Finding this story was harder than expected. I wrote it for a random contest that I lost, then I entered it in another contest, Dark Fantasy, and lost again. What a poor story, always destined to lose.
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This incident happened forty years ago. Back then, I and my crew decided to sail eastward aboard the *Handmaid of Silence* towards where no human had gone before, ignoring the legend that said there was nothing in the east but a great cliff where the world ends. We believed that just as the Forgotten Continent existed in the west, there would surely be an unknown continent in the east.
And indeed, we filled the *Handmaid of Silence* with supplies and began our journey into the unknown. Our voyage was surprisingly smooth, as we sailed for ten consecutive days without encountering any storms. Our good fortune continued when we found an island ahead of us. The island was larger than the largest islands of the Sunset Archipelago, and we were thrilled by this discovery. We began imagining the riches we would gain from it.
We anchored the *Handmaid of Silence* on the island's shore and began exploring our surroundings. At sunset, we gathered around the ship. Each member had brought a different prize—whether strange fruits we had never seen before or bizarre animals. But the strangest thing was what the fool Rikon brought: he came with a pink crystalline stone the size of a thumb.
At night, we gathered on the ship's deck and began inspecting our spoils.
We started with the fruits, which were of all shapes and kinds. Some were sweet-tasting, others sour. But the strangest one was what Raikerd found. He named it the "Swine Sickness." The fruit resembled a swollen red banana. Meanwhile, Jofrey laughed and commented that it looked like...
As was his habit, Raikerd refused to share his food and ran to his cabin to eat it alone. After a while, we heard him cursing and swearing, saying its taste was worse than dog excrement.
After that, we began checking the animals. We had only caught two creatures. One was a small monkey with pink fur, which I caught while wandering on the forest's outskirts. The monkey was strangely obedient and didn't even try to resist when the crew members started using it as a ball to toss among themselves. The other creature, or more aptly named the "Abomination," was something Jofrey found.
It was a white, transparent worm, as thick as a finger and as long as a baby's arm. It had four tiny, pitch-black hands directly under its head. Under its head, the hands were so small they were barely visible, but if one focused on them, they realized they resembled human hands. However, what was truly horrifying was its face.
Its face was white and transparent to the point of seeing what was inside. But what was more terrifying was that it resembled a human infant's head, but without eyes.
Everyone in the crew was afraid and disgusted by that thing, especially since it tried to bite anyone who approached. Jofrey said he didn't pay it much attention, but I doubted the truth of his words at the time. In the end, we convinced him to throw the Abomination into the fire to burn.
When it was time to sleep, we decided to sleep on board the *Handmaid of Silence*. Initially, we planned to camp on the beach, but after seeing the Abomination Jofrey found in the sand, we decided to abandon that idea.
While I was sleeping peacefully, I was awakened by the sound of chopping meat coming from Rikon's cabin, which was next to mine. The *Handmaid of Silence* was large enough for each crew member to have a private cabin.
When I went out to check the situation, I found a number of men gathered at Rikon's cabin door. The men were pounding on the door heavily, asking Rikon if he was okay. I joined them, and we all began knocking violently on the door. When we despaired, we broke the door down to see what was happening—and how I wish we hadn't seen.
Rikon was sitting on the bed, scratching his skin until bloody grooves began to appear, and from them emerged pink crystalline nails. Yet, Rikon wasn't screaming despite the agony he was enduring; instead, he was staring at the pink crystal fallen on the bed while silently crying blood.
When he noticed our presence, he turned to us with a face full of wounds oozing pink crystal, then opened his mouth. That's when I understood why he wasn't screaming: his mouth was filled with crystalline nails emerging from his throat.
One of the men tried to help him, but I stopped him. It was clear that the cause of Rikon's condition was that strange stone, and it was likely contagious. So, I ordered the men to bring Dragon's Tears for burning. Fortunately for us, Rikon didn't move even during the burning; he just kept staring at the stone until he died.
After the horrifying incident ended, we sealed the cabin and swore never to open it again. But the calamities didn't end that night. While I was still in shock from what happened, one of the men came to me screaming, his face pale with terror, and told me to go up to the deck.
When I went up, I was shocked by a horrifying sight worse than what had happened before.
Raikerd was lying on the deck, his stomach exploded, and his body was full of small white worms emerging from every part of his body, even his eyes, ears, and lower extremities. Around him, nearly twenty small pink monkeys were gathered, holding worms in their hands and devouring Raikerd's worm-infested flesh.
Finally, and with much trepidation, we killed the monkeys, then burned Raikerd's body and threw it into the sea, making sure no living worm remained. We sailed far away from the suspicious island, thus ending our first adventures in the East.