Leviathan
The biting, remorseless cold whipped with the wind in an ever present whisper. The Demeter, a modest 150 foot ship, slowly carries onward into the boreal wastes of the Artic Circle. The frost has collected and compacted onto the deck, thick enough to create an audible crunch underfoot. The ending of the season can be even less hospitable than usual; the nights grow harsher, the days get shorter. Ice in the water becomes large enough to rock the boat down into the captains quarters.
The danger, meager profits for single vessels, and risk inherent in venturing this far this late… have made for a whaling industry where few independent enterprises try to enter, even fewer thrive. The boom of the late 1770s brought with it a harsh decline in the population, and diminishing nesting grounds speak doom for those who can not muster and fleet and scale their expeditions. Demeter, and the crew under the command of the young Captain Kenway, dared in these circumstances to forge their living in spite of these truths.
The ship suddenly rocked tumultuously from side to side; causing many working along the deck to brace onto the ship for stability.
“Report!" Kenway the young but savvy half Native American Captain demanded from the Helm.
He received mixed answers, all of which can not explain what occurred. No one noticed ice, nor whales detected in the water. Upon trying to continue he found the ship not moving, only to be told by those checking the aft that the rudder appears to be mildly compromised, affecting the full capability of the ship to steer.
“We can fix what we can, but I doubt she will manage the trip to completion…" the first mate reported. He should turn about and find any port to repair the ship, but the cold winds blew quicker every evening. There had been no catches and there may not be time to attempt to do so if Demeter retreats now…
THUNK!!! A massive shift in the water shifted the ship from front to back, and to the sides. The waves seemed to pulse forcefully with the vessel as its epicenter. Connor Kenway snaped a gaze to his crewmen, who all sprinted to determine an explanation for the tumult occurring around them.
“Nothing here.."
"nothing sir!"
“Nothing Captain!"
Exasperated at the lack of results and answers he breathed deep, letting the ice cold air freeze the fire of frustration burning inside him. "someone give me some-"
“CAP'N!" a voice shouts to interrupt! all eyes dirt to the voice, starboard side. "Right under the bow!!"
Henryson -his first mate-, was a powerfully large proud man. He spoke as a child calling for a guardian. Pointing frantically downward, he kept entrusting the crew to look as well. Soon a commotion began to erupt and the captain left the wheel to investigate what his men were so wary of.
“Can't be…"
"my lord! "
"what do we do???"
Pushing his typically respectful men aside he saw it: right over the wooden railing… a mass of black. A shadow, deep under the front of the ship, unlike anything he'd ever seen. 'it's nearly our size' the youthful but experienced skipper surmised in silent concern. They'd have to find a way out of this, no one coming this late in the season to their aid. Whale or otherwise, the odds of escaping whatever did this to the ship with their damaged rudder was slim. However, it was the only viable option… praying to his ancestors that it was not a threat beyond what it already performed…
He was wrong.
The keel creaked loudly, large masses of scaled flesh began to crawl out onto the ship. The embrace of the unknown creature was making its way from the frozen depths, up to the men and the deck itself.
Panic ensued as shouts for spears and weapons resounded through the upper and lower portions of the vessel. Those already equipped began to fire into what seemed an unphased enemy. One audacious recruit launched a spear at the unidentified adversary. The stricken vestige recoiled from the embrace with the ship, the now confident sailor reached for a second assault. His luck was not inexhaustible, however, as the beast whipped back against the hull causing a massive shift and rocking motion. This tumbled the falsely assured fighter into the frozen seas, and into the unknown monster's territory.
The shadow, now larger than a Spanish galleon, seemed to be rising up closer to the surface. The fear finally gripped them all, their efforts having produced worsening returns.
"It's true. My uncle did not lie…" uttered Henryson under his breath. Kenway diverted his attention in confusion.
“He would tell me the legend of a monster from the old world, without mercy or fear. It hunts men and drowns all those that dare travel its domain. That in the ends of the earth we can still find them… or they can still find us…." He clutched at his chest, as if the disbelief were rendering him lame.
“Krä-ke" he voiced, barely audible compared to the awestruck men. Seeing the appendages of this mythical calamity made flesh shoot beyond the figurehead, they all watched in terror as it reached for the sky. Helpless, they gazed on as it coiled around the mast. Powerless as ants before humanity, all they could do was stare and succumb to the inevitable. Some men kept hope and continued to defend the Demeter, only to be grasped by the two freshly emerging masses. The massive tendrils snapped like a whip or would snatch them up and drag them down, lost to the external cold abyss. The topsail bent and cracked against the weight and pressure of the monstrosity beneath; Kenway hoped to pass away at sea, but never like this…
Suddenly the masses stopped abruptly, slowly growing paralyzed and stiff. Nonplussed, every living member of the meager few still on deck (with sanity intact) continued to wait for any sign of life. Soon enough, the masses fell limp as a flower with no sun or water to nourish them. As slowly as the molasses level speed with which it climbed it descended again, twitching and spasming back to its domain.
The terrified sailors felt a tinge of relief at their deliverance, rushing to the port and starboard sides of the ship only to gasp in amazement… and despair.
A black mass, eclipsing the mass that appeared first, enveloped the Kräke and ship like a terrible shroud. The mammoth shadow shrank, vanishing from view. The dark mass larger than anything the captain had ever seen, began to fade smaller by the second. The area where their attacker emerged vanished into nothing, also growing faded from view as it was seemingly pulled down to the Neptune by the crew's larger "savior".
Many cheered, thanked God or each other for the blessing they'd received. Connor Kenway was not one of those men, he knew he hadn't been saved. The seas had not spared him, they had warned him; he had bore witness to an obstacle man had never fathomed much less faced. He saw into that darkness and cold and for the first in his life, met the true face of the world before man was its master. From that moment on, he knew for certain that there were still places where people still had no power… and the kings of the old world still held sway…
