Dark clouds gathered at the far end of the sky, and waves surged along the edge of the coast. The blackbird unique to Cuba gave its last mating call over the sea horizon where a storm was about to break. When the August hurricanes swept in, the coastal lowlands would all be drowned beneath wind and rain that joined heaven and earth, and the Cuban blackbird's half-year breeding season would come to an abrupt end in August.
Birdsong rang clear, circling without cease. Seven Kingdom Longships lay quietly moored by a cape covered in palm groves. This was the eastern end of Cuba's Snake Island, and across the strait, the great island of Haiti gazed back from afar in silence.
"Main God protect us! Clouds this thick, waves this big. I reckon a great storm that could roll fish to death is coming soon!"
The old Militia Chiwako raised his head, gazed toward the sky east of the coast, and furrowed his brow deeply.
After drifting at sea for two or three years, he had gradually become familiar with the sea's unpredictable might, and had developed a reverence for it from the depths of his heart. This terrifying Caribbean Sea was also far more violent than the calm shores of the Western Sea! The situation before them was clearly the prelude to a great storm; as for the exact time, it would likely be within two or three days.
"Priest Tomatl, the fleet can't stay here! We must set out at once and follow the coast toward the northwest, where the storm hasn't arrived!"
"Hah! Main God protect us! The storm is about to come. What a pity..."
Priest Tomatl watched the eastern sea and sky, silent for a long while, then breathed out softly.
His Highness's prophecies had been