The next few days were borderline enjoyable.

Melody hadn’t been joking. The crew seemed to give me the chores they just didn’t want. I cleaned the toilets seven out of seven days. But the weather was sunny, with a strong wind that managed to cool me off just enough that standing outside was enjoyable rather than hot. Thatch had been true to his word as well. The creatures on this sea simply didn’t care about us, which meant it was placid, smooth sailing. We usually didn’t have much to do. Contrary to old stories I used to read, there were no frantic sailors running this way and that, raising and lower sails or untying and tying ropes or readying cannons. The busiest person on the ship was Thatch, as he seemed to wander around the ship making sure none of the other crazy people had pitched overboard or something, and when he wasn’t doing that, he was in the Rec room doing paperwork, signing invoices and writing notes in an almost mechanically neat hand.

First Mate and Selimy mostly stayed in the Bridge, and I didn’t see Lucas at all except for at dinner time as he seemed to live in the engine room while we were sailing, but everyone else seemed to have a lot of down time, including me, which I used to relax on a deck chair Quiver helped me find in the Hold. I had to ignore the occasional jeer from Hawthorn, and occasionally I was interrupted by Melody or Elma or once, at night, Quiver, demanding I join them for some board game in the Rec Room. I was foolish enough to join them once, but after Melody and Elma almost came to blows over Candy Land I decided that I wasn’t competitive enough to keep up with them. It was almost like being on a cruise. A cruise full of crazy people where I also had to clean the toilets, but the food was good, the sun was warm and there was just something comfortable about The Beffuddled. Everything was calm.

So calm, in fact, that for the first three days I was skeptical as to the existence of any sort of enormous beast living in the so-called Deeps.

On the fourth day, however, as I was lying out in the sun reading one of Imran Haller’s ‘Rising from the Underbelly, A text on modern Revolutionary Philosophy’ the water suddenly darkened. Hawthorn had, surprisingly, spotted it first.

“Behemoth below!” He shouted from his seat. “Rising fast on us!”

“Behemoth below! Rising Fast on us!” Was echoed throughout the ship in First Mates voice, over an intercom system. That was the most nautical thing I had heard anyone say on this trip, and I was too busy thinking about that, it didn’t register immediatly with me when Hawthorn looked to me. “Grab me and then something solid, Sam!”

I stared blankly at him,

“Now!” He shouted, and I dove for him, grabbing him by his arm and then recoiling when I felt the roiling insects under his sleeve, grabbing his shoulder instead and then the railing of the ship.

Suddenly gravities hand shoved us both backwards, as if we were on a suddenly accelerating roller coaster, only with no seats and no belts. The boat had abruptly picked up more speed than I thought it capable of. I managed to keep hold of both Hawthorn and the railing, but that didn’t stop us from bumping and rolling across the deck like puppets on a lone string. Then the boat stopped.

I steadied myself a moment later and stood just as the sound of thousands of gallons of water being displaced annihilated every other noise in the vicinity. I watched as something huge, round and a a dark blue, almost black rose up from the surface of the water. It was at least the size of a football stadium, stands and all. A huge, glassy yellow eye sat smack dab in the middle of the whatever it was. A spout of water that shot into the air made me believe it was vaguely whale-like, but its body was round and bulbous, like a thick balloon inflated almost to popping. I saw at least three fins on the side that I could see, each of them ending in what seemed like spines of some sort.

It was not majestic. It was too round and lumpy to be majestic. If this creature hadn’t been so absolutely massive, and I’d found it washed up on a beach, I would have probably prodded it with a stick a couple times, commented to whoever was with me that it looked strange, and then moved on.

“That was terrifying.” I said,

“No it wasn’t.” Hawthorn said,

I thought about it for a moment.

“You’re right.” I said eventually. I watched the huge, whale-lump-fish-whatever-it-was eject water into the atmosphere and churn the water with it’s massive barbed limbs for apparently no purpose. I should have been scared.

“It’s Lucas’ crazy engine.” Hawthorn said, “He turns it on and it starts stealing emotions to power itself. That’s how we did that nice little jump. It gobbled up everyone’s fear and we jumped out of the way just in time.”

“Don’t bullshit me.” I said, still feeling curiously empty. “That could solve the entire world's energy problems. If he’d developed something like that he’d be rich and everyone would know about something like that.”

Hawthorn shook his head.

“Nah. When we have to keep it going for a while, you’ll change your tune pretty quickly. Have you ever had your emotions drained for days? To know you should be feeling something but aren’t?”

“I know people who have.” I said, and Hawthorn dipped his head in acknowledgement.

“Probably you have. And those people could tell you it ain’t exactly sunshine and roses.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“I suppose not. But this could be a wonderful alternative or back up power source. I don’t doubt Lucas could get pretty rich with a device like that! If you aren’t just lying to me.”

“You’ll see what I’m talking about.” Hawthorn said, staring out at the behemoth with me as the Befuddled slowly made it’s way away. It’s one huge eye was rolling in it’s socket, and I realized that the water all around it was getting darker. I couldn’t confirm it, but I was certain that it was blood.. “Help me up.”

“Oh! Sorry!” I said, and grabbed him under the armpits and returned him to his chair.

“Somethings got it.” Hawthorn noted, reaching into his pocket and replacing the cigarette he had lost in the tumble.

“I wonder what.”

“Probably best we aren’t close enough to find out.” He gave a little grunt of a laugh as he lit his cigarette. “More exciting than your book, huh?”

“Only if you don’t consider the ethical implications of revolution in the modern era exciting.”

“I really, really don’t, kid.”

“That was a joke.” I said,

Hawthorn paused,

“Maybe it was. I’ll admit I can’t tell with you.”

“Come on. You can’t believe even I would find a book like that interesting! I read to better myself, not to have fun.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“That’s almost worse.”

Suddenly there were footsteps and familiar too loud laughter coming up the stairs.

“Oh. What a treat. It’s a Bloater.” Melody said, sounding delishted. Elma was right behind her.

“Somethings got it.” Hawthorn said,

“I’ll bet it’s a young Gripper. Those are the only things dumb enough to go after a Bloater like that.” Elma said, and then grinned at me. “You not only got to see a Bloater your first trip out, but it also nearly killed us! That’s good luck on your first outing. It’s too bad Lucas’ crime against nature sucked all the awe and terror out of it.”

“I don’t believe in luck.”

“Doesn’t matter if you believe in it or not, good luck is still good luck!” Elma laughed, and slapped me on the shoulder again. Then she stopped, her eyes focused on the dark stain spreading in the water ahead of us and her smile faded.

“It’s bleeding.” She said.

Melody rushed to the side of the ship to stare into the water. The blood was slowly spreading in a cloud, and I noticed the ‘Bloater’s’ thrashing was beginning to slow. Suddenly it let out a low keening sound that I could just barely hear by the way it rattled by teeth and made my ears ring.

“I’ve never seen a bloater hurt like this. Their skin is fucking impenetrable.” Elma said, “I’m going to check what’s going on.” She swung a leg onto the ship’s railing.

The blood was slowly stretching towards us, dark in the water like storm clouds. I wouldn’t have gone in that water for any amount of money, I was trying really hard not to imagine what was killing something as massive as this Bloater. What was more, that keening noise was making my heart speed up. I felt the familiar rush of adrenaline flood into my bloodstream, but there was nothing to do with it, nowhere to go.

“Don’t.” Melody said, grabbing Elma by the arm a second before she pitched herself into the water. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

“I’ll agree.” I said, “I think it would be ill advised.” I said. Aquatic cannibal or not, all I could imagine was her slipping into the water and then not coming out again.

Elma looked at the two of us, and then back up at the Bloater, when suddenly the Bloater sagged. The Bloater’s spiked fins suddenly fell limp and stopped moving. We all stood on the deck of the ship and watched as the top of the Bloater simply exploded upwards. Seven snake-like heads erupted from gore, each a different color. Red, blue, green, yellow, black, white, gray. And the keening hadn’t stopped, even now that the Bloater was dead. The snake heads began to writhe around the Bloater’s corpse, snapping at each other, all except the white head that turned and seemed to focus in on our ship, the keening noise growing stronger, as did the realization of how small we were. A concept I thought I’d understood, but hadn’t really until just now.

“Is that a… Gripper?” I asked in a small voice. I wanted nothing more than to run away, but there was nowhere to go.

“That is not.” Melody said, her eyes wide.

“We need to GO!” Hawthorn roared.

I felt a creaking hum through the metal at my feet and the roar of a mechanical engine and the ship began to pick up speed. The seven headed thing mercilessly devoured the Bloater, all except for the white head that didn’t turn away from us until we couldn’t see it anymore.

Neither me, Elma, Hawthorn or Melody had walked off the deck or turned away from the direction the Bloater now lay dead.

“I don’t know what that was.” Hawthorn said when I opened my mouth. His face no longer held the laconic, half lidded disinterest it usually did. He was wide eyed, scanning the water, his sun weathered face morphed into a leathery mask of alarm.

When we were far enough away, I tore my gaze away to see First Mate standing at the Bridge window, hands behind her back and looking out over the water as well.

That night dinner was quiet. Elma made us Curry and chicken, but I didn’t even taste it despite being quite fond of curry.

“We’re going to tell someone, right?” Melody said eventually.

“We are.” First Mate said, “We’ll arrive at Adler’s Grave late tomorrow. I don’t know how much good it will do, but at least they’ll know about that thing if they don’t already.”

“I don’t understand.” I said, “I thought big things lived in the Deeps. Couldn’t that have just been something… native to the area?”

“No.” First Mate said, shaking her head. “That thing was… mythological.”

“What?”

“Didn’t you see it? That wasn’t a natural creature. No normal beast would have that many heads, or such unnatural colorations. It was a Hydra, and Hydra’s aren’t real.”

“The Deeps border the real world.” Lucas explained. He was wearing a jumper that was grease stained and smelled of oil and, strangely, freshly mown grass. He hadn’t come up out of the engine room all day, not even to see the whatever it was. “The creatures there follow the rules of nature. More or less, anyway. But that thing was out of a legend. Multiple heads and coloration like that don’t really help from an evolutionary stand point. And whatever sound it was making wasn’t natural either. I heard it all the way in the Engine Room. You don’t get things like that out here. Not until you’re much, much deeper into the Ocean. It’s strange and worrying that it’s out here killing Bloaters. Especially since Bloaters are, if not the fastest or cleverest things out here, certainly the toughest.”

I dropped into bed not long after, but couldn’t fall asleep. The keening sound was stuck in my head, I kept feeling my heart suddenly pick up and adrenaline seep into my system. This wasn’t a psychological reaction. That thing had messed with my body on a biological level. I got up out of bed. This thing had done something to us.

Melody wasn’t in her room, so I tried the Medical Bay.

It wasn’t quite what I had expected of Melody. It was the clinical, sanitized white of every hospital ever, with just a flat operating table in the center and a counter and cabinet nailed into the floor and wall, filled with assorted medical implements. I saw the box the Morphine had come in in a trashcan in the corner. It was a lot neater than I’d expected.

“Figured you’d show up too.” Melody said, sitting in a rolling chair at the desk. “You, me, Hawthorn and Melody have adrenal glands that are on the fritz. Something that the Hydra did. It’s gonna cause light headedness, a craving for sweets, brain fog and until that happens you’ll have insomnia. I can knock you out if you want me to, but there’s nothing else I can do for you until we get to Adler’s Grave. Hopefully this will wear off in time. But get ready for an unpleasant tomorrow.” She said. I noticed her eyes were wide open and alert, and at the sight of it, my heart started beating faster again, my muscles tensing, ready to run or throw a punch.

“Elma said seeing the Bloater was good luck.” I said, though I didn’t know why.

“Yea, well. Elma’s not always right. But hey, maybe it’s better to know about a huge seven headed hydra monster that can disrupt the bodies usual biological rhythms than to not know.”

I snorted,

“I think ignorance might be bliss in this case.”

“That might be true.” She sighed. “Elma moved Hawthorn into the Rec room. I was going to head over there myself in a second, if you’d like to join us, since you aren’t sleeping anyway.”

“No. I’m alright, thank you.” I said, “I’ve got a book to finish.”

The next day went exactly as Melody said. My body eventually slowed down, and I wasn’t thrown into sudden states of near panic, but even though I managed a few hours of shut eye, when I woke everything felt like someone had spun me around and then smeared the colors of the whole world.

I puttered around the deck doing the chores assigned to me, still mostly cleaning, and occasionally (Twice literally) bumped into other crew members. Melody was moving around like a zombie, and Elma was constantly shaking her head as if she was being attacked by swarming flies. Hawthorn was on deck as usual, but he was as limp in his chair as I’d ever seen him.

Such was my fatigue that I barely even raised my head when Selimy, who had taken over Hawthorn’s duty as look out called out ‘LAND HO!’. My brain didn’t even have the energy to wonder how the blind Selmiy could possibly have known land was nearby.

When I finally did look up, after I was done swabbing my section of the deck, it took a second for my eyes to focus on the point in the distance she was gesturing at. When I did, however, I saw that there was smoke rising from the little dark smear in the distance.

“Seems as if Adler’s Grave is on fire.” Selimy said, scratching her chin.