Rumored Creature, Real Life Savior

In the time of pirates, rumors swirled as whispers and chilling tales of something in the water were passed around. They say it made the ship rock in turn with the rising waves and made the water a deeper blue and green. It rippled the water and made it rain. They say ships had been sunk and that people had drowned after seeing red lights in the water.

The ocean grew less populated as the years went on. When the pirates no longer ruled the sea and they no longer set sail. Far after the wars on the water, as cannon after cannon and broken ships sunk to the bottom of the ocean. And even farther yet when cruise lines and the occasion navy ship were the only travelers of the waves.

Despite the lack of travelers, the rumors had yet to stop. As the sun rose on a new day, reflecting back on the water, still people would see a shadow. They would see those red lights and deeper than the ocean blue of something far larger than anyone could comprehend. Stories passed around from generation to generation, making most who hear them want to take their own journey to find the truth.

And so as Ryze packed his things into the rented boat, he made sure to bring the most essential things. His camera being the main one. The thing that would help him prove that there was something to all those stories after all.

He also added some food and water onto the list just in case he was out there longer than he thought. A pair of binoculars, a bucket of chum, and a net were also added onto the boat.

“I hope you actually know how to use this thing.” The gruff voice of the man Ryze was renting the boat from, said. Ryze turned to greet the man, trying his best to give him a normal looking smile. The guy was helping him out by renting him the boat for cheap but that didn’t mean he liked him much. “I don’t want my boat coming back to me in more than one piece.”

“My uncle used to take me out on the water all the time.” Ryze said, his smile thinning out. “I know what I’m doing.”

“For your sake, I hope you do.” The gruff man practically spat out and Ryze winced. He watched the man walk away before letting out a short breath of air.

“What’s his problem?” He muttered under his own breath after he was sure the man was well out of earshot. Though, Ryze supposed he understood, if just a little. It was the guy’s boat, after all.

Ryze went through the motions of checking over the boat before climbing on and taking his position at the helm. He started the motors on the boat, and it roared to life with a burst of gears grinding which then evened out into a low hum. Ryze missed hearing that sound.

He put the boat into drive and exited the port, picking up speed as he entered empty waters.

Ryze took this moment to allow himself to simply take in the ocean as it was. He closed his eyes, breathing in the salty sea air and feeling the ocean breeze on his skin and through his hair. But as soon as he opened his eyes back up, his mind wandered back to the rumors. Back to the reason he was heading out in the first place.

Ryze had hope but he also wasn’t stupid. There was more of a chance that he would go out on the water and not find anything, and he knew that very well. But just the prospect, of catching a glimpse of the rumored sea creature, made his heart race.

He drove out on the water for about three hours before putting the boat into park. He looked behind him, towards the horizon, unable to see the land where he had come from. In fact, there was no land anywhere he could see. He had made sure it would end up that way, since he doubted the creature would show itself so close to land.

He headed toward the front of the boat, where he had placed most of his things, including his camera. He put the strap that was attached to the camera around his neck and let it hang against his chest. He needed it close just in case he had to hurry and take a picture.

And then, Ryze settled against the edge of the boat, keeping his eyes peeled for any large shadows and different colors.

Periodically, he would move between each side of the boat, in order to get a look at the entire ocean. This went on for hours and as the time passed, Ryze started to notice the gray clouds moving in. Still, he wasn’t going to let a little rain make him quit. So he ignored it.

That had been a mistake.

The rain started, slow and soft at first, but soon started to pour. The wind picked up and the waves grew rougher. The boat was rocking, and water was starting to splash over the sides and onto the boat.

Ryze tried to block the rain from getting to his camera with his hand as he ran up to the steering. He didn’t know it was going to get this bad, nothing in the weather app said anything about a storm. He should have left the second he saw the gray clouds, but he couldn’t worry about that. He had to focus in on the present and try his best to make it back to land in this storm.

Or, at the very least, try and keep the boat from tipping over.

He put the boat into drive and turned it around, heading back towards where land was. He had to go slower than normal, as several waves rocked the boat too much to even try and go as fast as he had before. Heart beating fast, Ryze tried to take calm breaths, telling himself that he would get out of this.

And then he heard it.

If he hadn’t spent so much time out on the sea, he probably would have mistaken it for a whale. But this was no whale. The low sound was more melodic, less throaty. It was muffled as well, like it was coming from in the water, rather than above it.

Ryze bit his lip, debating with himself. He needed to get away before the storm became too much but…this was his chance. If the sound was that loud that meant it was close. That meant, there was a chance, that Ryze could actually see this thing and snap a picture.

Making his decision, he put the boat back in park and ran back down to the front of the ship. The wind whipped his hair back and Ryze had to squint through the rain, but he readied his camera and looked into the water.

And it was in that moment, when Ryze caught a glimpse of a large shadow in the water, that a giant wave crashed into the side of the boat. It tilted Ryze and the boat itself, tipping the entire boat over and causing Ryze to fall overboard, submerging into the water himself.

Ryze was lost, everything having happened too fast for his mind to process right away. He struggled within the water, but he couldn’t tell which way was up and which way was down. He tried to open his eyes but the salt water stung them harshly and so he closed them again. His lungs were burning now, and he knew that at any moment, he’d have no choice but to breath in the water.

Just as he was about to take a deadly breath, he felt something settle underneath him and suddenly he was being pushed upwards. At least, what he assumed was up. He was proven correct as he crashed out of the water.

He collapsed onto whatever surface he was on, taking in large gulps of air.

“Oh thank Poseidon, you’re alive.” A thundering voice boomed, causing Ryze to flinch. A voice? He shouldn’t be hearing a voice, he had been out on his boat alone, hadn’t he?

It still felt hard to breath but no longer like was going to die immediately, so he took a chance and tried to open his eyes. The first thing he noticed, as his head was facing down, was the surface he was on top of. He thought maybe it had been a rock or something but now knew that had been a foolish thought. The surface, after all, was soft and squishy, and now he knew way.

He was on a giant hand.

And suddenly, Ryze couldn’t breathe again.

“Are you okay?” The voice spoke again and this time, Ryze looked up in that direction. The giant hand he was on led to a giant arm which then led up into a giant shoulder, a giant neck and finally…a giant face. The giant being was frowning down at him. “Human?”

“I-I…” Ryze felt shaky, not just from almost drowning but from the giant creature in front of him. His mind still felt a bit foggy, but there was no denying that this was the rumored creature of the sea. “You’re…you’re it. The rumors were true…” Ryze was mostly talking to himself, still in a state of waiting for his mind to defog but the giant seemed to hear him anyway.

“There are rumors about me?” The giant tilted his head, his long-pointed ears (fins?) lowering along with it. In fact, now that Ryze had clearer vision, he also noticed the brilliant blue-green scales that littered the creature’s face like freckles.

Ryze blinked, finally taking in what the creature said. “Uh, yeah.” He couldn’t believe he was actually communicating with it. Him? “Rumors…the rumors are from hundred of years ago. About…a giant sea creature living in the water and destroying ships.” The more he talked, the better Ryze was starting to feel. He was too focused on the creature in front of him to focus to much on how fast he was healing but if he had paid a bit more attention, he would have noticed how weird it was.

The giant blinked. “But…I’m only 19. And I would never destroy anyone’s ships!”

Ryze furrowed his eyebrows at this new piece of information. “What? But…does that mean…there are more of them?” Once again, he was talking more to himself, but the giant still seemed to pick up on his quiet mutterings.

“Well, yeah! In my city alone we have about 80,000 Mers.” The giant grinned and Ryze froze. 80,000! That was…that was insane.

Ryze had always been under the impression that there was only one but…to have that many and more in their very ocean. And to have no idea about any of it…it was insane.

“Oh! And there we go! You should be all healed.” The giant said, grinning wider and Ryze took note of the sharp fangs with a flinch. He then processed what the creature, the Mer, said.

“Healed?”

“Yeah, I was healing you this whole time.”

Ryze blinked. “H-How.”

“Huh? Oh! Right I guess you wouldn’t know. Um, how about we just leave it at magic for now. It’s a little hard to explain.”

Ryze placed a hand on his chest, but no, there really was no pain there. “Magic.” So these creatures had magic. “Why did you…I mean,” Ryze let out a short cough. “I mean, thank you. For healing me. And saving me.” Holy crap, he just realized he almost died. He would have died if this creature hadn’t saved him.

“Of course! But why are you out in the middle of a storm?” The use of present tense finally alerted Ryze to his surroundings, noticing that they were still in the middle of the storm. But the giant’s other hand, the one Ryze wasn’t on, was doing its best in blocking out the rain and wind.

“Um…I was trying to find you, actually. Or, well, I guess, one of your kind.”

“Oh…well, we technically aren’t supposed to let humans see us. But I couldn’t just let you die so I broke the rules.” The giant said and Ryze supposed that made sense. If humans found out that a whole colony of these creatures existed, well…things could get bad. Maybe it was a good thing he lost his camera to the waves.

“So I guess there’s no way I could see where you live then, huh.” Ryze joked but the giant seemed to take it seriously.

“I mean…I could if you really wanted to. I’d have to hide you and stuff but…I have to admit, I find humans really fascinating and, uh, I would love to take you back with me and show you everything.” The creature said, face going a bit red. Ryze blinked in surprise. And, okay, maybe he should be paying more attention to the giant’s words because something didn’t seem right with them. But at the moment, all Ryze was focused on was being able to see this Mer city the giant had mentioned.

“Yes. I mean…” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m really fascinated by you and-and other Mers. I would love to see where you live.”

“That’s…awesome! Yeah, let’s do it. Oh! And don’t worry about not being able to breathe, I got something just for that.” Two large fingers suddenly overtook his space and Ryze was reminded of just how big the giant actually was. He froze, tense and wary as the fingers came closer to his head. But they never touched him, instead, all they did was make a bubble appear over his head. Ryze couldn’t help but bring his hands up to touch it and it didn’t pop.

“There we go! That’ll allow you to breathe for as long as you need.”

“Thanks…” Ryze suddenly realized he didn’t know the giant’s name. “Oh, um, by the way, I’m Ryze.”

“Huh? Oh! Right, introductions. Nice to meet you! I’m Avane.” The Mer, Avane, greeted. “Now, if we want to go, we better get going now. It’ll take a little bit to actually get there.”

A nagging feeling in the back of Ryze’s mind tried to make itself known, something about Avane and this whole situation seemed too strange, but he was too focused on the fact that his dream was being realized to listen to it.

Ryze grinned. “Then let’s get going!”