The Hollow

Shearwater

Little had changed by late morning, when Qayid came over. "Omega, the wind is still, the current is dead. The water itself is dead as a salt puddle. It blooms pink as far as the lookout can see. I cannot foretell an end to this malignant stillness. We can rig a scull, but I'd prefer a wind. Can you conjure that?"

"Of course. It may not be as strong as the world's wind, but I can move some air." She went to the aft deck, looked around for a bit, then began some arm movements with her fingers in motion. Much to Nom's relief, a breeze wafted past and cooled his sweat. The misty air swirled around, but it was not enough to move the sails. Omega was getting frustrated, but soon managed to produce enough air to billow the sails, though the boat still wouldn't move forward. Nom started to get hot again.

"Confound this bloody water," Qayid grumbled. "Is it secretly a molasses?" He grabbed an errant cork from the deck and tossed it over the taffrail into the water. It floated and sent normal rings rippling far across the still water.

"Oa," Nom said, "I feel no breeze back here at the taffrail."

Qayid stepped over next to him and confirmed. "Turn around seer," he said. "Direct your wind to the water astern."

She stepped to the taffrail and obliged. The wind immediately sent waves aft. Nom watched the floating cork skip and fly into the distance. Qayid nodded in satisfaction, and said "Good, keep it up." The captain must have felt movement, though Nom could not tell.

Nom heard a different noise echo softly across the water. "Stop," he said to Omega. She stopped, and silence resumed, broken by the slightest bobbing of the boat.

"Explain," demanded Qayid.

"I heard a noise," said Nom. "Not the waves," he added, seeing Qayid about to protest. "More of a bloop than a burble." They heard it again, then a few hundred feet away the water rose and gave way to a floating dark mound, alarmingly followed by a huge fleshy beast.

"Dead whale," said Qayid calmly. The carcass was enormous and bloated, much larger than the whales Nom saw in the days previous. "They fill with gas and sometimes float. It's of little use to us, let's move on."

From one moment to the next, the near-silence startlingly switched to an enormously deep drone. The whale-carcass began rising in sync with the increasing volume of the drone. An enormous platform, slimy and greenish brown, rose beneath the dead whale and lifted it completely out of the water. The carcass slid limply to the side, sloshing water as it picked up speed down the slope of the slightly domed platform. The bloated corpse pushed seaweed and other debris aside until it finally plunged off the edge and burst, releasing a foul smell from the gas inside. The huge crustacean-like mass underneath was an order of magnitude bigger than the whale or the Shearwater, more the size of an islet. Water poured off its shell-like perimeter in waterfalls, and the surge of its rising pushed the Shearwater forward. The droning was deafening now, then stopped as immediately as it started. The sound echoed into the distance.

The crew scrambled to ready the ship, but they knew not for what. Ahden and Dev joined the others at the taffrail to ogle the thing. Dev asked, "Is that—I can't believe I'm asking—but is that a man out there?"

Nom thought he had seen a man stand up on the creature, but the air was still hazy, and it may have been a reflection from the sun. There was a flash, then a moment later Nom was struck from behind with what felt like a wet towel. "What was that?" he shouted, spinning around.

Ahden picked up the thing that had struck him. "Seaweed," he said. They had but a moment for confusion before screaming broke out on the other side of the ship. Ahden was the first in motion to help, but Qayid grabbed his arm.