by Virlyce
A bead of sweat formed on the elf’s brow. She looked down at Grimmy, trying to catch his gaze, but the black dragon was preoccupied with cleaning his claws. Peals of laughter rang through the air as Leila’s tail thumped against the ground. “I was just teasing you,” she said. “Your expression was glorious. I think I can partially understand why Grimmy has such perverse hobbies now.”
“I do not!” Grimmy said.
Leila smiled and nuzzled his neck with her snout. “You don’t have to be embarrassed when we’re the only ones here.”
Lindyss sighed, but not audibly. Looks like she was third wheeling after all. At least she’d get to see a new continent without having to worry about cleaning up Vur’s messes. The poor parasitic creatures in the north could entertain him instead.
2
A black-scaled fishman hummed as he swam towards a shore, holding onto a dead shark by its dorsal fin. Today was the day of the national hunt, and he was confident in securing a high ranking with his prey. On the shore, hundreds of fishmen roamed about. Their backs were finned like sharks, and more fins extended out of their elbows and calves. Their hands and feet were webbed while their faces were narrow and scaled with sharp teeth in their thin mouths.
“Ah!” one of them shouted as the black-scaled fishman arrived at the shore, dragging the dead shark onto the beach. “Carl’s caught a big one!” The shark was nearly three times the size of most of the fishmen.
Carl laughed and flexed his bicep, eliciting a few whistles from the crowd. He looked around the shore filled with other dead sea creatures: octopi, squids, sharks, a tiny whale, a few sea urchins caught by kids. His catch was the biggest. The further out into the ocean one went, the larger the marine animals, but the danger increased as well. He believed he went the furthest. “How is it?” Carl asked a fishman who wandered over to judge the dead shark. “First place?”
“For now,” the judge said and nodded. “George still hasn’t returned yet, and there’s still another hour before the sun sets.”
“George smorge,” Carl said and flapped his gills. “This year, the prize is mine. He’s getting too old.”
A wry smile appeared on the judge’s fishy lips. “Don’t let him hear you say that,” he said before directing a group of fishmen to drag the shark towards the kitchens—the national hunt was always followed by a feast. Carl licked his lips. This time, he’d be the one at the head of the table. Last year, it was George, but Carl didn’t believe anyone could reel in something larger than his shark.
An orange-colored fishman walked up to him. She smiled and nudged his side with her fins. “You’re going to gift me the prize, right?” she asked as she looked up at Carl with big, round eyes.
“Well, that really depends on what happens during the night, doesn’t it?” Carl asked with a smile.
The orange fishman giggled. “You’re so bad,” she said before shaking her head. “What else are you going to do with a necklace of glowing pearls?”
“Well—”
A commotion broke out on the shore, causing Carl to frown and turn around. A green fishman was crawling onto the beach from the ocean, gasping for breath. “Isn’t that George?” the orange fishman asked. “Why’s he look so scared?”
Carl frowned but didn’t respond. He was glad his rival didn’t bring back any prey, but at the same time, he was unsettled. George was capable—Carl couldn’t deny that. Then what made him so flustered? Carl ignored the orange fishman and walked up to George. “What happened?”
George continued to gasp, and a while passed before he could properly speak. “I saw a leviathan,” he said with wide eyes. “A leviathan!”
“A leviathan this close to land?” Carl asked and frowned. Murmurs spread throughout the crowd of gathered fishmen. A few children began to cry while their mothers shushed them. Everyone knew about the leviathans. They were like the dragons of the sea that mothers fed misbehaving children to.
“It was massive,” George said, his body trembling. Drops of water flew off of his scales and landed on the sand as he stood up. “I never thought it really existed. You know I’ve been alive for over forty national hunts. Never in my life have I seen a creature like that.”
“What did it look like, Uncle George?” a fishman child shouted.
George shook his head. “It was just too big to see. Its neck was longer than that tree,” he said and pointed at a palm tree in the distance. “Its body was even bigger, but the scariest part was the tail. Its tail was like a giant eel with a blade that glowed brighter than the moon attached to it. I didn’t know what I was looking at at first.” He laughed. “I’m lucky I got away! Praise the sun!” His arms raised into the air as he dropped onto his knees and kissed the warm sand.
“You were so scared you didn’t bring back any prey, huh?” Carl asked. “Looks like I’m taking the head of the table this year.”
George laughed again. “Competitions don’t matter when you see something like that and live,” he said. “I feel like a new man. Who else here can say they stared a leviathan in the face and survived?”
“It’s an auspicious sign promising great things to come. It isn’t everyday a leviathan blesses our waters,” one of the judges said. “The national hunt ends now. Stay out of the ocean for the next few days.” The crowd cheered as the uneasy atmosphere was dispersed in an instant. Leviathans never came into contact with the land.
The fishmen celebrated as Carl was paraded around the beach with a jar of alcohol in his hands, drinking every time someone toasted him. The cooks set the pre-gathered logs on fire and set about cooking for the feast. The air was filled with fishy smells and revelry as laughter and cheer rang through the area. A massive table that stretched the whole length of the beach was carried by a group of fishmen and placed by the water. Food was stacked on top of the wood, and Carl was seated at the head of the table. The judges came up to him and presented him with a necklace of pearls that shone in the red sunlight. The sun was beginning to set over the horizon when someone let out a cry.
“Someone’s coming out of the water!”
The fishmen turned their heads towards the water where a pale creature with black hair was rising out of the surface of the ocean. Horns jutted out of her head, and the fishmen let out cries of astonishment when they realized she had no scales. “It’s a human!” one of the fishmen children said. “That’s a real live human, right!?”
Tafel muttered something about dragons and curses as she wiped the water out of her eyes. She blinked and stared at the procession of fishmen who were staring back at her. She cleared her throat as she covered her naked body with her hands. “Hello there,” she said as her face turned red. She took a few steps back and sank into the water until only her head was showing.
“What’d she say?” one of the fishmen children asked.
“She said hello in a very weird way,” an older fishman said.
The judges rose out of their seats and approached Tafel. “You … lost?” they asked.
Tafel scratched her head. “You could say that,” she said. “Where am I?”
“Nibaba,” one of the judges said. “Our home.” His pronunciation was awkward, but Tafel could still understand what he was saying.
“And where is Nibaba…?” Tafel asked. “Is this the northern continent?”
The judges looked at each other and discussed in fishmen language while Tafel waited. Eventually, they turned back to her and shook their heads. Tafel sighed and placed her face into her hands. Why was Vur’s family like this? Speaking of Vur…. Tafel turned around and sighed. He was just as crazy as his family.
A massive shadow loomed in the water. A few fishmen shouted as the sea bulged upwards. A gigantic reptilian head broke through the ocean’s surface, causing the fishmen to scream in terror and retreat down the shore. The eyes of the creature were glazed over, focusing on nothing in particular. By its chin, Vur was holding onto it while swimming, pulling it along. The table had been abandoned long ago, and the fi
shmen retreated to the border where the sand turned into grass. Vur stepped onto the beach, completely naked, and pulled on the dead leviathan until its whole corpse was on the sand. Its head reached the grassy border.
Vur ignored the stares of the fishmen who were hiding behind trees and turned around. He waved at Tafel. “I told you I could do it,” he said with a smile.
“It wasn’t a matter of could, but should,” Tafel said and sighed. “I said you shouldn’t do it, not you couldn’t.”
“Well, I couldn’t hear you that well over the waves,” Vur said and shrugged. “What’s going on here?” His attention turned towards the table he had shattered to make space.
“I don’t know, Vur,” Tafel said. “I really don’t. What was your grandpa thinking when he messed with my teleportation!? We could’ve died!”
“You should yell at him, not me,” Vur said and shrugged as he tore a chunk of flesh off of the dead leviathan and sniffed it before placing it into his mouth.
“You’re not concerned one bit about our situation, are you?” Tafel asked as she wrapped a nearby towel around herself.
“Nope,” Vur said as he chewed and shrugged. Tafel was about to say something, but Vur swallowed his food and continued. “Anywhere’s fine as long as I’m with you.”
Tafel’s face turned pink, and she lowered her head but turned away a second later. “Put some pants on, please,” she said. Her face burned as she felt the stares of hundreds of fishmen digging into her back.
“Don’t have any,” Vur said as he dug out another chunk of flesh from the leviathan. “Want some?”
“No,” Tafel said. Her stomach growled. She bit her lower lip and snatched the flesh out of Vur’s hand. “Maybe just one piece.”
***
“Do you understand what they’re saying?” Vur asked and tilted his head. A towel was wrapped around his waist. The group of fishmen were still standing around on the border between the sand and the grass, pointing at Vur and Tafel as they ate. Vur had taken fragments of the broken table and set them ablaze, creating a bonfire to cook the leviathan.
Tafel shook her head. “They’re scared of the giant fish you dragged in,” she said before pausing. “Or, now that I think about it, they’re scared of you. They could speak human, but it’s a bit strange.”
Two fishmen, Carl and George, approached the chatting couple. “H-hello,” George said. He was talking to Vur, but his gaze was plastered on the monstrous fish beside him. Although the image he saw in the water was dark and hard to discern, he knew that this was the leviathan he had encountered earlier. Was it already dead at the time? He swallowed and forced himself to look away. “You understand?”
Vur nodded, refusing to speak while chewing.
“Who are you?” Carl asked, his scaled brow furrowing. His webbed feet curled and uncurled, leaving deep lines in the sand.
“I’m Vur,” Vur said. “She’s Tafel, my wife.”
Carl scratched his head. He guessed that was an appropriate response to the question he asked even though it wasn’t what he was looking for. Before he could say anything else, George blurted out, “Did you kill this holy leviathan?”
Tafel sighed, wanting to bury her face into her hands, but she was holding a piece of cooked flesh. Of course Vur would kill a creature that the indigenous population worshipped. She shouldn’t have expected any less from him. Vur nodded and glanced at the corpse. “It’s very big,” he said and tore off another piece of meat, “but it only knew one spell, so it died pretty fast. Do you want some?”
“C-can we?” Carl whispered to George.
George swallowed his saliva. “It’s already dead, yeah? It would be disrespectful to let its corpse decompose on a beach, right?” he asked and rubbed his hands together. He stepped forward and accepted the flesh, biting into it even though it was raw. His eyes widened, and he chewed faster, eating up the piece before Carl could even say anything. “It’s amazing!”
“Invite your people over,” Vur said, gesturing towards the fishmen on the bank. He grinned. “I’m a generous king.”
Tafel rolled her eyes. Her husband was too generous of a king. If she didn’t keep a close watch on his coffers, it’d empty from all the food and luxuries he’d buy for the people. Not that it was a bad thing—the people loved him. Grimmy was a bit disappointed in Vur’s lack of hoarding, but Sera, Leila, Prika, and Vernon approved. Tafel asked Carl, “You’re not upset about its death?”
The black-scaled fishman shook his head as he accepted a chunk of meat from Vur. “We may worship these great beasts, but that’s all,” he said. “They’re too powerful for us to hunt, but if a dead one comes on shore, I’m sure there aren’t many people who’d have qualms about eating it.”
Tafel nodded. “What language are you speaking by the way?” she asked. George was scrambling up the beach to report to the tribe, and Carl was scarfing down the meat, so she had to wait.
“Mainland human,” Carl said, licking his webbed fingers when he was done. “Isn’t that where you’re from? Your accent is a bit strange. Are you from further south? I heard they spoke differently.”
“I’m not sure,” Tafel said and scratched her head. “I performed a pretty large teleportation, but someone’s”—she glared at Vur—“grandpa screwed it up. I think we’re probably from across the ocean.”
Carl’s mouth dropped open. He blinked three times before shaking his head. “That’s impossible. Only creatures from myths come from beyond the ocean,” he said. Loud sizzling noises reached his ears as Vur hummed and threw more slabs of flesh onto the makeshift bonfire. The fishman glanced at the dead leviathan and scratched his head. “Actually…”
“Forget about it,” Vur said and yawned. He was fine with eating the flesh raw, but Tafel liked her food cooked. “Did we interrupt something? Why was a table here?”
Carl frowned. “Today was the day of the national hunt. All the tribes along the coast come out and compete with each other to see who can bring back the biggest catch,” he said. “Afterwards, we celebrate with a feast to build camaraderie amongst one another. This year, I won.” His chest puffed up when he spoke the last sentence. The red pearl necklace glinted in the fire’s light. “I won this necklace as a prize.”
Vur blinked. “Was it bigger than this?” he asked and gestured towards the leviathan.
“Was what bigger?”
“Your catch.”
Carl scratched his head. “No?”
“Then don’t I win?” Vur asked. He held out his hand, palm up.
“Vur…,” Tafel said, her lips stretching into a line.
“What?” Vur asked. “You heard the rules. Biggest catch wins.” He pointed at the leviathan before looking at Carl. “Biggest.”
A hollow laugh resounded through the air as Carl took off his necklace. “You’re right,” he said and nodded before placing the pearls onto Vur’s outstretched palm. He wasn’t going to argue with someone who killed a leviathan. Besides, Vur offered to share the leviathan with the fishmen. A pearl necklace was more than a fair trade. “By the rules, you won.”
“Giving up your prize?” George asked. He had returned with the judges and elders in tow. “I guess it’s fair.” The fishman turned towards Vur. “These are the elders of our tribe. I tried to explain the situation to them, but it is a bit unbelievable.” A few curious children appeared from behind the elders’ skirts.
“You caught this?” one child asked.
“That’s right,” Vur said as he leaned over to the side and draped the necklace of pearls over Tafel’s neck. He reached into the fire and tossed a roasted slab of meat that was bigger than the child’s body towards the kid. “Have some.”
“We thank you for your generosity,” one of the elders said as the kids swarmed the leviathan meat. The fishmen who were still hesitating saw the sight and headed towards the shore as well. “Is there anything we can do for you?”
Vur paused and tilted his head. “You could tell me stories. I like storie
s.”
***
A gaggle of silver dragons lounged about a spacious cavern. They were deep underground, yet if they looked up, they could see the stars and moon above their heads. But to any passerby above ground, they wouldn’t find anything amiss about the earth they walked on. Not like anyone passed through the frostlands anyway.
Lulu, the smallest silver dragon, rolled onto her back and splayed her limbs. She blinked at the stars before exhaling out a breath of pure white light. “Leila said she’s bringing her mate home soon, right?” No one responded, so she lifted her head and peered around the cavern. Her two older brothers were playing a game of golem chess that Leila had taught them the last time she came to visit. Her mother was sleeping in the largest patch of moonlight, absorbing it for sustenance. Her father was digging a hole in the ground, but she wasn’t sure why. “Anyone?”
Her father looked up. “Mm. She said sometime this year,” he said as he planted a green ball into the hole. He swept the dirt back into the hole with his tail and squinted at the patch of dirt. “Now let’s see if that tree will really grow or not….”
“Don’t you need to water trees…?” Lulu asked and tilted her head. Leila had brought them a gift, saying it was a seed for a Tree of Knowledge.
Her father shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said. “Leila said to just plant it in the ground and occasionally pee on it.”
“Then why’d you plant it in the living room…?” Lulu asked and sighed. She shook her head. It didn’t matter—her father would probably forget about it within the next few hours anyways. “So … since Leila found a mate, doesn’t that mean I can leave the nest to find one now?”
Her father snorted. “We still haven’t approved of her choice yet,” he said and thumped his tail against the ground. “Don’t get ahead of yourself.”
“But he’s someone chosen by Leila,” Lulu said and pursed her lips. “Of course you’ll approve. Do you think she’d choose someone who didn’t fit your standards?”