Once Upon A Midnight Sail

"Come on Ann! You wanted to do this midnight sail and now you're taking forever!" Dan called back over his shoulder for his wife, as he untied the medium sized cruising sailboat from the dock. A woman's figure came into view dragging a wheeled duffle bag behind her.

"Now where ya' takin' that thing? We're only going to be gone a few hours at the most". Dan pointed his finger at the bag.

""If it's one thing you taught me it's to always be prepared at sea for anything." Ann countered. Dan shook his head.

"At sea? We are hardly going sailing my love," He laughed heartily as he picked the bag up and placed it on the deck of the boat, "This little boat ride just to see some stars and enjoy a little moonlight is a far cry from sailing the Ocean Blue!" He laughed again as he helped her step down onto the deck and pushed away from the small dock that connected to the backyard of their small cottage. Ann had left the soft glowing yellow lights on the back porch on. The rest of the house was dark.

She twisted her lips into a smirk, "Maybe I should have left on some other lights as well." she tilted her head looking back as the boat moved away from the land.

"For who the foxes and the owls? I think they can see just fine without the aid of the lights from our house." Dan busied himself setting sail. Ann looked up at the big bright full moon. She sighed, "You're right, would you look at that moon, it is magnificent! It is so clear!"

After sailing a bit out onto the still dark waters, Dan looked at his watch and saw that he had been sailing for about 30 minutes with no sign of Ann.

"Now she wanted to come out here....what on earth could she be doing down below?" He spoke to himself. He dropped anchor and went below to find her. "Ann where'd you go? You wanted to do this now come on and enjoy this...." His voice trailed off as he saw his wife laying across the bed in the frilliest frock he had seen in a long time. His eyebrows raised as he glanced around and saw the room was decorated with thrown about rose petals and fake tea light candles. There was soft music playing and Ann held a bottle of wine out to him.

"I was wondering when you were going to notice I was missing up there." She laughed a little, and got up from the bed. The front of her naughty nighty fell open revealing her not as young an smooth but still tight stomach. She moved closer to him and danced around a little. Dan was smitten, he grinned and started dancing as well, he took the bottle of opened wine from her and looked around for a glass.

"Oh just take it to the head baby!" Ann grabbed the bottle from him and throwing her head back she poured herself a shot into her mouth. Dan grabbed the bottle and poured another in her mouth and then his.

"So this is what you had in that bag! Nice surprise Mrs Sumpter."

"Yup always be prepared and I came....prepared" Ann whispered as she pulled a long pack of condoms from the duffle bag that was beside the bed.

She and Dan both paused before they burst into laughter.

"It's a little late for those don't ya think!?" Dan reached out for the condoms. Ann laughed, "Yes it is 3 kids later to late...but don't you remember our first time, it was on your first little boat and we couldn't find those condoms we had bought to save our lives!"

"Ya' I sure do remember, you were the hottest girl back then and you are the hottest woman right now." Dan pulled her into an embrace and suddenly they were both violently thrown backwards onto the cabin floor.

"What the hell!...." Dan cursed loudly as he tried to regain his footing but the boat seemed to be moving forward at a rapid speed. Ann managed to pull herself up onto the bed. "What is happening Dan!? Why are we moving so fast??! Why are we moving at all??!!"

They both gripped the sides of the bed and then the railing as they struggled to climb the stairs. Dan was thrown back onto Ann as the boat suddenly stopped as quickly as it had started.

He pulled himself off of her and helped her up as well.

"What in the name of all that is holy is going on out there?!" She panicked

"I'm sure as hell going to find out!" Dan clambered up the steps as fast as he could. Looking around he saw no one on board and the anchor was still dropped. He scratched his head and ran his fingers through his salt and pepper hair. Ann had joined him looking just as puzzled.

It suddenly started to get cold, Ann visibly shivered as she tried to pull her shear nighty around her. The moon that was shinning so bright was now cloaked in a yellowish haze. The water so dark and smooth was now choppy and covered in a layer of cold fog.

"Dan wha...whats happening", Ann's eyes were as big as saucers as the dark water seemed to grow and stand tall over the front bow of the boat. Dan reached for a compartment beside the boats helm. He pulled out his gun and began to fire helplessly into the water. The bullets seemed to render no affect. The water parted down the middle and fell off to either side. Dan stopped firing and both he and Ann stood there, mouths agape.

The sea creature that hovered above the front of the boat was something unreal. It had beautiful long dark green hair that flowed as if the wind were blowing, its eyes were a piercing solid ice blue, skin was the color of a shiny new copper penny, its womanly figure was covered in one perfect scale after another. In the place of legs the creature had 8 tentacles that moved simultaneously so that it appeared to float. It lowered itself down onto the boat.

Dan stepped back towards Ann never taking his eyes off the creature.

The creature moved its mouth as if it were speaking, but Dan could not hear anything. He shook his head thinking the gun shots must have done something to his hearing.

He noticed the creature looking past him, he turned to Ann and, screamed!

"Oh my god Ann! Ann! Answer me!", He grabbed hold of his wife's arms and shook her as she stood there eyes wide staring into the night. Her eyes begin to change first, the dark brown pupil slowly lightened until they were white like the surrounding area and suddenly they were the same piercing solid ice blue color of the creature. They widened and were framed by long flowing lashes. Her hair began to change from the root growing longer past her waist even as the color changed to the same dark green hue of the creature.

Dan let go of her and stumbled sideways as the boat was being tossed about by the waves that seemed to have gotten bigger, he held onto the side as he watched his wife of 18 yrs become almost a mirror image of the thing that stood in front of him.

"Oh god...oh god...Ann whats happening to you!? What are you doing to her, leave her alone!" He shouted at the first creature, he lifted the gun to shoot again.

The creature suddenly turned to face him eyes glowing, hair violently blowing, it raised its clawed hand out towards Dan.

And then....nothing. Dan, not even realizing he had closed his eyes opened them when he didn't feel the stabbing pain he expected from the creatures grasp.

The thing was still there but it was as if it couldn't move. Dan looked towards Ann. She stood as if floating on her tentacles, with one clawed hand outstretched in the first creatures direction.

Speaking so that Dan could understand:

"You will not harm him in my presence."

The first creature angrily turned towards her and it too spoke so that Dan could understand, "You have become soft living here among these creatures. Your mission was to mate nothing more. How could you be so foolish as to fall in love with one of these...these soft bags of flesh?" the creature threw Dan a disgusted look as it spoke.

"Were it not for these, 'bags of flesh', our species would not continue to carry on, Azurine you will humble yourself. If not before this being, then before your queen."

The creature slowly bowed low to Ann and stayed that way as Ann turned her attention to Dan.

She reached for him, Dan scrambled back. Ann looked down at her arm covered in copper scales and at her clawed hands. She withdrew her hand.

"Dan, I am sorry you had to see me this way. My plan was to have you drunk with love and wine. When the time came for me to leave you I was to wipe your memory of me..."

Dan interrupted her, "Wipe my memory of you? Wh...what about our children Ann, what happens to them?!"

"My name is Varuna I am the goddess and queen of water and the oceans."

"Our daughters have already had their calling from the sea. It called and they have answered, this was how I knew it was time for me to go as well." she moved closer to Dan, "You see our species can only mother daughters we have no sons, no men to create life with. It has been this way with us for as long as the moon and stars have been in existence. We have mated with your kind and have continued to live."

"I only regret, this time I was careless, and I fell in love with you. But you will not recall anything, I alone will be left with the burden of the memory of us."

Dan opened his mouth in protest but was unable to speak as Varuna turned her face out towards the ocean and her ice blue eyes turned black as the night sky.

Dan woke up to the sound of the birds chirping and his dog, Snow, licking his face. He stretched and reached out to scratch the dog behind his ears.

"You ready for our morning run boy?...Yeah you're ready. Let me throw on something and we can hit the trail down by the dock". Dan grabbed his headphones and he and Snow headed out the back door down to the little dock where his boat stood tied to it. He glanced in the direction of the still water, he thought he saw something breach the dark surface.

"Hmm looks like we have some otters or something visiting us today...lets go boy!" he took off in a steady jog along the shore with his dog in tow.