Chapter 7: Certainty

Eyes shot open to a frightening storm, only to immediately close by the assault of a high wave of crashing water.

The massive force blasted him, slamming his small body into the wooden deck. As the luminous waters passed by, he found himself wet and sprawled out onto the wooden floor.

The boy opened his eyes once again. His vision no longer obscured by clouds of fog, but instead by relentless armies of pounding rain, and the lack of penetrating light.

He sat up, holding onto the body of the ship as tightly as he could as it trembled and endured the violently crashing waves.

A blue flash then streaked across the skies, briefly illuminating the vastness of his surroundings, followed by a thunderous explosion that brought it all back to vague shadows.

In that brief moment, what he saw was nothing like the calm and serene ocean he knew of.

The endless seas were dark, violent, furious, and bellowing.

“What’s up kid!?” A voice asked casually to his side, to which under the mystical light of the floating book, he saw was the body of a fish.

“Wha— What happened!?”

“What’d ya think happened!? A storm rolled through, obviously!” They shouted at each other under the roaring rain, and howling winds.

“A storm!?”

“That’s what I said, and that’s what’s goin on!”

“Well…why!?”

“Why!? What’cha mean why!?”

“Storms happen cause they happen!”

“Does there need to be a reason!?”

“I…guess not.”

“But…”

“What’d ya say kid!? I can’t hear you!”

“...Nevermind!”

BOOM!

Thunder struck again, but just before it, the lightning’s flash illuminated the churning ocean, and the massive, rising tides that came from it.

“It's frightening…” He muttered under his breath.

“Huh!? Did ya say somethin!?”

“Aren’t you afraid!?” He shouted.

“Me!? I’m a fish! You’re the only one who’s gonna drown!”

With that, the boy’s face darkened. The tilapia was absolutely right.

“Good luck!” The tilapia said.

This damn fish! Have a little compassion!

“Help me then!”

“Cast a spell or something!”

“No can do!”

Why not!?”

“Watch out!”

“Wha—!?”

The boy quickly turned his head to the left, to which another wave of crashing water slammed into him. His hands desperately held on to what little he could grab, as waves of force relentlessly strived to pry him from his only saving grace.

As the violent waters washed over, he heard a voice shout from the side, “All of life’s storms are yer’ own to brave!”

“To take that away from you, is to take away yer’ own volition!”

“What does that word even mean!?” He shouted back.

“But since ya asked for my help!”

“Why don’t ya look around to see what helped ya last time!” After finishing his speech, the fish dove into the tumultuous waters.

“What helped me last time!?”

What helped me last time…what helped me last time…last time…last time…

‘I was riding a massive wave, before falling unconscious—’

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

‘Did I just get really lucky and the boat came down easy?’

‘Or…’

The boy’s eyes swung to the other side of the ship, towards which was a floating book, and a skeleton that still stood upright amidst the crashing tides.

Shimmering in the grim darkness, the enigmatic book looked even more radiant as it hovered in the air, unconcerned of its surroundings.

Turning his focus to the skeleton, he then quickly noticed the burning green flames within its hollow skull.

‘It wasn’t there before! That means it’s charged up! Or— present!— it's here right now, right!?’

In his urgency, the young boy ran up to the skeleton. Lightning illuminated his surroundings as he shouted, “I want to hear a tale!”

BOOM! Thunder crashed soon after, and rain pelted him as he waited patiently for something magical and wondrous to happen.

Would the skies magically clear and the seas calm? Would an invisible force field shield them from the calamitous storm?

Winds howled and the rain roared even louder, yet the skeleton still remained motionless, and the world around him still swirled ruinously.

“What the heck!? Why isn’t it working!?”

And soon after, his surroundings started to darken further. The radiant light that came from the book, seemed to grow brighter, though only because of the sharper contrast between light and darkness.

The young boy looked behind him this time to see what was casting such a massive shadow, and what he saw was a gigantic tide, five houses tall, and rising. No doubt, he was also unfortunately within the wave’s inevitable crash.

‘I’m gonna die.’ He thought.

But not before a voice spoke from under the seas, one that was directly beneath his boat.

“All of life’s storms are yer’ own to brave!”

“Yet find in thy company, those willing to lend a hand!”

‘The fish!?’

‘But why is his voice so different!?’

Instead of the tilapia’s normal slick, nasally, and fast-talking voice, it was now deep, low, and booming.

A shadow then started to appear beneath the ship, similar to the first time the fish leaped out of the water and onto his boat.

Except this time however, the shadow beneath only started to grow larger and larger.

Only when the shadow rose above the water’s surface, and the tiny boat rode atop the shadow’s back, did the young boy realize what, or who it was.

Looking beneath him, was the back of a vast and gigantic creature. He would have been all too terrified of it, if he didn’t quickly recognize those familiar blue scales, and those fins that he had been forced to massage for half an hour— it was undoubtedly…the tilapia.

Dozens of questions popped up in the boy’s head, one of them being, ‘How did you get so big!?’

Yet in the end he didn’t speak a word.

“Don’t die before I see you again!”

The massive tilapia gently slid the boat off of his back, and suddenly, the ocean monster leaped out of the water.

Its body, fins, and tail whipped the ocean so powerfully that they created monstrously tall waves in and of themselves…expertly controlled however.

A flash of lightning then struck again, and the young boy saw as the figure of a massive fish eclipsed the moon, before colliding with the massive wave and shattering its momentum.

“What the hell…”

Still in shock he breathed a surprising sigh of relief, though not for long as he saw other massive shadows rising in the distance. They were too formless to be sea creatures, so no doubt, they were tides, amassing and swelling to heights even taller than what his fish-friend had shattered.

In that moment he was reminded— his problem hadn’t been solved yet, although he was given something truly precious— time.

Turning to his right, he looked at the skeleton in the eyes, right at the burning green flames inside its skull.

Having no other solutions, he relied solely on whatever protective mechanism the book and the skeleton had for him, and yet, no matter how much he wracked his brain, no ideas came forth.

Moments turned into minutes as a tiny boat endured crashing wave after crashing wave. Though even those seemingly violent tides, were all but the smallest stirrings in comparison to the ocean’s true fury.

All around the boat and in the shadows, a gigantic silhouette would leap out from the ocean, and not too soon after, each tide so calamitous as to completely annihilate the boy and his ship was shattered and dispersed. The constant explosive confrontations between sea monster and sea, could be heard boomingly in the vague, dancing shadows.

Yet still…the young boy had achieved nothing after all this time. He had all but exhausted every method to get the skeleton to just move, much less aid him. Whether they were sincere pleas or faithful prayers, odd mystic hand signs, tribalistic ritual dancing, or undignified kowtowing— nothing seemed to work. In his frustration, he even dared to tackle it! Although that only gave him a purple mark on his shoulder, and the skeleton refused to budge even an inch.

Suddenly, his surroundings then grew silent. No longer did he hear the constant collisions, between the humble tilapia and the endless tumultuous seas.

Without mercy nor relent, another shadow cast itself, darkening both his surroundings, and his mood.

The rain fell endlessly on his shoulders. Lightning flashed, and he saw as that same shadow slowly grew towards the edge of the horizon.

Curiosity and trepidation could no longer be contained, as the young boy looked behind him.

Sounds of rushing water filled his ears— his eyes stared forward, placing themselves on a shadowed mass of some sort. He couldn’t quite tell what he was looking at, until he looked up.

Lightning flashed, revealing an apocalyptic wave so massive, that it seemed to reach towards the very moon.

Now fully beholden to it, his heart froze.

It lasted for only for a nanosecond, but despite the pelting rain, the rising tide, and the wailing winds, on his face appeared a blank, and absent look.

Silently and noiselessly from beneath the ocean’s surface, the massive head of a sea monster emerged. Its eyes just barely peeked out from the water, seemingly fixated on knowing how the young boy would come to.

For in each and every moment there was always a choice, and in this one, two paths had clearly presented themselves before the boy.

There was that part of him that wanted to collapse to the ground, trembling and burying his head into his knees while all that he was crumbled before him.

And there was that part of him that wanted to remain steadfast, diligent, and courageous to the very end.

In that precipice moment of converging fate…his consciousness flickered like that of sparks in the darkness. In the finality he refused to choose between the two, but instead chose to pursue the invisible thread of a third path.

An inkling hid in the recesses of his mind— an essence that he touched upon in his effort to absorb the experiences in the tale.

Traversing the evershifting maze complex of the mind, his consciousness walked upon faintly familiar paths to rediscover the principle of certainty. That essence and law which went beyond faith and belief, and instead directly commanded substance and energy to obey.

To the known rules of mortal reality, such a thing was the height of nonsense, illogical fantasy, and hopeful imagination. And yet, it was exactly the higher imagination of an infinite presence that created all things, and that which was transcendent had never adhered to logic, reason, nor limits.

He spoke, his voice resonant with the tone of a myriad voices, “By my word, open the tale of Vendus Arituel van Tor, the last blood of the black lion, of the betrayed and forgotten house erased from the annals of history! Let me witness again, his story!”

The motionless skeleton finally moved. Its head approached the young child’s face, as no more than a centimeter separated their skulls.

Two green undead flames stared into the boy’s eyes— the supernatural heat scorched every droplet of storming rain that approached, and yet, he leaned his eyes closer into the flames.

Moisture evaporated from his eyes as his sight over reality started to blur, and yet, in realms unseen their radiance shined even brighter, and his gaze pierced even clearer.

From above, the apocalyptic wave that strived to drown even the moon finally started to descend.

The tilapia in the form of a gigantic sea monster started to sink back down into the ocean’s depths.

All the while the two entities atop the small ship continued their unreasonable bout. In more informal terms, their childish stare contest.

The skeleton seemed to want to test the boy’s resolve, his certainty— while the young boy wanted to make it known that the look in his eyes was simply his newfound temperament.

Waters taller than skyscrapers and archwizard towers fell rapidly, gushing and surging down with the force of a thousand flood dragons.

Shadows and darkness enveloped all beneath. Like a candle resisting the dark world, the brown book’s radiance illuminated the final moments of their confrontation.

The apocalyptic tidal wave, crashed down.

There was no magic force field, no halting of time itself, and no divine force that repelled nature’s disastrous fury.

In an instant the surging waters smashed the young boy’s body— his bones were sundered, his muscles broken, and the very breath of life in his body was snuffed out.

Three items found themselves drifting within the boundless seas. The corpse of a child, an unassuming brown book, and a skeleton in tattered rags.

And by either chance or fate, the chaotic currents of the ocean pushed the skeleton towards the child’s body.

An entire sea did nothing to douse the flames of that which was already dead, and instead they burned brighter as they looked towards their prize.

On the boy’s adolescent face, displayed still an expression of inerasable dignity, and utter poise.

“...Hahahaha!” The skeleton cackled in a thousand resonant voices.

“By your will.”

“...Once upon a time…”