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| "Tentacles reaching out..." |
Over the ages, many tales are told of the sea and the mysteries it contains.
More often than not, men with bold, loud voices and charisma unparalleled speak of the challenges they face, and the heroism of the men on board their boat, drawing the attention of all patrons within the tavern.
All dull stories embellished with conjecture and hyperbole - many of these men are charlatans, peddlers seeking to gain further wealth by spinning their fantastical tales.
Beware them and their lies - for the true tales are not told when the mood is good and the beer is flowing.
The true tales of happenings at sea are told only briefly, when the wind outside is howling and the fireplace grows dim, and these tales are neither heroic, nor valiant.
These detail the eldritch happenings that the tools of progress and science cannot truly describe - the myths of old that have lingered in the mind of man for many an age.
I too, hold a tale, and for many years, I have failed to give it a voice, instead choosing to drown my sorrow with bitter ale and comforting denial. No longer.
Now, I bring voice to my story - may my ordeal end soon.
This sordid tale's recrudescence was born atop a mighty sea-faring galleon on the year 1494, in the middle of a quest borne out of avarice and inquisitiveness that could no longer be contained.
I was a deck hand working on the Queen's Vanguard; a paragon for all naval vessels, whether they liked it or not. She was truly a sight to behold, her every detail containing a story untold, a tale waiting to be spun.
Twin rows of inflexible cannons bedecked her sides; vanguards of defense and offense equally.
Her hull was primarily consisted of hardwoods from the more exotic corners of our Empire, her masts were composed of the softer, yet just as useful pine wood, holding up great, glorious sails that would take us to corners of this earth previously unexplored by any expeditionary force.
Myself, I was exuberant, almost proud that I would be one of the brave explorers ready to set out into waters unknown. Yet, deep inside, there lurked if only a snippet of fear.
I was apprehensive, concerned of what awaited me on my journey.
All thoughts of doom and gloom were shaken as I was greeted by the very Captain of the Vanguard; Mr Juan Alfonso.
He stood a foot higher than me, dressed in naught but the finest garments a man of his status could gather, his imposing stature sending shivers down my spine.
His face was daubed with all the signs of a man who had charted areas unknown and seen things no other could outlast, eyes jaded with past victories and the crawling fog of old age.
"Are we ready to set sail?" he asked matter of fact, shaking me from my reverie.
"Almost, Captain, I have just have - to - here we go!" I replied in return, watching the Vanguard's sails unfurl, ready to catch the wind and bend it to our purpose.
"Excellent." he said, his voice nothing more than an audible whisper.
"Now - get yourself down my deck - I am getting the crew together before launch." he commanded.
Following orders, I went towards the deck, ready to listen to what the Captain had to say.
The crew gathered slowly but surely, grumblings and mumbling emanating from most.
"What are we even here for?"
"Surely we should be getting into place?"
"Can we -"
"QUIET!" shouted the Captain, his voice silencing even the most belligerent among us.
"Now, you may be wondering why I have gathered you here, upon the nascence of our journey." he said
"Damn right, we are!" shouted one voice.
Ignoring the lone heckler, the Captain continued.
"It is because we are about to make ourselves, our country, and our Queen, proud! No man has gone where we are about to go, and our discoveries in the New World will dwarf any that came before; even those of Columbus! Cities of gold and silver, adorned with jewels of a countenance so impeccable, no price in the world could truly cover their full worth. Fertile lands fit to feed a thousand mouths and more!
Womenfolk most seductive and exotic, ripe for the plundering..."
His words hung in the air, and as one, we dreamed of his visions of the New World and whether they held any credence. In retrospect, being a man of intellect, I should have seen straight through his lies and left.
On that day, though, my desire to make a name for myself overtook all vestiges of reason, and so I continued to listen to the Captain's fantastical speech.
"All that could be ours, all that could make us kings among men!No longer would we be constrained by wealth and hierarchy, we would be equals, living out the rest of our lives as free men! Is that not something you all yearn for?
Of course, I know I have my detractors, but I am a kind man. If you wish to leave and set your back upon this expedition, you may do so now."
Silence took over, his words looming over us like the noose of the hangman.
No-one dared move; whether it was out of respect or fear, I could not tell, and after infinity passed, the Captain spoke once more.
"Excellent. Now we will depart - not to our doom, but to glory!
To all things we most desire!"
A rapturous cheer erupted from us, all crew members whooping and applauding in unison.
We were free of worry in those interminable days, as we readied the ship, her sails flapping in the fresh midday breeze. The Vanguard groaned and shuddered as the Captain turned her to port, facing away from the mainland and instead looking out towards that ever-magnetizing horizon - to glory and riches, we would sail!
For weeks on board the Queen, our optimism was at an all time high.
Duties were carried out free of mutiny or mistake, and the Captain kept the ship going on course, only speaking when there was work to be done or there was an announcement to be made.
Toiling above and below deck, our pangs always waned whenever we were reminded of our objective; it was with beating heart and high morale that we continued to maintain the health of the vessel.
The ship herself seemed to be approving of the Captain; not a day went by with incident, her sails almost fluttering in approval of his leadership. Skies stayed their serene blue hue, with naught but the odd white cloud hovering above, only to disappear over the horizon or left long behind us. The seas themselves undulated as usual, only any sign of tumultuous happening was subdued; for now, all was calm as the Vanguard sailed ever closer to destiny.
We forgot about the possible risks should our journey go awry, instead choosing to talk in hushed whispers late at night, of the treasure the Captain spoke of and the cities of gold.
"D'you think he's lying?" one member asked, his voice as quiet as the grave.
"Nonsense!" someone else replied.
"He's convinced us all to come on board 'ere - why would he 'ave any reason to lie to us about that?"
They were both equally right, I must say; perhaps this entire enterprise was folly indeed, and the Captain was nothing more than an aged spinster hoping more than knowing, that there was money to be made in the New World. Or, perhaps he was indeed telling the truth, and glory & riches awaited us all.
I lay in my bed, weighing over the scenarios, finding no fault or glaring problem with any, before drifting into my dreams, as I had always done since the inception of this journey.
This dream, or perhaps vision, was rather peculiar; it detailed our arrival at the shores of the New World.
The natives there did not curse us with their strange hexes or attempt to drive us back - rather, they revered us, kneeling at our feet, offering us all manner of exotic and alien goods.
Cities of gold and silver, just as the Captain had spoken of, lay before our very eyes, built by architects one cannot simply stand in awe of; to produce such splendor, I believe no mere mortal is capable of a feat like this. Walking across footpaths of obsidian, our small but stalwart party was guided to the palace standing proud at the very heart of the impossible city, only it was not made of the metals previously glimpsed; nevertheless, the building shone with beauty indescribable, and one could not help but shiver with feelings of awe once inside.
Inside, of course, being composed of a beauteous countenance, more so than any other sight.
As we entered the hall, everything else seemed to change; our senses, the people, even the very air itself. I heard songs indescribable, evoking euphoria of such a magnitude, I feared I had landed on the footsteps of Paradise. Maidens bewitching strode towards us, comforting the men with their presence alone. The breeze itself became a pleasuring sensation, breathing life into our bodies, bringing with it scents of heavenly cuisine and chilling us to a pleasant temperature.
I could dwell in these halls forever. I could live in this palace, and eat the food within, choose a beautiful maiden to spend the rest of my mortal life with, and die not in fear and cold, but in peace and comfort.
As thoughts of such delights played out in my head, the dream took on a much more sinister quality.
The scents I had experienced earlier turned to rot; foul breaths of decay that sent me staggering back. Maidens most beautiful, the women who enthralled us, morphed into gray-haired, enfeebled hags, their soothing voices now rasping screams.
The palace itself underwent a most frightening transformation; where once there were walls lined with gems, now there hung a carcass, bloated with pustules vile and contents foul; the walls themselves lost their once golden hue, deforming into wrinkled, gelatinous flesh, oozing downwards in a macabre manner towards our feet.
I stumbled outside, and the city had become a haven not for my weary party, but for repulsive abominations not from this realm, nor any other where life existed plentifully.
Repugnant eyes bulging outwards, limbs adorned with weeping wounds and odious textures; just a few of the sights this caricature of a dream held for me.
Furthermore, the sky itself appeared to have lost its ethereal qualities; once visible as endless, beautiful blue, now it shone with anemic jade, further exacerbated by saturnine, nebulous clouds which brought a swift end to festivities and instead brought naught but despair into our hearts.
All control wrested from me, I ran, ran back into now the winding footpaths, twisted faces leering and mocking my every step and turn, until at last, I saw the path I and my group had previously traversed. Quickly, my vigor powering me on, one last sprint was all it took, until the whole land shook, juddering as this eldritch nightmare was torn apart at the seams.
Rivulets of white ran across sky and land alike, and they were my last detail remembered as I fell, fell away from the dreamland...
And back into reality, shaken by my singular experience.
Pondering the events of my vision, I was most surprised to see my fellow crew members twisting and turning as they slept; presumably tormented by the same ghastly ordeal I was subject in that land-that-should-not-be. The seas had responded in accord, and rather than the calm, bucolic currents I was accustomed to, myself and the ship came under assault, hull creaking and wailing as the waves erupted in a paroxysm of emotion, rising at unnatural speed and unloading upon the deck, shaking the ship to the core.
Attempting to return back into bliss, I closed my eyes again, only to be shaken vigorously from my sleep as inertia gave way and I tumbled from my bunk.
Knowing I had to do something as everyone cowered in their quarters, I ran to the door, only for the galleon to be shaken once more, this time serving to wrest balance away from me and have me tumble down onto the hardwood floor. Clutching my right as my side flashed with pain, I rose from my position, and continued through the under-corridors of this troubled galleon until at last, I found the door which led to the deck. Afraid and eager to see what was causing such trouble, I stepped outside.
Immediately, I was subject to an outpouring of rain the likes of which I had yet to experience both on the mainland or out here; coupled with howling gales, it was through sheer luck and fortitude combined that I had succeeded in reaching and maintaining a hold now on the center mast, her sails thrashing and contorting as the storm raged all around, driving both sea and air into frenzies alike.
However, all notions of us having encountered mere turbulence were washed away as soon as I looked up at the sky; it bore the same sickly chartreuse as within my thoughts, the same elephantine tempests thundering above.
"It cannot be!" I thought to myself.
"The maligning of my dream cannot surely be a fateful coincidence, can it?"
As if to answer my pending inquiries, a crack of lightning echoed above, and sonorous wails rattled through the hull of the ship. I held ever tighter onto the mast, and the wails continued in their frequency, oscillating and ululating, rising in frequency as the maelstrom grew further tenacious.
For a moment, the waves seemed to falter in their vigor, only to part violently as a shadow batted into the side of the Vanguard, sending me off my feet and into the wooden railings behind.
Falling back, I noticed the water had transformed color and behavior; where once the currents were brooding beside us adorned in gloomy gray, now they moved astonishingly fast and were comprised of an impenetrable black. Turning around, I saw our nemesis, the one who had brought our journey to a standstill, gripping fervently to our Queen, defiling her with its terrible touch.
I could not describe the shadow from the depths, nor could I bring words to what would happen next, but try I would.
With a succession of explosive bursts, supporting appendages shot from beneath the waters, gripping onto the ship and positioning in in such a manner, I felt that we would belong to the Locker in minutes. Gripping unto the mast, stern, bow, and judging by the screams below deck, the very insides of the Vanguard, these appendages bore an aura of menace estranged; lavished in a putrescence concocted by the very Devil himself, they were of a raven's plumage; dark as the depths below, composed of a texture most alien, yet from their sides, effulgent phosphorescence shone as radiant pustules of jade, effervescing and luminous betwixt tenebrous, pulsating flesh. No weapons of any mortal kind were to be seen on these slender, eldritch limbs - only a single, undivided line of circular, serrated constructs hung from the very bottom; presumably, this is how the creature managed to maintain such an unassailable grip upon the galleon.
The constitution of such a beast adopted the form of a rotund oval, approaching the size of an ordinary galleon but stopping short, thought its girth was unparalleled - all further enhanced by an unearthly mantle, glistening with a luster only outmatched by incandescent orbs of a harlequin shade, beaming with the same luminescence found upon the limbs, each of which dimmed and coruscated in some indescribable fashion, and below them, lay the monster's means of propulsion; twin bilateral membranes that rippled with movement as our position shifted ever so precariously.
Moving downwards, my eyes now gazed upon its cavernous aperture, its outside garnished with elliptical sabers of ivory, leading rows upon rows of arciform teeth that glinted in the expanses of my vision.
Spellbound, I only reverted to normality as the interloper's serpentine limbs crashed onto the deck, splintering hardwood floors and collapsing the once majestic mast. Above the roaring din of the wind, I could hear what appeared to be the Captain's voice shouting below deck.
"Fire!" and at once , a volley of fire met this beast, smashing into its body and inflicting terrible damage indeed. Oozing with black, putrid bile, at once, the wounds appeared to reconstitute themselves; the beast was recombining!
I could not allow this to happen. Gripping the mast, I began to push it towards the general direction of the creature with a strength not mine, but found myself unable to move the mighty weight.
Alas, I feared defeat - were it not for the sound of footsteps heading my way.
"Need help?" the Captain shouted over the rain, and as one, both of of us pushed at the mast until slowly but surely, the mighty structure began to tumble downwards, until at last, it impacted flesh, smacking the beast, its hide bursting with slushy enmity - a lesion that would no doubt prove fatal given enough time.
Smiling with certainty that the beast was no more, I turned to enter inside, and then my world was turned upside down in one instant. A rogue tentacle snaked towards me, striking with force and coiling around my waist, yanking me upwards into the heavens, sending my senses and perception into disarray. From my bird's eye view, encapsulated was the full extent of the damage done to the galleon; the deck was now adorned with yawning fissures, growing and groaning as the Vanguard was torn apart. Water lapped the surface of the galleon, pouring in at an incredible speed - if my crew members were not dead now, they soon would be.
Swaying above it all, I was helpless to control my path, and it was now, as I was buffeted by unearthly gales and drowning in torrents of rain, I came face to face with that accursed cavern again.
Innumerable carpets of teeth, glinting in ancient moonlight, parted and jostled, ready to consume their next meal; myself!
Now, my stroke of luck had run dry. I was not going to find riches, nor beautiful women; only dishonorable death at the hands of this horror. Accepting my fate, I prepared for my doom, only to be jostled once more as the tentacle shook, not with the undulating motions of this creature as previously expected, but with an unnatural rhythm, quivering and trembling, all before collapsing onto the ship as cannon fire made its last
mark.
All hope now gone, surprised I was, as the Captain shouted his final words:
"Ignite the gunpowder, now!"
Both ship and beast were rocked by a series of explosions, fragmenting the already-debilitated ship and severing the limb which held me aloft.
Myself, I barely had time to scream during my descent as the deck came apart and the water impacted me, knocking the last vestiges of breath out of me as I tumbled through unending black.
Finding my bearings, it was as if Luck was on my side today as I surfaced.
Bitter cold pierced my garments as I bobbed in a sea of debris, ship and creature awaiting the inevitable fate.
Surveying my surroundings, I searched for something that lay above the freezing waters, until at last, spotted was a suitable piece of debris to rest on.
Using whatever strength I had left, I swam to a moderately sized block of hardwood floating among the waves; a perfect makeshift raft for myself. Lying down, remaining catatonic enough to mimic the dead, my last memories were the cannons firing out once more, the creature roaring one last time as it severed the last remnants of this ship into nothing, coral fire rising and rising upwards in its own destructive crescendo.
With a final roar, the beast flew downwards, and the last sight I saw before fading was the Captain standing defiant on the hull, surrounded by the same stout, sinister tendrils that had sundered man and vessel before.
As the broken ship burnt, darkness swept over, and I was left to wander my dreams once more.
I awoke on an unrecognized shoreline, skies now returned to their ever-alluring blue.
The waves lapped past me and sand cushioned my body, but I knew I could not lie here for long.
Ascending upwards, I began the long trek inland, towards civilization, and ultimately, my home. Any desire to chart the high seas was no longer present, instead having been supplanted by terror of a magnitude immeasurable.
We were fools to think there would be an easy journey - no man had charted those untamed expanses before! And perhaps there was a reason they would remain untamed, for now I know of the horrors-that-lurk beneath man's sight and in the infinity of darkness below, beasts that cannot be slain through mortal means.
Thankfully, I was far away from such climes; I am glad to be home once more, safe within the warmth of my hearth and kept alive by the comfort of filling ale.
Sometimes I hear that resounding wail reverberate inside, disturbing dreams and thoughts alike, and when it does, I shudder, for no man, no matter how heinous or cruel, should fall prey to What Lurks Beneath.
That ends my story; may I at last no longer be troubled by the darkness below water.
Source of kraken image: http://www.deviantart.com/art/Tales-from-the-High-Seas-47153786
