A Monstrous Voyage

by Sanjay Keshav

The three masted schooner sliced gracefully through the tranquil waters the only sound the gentle swish of water past the hull. "Storm to port cap't" the cabin boy's yell breaks through the silence. Instantly the calm vanishes, men spring up from their slumber and scurry over the deck, frantically pinning down ropes and lowering the now ruffling sails. Waves like mountains smash over the men and rain pours down over their hunched shoulders. Then a monstrous wave sweeps towards them and as its white foamy crest thundered into their ship, the sailors dived towards the cabin door with eyes bulging and teeth set. Their shoulders collided with the door frame and the desperate straining mob tumbled to the ground in panic. As the wave struck the boat the mast creaked, splintered and snapped, spinning into the watery void...

......The boat swayed on, mast less, the currents pulling it into the centre of the storm. The rain was now so thick that they could not see through it and a wave would be invisible till it was right on top of them. Then suddenly they crested a wave into a huge flat area of the sea where the storm seemed not to exist. As they watched the water began to spin round and round till they were staring at a massive whirlpool and then from the centre of it rose a gargantuan tentacle encrusted with barnacles that began to sway in an entrancing dance as though conducting the storm. The boat spun round and tried to get away but the whirlpool sucked them in whirling them round in concentric circles one moment more and it was gone.

......The smashing wave disentangled the crew members and they stood up just in time to glimpse a singularly repugnant barnacle encrusted tentacle begin to slip off the edge of the boat. The nearest sailor jammed his dagger between a pair of limpets. Suddenly the tentacle reared up and smashed down on the deck; two more followed it and the sailors retreated into a huddle in the middle of the deck. The braver ones made a break for it but were either washed overboard or found by a probing tentacle. One of those found by the tentacles was whipped up in a breath quenching grasp and squeezed violently eyes popping and lungs constricting as he stabbed feebly at the disgusting appendage that grasped him. After this none dared to leave the cage formed of the tentacles even when the ships boards began to crack and creak as the tentacles began to squeeze. Slowly the boat was compressed and it seemed to be pulled downward as the owner of the tentacles levered itself upwards. Suddenly the hull is broken and forced splintering apart. As the deck splits to the underwater assault, sailors tumble off it to the seas below. Finally the deck is shoved apart and the horrendous visage is revealed the beast opens its beak with a scream of triumph.

The Kraken had risen again.