more unsettling it was, and it bothered her that she couldn’t figure out what it was.
It wasn’t particularly large or dark or anything, it was just that it was moving rather swiftly, and if she didn’t know better she’d say it was zigzagging toward them.
Actually, it was zigzagging toward them… and if she really strained her eyes, she could make out a shadowy shape in the middle of it. And it was getting closer.
She patted another sailor on the back and pointed at the cloud.
“Is it just me, or is that thing following us?”
Just then there was a flash of orange from the shadowy shape, and half a second later a muffled boom came rolling across the water. The sailor pushed her down on the deck, throwing himself next to her, and a moment later a cannonball wooshed past, ripping through the sails, and she could hear the drum beating to stations.