Beneath the Waves
“Capitana!” Quilla again, her voice inches from panic now. “It’s breached the nets!”
Ela spun on her booted heels, her golden anklets jingling as she barked commands. “Let it take what’s in the net. Just the bait-fish. When it breaches again, we strike.”
Even as she spoke, the water ahead exploded upward. The Varayoc rose with an ear-splitting screech, its body shimmering like a nightmare pulled into the world of mortals. Its teeth were jagged mountains, its fins tipped with scars of countless battles with smaller fish. Water poured from its gills as its massive tail smashed into the waves, hammering the ship so hard Ela had to steady herself with the mast. Around her, the crew froze, the sheer scale of the beast robbing them of movement.
“Strike!” she roared, charging forward with her own golden-tipped harpoon as the deadly glow of fire illuminated the scene. Quilla hurled her spear, and one by one, others followed. The harpoons rained down, but most ricocheted harmlessly off its armor-like scales. Only one found its home in the softer section beneath its gaping jawline. The shark let out a guttural, haunting roar, turning its monstrous eyes directly to Ela. It dove below the waters again, the rope of the embedded harpoon trailing with it.
Into the Underworld
Ela grabbed the nearest rope and lashed it to her belt. “Lower me!” she ordered no one in particular, plunging from the deck headfirst into the waves. The cold bit fiercely at her copper skin as she disappeared from view, the din of the surface muffled as the anger of the ocean embraced her. She opened her eyes as wide as she dared, searching through the mercurial haze beneath.
There it was, the beast—thrashing, its wounded jaw staining the waters crimson. It didn’t retreat as much as descend, pulling toward something—a cave illuminated by a pale glow emanating from its mouth. Ela swam closer, the tether on her waist tightening as the ship tried desperately to reel her back.
The glow intensified, and for a brief moment, Ela’s rage was tempered with awe. Within the cave shimmered a treasure hoard unlike any she’d ever imagined. Golden artifacts, emerald statues of Pachamama, and enormous orbs of lapis lazuli sat in haphazard piles. But in the center, suspended in an eerie phosphorescence, was the source of the shark’s power—or its slavery. A jagged spear of electrum, embedded in its head, pulsed with a rhythm that felt almost alive.
The Varayoc posed no godly threat. It was a guardian weakened and corrupted by human greed.
The Final Decision
Ela knew, then, what had to be done. Gritting her teeth, she gripped the embedded harpoon still dangling from its jaw and pulled herself closer to the writhing colossus. She drew the elegant obsidian dagger from her waist and drove it, with all her strength, into the soft tissue where the electrum spear met bone. One decisive movement, followed by the obliteration of sound and light.
An Ocean Reborn
The next thing Ela knew, she was coughing violently, sprawled across the makeshift planks of the ship. Quilla hovered overhead, dripping wet but alive, holding a rope that suggested she’d dragged her Capitana back herself. “You did it,” Quilla said, her voice half-choked with disbelief.
Ela turned her head weakly, catching sight of the leviathan floating limply on the horizon before it sank, its shimmering body now entirely still. The crew erupted into a victorious roar, but Ela remained silent, staring out into the waves. The rage that had driven her for years was gone. In its place, an unfamiliar emptiness, one that she hoped someday the sea would fill with peace.
“Tomorrow, we fish,” she muttered quietly, gripping Quilla’s wrist for strength as she stood. “But never deeper than the nets.”
Quilla smiled hesitantly, nodding. Ela gazed at the horizon where the monster had sunk and whispered, almost to herself, “The ocean is vast. We should share it better.”
The sea glimmered faintly in agreement, as the storm began, at last, to subside.
Genre: Historical-Fantasy Adventure
The Source...check out the great article that inspired this amazing short story: Europe's Shark Trade Crisis - A Billion-Dollar Business Threatening Marine Ecosystems
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